The Heart of the Gospel

Scripture Reading

Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 3. This morning we'll be looking specifically at verses 25 and 26. But to make sure we get the context, we'll be reading verses 21 through 26, the whole paragraph. If you're using your pew bibles, you'll find that on page 1001. Romans chapter 3, beginning at verse 21.

Brothers and sisters, this is God's perfect word. Let's pay attention. 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 fallen short of, 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." That ends this reading of God's Word.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you that you, the God of heaven and earth, have spoken to us in language we can understand. Lord, we need your Holy Spirit to please help us. Help us to understand your Word rightly. By the power of your Spirit, please help me to speak correctly and helpfully, that your saints may be built up in their holy faith. Lord, we pray that we might know You, love You, and follow You. Help us, God, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

There's a paradox about God. There's parts of God that we love, that He's compassionate and He's gracious. That He's slow to anger and abounding in mercy. That He maintains mercy to thousands and He forgives iniquity and transgressions. Yet the paradox is, but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. He visits the iniquity upon the children to the third and fourth generation. How can God be merciful, gracious, compassionate, and yet will not leave iniquity unpunished? How do we reconcile this? How do we understand a righteous king who entertains vile sinners? How do we understand a perfect judge A perfect judge who sits with the condemned.

That's a picture that the scriptures paint for us of God. And so as we come to the passage today before us, the central question is who is this paradoxical God that has been described in the law and in the prophets as well as in Romans? And how can He be called the Lord of Righteousness?

Well, Paul gives us the answer in Romans chapter 3. So I hope that by the time you walk out the doors here today, what I hope that you'll take home with you is that your God has irrefutably proven His righteousness in graciously saving sinners. I hope that you'll walk out of the doors and you'll remember that your God has proven himself to be unmistakably righteous in saving sinners. I hope as we do this, we'll do it through the three different points that I've tried to understand, verses 25 and 26 through. The first will be that I hope that we'll see that God has displayed Jesus as your mercy seat.

Secondly, that God has proved his righteousness in dealing with past sins. And third, that God proves his righteousness today. in declaring sinners righteous. So God displayed Jesus as your mercy seat. God proved his righteousness in dealing with past sins. And three, that God proves his righteousness today in declaring sinners righteous. But to accomplish that goal of what I want you to take home with you, that God is absolutely, perfectly righteous in justifying sinners, we need to start with a weird place. The tabernacle.

How does God demonstrate Jesus or display Jesus as the mercy seat? And what is this mercy seat? And that's not even in the New King James translation here. Look with me at verse 25. Whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood. The whom at the beginning of verse 25 is Jesus.

But the thing that we have to scratch our heads with is, okay, so it's God set forth or God displayed, it is a different translation of that, God displayed as a propitiation. Now, I'm not sure I've ever used that word propitiation in my normal conversation with people. I mean, how often have you said to someone, you know what, we're propitiated? What does that word mean? What's Paul getting at here in verse 25 when he says, whom God has displayed as a propitiation. Well, this word displayed or propitiation, elasmus is what it is in the Greek.

And for the Jewish people sitting in the room, it would have immediately, their minds would have tunneled in to the Old Testament, to the tabernacle. Because it's exactly what Jim read for us this morning. Do you see in the tabernacle, we think of the tabernacle, and remember that the tabernacle is that weird moving tent thing that Moses was commanded to build. It had the high curtains on the outside, and then it had altar, and then incense altar, and another altar, and showbread, and candle, and ark, and all these different stuff. And if you've ever tried to read through your Bible, maybe that's the point in which you stopped reading the Old Testament, because you got lost in the details of the tabernacle in Exodus or the beginning of Leviticus. But maybe what you didn't understand is that the picture there is at the heart, at the center of Israel, you have all the different tribes camped around this tabernacle. And at the heart, a big circle of all the different tribes camped around, and the heart of it was the king's camp.

