Hebrews 9:27-28
Willing men to die once
The two crises:
There is a very playful emphasis on that word “once.
“I know people who are so graceful that death seems attractive to them, and they really talk like they’re willing to die half a dozen times. It is not so with me. I submit to the idea only because I have to. But, thank God, we die only once. We take seventeen thousand breaths in a day, but there will only be one last breath.
1. I note, regarding the first crisis, that it will be the end of all our earthly plans. If Napoleon wants to fight Austerlitz, he must do so first or never fight at all. If John Howard wants to burn off the damp in the dungeon, he must do it first or never do it. The last moments will break all our earthly schemes. If our work at that time is rounded, it will stay rounded. If it is incomplete, it will remain incomplete, like the national monument on Calton Hill, Edinburgh: a row of pillars showing what the building was meant to be, but is not.
two. Again, I emphasize that the first crisis I speak of in my text will be our physical ruin. However attractive the body may have been, it must become disfigured and mutilated. Dissolution!
3. Again, I stress, with respect to the first crisis I speak of, it will be the end of all our earthly associations. From all of our business associations, all of our social, all of our political, all of our religious, all of our earthly associations, we will be uprooted.
Four. Again, I emphasize, with respect to that first crisis, it will be the end of the day of grace. Before that, many bright Saturdays and golden days of communion, prayers, sermons and songs; but at that moment, a messenger of God will stand with his hand raised, inviting all chances of salvation: “Stand back!” But I have given you only half of the text. Is there something after that? When our physical life is extinguished, will we be done? Nope! I’m immortal. “It is appointed that men should die once, and then the judgment.”
Harps and strings, palaces and dungeons, hallelujahs and lamentations of eternity are piled up in that single eight-letter word.
1. I comment, regarding that second crisis, that it will be our physical reconstruction. Paul will recover his body without the thorn in the flesh; Payson yours, without the sting; Robert Hall yours, without the torment of a lifetime; Nero yours; Robespierre yours; Napoleon III. his; your drunk; your libertine. Some of the bodies piled up in endless ecstasy, some of them in endless pang.
two. I repeat, regarding that second crisis, that will be the moment of explanation. Why do the good guys have it hard and the bad guys have it easy?
Why is the Christian mother today deprived of her only child, and the house of the wicked remains quiet? I appeal to the day of judgment. In that day, God will be vindicated, and men will cry out, “He’s right, he’s always right!”
3. That last crisis, I emphasize, will also be one of scrutiny. I don’t know how long the last test will last, but I am very sure that all the past will rush into our memory. And imagine how that man, that woman will feel when they are shown ten, twenty, thirty or forty years of unimproved opportunities.
Four. I reiterate, regarding this crisis, that it will be an irrevocable decision. If we lose our case in “Common Pleas” Court, we take it to “Circuit”; or, failing that, we take it to the “Foreign Ministry” or “Supreme Court”. If we are tried by a small jury, and the case goes against us on some technicality of the law, we have a new trial. But, when the decision is issued on the last day, there will be no appeal. (T. DeWitt Talmage.)
death and judgment
Me. A SOLEMN EVENT: death and judgment.
II. THE GLORIOUS WORK OF CHRIST—He was offered to bear the sins of many.
III. THE FINAL AND TRIUMPHANT RESULTS: He will appear a second time, without sin, for salvation, to those who seek Him. (George Hall.)
Death, judgment and salvation
YO. THE DEATH SENTENCE. When it is said “once to die”, it implies a resurrection from the dead and a life after death. Otherwise, if death had been the extinction of being, it would have been enough to have simply said “die”; for what could have been left beyond it to make repetition possible? A terrible truth is established: that, by dying once, we cannot die again. Therefore, whatever state we enter, be it happiness or misery, is eternal.
II. THE CALL FOR TRIAL. The sin of another exposes us to death; but associated with the last tribunal everything is personal. I will be judged by myself and I must answer for myself. “So each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
III. THE REVELATION OF LIFE. “So also Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “Offered”—here is the character of his death. The whole argument of this epistle is that the death of Christ was a sacrifice. Connect it with anything else you please, this is the main characteristic of it: “bearing the sins of many”. In what sense bear the sins of him? Surely as his substitute, to suffer in his place. “To bear the sins of many.” It is clear that there are not a few who will be saved. Fanaticism and the party find no ground on which to set foot here.
