Welcome to Truth Matters Church, contending for the faith, one verse at a time. Propitiation. It's a big word, but its meaning has a very important impact and application to the Christians' walk with God. Today, Pastor Alex Kataroha examines this word during our Friday night Bible study in the book of 1 John. For more information on how to join this study live via Zoom each week, visit truthmatterschurch.org. Here is Pastor Alex. All right, so if you haven't already, go ahead and take your notes or your scripture, and then we're going to pick up on 1 John 2. Because we only covered one verse last time, we'll go ahead and reread the entire passage, beginning in verse 1. So, you know, let's just get re-familiar with our passage and then we're going to get right into verse 2. John writes there, By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. The one who says, I have come to know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says that he abides in him, ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked." So we'll pause there And again, last week we covered verse one behind and really took a close look at Jesus as our advocate. There's really no need for us to go over that. But hopefully you were encouraged by that. Because again, remember that John's key theme in this passage is our sanctification. So as believers, we are to walk the walk, right? We are to live the Christian faith, but also parallel to that, we have this truth that God is the one who is working out our salvation and we have all three persons of the Trinity working. So we have our will working and the will of God working ultimately to bring us to salvation. So that is very, very encouraging. Obviously it affirms our assurance, You know, if God is working in us, He, again, He who began a good work in us will perfect it. And that good work obviously being salvation. So we covered that last week. What I want to do is, you know, before we start to really get into verse two, you know, this was really tough for me in that it got me a lot in the Old Testament. You know, the God in the Old Testament is the God in the New Testament. But when I read God in the Old Testament, He's all about business in terms of His holiness. And quite frankly, I get intimidated to some extent, but it's a reverence intimidation. It's like, wow, Lord, You don't mess around. And He doesn't. And you know what's sad is in many of our churches today, we focus on the love of God, but then there's also this side of God that is, it's who he is. And this is all going to be around the word when we start breaking down the word of propitiation. So we're going to spend a lot of time looking at some examples in God's dealing with humanity in general, but also concerning his people Israel. But one of the things we can learn about, you know, if we want to learn about who God is, we got to take his whole word. We can't just learn about you know, one part of him in the New Testament, we also need to study who he is in the Old Testament. So let's look at verse two, and then we'll start to kind of walk through this. So John writes there, and he himself, again, of course, he himself is speaking about Christ, is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. And again, John here is emphasizing the person and work of Christ. So here, he's referring to Jesus as the propitiation. And as we covered last week, You know jesus, you know, there's there's um, all three persons in the trinity. They have a different role in salvation And when it comes to jesus He alone is the one who died for our sins So the father didn't die for our sins. The holy spirit didn't die for our sins jesus The son died for our sins, but that was the will of the father and the father was in christ um, but as far as Jesus is, you know, one of his many roles in salvation. One of them is he is the one who died for our sins. He is the Paschal Lamb. And also another thing too, out of all three persons of the Trinity, again, there's only one God, but in the Godhead, who is the one that is judge over all mankind, and we know the answer. It is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, because the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son. Again, everything starts with the Father, and the Son just carries it out. So, as far as, you know, part of, or one of many roles of Jesus, you know, a couple of them is that He is both judge, and we can see that in John 5, 22 and 23, and He's also our sacrifice. And one example there is 1 Peter 1, 19, So what I'd like to do is I'd like for us to really, because we hear the word propitiation, it's a pretty big word, it might go through our heads, but there is a lot behind this word and it does ultimately tie to God's character. When John writes and when the scripture talks about Jesus being the propitiation for our sins, there's a lot behind that and we're going to endeavor to cover that But I do want to mention this idea of propitiation, this appease, you know, we'll get into the definition of what that really means. There was an indication and there's a connection, and I'll tell you up front now, between atonement and propitiation. They're going to come, they're connected, but we get the first indication of some sort of sacrifice. to propitiate sins. And we saw that all the way in the fall. And you may be familiar with this. And again, it's after the fall, you know, Genesis 3, 21, it says there that God made garments of skin and he covered, you know, Adam and Eve. So what we can learn from there is they tried to hide with leaves or whatever, but that didn't cover their sins. That didn't, propitiate or appease, it didn't atone for their sins. But this idea that