Let's turn together tonight to
the book of Romans. You just hold your places at
Romans chapter 3 for a few minutes. I promise I will get back to
the book of Exodus, but I believe that God's given me some direction. The last several weeks I've been
preaching to you concerning our Lord's accomplished redemption
and it is a subject that's so very, very, very important. It
can't be dealt with often enough. It can't be dealt with in enough
detail. Last Tuesday I tried to show
you the necessity of our Savior's satisfaction. The necessity for
His death is our substitute. Tonight I want to pick up right
where I left off last week and discuss with you three words
that are used to speak of our Lord's satisfaction. Three Aspects
of Christ's Satisfaction is the title of the message. Now, when
gospel preachers speak of Christ's satisfaction, and frankly, nobody
else much does. I don't know that I've ever heard
any of these yahoos on television or radio talk about Christ making
satisfaction. But gospel preachers often speak
of satisfaction. And this is what the scriptures
refer to speaking of our Lord's satisfaction. these two aspects
of the gospel. And these two things are essential
to the gospel. Any denial of these two clearly
revealed facts is a denial of the gospel of God's free grace.
First, the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied all the demands of
God's law, justice, and character as our substitute. And second,
having satisfied all the demands of divine justice as our substitute,
the Lord Jesus shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. This is what I'm saying. Christ
Jesus satisfied the law and justice of God for his people when he
suffered and died as our substitute upon the cursed tree. The scriptures
make this so very clear. I urge you to read at your leisure
and read carefully the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans.
The Apostle Paul tells us that we all became sinners by the
deeds of one man, Adam. And that one man, Adam, was intended,
was created, was purposed by God to be a representative, a
type, a picture, a similitude of Christ Jesus, the last Adam,
the Adam who was to come after his likeness. And our Lord Jesus
came here also as a representative man. And all who are in him are
made righteous before God by his doing alone as our substitute. By our Savior's obedience in
this world, obeying every precept of God's law, obeying every aspect
of God's will, He worked for us a perfect righteousness. A perfect righteousness that
is imputed to us in free justification. But obedience was not enough. Sin must be punished. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And by his obedience unto death,
the Lord Jesus fully satisfied all the demands of God's holy
justice for us, until justice had nothing else to vindicate. Justice had nothing else to punish. Justice had nothing else to perform. It was all accomplished in Jesus
Christ's one sacrifice for sin, and by that one sacrifice, He
put away our sins forever. All those for whom he suffered
and died have been released from all sin and all guilt and all
curse fully justified and made righteous before God. Now that's
the teaching of Scripture. There's no possibility that any
sinner for whom Christ died can come under the curse of God.
There's no possibility that any sinner for whom Christ was punished
can be punished for his sins. There's no possibility that God's
wrath will fall on any for whom Jesus Christ bore all the wrath
of God. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Now listen carefully. This is
what that means. We are absolutely immune to punishment. We have complete immunity from
vengeance. We who believe are completely
delivered from all the penal consequences of sin. God will never impute sin to
those sinners for whom he imputed sin to Jesus Christ the Lord.
Now here's the second aspect to this. Having satisfied the
law, having satisfied the justice of God for us, we are assured
that our great Redeemer shall see of the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied. I told you to turn to Romans
3, but just hold your hands there and turn back to Isaiah. Let's
look at this blessed, blessed passage one more time. Isaiah
chapter 40. Isaiah the 40th chapter. This
is what we declare to sinners in the gospel. This is the good
news we preach. Redemption accomplished by Christ. This 40th chapter of Isaiah presents
us with that which the Lord God commissions His servants, all
His servants, to proclaim. He says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. What's the preacher supposed
to do? Comfort God's people. Comfort them with what? Speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem. I've shown you many times, speak
ye to the heart of Jerusalem. Speak to their heart. Speak to
their heart. God commands me to do that. I'm responsible to do that, and
I can't do that. But God can do that. if he will
speak by me to your heart through his word. Speak ye to the heart
of Jerusalem. What? Speak to a specific people? Well, how do you know who they
are? These are God's elect. But how do you know which ones
are God's elect? I don't. I don't. So I preach the gospel
freely to all men, but all the while knowing that God brings
the gospel home to Jerusalem. He brings the gospel home to
chosen sinners so that if you are unable to hear it, it was
intended for you. If you can hear it, it was just
for you. Read on. Cry unto her. Cry what? That her warfare is
accomplished. Men and women all their lives
live in rebellion to God. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies with hearts that are enmity against God and we live all our
days with our fists shoved in God's face. We would kill him
if we could. And the Lord God says the warfare
is over. The warfare is over. Tell my
people the warfare is over. It's over altogether on God's
part and He's calling you to surrender. And He will call you
to surrender if you're His. Tell Him the warfare is accomplished. I've accomplished it. What's
that mean? Her iniquity is pardoned. Pardoned before she knows it.