IV. THE RETURN OF THE SAVIOR. “He will appear the second time without sin,” properly without sin offering. He does not appear again to make atonement for sin. For what purpose, then, will He appear in all this glory the second time? “For salvation.” To bring with Him the glorified spirits of his people; to raise their bodies from the grave, and transform them into the likeness of His own, to give a public display of their adoption, to place them on his throne; and so they will always be with the Lord. For whom will this second appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ be filled with such transcendent blessings? “To those who seek him”. In this beautiful figure of one who watches until dawn and the shadows flee, what living faith, unshakable patience, founded hope, unshakable expectation, sleepless vigilance, unquenchable zeal and burning love are implied! All the graces of the Spirit in full exercise: all present evils were swallowed up in anticipation of the coming crisis. (W. B. Collyer, DD)
death and judgment
ME. HERE WE SEE AN APPOINTMENT, A DECREE, A SENTENCE: IN WHICH FOUR CIRCUMSTANCES MUST BE OBSERVED.
1. By whom is this appointment made, namely, by Almighty God, in whom there is no shadow of variation, and who is able to do what He has appointed. Men are mutable; they name and disappoint; it is not so with God; He has said it, and he won’t? Therefore, as sure as God is in heaven, this quote will stand. Who has ever resisted his will? Who can break the appointment of him?
two. What is established: die once. What is death? Properly speaking, it is a separation of the soul from the body.
3. There is an extraordinary dying and an ordinary dying. Some have died twice, like Lazarus, and those who rose with Christ in his resurrection; but ordinarily it is established that all men die once. Everyone is not destined to be rich, wise, learned, but to die.
Four. Why was this appointment made? Because of sin (Romans 5:12), “at the time you eat, you will die of death”. Why are we afraid of the plague? Because it will kill us. Sin will kill both soul and body; therefore let us all be afraid of sinning.
5. The persons to whom this appointment is made, to men—to all men. There is no living man who does not see death: it is established that kings, dukes, counts, lords, knights, hidalgos, merchants, drapers, farmers, the tall and the short, the rich, die. and the poor, the wise and the ignorant. It is established that the ministers and the people die; to the master, and to the servant; to the husband, and to the wife. We read of a woman who had seven husbands, they all died, and in the end the woman also died. No one can avoid the blow of death: the doctors who heal others, in the end die; the pious die; This is how the good and the bad die, just as the faithful are sick like the infidels, so they also die like the others.
II. DEATH DOES NOT GO ALONE, THERE IS ONE WHO FOLLOWS IT, AND THAT IS THE JUDGMENT. Judgment, either acquittal for the pious, or damnation for the wicked. If there were no judgment after death, the pious of all the rest would be the most miserable; and if there was no judgment, the wicked were the happiest men. The drunkard must account for his drunkenness, the miser for how he has used his riches; we must give an account of our oppressions, secret or open thefts, of our negligent attendance at church and disregard of the Word of God. May this make us look at our life with narrowed eyes, let us judge ourselves in this world, so that we are not condemned in the hereafter. However, there are many in the Church who think he is a scarecrow and scoff at this judgment, as the Athenians did at the resurrection (Ac 17:32 ). Let it be a means to get us out of sin and make our peace with God in this world, so that we can stand without trembling before the Son of man. (W. Jones, D.D.)
death and judgment
Me. This passage, beyond all its solemnity, HONORS MAN. He declares that death leaves his essential nature intact. After death he remains a man. No affection, no principle of human nature is lost.
II. These TWO APPARITIONS OF MAN CORRESPOND TO THE TWO APPARITIONS OF CHRIST, the representative Man of the race. Just as Christ inherits for eternity what he acquired in earthly humanity from him, so will we.
III. Our brief planetary existence IS LONG ENOUGH FOR THE INNER MAN, THE ESSENTIAL, TO TAKE THE SEAL, THE SPIRIT AND THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF HIS ETERNAL FUTURE LIFE.
IV. In the current exterior atrium or vestibule of our nature, OUR ESSENTIAL HUMANITY IS IN THE PROCESS OF FORMATION. And who can fail to admire the justice and mercy of divine provision whereby the hereditary nature, formed independently of our personal choice, is not allowed to be our final nature; but the final nature of each man will be the result of the choice and cooperation of his own will and personality.
v. A MAN HAS NO ABSOLUTE NEED TO CONSIDER THE RELATIONS OF HIS PRESENT LIFE WITH HIS FUTURE. It is not more time that we want, but more will.
SAW. Whether we’re made of heaven for heaven, or darker elements for the dark world, WE’LL HAVE TO KEEP OUR DATE.
VII. Through death we enter THE ROOM OF SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH. That won’t hurt us if we invite the truth to seek us…