Good morning. It's great to be here with you.
This morning, glad to have every single one of you present here
this morning. And we're so thankful for this
opportunity to worship together. For those of you maybe that I
haven't met before. My name is Matt Trent and I work
with the church in Norman. Oklahoma, of course, I'm from
California and really still a California and I just happened
to live in in Oklahoma now. And so Rachel's here with me my
wife, Rachel Glad she's with me. The kids are in Clovis this
morning with my dad and so anyway, but we're glad to be
here with you and very, very thankful for the invitation to
be your speaker. This morning, I want to read
with you. Just one passage of scripture
this morning, as we begin our study from the book of First
John, and it's just a short passage.
And we're going to come back to it again later in our lesson.
But I want to just use this one passage to introduce our study
for this morning. 1st, John Chapter 2 and verse 2.
The Bible says and He himself is the propitiation for our sins.
And not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
You know, in our family. I am a big fan of routine and
for a few years there, it was just me and three kids and I
like the routine before but that time I liked it even more
because it's a little bit challenging to keep track of
three kids and what they're all supposed to do and all of that.
And that is especially true with their homework and so when they
would come home with their different, Mints or whatever.
I like to kind of have a schedule where I would work with
them on particular things. And so a few years ago, Michael
would come home every afternoon and he had his vocab for the
week. And he'd get this list of 10
words or 12 words, whatever it was.
And those were his words to learn in every single day of the
week, you had a different assignment with that vocabulary
list and so, you know, on Monday, he just had to ride him
out. I don't know, five times or
something, and then Tuesday he had to write a definition for
them and then by Friday, he's supposed to be able to take a
spelling test and spell them correctly and I think be able to
Define them and so they would send us those vocab words and
they would help us. Or help him to explore some
particular topic. He'd been studying.
So they're studying about space, you know, all the words may have
something to do with, with outer space and stars and all of that
sort of a thing more. If they're studying about some
unit in history, maybe it would be a words that are associated
with the Revolutionary War, something like that.
So it's kind of interesting, because as he learned these
words, he could think more deeply about various things.
He was learning about different topics and everything.
So I got to thinking about this idea of a vocabulary list.
And I noticed in my own reading through the Bible.
I got to noticing, you know, when God talks about how he
saves, man. He doesn't just use the same
word over and over again. Fact, he uses lots of different
words to talk about how he saves man.
What if I was to make a vocabulary list of the
vocabulary of salvation? You know, on that list, you
would have words like, grace and mercy and justification.
Forgiveness reconciliation. Redemption cleansing election
remission. Just think of that list.
That's a heavy list. The god used those words in a
whole bunch of other ones to describe how he saves man from
sin. Why did he do that?
Why did you say over and over again?
I saved you, I saved you. I saved you.
You know each of these different terms is used by God
intentionally to teach us something.
Maybe about himself, something about man, something about
Jesus. In fact, these terms help us to
learn about those sorts of things in a deeper level.
And so I got to noticing around that time.
There's one of these words that God uses propitiation I don't
really know very much about I read it.
I'd see it there in the Bible from time to time.
But what does that word mean? when you read first, John 2 and
2 and it says and he himself is the propitiation What does that
mean? What is the word propitiation
means? And so for me, the starting
point, of course, I'd have to make sure I'm spelling it
correctly. Hopefully, I spelled it
correctly up here this morning, but then beyond that we want to
look at it. Meaning of this term.
And we want to understand from this particular term.
What does this term? Teach us about, man?
And what does this term teach us about God.
So, I want to give you this morning as we begin, just a real
simple, definition of the word propitiation.
The word propitiation means a sacrifice to take away wrath.
That's what the word means. As you study, the history of the
word back in the early days of the use of the Greek language
when they began the sorted using this term. they had these this
system of polytheism, they had hundreds of different gods, And
they'd have some event happened, maybe they'd have a fire or
they'd have a drought, or they have flooding or something like
that. And they would decide that they
had somehow made some God, angry, one of their false gods.
