In the sermon 'How God Maintains Justice and Still Saves Sinners' by Jason Dohm, the central theme revolves around how God, being perfectly just, can still offer salvation to sinners. The sermon begins with an acknowledgment of universal sinfulness, citing that no one is righteous or seeks after God. It emphasizes that the deeds of the law cannot justify anyone, as the law only brings the knowledge of sin. However, the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the law, through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus serves as a propitiation for sins, satisfying God's righteous anger and allowing sinners to be justified freely by grace. The sermon underscores the continuity of the gospel message from the Old Testament to the New Testament, noting that the gospel fulfills the promises made by God through the prophets. The sermon also highlights the importance of faith as the sole means of obtaining God's righteousness and the transformation that occurs in believers as they are conformed to the image of Christ. Ultimately, the sermon presents the cross as the ultimate display of God's justice and mercy, where Jesus' sacrifice satisfies God's wrath, allowing God to remain just while justifying those who have faith in Christ.

For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside.

They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

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. Let's pray. Oh, Lord God, how can it be that you are the holy of holies and our sins are many, or you are perfectly just and righteous and in our sin, Lord, we were justly guilty, deserving of wrath.

How can it be that we can sing hallelujah, our hope is eternal? It's because our hope is in Jesus Christ who bore our sins on that cross. It's because you are both just and the justifier. Not one sin has or will go unpunished, but for those who have faith in you it was punished Lord on Jesus Christ. We praise you and today though the choosing and the sending work of you the redeeming work of your son and the applying to our hearts work of your spirit be magnified but it be made much of in our hearts.

We listen to your word. And Lord, we ask that your spirit would go forth through our brother Jason and powers he preaches that we would glory in our redeemer and that those who hear that don't know you would be saved Lord by the work of your power. I pray in Jesus name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, How God Maintains Justice and Still Saves Sinners. And still saves sinners.

It's absolutely critical that we not compromise what the Bible says about God in our understanding of how God saves sinners. It often happens that clear truths about who God is are set aside in how we think about how God saves sinners. And so Paul is very, very helpful in this text to preserve all that the Bible says about who God is and also that he has the ability and extends mercy to sinners. And this is quite a quandary. How can those two things even exist?

A perfectly righteous God, a judge, who sees into the thoughts and motivations of your heart, let alone words that you've whispered, let alone all the acts that you've done across the length of your life, and yet still have mercy. Bring every act into judgment and yet still have mercy so We have an all-important lead-in and context for our text which are the two verses that lead into it So hopefully your finger is still in Romans chapter 3. Let's back up to verses 19 and 20. They're not part of our sermon text per se, but they're absolutely essential to understanding our text. So let me re-read Romans 3, 19 and 20 as the context for our sermon text.

Paul writes, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, By the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin." So this is our starting point for the text today. Every mouth stopped, you wouldn't even dare to raise a defense against this all-knowing God who's judging you against a perfectly good standard. You wouldn't dare.

So your mouth is stopped. And all the world is guilty. No one is righteous. Everyone is a repeated breaker of God's law having lived in rebellion to him. That is the bad news.

Our text begins with this beautiful word of contrast. But, All that is true of me and you, but the bad news that Paul has been building up, increasing the weight of for two chapters now, is true, but mankind left to ourselves is condemned, must be condemned, but God hasn't been content to leave it at that. But has intervened to make a way that sinners could still be reconciled to this perfectly good, perfectly just God. Let's pray. God, if Paul's letter to Romans ended with every mouth stopped and all the world guilty, before an all knowing, perfectly good judge, we would be left to despair.

But, you have not been content to let the story end that way because you are a God of mercy and love. I pray that you would give us the ability to hold both of these things as perfectly true. That you are righteous in everything, perfectly just, and that you extend mercy in your love towards sinners. One does not compromise the other in any way. Thank you for showing how it is that this could be true.

In Jesus' name, Amen. We'll be subdividing this week, as almost always, into three subsections. The first being 21 a little bit into 22. So I hate breaking verses in half, but I felt like I had to do it this week. So 21 into 22a.

And then We'll pick it up in the next division. So follow along as I reread Romans 3, 21 into the beginning of verse 22. Paul writes, 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." Here Paul speaks of the righteousness of God obtained by faith in Jesus Christ. So if you're taking notes on the handout filling in blanks, Faith fills in the blank.

The righteousness of God obtained by faith in Jesus Christ. Paul writes to the Romans within the lifetime of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And he says, now the righteousness of God is revealed. The perfect life, the perfectly obedient life, and the substitutionary death, the innocent dying for the guilty, And the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the righteousness of God. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is God revealing His righteousness.

