Romans 3.25, if you would, that'll
be the first verse we're going to read today. We'll be looking
at some other verses throughout the morning if God seems fit
to get us there. Romans 3.25, and I
thought this morning we might talk a little bit about the subject
of satisfaction. A very important aspect to the
gospel is the fact that God is satisfied, that satisfaction
be made, that justice be satisfied. You know, the Bible says in Isaiah
53, and I think it's verse 11, it says that he shall see the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. God will see the travail of Christ's
soul, and that will be the satisfaction that God requires for His justice
for the sins that His people has committed. But, you know, whenever we think
of satisfaction, not only does God's justice have to be satisfied,
when we look at satisfaction, we see that there's more to that
satisfaction. We see that not only does God's
justice have to be satisfied, but God also has to be satisfied
in the outcome of what God's justice does. God has to be satisfied
in the fact that Christ has died for his people, but he also has
to receive satisfaction in the accomplishment of what His death
did for His people. Maybe I can explain that in a
little bit different way, maybe be a little more clear. Christ
dying for His people satisfied God's law and God's justice.
Okay, His life fulfilled all the law on our behalf and it
substituted for us. So therefore, all of our obedience
was found in Christ's obedience. our death that we deserved the
penalty for our sins Christ took upon himself and therefore we
don't have to so he substituted in our place as our sacrifice
so he became sin for us and so he condemned sin in the flesh
so that we wouldn't be condemned in the flesh therefore God was
not only satisfied in God in Christ's obedience and now views
Christ's obedience as our obedience, but also Christ's death on our
behalf as our death, and so God is satisfied. So in the legality
of everything, God is satisfied in the fact that Christ has accomplished
redemption for his people and everything that was to satisfy
justice. However, God also must be satisfied
in the fact that everyone for whom Christ died will receive
the promises that was made in the covenant of God for which
Christ died for his people and in turn those people would receive
full pardon, full forgiveness, full redemption, full reconciliation
that they would be brought back to God and so God must be satisfied
in the legality and in the application of what Christ has done and Christ's
work. So there is a lot to be said
about the satisfaction of Christ and what He has done on our behalf
legally. But brethren, we must understand
that if all for whom Christ died does not come to Christ then
God will not be satisfied in that application. Therefore,
Christ will be guilty in the failure of being the Savior of
His people. If you remember a few weeks back,
we talked about how we see this pictured in the Old
Testament whenever whenever Joseph's brothers had sold him into slavery
and Joseph ended up becoming actually a ruler in Egypt. And
his brothers didn't even know that he was alive, much less
was now a leader in Egypt. And they came to try to get some
food because there was a famine where him and his family was.
They came to get some food, but whenever he came, Joseph recognized
who they was and had them go back And the only child or one
of his brothers that had not came was Benjamin. And so he
told, go back, get Benjamin and bring Benjamin to me and then
I'll give you anything you need. Well, whenever the boys went
back, the oldest brother said, let me take Benjamin. And Isaac didn't wanna give up
Benjamin. That was his favorite child besides
Joseph. And he didn't want to give up
Benjamin. And so the oldest brother said,
I will be a surety for him. I will take him down there and
I will make sure to return him to you. And if I don't return
him to you, then I will be to blame. And that's a picture of
Jesus. And Jesus in the covenant has
covenanted to bring all of God's people back to Him. As a matter
of fact, he prayed in John chapter 17 that all that the Father has
given me, I've lost none. I've not lost anybody. I have paid and purchased everyone
and everyone will be brought back to Him because He is the
Good Shepherd and He will find all of His sheep and He will
bring His sheep in with Him. And so we see that there is this
satisfaction not only in what Christ purchased for us in His
blood, but also by what He does by His Spirit in bringing all
the children of God back to God. Bringing them in. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. They shall come to me. Believe upon me. And all that
come to me I will in no wise cast out. And I will raise them
up at the last day. Okay? So Christ is not only victorious
in his work on the cross, but he's also victorious in making
sure that all of his elect, scattered across all of the world, come
to know him, believe on him, repent from dead works, and trust
in him, and that he will, at the end, bring all those people
back to God, where we came from before. If you remember also
in John 17, Jesus, whenever He prayed, He said, Thine they were. They were God. We belong to God
and we are given to Christ whenever He made Christ our surety. Whenever
God brought forth Christ as our surety in His manhood and gave
us to Christ and put us into Christ, that life that was in
Christ, that life of ours that was in Christ and hid with God,
That was us already there. Now, was we there in physical
form? No. But we were there in seed. We were there in life substance. Just as Eve was in Adam as life
substance before she ever was brought out and made manifest,
she was there. And the Bible says that God blessed
them and called their name Adam. Even before Eve was brought out,
He said He blessed them. Who was them? Well, that was
Adam and all of his posterity. It was Adam and his wife that
was in him. And Christ had us in him. And so, for God to be satisfied,
not only was all of justice needed to be satisfied, but the very
act and consummation of it all, and why Christ made all the legality
part satisfying, is in the actual redemption, or redeeming, or
bringing back of God's people. And so, there are two sides to
satisfaction. There's the legal side, and there
is the physical, applicatory part of that, and where Christ
actually does satisfy God by bringing everybody back to Him. Now, the Bible speaks of this
satisfaction in two or three different ways. It speaks of
Christ's satisfaction as propitiation. I know it's a big, long theological
term, but it is a biblical word. We're going to talk about that
today. Propitiation. It talks about that in atonement. It talks about satisfaction in
reconciliation. And today, at least I'm going
to try to, if the Lord is with us and with me to get through
it, I'd like to talk about the part of propitiation. How Christ
makes satisfaction through propitiation and what this entails and what
the Scriptures teach about the propitiatory work of Christ. Now, I believe this is very crucial
to the Gospel. If we don't have this, we don't
have salvation. If Christ doesn't become our
