Errors Concerning Propitiation, Part 2

Review of Paganizing the Propitiation

0:00 For well over a year now, our Sunday morning services have found us studying the Word of God, concerned with coming to grips with some of the most elementary aspects of biblical teaching under the broad canopy of the title given to this series, Here We Stand. And after a digression of several weeks, we are coming back to that basic concern of study. Having considered the nature of the book we believe and obey, something of the teaching of that book concerning the God whom we worship and confess, we are now in the third broad area of study, namely the salvation we receive and proclaim.

0:52 Having demonstrated from the Scriptures who the recipients of this salvation are, we are now concerned with the central figure in this salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ himself. We spent a number of Lord's Day mornings contemplating the mystery of his person. And we saw that he is, in the old Christological language, true God, true man, one person in two natures forever. And that it is only such a Savior, so constituted, who answers to our need as sinners.

1:32 And now we are concerned with considering not just the mystery of his person, but the majesty of his offices. For as the Redeemer of His people, Jesus Christ occupies the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in His state of humiliation and in His state of exaltation. Now we've reversed somewhat the traditional order, prophet, priest, and king, and are focusing first of all upon his priestly function because in the perspective of the New Testament, Christ's priestly function is central to his work of redemption. And his functions as king and prophet derive their significance from his functions as a priest.

2:21 Having opened up many of the portions, particularly in the book of Hebrews, which demonstrate the validity and the nature of his priesthood, we have focused for several weeks now upon the nature of the sacrifice which he offered as our great high priest. Our Lord was unique in that he was both the passive substitutionary victim who was offered and the active representative priest who effected that offering. And it is essential for us as the people of God to have a clear grasp upon the precise nature and benefits of the sacrifice which he offered. And so we have demonstrated from the scriptures that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was nothing less than a real, vicarious, penal satisfaction for sin.

3:14 And though for some of you who may be visiting with us and new to the Christian faith, that may seem like a mouthful of verbal mush that says nothing to you, I assure you it is more than that. For in those words is captured the essence of the teaching of the Word of God. And all I can do is encourage you at your leisure to get the tapes of those studies and to go through them if you would have an understanding of what it means to conceive of the sacrifice of Christ as a real, that is, an objective, penal satisfaction for the sins of his people. And in so offering himself, the scriptures tell us that our high priest made propitiation for the sins of his people.

4:03 Therefore, we cannot conceive of that sacrifice apart from its biblical category of propitiation. We have demonstrated from the Scriptures that propitiation means nothing more or less than to avert the anger of God by an offering. By His sacrificial death, the Lord Jesus pacified the wrath of God against His people. And because this truth is so central to the Christian faith, we should not be surprised that the great liar and father of all lies, the devil himself, who destroys the souls of men by means of his lies, has continually sought to obscure this great truth.

4:48 And the truth of a sacrifice that is to be regarded as a propitiation, that is, the appointed means to turn away the wrath of God which would otherwise fall upon the sinner, that great and central truth of propitiation has been the constant object of satanic attack throughout the history of the church. And so we are concerned to grapple with those perversions and with those denials of this great doctrine. Not because we are fascinated with error, but in order to cause the truth to stand out in even greater clarity and to have a grasp upon it that is more definitive. In our last study we saw that the first great error has been to paganize the propitiation.

5:38 The enemies of the gospel have said why the idea that Christ would propitiate God is unworthy of God. And so they have constructed a caricature made in the image of the pagan gods who were capricious gods, unpredictable gods, whose whims had to be satisfied and fancied with an offering. And by caricaturing the biblical doctrine they have sought to dispose of the biblical reality. But then the friends of the gospel have also paganized the propitiation when they've conceived as God the Father against us, God the Son for us, and Christ by his death turning the God of wrath into the God of love.

6:20 When in reality this would be an anti-Trinitarian concept. There is one will and one purpose within the Godhead and the scriptures tell us that the very propitiation flows out of the heart of God. 1 John 4 and verse 10. Well, so much for that all too brief and hasty overview of many weeks of study.

Introduction to Neutralizing the Need for Propitiation

6:45 We come now this morning to consider the second tragic error with respect to this doctrine of propitiation. And it is what I am calling neutralizing the need for the propitiation. Not only has Satan sought to undermine this glorious truth by causing people to paganize the propitiation, he has sought to accomplish his soul-destructive ends by neutralizing the need for propitiation. And this, as in the paganizing of the propitiation, has been done both by the enemies of the gospel and by the friends of the gospel.