And as you learn about their false gods, their false gods are
actually just a whole lot like people with unchecked power.
And so they figure, well they had done something to make this
God angry and we got to figure out how to make him happy with
us again and so they kind of would invent these different
sacrifices or services or whatever and they would offer
these sacrifices to take away the wrath of this false god.
So there's kind of the background of this term.
When this term is used in the New Testament, it's not used in
reference to a false. God, it's not used to some
Maniac with unchecked power, like the false gods of the
Greeks. Instead, it's used in reference
to our God and it's used to teach us about our God.
I want to begin by noticing with you as we've talked about this
word, what this teaches us about, man.
What this particular term teaches us about man in our
relationship with God. The fact of the matter is is
that we as individuals when we become guilty of sin, Are the
recipients of the wrath of God. Sin.
We have to understand that its very nature sin is an affront to
God. Sin is an act of war against God
and God hates sin. God doesn't hate you.
He doesn't hate me but he hates sin.
And When sin becomes part of our life, we make ourselves an
opponent of God. A recipient of his wrath.
Listen to what? Romans chapter 1 verses 18 and
19 says. And let me just actually read
with you. Through verse 21 of Romans
chapter 1 Romans 1, verses 18 to 21.
Paul says for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what
may be known of God is Manifest in them, for God has shown it to
them. For since the creation of the
world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being
understood by the things that are made even his eternal power
and godhead. So that they are without excuse
because although they knew God they did not glorify him as God
nor we're thankful but became futile in their thoughts and
their foolish Hearts were darkened.
You know, for mankind, we have this this problem.
And this problem is that we have all committed sin. and Paul
says, in Romans chapter 1 that the wrath of God is revealed
because he told us We know. But we ignored it.
And we became guilty of sin that he did it and we've done the
same exact thing. And all by yourself, all on your
own, once you become guilty, what can you do about that?
Once you've committed a sin. What can you do about it?
Maybe you think aback over this week.
Maybe you think back over your life, you can think of of the
sin you've committed in particular.
What can you do about it? What can you do about?
What you did yesterday? You know what you can do?
All on your own. We're unable to do anything.
All on our own, we can't do a thing about the sin that has
been committed. Think of the position, we put
ourselves in, we don't really realize the moment.
This happens in our lives. What we've actually done,
typically this happens when we were younger, Maybe you're just
getting close to being a teenager.
Maybe you are a teenager and all of a sudden here comes the age
of accountability. There's not an absolute point
where that shows up in every person's life.
But it does show up where, you know, right and wrong.
You know what you ought to do, what you ought not to do.
And then you violate it anyway. You know what's wrong to lie and
you tell a lie? Anyway?
You know, what's wrong to be hateful?
Disrespectful to your parents but you are disrespectful and
hateful to your parents. Anyway, well, those are sins.
And they're so easily committed, aren't they?
Just right there in the flash of a moment.
You've committed your first sin. And what can you do about it?
Not a thing, there it is. Sits on your record.
And if it's just left to me, he just left to you.
It's never going away. No way, we could pay for it.
The wrath of God remains of Honest.
John 3 and 36 says that this way.
That if you do not believe in Jesus, that the wrath of God
remains upon you. It's a horrible thought isn't it
to think of the almighty creator?
All powerful and he's angry at me.
I've put myself in opposition to him.
What do I do about it? And I learned something really
neat in this study that I want to share with you from The Book
of Luke because in Luke chapter 18 this is the Dilemma.
Another person faced a long time before you and me came along.
Luke chapter 18 is a familiar parable about the rich man or
the public. And I mean in the tax collector,
These Guys Smoke might have been wealthy actually come to think
of it. But anyway, in Luke chapter 18
verses 9 through 14. This is a story about two
different kinds of Prayer. And two different ways of
approaching God, really? And I want to just show you this
relates to this concept of propitiation Luke chapter 18.