propitiation, if He doesn't become our satisfaction, then there
is no salvation. And I'll explain that as we go
forward. See, by obeying all the precepts
of God's holy law as man, Jesus Christ fulfilled as our representative
everything that God required and He brought in everlasting
righteousness for us. By dying under the curse of the
law, bearing our sins, bearing our
penalty, bearing what we had actually done to transgress God,
but never becoming sinful. Christ never became sinful. But
bearing that And experiencing God's divine wrath, God's divine
justice, he died as our substitute under the wrath of God. And so
all of God's justice and all of God's wrath was satisfied. So Christ satisfied God in his
obedience. He satisfied God in his death. Therefore, God is satisfied with
our obedience because Christ did it for us. And God is satisfied
with our death because Christ died for us. Therefore, we have
obeyed and we have died even though we have not actually done
so. It has been laid to our account. That is the doctrine of substitution. But that is also the doctrine
of satisfaction. Christ satisfied everything being
our substitute. So Christ has put away the sin
of God's elect by His own sacrifice. He has secured everything to
make us complete before God. In Colossians we read that we
are complete in Him, that because we were in Him when He obeyed,
because we were in Him whenever He died, therefore we obeyed
and we died, therefore the claims and the price and everything
that was there for God was accounted to our account. So he secured all of those things
on our behalf. So Christ has satisfied the law
and justice of God for us and so We can be assured that that
passage in Isaiah 55 11 is going to be true. God says, he shall
see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. That is a promise
of God. What Christ did was enough to
satisfy God. And so that's kind of why I've
been saying here lately, and as I was mentioning earlier in
the song selection in that one passage that we talked about
hiding, going to Mount Sinai to hide and found that that Mount
Sinai is not a hiding place. If Christ has satisfied everything
that God's law and justice demands, then we should rest in that because
God tells us plainly that I am satisfied with Christ's work.
But we also see that God tells us that He is not satisfied with
our work. The Bible says that all of our
righteousnesses are filthy rags, right? He says that none of us
can keep the law of God. That that which is of the flesh
is flesh and it cannot please Him. So when God is telling us
to, this is in a sense, saying, God is saying, they that are
of the flesh are flesh and those things of the flesh cannot please
Me. So anything that you do in the
flesh cannot please Me. But what does please Him? What
does satisfy Him? The only thing that satisfies
Him is His righteous servant, Jesus. By My righteous servant,
He shall justify the many. Why? Because He shall make Him.
As a matter of fact, just turn there, hold your finger there
in Romans. I wasn't going to do it. I just was going to quote
the Isaiah passage, but I don't want to miss anything there.
I know we've been there several times recently, but in Isaiah
53, Let's start verse 10. It says,
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. So we already have the promise
here that all the work that Christ is doing on our behalf in the
work on the cross in his life and on the work on the cross
is going to prosper. It's not going to fail. It's
not going to come up short. There's not going to be one person
that it doesn't cover. Look at verse 11. He shall see the true veil of
his soul and he shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. Why? For he shall bear their
iniquities. The reason that we are justified
is because of the work of Christ on our behalf by dying in our
place is by His blood that we have been justified. We are justified
by the work of Christ, by His faithfulness to God. Not our
faithfulness to God, not our faith in Christ Jesus. That's
not what justifies us. Our faith doesn't justify us
before God in the legal sense at all. Our faith in Christ is
a byproduct or is a product of the salvation and the fact that
we have been justified. Abraham believed in God and what
God said because he was already justified before God. And we
know that to be true because God had already given Abraham
faith before Abraham ever actually believed in Christ. Abraham believed God because
he was justified by Christ. And God gave him that faith.
We believe on Christ because we have been justified of God.
All the justified ones will be given the faith of Christ, to
believe upon Christ. But that belief on Christ isn't
what justifies us. Christ justified us. His faithfulness,
His work in the cross and in salvation, that's what justified
us. And that's what He's saying here.
My righteous servant. There's only one righteous servant.
We are not righteous servants. We are not good and faithful
servants. The only good and faithful servant
is Jesus Christ. When we enter in and we hear,
well done, thy good and faithful servant, We are going to hear
that because it is referring to and pointing to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We did not get in because we
were good and faithful servants. Verse 12 says, Therefore will
I divide him a portion with the great, and shall divide the spoiled
with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death,
and he is numbered among the transgressors. And he bared the
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Keep that
in mind, he made intercession for the transgressors, meaning
that he met them in between. To be an intercessor is a go-between,
someone who is a go-between. If I intercede on your behalf,
that means I am a go-between between you and somebody else. What's another word that we use
that means intercessor? Somebody that goes between two
parties. Y'all know? There's only one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man, Jesus Christ. A mediator. An intercessor is a mediator. An intercessor is someone who
goes before somebody else in the place of somebody else. He
has been the intercessor. So that means there is a intercessory
work that is done on behalf of those down here and in between
the one that's up there. So Christ has interceded on behalf
of those down here so that those down here might be accepted by
or satisfied by the one up here. And the one up here, Jesus now
becomes the promise so that these down here will be satisfied in
what He has done and no longer looking at what they do down
here. See, satisfaction entails the work of Christ on our behalf
legally so that God is satisfied with us And it also is a work
in our heart so that we are turned around and satisfied in the work
of Christ and what the gospel says, that Jesus is enough. What
Jesus did on our behalf is enough to satisfy God. Therefore, we
now are satisfied or given rest. That's another term that we use
for that. We are given rest. And so now
we are satisfied that we no longer have to go to our dead works
to try to satisfy God, which we never could have done. but
we now are satisfied in the work of our Savior on our behalf.