7:29 So our study this morning will gather itself around those two concerns. First of all, the heresy of the enemies of the gospel, which neutralizes the need for propitiation and the biblical answer. and then secondly the serious error of the friends of the gospel by which they have neutralized the need for propitiation. First of all then, the heresy of the enemies of the gospel.

7:57 Unlike those who paganize the propitiation and set up a straw man who is so ugly as to be rejected by all thinking people, this heresy seeks to use the Bible to prove that there is no such quality or attribute of God such as wrath, anger, or displeasure. These assert that God is pure, unmixed, and eternal love. Now, love can be disappointed. Love can be frustrated.

8:35 Love can be ineffectual. And those who seek to neutralize the need for propitiation, who fall into the category of the enemies of the gospel, simply state that because the Bible says God is love, He is therefore all love. And therefore to think of any such quality inherent in God, such as wrath and anger, is foreign to the God of the Bible, and they seek to neutralize the need for propitiation by saying there is no wrath to be pacified. If propitiation is the pacifying of divine wrath, take away that which needs to be pacified, there need be no propitiation.

9:19 And so they teach that God's love is disappointed and it allows the sinner to go to the ultimate results, exalts the built-in retribution and punishment of his sin, but God is not actively, personally inflicting that punishment. Let me illustrate it in a way that even the children can understand. If you were to go off next Saturday, if it's a lovely day with the family on a picnic, say to South Mountain Reservation, and you go up on the top of one of those hills, and you spread out your picnic blanket, and your picnic jug and basket and all the rest, and then right in the middle of the meal you get fooling around with your brother or sister and you knock the jug over and it falls in the direction that the hill goes downward.

10:06 What happens to that water? Or that Kool-Aid? Or that punch? Whatever is in it.

10:13 Why, you say, it will run down the side of the hill and be absorbed by the grass. Exactly. Do you need to be there pushing it down the hill? You say, no, Pastor.

10:21 It will run down by itself. The sheer force of gravity takes over and pulls it downward. Now, these people would say precisely the same thing. When sinners put themselves out of the realm of God's love, God takes His hands off and simply allows the built-in tendencies of sin to do their work.

10:42 And so they destroy themselves, but there is no active activity, there is no active presence of God inflicting punitive justice upon them. Therefore, God's love may be frustrated as sinners destroy themselves. God's love may be ineffectual, but there is no such thing as the wrath of God breaking the back of the sinner and crushing him with divine judgment. Now, what do we say in the light of that allegation?

Answer One: Explicit Statements of Wrath in the Word

11:16 If that's true, then of course there can be no doctrine of propitiation. For the whole concept of propitiation is there is real wrath in the real God which will truly fall upon the head of every one of its objects if it is not turned away by an adequate sacrifice. Well, the answer we give to this neutralizing of the need of the propitiation is threefold. Number one, the explicit statements of the word of God from Genesis to Revelation.

11:48 Secondly, the undeniable manifestation of the wrath of God in human history. And thirdly, the inescapable demonstration of the wrath of God at Mount Calvary. First of all, then, the explicit statements of the word of God. May I encourage you to do something this afternoon if you have time and you want to use it profitably Take your Strong or Young concordance any exhausted concordance and simply look up the word wrath and then go down through every reference to the wrath of God.

12:22 Then take the word anger, and go down through every reference in the anger of God. And you know what you'll find? You will find dozens upon dozens of explicit references to the wrath and anger of God. I give you but a few specimen examples.

12:40 Exodus chapter 22 and verse 24.

12:45 And notice the description of this wrath is the description not of frustrated love or an attitude that says hands off and let sin do its work, but it is the positive activity of a disposition in God that positively inflicts punishment upon its objects. Exodus chapter 22 and verse 24. And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword. And your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

13:25 Now you say, that's almost sadistic language. It's the language of Jehovah, who says, if you sin against the light of my holy law, if you turn away from my precepts, my wrath shall wax hot, I will come with an aggressive expression of my anger and I will kill with a sword. Seems to me that's something more than frustrated love. Ineffectual love.

