I invite your attention to the
first epistle of John, chapter one. And I regret to say that I misspoke
this morning when I said that the last time I had been here
was in 1993. I was reminded that I was here
in 2006, which really was not that long ago, but that was when our dear friend
Tommy Robbins was yet with you before his home going. And I
do request that you forgive me for that mistake, but just bear
in mind that when you get to be as old as I am, You will forget
a few things from time to time, but we are glad to be with you
both this morning and now this evening. And if God be pleased, we'd like
to address the subject tonight of Christ, our propitiation. Our text will be 1 John chapter
2 verse 2, but I'm going to begin reading in verse number 5. The first four verses are much
like those of the prologue of John's gospel describing our
eternal Christ and his being made manifest in the flesh and
coming to men in the likeness of men. And then John says in
verse five that this is the message which we have heard from him,
that is from Christ, and declare to you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. Now John is going to present
unto us five ifs. Verse six is the first if. If
we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth. Now God is light. If you walk in Him, you must
walk in light. If you walk in darkness, you
do not walk with God. The second if is in verse number
seven. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the life. We have fellowship with one another
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. And notice the tense
of this verse, it cleanses. John does not say it cleansed
us. He said it cleanses us. It continues to cleanse us. And that high priest of which
your pastor just read from the epistle to the Hebrews describes
a high priest in heaven who is still interceding for us and
that blood still speaks and it still cleanses. The third if
is in verse number eight. If we say that we have no sin
and the word sin is singular, the emphasis here is upon the
sinful nature. And if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The fourth
if is in verse number nine, and if we confess our sins, these
are in the plural, if you have a sinful nature, you will commit
sins. Sin always is accompanied by
sins. But if we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness through that blood of Jesus Christ his
son who cleanses us from all sin. And the final if is in verse
number 10. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make God a liar and his truth is not in us. My little children,
now note the tenderness with which this pastor writes to his
congregation. They are his little children. Some of them may have been older
physically than he was, but every pastor looks upon the members
of his congregation as his children. He has a stewardship over them. He loves them, and he treats
them as dearly as he can, and John shows that to us when he
writes, my little children, these things I write to you that you
may not sin, meaning not only that you do not have permission
to sin, but he writes so that you may not sin. And he writes that despite what
he had just written in the verses preceding. And if you'll read
the remainder of his epistle, he will tell you that if you
are in Christ, you do not sin. And if you are in Christ, you
can not sin. So these things he has written
that we may not sin, but If anyone sins, and these statements
are not contradictory, even while you are not sinning with regards
to God's seed in you, you are sinning with regard to that flesh
in which you dwell, in which there is no good thing. But if
you sin, and you will, we have an advocate. The word is paraclete. It means one who stands beside
you, particularly in a court of law. He is like your attorney. He is the one who says to you,
we're going to court. You keep your mouth shut. Do
not speak. I will do the talking. I will
address the judge. I will present your case. And
I can do it better than you can. And we have such a paraplegic. We have such an attorney, such
an advocate with the Father. When you stand before the Father
to be judged, you do not want to be speaking for yourself.
Let Christ do the pleading. And he is, our advocate is, Jesus
Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole
world. So we're going to look at this
text tonight, addressing the subject of Christ, our propitiation. And I'm going to introduce my
subject tonight by taking you back to the illustration that
we observed this morning in the 18th chapter of the Gospel according
to Luke, in which Jesus Christ gives the account of a Pharisee
and a publican or tax collector who both went up to the temple
to pray. As we observed this morning,
the Pharisee positioned himself in a prominent place, prayed
so that all could behold him doing so, boasted of what he
was and of what he did, and as we observed this morning, he
perhaps is the only man in all the scriptures who prayed to
God and asked nothing from God and was not disappointed at receiving
nothing from God because he was self-sufficient. And then our
Lord spoke of this tax collector who stood afar off. He did not want you to see him,
and he probably was trying to get away from every sacred piece
of furniture in that holy place. And he would not so much as lift
his eyes to heaven, but smoke his breath. and said, God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus said, I tell you, this
second man went down to his house justified and the other did not. Now, when you read that account
in your English text, you read him praying, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. But if you would read this in
the Greek text, you would observe that he is not merely asking
that God show mercy to him. He uses a very specific word. And that word means God make
propitiation for me the same. God Provide a mercy seat, and
he's in the place where it was. God, provide to me the mercy
seat, for I am the sinner. God, I am the sinner who deserves
your wrath. Nothing I am, or have, or can
do, nor anything I sacrifice and offer to you will remedy
my situation. I therefore earnestly pray that
you would be merciful to me and provide to me a guilt-removing
sacrifice for my sins. Make propitiation for me. That's what he's praying. That's
his prayer. Make propitiation for me. Well, I am happy to report to
you tonight that John tells us in our text that the prayer is
answered. Jesus Christ the righteous, he
himself is the propitiation for our sins. Now I want you to note
in this text, first of all, this truth that this propitiation
is directed towards sin. It is not directed toward God. He is the propitiation for our
sins. Not toward God, but rather for
our sins. The direction of propitiation
is toward our sins. Now this is different from the
ancient concept of the pagan Greeks in worshiping their mythological
gods. The Greek and Roman gods were
a peevish bunch, easily offended, and one minute they may be benevolent
to you, and then upon the least infraction perceived in their
sight, they became angry with you. And the only way to get
your mythological pretend make-believe god to show favor to you was
to what the Greeks called make propitiation. It was a sacrifice,
but the purpose of that sacrifice was to direct it to their God
and it was to appease Him. So in the ancient Greek concept,
a propitiation was a sacrifice that appeased their God. Propitiation was directed toward
God, but not here. John takes this pagan concept
in this word and gives it a Christian definition and he says, propitiation
for us is directed toward our sins. He is the propitiation
for our sins. The reason for that is this,
those ancient mythological gods, were always changing in attitude
and in demeanor and in the way they treated their worshipers.