Is God revealing His righteousness? And it is apart from the law. It has nothing to do with my relationship with the law, or your relationship with the law. Paul has just settled our relationship with the law. What is that?

It shines a spotlight on who I really am and leaves me speechless and condemned. That's my relationship with the law and yours too. You don't dare even mount a defense. You close your mouth before this all-knowing perfectly good judge. You stand condemned.

Who says so? The law says so. It's a perfectly good standard, and you've violated it many times every day that you've ever lived. So this righteousness has nothing to do with your relationship with the law. That's your relationship with the law.

So this is not my righteousness originating within me because of my law keeping. Paul spent two chapters saying there is no such thing. If that is your hope, then you are hopeless. It is God's righteousness originating within God and His perfection, lived out and demonstrated in the life of Jesus. A righteousness given to anyone and everyone who places his or her trust in Jesus to save him or her from this condemnation which is deserved.

Condemnation which is deserved by anyone who is alive, but you can be set free from that verdict by trusting in Jesus Christ. Anyone, everyone who trusts in Jesus. Understand that Paul is just picking back up where he left off. There's a beginning to the section and an end to the section. We're right at the end of the section.

Let's go back and look at the beginning of the section. Just flip back a page to Romans chapter 1 and see how this section, 2 chapter plus section, started. So this is Romans 1. I'm going to start in verse 16, Romans 1.16, and read a little bit into verse 18. Here's how Paul started this section.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, glad tidings, or good news of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. He's saying the same thing. For the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, for in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.

He is saying the same thing. From faith to faith. He's saying the same thing. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. For The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men." That means all my ungodliness and all my unrighteousness.

And he spent two chapters proving to me that it's true, that I'm full of ungodliness and full of unrighteousness. And now at the close of the section he brings us to the resolution of that. So this introduction to the section is the backdrop for our entire text. It is about The salvation that is the gift of God by faith and only by faith, and it solves the desperate condition of being under The righteous fury of God against sin for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. That's the problem statement.

What's the problem? God is furious against all the ungodliness and all the unrighteousness that is in my heart and works its way out into my life. What's to be done about that? Here at the end of our section, after Paul labors to convince you that you shouldn't even mount a defense, How dare you? You stand guilty before God.

Now what? And really our text is the now what. But even in the introduction he says what it is. It's the power of God for the saving of sinners by faith, by trusting in Jesus Christ. Back to our text.

Now what does Paul say? Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So he's talking about salvation from the just condemnation of God by faith and he says all of that is witnessed by New Testament preachers. No, that's not what he says. He says it's witnessed by the law and the prophets.

The two-thirds of your Bible before the New Testament. It's witnessed by that. It's witnessed by The Old Testament. What's Paul saying? This is not a new truth.

The preaching of Paul was not new truth. It is not an offshoot of true religion. It is true religion. This is not the first time he said this. Again, flip back to chapter one, but this time to the very beginning, even if chapter one.

I just want to remind us of the very first words of the whole book of Romans. How does he start it? Romans 1, 1-3. Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of God which he God promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Everything Paul was preaching concerning Jesus Christ our Lord was what God promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

So Paul said it at the very first words of the letter, now he's saying it again. Why is he saying it again? Because this is so foundational to Paul. Paul doesn't come offering new truth in the Gospel. Paul comes preaching the gospel and claiming, and rightly so, that it's just a fulfillment of all the promises that God made in the Old Testament.

Not new truths. Certainly, we didn't have the clarity on the pre-cross testimony of the law and the prophets. We have more clarity, more beauty, more everything, seeing Jesus live and die and be raised in the gospels. But it is all there in the Old Testament, and that is what Paul is saying and saying repeatedly. Paul is not distancing himself from the Old Testament at all.

He is actually doing exactly the opposite. He is anchoring the gospel to the Old Testament. And, by the way, we should do. If you don't have a gospel that is anchored to God's promises in the Old Testament, I don't know what kind of gospel you have. I don't know how you rightly understand it apart from understanding it as a fulfillment of the testimony of the law and the prophets.

Now, where in the Old Testament? Where is it in the Old Testament? It's everywhere. There's not one answer, there's not ten answers, there's not twenty answers, There's not a hundred answers. The answer is it's everywhere the promises and the pictures of the Messiah are in Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy and on and on from Genesis through Malachi Jesus is found in every book of the Old Testament.