13:52 That is positive divine anger inflicting positive tokens of that anger and displeasure. Numbers 11 and verse 33. Another such example. Numbers 11 and verse 33.

14:12 The children of Israel have complained. God provides flesh, and we read in verse 33, While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. The anger of the Lord was kindled. It does not say his love was disappointed.

14:43 His love was frustrated. It says his anger was kindled. It is there as a disposition resident in the very being and nature of God. And it was called forth into active, positive, destructive exercise in the presence of sin.

15:01 Deuteronomy chapter 29. For another example. And again these are just a few specimen examples. There are dozens upon dozens in the Old and in the New Testaments.

15:14 Deuteronomy 29, verses 22 to 25.

15:44 The Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath. He overthrew them, not in a disposition of frustrated, ineffectual love, but as a positive infliction of divine wrath and divine displeasure. The wrath of God is celebrated in the Psalms. In Psalm 78, there are no fewer than three or four references to it.

16:13 in the 90th Psalm, Who knoweth the power of thine anger and thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee? In other words, the psalmist said, Who worships you aright? Who has such an apprehension of your wrath as an inherent part of your character that he renders appropriate worship? We could go on through the prophets and we come on into the New Testament and it's very interesting that the New Testament book most full of the wrath of God is the book most full of the explicit statements of the Gospel.

16:45 It's the book of Romans. And there are no fewer than a half a dozen explicit references to the wrath of God in the book of Romans, starting in chapter 1 in verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. On into chapter 2.

17:04 He uses such vigorous language as this. tribulation, wrath, and anger upon every soul of him that doeth evil, treasuring up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And right on through into the book of the Revelation, where we have these graphic descriptions, not only of the wrath of God in general, but the wrath of the Lamb in particular. Revelation 6 and verse 16, And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

17:49 Then you have language in chapter 19 that is even yet more vigorous. 19 and verse 15 And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. not frustrated love that takes its hands off and lets the water run down the hill. No, no, there is a sword, and with that sword he smites, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty.

18:22 All the almightiness of God is brought into the closest proximity to his righteous and his holy wrath. And so we say to those who would neutralize the need for propitiation by saying there is nothing in God but pure, boundless, unmixed love. And the only retribution known in the Bible is the retribution of hands-off from this God of love. We say such a God is an idol, and to worship Him, to think of Him in that light, is to violate the First and Second Commandments.

Answer Two: Manifestations of Wrath in History

19:00 Because the explicit statements of the word of God from Genesis to Revelation reveal that God's wrath is an attribute inherent in his very nature. But then secondly, this position does not do justice to the undeniable manifestations of the wrath of God in human history. Starting with the fallen angels whose state is described in the book of Jude, who the moment they fell were consigned to chains of darkness awaiting the judgment of the last day, to the banishment in Eden. God did not simply take his hands off and say, let sin take its course.

19:41 It says he drove the man and the woman out of the garden and he set an angel with a flaming sword by the way to the tree of life. You try to tell those whose bloated bodies float on the crest of the forty days and forty nights of the opening up of the heavens, the opening up of the fountains of the deep, that there is no such characteristic in God as positive divine anger when God inundates the whole earth and all but eight souls are destroyed by water.

20:17 In the morning when the smoke rises from the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah, when God sends from heaven fire and brimstone, He does not simply leave those who have given themselves in the language of the Bible to strange flesh. To destroy themselves with the built-in principles of self-destruction that come when men begin to act like beasts. There is a built-in self-destruct system. The way of the transgressor is hard and sin is self-destructive.

20:46 But I tell you there was a positive intervention of God. Fire and brimstone fell from heaven and consumed the cities of the plains.

20:57 You try to tell those fifty young smart-alecky teenagers who went out, Hey, yo, bald head! And they began to mock the prophet. And he cursed them in the name of Jehovah. And two she-bears came down and killed them all.

21:12 You try to tell the parents who grieve at the loss of their children that there's no such thing in God as positive anger, positive divine displeasure look at the city of Jerusalem and certainly behold the last day when the king shall sit upon his throne and before him shall be gathered all the nations and you hear him say to the angels bind them hand and foot and cast them into outer darkness he doesn't say just leave them alone to feel the built in sting and pangs of sin No, no! Hell will be a place of the positive infliction of divine wrath upon the sinner, as well as giving him over to all the built-in infliction of sin's tragic results.

