"He Himself Is The Propitiation" - Matt Trent

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.

John 2 · chapter mention

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

Romans 1:18

19 says. And let me just actually read

with you. Through verse 21 of Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 Romans 1, verses 18 to 21.

Romans 1:18–21

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

Romans 1 · chapter mention

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.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Another person faced a long time before you and me came along.

Luke chapter 18 is a familiar parable about the rich man or

Luke 18 · chapter mention

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

Luke 18:9–14

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.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

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

Romans 3 · chapter mention Romans 3 · chapter mention

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,

Romans 3 · chapter mention

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

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

18. Teen Hebrews chapter 2, verses

Hebrews 2:14–18

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

Hebrews 2:14

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

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

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

1 John 2 · chapter mention

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

John 2 · chapter mention

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

1 John 4 · chapter mention

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.