I want to begin reading with you here at verse 9.
Also, he spoke this Parable to some who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised by others.
Two men went up to the temple, to pray.
One, a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners
unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector, I fast twice
a week. I give tithes of all that I
possess and the tax collector standing afar off would not so
much as raised his eyes to heaven.
But beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you this man went down to his house Justified rather than
the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled
and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
You know, this Pharisee provides a tremendous example of what not
to do, how not to pray, how not to look at yourself, how not to
speak to God. There's nothing that he does.
That is that is a good example, really?
Here he is in the temple. Just notice, as you read his
prayer, how many times he uses that word?
I, I did this. I did that.
I did this, I did that. In his mind salvation is all
about a checklist. I've gone down the checklist, so
God, you owe me. He kind of missed this point,
didn't he? Of the fact that sin came into
his life? And he really on his own,
couldn't do anything and she's guilty of sin.
What can he do about it? But there he is bragging.
There he is. Looking down his nose at
everybody else. There he is completely blind to
the fact that he's going to leave the temple.
At a guilty distance from God. But then, Here Comes as tax
collector. In the heroes of Jesus story are
always, you know, Tax Collectors, or Samaritans, or
people like that. That everyone else hated.
Jesus shows how because of Faith these folks live.
Great lives sometimes. So here's this tax collector.
Who comes into the temple. And you can just sense the
humility and the guy who in his posture.
It says he won't even hardly even lift his eyes.
And what is he pray? He says God be merciful to me a
sinner. Know what I learned about this
little statement here is that when he says be merciful to me
that's not the term. Usually translated Mercy in the
New Testament. It's actually the term, usually
translated propitiation. Do you know what the tax
collector says? He says God.
I cannot do anything about my sin.
There it is. In my life.
I can't do anything. Can you?
I can't take care of my sin. Will you help me?
Can you help me with my sin? And he's humble because he knows
he committed the sin, it's his guilt is responsibility, but he
can't do anything about it. So he says, God, can you help
me? Be glad to tell you this morning
that God's answer to that question is.
Yes, because we're all right there with the tax collector,
we're guilty of sin and on our own, we can't take anything away
from our sin. So what do we need?
We call out to God. And what does he provide?
He provided his son? And when we were asked, God, can
you do something about it? He said, yes.
And he sent his son to die upon the cross.
And this morning, we can preach this gospel that those who hear
the word, those who believe it, those who repent of their sins,
those who confess their sins and those who are immersed in, this
is God's Plan of Salvation And I can preach this gospel this
morning because God answered, yes, I'll do.
Do something about your sin. I'm going to send my son and
he's going to die in your place and if you believe in him, I'll
take away your sin. If you'll obey the gospel, I'll
take away your sin. If you follow my plan.
I'll take away your sin. Aren't you glad this morning?
That God said, yes. And as we think about our own
lives and think about our own relationship with God, we need
him. We need his plan.
We need to be close to him. Because when we're away from him
and recipients of his wrath, we do not want to bear that, we
need to be close to him. And so we cry out to him just
like this tax collector. Did God, please help me?
Please help me. And here's his answer this
morning. This is his answer for all of us
that we would obey the gospel. And in that way, we would be
safe from our sins. And what I want to do for the
rest of our time together is to read for passages in the New
Testament. That use the word propitiation.
because what I really believe about this word is that this
word teaches us some really important lessons about God, the
fact that God would send his son to pay a sin, that was my
responsibility. That teaches us some important
lessons about God. So grab your Bibles and turn
with me first of all to Romans chapter 3 and in Romans chapter
3, we want to read together a couple of verses here.
The word propitiation itself is going to be in verse 25.
We want to notice together, beginning at verse 21, and we're
going to read through verse 26. I'd like to just kind of make
sure we read this line of thought here, Romans chapter 3,
beginning of verse 21. But now the righteousness of God
apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ to all. And on all who believe, For
there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God being justified, freely by his grace
through the Redemption that is in Christ.
Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood
through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his
forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously
committed. To demonstrate at the present
time, his righteousness that he might be.
Just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus want
to notice with you. The first thing we learn about
God, when we study about the concept of propitiation is we
learned that God is righteous. You notice at least twice in
this passage, and maybe you could argue more than that, it
mentions. The idea that this demonstrates
God's Justice. What is the word righteousness?
Mean righteousness, is all about conforming to what's right
doing? What's right?
So what does this passage in Romans 3 all about?
The whole point of this section is to prove.
Everybody's guilty of sin verse 23.
Everybody's guilty of sin. That being true.
How does God have a relationship with me?
You know why didn't God, why didn't he just give us a pass?
Why didn't God just say, okay, I know you committed sin but I'm
just not going to worry about it because I love you.
God doesn't view sin that way. You know, the way man, you said
in the way God, you sin is different and sin is not
something God can ignore. It's impossible.
And so, how is it that God could have a relationship with all
these people? He sent Jesus as a propitiation.
Want you to notice there in verse 25 because in his
forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously
committed, the cross. Paid for all these sins that
were committed way back in the Old Testament.
When did Davidson ever get paid for his paid for on the cross?
What about Moses, Moses committed sin, when did his sin
get paid for on the cross? All of those millions of people
live before Jesus, when did their billions or trillions of
sins, when did the debt get paid for all of those on the cross?
God paid for all of those debts. And all of that they were doing,
they were doing things. Looking forward to the Messiah,
their sacrifices, were looking forward to the time.
When the Messiah, I would come. God, demonstrates his
righteousness because he took care of all of that sin, and
every faithful person from the Old Testament is saved because
Jesus Paid the debt for their sin and then look at verse 26 to
demonstrate that at the present time is righteousness, that he
might be just and the justifier. So he's just in that, he took
care of this, he's the justifier and that that's the death of
jesus takes care of all of the sins of the New Testament age.
Do you see how that points? Both ways?
He's just because he took care of all those sins.
In the Old Testament, the justifier taking care of all the
sins in the New Testament. Do you see how thorough his plan
is? All of the sin for all time is
paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus.
And he saves the faithful for all of the ages.
Based upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
God is righteous and sin had to be dealt with.
And so, he dealt with every sin that's ever committed or ever
will be committed by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The second passage, I'd like to look at with you for a few
moments is in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter 2 and the like to read here, verses 14 through
18. Teen Hebrews chapter 2, verses
14 through 18, fair warning. If you're reading the Old King
James, the word we're looking for is in verse 17.
The new King James is going to say, propitiation the Old King
James, it will say reconciliation, but it's the
same Greek word. That's translated propitiation
everywhere else. And so anyway, just to give you
a little bit of a heads up there.
Let's start in Hebrews 2 verse 14 and as much then as the
children have partaken of flesh and blood He himself that
speaking of Jesus likewise shared in the same.
That through death, he might destroy him.
Who had the power of death. That is the devil and release
those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage, for indeed. He does not give Aid to Angels,
but he does give Aid to the Seed of Abraham.
Therefore in all things he had to be made like his Brethren.
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the
people. For in that he himself has
suffered being tempted, he is able to Aid those who are
tempted want to just emphasize one point from this passage as
well. And that is is that God
understands you know, this passage talks about Jesus
Christ, becoming human becoming flesh and he became flesh lived
in the flesh, to destroy the power of the devil to destroy
the power, he has through death And he accomplished that.
When he died, he then Rose from the grave and he now has opened
the way for all of us to raise to live eternally.
Then verse 17 mentions that in all things, he became like his
Brethren. I'll be key things.
He became like us. He became human just like us.
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.
That's our representative to the father is Jesus.
And look what it says in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation for the sins from that he has suffered.