Answer Three: The Wrath Displayed at Calvary

22:04 But above all, this position that would neutralize the need of propitiation not only violates the explicit statements of the Word, not only does it fail to do justice to the undeniable manifestation of God's wrath in human history, but above all, it fails to reckon with the inescapable manifestation of divine wrath at Calvary. Either our Lord was confronting the awesome reality of the positive infliction of divine anger and displeasure, or he is to be pitied. Because among sinful men there have been those who faced far more tragic deaths than he who never once cried out with a sense of abandonment.

22:54 Who went to their death without the agony and the struggle, may I say it, of holy human vacillation and indecision. Oh, my Father, is it possible?

23:09 Nevertheless, not my will. There are martyrs who never prayed that way. The moment they knew they were going to the stake, they leaped at the thought and hugged the stake as their dearest friend. There was no cringing.

23:24 There were no great sweat drops.

23:28 There was no crying. There were some of them who sang hymns of praise.

23:35 No cry of abandonment, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? If this position is true, then our Lord is to be pitied, for he broke down under pressure.

23:48 But if we hold him to be what the Scripture says he is and what the Holy Ghost has revealed him to be in our hearts, we know that the agonies of Gethsemane and Golgotha are the inescapable monuments to this great reality, that there is wrath in God. And when that wrath falls upon the guilty, even when the one who is guilty is guilty by representation, as surety of his people it is pure unmixed divine wrath And when the Holy Soul of our Lord felt the billows of that wrath it caused him to cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And in that cry of dereliction

24:34 is the witness coming down to this present day that propitiation is an absolute necessity and an inescapable reality or Calvary is the greatest mockery in human history.

24:52 All this sentimental Good Friday services, sentimental Easter services, our Lord must be sickened. My friend, there's nothing sentimental about Gethsemane in Golgotha. It's ugly. It's ugly.

25:09 to behold the only sinless man who ever lived, hanging naked and stripped beneath the shrouded heavens with an agonizing cry of abandonment. What's pretty about that?

25:28 Thank God in its ugliness, it is the most beautiful sight in the world for a sinner who has begun to discover that sin is his greatest problem and that God is holy and God is just and God must punish sin. And he cries out, where can I find a hiding place? Where in all the universe of God can I escape from His wrath? And then he sees the answer is in that place where the wrath broke upon the head of His substitute.

26:00 And the blessed Lord Jesus in the language of the Apostle was made a curse for us. He was made sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Know all of the efforts of the enemies of the Gospel to neutralize the need for the propitiation fall before this threefold witness of Holy Scripture, the explicit statements of His anger, the undeniable manifestations in human history, and the inescapable manifestation of divine wrath at Calvary. But now I address myself to a more sensitive area of concern.

Error of the Friends of the Gospel Introduced

26:47 It is the neutralizing of the need for propitiation among the friends of the gospel. And I am going to address myself to this in these words, the serious error of the friends of the gospel. You see, there is the heresy of the enemies of the gospel who would literally change the God of the Bible into a God made after their own image. But there is serious error by the friends of the gospel.

27:15 What do I mean by the friends of the gospel? Those who acknowledge their sinfulness, acknowledge the reality of divine wrath coming on the day of judgment, who gladly acknowledge the only deliverance from that wrath is to be found in Christ crucified. However, follow closely. They greatly neutralize the need for the propitiation by a concept and a presentation of the gospel, which gives a disproportionate place to the love of God and is almost silent as to the wrath of God.

27:48 And the key issue in this presentation is, the only wrath you have to deal with is wrath that will meet you way out at the end if you're not on the Lord's side. And I say this perspective is undermining the burning sense of the necessity for a propitiation. Examples? Every bumper sticker that screams out this indiscriminate dribble, God loves you, smile.

28:17 Or smile, God loves you.

28:23 A sinner is not to smile because God loves him. is to frown and weep and tremble because God is angry with the wicked every day.

28:34 And the wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not.

28:41 Some of us are beginning to feel the pressure of the Madison Avenue evangelism that has inundated the greater metropolitan area. And it's going to get greater in the days ahead. The billboards will be screaming out at us, I found it. You can have it.