We're satisfied. Now, we don't have to be satisfied
for God to have satisfaction towards us, okay? God's satisfaction
towards us is perfect. We don't always find Christ's
work satisfactory, okay? Because we often fail and we
try to resort back to religious works, dead works, right? But
that is one of the things that God gives us whenever He quickens
us, whenever He gives us spiritual understanding. He gives us to
be satisfied with the gospel and what it says. And no longer
going back to the law and Mount Sinai as a hiding place as we
sing. And so Jesus now has been the
intercessor between the two parties. Those who have broken the law,
the lawgiver and the justice and the judge who the law is
indignant, as we say, the indignant law of God that will not pardon
iniquity, that will not bend, that will not turn a blind eye,
that indignant law and that lawgiver, Jesus now becomes the go-between.
He now becomes the mediator. and he mediates between the two.
The ones who have broken the law and the one who has given
the law and the demands and the condemnation and the justice
that is found in that law to be executed. Jesus now is the
go-between. And so Jesus must do something
to appease the one who demands justice but he also has to become
the very person for whom he's trying to get God to appease,
be appeased with. The only way that God can be
appeased is that justice be satisfied, and the only way that justice
can be satisfied is that death must take place. The wages of
sin is death. Death is the is the wage for
sin. That is the penalty for sin.
The only thing that God is going to be satisfied with is for His
wrath to be poured out and that that death be experienced. And
Christ is our intercessor. He is our mediator of that. Now,
this satisfaction that Jesus does, this interceding that Jesus
does, this word that we're going to look at today, this propitiation
that Jesus does on our behalf, this is found throughout Scripture.
Now, this word, propitiation, that we want to look at, and
go ahead and turn back to Romans 3 and verse 25, it's only found
three places in Scripture, the actual word in our English word,
propitiation. It's only found three places
in Scripture. Romans 3, 25 is one of them. But let's look at it because
it is actually talked about all through Scripture. In Romans
3, verse 25 it says, Whom God hath set forth, and we're talking
about Christ here. It says, Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness for the remissions of sin that are passed through
the forbearance of God." Now, this word propitiation here,
Webster defines this as an act of appeasing wrath or conciliating
the favor of an offended person, the act of making propitious. But first, that definition is
kind of really the easiest way to remember this. To propitiate
means to appease wrath or to turn wrath away, to appease it,
okay? Is to appease that wrath. If
somebody is wrathful and somebody does something to calm that person
down where they no longer are wrathful towards that person,
that is propitiatory work, okay? They have been propitiated. That
means that that person that was offended that was wrathful, full
of wrath towards another person, is now satisfied and is no longer
angry or wrathful at that person, okay? That's what the word propitiation
means. Webster goes on and he says this,
in theology, the atonement or atoning sacrifice offered to
God to assuage his wrath or to appease his wrath, that word
assuage means to appease, to appease his wrath and render
him propitious to sinners. Christ is the propitiation for
the sins of men. So the word propitiation means
at its very core, it means to appease or to turn away wrath. As we dig into the scriptures
though and we see what the biblical definition of propitiation is,
is we see that it is found often through scripture to mean mercy. Mercy. Matter of fact, the word
means mercy seat in the Old Testament. This word propitiation. We find this word in Exodus 25.
Turn with me if you would to Exodus chapter 25. In Exodus 25, look at verse 21
with me. Now this is talking about the
Ark of the Covenant here. It says, And there will I meet
with thee, and I will commune with thee. As a matter of fact,
let's back up just a few verses here so we can see what this
is talking about. Let's go back up to verse 19. is to make one cherub on one
end and the other cherub on the other. Now everybody knows what
I'm talking about, the Ark of the Covenant, right? If you haven't studied
your scriptures, maybe you've at least watched Indiana Jones. You know what I'm talking about,
right? The Ark of the Covenant was the
box that God directed Moses to make to carry around the Ten
Commandments and eventually they ended up putting in a bowl of
manna And Aaron's rod that budded, that was all put in the Ark of
the Covenant. And this Ark, God commanded them
to make. Matter of fact, the preceding
verses to this is God commanding them how to make it. But it was
to be made by a specific design, and they had to follow it specifically,
and follow God's instructions. detailed way of making this ark,
this box, okay? And this was to be carried around,
and everywhere they went, this thing went with them. And this
ark, it said whenever they built, before the permanent tabernacle
was built, in the tabernacle in the wilderness, whenever they
were going all around, and it was made up of a tent, the ark was always in what was
called the Holy of Holies. The tabernacle was divided up
into different sections, and there was one section called
the Holy of Holies. And there was a veil that separated
the Holy of Holies from the outer court, from the inner tabernacle
part, and where the priest did their daily sacrifices. But in
the Holy of Holies, that's where the high priest went in once
a year to make atonement for the people of Israel on the Day
of Atonement. And he would go in with the with
a paschal lamb and he would sacrifice that lamb for the whole nation.