Our God never changes. He is immutable. He says, I am
Jehovah. I do not change. And he never
does. He never does. You may say, but
wait a minute. There are times it appears that
God is benevolent And there are times when it appears that God
is dissatisfied, that means He's changed. No, He doesn't. What
it means is this. You have changed. And God always
acts toward us in accordance with His unchanging righteousness
and holiness. Therefore, a propitiation is
not intended to change God. It changes me. Therefore, propitiation is not
directed to Him. It's directed toward my sins. When my sin issue is settled,
I know God's favor. But God never changes. It is
me that must change. And the propitiation does it.
Note furthermore that this propitiation is from God, not to Him. John writes in chapter 4 verse
10, In this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now since propitiation is from
God, it is not a means of appeasing Him. Rather, It is from God to
change His people, and He does it because He loves them, and
His love is as immutable and eternal as He is. So we're going
to look at this doctrine of Christ, our propitiation, observe some
things concerning it, and first of all, I want you to see this,
that Jesus Christ is the guilt-removing sacrifice for our sins, and indeed,
That is exactly and precisely what that word propitiation means. It means guilt-removing sacrifice. Our sins are transgressions against
God's righteous and holy law, and they deserve his everlasting
wrath. But Jehovah, for the sake of
his people, made his son to be an offering for sinners. We did
not make him to be such. God made his son an orphan for
sin. God took my sin and the sin of
all his people, he took our sins from us, laid them on his son,
laid them on his son in such a way that his son was made sin and then made an offering for
sin. Scriptures never say that sin
was imputed to Christ. Now they were, but scriptures
never say it. Rather, the scriptures say he
was made sin, and therefore sin must be imputed to him. It must
be charged to his account. And there on Calvary, Jesus Christ
has had my sins laid upon him. He walks up Calvary's brow, and
there on his altar, that altar that was his altar, he died in
the place of sinners, having been made sin for them, bearing
their sin, and died as their sin offering. The Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of all, and he bore the sin of many. And
there in their place instead, he suffered the divine wrath
their sins deserved. And in so doing, he removed the guilt of all their sins, past, present,
and future. They therefore are justified. eternally before God through
the means of this guilty, removing sacrifice. Furthermore, God says,
I have reconciled you to me through the death of my son. My son was
sent by me to be the propitiation for your sins and on his altar
He died, and in dying, he was the guilt-removing sacrifice
for me, and that's my propitiation. My propitiation is a guilt-removing
sacrifice that God in love provided to me. And he is the guilt-removing
sacrifice for our sins. I am no longer guilty. I never
will be guilty. Because He is the propitiation,
the guilt-removing sacrifice for my sins. Now note second,
Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the sins of a particular
people. And this particular people are
only those who rightly confess that He is the propitiation for
our sins. I want you to observe, first
of all, in this regard, for whom this propitiation is not purposed. It is not purposed for everyone.