we got introduced that from the fall when God made garments of skin, that that was the first indication. Remember, when you look at the Bible, it's a progressive revelation of the redemption and revelation of God, really, in Jesus Christ. And here we saw the first kind of clewer revelation that God made a sacrifice, and he used an animal, and he used it to cover their nakedness. So there's kind of the first mention of that requirement. And then we'll get into, when John says, for those of the whole world. And here, let's look at the Greek of propitiation. And it's the Greek word, hilasmos, and that means to appease. Namely, when I think about propitiation, I think about like appeasing, like something is coming and you're just trying to you're trying to hold it back, like it's an appeal, like don't do it, don't do this. There's this appeal, there's this appeasement. So that's what is behind the word propitiation. There's this, you know, it's to appease, but what is it appeasing? What is the subject, if you will, of what's being opposed or appeased? And it's God's wrath. And when we talk about he's the propitiation of our sins, Jesus is the propitiation. He is appeasing God's wrath. He is appeasing its destruction. He's appeasing judgment, right? And I want to talk a little bit about God's wrath because we throw that word, you know, fairly loosely sometimes, but depending, you know, God's wrath has many forms. And one of those forms is on earth. So, A way God can express his wrath is in the hands of evil men. And that's in Romans 1. Here's another way God can have His wrath come upon man, and that's in calamities, so natural disasters. Ultimately, all the natural disasters that's going on in the earth, that's from the hand of God. That's part of His wrath, His general wrath, upon mankind. You know, if there's anyone who tries to talk against or get God off the hook for calamities and natural disasters, so if a natural disaster were to take out a land, to try to explain that away, again, that's not scriptural, because we know that God is, you know, in control of everything, and we know that part of His wrath that He unfolds or unleashes, if you will, on the earth is through calamities. And here I want to put a little side note there. We also know that if God gives Satan permission, that Satan too could use the weather to bring about, you know, to bring about something. We know about the story of Job, for example, where when, you know, when a great wind came and knocked Job's house down and killed his kids. Right? But we know that from the conversation in Scripture that God was again the initiator of that conversation. He's the one who made a proposition. Hey, have you considered Job? And then again, he gave limitations on what Satan can do. And when Satan was given that permission, part of that permission would be to be able to use the weather. But just know that ultimately it's God who's pulling the strings. You know, for some of us that could be hard to reconcile, but just know that when there is a calamity that comes upon the land, we can't see, you know, who God used, if it was just Him, or through an angel, or through, you know, a good angel, or through a fallen angel like Satan. We don't know, but just know that ultimately whatever calamity comes upon the land, that's part of God's wrath. That's still something that is in play because sin is still in the world and sin hasn't been fully judged for. So just know that when it comes to propitiation, there is this appeasing of God's wrath, destruction, and judgment. And depending on the context, it could be on the earth. But here's obviously the one that really matters for all of us. It's on Judgment Day. So God, Lord Jesus Christ, is going to judge all men and. In that regard, for believers, we're judged not for our salvation, because that's already been judged by Christ, but we will be judged for our works or our deeds, and He will reward us accordingly. But for unbelievers, they will be judged for rejecting Christ and their only means of salvation. And then that will ultimately lead to damnation or hell. But what I'd like to do is I want us to now, I want to look at some examples of God's wrath in the Old Testament, because again, this is who God is. He's not just this loving God who just overlooks everything. No, he holds men accountable for their actions. So with that, I'd like for us to look at one example. Uh, and it's a very familiar story of Sodom and Gomorrah. And you guys know, you guys all know the story. I mean, it was a, it was extremely perverse town when angels came a lot. met them and he knew they were angels. How, you know, I can't tell you, but he showed them hospitality. He urged that the angels would stay with him. And then ultimately the angels, even though they were wanting to go to the square, that Lot convinced them to stay. And then the men of the town, Knew that they were there and you guys know the story They started barging on the door and they were commanding lot to bring those men out So that they could have relations with them. So they were homosexuals so You know the story lot offered his daughters and you know, and that seems a little bizarre but you know when you really think about it, obviously that's There's much there. You gotta take some cultural considerations as well, as far as Lot's thinking. But just know this, he was entertaining angels and he'd rather have his daughters taken advantage of than the angels who are under his roof. I'm not saying what Lot did was noble by any means, but he would rather, if anything were harm or to happen, he didn't want to, he had reverence for the angels. But kind of the story, then they weren't