And the blood of that lamb was sprinkled on the top of that
ark which was called the mercy seat. And it was just a solid
bar of gold that made up the lid of that ark. So whenever
they opened, that mercy seat was the lid, they opened that
up and that's how they got inside of that ark to put in tablets
and the manna and the raga bud, the lid of that was called the
mercy seat. And that is where the blood was
sprinkled from that past the lamb that was sacrificed every
year. Now it was for the day of atonement
and it was for the sacrifice of atonement. It was the blood
of the atonement and that word atonement, we're going to look
at that Lord willing maybe next week or later. We're going to
look at that word because it also has to do with satisfaction. It has to do with God being satisfied.
The word atonement, if you break it up, at one meant. It means
being at one with. It means to be brought in and
to be satisfied with. If we're at one, what does that
mean? There's no confrontation between us. If we've been at
one, then that means that there is no friction between us, that
we are bonded together and there's no problems, right? So, that's
what we're talking about here, is this golden arc. And it says
here, it says, and make one cherub on the one end and the other
cherub on the other end, even of the mercy seat, that word
mercy seat there is propitiation in Hebrew, okay? Even at the
mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof,
and the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering
the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one
to another toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims
be. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I shall give thee. and there I will meet with thee
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat and
between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony
of all things which I give thee in commandment unto the children
of Israel." Now, I want to just pause here, brethren, and make
a few observations, at least it's been brought to my mind
here, about this thing. Number one, as I said, the mercy
seat is the place where the blood of the atonement was put, okay? And we have been told in Romans, keep your place there
in Exodus, but back in Romans it said that whom God, Christ,
whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation See, Christ is our propitiation. Christ is our mercy seat. We'll see that there's other
places in Scripture that's going to say that here in a minute.
But Christ is our mercy seat. So in the picture of that ark,
and of course everything surrounding that, we see is a picture and
a work of Christ. But that one particular thing,
that solid beam of gold that was the lid there, the mercy
seat, That is the picture of Christ Jesus. And that mercy
seat, he says, look there in verse 21, and thou shalt put
the mercy seat above upon the ark. On top of, over the ark. And it says in verse 25, or excuse
me, verse 22, And there I will meet with thee and I will commune
with thee from above the mercy seat." God's going to commune
with men above the mercy seat. Christ is the mercy seat. And what's below? The testimony of God, which is the
law of God. which stands and condemns all
mankind. The people of God are below the
mercy seat. They are found in the commands
of God that are broken. The commands of God that are
in that ark was to be carried around everywhere they went,
and the ark of God was displayed before the children. Whenever
they went somewhere, the ark always went ahead of everyone. that was in Israel as they marched.
And it was to be carried a certain way. It was to be carried by
certain men. It was to be carried with certain
kinds of poles. And if you look at those things
up above, there's supposed to be certain kinds of rings, a
certain size, a certain overlay. Everything was in detail because
it pictured the work of Christ. It pictured His people. It pictured
the work of Christ for His people. And that ark with the Ten Commandments
in there was a testimony of God to Israel all the time that here's
my law that you cannot keep. You are always unworthy, always
enabled to keep righteousness. Therefore, the mercy seat is
there. And the only way that I will commune with you is above
the mercy seat where the blood will be sprinkled. I will commune
with you through the mercy seat. I am satisfied by the mercy seat. Therefore, I will commune with
you through the mercy seat. The only way that you have communion
with me is through the mercy seat. The only way that my glory
will come down and you will see me is through the mercy seat. See, God made it where the mercy
seat would be above the ark. Now, that tells me a couple of
things. That tells me, number one, that Christ is that mediator
between the broken law, which is us, and God, who is holy. Christ is the intercessor. He
is the mediator. He is the go-between. Between
God's glory that comes down from above and our brokenness of the
law, which is below, Christ is found right there in the middle. But it also tells me this, that
Christ and that bar of gold being pure gold, meaning that there
is no impurities found in it. The Bible, Jesus said that Satan
has come and he's found nothing in me. He told the religious,
who of you can find anything in me? You can't find any sins
in me, I've not seen. You've never seen any sin. The
Bible says that he has a lamb without spot or blemish. He was
a perfect lamb. holy, righteous man. And there was no spot found within
him. That golden bar represents Christ
and His humanity as divine and as perfect man. He is perfect
and holy. The only way that that could
be the mediator between God and man was the man Jesus Christ
who became our mercy scene. And the only way that God could
be satisfied with us who have broken His law is for there to
be propitiation between us. There had to be an appeasement
of wrath. See, if the mercy seat were taken
away and just God's broken law there, if God comes down and
comes down to that ark, He's going to come and He's going
to crush everything below it. His glory will come and it will
consume everything. But yet that perfect, holy, righteous
Lamb of God was our propitiation. He turned away God's wrath. He propitiated God's wrath. God
was satisfied in the work of Christ. Therefore, His wrath
was turned away from us and turned to Christ. Whenever the blood
was sprinkled upon the mercy seat, God came down, consumed
that with His glory, consumed that And the mercy seat is the
one that absorbed all of that. The mercy seat was the place
where God came down and dwelled and communed with the people. It was there and only there.
God would not do it any other way. And God will not do that
any other way. God will not accept your attempts
to be righteous. He will never do that. He has
only formulated one way to commune with His people. Now we are His
people and He has loved us with an everlasting love. He has set
Christ forth as the propitiation before the foundation of the
world. Therefore, that's why there is never any wrath that
was to come upon us. The Bible says we were not appointed
unto wrath. Why? Because we have from the
very moment that God ever brought us as a person or as a people
and given us to Christ, our head, our representative, our mediator,
our surety, whenever that was in eternity that that took place,
that union, He has been our propitiation. Because Christ stood as a Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. He stood as the propitiation,
meaning that He stood as the representative between God and
man before the foundation of the world. Therefore, there was
a relationship between God and man before the foundation of
the world. There was an eternal, vital union. There was a union
there. Why? Because God had given us
to His Son. Had placed us in Him. And He
had blessed us with all spiritual blessings and loved us with an
everlasting love. Why? Because He loved His Son.
