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Well, those who are responsible
for organizing the conference have given me an assignment,
and the assignment is to preach on the doctrine of propitiation. The doctrine of propitiation,
at least in my judgment, is probably the most difficult of the three.
Not because it's hard to understand. I think the scriptures are clear
enough. And if you are still a little
confused when you leave this evening, you can blame me and
not the scriptures because I think the scriptures are clear enough
as to what they teach about this doctrine. The problem is not
with the scriptures, obviously, but the problem is with our culture. And in recent days, and even,
I suppose, going back even further than that, that there's great
pushback with regard to this doctrine, because it has to deal
with the wrath of God. and the anger of God. And there's
a tremendous amount, as I've used the word already, of pushback
against the idea that God is an angry God in any way at all,
and that it conflicts with the love of God. And so we need to
explore this doctrine. It's important as we move from
redemption accomplished to propitiation accomplished. And then, of course,
tomorrow evening, we come to reconciliation accomplished. And so, with that introduction
to the introduction, would you turn in your Bibles, please,
to a very familiar passage, 1 John, Chapter 2. 1 John, Chapter 2, and just two verses. Doesn't
mean I'll be short, just two verses, right? Those are two
separate things. 1 John 2, and verses 1 and 2. This is the word of the Lord.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that you may
not sin. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous or the
righteous one. And he is the propitiation for
our sins and not only for ours only, but also for the whole
world. Thus far the reading of God's
word. R.C. Sproul in a very short article
on the doctrine of hell seeking to defend the doctrine of hell
and to underscore the necessity of the doctrine of hell and that
we take the doctrine very, very seriously. In this very short
article wrote these words, man is bad and God is mad. And that pretty much sums up
the doctrine of propitiation or at least the need for the
doctrine of propitiation. Man is bad and God is mad. He goes on to say in this article,
there was a time when preachers proclaimed that man is very bad
and God is really mad. The influence of liberalism has
changed all that. In those days there was revival.
And the church was strong and influential. Then in the 19th
century, it was decided that man is not so bad and God surely
is not mad. And then his final sentence,
we reap the rewards of this spineless Christianity in society today. If memory serves, in another
place, he builds upon that statement and says even more. Instead of
saying, man is bad and God is mad, he puts it this way. Man
is bad, bad, bad, and God is mad, mad, mad. Well, man is bad, and we know
that, we believe that. In fact, the passage from which
Jerry Slate preached last night in the previous verses, in chapter
3, verses 9 through 20, there is a very full description of
the depravity of man, and to use the language of R.C. Sproul,
the badness of man. Even after we sin, as we'll come
to see from 1 John 2, we do sin. And, of course, that sin is bad. Man is bad. But is God mad? And if so, what does that mean? And by extension, what does it
not mean? Well, God is angry and the scriptures
are very, very clear. Divine wrath is a reality. It is a concept that is stubbornly
rooted in the Old Testament. 585 times, Using no less than 20 different
Hebrew words, the concept of the anger or the wrath of God
is to be found. And just a few selected texts
to reinforce this whole idea of the sinfulness of man. Ezekiel
chapter 7 and verses 8 and 9, now will I shortly pour out my
anger on you. Hosea 9 and verse 15, for there
I hated them because of wickedness. Hosea 5 and verse 10, speaking
of the princes of Judah, I will pour out my wrath upon them. And then we come to the New Testament
as well, and the wrath of God is not absent, it's not missing.
In John chapter 3 and verse 35, we read, He who obeys not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. And of course, then there is
what we might even refer to as the locus classicus, sort of
the classical text. And we'll refer to this later
on, Romans chapter 1 and verse 18, that the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness
of men. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven, and then there's that long list, that litany of
sins of which man is guilty. Romans chapter 9 and verse 22,
what of God willing to show his wrath on vessels fitted? Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
3, that we were by nature the children of wrath, by nature
the children of wrath. Colossians 3 and verse 6, the
wrath of God comes on the children or falls upon the children of
disobedience. And Paul reminds us that a piece
and a part and an element of our salvation is that we are
delivered from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 9 and
10. Revelation 6 and verse 16, And there's this curious phrase
that is worthy of a sermon all on its own, the wrath of the
Lamb. Interesting language, is it not?
The wrath of the Lamb. And then in Revelation 19 and
verse 15, the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. Wrath of God, the anger of God.
is found in both Testaments. Man is bad, he's bad, bad, bad
and God is mad, mad, mad. Well then what are we to do?