having it, but the angels pulled him in, struck him with blindness, and then the angel gave commands to the, you know, or gave instructions to Lot saying, hey, we were brought here to destroy this land because the outcry, you know, and the sins that's happening in this town has reached heaven. We've come to destroy it. Who's your family? Go get them. because getting you out of here, because we're going to burn this down, the whole city, the whole thing. So here, the angels were messengers of God's wrath, right? They were the ones that God used to bring wrath upon this town. And let's pick up right here in verse 23. You know, the sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zor. Then, here it is, this is God. This is the God of love, but also the God of wrath. And he overthrew those cities. and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife," and we know this story, Lot's wife, from behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. But here is one example that God sent a natural disaster, and it was in the form of brimstone and fire that fell from heaven, and it completely wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah. And this is an example of God's wrath uh through you know through the means of a natural disaster in this case he wiped out a wicked wicked town but again this is god this is the god that we love and serve again he he holds people accountable to his sin and you know what god does have a come to a point you know he is forbearing but he comes to a point where he goes okay that's it you know he he he can only tolerate sin even according to his his appetite, whatever that may be, and in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, it reached that point, God wiped him out. But there's an example, again, of God's wrath, and that was an example that was brought about through natural disaster here. Here's an interesting one. An example of God's wrath when he sent a plague against Israel for their rebellion So here's a little bit of the context on this one. So you heard of Korah's rebellion? well, he was from the tribe of Levi and Pretty much the the Levitical priests were set aside to do the work of the temple, but they weren't the priests they were to assist the priests so Korah pretty much gathered 250 men. And he's like, who are you Moses? Who do you think you are that you're God spoke person? Well, first of all, we're all qualified too. Like you're not special. So he pretty much elevated himself and Moses fell to his face, literally. And he's like, you know what? It was kind of like a showdown, you know, between Elijah and the false prophets. He's like, you know what? Show up tomorrow, get your incense ready with your 250 men, and we'll see who the Lord chose. So it was kind of the showdown, but Moses, he was torn that they did this. But they continued to, that continued to ensue. And then the short of it was, there was this test. God, of course, chose Moses. Moses was God's chosen instrument, right, to lead the people of Israel and Aaron. And then ultimately what happened was, you know, Moses said, you know what, Lord, If if these men, you know Cora and the 250 men he goes if they die a normal death Just like what would normally someone, you know, someone would experience he says Then I'm not your representative. Basically, I'm not you didn't pick me but he goes but if you did pick me he goes open up the earth and Swallow, you know pretty much take them alive. So Cora and the 250 men were swallowed up. The earth opened. They went into the earth alive and the earth closed over them. And the people of Israel were like freaking out, like, oh gosh, we're gonna die. But that's an example of God's wrath. And he sent a plague against Israel ultimately because of their continued rebellion. So that's what happened. Now we're, that happened already. And now let's pick up, they continue to grumble against Moses, even after that. So let's pick it up in number 16, and then we'll go to verse 41. But on the next day, all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord's people, the one I just told you. the showdown with Korah and the 250. He goes, Here it is, then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, hey, get out among from the congregation that I may consume them instantly. And then they fell on their faces. Moses said to Aaron, he goes, quick, you know, take your censer, put it on the fire from the altar and lay incense on it. Then bring it quickly to the congregation. Here it is, and make atonement for them. for the wrath has gone forth from the Lord and the plague has begun. So can you imagine? The Lord was like, you know, Moses, look, Korah grumbled and his men grumbled against God and against, I mean, Moses and against Aaron. We saw what happened with that. Yet the people said, Moses, that's your fault. They continue to grumble. And God is like, Moses, get out of the way. You know, it's kind of like when someone's holding you back. Moses, move. I'm gonna take one then. Moses, like, okay, he wants to appease God. So that's where I'm getting at with all this. He's like, okay, the Lord has, he's moving now, and he's plaguing them, but Moses is taking quick action, saying, you know, Aaron, do this so that we may make atonement for them, for their rebellion. But kind of get that picture. God's wrath is going because of their rebellion, but we have an intercessor, even with Moses, that's saying, you know, let's make it atonement so God can stop, you know, like ease up a bit. So it says, let's pick it up at verse 47. Then Aaron took it as Moses had spoken and ran into the midst of the assembly, for behold, the plague had begun among the people. So he put the incense and made atonement for the people. Verse 48, he took his stand between the dead and the living so that the plague was checked. Here it is. But those who died by the plague were 14,700 beside those who died on account of Korah. Again, that was 250. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the doorway of the tent of meeting for the plague. had been checked. So this is the same God. You had the people of Israel continue to grumble against his people, Moses and Aaron, whom he's chosen. And at that day, God's wrath took 14,700 people. And if Moses had not interceded, then that would have obviously, he would have wiped them out. So that's one example, again, of God's wrath. And we see a picture there of Moses trying to appease it. Here's an interesting one, Isaiah 45. And I have here, you know, God, you know, He's the one who causes peace and war, not just with the people of Israel, throughout the world. When there's peace and there's war, God is the one who's pulling the strings. And we can see that clearly in the example of the Israelites here. A little bit of context here. So, The Israelites are in Babylonian captivity up to this point, and God is going to use the Persian king Cyrus to exile them back to Jerusalem. So he's using a pagan king ruler And he's going to use him as the instrument to bring Israel back out of the Babylonian captivity and allow them to go back to the land. So that's the context here. And Isaiah is prophesying that God is going to use Cyrus. Now let's pick up in verse five. It says there, I am the Lord and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. I will gird you, and I put in parens here, Cyrus. He's talking to Cyrus here. Cyrus the anointed, he's the Persian king. He goes, though you have not known me. He goes, verse six, that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one beside me. I am the Lord and there is no other. And look at verse seven. He goes, the one forming light and creating darkness. Now quite literally here, in the Hebrew. He's talking about, I'm the creator. I am the one who created light, and I'm the one who separated light from darkness. I am him. I am the creator. And he goes, causing well-being. The Hebrew there is shalom, peace. He goes, causing peace and creating calamity. And calamity there, it's evil. It's destruction. He goes, I am the Lord. who does all these things. So now in context, when you look at the people of Israel and they were taken away in captivity, that was God's doing. He's the one who took their peace away from them for their rebellion and for their rejection, right, and for their sin. So then he's the one who brought about that calamity, but then now he's the one who's going to okay I'm gonna bring you back out of his faithfulness and he's gonna bring him back to the land of Israel and then he's going to use a pagan king and ruler by the name of Cyrus so God's wrath, right? And these are examples that He is in control of everything. But just know that when we think about propitiation, again, the propitiation is ultimately to protect us from the wrath of God unleashed, you know, like really just full, full, full on. So, So those are some examples from an earthly perspective. Now I want to look at one example of God's wrath, really from a judgment perspective, from an eternal perspective. And the writer of Hebrews writes this, and we're probably familiar with this verse. He goes, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. When was the last time you might've heard someone warn someone, hey, you know what? It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God if you don't change your ways. I mean, I know that, you know, that's not popular, but in reality, it's true. Because if someone lives in continual sin and rejection of the only remedy and payment for that sin, then ultimately they're going to fall into the hands of the living God, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment. So God will punish sinners is where I'm getting at with these examples. And that it is very clear in scripture. And we know this one, John 3, the most popular verse probably in the entire New Testament, verse 16, but we'll read through 21. So John writes there, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Many evangelical churches, well, stop right there. and just say, for God so loved the world, and just run with this. No, no, no, that's true. Now keep reading, because that was one verse out of a passage that is all connected, and here it is. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. Again, that's for us, for believers, for those who've received Christ. We received Christ, we're not gonna, God is not gonna punish Us as sinners because jesus took that on our behalf, but here it is, but he who does not believe Has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god And here's the judgment. Here's the verdict that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having being wrought in God. But here, there's just a couple of examples in scripture. You know, the God of wrath, in the Old Testament is still the God of wrath in the New Testament, and that wrath ultimately will be realized or materialized in judgment for those who reject the only begotten Son of God, for those who don't believe that Jesus, who he claimed he was, that Jesus is the Messiah, that he was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So now, When John says this, right? Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. He's saying Jesus is the one who appeases God's wrath. He's the one. So this wrath that we looked in the Old Testament where God, when he lets his wrath go and it comes upon the people or comes upon a land, And we can see that that will also extend to judgment, that Jesus is the one, he kind of like he appeased it, you know, it's as if Jesus is the one who appeased the wrath of God, he appeased the destruction that should come upon us, and the judgment as well. In that example, when we looked at Moses, when he instructed Aaron to light an incense to make atonement for the sins of the people, there we see that the propitiation was made in that the plague only went to, what was it, 14,700 or something like that. So when God's wrath is propitiated on an earthly level that that is also possible. And you can see that, you know, his judgment or wrath won't go all the way. But Jesus also he and he's the one who ultimately appeases God's wrath, destruction and judgment. So you can you can say just in hypothetically speaking. So we know that the people of Israel right now, generally speaking, there are some who are believers, but they don't believe Jesus is the Messiah. And for that they're they're getting the conflict and they're getting the strife and they're always you know, there's always enemies You know, there's a lot of strife in the Middle East and all that but just in theory if they were to embrace Christ truly then there will be some sort of appeasement upon the land. But because they just generally are continuing to reject Christ as Messiah, then God's wrath continues to remain on the land, if that makes sense. So Jesus is a propitiation, and it can be realized on an earthly standpoint while we're still here. He still could propitiate, and where we can have that shalom, that peace. But as we know, ultimately, that Jesus is the one who appeases God's wrath, destruction, and judgment on Judgment Day, and we're not going to obviously be given to God or in His hands to be judged for our sin. So as we know, so a couple of things when it comes to propitiation for our sins. We all know this. the wages of sin is death. So the reason why we die is because of sin. Now that is not just, you know, it's really now and forever ultimately, right? If Jesus or God doesn't remedy it. That death, that Adam died, and that spread to all mankind, that Had God not done anything, we would not only just die physically, but we would die and be punished for our sins for all eternity. And that's what Paul writes there in Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. Again, that's the wages. Sin deserves death now and forever. So that's true. But the free gift of God is eternal life. And again, that's now and for eternity in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So behind this big word propitiation, it's really God's holiness, it requires that our sins be dealt with with perfect justice. I know we talk a lot about what's going on around the world and a lot of the injustices that we may witness and see a lot of the corruption and things like that, but when it comes to God's holy court, that in His court, whatever He judges, it's gonna be perfect justice. And in that perfect justice, when it comes to our sins, it requires a perfect sacrifice. And for that, that's where atonement comes into play, is if God's holiness requires perfect justice, that the perfect justice for our sins is is death and then his wrath you know really for all eternity and as we know um jesus is the one who atoned for our sins so another way to look at it well think about propitiation think of it as a bounty there's a there's a there's a there's there's a bounty on your head if you kind of look at atonement so if there's propitiation um you know again it's to appease the bounty is is where i'm really trying to get at and then the atonement is the payment or the ransom. And we all know what ransom is, right? So oftentimes you'll see ransom, let's say someone kidnaps someone, and then they'll say, okay, well, we kidnapped this person, and for this person's safe release, we're asking for this ransom. So you're holding this person ransom. So kind of look at atonement as the payment for the ransom on the bounty for our sins. So propitiation and atonement is connected. So with this, when was the last time we read on the Day of Atonement? Because what I wanted to do is I want to read it and then I want to watch it. I found a video that, again, I'll put a disclaimer when we get to it. It's just like any Christian movie or Christian video. Sometimes it's not 100% accurate, but it's good enough where we can connect and see what the Day of Atonement is really all about. At least for me, it opened up my eyes because, again, I'm not Jew, right? Most of us, if not all of us, aren't Jews, obviously. So, we don't know what it is for the Day of Atonement. We didn't participate in this practice or rite, but let's read it and then we will watch a video and hopefully it connects. And again, the idea here is the propitiation. And Jesus propitiated the bounty that was on our head because he made an atonement for it. And that was what was prescribed in the Old Testament law. So let's read Leviticus 16 because here are the terms of the Day of Atonement. We'll begin in verse one, we'll read the whole thing. Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died. The Lord said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark or he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat Aaron shall enter the holy place with this, with a bull for the sin offering and a ram for the burnt offering, and he shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban." These are the holy garments. Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering, which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, make it a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his household. And he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. He shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil. Again, these are all part of the Day of Atonement. These are all of the requirements. Verse 13, he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, otherwise he will die. Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side. Also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. He shall make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because their transgressions in regard to all their sins. And thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities. Verse 17. When he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides. with his finger he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times and cleanse it and from the impurities of the sons of israel consecrate it so so right now we're again this there's god is very specific and we're going to see again we're going to see a video that's going to that's going to hopefully bring this to life. But God is saying on the day of atonement, these are the steps that need to be done in this fashion and by who is authorized to do it. And ultimately, these are the requirements in the law to make atonement for their sins. And as we know, when you get into the New Testament, that the atonement was realized in Jesus Christ, that the act itself, right? The blood and bulls and goats can never take away sin, but the actual, um, sacrifice of Christ. And he is, he is the, this is a shadow ultimately of what Christ is going to fulfill. But nonetheless, let's continue on verse 20 when he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess it over all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. Verse 23, then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments, which he had put on when he went into the holy place and shall leave them there. And he shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. Verse 25, then he shall offer up in smoke the fat of the sin offering on the altar the one who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water then afterward he shall come into the camp but the bull of the sin offering and the goat off and the goat of the sin offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall be taken outside the camp. And they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. Then afterward he shall come into the camp." And here is the stipulation. This is supposed to be done every year. This shall be a permanent statue for you in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month. You shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native or the alien, who sojourns among you. For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you. that you may humble your souls it is a permanent statute so the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father's place shall make atonement he shall he shall thus put on the linen garments and the holy garments and make atonement for the holy sanctuary and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. Now you shall have this as a permanent statue to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year, and just as the Lord had commanded Moses, so he did." Okay, a lot. No, there's a lot. And remember, this is the life, this is, you know, from the life for a Jew, Yeah, for us, we're like, oh, that's a lot. This is their life. They have Yom Kippur, right? For those who continue to practice Judaism today, and we'll kind of get into that. So the Day of Atonement, this is their language. This is what they know, right? So if we were to study the book of Hebrews, the Day of Atonement was obviously huge, and the Jews obviously knew about it. And when the writer of Hebrews then pointed this to Jesus Christ, as you know, this is really a shadow and Christ is really the one who atoned for our sins. Again, they're all familiar with this, right? So with that, what I'd like to do is, what did we just read? Again, when I saw this video, I saw a few out there. This one, I was like, you know what, you're pretty good. I mean, it's... It's not 100% in terms of, because there was some sprinkles. Why did you do it on the center? It was supposed to be on the east side. But you know what? It's good enough to give us that visual. Here is the day of atonement. Ultimately, again, we're tying this behind the phrase, Jesus is the propitiation. Propitiation, and there's a connection with atonement. So with that, let me play this video. When John says He is the propitiation for our sins, again, we just covered with that, that there's a connection with His atonement. And as we saw, at least what we read, and then we got a visual of that, you know, we see that, you know, the high priest has specific duties and God specifically prescribed on what is to be done. And then, as we know, ultimately, you know, Jesus is our great high priest before God, and he's the one who entered into the most holy place, and that was through his, you know, his death, right, through his body, through his death and ascended back to heaven. So when it comes to Let's again, let's drive this point home. The writer Hebrews speaks on this in Hebrews 2 and we'll read verse 14. that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God." And here it is, why? to make propitiation for the sins of the people. You know, for he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to aid those who are tempted. So as we know, and again this isn't any news for us, Jesus fully atoned for our sins. He completely satisfied, He appeased the wrath of God, that is, again, there's that ransom, there's that bounty on our head, and all mankind for our