Christ's Three Appearing's.

From: The Gospel Messenger: Volume 27 (1912)

What He Has Done, Is Doing, And Will Do.

(Notes of an Address on Hebrews 9:24-28,²⁴For 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: ²⁵Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; ²⁶For 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. ²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: ²⁸So 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 9:24‑28) given in the Concert Hall, Blackheath, on 31St January 1911).

WE have in the few verses I have read to you, Christ’s three appearing’s. He has appeared; He does appear; He will appear. He has appeared to settle the great and serious question of sin, that lay between God and man. You and I could not settle it, for Scripture states very simply: “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22²²And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). If you die in your sins, you will get the consequences of those sins, and that is judgment. He now appears before God to represent His people. He will appear again and then His people will be with Him.

Now I would like you to understand, at the outset, the ground I take with regard to the Scriptures, and what the Scriptures say. I believe them to be the inspired Word of God from cover to cover. I know the specious doctrines, subversive of Scripture, which today the devil is pouring out with a sort of Niagara flood, but I am not here to entertain you with some newfangled theories, but to call your attention to the plain positive statements of God’s immutable Word. I am sometimes told, “You are not up to date, Doctor. You have not gone on with the times.” No, I have not, thank God, and I do not mean to follow the higher critics of the day. They tell us that the books of Moses are fallacious, the historical books a sort of a tangle, Isaiah a rhapsody, Daniel a forgery, and as for Paul, perhaps the less said about him the better. If you were to listen to these learned infidels―who ought to have been the conservators of the truth, but, on the contrary, have been so freely using the ax of scientific criticism on the Bible―they would not leave you more than the covers and a few pages, for faith to feed on, in this blessed book. I tell you what I mean to do. I mean to keep the book as it stands, and I will give the critics the covers. I will keep the book from Genesis to Revelation. It is a revelation from God. We must hold it tenaciously.

Let us now hear what it says regarding Christ.

1. HIS PAST APPEARING. WHAT HE HAS DONE.

The epistle I have read a verse or two from tonight begins magnificently. “God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1¹God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (Hebrews 1:1)). He has spoken because He has something to convey to men. He has spoken because He has that which He desires to impart to man, which will be for his present and his eternal blessing. He has spoken, and all you and I have to do is to listen’ and believe His words.

“He has spoken,” says the apostle, “by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things.” How blessed, dear fellow-Christian, it is to think that the Lord Jesus Christ is heir of all things, but you must not forget that you are a joint-heir, an heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ. There is a grand outlook, a grand future for a Christian, let me tell you. There is a grand future lying before the one who is a simple believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then the writer goes on to say, “By whom also He made the worlds.” He is not only the heir of all things, but le is the maker of all things. Further, “He is the rightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.” The only One who could unfold the nature, the thoughts and the being of God is His Son, who Himself was God. But more, He upholds all thugs by the word of His power; and further, “Where He had by Himself purged our sins, set Himself dove on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” As speak I have the sense of being under the eye of this exalted One, my most blessed and adorable Lord and Saviour. If you have never yet turned in simile faith to you glory-crowned Man, at the right haw of God, I urge you to turn and look to Him now.

The Scripture enfolds here that He has done something that none but He could do, and what is that? He made purgation for sin. You could not do it. Works, prayers, or penance of a lifetime could never blot out sins, but here is One who did it. He was alone on Calvary’s tree when He tool; up and settled the question of sin, once and forever. Faith beholds that blessed Saviour, who was the lowliest and the humblest man that ever walked through this scene, exalted now to the vet?’ highest place at God’s right hand, and the Spirit of God has come down here to bring Christ in His beauty, His glory, and His majesty before you. You will not only find in Him that which meets your need as a poor, lost, guilty sinner, but you will find in Jesus a faithful friend, a loving Saviour, a great high priest, who can maintain you in all the difficulties of the way, and One who loves you so much that He will not be content until He has you forever with Himself.

You may say, “I would like to be quite sure that I will be there with Him.” Well, I you look to Him, and regard Him as God regards Him, you will find that in the work of the Lod Jesus Christ, you have the foundation laid of present and eternal peace with God. His precious blood gives a wonderful title. The Christian has a title to glory without a flaw, and a prospect without a cloud. Who would not be a Christian? I ask you straight, “Are you a Christian?” I do not ask you what denomination you belong to, or wilt name you bear. To know and possess Christ is everything. All such are the children of God.

If you have a sense, first of all, of the dignity of the Lord’s person, I think you will be helped to understand what He has done. I want you to get your soul clear as to who He is. The Pharisees said Christ was Son of David. That is quite right; He is the Son of David, i.e., He is a real man, but He is also the Son of God. I believe from the bottom of my soul in the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Far away in the bygone ages of eternity, He was in all the joy of the Father’s love, but the time came when He made a visit to earth, to bring God, to man in His own person, and, through His sacrificial death, to bring man to God.

I know that man did not want Him, and turned Him out of His own world. That showed what man was, but He was God manifest in the flesh. He said to the once blind, but now seeing man, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” (John 9:35³⁵Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? (John 9:35)). “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on him?” was his reply, and Jesus’ answer unspeakably blessed: “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” Little wonder that the man said, “Lord, I believe, and he worshipped Him.”