Because He had blessed His Son and given Him all the blessings. and therefore because we are
in Him, we receive all the blessings. But granted, those blessings
would not have come to us apart from the fact of Christ being
our mediator, our intercessor, our go-between, that mercy seat,
the place where God shows mercy was in Christ Jesus. See, that's
how we got mercy. So he says here, and there I
will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above
the mercy seat. See, God isn't going to come
down below and commune with us as we are. He's only going to
commune with us as we are in Christ. He's not going to accept
anything in this old flesh. That's why this flesh is eventually
going to die. This flesh is not going to inherit the kingdom
of God. This flesh is corrupt. This flesh, this old man, this
old nature is full of sin and it never will inherit the kingdom
of God. And while we are yet vessels
of clay at this moment that has that perfect, beautiful, new
creation, that Spirit of God in us, we are treasures and earthen
vessels. While we may be that, that earthen
vessel is not getting to heaven and it cannot please God ever. And so we have to put that away.
It has to go away. It never will inherit. And that's
why God designed the ark as it was. God is never going to come
down and dwell and commune with sinners, breakers of the law,
as breakers of the law in their
selves. He's only going to do that through
the mediator. above the mercy seat, on this
side of mercy, on this side of grace, on this side, the divine
side. He's going to be looking at us
through the mediator, Jesus Christ. He said, I will meet with thee
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubims, which are on the ark of the testimony,
of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel." Now, go back to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and verse 25 again. It says, "...whom God hath set
forth." That word set forth there means to set up, to put forward. to prearrange. God has set forth. If I set something forth, it
means I have already got it and I prop it up or I put it up as
something. Okay? God had already, before
the foundation of the world, set Christ up to be the propitiation
for us. Christ is our mercy seat. He's
the only place that God will meet with sinners. He is the
only place that God will receive us and bless us. We often hear
in modern Christianity, people say, just come as you are, God
will receive you as you are. Now, I will say this, whenever
we come to Christ, we can't clean ourselves up. Whenever we come
to Christ and believe upon Christ, God doesn't accept us because
we clean ourselves up or make ourselves right. So, you know,
we don't have to stop drinking, stop smoking, stop doing whatever
before God will save us. God saved us in Christ Jesus
when we were yet sinners. Now that doesn't say that once
we've been saved that God might not change all those things that
we do, keep us from doing those things. But what I am saying
is this, there is no cleaning up to come to Christ Jesus. We
come to Christ Jesus as a sinner because God has sent Jesus to
be the Savior of sinners. But to say that God will commune
with us as we are, apart from Jesus, is never true. The only way that God communes
with us is because He has sent forth Christ to be the propitiation to declare His righteousness.
See, we can't come to God and declare our righteousness. We
must have another righteousness declared on our behalf. So Christ,
therefore, becomes the satisfaction of God because His righteousness
is the one declared, not ours. For the remission of sin, See,
our sins can only be remitted by the blood of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sin. There is no removal of sin. There
is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. Who was
the one who shed the blood? Christ Jesus. Where was the blood sprinkled?
On the mercy seat. Where was mercy found? When the
mercy seat held the blood. The blood was sprinkled on the
mercy seat. God then communed with men and
showed mercy upon the children of Israel when the blood was
on the mercy seat. See, the blood wasn't on us because
our blood would never, ever, ever atone for anything. But
Christ's blood did. So he is the one by whom justice
has been appeased. Justice has been appeased because
Christ has turned away God's wrath by being mercy for us. He showed mercy on us by being
us for us. What do I mean by that as our
substitute? Jesus showed us mercy by doing
something that we could not do. That's what mercy is, right?
Mercy is giving something to somebody that they, we talk about
grace and mercy and we'll see. Grace is unmerited favor, something
that we didn't deserve. But mercy is showing something
to somebody that they can't do on their own. God showed us mercy. in the fact that we were lawbreakers
and couldn't obey His commands. So God showed us mercy and the
way He showed us mercy was by sending His Son to be the law
fulfiller for us. See, Jesus was the intercessor.
He was the go-between. He was the mediator. He was the
pure block of gold between the law that was broken and the God
that was holy. Jesus in mercy upon us. He showed us mercy. He had compassion
upon whom He would have compassion and mercy upon whom He would
have mercy. He showed mercy to His elect
by becoming the law fulfiller for the law breaker. But He also
showed mercy in the fact that He became the sin-bearer for
the sin-enactor. We were the sinner and He became
sin for us so that we might be the righteousness of God in Him.
He was the go-between. He showed mercy. We deserve death,
but He showed mercy. He was merciful to us by becoming
us in our place. and therefore he died. That's propitiation. God is satisfied
and His satisfaction is never in you or me. His satisfaction
is always in the Son. It's always in Christ Jesus and
His work. God is not satisfied with Mike
and his ministry. Mike and his perseverance. Mike
and his duty. Mike and his accountability.
God is never satisfied with anything that Mike does. There's only
one thing that God is satisfied with and that is the work of
Christ. That's the only thing. He's not
satisfied with the work of Christ in Mike, and therefore Mike is
now satisfying God. That's not the gospel either.
