Propitialtion...WHAT?!!

Let's pray together. Lord God of heaven and earth, holy and merciful, righteous and gracious, we come now to you. we ask that as we spend these next few minutes in your word that you would cause us to look to and embrace Jesus with new affection for all that he has accomplished for us. we confess that we can see our shortcomings and our sins that sometimes our horizon is filled only with those things and the cross is nowhere to be seen help us today to find our refuge in Jesus and to rejoice in what He has done. Do that by giving us understanding today.

We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. I read some time ago that the English language has about 800,000 words, but most of us get by with using about 200. That means that about 788,000 words just sit on the shelf, dusty and unused. the top ten most frequently used words are the, of, and, to, a, in that is I and it one of those dusty unused words that's hardly ever pulled off the shelf is the word propitiation in fact some of you might think I didn't even know that was on the shelf when was the last time you pulled that one down and used it in conversation when did you hear it on television or radio maybe you never even googled it we don hear it we don use it primarily because we have forgotten the vocabulary of God And yet this rarely used word is incredibly important.

Unbelievably important and magnificent and wonderful. Let's look at its meaning this morning. Turn with me to the book of Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Let me give you the setting here. The Apostle Paul, since chapter 1, has been arguing a point.

All those who don't have the Word of God, have never heard of our God, are still condemned because the revelation that God gives them, the fact that He is transcendent and the Creator, they refuse to believe. And on the basis of that revelation, they are condemned. But there are others who have the Word of God, who should know God, and who still continue in their sin and do not believe.

And so he concludes at about verses 19-20, well, actually verses 10-20, the Apostle Paul concludes then that there is then no one righteous, not even one. There's none who seek God. Whether you have the Bible or don't, All men are condemned. They stand condemned under the righteous judgment of God, because no matter what the revelation they have, they refuse to worship and to love him.

And so he says, all men are held accountable in judgment before God. And then it seems like there's no hope when he picks it up in verse 21. but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified that is declared right with God by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith This was to show God righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. There we find in verse 25 our word propitiation if you have an niv it's sacrifice of atonement the word propitiation comes from the latin word propitio meaning to render favorable to appease to conciliate.

And so to propitiate God means to appease his wrath. Someone says, God's wrath? Wait a minute. Is God a fuming, frustrated being? Does God lose his temper? Does he have one?

Is God subject to mood swings and propitiation? Isn't that like the pagans who throw the virgin into the volcano in order to appease the pineapple God? And what if God changes back to anger? After all, we keep on sinning and in the same ways. Well, the first thing we need to understand is that God's wrath is indeed part of the gospel. It is part of the gospel.

It's the part we tend to ignore. Now, we don't ignore our anger. I mean, our anger is okay. It's okay if we get angry, isn't it? We have to admit that we see quite a bit of anger in and around us. You hear it on talk radio every day.

You turn on cable television every night and you see anger, anger, anger. You see anger all over the place. But that's okay because we're angry about the things that are tearing at the fabric of our dear country. It's okay. It's okay to be angry. But God getting angry?

What? God doesn't get angry, surely not. No, surely not. Who does he think he is? Well, what? That's a good question.

Who is God? Who is God? Let's say this. God is the most balanced personality in the entire universe. Right? Everything works together It is God who is normal Not us It is God who is normal His wrath is never listen now His wrath is never an irrational outburst.

His wrath is never blowing His top or losing His temper. That is not God. God's wrath, listen to me now, God's wrath is worthy of God. It is His morally appropriate, carefully considered, justly intense reaction to our evil of demeaning His worth. And we demean His worth every time we don't do what He tells us to do, or we do what He forbids us to do. We demean His worth.

We spit in His face. It is the morally appropriate, carefully considered, intense moral reaction against our evil. God cares about evil. He is not a passive observer. God is involved emotionally in his reaction to our sin. God's wrath is perfect.

God's wrath is perfect. You can see that just within the small confines of this book. Turn over to chapter 1 of this book. Listen to what he says in verses 18 through 25. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Do you see that? God's revelation is so absolutely clear in nature. At least two things are absolutely clear. Right?

His eternal power and his divine nature. That's absolutely clear to every human being who's ever lived. It's so clear that all men are without excuse. Those who stand before God someday and say, I never heard about Jesus, God's going to say, I'm not judging you on the basis of that. You know I'm judging you on the basis? You clearly knew who I was.

And yet you turned away. In fact, worse than that, let's continue. For although they knew God, they know God. Can I just insert here something? there is no such thing as an atheist. Every human being has a sense of God. Every human being senses God.