Pardoned before she experiences it. Pardoned before she enjoys
it, pardoned before she receives it, her iniquity is pardoned. Pardoned by God Almighty through
the sacrifice of His Son. Not her iniquity may be pardoned,
not her iniquity shall be pardoned, her iniquity is already pardoned. We don't come preaching to people
that there's a possibility of pardon, but rather in the preaching
of the gospel, we proclaim pardon accomplished. You understand
that? It's accomplished already. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Not only is your iniquity
pardoned, believe on the Son of God and righteousness is yours. Not only do we stand before God
as we like to say, just as if I'd never sinned, we stand before
God perfect, righteous, holy, with his spotless garments on,
holy as God's own Son. Oh, that's the message we're
sent to declare. And it is accomplished by Christ's
satisfaction described with these three words, propitiation, atonement,
and reconciliation. Propitiation, this is the first
aspect I want to look at. This word propitiation is used
only three times in the New Testament. But whenever you read about the
mercy seat throughout the Old Testament or in the New, whenever
you read the words mercy seat, think propitiation. As a matter
of fact, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word is exactly
the same word that's translated in the New Testament, propitiation.
The word propitiation and the word mercy-seek are the same
thing. The mercy seat, you'll remember,
is that which God ordered Moses to make a golden lid to fit right
on top of the Ark of the Covenant that was inside the Holy of Holies. And inside that Ark of the Covenant,
under the Ark, were the broken tables of God's holy law. Over
the mercy seat, made with one form of down on the mercy seat
were the cherubims of gold. Always looking on the mercy seat. Always looking at that place
where God said, I will meet you between the cherubs on the mercy
seat. There He said, I will commune
with you. That's the only place God ever
met with sinners, is on the mercy seat between the cherubs where
the ark of God had a lid over it covering the broken law of
God, and there, every year, once a year, and only once a year,
the high priest went in with the blood of the Paschal Lamb,
and he sprinkled blood on the mercy seat, and made propitiation for sin. That's Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. The word propitiation is found
here in Romans chapter 3, verse 25. You'll remember the publican
cried to God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The word merciful,
God be propitious to me. God, look on the mercy seat and forgive
me. God, look on the blood of the
Lamb, sprinkled on the mercy seat, not yonder in the holy
of holies, but yonder in heaven's glory, and be propitious to me,
the sinner. The mercy seat is that by which
God Almighty calls His people into union and communion with
Himself through the sacrifice of His darling Son, the Lord
Jesus. Romans 3 verse 25, Paul is talking
about our justification by Christ. Whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation, to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Not
that our faith accomplishes the propitiation. We'll see that
clearly as we go through the scriptures. Our faith receives
the propitiation and we cannot receive it except by faith. But
God set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood for
this purpose, to declare God's righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. You remember
when Moses in Exodus is leading the children of Israel and he
prays, he said, Lord if your presence go not with us, carry
us not up hence. And he said, Lord, I beseech
you, show me your glory. And the Lord said, all right,
you hide, I'll hide you here in the cleft of the rock, and
I'll pass by you and declare my name. And this is my name. I will by no means, I will by
no means clear the guilty. Won't do it. This is my name,
forgiving, iniquity, transgression, and sin. Do you ever notice that? Well, that's a contradiction.