How are we to rid ourselves or how may we be rid of the wrath
or the anger, the fury of Almighty God? Well, the answer is to be
found in this doctrine of propitiation. Propitiation is that work of
Jesus Christ or that aspect of the work of Jesus Christ whereby
God's wrath is turned aside. and He is propitious, favorable
toward His people. We'll come to discover later
in the sermon that sacrifice or the sacrifice and the substitution
and the satisfaction of Jesus Christ are all folded into this
doctrine and the acts of Jesus Christ are necessary for this
to take place. Justice must be satisfied. And God is pacified, and justice
is satisfied, and man is reconciled, and man does enjoy peace with
God. Now, there are at least six texts
in the New Testament which address this specifically. Now, I think
there are others by extension, but at least six texts underscore
the need for and give to us a description of propitiation, the placating
of the wrath of God through the sacrifice, substitution, and
satisfaction of that wrath by Jesus Christ. And the passages
that I have in mind all employ either the verb, adjective, noun,
or adverb of a particular word or family of words. And it is
the word in the verb form of Helascomai. And so you find it
in a number of texts. Interestingly enough, it's found
first of all in Luke chapter 18 and verse 13 in the parable
of the publican as he stands before God and as he pleads,
be merciful to me is the way it reads, but in most of our
translations, but it's really literally be propitious towards
me. This word is actually used in
that particular parable. Romans chapter 3 and verse 25,
whom God set forth to be a propitiation, the word is found there. It's found in Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 17, that he might become a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for
the sins of the people. In Hebrews chapter 9 and verse
5, one of the words is translated there is mercy seat, but the
idea is the same. Our text, 1 John chapter 2, has
Elasmus and he is the propitiation for our sins. And again in 1
John chapter 4 and verse 10, here in his love, Not that we
loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Interestingly, interesting, the
charge is leveled against this doctrine that the love of God
and the anger of God are mutually contradictory, can't have them
both together. And yet here, 1 John, John tells
us in 1 John 4, this is love, herein is love. God sent His
Son. Propitiation is rooted, even
though it deals with the wrath of God, is rooted in the love
of God. God loving His people and sending
His Son. It was love that prompted God
to send His Son to remove His wrath. Leon Morris, in his volume,
many of you have read it, I'm sure, The Apostolic Preaching
of the Cross, he says, the writers of the New Testament know nothing
of a love which does not react in the very strongest terms against
every form of sin. And James Denny, quoted in Leon
Morris, says, if the propitiatory death of Jesus is eliminated
from the love of God, it might be unfair to say that the love
of God is robbed of all meaning, but it certainly is robbed of
all apostolic meaning. But with all of that, we're faced
with a problem. And the problem is something
like this, that as I said earlier, the tendency or there is a tendency
and a desire to abolish this whole idea, to do away with God's
wrath, the whole idea makes a great many Christians squeamish. They don't want to talk about
the wrath of God. They don't want to think about the wrath
of God. After all, once again, as I've already said, God is
love and the two ideas allegedly are mutually exclusive. They're opposites. And so there
is this attempt to eliminate, to purge, to get rid of, to dispose
of this whole idea of propitiation. Let me suggest a few ways in
which that's been done and even being done today. We can certainly
blame Enlightenment philosophy with a shift from the objective
to the subjective. God's love in an Enlightenment
perspective, God's love is a moral influence that brings change
in us. Boevinck and Warfield deal adequately,
I think, more than adequately with this and it results in a
kind of universalism. in which love conquers all. If
we reflect upon God's love, we'll know how to love and we'll be
changed in all of that. Secondly, closer to this particular
period of time is what we might call an exegetical fallacy, a
problem with words as Arden was reminding us of that earlier
today. Words have meaning, words have
definition, they have historic meaning. And beginning in the
1930s, a man by the name of C.H. Dodd claimed that wrath was unworthy
of God. And the problem was not God word,
that God's wrath needed to be dealt with, but it was man word. And so propitiation should rather
be understood in terms of expiation. Now expiation is a biblical concept
as well, but they're two completely different concepts. Expiation
comes from a Hebrew word, to cover, and so sins are covered. And defilement is removed, and
so there's a change in the sinner. But the issue that we're dealing
with here in 1 John 2 and Romans 3 and the other text is not the
defilement of sin, but it has to do with this whole matter
of appeasement, a God-word aspect in our salvation. Expiation is
to cover sins, to cleanse, to remove, and it's biblical. But
again, it's not propitiation. Cleansing is not pacification. Some have even begun to use the
word of neutralizing sin and sterilizing sin, all having to
do with the aspect of defilement. But those words that I have given
to you, the texts that I have given to you, including our own,