But what does he do with that sense? For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things therefore god gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about god for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than and the Creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. God has made His existence so absolutely plain and clear, and yet man denies that He made any of it. Purposely believes a lie and gives thanks to what He has invented. That is how wicked men are. okay so let's suppose for a moment there's a guy who lives down the street well he doesn't live down the street from me he's a homeless guy but he's not a pitiful homeless guy he's a nasty homeless guy he curses you every time you walk by he seems to exude nothing but hatred but for some strange reason you have compassion on you and so suppose you spent your resources purchasing some property building a house and even throwing a brand new car you hand the deed of the property to him you give him the keys to the car he then takes it from you and promptly kicks you off the property and then tells everyone else look at all the good things that I have without any reference to you right without any reference to the fact that you gave it all to him that it all because of you would your anger be misplaced at that moment I don't think so neither do you but that's exactly what man does in his wickedness he clearly sees God everything he has is from God and he denies it, suppresses the truth.

Notice that phrase. He suppresses the truth and turns away. Look at Romans chapter 2. As we consider the wrath of God, consider again what we see in verses 4 and 5. Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

Notice, God is kind and patient and forbearing to all men. He's kind and patient and forbearing. He's not only left unmistakable evidences of his ownership on creation, he has graciously, kindly, even generously provided everything you could possibly want for a good life. And so now, you say, in an effort to build bridges to this ungrateful guy to whom you've given all this stuff, you provide all that he needs to live there.

Every week he has groceries. Every week he has fuel for the cars. He has everything. You work like crazy to give him all that's necessary for life, yet he continues to be angry with you. In the face of all your kind provision, would your anger be misplaced, do you think? No, not at all.

Now God's wrath is no less perfect than the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience. It's no less perfect than those things. One writer put it this way. His wrath is the solemn determination of a doctor cutting away the cancer that's killing his patient. And this doctor, this doctor referring to God, hates the cancer. He will rid his universe of it all.

He has scheduled a day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. So let's understand something. God is a God of wrath but it not the wrath of what we used to It carefully considered moral indignation in the face of our evil But you see, God did something. God does something about His anger and His wrath. Something you would not expect from someone who has every right to be angry against the high-handed, incredible rebellion that is true of us.

What has he do? What has he done? You know what he says? Look at it in verse 25. Verse 24, We're justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. God presented Jesus as a propitiation by his blood.

I want you to consider the marvelous beauty of that. In every other human religion, it's the worshiper who placates the offended deity with rituals and sacrifices and bribes. We must throw the virgin into the volcano to placate the anger of the gods. We must seek out the soothsayer for a message from God so that we know what to do to appease that God.

We must do something for Him in order to gain His favor. But here in the Gospel, it is God Himself who provides the offering that will appease His anger. Don't miss that. That's exactly what Paul is writing. This unbelievable thing. How is this true?

God is angry rightfully at our sin. He deserves to lower the boom, but what does He do? he doesn't accept a bribe from us he doesn't accept anything from us to propitiate his anger he sends the offering he presents that which will propitiate him at the cross of christ god put something forward he declares something to the world he presented he displayed the clearest statement about himself he has ever made here's the first thing he has said he declares that he detests our evil with all the intensity of his divine personality that's what you see at the cross if you know what you if you want to know what your sin deserves look at the cross if you want to see the anger and the wrath of god against sin look at the cross Look at that man on the cross the tormented gasping bleeding man Take a long, thoughtful look. God was saying something about our sin, about his perfect emotions towards sin.

God displayed his wrath, a wrath that was poured out on his son. I can never get over the words of Isaiah 53 where it says that he, speaking of God, crushed him. It was God who crushed him. You want to see something of the wrath of God? Look at the cross. See Jesus crying out in absolute torment, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? the only one of God's children ever to be completely forsaken have you ever thought that thought David said those words in Psalm 22 my God my God why have you forsaken me except for David it seemed like God had forsaken him but he had not but with Jesus those words take on a whole new universe of meaning because God had abandoned him God had abandoned his son that is the wrath of God.

The other thing that God declared at the cross was this. The God you offended does not demand your blood, but the blood of another. He knows what you deserve, but he gives you what you do not deserve. It is God who took the initiative. He is the one who opened the way. That is what we must see at this point.

God sent the propitiation for us. Do you think it could have been otherwise? We cannot avert the wrath of God because we are the problem. It is impossible for us to avert the wrath of God because we are the problem. We are helpless before God. And what we could not do, God does.

He has made a way to turn his frown into a smile. Now, this is where we must abandon the idea that somehow this angry God was propitiated by Jesus as if Jesus stepped in and said, okay, I'll take care of it, God. No, no, no, no. What you must see and what the Apostle Paul says here clearly is the cross did not make God propitious. That is, it wasn't Jesus stepping in the way and saying, okay, I'll deal with it.

The cross was God's idea to begin with. It was the Father's idea to begin with. That is what you must see. You know, as a seminary student, and even on, as I continue to read, there are theologians who struggle with this idea about Jesus propitiating the wrath of God. They hate that idea. You may be surprised to hear that.

