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.