It is except for God. I will by no means clear the
guilty, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. I will not clear the
guilty, but I'll clear the guilty. I will not do it, but I will
do it. How? By taking the guilty and making
them not guilty, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin through
a righteous just satisfaction, a propitiation for sin, to declare
God's righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. Christ was set forth then by
God the Father to be our propitiation. He is the one who made propitiation
for us. He is the one in whom propitiation
is found. He is the one for whose sake
God is propitious to sinners. He is himself our propitiation,
our mercy seat. He alone is the place where God
meets sinners and receives and embraces us. Christ is the one
by whom justice has been appeased. He is the one who is our peace,
our propitiatory sacrifice for sins. The Lord God smells the
sacrifice of his son and receives his sacrifice as a sweet smelling
savor, just as he did those typical sacrifices in the Old Testament. Ceremonially, he received them,
declaring himself content with them. So the Lord God takes the
sacrifice of his darling son And he says, that's sufficient. That's enough. That contents
me. And he receives us in his Son
by his sacrifice, even us as a sweet smelling savor. Imagine that. Imagine that. God Almighty, loves to embrace you, his own,
as he loves to embrace his own son, and says, this satiates
me, this contents me. The Spirit of God declares in
this 25th verse of Romans 3, that God the Father set forth
Christ as a propitiation, and he has done so setting him forth
as our mediator, as our propitiatory sacrifice for sins. He did so
in a number of ways, certainly in his eternal decrees. Before
the world began and his purposes, Jesus Christ is the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, and he is the lamb God purposed
to slay in time, and in the fullness of time, it came to pass. So
that when they had finished everything written of Him, we're told in
Acts chapter 4 and in chapter 13, they took Him down from the
cross. They finished everything written
of Him and then they took Him down from the tree. Christ Jesus
was set forth in the promises and prophecies and pictures of
the Old Testament scriptures. He is the seed of the woman. who will crush the serpent's
head by having the serpent crush his heel. He is Abraham's chosen
seed in whom and through whom all the nations of the earth
would be blessed and at the same time he is that sacrifice offered
by Abraham to God by which God Almighty accepts his servant
Abraham. Christ in the fullness of time
is set forth. Turn if you will to Galatians
chapter 4. I want you to see this. He's
set forth in human flesh, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. We're told in Romans
5 that when the fullness of time was come, Christ died for the
ungodly. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Here in Galatians 4 verse 4,
when the fullness of the time, isn't that amazing? Notice the definite articles.
Not just any fullness, not just any time. When the fullness of
the time, the time God sent from eternity was come. When the due
time had come, when that which our Lord called His hour had
come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the
law, made subject to the law to redeem them who were under
the law for this purpose, because there was no other way, Darwin,
for us to receive the adoption of sons. That we might receive
the adoption of sons. And our Lord Jesus is set forth
in the preaching of the gospel. We are born again, Peter says,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. We are
born again by the Word of God, and this Word of God is set forth
before you by the preaching of the Gospel. Whenever the Lord
God speaks by a man, preaching the Gospel of His grace, He is
setting forth His Son. And there is no true preaching. except when Christ is set forth
crucified among you. God teach me this and let me
never forget it. There is no true preaching, not
in the sense in which that word is used in this book with regard
to God's service. There is no preaching except
as Jesus Christ is set forth in the scriptures crucified among
you. We can tell all kinds of things
that are true and we can tickle men's ears and we can instruct
men in various systems of theology and various systems of doctrine
and we can be precise and accurate and we can be very biblical and
never preach at all. Preaching is declaring Him. Declaring the sinner's substitute