The promises that God would send the Savior to save sinners and the pictures like everything in the sacrificial system When God cursed Adam and his descendants for rebellion within the curse God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent that's Genesis 315 Jesus is the fulfillment of that God promised to bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham's seed. That's Genesis 2, 18. Jesus is the fulfillment of that. Every animal that was ever sacrificed as a substitute for sinners in the Old Testament sacrificial system, Jesus is the fulfillment of that. Every scapegoat that ever had the hands of a priest laid on him to figuratively transfer sins from the guilty to an innocent goat, and then to be cast out, to be sent out.

Jesus is the fulfillment of that. The prophetic books are filled with promises, with the promises of God that He would send a Savior. Not just leave sinners to be lost, but to make a way by sending a Savior so that sinners could be reconciled to God even though He's perfectly holy and even though He knows everything about you. That leaves you with your mouth stopped and you condemned before Him. And you condemned before Him.

I could easily preach a full length sermon just on Jesus as a fulfillment of the pictures and promises of the Old Testament. And even if I did that, I would just be skimming the surface. He is everywhere in the Old Testament. Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 5. You can turn there if you like.

John chapter 5 verses 45 through 47. This is what Jesus says to the Jews in John chapter 5 verses 45 through 47. He says, Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed in Moses, you would believe me for he wrote about me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Jesus' testimony is that Moses, as shorthand for Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch, Moses the author of that, and some Psalms, that Moses wrote about Jesus. That the great theme of the law, the Pentateuch, is the promises and types of a Savior and Jesus fulfills them all. Jesus says, Moses spoke about me. So Paul is following Jesus in grounding the gospel in the Old Testament.

Did you hear that? Paul is just following Jesus in grounding the Gospel in the Old Testament. The Old Testament did not teach you how to reach God through law keeping, and now the New Testament gives you a new way. If that's true, what was all the bloodshedding in the Old Testament about? It was about teaching that the wages of sin was death, but God is willing to accept a substitute.

There are types of grace buried in the law, but not buried very deeply. It's everywhere in the Old Testament. The Gospel is there even in the law. It's not two types of way to be saved. The Old Testament you had to try to keep the law.

In the New Testament we have grace. No, no, no. Jesus and then Paul grounds the New Testament gospel in the Old Testament. So God's righteousness, not my righteousness, of which I have none, is the ground of my salvation, and the only ground of my salvation. And Faith, believing and trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ, is the alone instrument by which a person lays hold of what Jesus is and does for sinners.

Why do I say faith is the alone instrument? I'm actually quoting our confession that says that faith is the alone instrument. I thought it was worth quoting, not just to say something weird that we never say in the sermon, I thought it was worth quoting because it's driving home the point that Faith is the thing by which we lay hold on what really saves, who Jesus is and what He did, but that it's alone. Meaning, if you don't want that instrument, God has nothing else for you. If you don't want that instrument, if you want some other way to be righteous before God, God has no help for you.

There's nothing. It is the alone instrument. It's faith in Jesus, His person and work, or it's nothing. This is what Jesus teaches. This is what Paul teaches.

This is what Peter teaches. This is what the author of Hebrews teaches. If he's not one of those people I just named, I don't know. You don't know either. The name is significant.

The name is significant. What is the name of the object of faith in our text? Jesus Christ. Is that a first and a last name? No.

It's pregnant with meaning. It's filled to overflowing with meaning. Jesus means Savior. Matthew chapter 1, the angel comes and says, name this child Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Mark Him out by name as the one who saves from sins.

It literally means Jehovah is salvation. Jesus means Savior. Christ means anointed. When you anoint someone, you set them apart for a mission. You set them apart to a specific work and you commission them for that specific work.

So this God man is the anointed Savior. He is the one that God has marked out, set apart to save. He is the anointed Savior. This phrase, it just rolls off our lips and we don't even think of what we're saying. Jesus Christ is full overflowing with meaning.

It means He's the anointed Savior. God set Him apart to this work. What's the work? Saving sinners. This anointed Savior, Jesus, gives His righteousness, and here's the words of the text, to all and on all who believe.

Jesus Christ, the anointed Savior, gives His righteousness to all and on all who believe. What a strange way to say that. To all and on all? Yes. He has it and you need it but don't have it.

So His righteousness is given to you. That's how you come to have it. He has it, and you need it but don't have it. He gives it to you. And he places it on you.

In Isaiah chapter 61, this Messiah, this promised Savior wears a robe of righteousness. Go find it in Isaiah 61. God is promising to send a Savior. Actually, it begins with the text that Jesus quotes of himself in Luke chapter 4, he has sent me to preach good news to the poor and to give you the oil of joy. I'm about to slaughter that by misquoting it, so I'm going to stop there.

