I.

"And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true:but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high-priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world:but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many:and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Heb. 9:22-28.)

There are three expressions used in these verses to which I would call your attention. "He hath appeared" (5:26);"Now to appear" (5:24);"He shall appear" (5:28)..

It is a question of the past, present, and future. In each, it is Christ-Christ from beginning to end. When Israel were starting on their journey out of Egypt, there was a question raised between God and them,-there was a controversy between God and them to be entered into ere they took a step of their journey, and that controversy was about their sins. This had to be settled ere God could take His place among them, to dwell there. The settlement was made by the blood of the slain lamb:the angel of death could not pass into the house sprinkled by the blood; and so the blood of Jesus Christ shelters every believer, however weak, from the wrath to come. Again; when, near the end of their journey, they had sinned and been bitten of the serpents, the brazen serpent was lifted up on a pole, that they who looked might live. This is Christ again. Thus we learn that the moment it is a question of God and man, it is Christ who, from beginning to end, can meet both the claims of the glory of the One and the desperate needs of the other.

In our scripture is taken up, not merely the salvation of a sinner, but that of a Christian. What is a sinner? I walk into a nursery, and the gardener shows me a bed of beautiful little trees. "What kind of apples are these?" I ask. "They are only natural trees," the answer is; "their fruit would be worthless. Before they can bear good fruit, each tree must be taken by itself, cut off close to the root, and a little twig from a good tree inserted." Such is the sinner. He is by birth a natural tree, unable to bear fruit for God; he must be born anew. He needs to be cut down and grafted with a new life in order to bring forth fruit unto God. You who are what Scripture calls "sinners" – "unconverted," don't dream about turning over a new leaf and doing better. I like to hear of a person doing it, however, for it testifies they are troubled about the back leaf. What do you, then, need? Christ; but Christ in what aspect? for here are three aspects:-

(1) "He hath appeared to put away sin."
(2) He is appearing to make intercession.

(3) "He shall appear without sin unto salvation."

You need Him in the first aspect-"He hath appeared to put away sin."

From early childhood, my life was clouded by the prospect of judgment to come,-death at the end of all down here, and then after that the judgment,-and I could not rest until I found this blessed answer to it.

When the Son of God came, what did He come for? If a great person comes into your village, you are led to inquire, What is his business? What was the business of the Son of God in this world? What is His object down here?-what has He come here for? "To put away sin" From before whom? Not from before you. As to myself, I care not for your judgment of me:I am as good as you. I care not as to your judgment of my sins; but in the presence of God, there they are a trouble. The Lord Jesus Christ's mission was not to condemn, but to save, and before He could save, He must put away sin from before God. He offers Himself to God for us as a sweet-smelling savor. People say, "I am not sure that I have received Christ aright." I answer, Has God offended you? or is it you that have offended God? Had Christ to offer Himself to you to be accepted of you, or to God to be accepted of God for you ? Christ offered Himself to God, and God has accepted Him, and He is satisfied, glorified in Jesus Christ about our sins. That is the gospel. Will you receive it tonight? or will you set it lightly by and continue to live in your sins? Live in them, grow gray in them, die in them, be raised in them at the last day, stand before God in them, and be judged for them? Well, you will not find fault with God's judgment then, I am sure. The rich man described in Luke 16:as lifting up His eyes in hell finds no fault with God for being cast in there. He is in hell suffering for these sins. He refused to bow down to Jesus and confess them so as to be saved, and now he is getting his portion there, and he owns it is his right portion. The Lord Jesus did not expatiate on the terrors of hell, but solemnly stated the fact of it. A thing that God has spoken has no need of forcing. They who resist it resist at their own peril.

Look back to Adam. God says to him, I make you lord of all this creation:all is under you. I only am above you, and as a reminder of it, I have put one tree in the garden which I forbid you. Eat not of it, or thou shall surely die. Only God for his Master! How grand, how noble a place! He disobeyed that Master and got another by it. And now see the effect of it:Sickness, death, murder, misery, anguish, cries of distress on every hand, Satan the master of man instead of God,-all this by one act of disobedience. How awfully solemn is every word of God! Let the lessons of the past have their due weight over our souls, beloved friends, for not one jot or tittle of what has come from His mouth can be violated with impunity. He will not repeat it:He will execute it, and He will now in grace leave its simple statements to impress the heart and command our faith.

This Word of God, which hath never been broken nor ever can be, what is it to us now? Jesus "hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Has it entered your soul? I believe it, and therefore I know my sins are gone from the presence of God. What a thing is this grace of God! It brings salvation now to us where we are. In a place where I was laboring lately, I was asked how long it took one to repent-how long to go through repentance so as to be saved. I replied, "Would you take my word for it?" "Yes," was the answer. "I believe you know." "Then I will not give you my opinion, but the testimony of One who cannot lie. Let us turn to Scripture." We turned to the dying thief. Matt, 27:44 says, "The thieves also which were crucified with Him cast the same in His teeth." Luke 23:says only one reviled Him; but the other, confessing his guilt, turned to Jesus, pleading to be remembered by Him when He came in His kingdom. Of course, both statements are true; and so, in the short space of time between the crucifying of the three and the dying of Jesus, a poor criminal has repented, and received from the Lord's own lips, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise."