There are some, and John has just described them, they say,
we have no sin. We have not sinned. We do not
confess our sins because we have none. Well, if that be the case,
then Christ cannot be the propitiation for your sins because by your
own boast, you have none. There's that Pharisee. He does
not want propitiation. He does not need propitiation. He does not need a sacrifice
to remove his guilt because asking, he has none. Therefore, Jesus
Christ is not the propitiation for that man's sins. Having observed for whom this
propitiation is not purposed, observe now for whom this propitiation
is indeed purposed. In the context, they are identified
as all who, when they sin, rightly acknowledge that we have an advocate
with the Father. Now, if you have an advocate
with the Father, if you have a paraclete with the Father,
if you have an attorney who will represent your case to the Father,
Your attorney represents your case to the Father on the ground
that He Himself is the guilt-removing sacrifice for your sins. If Christ
is your advocate, then He must be your propitiation. These are all who confess that
we know Him and we keep His commandments in verse number three of our
text. And furthermore, these are all
whom God says, I love, and I sent my son to be the propitiation
for their sins. Since God declares that he hates
all workers of iniquity who refuse to forsake their sins, Christ
is no propitiation for them. Third, observe that Jesus Christ
is the high priest who made propitiation for the sins of his people. And
this is set forth unto us again by this word that we found in
our text earlier. Propitiation, as used by the
publican, means make propitiation for me. This word appears again
in Hebrews 2 verse 17, or a form of that word, where we read that
therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren
that he might be a faithful, a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for
the sins of his people. When that text let her say it,
God make propitiation to make God replied, I did, and it's
my son. My son is a faithful and merciful
high priest, and he made propitiation for you. Fourth, observe that
Jesus Christ is the place where propitiation was made for the
sins of his people. And this is again another form
of the same word that John here uses. In Hebrews 9 verse 5, And
we read it, you read it a little earlier tonight in the Providence
of God. You read the text we're gonna
go to. We read that of a mercy seat in verse number five. That mercy seat is this same
word or form of it translated propitiation. What was a mercy
seat? That's the place. where the propitiation
is made. That's the place where the blood
of the ill-removing sacrifice is offered. That's the place
where the Lord answered the prayer and said to the tax collector,
you want a mercy seat? I'll give it. It's my son. He is the mercy seat. Now this
mercy seat, you may remember from the Old Testament, That
mercy seat was on the Ark of the Covenant. That Ark of the
Covenant was a chest made of wood, overlaid in gold. The mercy seat was the lid for
that Ark of the Covenant. In that Ark of the Covenant are
the Ten Commandments, God's law. which you have broken by the
way, every one of them. And in that Ark of the Covenant
is the testimony that you are a sinner. That mercy seat is
a lid of pure gold. On Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement,
The high priest goes outside of the tabernacle, and there
he makes an offering for sin, to make atonement for the sins
of the people. He sacrifices an animal, and
one day a year, this one man alone can come into that place
Any other man tries it, even if he tries it, any other time
God strikes him dead, you don't come to God's mercy seat except
by God's works. And he would come in with the
blood and sprinkle it with thistle on the mercy seat. And he'd bat,
bat the eye. because God's presence was right
there between the wings of the cherubim over the mercy seat.
He had sprinkled that blood for his own sins. He would back out,
go out and slay another animal and bring its blood in a basin
back to that mercy seat. And God's glory is right there
over top of that mercy seat between the wings of the cherubim. And
he takes the blood now for the sins of the people, having offered
blood for his own sins and sprinkles it right there in God's presence.
God says, I'm satisfied for one more year, but you come back
next year and do the very same thing. because atonement has
not yet been made. I'll pass over your sins for
another year, but you keep coming back. They started doing that
in about the year 1440 B.C. For almost 1,500 years, every
year, a priest went in and offered it. And he did so until that
high priest God sent came in. And there on Calvary, He shed
His blood. And the writer of the Hebrews
tells us that He goes with His own blood into that tabernacle
not made with hands, into Heavens. He makes one offering because
He does not need to make an offering for His own sin. He is without
sin. He walks in. to that most holy
place, in that tabernacle not made with hands in the heavens,
and with his own blood, goes to the mercy seat in heaven,
sprinkles it on the mercy seat. And the Father says, that's done,
once for all. God reached down, from heaven,
and at the very moment Christ was doing this, there is a high
priest getting ready to walk into the temple to make the annual
sacrifice on Passover. He's going to walk into that
holy place in the temple, and the people are watching. And
when Christ made that sacrifice and shed his blood and shouted
in victory, it is finished! God said, yes it is! And God
reached down and took cold the veil of the temple that was there
in Jerusalem and poured in through from top to bottom and said,
don't come here again. I will not accept you. My son
has made this all for sin. And he's the mercy sin. Not only
is he the priest who makes propitiation, he also is the sacrifice that
is made propitiation, and furthermore, He's the very place where it's
made. He is the mercy seat. Therefore, Him, Christ Jesus,
God sent forth as a propitiation or mercy seat by His blood through
faith. Christ is our mercy seat, the
place where our propitiation has been made. Furthermore, Jesus
Christ is the guilt-removing sacrifice for the sins of the
whole world. Now, preacher, what does that
mean? It means exactly what it says. He's the propitiation for
the sins of the whole world. But now preacher, just a moment
ago, you just said that he is not the propitiation for some
people. That's true. I mean, what's that?