He is able to Aid those who are tempted.
You know, God is righteous, every sin matters to him. and
sometimes, when you think about someone who's really, really
good at something, it's hard for them to relate to someone who
isn't And so I think of Math teachers, when I think of that,
and I don't mean any insult by that, but I really liked math
wasn't a super. Excellent math student.
So, I had to work really hard to learn these different
mathematical Concepts. And I had teachers sometimes who
they didn't have to work hard to learn it.
It just made sense to them. Maybe some of you are like that.
That's not how I was. And so when I had challenges and
I talked to these Math teachers, I didn't understand Do you just
do it? What do you mean?
It's are you just do it? If there's the answer, that's
not that works for me. Then I finally got this teacher,
had this math teacher who was like me and he started telling
me. Here's what you need to do to
build your math up. Here's the steps you need to
take. It was a lot of extra work, but
I did it and I finally got an A in a math class with that guy,
that was a great class. She'll the difference.
Was he understood my struggle. He understood why it was hard.
So he could relate to me. and so, when we think about the idea
that God is righteous, that can sort of give people sometimes,
maybe the idea that God is somewhat distant and doesn't
understand maybe the challenges that we face.
So that's why you read Hebrews chapter 2 because he does
understand. There's Jesus sitting at God's
right hand. And Jesus lived on this Earth
and he faced every single Temptation that we face.
The Temptations of First, John to the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
The devil hit him with those through his life just like he
hits him with us, through ours. And he hit him hard.
He didn't give up. You just kept coming at him.
Jesus knows it's her. He understands. he understands
this way that the devil has over this world, He understands the
challenges that we face in various settings of life.
I don't mean to say this morning that Jesus justify sinful
decisions. Because he doesn't.
But he understands that it's hard.
And when you have a tough day, And you can tell the devil is
really her coming at you and you pray to God about it.
There's Jesus at God's right hand and he gets it.
He knows what you feeling knows what that feels like.
It's great to know this morning. As you pray to this perfect.
God, who cannot tolerate sin that he has his son sitting at
his right hand. And he understands he
understands. I want to look at again.
Now at first John chapter 2 because we've learned that God
is righteous. We've learned that God
understands the struggle that we face with sin.
I want to emphasize to you now, another important Point as we go
back to 1st, John Chapter 2 and verse 2, Here, the Bible says
and he himself is the propitiation for our sins.
And not for ours only but also for the whole world, you know,
this particular passage teaches us where I am unable.
God is able he can do it. I want you to just stop and look
at this verse for second, just let it kind of soak in Where it
says, he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only,
but for the whole world. You know, this morning, I
couldn't do a thing on my own without God's help about a
single sin, not one. I don't have the power to change
one, sinful act to make it go away after it's been committed.
But look at what that says, God has the power to take away the
sins of the whole entire world. Now, here we are in Bakersfield
California. This morning.
I don't know the population of Bakersfield anymore.
I used to a couple of hundred thousand people, maybe some,
maybe more than that. How many sins you think have
been committed in Bakersfield California this morning?
I don't know. Thousands, maybe Millions.
I don't know. How many have been committed in
the state of California this morning, just this morning.
You have what is it now around? 40 million people.
What about in the United States? We're by the 7 billion
inhabitants of the whole entire world this morning.
How many sins have been committed?
On June 9. 2009 teen. Isn't that kind of blow you just
to think of that? And God can take care of all of
them. I couldn't take change one.
And he can take care of all of them.
And not just for what's happened this morning.
But for what's happened all through time, and for every
single life Doesn't that teach you this morning about the power
of God? That God is able.
He is righteous. He understands that the
challenge that we face and he has the ability then to do
something about it. Want to look at one last passage
with you. This one from first John chapter
4, And I want to notice here with you verse 10, because I
want to look at one last Point here.
And that is the question of motive.
Why would he do it? In this is love.
Not that, we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to
be the propitiation for our sins.