The Lord himself. The God of Israel. There's no doubt about it, ancient Israel was a theocracy. It was a God government. And at the center of even how everything was displayed was the tabernacle. And inside the tabernacle you had the outer courts, but then you have the holy place, and then you have the Holy of Holies. And the Holy of Holies is the throne room of God himself. And so what does that have to do here with verse 25? Whom God set forth as a propitiation. That word propitiation is lasmos or elasmos is sometimes translated the mercy seat.

It's the ark. It's the lid of the ark of the covenant. But again, you might say, but I don't understand this, Brian. How does that work out? What is he talking about here? Okay, again, I need you to think about the tabernacle is God's throne room. You have an outer court. You have an inner court, and then you have the Holy of Holies. And in the Holy of Holies, the centerpiece of the images, you would walk through the thick curtains and you'd pull them open.

By the way, you wouldn't be allowed to do this, only Aaron, and only once a year. As you would open the curtains and you would walk in, right in front of you, smack dab, would be the golden laden ark. And the ark was the law, right? The 10 words, the 10 commandments written on stone were inside the ark. It was meant to be that God's entire nation was governed by his laws. But what was the Ark? The Ark was an ancient throne.

The Ark was a way in which, if you were to, maybe you've seen different movies with like Persian kings and stuff like that, and you'll have people who will have these litters, right? They put coals on their shoulders, and there's like a board in between the two poles, and on top sits the throne, and on the throne sits the king, or maybe the king just kind of reclines, depends on which culture it is. But in ancient Near East, that's the picture of it. This is exactly why the Israelites when they go to fight the Philistines think they can just take God's litter and just march into battle and God's going to be with them.

Because he's sitting on his throne. But what they don't know is he's not chained to his throne. He's not going to be used like a tool. So when Aaron walks into the Holy of Holies and he sees the ark You ever wondered why there are those cherubim with their wings pointed together? If we had chalk and talk, I would show you pictures of, we have all sorts of drawings and pictures of what ancient thrones of this time looked like, and they always had winged creatures on the right and on the left of the throne, acting as guardsmen. But you don't just get to approach the king.

And so when Paul here says in Romans chapter 3 verse 25, whom God set forth as a propitiation, the Jewish mind, those people in the congregation are thinking about the law and the prophets, immediately their mind is right back to the tabernacle and the temple. The ark, the throne, the angels, God is God, God is king, God is judge. That's what's going on here in verse 25. So what does this mean? When God set whom? God, Jesus. God set Jesus forth as a propitiation.

There's three things. Walk with me. We're gonna be in school. I'm gonna get through this. It's gonna take the bulk of the sermon, but you gotta get this to understand this passage, right? So the first thing about this is you need to understand God as king and judge. God is God, God is king, and God is judge. Point number one of this.

Point number two of this is you need to understand this idea of propitiation and the mercy seat. The third is understanding the Day of Atonement. I think we've covered God is God, God is King, God is Judge in that picture of the tabernacle, but what about this idea of whom God set forth as a propitiation? What is that propitiation?

Well, it's this mercy seat. It's at the feet of God. It's the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. And so God is saying here in Romans chapter 3 verse 25 that Jesus is the lid of the ark, where God's figurative footrest would be. You might think, well what in the world? I don't understand that. Well that's where you need to understand that third point.

This propitiation, this mercy seat, ties specifically to Leviticus chapter 16. Do you see when In Leviticus chapter 16, what we read just before, when Aaron is commanded once a year, there's three animals. All right, animal number one is Aaron's a sinful person himself.

He's gotta get a ram, and he's gotta kill that ram, and he's gotta make atonement for his own sin. He's not a perfect high priest. He's a sinful person himself. He can't walk into the presence as an unrighteous man before a righteous king and judge, because he knows he's condemned. How do you know he's condemned? He just watched his two sons die. You don't just get to walk into the presence of the king and do whatever you want.