The gospel is totally Christ. God is satisfied with the objective
work of Christ outside of all of God's elect, Christ doing
the work on behalf of His people in Himself, within Himself. His actual obedience to God His
actual death on the cross, all of that is what God is satisfied
with. He is never satisfied with one inkling of anything that
anyone else ever does. And the only reason that we,
as I said before, enter in here in good and faithful servant
is because we are in Christ Jesus, our head, who comes in before
us. The Bible says whenever he opens
up the gate, he leads them in. He goes before them. When we
come into the gate, our shepherd goes in before us, and our shepherd
is the one who announces to everyone, here comes the faithful. Why? Because he was faithful. We are
faithful because he is faithful. Are we actually faithful? Well,
if any of us are honest with each other, we know we are not
faithful. But we are called faithful. Are
we righteous? No, none of us are righteous.
But we're called righteous. We're reckoned as righteous.
We're declared righteous. Why? Because our head is righteous. Our mediator is righteous. Our
intercessor is righteous. He, our substitute, is righteous. Therefore, we are righteous.
Now, there's a couple more places in Scripture, and we'll look
at these briefly, that we see this word. Look, if you would, in... Let me show you what I just was
talking about. Look at 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. How God has
set Christ as a propitiation for our sins. How has God done
that? Well, number one, one of the
ways that God has set Christ up as our propitiation is He
set forth Him to be the propitiation throughout eternity and the eternal
purposes of God. But look, if you would, in Acts
chapter 1, excuse me, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 19, We'll start in verse 18. For
as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition of your fathers. Now what's he talking about there?
You've not been redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation or your vain way of life, your
vain walk. What's he talking about? These
are religious people. People who think by their good
works that they are that they are satisfying God, that they
are pleasing God, that God is satisfied with their good works,
their religious works. That's what he's calling silver
and gold. And the word conversation there
isn't talking about your speech, but it's talking about your way
of life or your walk. He says, for as much as you know
that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by the traditions of
the Father, So that religious activity that you receive from
your religious upbringing, that isn't what's going to redeem
you. But with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in the last times for you. So
Christ was for ordained before the foundation of the world to
be what? A lamb without spot or blemish.
To be the Redeemer through blood. So how was Christ set up to be
our propitiation, our appeasement, our satisfaction? By being the
lamb before the foundation of the world. In Acts chapter 2
and verse 23, we see this found. Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. It says, Him, speaking of Christ,
Him being delivered. This is Peter giving the account
of Christ being taken and tried and crucified. He said, being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
So here we see that Christ was set up or set forth as the propitiation
for our sins by the determinate counsel of God. God had already
determined for the foundation of the world that Christ would
by wicked hands be taken and crucified. So God had already,
before anything, before we were born, before He created one atom
in this earth, had already determined that Christ was going to be our
mediator, our appeasement. Well, how could He have done
that? There was no sin yet. How could He have done that when
there was no sin? Because God, before the foundation of the
world, had purposed to save a people from sin, therefore He had purposed
that sin would enter into the world. And He did that by one
man, Adam. Now you can call me or call my
theology, whatever you want, but the Bible clearly, plainly
says that God did that. By the determinant counsel of
God, God determined that Christ would die for sins, for sinners,
and by sinning hands be crucified." So if God determined all that,
that means God determined and it was His purpose that sin exist
and sin come into the world. If He determined that sin would
come into the world, He had to have determined how sin would
come into the world. And if He determined how sin
would come into the world, then He had to have made a man in
which sin could reside and come into the world. Because we find
that sin comes whenever we, by our own lust, turn and commit
sin. So we had to create a man in
which that could happen. That man was the first Adam.
But God also, before the foundation of the world, predetermined not
only a sinful Adam, He predetermined a sinless second
Adam, the second Adam who wasn't of the earth earthy, who wasn't
natural and could not keep the things of God or believe the
things of God, but he was the second Adam, the one who was
from heaven, the one who was pure and perfect and righteous
and holy, the one who obeyed Not the one who disobeyed, but
the one who obeyed. In the flesh, we are from our
father, the first Adam. But who we are in the spirit,
who we truly are, is in Christ Jesus, who is our head, who is
sinless and undefiled. Therefore, we are sinless and
undefiled. Why? Because his seed remains
in us. We are His seed, and He is sinless
and undefiled. Therefore, we are sinless and
undefiled, but not in our flesh, only in the Spirit. And so God predetermined these
things. He determined Christ to be our
mediator, our substitute, our head. Not our head as in the
top of our body, Our head is in our leader. Our head is in
the one who is over us in authority. Our head is in the one who is
our representative. Okay? That's what that word means. And that was determined by the
determinant counsel of God before anything happened. Look at chapter
4 of Acts, verse 28. This is the same thing as reiterated starting in verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus
whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. What is this talking about? This
is talking about what God had determined beforehand. What did
God determine beforehand to do? That Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel who were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined to be
done. So Christ being taken by wicked
hands and every lash that he got on his back, every smite
that he got on his face or head or wherever that they hit him,
every hair of beard that was plucked out, every crown of thorn
that was stabbed upon his head, every nail, every spit, everything
that was done was determined by God to be done so that God would be satisfied.