Maybe we'll cut that out of the audio. That's embarrassing. I can't quote it. But it talks about taking away your sadness and giving you joy. And then later it says that this Savior who will preach the good news to the poor wears a robe of righteousness.

His righteousness is to all and on all. He takes his robe of righteousness and he covers you with his righteousness. He has it, you need it but don't have it. So he gives it to you and he covers you with it. You receive his robe of righteousness.

Alright, next subsection. Alright, next subsection. Verses 22 and a half through 24. I'm going to pick up halfway through 22, so follow if you can. It's easy, I'm actually starting after the period in verse 22.

22 and a half through 24. Paul writes, 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." In this section we have one great need and one great salvation. If you're filling in blanks on the handout there are two blanks. Need fills in the first one, salvation fills in the second. One great need, One great salvation.

Paul says there is no difference. All have the same great need. Your need isn't different from her need, isn't different from his need, isn't different from their need. There is one great need. Having sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And there is only one remedy being justified freely by grace. There's no other remedy for you if it's not being justified freely by grace. I trust that Paul has successfully proven to you that you are a sinner. If he hasn't, then either you haven't been here in the weeks leading up to this or you weren't listening. Because his logic is devastating and inescapable.

I haven't been able to escape it any week. He just keeps adding weight, adding weight, adding weight to convince you that you are a sinner in spades. That you're not a little sinner, that you're a great sinner. Even if you're respectable. God knows your heart and He puts these measuring sticks out there.

And you come short week after week, text after text. Paul goes on to say something in our text new that sinners have fallen short of the glory of God. He hasn't said that before in Romans. What does that mean? I think it's very easy to think shallowly about it and miss the weight of it.

That happens like this. God is very very glorious. Easy enough? I don't measure up to that. So I've fallen short.

I'm not as glorious as God. End of story. Do you think that's what Paul is saying here? You're not as glorious as God. Well, duh.

You use space in your letter, Paul, to tell me that I'm not as glorious as the very, very, very, very glorious God? Like, What's that supposed to do to me or for me? That's a shallow thinking Let's think. You were created in the image of God. You were created to be his image bearer.

A reflection of who he is. A display of his goodness and greatness in the world. Walking closely with Him in humility and dependence and reflecting who He is to the world. How are you doing? How are you doing?

Is the world seeing a clear reflection of God's goodness and greatness because you are an image bearer and you are walking closely and independence upon Him? That's what he had in mind. Instead, you are accurately described by the six Old Testament quotations from last week's text. They were awful. It says you're awful.

The whole section started out by saying, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men, and week by week, text by text, He convinces you, you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty, And then he quotes these six Old Testament texts which says, you're awful. You're not fulfilling your purpose in the world at all, as a reflection of the goodness and greatness of God, walking closely with Him in independence and just showing the world who God is. Remember how awful those six Old Testament quotations were last week. At a minimum that's the internal you. You're at the very least that, all those things inside.

And The longer you're that way inside, the more hardened in sin you get to be and it starts to seep out to the outside. It just depends where you are in the curve as to how much of that other people can see. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, 18. He comes at it from the other direction in 2 Corinthians 3, 18. I think you'll see what I mean.

2 Corinthians 3, 18. Paul writing to the believers in Corinth, so when he says we, he's talking about me as a believer and you believers in Corinth. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. This is what God does when He saves the sinner. Before salvation He can say, you've fallen short of the glory of God.

God made you to be an image bearer and a reflection of his goodness and greatness as you walk in humility and dependence upon him, reflecting who he is to the world. You failed. Then he comes in his mercy to the believer and gives a new heart, takes out a heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh, and his spirit indwells the believer, and the spirit goes to work and little by little begins to reverse, unwind the devastating effects of the fall of mankind into sin that happened in Genesis chapter 3 This is chapter 3 to transform him or her into the image of the Lord. Christlikeness. It's a reversal, an unwinding of the curse in the life of the believer.

Does it happen all at once? No, no, no. It's from glory to glory. A little bit to a little bit more to a little bit more to a little bit more. Is the Spirit of God bringing transformation over time to make you glorious?

And it ends up culminating in our death when we leave behind all the remaining corruptions and we're free from that and then we're fully glorified. I think that will be a quantum leap. There will be little, little, little, little increments of transformation and then this quantum leap when we leave our corruptions behind. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord gets involved in someone who has fallen short of the glory of God, and is failing at their purpose to reflect the goodness and greatness of God, and begins to transform.