And this is what Aaron's meant for this picture. You gotta make atonement for your own sins first. God is holy, God is righteous. You don't just come acting like you're okay. But then it's interesting. There's two other animals. Two other goats they take. And they don't know which one's which yet. They have to throw lots, they find out which one is going to serve which purpose, and Aaron has a part to play in both of these.

In the first goat, what he does is he slaughters the goat, he takes the blood, he goes into the most holy place, and he sprinkles the blood on the place of propitiation, on the mercy seat. See, God as the king, God as the judge, God as righteous, sitting on his throne, with his law as the foundation of his throne, the wages of sin is death. Something, someone has to die for sin. And so it's almost like Aaron's going into the most holy place and for all the people of Israel is taking the blood and sprinkling it at the foot of the king and saying, the price for sin had been paid. Show mercy, please. That's a picture of Jesus. But as the one whose blood was shed and the one by whom we have mercy before God at his throne. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

All this judgment language of Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3 is meant to bring us and pull us to this high view of God sitting in heaven who is absolutely righteous and holy and who must have his righteousness, his justice, fulfilled. But what about that other goat? Aaron would bring that other goat and he'd put his hands on the head of that other goat, confessing all the sins and transgressions of Israel, all their iniquities. And they would lead that goat out into the wilderness someplace far, far away from everyone else and let it run in the wild. So the picture of their sins being removed from them. Okay, so do you got the pictures here? I want to tie this together for you.

What is Paul getting at when he says, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood? If you have faith in Jesus, before the throne of God you find mercy. If you have faith in Jesus, the righteous demands of the law, that the wages of sin is death, has been paid by the blood of Jesus. And that if you believe in Jesus, and you are the type of person that you have confessed your sins, you've brought them and you've laid them before Christ, and you said, I'm guilty, I know I'm guilty, please, Lord, save me. Your sins were placed on Jesus and they are outside the camp, far away, where no one could ever find them.

What does this mean for you before a holy God, a righteous God? This is why theologians came up with these different words, propitiation, or some of your Bible translations may say expiation. Fancy $5 theological words. Expiation, your sins are gone. God's no longer mad at you. Your sins have been put on the scapegoat and they're gone. Your sins are buried beneath the deepest ocean. They're as far as the east is from the west. Your sins are gone. God's no longer mad at those who have faith in Christ. Expiation. But it's even better than that.

Maybe you know this, maybe you have a sibling who's really annoyed you one day. They've just been under your skin and it's just like they're bamboo under your fingernails and you're just like, man, I just don't like them. And then they apologize to you and you're like, I forgive you. But it doesn't mean you actually like them.

But that's the beautiful thing, it's not just God tolerates us. It's that in Jesus, We're reconciled. That's what the idea of propitiation means. The full orbit of it. Our sins are gone and God's face smiles upon you in Christ. Do you get it? Do you get it? And I hope you catch on to this because tomorrow morning or Tuesday morning, you may sit here and you may think, but how do I know that God is not actually angry with me anymore? Remember the blood of Jesus on the mercy seat. Or you may wonder, am I really good enough of a Christian? Have I really done enough repenting? Have I really done enough confessing of a sin? Have I really followed Jesus enough? It was never because you were enough, but it was because Jesus was enough. He was the spotless lamb. He was the perfect one.

You can't outdo Jesus. And so you don't look inwardly to yourself, you look outwardly to the cross. You look to the blood of Jesus. That's what Paul is getting at in verse 25 when he says, Jesus, Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood. Through faith. Your heart doesn't need to condemn you if you've already been honest about your sin before God, come before His throne and said, I'm a guilty sinner. Please remember me in Jesus. You have freedom. You have freedom. Point number two. This is the second half of verse 25.

God has proved His righteousness in past sins. Verse 25, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith. Why did God do this? To demonstrate, or for the purpose of demonstrating publicly, showing, proving His righteousness. Because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. God proved His righteousness in pouring out the blood of Jesus. for past sins.