use a particular word, a specific word that needs to be translated,
propitiation. Leon Morris says, throughout
the Greek literature, biblical and non-biblical alike, hilasmos
means propitiation. We cannot now decide that we
like another meaning better. And Roger Nicole in a journal
article written a number of years ago says something like this,
if Dodd is correct, the sources in the Septuagint and the New
Testament, and then he goes on to say this, form a sort of linguistic
island with little precedent in former times, little confirmation
from the contemporaries, and no following in after years. Well, I'm glad I'm not the only
one that has long introductions. I'm glad that Arden went before
me this morning. Come to the text. And we come
to the doctrine of propitiation. In propitiation, what we're dealing
with is the anger of God, the wrath of God. In propitiation,
God's anger is averted by a transfer of that anger to another and
he is appeased. Defilement and cleansing is clearly
an important element of the gospel, but defilement and appeasement,
once again, are two completely different things. And what we're
dealing with here and what I've been asked to deal with and tasked
to deal with is the matter of propitiation. What is in view is displeasure,
not defilement. It is God's holy aversion and
moral reaction to sin. The work is Godward. And so we
come again to the text, and there are three things that I'd like
to say and three things I think the text says about this doctrine. First of all, notice this, that
we discover, first of all, Jesus Christ and His advocacy. Jesus Christ is the patron of
the believer. Jesus Christ intercedes for the
believer, and in a particular way, given the particular context
that we have. And it's interesting that John
begins on this note, which is a kind of corollary to propitiation. It's interesting how John begins
with the advocacy of Jesus Christ. Why does he do that? Well, one
writer puts it this way, these thoughts are treated in the inverse
order. In the inverse order because
the apostle approaches the subject from the side of believers, their
needs. their need with regard to sins
committed. And so he begins with the corollary
or the result of propitiation, something that is attached to
propitiation, Jesus Christ's advocacy of the believing sinner. And
sin is the backdrop. Sin is the background, and you
can't help but see that as you back up just a bit, and allegedly
I'm good at backing up, so at backing up into the previous
chapter. Beginning in verse 8, John speaks
about sin. He says, if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, so we must confess sins. He is faithful
and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And then even as
we come now to the first verse, John says, my little children,
these things I write unto you that you may not sin. And if
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. This is all about sin. All about indebtedness to God. John tells us that sin is dispositional. It's a part of our disposition.
It's a part of our nature. Sin is behavioral, it's personal,
it's normal if we say that we do not sin or have not sinned
and so forth. But sin is also potential. Sin
is the prospectus even for the believer. It's a part of our
nature, it's a part of our person, it's a part of our choices and
the choices that we make. And even after having been cleansed
of sin, what's the prospect? It's that we will sin again. Now, I think John wants to do
two things. And as he leads up to and as
he builds up to verses one and two, John wants to deal with
sin at two levels. First of all, he wants to deal
with the attitude which projects an excessive leniency towards
sin. The idea that while sin is inevitable,
grace is available, who cares? And so John talks about sin.
And he talks about sin in a context of seeking to give assurance
to believers. He's writing to Christians. He's
writing to believers. It's pretty clear from the context. The other danger or other issue
that I think he's dealing with is exaggerated severity. And
God's people may suffer from one or both of those extremes. Taking sin lightly, casual attitude,
towards sin. It's inevitable. Grace is available.
Who cares? But also exaggerated severity. Sin is formidable. Forgiveness
is impossible. And so John begins on a very
pastoral note. My little children. He has affection for those to
whom he is writing. He uses the diminutive form here.
It's very pastoral. And his aspiration is, I'm writing
to you, my dear little children, that you do not sin. That's your
goal. That's your aim. That's my aspiration
for you. And at the very same time, we
discover something of what we might call the anticipation of
John. You will sin. In fact, even John, John includes
himself. I exhort you. But if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father. He includes himself.
The prospect, the potential, the danger, the reality. is sin lays hold. And because of that and in view
of that, we have, we have, we little children have an advocate. The very word is used in the
Gospel of John, translated counselor, but here it takes on a different
kind of meaning, a different flavor. It's the idea of a patron,
someone who defends, perhaps even a legal sense, a counsel
for the defense. He defends us, a defense attorney. There is one who speaks to the
Father, His Father and our Father, and is our advocate. And who is this advocate? And
what does this advocate look like? Well, three things. We're
told three things about this advocate. First of all, our advocate
is Jesus. Reminding us of His humanity.
