Hebrews 9:26-28

Between the Two Appearings

A Sermon

(No. 2194)

Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, March 15th, 1891, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"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." Hebrews 9:26-28 .

THE TWO GREAT links between earth and heaven are the two advents of our Lord: or, rather, he is the great bond of union, by these two appearings. When the world had revolted, and God had been defied by his own creatures, a great gulf was opened between God and man. The first coming of Christ was like a bridge which crossed the chasm and made a way of access from God to man, and then from man to God. Our Lord's second advent will make that bridge far broader, until heaven shall come down to earth, and ultimately earth shall go up to heaven. At these two points a sinful world is drawn into closest contact with a gracious God. Jesus herein is seen as opening the door which none can shut, by means of which the Lord is beheld as truly Emmanuel, God with us. I want, at this time, to bring before you those two appearings of our Lord. The text says, "He hath appeared"; and again, "He shall appear." The twenty-sixth verse speaks of his unique manifestation already accomplished, and the twenty-eighth verse promises the glorious second outshining, as it promises, "He shall appear." Between these two lights "he hath appeared" and "he shall appear" we shall sail safely, if the Holy Spirit will direct our way. I. Our first theme is, ONCE, AND NO SECOND. Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." This he has done once, and he will never repeat it. Let us dwell on the subject in detail. The text tells us very precisely that in this first coming of our Lord he appeared to put away sin. Notice that fact. By his coming and sacrifice he accomplished many things; but his first end and object was "to put away sin." You know what the modern babblers say: they declare that he appeared to reveal to us the goodness and love of God. This is true; but it is only the fringe of the whole truth. The fact is, that he revealed God's love in the provision of a sacrifice to put away sin. Then, they say that he appeared to exhibit perfect manhood, and to let us see what our nature ought to be. Here also is a truth; but it is only part of the sacred design. He appeared, say they, to manifest self-sacrifice, and to set us an example of love to others. By his self-denial he trampled on the selfish passions of man. We deny none of these things; and yet we are indignant at the way in which the less is made to hide the greater. To put the secondary ends into the place of the grand object is to turn the truth of God into a lie. It is easy to distort truth, by exaggerating one portion of it and diminishing another; just as the drawing of the most beautiful face may soon be made a caricature rather than a portrait by neglect of proportion. You must observe proportion if you would take a truthful view of things; and in reference to the appearing of our Lord, his first and chiefest purpose is "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The great object of our Lord's coming here was not to live, but to die. He hath appeared, not so much to subdue sin by his teaching, as to put it away by the sacrifice of himself. The master purpose which dominated all that our Lord did, was not to manifest goodness, nor to perfect an example, but to put away sin by sacrifice. That which the moderns would thrust into the background, our Lord placed in the forefront. He came to take away our sins, even as the scapegoat typically carried away the sin of Israel into the wilderness that the people might be clean before the living God. The Lord Jesus has come hither as a priest to remove sin from his people: "Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins." Do not let us think of Jesus without remembering the design of his coming. I pray you, brethren, know not Christ without his cross, as some pretend to know him. We preach Christ; so do a great many more: but, "we preach Christ crucified"; so do not so many more. We preach concerning our Lord, his cross, his blood, his death; and upon the blood of his cross we lay great stress, extolling much "the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." We know no past appearing of God in human flesh except that appearing which ended with a sacrifice to put away sin. For this our Saviour came, even to save sinners by putting away their sin. We will not deny, nor conceal, nor depreciate his master purpose, lest we be found guilty of trampling upon his blood, and treating it as an unholy thing. The putting away of sin was a Godlike purpose; and it is a wellspring of hope to us, that for this reason Jesus appeared among men. And here learn yet further, that once only is sin put away. Jesus died to finish transgression and make an end of sin. Our Lord made atonement for sin when he died the just for the unjust: he made peace for us when the chastisement of our peace was upon him. When the Lord had laid upon him the iniquity of us all, divine wrath fell upon him on account of our sins, until he cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." Then sin was put away. There, but never anywhere else, was full atonement presented, and iniquity was blotted out. There is no other place of expiation for sin but the place of our Lord's sacrifice of himself. Believing in him that died on the cross, our sins are put away; but without faith in him there is no remission of sin. Beyond our Lord's, other sacrifice there is none; other sacrifice there will never be. If any of you here are entertaining some "larger hope", I would say to you Hope what you please; but remember, that hope without truth at the bottom of it, is an anchor without a holdfast. A groundless hope is a mere delusion. Wish what you will; but wishes without promises from God to back them, are vain imaginings. Why should you imagine or wish for another method of salvation? Rest you assured that the Lord God thinks so highly of the one sacrifice for sin, that for you to desire another is evil in his sight. If you reject the one sacrifice of the Son of God, there remains no hope for you; nor ought there to be. Our Lord's way of putting away sin is so just to God, so honoring to the law, and so safe for you, that if you reject it your blood must be on your own head. By once offering up himself to God, our Lord has done what myriads of years of repentance and