What past sins are we talking about? We're talking about all the past sins before Jesus. We're talking about the entire Old Testament. We're talking about everything in the past. Notice there's a hard word here, by his blood, that's Jesus' blood, through faith, to demonstrate, or to prove is what I would translate that as, to prove God's righteousness Because in His forbearance, God passed over the sins that were previously committed.

How does God just forbear with sins? I thought we said He was righteous. Did God just, you know, sweep people's sins in the Old Testament under the rug? Eh, deal with that eventually. Right when David sinned against Uriah, did God just say, don't worry about it, we'll deal with it later? How did God deal with sins and how could he be righteous if he's a righteous judge but he prolongs or delays judgment forever?

Is he really righteous? And Paul does something amazing here. The Holy Spirit inspires Paul. That it was exactly this demonstration of His righteousness in Jesus dying on the cross. His own spilling out of His blood that it finally makes sense that God was patient and merciful even with sinners in the Old Testament because all the blood pointed to Jesus. The whole sacrificial system of the tabernacle of the temple pointed to Jesus.

And if you think, I'm not sure I really buy that, Brian. That's fine. You don't have to believe me. Go read Romans or Hebrews chapter 9 and 10 this afternoon. And I don't have time to preach that to you because this would be a three hour long sermon. But go read it yourself.

The whole sacrificial system pointed to Jesus. Our better priest, our better sacrifice, So it's not that God just swept the sins under the rug, it's that as the Old Testament saints, as Aaron made that sacrifice, as his sons after him made those sacrifices, every time, every year on the Day of Atonement, when the people had faith, we don't know exactly how this works, we don't know how the blood of bulls and goats and rams are ever gonna take away our sins, but we know that God gave this to us, and so we trust Him, we follow Him, we make these sacrifices, that's called faith. And their faith was in a type or a shadow of Jesus. And so the Old Testament saints were saved, really, truly by the blood of Jesus. They had faith in, not the signs and the symbols themselves, but what it represented. And Jesus fulfilled those promises. Now there's going to be certain people who will say, well then why was there even a need for the Old Testament stuff then? Why did they even have a tabernacle?

God was using signs, familiar things to them, even in their culture, to express to them tangibly, really, in front of their eyes, your sins are this bad, but my goodness is this good. My righteousness is this high, and your sins are this vile. And yet I am going to make it a way for you to be right with me." God was righteous in displaying His patience. Even through all those sins of the Old Testament that He had in His patience had forbearance. But our third point moves it a little bit further to our lives today. Thirdly, God proves His righteousness today in declaring sinners righteous.

Look with me at verse 26. Verse 26 is absolutely dependent on verse 25, so I'm going to just kind of read the first part of 25 and then quickly move into 26. Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate at the present time, verse 26, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. God has proved his righteousness in sacrificing Jesus. A willing sacrifice. The whole idea in verse 26 is that God demonstrates, at the present time, right now, every time someone is believing in the blood of Jesus, it proves that God's righteousness is true. And that He is righteous Himself.

That's the second half, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. We've talked about that word justify before. This is where English fails us a little bit, right? But if I was to make up words or come up with ideas from my Greek professor, I would translate this something like, to demonstrate at the present time God's righteousness, that God might be righteous and the one who declares people righteous. of the one who has faith in Jesus. God is righteous and God is the one who makes people righteous by faith in Jesus. This is why John says that in Jesus grace and truth met.

He was full of grace and truth. Because in the person of Jesus, in His willingness, voluntarily offering Himself on the cross, no one takes my life from me, but I freely offer it up, Jesus says. He knew the righteous demands of God. But He also knew His perfect life. And He truly was the Lamb who came to take away the sins of the world.

And He was demonstrating, proving God's righteousness. that God could sit on his throne of holiness as judge and king, demanding the wages of sin and take the sins on himself. He would be the scapegoat. He would be the mercy seat. He would be the propitiation.