But there are many, many who say, recently, a couple years ago, I remember reading, this is cosmic child abuse. Right? We don't like this idea of propitiation. Some have said, no, it's not propitiation, it's expiation. Which means it expiates our sin, it takes our sin away. Well, that's true, but what they do is they want to get rid of the fact that God's angry and that something must appease His wrath.

The problem with those objections is they don't seem to get the idea that it's God himself who sent the sacrifice that would appease his anger. It was the father's idea. It was God himself who sent it. And he did it out in the open as a fact of history so that the story could be told over and over again. And though you deserve to experience the full wrath of God.

It is God who takes the initiative to appease His own wrath. So the full fury of God's wrath against sin is poured out onto a willing substitute at the cross. This is what God put forward so clearly. That means freedom for you. Stop believing your own thoughts. stop brooding over your own guilt. You will never relax and enjoy the peace with God.

When your sins oppress you, believe something else. Believe the gospel that God himself has made so clear. And every time your heart shrinks from God in dread, believe it all over again. donald gray barnhouse was a presbyterian pastor he he he pastored 10th presbyterian church in philadelphia i don don ask me why it called 10th is it is it the 10th presbyterian Church in the town I don know It a very famous church but he Donald Donald Gray Barnhouse was the pastor there And Dr.

Barnhouse was in another church and the service was proceeding before he came to the pulpit and before he preached. Someone sang this song, Is He Satisfied With Me? as I read the the lyrics of this song I'm thinking oh my goodness I would hate to hear this song and walk out I am satisfied with Jesus but a question comes to me as I ponder or his goodness is he satisfied with me am I kind in word and tender am I all I ought to be am I always his defender is he satisfied with me do I tell the blessed story of the Christ on Calvary doing all for his own glory is he satisfied with me and then the refrain is my master satisfied with me is he satisfied with me I'm satisfied with Jesus is he satisfied with me wow that's a really disheartening song if I ever heard one right when the singer finished Dr. Barnhouse got up and said Yes, He is!

And not on the basis of whether you've defended Him well enough or told enough people about Jesus or whether you've been kind enough. He's satisfied with you on one reason, for one reason and one alone. What is it? Jesus has given the sacrifice to appease His wrath. That's why He's satisfied with you. That's freedom, folks.

Can you see the freedom in that? I don't know about you, but my sins are always on the margins of my thinking. I must admit that to you now. It's always on the margins of my thinking. I can wake up in the morning thinking about how much of a failure I am. And so the horizon that we have every day always must have the cross in it.

If your horizon is filled with nothing but your sins and your failures, you will lose hope. You must always have the cross on your horizon or you will lose hope. God wants us to trade in our own thoughts of how we can prove ourselves to God with new thoughts about how God has proven himself to us How do you get into that freedom? How do you get there?

How do we get back inside the truth again and again? The scripture says that God put Jesus forward as a propitiation by his blood. Note, to be received by faith. that's the way to experience that wonderful gospel freedom. It's received by faith. What is faith? Faith is the set of eyes which notice what God has presented.

Faith is a mentality that admires what God has put forward. Faith is the heart that prizes what God has displayed. Faith is the feet that turn to the public exhibition of the cross. Faith is the confidence that what God has done is for you and is your only hope. From the very start to the very end, there's only one answer. It's faith.

You have to believe it. You have to embrace it. You have to say to yourself, Jesus is enough he's paid the entire price there's nothing for me to do to gain his favor there's nothing I can do to hold back his wrath his wrath is held back his wrath is completely appeased so that now he loves me on one thing alone. The propitiation that Jesus presented at the cross.

Who qualifies to enjoy the liberating power of the gospel? Who qualifies to come to this table? Sinners are the only people qualified. Sinners are the only people for whom Jesus died. listen if your problems are someone else's fault if you come to God standing upright and ready to make your case then the cross condemns you if you come to this table saying okay I done pretty good this week I can come to this table, this table is not meant for you.

This table does not talk. This table does not speak of what you can give to God. This table speaks of what God gave for you. if you sinned and you keep on sinning and you're ashamed and wish you could trade in your record for a better one and if your conscience knows that you deserve the wrath of God and your only hope is God's mercy in Christ then God longs for you to know something that he is no longer angry with you but rejoices over you because He sees you through the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus.

God wants you to know. God wants you to know that your sins have been nailed to the cross and you bear them no more. Father, such news seems almost too good to be true. And yet, Father, we have seen in the very text of your word that you set forward Jesus. You presented him as the propitiation for our sin to be received by faith. Oh, God. don't let us put our confidence in our spotty obedience don't let us put our confidence in our intentions to do better God help us not to put our confidence in anything that we have or are but help us we pray to put all of our confidence in the Lord Jesus and what he has done thank you for your great mercy and grace to us in Jesus Amen Amen.