You say, wait a minute, you mean God wanted all that sin, sinning
against Christ? Wouldn't that make God to be
the author of sin? That's not even the question. That's not
even, that's not even in, there's no issue of that in the Bible
anywhere. The Bible doesn't ever say God
is not the author of sin. Nowhere in the Bible does it
say that. That is made up by theologians in creeds and confessions. Why that is an argument among
the people of God is just a mystery to me. making up arguments and
disfellowshipping people because of an argument that isn't even
there in the Scripture. When the Bible clearly says that
God determined what wicked hens were going to do, He determined
that. He didn't just foreordain it, He determined it before the
foundation of the world. Every action that would take
place, God determined that action. Why? Because in Isaiah chapter
53, Again, it says that God was pleased to bruise him. Meaning that it was the pleasure
of God. Not that God laughed and joked,
ha ha ha, look at him getting hit. It meant that that was God's
will, that was God's desire that Christ be bruised, that Christ
be crucified. that He be taken by wicked hands
and with wicked hands all that wicked take place, that pleased
the Lord, meaning that that was what God determined beforehand
to be the sacrifice, to be the appeasement of His wrath. That's why He rejoiced in the
fact. That's why Jesus while he despised
the shame of the cross, the Bible says that he counted it joy and
that he set his face like a flint to the cross and he went to the
cross in joy knowing that the outcome of what the cross was
about to do was a promise of God that cannot be broken and
that all for whom he died would be returned reconciled, atoned,
appeased, satisfied of the Father. God will be satisfied. God set forth His Son to be our
propitiation in all the promises, all the prophecies, all the pictures
of the Old Testament. I mean, I listed off some down
here. He's the seed of the woman that
was promised in Genesis. He's the paschal lamb that's
shown in the atonement sacrifice. Whenever Moses held up that brazen
serpent in the wilderness, and God told him, make a serpent,
put it upon a stick, and everyone who looks to that serpent, they'll
live, and everybody that doesn't, they're gonna die. Guess what?
Christ is that brazen serpent. In the Old Testament, the morning
and the evening sacrifice, guess who that was? That's Christ.
He's the appeasement. He's the propitiation. Every one of the prophets said
that there's going to be a substitute who's going to come for us. He
was the fulfillment of that. So Christ is the propitiation.
That's the second thing we find. And the third thing that we see,
how God has set forth Christ as the propitiation, is that
He came in human flesh. He was made of a woman. He was
made under the law. And so he was set forth to be
our propitiation in human flesh. Now, there's
two other places in Scripture that speaks of this word propitiation. And we'll look at them. 1 John,
turn with me to 1 John. Chapter 2 and verse 2. 1 John,
the epistle of John, 1 John. Not the gospel of John, but the
epistles of John towards the back of the book. Getting close
to Revelation. 1 John chapter 2, starting in
verse 1, it says, My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He,
Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins. And not ours only, but also for
the whole world, or for the sins of the whole world. Now, at this
point, I might need to make a side note here to explain some things
within the context of Scripture. People can rip this verse out
of its context of the whole of scripture and say, nana nana
boo boo, there you go, sovereign gracer. Here's free will. Here is universal atonement. Jesus has been the propitiation
for the whole world's sin. Therefore, we have to accept
it, right? So Jesus died for everybody.
It says right here, He was the propitiation for our sins, but
not just for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Well, let me ask you a couple of things to think about. Number
one, is not the ones that He's writing to part of the world? If you say He died for the sins
of the whole world, But not just for the whole world, but for
us also. You could say that backwards, right? Well, are we not part of the
whole world? Why didn't he just say for the sins of the whole
world? Why was there a distinction made for not only us, but for
the sins of the whole world? Because by this time, when John
was writing, Paul had already began his ministry among the
Gentiles. So why was he making a distinction
here between he has died for our sins and not only our sins,
but for the sins of the whole world? Aren't we part of the
whole world? Why make that distinction? Well,
because again, John primarily was preaching and teaching and
the pastor among the Hebrews, among the Israelites, among the
Jews. who again, the thought of their
mind was that salvation was only for the Jews, not for the Gentiles. So we're still in a period here
where Paul, even though his ministry to the Gentiles had gone out
far and wide, even though the apostles had met with Paul, And
they had already hashed out the fact that God is taking the gospel
out to the Gentiles and the Gentiles are being saved just like the
Jews were being saved. There were many, many scattered
Jews who still did not understand that or know that. So it was
part of their gospel to make sure that they knew that Christ's
death was for an elect people of every nation, tribe, and tongue. Now, we see that throughout Scripture.
The Scripture is very clear that Christ's death is a particular
death, that it was only for a particular people. It wasn't for everybody
in the world. It was only for His people, His
elect, all that the Father had given Him. We know that the Scripture
is very clear that not everybody will be saved. If Christ died
for everybody, then everybody would be saved. That's what we're
talking about today, satisfaction. That's what I was meaning by
my introduction whenever I said, not only is God satisfied legally,
but God must also be satisfied in application. If Christ died
for these people, then these people must be brought back to
God, and if they are not brought back to God, then Christ is to
bear the blame. It'll be His fault, because He
was termed Jesus, Savior. He was sent to save His people
from their sin. If He died, and if you say that
He died for all people, then that means that all people were
His. Because Jesus was sent to die for His people. Therefore,
if everybody in the world that has ever lived was His people,
God sent Jesus to die for His people and that Jesus has already
in the covenant of God said, if I go, I will bring them back. And if I don't, I will be to
blame. Now, do we have a failure as
a Savior? Did Jesus fail? No, I have kept
all that you have given me. I have lost not one. All that
the Father has given me shall come." So brethren, we are very clear
in Scripture that Christ did not die for every man. Otherwise,
every man will be saved. Why? Because the death of Christ
is the satisfaction of God. And if God is satisfied with
the person for whom Christ died, then that means there is now
no wrath. That's what propitiation is all
about. No wrath. There is no more wrath. There is no wrath to contend
for. I have been propitiated and shown mercy. If Christ died
for every man, then every man has no wrath upon him, but only
mercy. And Jesus is their mercy seat. Therefore, everything that Jesus
has done, complete obedience to God has been given to them. Therefore, they can enter in
good and faithful servant. But yet we are told that there
are going to be many on that day who say, Lord, Lord, did
we not in Your name cast out devils and demons? And did we
not do all these wonderful, great and mighty works in Your name? And He says, depart from Me,
you doers of iniquity, for I never knew you. If Jesus died for everybody,
there would never be anybody in that category, because Jesus
knew everyone whom God had sent Him to die for, because He says,
I know my sheep, and I die for my sheep. I lay down my life
for the sheep, if we are of the sheep. If everybody is of the
sheep, then Jesus died for everybody, and therefore everybody will
be brought in, because the great shepherd of the sheep says, I
have lost none, I will bring them all in, and I will go before
them. Now, he was a propitiation. He was an intercessor. He was
a mediator. He was a substitute, but it was
for his people. And God was satisfied with His
work, therefore God is satisfied with His people, therefore everyone
for whom Christ died will be brought back to the Father. We
are not ones who are going to miss out
on anything. And so he says here, and he is
the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for
who? The sins of the whole world.