Why would God do that? Why would he use all of his
power to take away my sin? Because of love because of love,
you know, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of suspicious
at times when people want to do something nice for me.
I don't mean like my, like, Rachel I'm not suspicious when
she brings me coffee, I think that's fantastic.
But I mean, maybe somebody that's a little bit more
distant. So a few years ago, Mike and I,
for example, went to a baseball game in Chicago and went to a
game on the south side of Chicago, we saw the White Sox
play And we're standing there in line getting ready to buy some
tickets. And we're chatting about
whatever, you know, and trying to figure out what seats were
going to buy and all of that. And there were, there was not a
long line to buy tickets there, and there were plenty of seats
available. Not like going to a Dodger game.
It's anyway, there are lots of seats available so we're stand
there. Looking at the available seats.
And I'll send this gentleman walks up to me.
He says, are you buying tickets? Well, yeah, I hope so that's
what this line is for, isn't it? He said, I've got something for
you. Really, okay?
So I stepped out of line. He says, you know, I've been
standing here for 10 minutes. Just watching for the right
father-son combination, to walk by.
He said I've got a couple of tickets.
I want to give you these tickets.
I thought, who are you? And you know, you sort of get to
looking around and I don't know, Candid Camera still on TV or
not, but you kind of have these memories of these practical
jokes being played on people or whatever.
And so I think, okay, we got a lot of time before the game,
even if this is a joke or whatever, got time to come back
and buy tickets, and still make it in for the game.
So it gives me this envelope. And we walk in and I flash these
tickets to the guy and they let me in and along with these
tickets. There's these passes on.
I don't know what these passes are all meant.
So we walk in and find the signs.
And I begin following these signs to go where these passes
would admit us. And we found our way to this
kind of remote little part of the stadium where there was this
nice restaurant. And there was a guy there like
preventing people from coming in and when I showed him, what I
had, he said, well, you can come in your meals taken care of.
And I didn't eat there because when you go to a baseball game
you Dodger Dog, you know that's why I've grown up so you don't
eat a nice dinner and a baseball game like that.
But anyway it was impressive and I thought wow this might be
something. And so, we go find our way to
our seats. And we just kept going down and
down and down. And before, you know, it there
were sitting about 10 rows behind home plate.
And there's all these guys sitting around us with these
stopwatches and stuff, they were Scouts.
We were sitting where all the scouts it.
You know, the more I went into that the more I liked that guy.
And we sat ended up sitting there next to him and his wife
had just happened. His son, couldn't come to the
game. So he wanted to share it with
somebody else and we sat there next to his wife and chatted
with them through the game. Nice, nice people.
This is that sort of how this works with this subject this
morning. You begin learning about these
Concepts, right? And guilty of sin.
In the one I'm guilty against. What's he going to do?
He's mad at me. What's he going to do this
righteous God? Well, it just so happens that he
understands the struggle. He has the power to do something
about it and he loves you, he loves you.
And so he's going to do everything he can to help you.
This morning, I don't know everything about your life, I
don't know the struggles that you face.
But I know sin is awful and I know sin is a cruel, cruel
companion. and when it comes into your life that just Beach
on you, And maybe this morning, that's where we are.
Maybe sins been beating on you for a while and you're tired of
it. Well, I'm going to tell you.
You have a God that loves you on your own.
You never going to fix those problems, but cry out to him.
Call out to him and he will answer you.
Here's the way we call out to him.
You see we hear the good news that we've talked about this
morning about God's Plan of Salvation.
We believe that good news. We commit to a change of life
from living our way to living God's way we confess our faith
in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
And then we're immersed in water for the Forgiveness of sins.
This is God's Plan of Salvation this morning.
This is how this morning that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Take away the Wrath that is in your life because of sin.
We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
would like any additional information, or you would like
to receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.
Please email us at info at her Church of Christ
Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays
at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our
honored guest.