His name anchors Him in history. Here was a real man. A name given
to Him on the occasion of His birth, of His coming into the
world. And it was given to Him and it's
full of meaning. You shall call His name Jesus
for He shall save His people from their sins. Save them from
their sins. The very thing John is talking
about here. He's a real man, one who can
sympathize with us, tempted in all points as we are, yet without
sin. He is the one who advocates for
us before the Father. His humanity, His authority,
He's Christ, which is not His last name. I'm sure you recognize
that. It's a title. Drawing attention to his messianic
lordship, to his messiahship, he comes with authority to act
on our behalf, and he is the righteous one. He advocates for
us on the basis of righteousness. He doesn't grade on a curve.
You know what that means? Some of you, do you remember
going back, maybe teachers still do this on occasion, you know,
the teacher gives an exam, And everybody does poorly. And so
the teacher doesn't want to look too bad. And so the teacher brings
the scale down. And so instead of 100% being
an 80, if people did really, really poorly, brings the scale
down to 80, and that's an A. And you work your way on down.
Well, God doesn't grade on a curve. And Jesus doesn't advocate for
us on the curve. but rather he advocates for us
on the basis not of his essential righteousness, but rather of
his active and passive obedience for us. He does not use questionable
tactics, extortion, doesn't advocate by pleading extenuating circumstances, but on the basis of that righteousness,
active and passive obedience. Francis Turretin said, the same
truth is established by the connection between his satisfaction and
the intercession of Christ. For since they are parts of the
same priestly office, they must also be of the same extent. He
should intercede for those for whom he made satisfaction, nor
should he make satisfaction for others than those for whom he
intercedes. The same thing must be the object as much of the
propitiation as of his appearance in the presence of God, as they
are connected indissolubly. And that's why John begins with
the advocacy of Jesus Christ. He advocates for those for whom
He has acted as propitiation or propitiatory sacrifice. Which brings us to the second
point. John draws attention, first of all, to Jesus and his
advocacy for us, drawing attention, first of all, to the result of
his propitiation and the removal of God's anger. Now he deals
with propitiation itself, Jesus Christ and his appeasement, Jesus
Christ and his propitiation. Here is relief from divine fury. It's not his advocacy that gives
to us relief, it's propitiation that gives us relief, which then
brings or provides the basis for his advocacy for us. Our confession in chapter two,
And paragraph one and toward the end of that paragraph reminds
us once again of the place and the importance of the wrath of
God. Remember the confession says
this, and with all most just. Now in the recent controversy,
we've learned the importance of most. Here it's most just. and terrible in his judgments,
hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty."
This is why it's somewhat disappointing that a number of modern translations
have have deleted this word or removed this word and replaced
it with expiation or perhaps even more problematic, a kind
of phrase that really says very little. Now here is propitiation,
here is wrath dealt with, here is wrath removed, and three things
are made very clear. First of all, the necessity of
propitiation. Notice that John says that he
is the propitiation for our sins, literally concerning our sins. John Stott writes, the need of
a helasmos, that is a propitiation, is seen not in our sins by themselves,
but concerning our sins. The preposition that is used
there is extremely important. The need of a halasmus is not
seen in our sins by themselves, but concerning our sins, namely
in God's uncompromising hostility towards them. Remember, sin is
the issue. Sin is the issue. And sin is
an offense. The offense must be removed.
And the necessity of propitiation. Secondly, the nature of propitiation. It's Jesus Christ Himself. He is the propitiation. He is, He was then, He is today,
and He remains forever. The propitiation for our sins. He Himself is the offering. And then thirdly, the nobility
of propitiation. What is the source of propitiation?