suffering could never have done. Blessed be the name of the Lord, the sin of the world, which kept God from dealing with men at all, was put away by our Lord's death! John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." God has been able to deal with the world of sinners in a way of grace, because Jesus died. I thank our Lord even more, because the actual sins of his own chosen even of all those who believe on him in every age have been put away. These sins were laid on him; and in him God visited man for them. "He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree"; and so put them away for ever, and they are cast into the depths of the sea. The putting away of my guilt as a believer was really, effectually, and eternally accomplished by the death of thy great Substitute upon the bloody tree. This is the ground of our everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. Jesus did it alone; he did not only seem to do it, but he actually achieved the putting away of sin. He blotted out the handwriting that was against us. He finished transgression and made an end of sin; and brought in everlasting righteousness when once for all he died upon the cross. Once it is, and not oftener. To suppose the contrary would be, first, to break away from the analogy of human things. Read the twenty-seventh verse (Hebrews 9:27 ): "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." A man dies once, and after that everything is fixed and settled, and he answers for his doings at the judgment. One life, one death then everything is weighed, and the result declared: "after this the judgment." So Christ comes, and dies once; and after this, for him also the result of what he has done, namely, the salvation of those who look for him. He dies once, and then reaps the fixed result, according to the analogy of the human race, of which he became a member and representative. Men come not back here to die twice; men die once, and then the matter is decided, and there comes the judgment. So Christ dies: he does not come back here to die again; but he receives the result of his death that is, the salvation of his own people. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." The Christ is so completely man that he follows the analogies of manhood, as the apostle here observes, and we must not break away from them. To suppose that our Lord should be made a sacrifice again is a supposition full of horror. When you study deeply the death of your Lord, unless your heart is like an adamant stone, you must be bowed down with grief. The visage of him who was heaven's glory was more marred than that of any man, and his form more than the sons of men. He whose brow was from the beginning surrounded with majesty, had his forehead and temples torn with a coronet of thorns. Those blessed cheeks that are as beds of spices were distained with spittle from the lips of menials. His face, which is the joy of heaven, was buffeted and bruised by mockers. His blessed shoulders, which upbear the world, they scourged with knotted whips until the blood ran down in crimson rivers as the ploughers made deep furrows. How could they flout him so? Was it possible that my Beloved should be scorned and slandered, spit upon and condemned as a felon? Did they lay the shameful cross upon his blessed back, and lead him through the streets amid the ribald mob? He who knew no sin was numbered with the transgressors. Found guilty of nothing save excess of love to man, he was led away to be crucified. They hurried him off to die at the common place of the gibbet. The rough soldiers nailed him to the cross, and lifted up the rough tree for all to gaze thereon. I wonder the angels bore it. It seems extraordinary that they should look on while men were taking their Lord and Master, and driving bolts through his hands and feet, and lifting his sacred body upon the cruel tree. But they did bear it; and the Christ hung on the tree of doom in a burning heat, through the fierce sun, and the inflammation of his wounds, and inward fever. He was so parched that his tongue was dried up like a potsherd, and was made to cleave to the roof of his mouth. There he hung amid derision, his bones all dislocated, and his very flesh dissolved with faintness as though it were turning back to its native dust. Meanwhile his soul was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death"; and the Father's face which has sustained thousands of martyrs was turned away from him until he cried, "Lame sabachthani." And is there heart so brutal as to suggest a repetition of this divine agony? Repeat this! Repeat this! O sirs, we rise at once, as one man, in mutiny against an idea so revolting. One Calvary is glorious, for it has accomplished the grand deed of our redemption; but two Calvaries would mean double shame, and no glory. Shall the Son of God, after all that he has done, come down on earth to be a second time "despised and rejected of men"? Shall he a second time be dragged through mire and blood? It must not, cannot be. God forbid! He has trodden the winepress once for all. No more shall he stain his garments with his own blood. My brethren, the idea that our Lord Jesus did not effectually perform the work of taking away sin removes the foundation of our faith. If by one offering he did not put away sin, shall it be repeated? Suppose for a moment that he died twice: why not three times? Why not four times? Why not fifty times? Why not for ever the rehearsal of Calvary, for ever the doleful cry, for ever the tomb of Joseph, and the dead body wrapped in linen? And yet, even after a thousand repetitions, how could we know that we were saved? How could we be sure that the sacrifice sufficed, and that sin was really put away? If the one offering of himself did not satisfy justice, what would or could do it? Then are we without hope, and of all men most miserable; for a golden dream of the putting away of sin has come to us, and, lo! it has melted away. Once yonder tree, once yonder tomb; once the broken seal and the frightened watch: on that one sacrifice and justification we rest securely, and we want no repetition of the work. It was enough, for Jesus said, "It is finished." It was enough, for God has raised him from the dead. II. We come now to look at the rest of the text. Once, and no second; AND YET A SECOND. He shall appear a second time." Yes, Christ Jesus shall appear a second time; but not a second time for the same purpose as before. His second