And that means exactly what it says. But now you just said he's
the propitiation for not only for our sins, but also for the
whole world. That's true. That's exactly what
it means. It means exactly what it says.
Now the so-called Christian universalist, is going to tell you that Jesus
Christ is the propitiation for the sins of every individual
that ever lived. That's wrong. He is the propitiation for the
sins of the whole world, but he is not the propitiation for
the sins of every individual. Are you following me now? How do we know? First of all,
because the propitiating work of Jesus Christ was purposed
for many of mankind. And if you know anything at all
about the word many, you know that many is more than a few,
but less than all. Jehovah declares of Christ in
Isaiah 53, my righteous servant shall justify many, not all,
for he shall bear their iniquities. He bore the sin of many, not
all. Jesus said, I came to give my
life a ransom for many, not all. And who are this many? It's the
world, the whole world, for whom Christ is the propitiation. And
this is a specific world. What world is it? This is the
world that God loves. Have you not read in Scripture
that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son
that whoever believes in Him should not perish? Well, this
world whom Christ is propitiation is the world that God loves.
It is the world whom God gave His Son. He didn't offer Him.
Gave His Son. Nothing is given until it is
received. This is the world that receives
the Son that God gave and believes in Him under everlasting life
and Christ is the propitiation for that whole world, everyone
in it. This is that world that is reconciled
to God through the death of His Son in 2 Corinthians 5. This is that world of whom John
the Baptist spoke when he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the whole world. Christ is the propitiation for
the sins of everyone in that world that God loves and reconciles
to himself and the world whom Christ took away their sins.
This world is comprised of those whose sin guilt is forever removed. And I say to you that if Jesus
Christ the righteous is the propitiation for your sins, you are once for
all reconciled to God, forever saved and justified by God, and
you are never subject to condemnation. Have you not read that there
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ? How
can that be? Christ is their guilt-removing
sacrifice. He is the propitiation for their
sins. Now, that universalist will say
that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the sins of every individual
in mankind. In doing so, he denies that Jesus
Christ is actually the propitiation for anyone. Ask him. Ask the universalist. Is Jesus
Christ a propitiation for the sins of all who will suffer eternal
damnation in the lake of fire, as well as for all who will enjoy
eternal bliss in the presence of God? All those in heaven,
is He their propitiation? Yes. All those suffering damnation
in hell, is He their propitiation? Did He make propitiation for
them? Well, they're in the whole world. Yes, He made propitiation
for them. So he says. You therefore may tell him that Christ removed the guilt of people
as their propitiation and God's going to punish them anyway.
Folks, that is blasphemous. That's worse than heresy. That's
worse than false doctrine. That is blasphemous. It says that God is so unjust
that he will punish the same saints twice. It means that Jesus Christ as
a propitiation for all those who suffer condemnation, He is
a complete failure. And if Jesus Christ was the propitiation
for those who suffer eternal torment, He's their propitiation.
In the same way that He's the propitiation for the sins of
all who enjoy eternal bliss, then I say to you that His propitiation
has nothing to do with your salvation. Nothing. Nothing at all. It means that you're saved by
something other than His propitiation. If you can be saved by something
other than his propitiation, there was no need for God to
send him. There's no need for God to love you and send his
son. In saying that he's the propitiation for the sins of
every individual of mankind, what you say is he is the propitiation
for no one. He's worthless. And God forbid, When John spoke
of Jesus Christ being the propitiation for sins, and he says, not for
ours only, but also for the whole world, he did not speak of propitiation
for every individual in mankind. What did he mean? Perhaps he
spoke ethnologically. He says, not only is he the propitiation
for us believing Jews, but you believe in Gentiles also. And John was a Jew writing to
Gentiles. Perhaps he spoke geographically
of not only believers residing in Asia Minor who received this
epistle, but also those residing in every place in the world,
including Sylacauga, Alabama, St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Perhaps
he spoke eschatologically. He says he's the propitiation
not only for us who live now and believe, but also all those
who shall, through the rest of time, believe as well. Or perhaps
he meant all three. You do not need to decide which
one it was, just take all three. But know this, Jesus Christ is
the propitiation for our sins. Us who are here tonight in this
meeting house in Sylacauga, Alabama, and he's the propitiation for
the sins of the whole world who believe in him. Now is he your propitiation? He is. If, if you can come into God's presence, stand up all reverence God so much you don't
even dare to look Him in the face. And if you can smite your
unworthy breast and say, God, I'm the sinner. Make propitiation
for me. Provide propitiation for me. Let Christ be my mercy seat. And I will trust in him. Now
you can say that. I say to you that Jesus Christ
is the propitiation for your sins. It's yours.