It's God Himself. And we see that clearly or clearest,
perhaps, in 1 John 4, here in His love. Not
that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son. Romans 3, in verse 25, also draws
attention to divine initiative. God takes the initiative. John Stott puts it this way,
it is an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through
the gift of God. I don't think I can improve upon
that. It is an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love
of God through the gift of God. Now we need to say one more thing
about this, or at least three more things within this context,
and that is the language that is used here has reference to
sacrifice. He is our propitiation. Propitiation has to do with sacrifice. And that's even hinted at here
in verses 7 and verse 9 of chapter 1 where it refers to the blood
of Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
13 suggests the same thing, the righteous one reminds us again
of his acting as a propitiatory offering. Now, someone has remarked
that one, a propitiator, might make use of an offering outside
of himself. That is, someone making an offering
may use a sacrifice outside of himself, but not here. He is
both the one who offers and He is the offering Himself. He Himself is our propitiation,
our confession. Again, in chapter 8 and paragraph
5, and the second part of that says, the Lord Jesus, by His
perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which he through
the eternal spirit once offered up to God has fully satisfied
the justice of God. And that's what we're dealing
with. And so the language here has reference to sacrifice. The
language here has also reference to substitution. He himself is
the sacrifice. Here's divine initiative. He is given to us, He is given
for us. We do not propitiate God by an
offering that we make. But again, love initiated this
offering. He propitiated Himself by sending
His Son to satisfy His own justice. Now, that's an involved sentence. It bears repetition. It may or
may not even be mine. I'm not sure in my notes here.
I probably got it from someplace, but it's an important sentence. He propitiated himself by sending
his son to satisfy his own justice. And you see, that's a part of
the gospel. It's an element of the gospel. It's a necessary
part of the gospel. In fact, Michael Horton put it
this way, Christ's penal substitution is not the whole of Christ's
work, but without it, nothing else matters. Without it, nothing
else matters. The language has reference to
sacrifice. The language has reference to
substitution. And my friends, perhaps the greatest
of all is the language has reference to satisfaction. He's satisfied
the just demands of the law. He's satisfied God's just wrath. He is. And notice the verb tense,
He is. As I said earlier, He is. He
was then. He is now. He always will be.
There never will be another. Because God's wrath has been
satisfied. And He still is, not because
He continues to offer Himself again and again and again, but
because the one sacrifice offered has eternal virtue. And so it is as effective today
as it ever was. as effective today as it was
in John's day when he says pastorally to these believers, my little
children. Peter Barnes in his little volume,
Knowing Where We Stand, the message of John's epistles writes, At
Calvary, Christ drank until he emptied the cup of God's righteous
fury against sinners. God is slow to anger, but He
is angry with sin. And so can be said to hate sinners. Psalm 11. Calvin wrote, by this symbol
that is propitiation, it was God's design to show that whosoever
obtains favor for us must be furnished with a sacrifice for
when God is offended, in order to pacify him, a satisfaction
is required. Now there's something else that
needs to be said under this second category before we move to the
final and the third. And that is something really
needs to be said to distinguish between or to distinguish God's
anger, God's fury, God's wrath from pagan concepts. And one
of the reasons that Dodd and others have suggested that we
ought to do away with the wrath of God and it's unworthy of the
love of God because what he has in mind and others, what they
have in mind are pagan views of Gods, plural, being angry. In the Greek writings, the gods
were base and passionate. We've heard that word before.
Cruel, irritable, irrational, capricious, vindictive, they
were out of control. And they often responded in a
rather trivial manner to offenses or for trivial offenses. And propitiating them meant bringing
offerings to them to placate them, to bribe them. But my friends, when we come
and we come to understand the wrath of God, God's wrath is
not arbitrary. It's not capricious. He is not
irritable, nor is he passionate. Out of control, that is driven
by passions. Suffering from a loss of temper,
or either a trivial or a major offense. He is a moral being.