It's not just for the Jews' sins. It's for the Gentiles. It's for
those people, and those people, and those people, and those people,
and those people, the elect out of every nation, tribe, and tongue. That's what God was talking about.
Those who are from all nations elected of God. And then look
while you're there in 1 John chapter 4. We basically see the same thing.
1 John chapter 4. It says, in this was manifested,
verse 9, in this was manifested the love of God towards us because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him." Now there again, that's why I say, God,
if there is satisfaction legally, there will be satisfaction applicably. Okay? It says right here that
in this was manifested the love of God towards us because that
God sent His only begotten Son into the world. Why? that we
might live through Him. If Jesus was sent for every person,
then every person is going to live through Him. Yet we find
that there are not going to be people who are going to live
through Him. He says herein is love, not that
we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. He sent Christ to be the appeasement
of our sins. He sent Christ to be the mercy
seat for our sins. The place where God would come
and commune and the blood would be sprinkled and that redemption
would take place was there in the mercy seat, in the place
of mercy. And he said that was for his
people. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. If Christ was a propitiation
for everybody's sins, guess what? That means their sins have been
appeased. God's wrath has been turned away.
Mercy has been granted. Grace has been provided. Salvation
ensues. Salvation is to follow. And salvation
doesn't just start with being told legally, you're now no longer
guilty, but it ends up with being rose from the dead, given
a new body, and eternally being with Christ Jesus. That's the
culmination of salvation. That's the final part of our
salvation is that we will put off this flesh of sin and we will put on a perfect body
and we will live with Him forever. Brother, propitiation is God
being satisfied not only with the work of Christ but the accomplishment
that Christ's death and life and death accomplished. Everything
that He accomplished Christ being satisfied, God being satisfied,
and therefore, in that satisfaction, God also receiving the just reward
for sending His Son. He sent His Son that we might
live through Him. He didn't send His Son that some
might be lost. He sent him to be the propitiation. The only way I can commune with
them is for you to go on their behalf. And if you go on their
behalf, I promise I will meet you above the mercy seat. Brethren, listen, that's a promise
of God. There's a promise of God that
every person for whom Christ propitiates God is going to commune
at the mercy. He's not waiting for you to accept
it. He's not waiting for you to do something for it. He has
given it to you in Christ Jesus. Will He bring you to the knowledge
of that? Yes, He will. He'll give you faith. He'll give
you repentance. He will give you those internal
works of God that causes you to know of your salvation and
all will come to Him. But brother, He doesn't do that
for everybody. He only does that for His people. But praise the
Lord. He doesn't expect us to do anything
to get it because if He did, we would still be found below
the mercy seat. We'd be found breaking the law
of God and being unworthy. It's because of His great love
that He sent Christ to be our propitiation. So we praise the
Lord for His work of propitiation. We praise the Lord for the doctrine
of propitiation. We preach Christ's propitiation
because without it, we would have no communion with the Lord.
All right, does anybody have any questions or comments? I'm gonna go ahead and announce
now, it's not this coming Sunday, but the next Sunday, the 29th,
January the 29th, we will not be here or be in service. I'll
be preaching at Coedah Baptist Church in Coedah, Oklahoma. They've
asked me to come preach for them there. So we will be gone on
the 29th. So we'll be here next week, but
the week after that we'll be gone. So, um, now they streamed
their services on Facebook. Uh, you can Google them or look
for them. And I think it's on YouTube also. Do they stream on YouTube also? Okay. You can find them Coita
Baptist church. Uh, if you want to follow that
on live stream, Lori may try to maybe livestream on Mars from
there as well. We'll just kind of see how that
goes. But anyway, that's the 29th, and I'll be there all day.
We'll be there for their morning and evening services still. We
won't be here. All right? All right, anybody
else got anything? All right, that's all right. Father, we thank you for the
day, and we thank you for your grace and mercy that you give us in
Christ Jesus. We thank you for the propitiation
that's in him. We thank you for the promises
of God to meet and commune with your people through the Lord
Jesus Christ. We know that everything is because
of him. We give him honor and glory and
praise today. May you be with us now as we
leave this place and that you continue to keep us in the faith.
You might give us safety, Lord, until we meet again. And we pray,
Lord, that you might always give us an answer or give us the words
and the and the scriptures and the reason for the hope that
lies within us. If you may ask a question about
that Lord, that we might always look to Christ Jesus and that
we might always preach Him and Him crucified. For it's in Christ's
name that we pray. Amen.