in the accomplishment of redemption and the glory he's obtained by
the success of his work. Turn to 1 John chapter 2. Here's
this word propitiation is used again. 1 John chapter 2, I'm sorry, 1
John chapter 2. My little children, these things
write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, don't sin. Don't be content to sin. Don't ever think, let alone say,
well, you know, we're all sinners. We just can't help it. There's no excuse for it. There's
no excuse for it. Not with you. Not with me. Not
with anybody else. No excuse for it. For any of
it. None. But don't ever imagine that you
don't. And if any man sin, the word,
Sam, is when you do. When you do. Read it that way
and you read it most clearly. And when you do sin, when you
do sin, what happens? What happens? If you're in Christ,
oh bless God, nothing happens. Nothing happens. And if any man
said, we've lost our advocates, no. We have an advocate with
the Father. Nothing changed. We still got
the same paraclete standing by God's throne in heaven who was
there for us for the past 2,000 years, who was there for us before
the war began. We have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus, Savior, Jehovah who saves,
the righteous, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and he is
the propitiation, the satisfaction of God for our sins. God says he's enough. He's enough. What do I do to make up with
God for my sins? Nothing. Nothing. I look away to my Redeemer and
continue to believe Him. That's all. That's all. Oh, Brother
Don, you just... It can't be that simple. Oh, it is that profoundly simple. Jesus Christ the righteous one. He who is the Christ, who is
Jehovah, our Savior, whose righteousness is infinite, efficacious, meritorious,
and never lacking. He is the propitiation for our
sins, and He continually pleads our cause at the throne of God
Himself. He continually pleads our cause
as an advocate in heaven. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of. That is, for the people of God
and their sins throughout all the world. The Lord God says in all His
works of grace for us, In Ezekiel chapter 16, when he gets to the
end of the chapter, he said, Do all this that thou mayest
remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any
more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for
all that thou hast done. The day's coming when God will
wipe away every tear from these eyes and he will lay his hand
over my mouth and I'll never mention my sin again. He won't bring it up and he won't
let me bring it up when he has made us to know that he's pacified
toward us for all that we have done. Chapter 4, 1 John, verse
10. Here's the third place where
this word propitiation is used. Back up to verse 9. In this was
manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his
only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.
herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Because of his great love for
us, he sent his darling son into this world to be the propitiation
for our sins by offering up his body and his soul as a sacrifice
of atonement for us. Now let's look at the second
word, atonement. Look in Romans chapter 5. The word is used throughout the
Old Testament. It's just used throughout the
Old Testament. You can read about it particularly
in Leviticus chapter 1, chapter 5, chapter 16. The word is essentially
the same as the word that's used in Genesis 6. where Noah was
commanded of God to pitch the ark within and without with pitch. The word pitch is the root of
the word atonement. It means to cover. The blood
sprinkled on the mercy seat covering the broken law inside the ark,
that's the atonement. The blood sprinkled on the doorpost
and on the lintel of every house in Egypt on that night when God
passed through the land in judgment but spared the Israelites in
the land of Egypt. That blood sprinkled on the door
was a covering, a covering of the people, the atonement. The
Lord Jesus, the great antitype of all those sacrifices, is our
atonement. He is that one who covers us
from the avenging justice of the Holy Lord God by atonement. The word, however, is only used
one time in the New Testament. And I realize that the modern
translations don't translate the word atonement. And I realize
that the word that is here translated atonement is really the word
reconciliation. but the word is translated atonement
with good reason because atonement is essential to reconciliation
and there is no reconciliation to God without the atonement.