Critique of Modern Evangelism: Four Spiritual Laws and Billboard Campaigns

28:57 Call 6921264. And when you call, you know what you'll hear? God loves you. And there's a wonderful plan for your life.

29:08 But there's a little problem.

29:12 Sin has created some problems in you. You can't know that plan until you get rid of that. But that's alright. Because God's taking care of that little bit of problem.

29:22 And he took care of it in Jesus Christ. and if you'll accept him then you can know that wonderful plan. You see the whole focus of that presentation of the gospel and without it the whole here's life campaign falls to the ground as nothing. At the core of the whole campaign is the four spiritual laws.

29:38 It's the sum and substance of the whole campaign. Now what's wrong with it? It gives a disproportionate and inaccurate place to the love of God and is silent upon his wrath. In the past few weeks I've read the testimony of a famous authoress who is selling at a rate of thousands upon thousands books that are supposed to tell Christian women how to be good Christian wives and mothers.

30:09 I read the testimony, read it through twice to make sure I wasn't missing anything of a so-called converted political activist. and my heart wept within me. These people are paraded as products of the gospel, not a word about sin and divine wrath and divine anger and divine propitiation. One of them had a weep by a saint one day and felt better.

30:32 That was her conversion. Another one saw his face in the face of Jesus in the moon and had a good weep, quoted the Lord's Prayer in the 23rd Psalm and woke up the next morning feeling peaceful. That's his conversion. And that is not caricature.

30:45 I've read it with my own eyes.

30:48 And that's not second, third hand. One was the first interview given to this political activist. The other was her own testimony in her own article. Approved to be in a Christian periodical.

30:59 Oh, but you say, Pastor Marnus is being overly fastidious. The gospel is being preached. Is that the gospel? To say that you were looking at a moon and suddenly you wept and repeated the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm and felt better?

31:11 Nothing about divine provision in a propitiation. Nothing about seeing sin as offensive against God, exposing the sinner to the wrath of God. What is the biblical refutation of this thing? I'll tell you what it is.

The Pattern of Romans: Gospel Begins with Wrath

31:26 There is but one canned presentation of the gospel in the entire New Testament. And you know what that presentation is? That's the book of Romans. And when the apostle would expound what the gospel is, where does he begin?

31:39 Look at his pattern under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. His great theme is the gospel.

31:49 Concerning the gospel, he has been appointed an apostle in the first paragraph. With respect to the gospel, he feels himself a debtor. Paragraph number two. And now he gives this distilled essence of the entire book in verses 16 and 17.

32:06 I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith to faith as it is written. But the righteous shall live by faith.

32:21 There's my great theme. I'm appointed an apostle with respect to the gospel. Verses 1 to 7. I feel myself indebted to the gospel.

32:30 Verses 7 to 15. I have never had occasion to be ashamed of that gospel. It's the power of God. Now he's got our appetite all whetted and we say, Paul, something so important that you've been appointed as a herald of that.

32:44 Something so all-consuming that you regard yourself a debtor to every man to proclaim it. Something so wonderful that you've never had occasion to be ashamed of it. And it's the very doolness of God. Paul, what is the gospel?

32:57 And now he's got our ears and he says, I'm going to tell you what the gospel is. And what's the first word of the gospel? Look at your Bible. It's not here on my forehead.

33:04 It's in your Bible. What does it say? Verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

33:12 Oh, but Paul, you don't start the gospel with the wrath of God. You turn people away. That's not psychologically sound. I mean, you've got to meet people in their felt needs.

33:24 I mean, people don't feel wrath of God. I mean, back in the days of the Puritans, when they had this mentality that God was a stern God sitting on the throne, you could talk about wrath of God, but we must find the point of contact with men's felt needs. And ours is the day of a sense of loss of identity. We've got to tell them they're rubbish.

33:48 The wrath of God. You want to know what the gospel is? Come to grips with the wrath of God, Paul says. And then he goes on to open up that theme all the way through chapter 1, all the way into chapter 2, all the way through chapter 2, all the way into chapter 3, all the way down to chapter 3 and verse 20.

34:12 And not until then does he say, but now. And then he opens up the truth of what? Propitiation, as we saw two weeks ago. And in verses 24 to 26, the heart of his gospel is the gospel of propitiation.