appearing will be without sin. That is to say, he will bring no sin-offering with him, and will not himself be a sacrifice for sin. What need that it should be so? We have seen that he once offered himself without spot to God, and therefore, when he comes a second time, his relation to human guilt will finally cease. He will then have nothing further to do with that sin which was laid upon him. Our sin, which he took to himself by imputation, he has borne and discharged. Not only is the sinner free, but the sinner's Surety is free also; for he has paid our debt to the utmost farthing. Jesus is no longer under obligation on our account. When he comes a second time, he will have no connection of any sort with the sin which once he bare. He will come, moreover, without those sicknesses and infirmities which arise out of sin. At his first advent he came in suffering flesh, and then he came to hunger and to thirst, to be without a place whereon to lay his head; he came to have his heart broken with reproach, and his soul grieved with the hardness of men's hearts. He was compassed with infirmity; he came unto his God with strong crying and tears; he agonized even unto bloody sweat; and so he journeyed on with all the insignia of sin hanging about him. But when he comes a second time it will be without the weakness, pain, poverty, and shame which accompany sin. There will then be no marred visage nor bleeding brow. He will have re-assumed his ancient glory. It will be his glorious appearing. But the resurrection is the salvation principally intended here. Alas, what evil sin hath done! How many of our best beloved lie rotting beneath the clay! The worms are feeding on those whose voices were the music of our lives. The scythe of death has cut them down like grass; they lie together in rows in yonder cemetery. Who slew all these? The sting of death is sin. But when our Lord cometh, who is the resurrection and the life, from beds of dust and silent clay our dead men shall rise; they shall leap up into immortality. "Thy brother shall rise again." Thy children shall come again from the land of their captivity. Not a bone, nor a piece of a bone, of a saint shall be left as a trophy in the hand of the enemy. When our Lord brought forth Peter from the prison, he did not let him leave his old shoes behind him, but the angel said, "Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals, and follow me"; and when the Lord Jesus shall come and open wide the door of the sepulcher, he will bid us come forth in the entirety of our nature, and leave nothing behind. Salvation shall mean to us the perfection of our manhood in the likeness of our Lord. No aching hands and weary brows then; but we shall be raised in power. Our vile body shall be changed, and made like unto his glorious body. Though sown in corruption, our body shall be raised in incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. What a glorious prospect lies before us in connection with the day of his appearing a second time unto salvation! As to watching, this is rarer than waiting. The fact is, even the better sort of believers who wait for his coming, as all the ten virgins did, nevertheless do not watch. Even the best sort of the waiters slumbered and slept. You are waiting, but you are sleeping! This is a mournful business. A man who is asleep cannot be said to look; and yet it is "unto them that look for him" that the Lord comes with salvation. We must be wide-awake to look. We ought to go up to the watch-tower every morning, and look toward the sun-rising, to see whether he is coming. Surely our last act at night should be to look out for his star, and say, "Is he coming?" It ought to be a daily disappointment when our Lord does not come; instead of being, as I fear it is, a kind of foregone conclusion that he will not come just yet. How pleased we are if some daring fellow will tell us when he will come, for then we can get ready near the time, and need not perpetually watch! We would not go to a gipsy in a red cloak, and let her tell our own fortune; but we will let a man in a black coat tell us the fortune of our Lord. What folly! Of that day and of that hour knoweth no man, nor even the angels of God. This time of the advent is a secret; and purposely so, that we may always be on tip-toe of expectation, always looking out, because our Lord is surely coming; but we are not sure when he cometh. "And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Many professing Christians forget Christ's second coming altogether; others drop a smile when we speak about it, as though it belonged only to fanatics and dreamers. But ye, beloved, I trust are not of that kind. As ye believe really in the first coming and the one great sacrifice, so believe really in the second coming without a sin-offering unto the climax of your salvation. Standing between the cross and the crown, between the cloud that received him out of our sight, and the clouds with which he will come with ten thousands of his saints to judge the quick and the dead, let us live as men who are not of this world, strangers in this age which darkly lies between two bright appearings, happy beings saved by a mystery accomplished, and soon to be glorified by another mystery which is hasting on. Let us, like her in the Revelation, have the moon under our feet, keeping all sublunary things in their proper place. May we even now be made to sit together with Christ in the heavenlies! "Now all this must be strange talk to some of you. I wish it would alarm those of you who once made a profession of true religion, and have gone back to the world's falsehood. How will you face him, you backsliders, in that day when he shall appear, and all else shall vanish in the blaze of his light, as stars when the sun shines out? What will you do when your treachery shall be made clear to your consciences by his appearing? What will you do, who have sold your Master, and given up your Lord, who was and is your only hope for the putting away of your sins? Oh! I pray you, as you love yourselves, go to him as he appears in his first coming; and then, washed in his blood, go forward to meet him in his second coming for salvation. God bless you, and by his Son and Spirit make you ready for that great day which cometh on apace!

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON Hebrews 9:24-28 ; Hebrews 10:1-18 ; Matthew 25:1-13 .

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN-BOOK 361, 289, 356.