Well, good morning, friends. Week in and week out, we have this precious opportunity to come to the Lord's table, so let us look into God's Word that He might prepare us for that. Reading from Hebrews 9. I'll read a much longer passage, then I'll actually be touching on in any detail, but let's see the context here. Hebrews 9, verses 22 to 28. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Therefore, it was necessary that the copies of these things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Not that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood of another, He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, for every bit of it, for chapters and books, for sentences, for phrases, for jots, for tittles. May all of it be opened to our minds that we would understand it better and live by it. Have your transforming grace in us even this morning as we look into it. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. When I was young, and I refer to like in my 20s, I used to tell people that the most noteworthy things about me, sort of my claims to fame, if you will, was that I'm left-handed and that I am a twit. I could cite that as evidence of my humility because neither of those two things did I choose, right? God graced me with being left-handed. And if you're not left-handed, you just don't understand. And he graced me with being a twin, which I certainly didn't choose. Perhaps Mr. Deaf can understand the blessing that that is. In more recent years, I've been able to add one more thing to this list of claims to fame, and that was the fact that my grandfather, my dad's dad, was very, very old, passing 100, 105, ultimately 107 years old. How many people can say their grandfather lived to 107, right? Of course, none of those things are really that important. They're just interesting facts about me and my background and my extended family. And even my grandfather was pretty low-key about his advanced age. He had occasions to be interviewed by this local newspaper in this small town. He lives in Southern California and didn't make a big deal of it. He didn't boast about it. He was really, truly just living life, day by day, as many days passed by, many more than he ever thought that he would have to live through. And of course, at that advanced age, dealing with the consequences of being very, very old, even though he was in remarkable health up to the very end. He would say that he was really just ready to move on at the end. That's how he worded it, ready to move on. Well, he did move on. Whole reason this is coming to mind. I guess I just spilled the beans. He passed away a week ago Thursday. which you'd think when your dad's 107, you're not going to be surprised when you get that call that he's passed away, but still I was. As much as one can prepare themselves for that call and that event, it still can be a little surprising. The things we take for granted day in and day out when they change, you're like, oh, well now it's different. And my mind immediately was drawn to verse 27 here in this chapter. And it's a verse I often would draw upon when speaking even with young people about the truth of death, the finality of death, back when I used to work with sort of junior high students in Christian ministry. And this verse, or this passage, while it speaks about a whole variety of really deep doctrines about Christ, the singularity of his atonement, the permanence, the uniqueness of his atonement, the sovereignty of God and how he atones for our sins this verse is usually used and i refer to verse 27 let me read again for you it is appointed for man to die once but after this the judgment this verse is often cited as a proof text for the finality of our lives, that there's nothing that comes after. And this is often used to speak against purgatory or other false views of the afterlife, whether it be in Romanism or Mormonism or other false teachings, which would say that there's really another chance. This isn't all there is. You can have another opportunity to either improve on your condition or to embrace Christ and move on to heaven in the future. Of course, this verse does not support those teachings. It rather speaks to the finality of this life. We live, we die, we will be judged. There is not that in-between state where we can improve on things. So the reason why my mind latched onto this verse out at the job site a week ago Thursday when I got that call from my dad was the finality of my grandfather's current position. He was 107 years old. He'd spent the last 90-some, I really don't know when, he joined, but he was a diligent member of the United Methodist Church. Truth is, whether you're seven years old, 17, 47, or 107, it's appointed for man to die once and after this judgment. The length of our lives has no bearing on this formula. Whether you've never been to church, whether you go every Sunday, whether you go multiple times a week, It is appointed for man to die once, and after this, the judgment. Whether you've been a member of a church, a casual attender, never darken the door of a church. The formula is the same. It is appointed for man to die once, and after this, the judgment. My grandpa was, as I said, actually quite healthy up to the day of his death. He fell once in his latter years, was in an emergency room even, for any normal person, whether you're 50 or 107, that could be a drastic thing, and he recuperated. He was very, very vigorous, perhaps chalked that up to growing up on a dairy farm. And downtown Los Angeles, where Mr. Suave referred to earlier, where those riots were in the Rodney King days, that was land that my great-grandfather had as a dairy farm. And so perhaps that healthy upbringing led to my grandfather's healthy life. But even still, whether you have one health issue after another, whether you have congenital diseases or just the toll of time, the formula is the same. It is appointed once for man to die, and after this, the judgment. And of all these things, health, length of life, attendance at church, et cetera, I would assert to you that all those people, I'd pretty confidently say, all those people who were at the Walmart in El Paso, Texas last week, had no concept that that would be the day that this formula would come to bear in their lives. So for you all, Young or old, not even considering the state of your heart, let us consider. It is appointed once for man to die, and after this the