34:29 But he doesn't give you that until he starts with divine wrath upon all men.

Violation of Law and Gospel Relationship

34:39 Therefore I say in our day the need, the sense of need for the propitiation is being neutralized not only by the enemies of the gospel, but by the serious error of the friends of the gospel who utterly overlook the divine pattern of this inspired exposition of what the gospel is. Furthermore, this neutralizing of the need of propitiation by the friends of the gospel not only violates the pattern of Romans, it violates the sensitive and God-ordained relationship between the law and the gospel. God has woven together the law and the gospel,

35:26 each subservient to and supportive of the other, That's why Paul in his concluding statement says in verse 19, now we know, chapter 3 of Romans, verse 19, that whatsoever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law. And he proved that was Jew and Greek. The Greek who had no written law, but had the work of the law in his conscience. The Jew who had the written oracles.

35:52 The law speaks to them that are under its power, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be brought under the judgment of God, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin. Then when He opens up the nature of that salvation, verse 31, do we make the law of God of none effect through faith? God forbid we establish the law. You see what He's saying?

36:21 Law and gospel are not like this. They are like this.

36:27 And this modern presentation of the gospel has failed to reckon with this fundamental principle that the law and the gospel are essential as instruments in the hands of God both to effect the conversion of sinners and to establish them in the way of holiness and so people that are brought to the profession of the gospel whose consciences have never been made sensitive to the claims of God as found in his law who've never felt the sense of oughtness with respect to that law when they've made their decision it's no wonder that they don't take holiness seriously for what is holiness but the conformity of heart and life to the law of God in the power of the spirit

37:13 out of love to Jesus Christ.

37:19 And so this approach by the friends of the gospel without in any way questioning their motives. And don't anyone go out and say, someone slaps up. No, no, not questioning motives, dear people. These people are not promoting their motives.

37:33 They're preserving their gospel. And it's that gospel to which I'm speaking, not their motives. God alone knows the motives. Their motives are not on the billboard.

37:43 Their motives are not in the four laws. Their motives are not to be found in the hundreds and thousands who make decisions and be absolved by Protestant absolution, who are estranged to the grace of God as is this movement.

38:01 The church growth movement, which is no great proponent of the things that we love, analyzed the fruits of this campaign in three major cities, six months to a year after the campaigns were over. And they found they could find neither hide nor hair of 97% of the people who prayed the prayer and were told they were saved over the telephone. And of the 3%, 50% of those were already church people. Oh, but you say 1.5% maybe were saved, my friend.

38:31 Listen, one of the other 97% who are sent to hell with a lie in their hands. is it being doctrinaire and negative to burn with compassion that men are sent to hell with a lie in their hands what about the Lord Jesus who is dishonored by his sacred bloodletting being brought to the level of a mere psychological release and pack up job Do not our hearts burn for his honor and for his glory?

Biblical Presentation of God's Love and Wrath

39:14 But then, of course, this presentation is not only a violation of the pattern of the gospel given in Romans. It not only fails to reckon with the relationship the law and the gospel. It violates the explicit testimony of the word of God. I have no warrant to tell a sinner indiscriminately God loves him and say that's the end of the story.

39:38 I can say God loves sinners in that he sends his reign upon the just and the unjust. I have biblical warrant for that. Matthew 5, 48. In that sense, I'm to love all men as my Father does.

39:50 I have every warrant to say God loves sinners in that he sends the gospel to them freely, without any equivocation. And Christ is presented freely and sincerely to all men in the Gospel.

40:04 But that's not the whole story. My Bible says I must declare to them is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 10.31 I am to tell them John 3.36 the wrath of God presently abides on him that believeth not.

40:23 I am to tell them in the language of Psalm 5, The arrogant shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. I am to tell them in the language of Psalm 11, That God is angry with the wicked every day.

40:43 A half-truth given is a whole truth, Is a whole untruth. Oh dear people if God has given us a little sight in these past days of the glory of Christ work of propitiation then we must love the gospel of propitiation we must not seek to manipulate that gospel make it palatable to men in their unregenerate state adopting it into a form of self-help or guruism or mere psychological panaceas. But we must proclaim that glorious gospel that is God's answer to the greatest question that any rational being can ever ask.

41:30 And you know what that question is? How can sinful man be accepted with a holy God?