His anger is righteous, just, measured, without imperfection. a settled moral revulsion against
that which is the very opposite of himself. And so the completely different
concepts of wrath and the means to placate or to ameliorate this
wrath are altogether different as well. Well, Jesus Christ is
portrayed here as an advocate. He is our patron. He is our propitiation. That appeasement of the wrath
of God is described in this passage. But thirdly, and finally, and
very briefly, notice with me Jesus Christ and His authority. Notice what John says toward
the end of this verse. He is the propitiation for our
sins and not for ours only. And he does not now repeat the
word sins again, though sometimes that might be in our English
translations in an italics. Does not say that, but he says,
but also for the whole world. And what does John mean by that? Well, of course, a universalist
doesn't have any trouble with the text at all. He knows exactly
what it means. Evangelical Arminianism would
posit a response. It's interesting that John uses
the word world 23 times and not always the same way. And sometimes he refers to it
as the world, the globe upon which we live. Sometimes he refers
to it in racial terms, Jews and Gentiles. The world being the
Gentile world. We might come to this text and
say, well, perhaps John here is introducing the free offer
of the gospel, which certainly is true, but I don't think that
that's being introduced here at all. Faith is not even introduced
in the text here. It is in Romans 3, but not here. Is his propitiation sufficient
for all? go down that road, racially,
Jews and Gentiles together. He's writing to certain persons,
undoubtedly Jews and Gentiles. Again, that could be possible. But I think we can get closer
to what John is saying by looking at a way that he uses the word
world here in this very chapter. In 1 John chapter 2 and verse
15, John says, love not the world and the things that are in the
world. And then he describes that. the lust of the flesh,
and so on and so forth. Love not the world, neither the
things that are willed. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life is not of the Father, but is of the world. John uses the
word world, not only in an ethnic sense, but also in an ethical
sense. And that really fits the context. He's dealing with an ethical
matter. He's dealing with sin and talking about sin. And he uses that same preposition
here. It's not outside the realm of
possibility that what John has in mind here is an ethical understanding,
all that is opposed to God. All that stands against Him,
sin itself, is the object of Christ's propitiation. It underscores the importance
of Christ's work. And then there's another piece
that might enter into this, and some have suggested. And that is, perhaps John also
has in mind an eschatological perspective. Ethical, and at
the same time focusing upon the extensiveness and exclusiveness
of Christ's propitiation. In other words, John is saying
this, if Christ is not the propitiation, there is none. Search where you
will. Go where you might. Investigate
that day, a later day, today, or in the future, whenever there
is no other propitiation anywhere in human history. It draws attention, perhaps,
to those two things. When John uses the word world
here, there is this ethical note, and secondly, there is this exclusive
note. No other propitiation. Only Christ. Now let me leave you with just
one thought. Just one thought, one application. Without propitiation, you will never understand. Reject propitiation and you will
never understand three things. First of all, you will never
understand Gethsemane. You will never understand Jesus
Christ praying to His Father, if it be possible, let this cup,
the cup of wrath, let this cup be removed, be taken away. Let
it pass. You'll never understand that
has absolutely no meaning whatsoever at all without propitiation. As Jesus anticipates descending
into the darkness and He prays, it has to do with the removal
of God's wrath. You will never understand Gethsemane's
distress. You will never understand Gabbatha's
disorder. The trial of Jesus. Pilate says
three times, I don't find any fault. This man's innocent. And so the innocent is charged
and the guilty goes free. And it makes little if any sense
at all without propitiation. And certainly,
certainly you will never understand Calvary's cry of desolation,
Jesus upon the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? It makes absolutely no sense
at all. Reject the anger of God, reject
the wrath of God, and those three events in the life of Jesus have
absolutely no meaning whatsoever at all. Here is a text, here
is a passage, here is a doctrine that is the antidote to presumption
on the one hand and to despair upon the other. Beloved in the
Lord Jesus Christ, think often about Christ as your propitiation. Lest you sink into despair as
you've sinned once again, or as you grow presumptuous, it
doesn't really matter at all. Think upon Christ and think upon
His work of propitiation. Sin is serious, but there is
a Savior. And there is one who absorbed
the very wrath of God. Perhaps this is not your problem.
Perhaps you don't believe in propitiation, either for philosophical
and philological reasons, word reasons, or just out of rejection. And you can hardly wait for the
sermon to be over for that reason. But let me remind you of something.
On the basis of this text and on the authority of the Word
of God, there is no other propitiation. There is no other and never has
been, there is not now, and there never will be. Search as you
might, you'll never find another. Without Jesus Christ, you are
left to suffer the full fury of God's wrath. The message of the cross then
is not just about man's filth and it being covered, but also
that God's fury is averted. For God in love sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Yes, man is bad and God
is mad. But bless God, we have an advocate
with the Father and He is the propitiation concerning our sins. and also the only one available
to sinners. Be comforted in Him, dear believer. And those outside of Jesus Christ,
I urge you even now to flee to Jesus Christ, to flee to Him,
to believe upon Him, to trust in Him. and to find Him as your
propitiation and your advocate, pleading your case as a sinner
before the holy throne of God. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we are thankful for Your Word and for the truth of Your Word
and even for hard truths. We confess that we really do
not relish talking about wrath and anger and such things and
yet here we come to your word and we find that that's a very
important and significant and real part of your revelation
to us. Indeed, we are very, very bad
and you are really, really mad at sin and sinners. We bless
you for making a way, for making a way that we might have that
wrath removed. and enjoy fellowship and communion
with God through Jesus Christ, the one and only and perfect
satisfaction for our sins. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Propitiation Accomplished
Series ARBCA GA 2016
| Sermon ID | 56161438510 |
| Duration | 54:11 |
| Date | |
| Category | Conference |
| Language | English |
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