The sin must be blotted out or there can be no reconciliation
made. Romans chapter 5 verse 11, not only so but we also joy
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, now watch this, by whom
we have now made atonement. Anybody have a Bible that reads
like that? Not even the bad ones read that way. By whom we have
now received the atonement. We received the atonement. We
didn't make it, we don't make it, we don't produce it, we receive
it. Christ made atonement, we receive
it. He made atonement when he accomplished
his death at Jerusalem, when he accomplished redemption by
the sacrifice of himself. We receive atonement believing
on him. This atonement made by our surety,
our representative, our substitute, our covenant head, We receive
by faith and receive the benefits and blessings of it by faith
when we believe on the Son of God. When He applies it to us,
we believe Him. When He sprinkles our hearts
by His Spirit with His blood, we believe Him and we receive
the atonement. But He made the atonement. The
word used here, as I said, more properly signifies reconciliation. In fact, it is translated in
the Old Testament, reconcile, at times. Why is that? Well, atonement and reconciliation
are two distinct words that speak of one thing, but speak of different
aspects of it. These two distinct words speak
of Christ's sacrifice, and atonement means at one with. That's what the word means. It's
made up, our English word is made up of three words, at, one
with. We have atonement and we are
at one with God through the blood of Jesus Christ by Him putting
away our sin, by Him blotting it out, covering it from the
view of God Almighty. Now if you cover something from
God's view, it's well covered. It has been put away. It's gone. So when we speak of the covering,
somebody says, well, we don't believe in October. That's just
a covering for sin. Well, you don't need to be more precise
than the Word of God is. When sin is covered from God's
view, David, it's gone. It's cast behind his back. It's
buried in the depths of the sea of infinite forgetfulness. But
reconciliation is something more. Reconciliation is not only having
my sin forgiven, but having God and me brought together in perfect
harmony. Reconciliation. Turn to 2 Corinthians
5, verse 18. Paul tells us, back in Romans
5, that if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, and we were, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life. Here in 2 Corinthians 5, 18,
Paul's talking about reconciliation, and he says, if any man be in
Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Verse 18, and all things are
of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." He has given to his church, he
has given to every preacher called to preach the gospel, the ministry
of reconciliation, the service reconciliation. That's what the
word means. The service of reconciliation. It is our service to proclaim
reconciliation and to bid sinners be reconciled to God. It is our
service to proclaim to sinners reconciliation accomplished and
to call for those sinners to be reconciled to God. Reconciled. How is a sinner reconciled to
God? We were enemies in our minds,
but Christ came and reconciled us to himself. It began with
his thoughts toward us, described by him as thoughts of peace and
not of evil. But oh, how he dealt with us
because of his thoughts of peace toward us. He put a hedge about
us. kept closing the hedge in. And we'd run this way and that
and he'd squeeze the hedge a little tighter. And we'd run this way
and that and he'd squeeze the hedge a little tighter. And we'd
be pricked and gashed and cut with the thorns and the hedges
and he'd squeeze the hedge a little tighter until at last he forced
us into his arms and made us happy to be there. That's reconciliation. Reconciliation is turning to
the sword and kissing it. Hell is what I deserve, my God. You're right when you judge. I have no argument, no grounds
to argue anything. Kiss the Son. Be reconciled to
God. We beseech you as ambassadors
of Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
be reconciled to God. Quit fighting God. Quit. That's what faith is. It is dropping your weapons of
war against God. being reconciled to Him. And one of these days, there's going to be a real reconciliation. Such as I have not yet begun
to describe, such as you and I have not yet begun to imagine,
through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ our God and Savior,
He who now sits upon the throne, having power over all flesh to
give eternal life unto as many as the Father has given Him.
Do you know what He's going to do, Lindsay? He's going to reconcile
all things to Himself. There's a day coming called the
restitution of all things. And all things in heaven above
in earth beneath and in hell beneath the earth shall be reconciled
to him. He will restore all God's creation
to God's glory perfectly. And everybody will be made to
see and see clearly. Everybody will be made to see
and see clearly that everything that is or has been, or shall
be, has been for the glory of God in the saving of His people. God, help me to get a hold of
that. Let that get a hold of my heart. Everything. Everything. Does that mean we excuse the
devil, ignore the devil, and God's going to use him for His
glory? No, no. But it does mean we have nothing
to fear from Him. You understand the difference? Does that mean
we like everything going on around us? No, no. Matter of fact, there's
not much going on around me outside the walls of God's church and
kingdom that I like. There's just not much. But I'd
be content with it. And I can worship God in the
midst of it. And I can walk in peace no matter what hell goes
on around me. How come? Because my God and
Savior is doing all things according to His purpose for the reconciling
of His people to Himself. And the day will come when He
will restore this creation to God who made it and restore it
perfectly. Amen.