sins, and that bounty and God's holiness and righteousness and justice, it requires a perfect justice and a perfect payment for that sin, and Jesus is the one who ultimately atoned and paid that ransom on that bounty, and that Jesus fully satisfied the wrath of God by bearing God's wrath, on the cross. And as we know, something mysterious happened when Christ died. And, you know, he said, you know, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? How can the father and son be separated? They, you know, they can't in their deity, but in some way, he was separated from his father, that relationship that he's had from all time was severed at that moment because he was bearing upon himself the wrath of God, and as a result, he was cut off. Jesus was cut off. How could the living Son of God, fully God, fully man, be cut off from his heavenly Father? But we know that that's true, and he cried it, and that's where he was sweating, as it were, blood, and that he was in agony because he was about to bear that separation. He was about to bear the full wrath of God. And for that, he knew that, again, that was his father's will to do that. But again, he propitiated, he satisfied the wrath because God says, OK, because you've sinned, you must die pretty much forever, right? I mean, that's really what the perfect justice would require for God's holiness. And in some way that His death and His separation, Christ on the cross, He satisfied the demands of God's holiness. And as a result, again, when we say that when Jesus died for our sins, I think we can kind of gloss over that. He tasted death fully. He tasted the wrath of God fully. He didn't sample death. He fully died. He didn't sample God's wrath. He had the full wrath and the separation he took it all because that's what god's um god's justice requires and he did do that when he propitiated for our sins again there jesus fully appeased the holiness and judgment of god because he was and being the perfect paschal lamb sacrifice and we'll we'll pause there but You know, kind of the takeaway here is kind of wrapped up. I mean, this behind propitiation, this appeasing, it ultimately ties to God's wrath. And God's wrath can express itself in life, right, on people, and it can express itself in judgment, right? If we were to stand before God and be judged, and we know that when it says Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, again, He appeased that wrath, that ransomed that bounty, and as a result, right, He is the propitiation. So we can read that propitiation. Okay, that's cool, he died for my sins, that's great, but again, if you go back to God's law, and you read his requirements, and how, you know, the role of the high priest, and I thought that was pretty cool in the video, how it talked about when he went into the garden in Gethsemane, and he kind of, and there was kind of those three levels. I thought that was interesting, again, you can't be dogmatic about it, but there is a parallel there, where Jesus was alone, and he was with his father, and it's as if he went into the most, you know, holy place as a high priest, but it wasn't for himself. It was for the sins of the people. And that's what the high priest did. So as we know, in the day of atonement, the high priest had a lot of duties. He had to take care of, he had to atone for his sins, the sins of his fellow priests, and then he had to atone for the sins of the people. But he also had to atone the tent of meeting, the altar, he had to atone the holy sanctuary, everything. He had to make atonement for it. And as we know, again, Jesus, as our high priest, he fulfilled that role in God's eyes. And that's why he is our great high priest. And he's not the high priest. He didn't offer the blood and bulls and goats, as we know in the writer of Hebrews. He didn't go in there like the high priest, as we saw in that demonstration, where he went in and he's taking the blood of an animal. And in Jesus, again, he went and he offered his blood. and he satisfied that ransom or that bounty that is out on our heads. I don't know, for me, I mean, again, you can play that for what it is, but can you imagine if you could see a bounty on everyone's head? You know, I mean like really like there's a bounty and and god is god is coming And he will judge the living and the dead and it's like wow There's there and if that bounty hasn't been paid for by christ if he isn't the propitiation your propitiation then that bounty will but will be required and will be brought before God's court and then we're going to have to pay for our sins. And that's why and we'll pick it up on our next you know on our next on the next time there when he goes for and he's not only the propitiation for our sins again he's the propitiation for the sins of the world. There's no other Savior. There's no other sacrifice. There's no one else who can pay the ransom that's out on all of mankind for our sin other than what Jesus offered. And again, that's the gospel. And that's where John is defending here amongst all the false teachings and all the false pretenses when it comes to Christ. Amen? Thank you so much for joining us today at Truth Matters Church. You can find out more about us and our ministry of teaching God's Word verse by verse at truthmatterschurch.org. We also encourage you to subscribe to this podcast on Sermon Audio, Apple, and Spotify. and check out our YouTube channel for even more biblical teaching. And if God has put it on your heart to support this ministry, you can do that online at truthmatterschurch.org. Your tax-deductible donation is greatly appreciated. Contending for the faith, one verse at a time. This is Truth Matters Church.