Moses, the murderer of an Egyptian, was saved because of the blood on that mercy seat. Aaron, the maker of the golden calves, was saved because of the blood on that mercy seat. Rahab the harlot was saved because of blood on that mercy seat. David an adulterer and a murderer was only saved because of the blood on that mercy seat.

Solomon with all of his materialism and womanizing, the only reason why he would ever have a chance of making it into the kingdom was because the blood on that mercy seat. And the only reason why you or me have any hope of coming to a righteous God is because our righteous sacrifice has been made and there's blood on the mercy seat. The same blood that was shed for them is the same blood that was shed for you. Maybe you're one of those who wonders, does the blood really apply to me?

How do I know am I really one of God's elect? I just have to ask you, what's your only hope? What is your hope in life that you have any standing before a righteous God? What is your only hope past death that you'll be able to withstand the judgment day?

If it's in Jesus, keep your heart resting in Jesus. And if it's anything else, turn your heart to Jesus. What more could Jesus do? What more could the righteous God do? But he so loved the world that he sent his only son. What more could he give to prove the depths of his love towards sinners like us? Rest in Jesus' blood.

Again, some of you might doubt. Maybe now it's Thursday morning and you think, but my faith just isn't strong enough. How do I know that Jesus' righteousness and God who is righteous, how could I ever stand up to that? You're right. You're not strong enough to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. By yourself. That's why we need, we must find our life hidden in Christ. We're not righteous enough I used to have this thought when I was a new Christian.

I thought, man, I love these old saints. They have gray hair, and they're balding, and they're going to die soon. And I used to think, they got it all together. This is wonderful. I'm going to spend a lot of time with them. And then I would go to people like Mr. Caskey's house. And he was my elder out at Eastvale. He was in his late 80s. And we'd sit in his garage, and we'd talk while he was doing carpentry stuff. And I'd find out, oh, no, he's still struggling with sin. And then I'd talk to another elder who had been a pastor for decades, retired as a pastor.

And then I'd be talking to him and he'd say, man, I got too mad. I'm saying the man part, he never said that. He would confess, I got too mad at my wife. I used to think, how'd you get mad at her? She's so nice. And I'd think, well, hold on, I get mad at my wife and she's nice. We're not righteous enough. We'll never meet the bar. So what do you do when you think, I'm not righteous enough. I don't have enough faith. I'm not strong enough.

You look to Jesus. He's our victor. He's our champion. He's the one who has tempted and tried in every way as we are. He went toe to toe with the devil himself after not eating and drinking for over a month and never sinned. We don't look to ourselves, we cast our eyes on Jesus. I don't want to downplay it.

Some of you are wrestling for your faith. Some of you have struggled and tried. And you have been in a life and death challenge for how do you hold on to God's goodness? And I just want to encourage you, I am convinced that some of the people who will be most close to the throne of glory in heaven are those who have fought tooth and nail for their faith. who have endured the onslaughts of temptation and of the lies whispered by their own hearts and Satan in their ears, that God doesn't love them, that they're not enough, and yet, with every gasping breath of their soul, they have clung to Jesus. They've been like the woman who thought, if I just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be healed. Don't give up even a mustard seed of faith.

God is righteous. God has displayed his righteousness in satisfying his righteous law in the death of Jesus. And God is righteous in declaring you righteous by the person and work of Jesus. I hope when you walk out of the doors, you'll remember that your God is righteous. And that you'll remember that he has proved his righteousness in Jesus.

Closing Prayer

I just want to close. There's a hymn. There's power in the blood. I used to think that was kind of hokey. But it's true. My question is do you believe it? Do you believe that the blood of Jesus, the blood of righteous Jesus, is for you? And that in his blood, you can stand before a righteous God and know his face smiles on you? Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have made a way for wretched sinners like us to come into your presence with singing. You, the God who sits enthroned between the cherubim, righteous, just, holy, You have made a way for your face to smile on us in Jesus. Thank you. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for the blood of your son and the righteousness we have in him. We pray this in Jesus's name, amen.