Take another case-the jailor at Philippi. He has done his cruel work-made the apostles, whom he has beaten, secure in the stocks, and gone to his rest. They, though dishonored by stripes, had been honoring the Lord, and so, filled with His Spirit, they praise God at midnight. God answers by an earthquake, which makes His enemies tremble. The jailor awakes; he is terrified, and about to commit suicide. Then he hears the voice of love-"Do thyself no harm." It melts him, and he cries out, "What must I do to be saved?" He owns he is lost. That is repentance. Then he hears the gospel-"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house." He believes and is saved there and then. He was a proud sinner last night:he is a humble Christian this morning. Before the day-break, he has repented, believed the gospel, been baptized, washed their stripes, set meat before them, rejoiced in God with all his house. He had believed the blessed fact that Christ":hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."

This is the same news to you now. Will you rest on this work, owning yourself a sinner?

Now another thing for us, beloved brethren. Do we no longer need Christ because the question of our sins can never, never, NEVER, be raised again? Is sin committed by a man against whom "there is now no condemnation" less obnoxious to God than when committed by one who is still under the curse? Can God pass over the sins of His people as if they were nothing? Verily, no! Sin is ten thousand times worse in our hands than in a stranger's. When God had, by the blood of the Iamb, redeemed Israel out of Egypt, He made them His dwelling-place-the people among whom He took His abode, to walk in them. How could He have continued with them all the way when they sinned so often and so grievously against Him? Would it not have been giving up His own character-His righteousness and holiness? It would. Therefore He made provision for this as He had made to deliver them out of Egypt:He ordained a priest who, as a type of Christ, could always, in his perfect person and by virtue of his perfect offering, present the people always perfect before God, being the one in whom the redeemed people were thus represented. That is Christ's present service before God for us. He now appears in the presence of God for us-His redeemed people. Thus "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Thus it is our constantly denied feet are constantly cleansed by Him, and the consciousness of that both humbles and strengthens. Oh, child of God, cheer up! You may be discovering the evil of your own heart and the crookedness of your ways. The more the better. It will make you appreciate the full provision God has made for us in Christ. The work of repentance goes deeper and deeper as we go on, and it is well. "To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much." Never lose courage. Jesus is there before God for you, and because of that, He can always look upon you with the love of a Father. How cheering to know that whatever happens, Jesus is there !

As lost sinners, we needed Jesus as a Saviour; now, as saved sinners on their way to the glory above, we need Him as a Priest. Such is our weakness, our sinfulness, our inability to stand for one hour before such a holy God as our God, that we could no more get on with Him without Christ as our Priest than we could have been brought to Him without Christ as our Saviour. But as the secret of salvation is in the sinner's believing that Christ "hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," so the secret of a holy life is to believe that He now appears "in the presence of God for us." Brethren, do we believe it? do we feel the need of it? Is it the comfort of our souls to have our feet in His hands for the constant washing they need? Our souls at perfect peace with God through Christ's past service at the cross, are we not in danger to forget or think little of our incessant need of His present service? If we do, pride of heart comes in, and a fall follows. But even then, it is His grace allowing the fruit of our departure to appear, that, like Peter, we may go out and weep, and learn in a new way our need of His service.

"Once offered," mark; not twice. Men die once, and then the judgment. Having lived and died in sin, their doom is sealed; they cannot return to try it over. So Christ having lived and died for sin, the blessed result is sealed forever in them that believe on Him:"Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time WITHOUT SIN unto salvation." The question of sin was settled forever when He appeared to put it away, and now we who believe can calmly, happily, longingly, lift our eyes to heaven, and, in answer to His parting words, " Surely, I come quickly," respond, " Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. 22:20.) O ye lost men who are in this audience, what a Saviour is Jesus for you! What a salvation! what a supper spread before you! What grace!

One thing more, "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation "(10:27,28).

"In the beginning God created." This is a fact it is wasting time to prove. So here is an incontrovertible fact,-"As it is appointed unto men once to die." He takes that fact-which none can deny-and makes its certainty to illustrate this one fact that "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many "-for rebels. What love toward men who deserve judgment! Believe, and live; or turn away from it, and add to your many sins the greatest of all-the most terrible of all, that of refusing pardon from Him who alone can pardon, and who, to deliver us from the wrath to come, had to pass through it Himself on account of our sins.

O ye saved men who are in this audience, what a Saviour we have found in Jesus! He served us by dying for our sins. He serves us now by washing our feet. He is going to serve us again, when He returns from heaven," whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." (Phil. 3:20, 21.)

And does His service close there? No; we could not do without Him even in eternity. Hear His own words:"Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." (Luke 12:37.)

" Glory, glory everlasting,
Be to Him who bore the cross,-
Who redeemed our souls by tasting
Death, the death deserved by us !"

P.J.L.