An Appointment That We All Must Keep

An Appointment That All Of Us Must Keep

Hebrews 9: 23-28

We’ve studied the book of Hebrews on many occasions here at the Calvary Baptist Church, and by doing so, we found that this particular book of the NT of the Bible is a book of, “Betters”. We know that by the constant use of the word “better” within the 13 chapters that go to make it up, it is used NLT 12 times in the book of Hebrews alone. One of those occurrences will be here in our text this morning.

Now, In the preceding verses from our text, (16-21) the writer speaks of the blood of the sacrifices that was given under the direction of the Mosaic Law. However as you’ll see as we read the following verses of the chapter this morning, there was most definitely a better blood that was shed, and that was of course the spotless sinless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason that it was necessisary for Christ to shed His precious blood, can be seen in verse #27 of this chapter this morning. That’s the verse that I felt led of God to zero in on this morning. STAND>>>>>>>>>

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Let me call your attention if I may once again to verse #27 of our text, as this single verse of Scripture will be used as the key text of the message that God has laid on my heart for this mornings service. The Bible says in verse #27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”.

I’ve made reference to this single verse of Scripture on numerous occasions, I’ve often referred to this verse before when stressing the urgency of salvation. However when so many lives went out into eternity this past Tuesday during the terrorists attacks on our nation, the Holy Spirit brought this sobering verse of Scripture back to my mind again. Again the Bible says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”.

I felt led of the Lord to preach this Lord’s Day morning on this subject, “An Appointment That Each of Us Must Keep”.

I don’t have to remind you of the cowardly attacks made on our country this past week. As I preach this message this morning, the world trade center has been destroyed, the pentagon has been bombed, and as a result of that thousands of lives here on this earth have been ended. And friend, I’m here to tell you this morning, that if there’s ever been a time when we should pray for those families that have been touched by this tragedy, and if there’s ever been a time when we should pray for our country, and our political leaders it’s now. I appreciate those of you that came by the church this past week to pray. I encourage you to continue to pray for our country in the days ahead.

But this past week our country was attacked, and lives on this earth were ended. And as I watched and listened to the news casts from all over our nation I was again reminded of the sobering truth of our key text this morning, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”

I’m sure that the people that lost their lives in this tragic event didn’t think when they woke up this past Tuesday morning that September 11 would be their last day here on this earth. As I watched the news, and the events of the week unfold I couldn’t help but wonder, how many of those people were saved by the grace of God? How many sat in a service the Sunday before, but said no to the Lord Jesus Christ? I wonder how many of them were depending upon religion, or their good deeds or their morals to get them to heaven, and found out to late that their goodness wasn’t good enough to get them there.

The sobering fact of the matter is this dear friend. Those that went out into eternity this past Tuesday, had an appointment with death. And it was an appointment, that each of them were destined to keep. And the fact of the matter is this friend. You can try to pretend that death isn’t going to happen, you can try to hide the truth from your children because you don’t want to upset them, you can try to dismiss it, as if it wasn’t so, but you can mark this down. Each of us in the building within the next 100 years ( should the Lord stay His coming ) is going to die! And God sent me here this morning to remind you of that sobering truth this morning.