41:40 And the answer to that question is found in the gospel of propitiation. that sinful man who is the rightful object of divine wrath and displeasure can be right with God because God sent His Son to die for sinners. And in that death, He propitiated the Godhead. He turned away divine wrath by being swallowed up in that wrath.

Application to Conscience and Commitment to the True Gospel

42:10 And the promise in Christ is a blessed one. that every sin will be pardoned and the sinner will find acceptance of his person wholly on the basis of the work of another. As I close, may I address a question to the conscience of everyone in this building. Has this glorious gospel come home to your heart as the power of God?

42:36 The gospel that announces divine wrath against sinners Divine provision in Jesus Christ for sinners Even the neediest of sinners The divine invitation Come all things are ready But oh the solemn overtones of divine warning He that believeth not shall be damned Has that gospel become the power of God to your salvation? Has it? Has it wrenched you loose from your willful course of rebellion and love of sin and made you, oh yes, an imperfect, a stumbling, but an honest bond slave of Jesus Christ? Has the gospel done that for you?

43:21 If not, you've never known its power. And I entreat you this morning in the name of Christ, give yourself no rest until you know its power. And I say to you who can say yes by the grace of God I have known and do know to this day its power. Oh how we ought to love him who turned away the wrath of God against us by swallowing up that wrath in his own agony and blood.

43:47 This is why there is an attraction in Calvary that never loses its power over the heart of the true Christian. This is why a collection, a gathering, an assembly of true believers do not need to be cajoled, to cajoled and entertained and titillated to come to church and to have all kinds of bizarre programs to feed the flesh. They come with one great longing. If I could but get a sight of Christ crucified, I know that all of my dullness will leave, All of my coldness will flee.

44:19 And my heart will burn within me upon the sight of my Savior.

44:25 Is that true of you? Is that what you come to this place for? That you might see Him. And seeing Him love Him.

44:32 And loving Him serve Him. If so, then dear child of God, may you appoint yourself a committee of one to propagate this glorious gospel. To defend this glorious gospel. Some of you wonder why we as a church have not committed ourselves to this big ballyhoo.

44:48 This is why, my friends. How can I consciously, as a shepherd with my fellow elders, shepherding this flock, lend our efforts to that which dishonors our Savior?

45:04 Now we don't attack others. We let them do their own thing. They've got an answer to God. that we shall be attacked for the very fact that we haven't jumped on the bandwagon.

45:14 That's the inexcusable sin. Not to go along with whatever the evangelical consensus says is the in thing. Until it's in the book, by the grace of God, it won't be in this place.

45:30 We're not being sticklers. We're not being overly negative. We have a stewardship of the gospel. And by the grace of God, we'll be true to that stewardship.

45:39 no matter what it costs. And furthermore, right at the time when that other gospel is being proclaimed, we're going to double our efforts to proclaim the true gospel, and there will be a further announcement this week about a special evangelistic endeavor to go on right in this place to proclaim the glorious gospel of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our great priest made a propitiation, and every denial of that propitiation, whether by paganizing the concept, neutralizing its necessity, is doomed to fail. Because the Lord Jesus shall see of the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied.

Closing Prayer

46:20 Let us pray. Our Father, once again we give expression to our deep gratitude that such provision should ever have been made for the likes of us. We would own from the heart the magnitude of our guilt, our culpability as sinners. We know that if any of us is not pressed to the lowest hell, it will be because grace and grace alone has rescued us in a way consistent with your righteousness and your holiness.

47:09 We thank you that in Christ such a way has been made and stands open to the vilest of sinners. We pray that some who sit here this morning who've never tread upon that way will throw themselves upon the Lord Jesus and find that promised mercy in Him. Give us as a people a love for the biblical gospel, a desire to be true to it no matter what the cost may be. O Lord, we pray that in our generation We shall yet see a mighty army of God-ordained and Holy Spirit-empowered men of God, proclaiming throughout the length and breadth of this land and to the ends of the earth

47:54 that blessed gospel of propitiation, the turning away of divine wrath through the bloodletting of the Son of God. now we thank you for your presence with us this morning and pray that as we leave this place and part from each other's company we may do so under the conscious blessing of your own presence oh God hear our prayer and may the benediction of your presence be our portion throughout every hour of this day through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Thank you.