judgment. That could be soon, could be many decades off. We really don't know. So as I said, what impacted me most, and I think for my dad too, I could tell you another time, interesting conversation I've had with him, he's not a believer, but what impacted me and I believe my father the most was this finality. You see, I had opportunity, it was granted a couple years ago, things can change in that, but I had opportunity to speak very directly to my grandfather. As I said, he'd been decades pressing a century in the United Methodist Church. So I had opportunity to ask him, Grandpa, what's going to happen when you die? Where do you think you'll go? Where will you be? And to give the brief part of that story, it wasn't a good answer. He said, I've done good, good enough. And so he's trusting in his good deeds, such as he thought they would be. I endeavored to share with him in that moment, and I do implore you to hear the same, that our good deeds are as filthy rags. That's what God's Word says, Isaiah 64. There is none who does good, no one. Romans 3, 12, quoting from the Psalms. Certainly not good enough. We may think we do good things, even in the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, His goodness makes them satisfactory to God, but it's not us. None of our goodness is satisfactory. There is no mere man who does good, but there is one the God-man, Christ Jesus, who did pre-eminently good, perfectly so. He must be the foundation of our hope, not ourselves. And really that all, all of that is encompassed in this passage in Hebrews. So while I want to emphasize verse 27, let us real briefly, I just want to give a comment on each of the verses I read to paint this picture of the context. So looking back to the text, verse 22, we note that purification is needed. So for people who say, It's not that big of a deal. Everybody makes mistakes. I can get along. I'm not as bad as the next guy. Now, purification is needed. We note that it comes by blood. Verse 23, we see that the earthly copies are purified by animals' blood. They're referring to the sacrifices. But the heavenly, that needed something a bit more that was prefigured by those earthly sacrifices. Verse 24 informs us that Christ Jesus entered heaven itself. That is where the effectual atonement is taking place. Verse 25, Jesus did this one time, whereas the earthly priest entered the earthly temple many times, which in itself points to the fact that those earthly sacrifices were never complete. That was never the thing that people were to depend on. That was just a picture of the completeness that would come in the future when Christ, as it says here, entered heaven. Thus, in verse 26, Jesus died once to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And in verse 27, the author here pointing out that men die once. So Jesus sacrificed once, men die once, but in verse 28, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and those who trust in him look forward to when he will come the second time for salvation. It's pretty simple, right? I actually could expound many sermons on all the doctrines in this passage, but I want to focus on the simplicity. The simplicity that sin is a problem, We can't think it isn't. We can't pretend we've been good or good enough. No, the truth is we are impure. We need to be purified, as it says here. Human priests couldn't do it. We can't do it for ourselves. Only the great high priest, as he's called in Hebrews 4. Only Jesus Christ the righteous, as he's called in 1 John 2. Only he can do that. and right, importantly, that our hope is sure. Note the promise in verse 28 of our text. Jesus will appear a second time for salvation. God's word promises that. And note also who will receive the benefits of that appearing, those who eagerly wait for him. The grammar teaches us there that that appearing and the eagerly waiting go hand in hand. They are together. Those who are actively, eagerly waiting for him at his appearing will enjoy the benefits of the so great salvation. So two lessons I just want to implore and press on to all of you here. First of all, to those who are trusting in their own goodness, that you have not repented, not put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I say, set that false hope in yourself or that ignorance aside, because it is useless. That declaration of hope that my grandpa said several years ago, what a pity. He'll know better now if it hadn't changed, and I pray that perhaps it did. So to you who haven't trusted in Christ, repent of your sins, trust in Him, who, as we see here, surely saves. He will come, and He does save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. And to those of you who have trusted in Christ, I don't want to question anybody's salvation here. I say, press on. The true faith here, as I said, the grammar revealing, is active faith. Those continually, actively trusting in Christ can know the sure promise of His coming. is coming to save those who are his. So be eagerly looking to Christ. And know friends, whether new Christians, old ones, young or old, that this table is a testimony to us of the promise of this special gospel. Christ took the punishment we could never bear. He achieves a perfection we could never achieve. So all of us, let us embrace this gospel, clinging to Jesus, who will come again. There is no other hope. There's no second chance. My grandfather, as others do, may have had a conversion in his final days. But really, why wait? Why pull that string at the very end and have no opportunity to live for Christ for as many days as he will give you? Why have your loved ones be in doubt? May now, be the day of salvation. Amen. Father in heaven, what a joy it is to have your word and to have the comfort of it and to have the comfort of this table set before us. We can look on it week in and week out and see the tremendous cost that our sins were to your beloved son. It took his precious blood. It took the breaking of his body. This is not a small thing. but yet it was done in love. Love for us rebels who in your eternal wisdom have been redeemed, brought to yourself, and will certainly be raised to salvation. full and sure in the future. May we have the opportunity to live that out in our many days, as long as they are. Opportunity to praise you, to share the good news of your wisdom, your power, your glory, to all those who cross our path. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.