Do you say, “Who is He?” If you do not know Christ personally, your faith is not worth a straw. Personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is everything. It is vitally necessary.

Now it is very important to see that the first and second chapters of Hebrews bring before us the Lord Jesus Christ in two very different characters. In the first of Hebrews undoubtedly He comes out as the Apostle, and in the second as the High Priest of our profession. As the Apostle He has come from God to man. That implies incarnation, and the life that He lived here, as incarnate. In the second chapter He is, as the High Priest, gone in to God. He has gone into death, and has risen up out of it. The end of the second chapter strikingly says: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14, 15¹⁴Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; ¹⁵And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14‑15)). If He had not been a real, true, perfect man, how could He have met your case and mine? It was impossible.

Do you remember what Job said in the ninth chapter of his book? “How should man be just with God?” How could he stand before God? He could not answer his own question, and nobody answered it till the Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans. Job also made this sorrowful complaint, “If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me” (Job 9:30, 31³⁰If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; ³¹Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. (Job 9:30‑31)). Any man that is wrought upon by the Spirit of God feels exactly the same. I am unfit for God. You will not do for God as you are, my hearer.

Job was quite right. If I wash myself with snow water, the cleanest and purest water―my sin remains.

I will not spend time telling you what snow water is, but I will tell you what it is not. It is not the blood of Christ, and that is the only thing that can fit you or me for the glory of God. But Job goes on and says, “God is not a man as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment.” God reposes in His glory, and His greatness, and here am I in my sin and wickedness. “Neither is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both.” He says, There is nobody that can reach up to the lofty heights of God’s throne, and come down to the deep necessity of my soul’s sinful condition.

If I could now reach Job, I would whisper this in his ear, “My brother, I am better off than you. I have got a Daysman who can put His hand upon us both.” He is now on the throne of God crowned with glory and honor, but where was He once? In the dust of death, that He might put His hand upon us both. He died. Why did He die? Was the seed of death in Him? God forbid. He was faultless. Had He not been searched? Yes, by God, by Satan, and by man. If you read the seventeenth Psalm you will find He says, “Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing.” God searched Him in His life here, and found nothing in Him but what was divinely suited to Himself. If He searched your heart and mine, it would be a very different tale. He would find sin, lust, pride, vanity, all the ten thousand evils that spring from the human heart. God found nothing in Him.

In the fourteenth of John we find the Lord saying, “The prince of this world cometh (that is, the devil), and hath nothing in Me” (vs. 30). The devil found nothing in Him, and on the cross the poor dying malefactor―I love him for the testimony he gave—says to his, until then, wicked accomplice in evil, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds (i.e., We are dying and we deserve to die), but this man has done nothing amiss” (Luke 23:40, 41⁴⁰But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? ⁴¹And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. (Luke 23:40‑41)). Even Pilate had to say three times, “I find no fault in Him.” Death had no claim upon Him, and yet He died. Why did He die? He died for sinners, and faith goes a little further, and says, “He died for me.” What Job sighed for, the believer now has. Jesus can meet all the need of your heart and your conscience, for, if death were your portion, He died in the room and stead of the guilty, as Anne Steele beautifully puts it: ―

“He took the guilty culprit’s place;

He suffered in his stead.

For man, O miracle of grace!

For man the Saviour bled.”

I sometimes like to alter and sing the lines thus: ―

“He took the guilty culprit’s place;

He suffered in his stead;

For me, O miracle of grace!

For me, the Saviour bled.”

That is what He did for me. What do you say about it? Do you believe it from the bottom of your heart? Have you been brought by the Spirit of God to boldly confess that this is what He has done for you? He has glorified God about sin. Now get hold of this. He became a man that He might die. You and I die because we are men, sinful men. He had what marked man in every respect, sin alone excepted. He was absolutely sinless, untainted, unfallen. You and I are corrupt in the very springs of our being, and as a consequence, death comes upon us.

Now look at the way God is declared in the Person of His blessed Son. The first man, Adam, brought Bin into this world, and death by sin. But another man, “The second man, the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47⁴⁷The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:47)) has come into the world, and do you know what is the result? If the sin of the first man brought death into the world, the death of the second man will yet take sin out of the world. He was a real man, yet a divine person, who knew exactly what was in the heart of His Father, and could reveal Him. Another scripture says, “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8⁸He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)).

What does that sentence mean? What were the works of the devil? The devil had sown lies about God in the heart of man. What came into the garden of Eden, as a result of Satan’s subtlety, was that man was led to distrust God. Distrust of God is in your heart at this moment, if you are not converted. How does the Son of God destroy the works of the devil? He introduces into my heart the great and wonderful truth that “God is love,” and that by the death of His own ion redemption has been affected, and a basis laid upon the ground of which sin will yet be taken absolutely out of the world. It is not taken out yet, but it yet shall be, thank God! and in the meantime the believer in Jesus knows his sins are all forgiven and blotted out.

W. T. P. W.

(To be continued.)

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.