This is wonderful. Look at how Paul describes the one way sinners are saved. Verse 24. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's a mouthful, let's take it little by little.

A sinner is saved when he or she is justified freely. Last week I defined justify. To justify is to declare righteous. It's a legal term where the judge having reviewed the fact says you're righteous, you're innocent. So the sinner is declared righteous, declared innocent without him or her paying anything for it.

It's just a full and free declaration of innocent. You're righteous. The judge has reviewed the facts and rendered a verdict innocent. You didn't pay anything for the verdict, justified freely. Good thing!

What do I have that could pay an all-knowing, perfectly righteous judge to declare me righteous? There is no bribing this judge. And even if there was, what do I have that could benefit him? What do I have that would be anything more than giving him back something that's already his. The declaration that I am righteous is simply a gift.

It is by His grace, and only by His grace. Being justified freely, without price, by His grace as a gift. So Paul is stacking up words to make sure we know that salvation of a sinner is all of Him and nothing of the sinner. Otherwise having said freely justified, Would He then say again, by His grace? He's word stacking.

To make sure you don't miss the point, that in the salvation of the sinner, it's all of God and nothing of the sinner. But look, Paul explains further as we work through verse 24, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So, Sinners are justified freely by His grace. How does that happen? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Just because I, as the sinner, can't and don't pay a price to be declared righteous by this all-knowing, perfectly righteous judge, doesn't mean there is no price. Oh, there is a price. A very, very high price. It's just not me who pays. In the same verse, it's saying justified freely, No price, it's by His grace, it is a gift.

How does that happen? Through the redemption, think price, that is in Christ Jesus. It's free to me, the sinner. But it's not free to the anointed Savior. It's not free to the one that God has marked out and commissioned with the work of saving sinners.

It's a very, very high price. It costs him his life. It costs him his blood. That is what redemption is. Redemption is the payment of a ransom so that a slave can go free.

Free of the slave, the slave doesn't have any money, any way to redeem himself. A redeemer, an anointed Savior, comes with the price to free the slave. Listen to Ephesians 1-7. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7, Paul writes, in Him, in Jesus Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according gifts. The riches of His grace.

The riches of His grace. So He draws out of these inexhaustible riches from which He can give gifts to buy sinners out of their slavery through the blood of his son, forgiving sins. Sins forgiven, the debt paid. So when we think that salvation is free, remember, free to the sinner, there is a very, very high price, but it is the anointed Savior who has given himself to pay it. Justified freely by his grace, free to the sinner.

The high price paid by the anointed Savior, the one that God has marked out for the work of saving sinners. The last two verses. And wow, do I wish I had left more time for the last two verses. But I'm not going to cheat them, I'll tell you that. Verses 25 and 26.

Romans 3 verses 25 and 26. 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." Woo, That's Paul. Modifying phrase, modifying, modifying phrases. Okay.

Let's untangle. There's a lot here. These two verses, Paul sets before us the demonstration of God's righteousness in the way of salvation. So, if you're filling in blanks on the handout, righteousness fills in the blank. The demonstration of God's righteousness in the way of salvation.

God's righteousness is on display in the way he saves sinners. So far away from God setting aside justice in order to save sinners. I'll just decide not to care about justice so I can save that sinner. So far from that, His righteousness is actually on display in the saving of sinners. It's the exact opposite of God saying, I just won't care for a bit so I can have mercy on these.

His justice and righteousness is on display even in saving sinners. Christ Jesus are the last words of verse 24, that's the whom of verse 25. God set forth Christ Jesus the anointed Savior as a propitiation by His blood. God the Father set Christ Jesus, God the Son forth, set him forth as a propitiation by his blood. What is a propitiation?

It is an appeasement Something to like given to pacify it is an appeasement to satisfy and bring to an end the anger of a God. So are you with me? Propitiation is an appeasement, something given to pacify, to satisfy and bring to an end the anger of a God. Why do I say of a God? There is only one God.

Because pagans have propitiation too. Pagans have propitiation too. Meaning if you look at the worship of false gods, it's filled with trying to pacify that God and satisfy and put an end to his anger. Sometimes even human sacrifice was used in an attempt to turn away the anger of their quote unquote God, false God. When crops failed, or something bad happened, the crops fail, you draw the conclusion from the crops having failed that he's mad.

Who knows why he's mad, who cares why he's mad. We have to pacify this God that we worship to satisfy and bring to an end his anger so next year's crops won't fail. This year's crops won't fail. But in the worship of the true God, The anger is the righteous anger against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men. That's what it is.

The false gods, you're left guessing. Why is he mad? With the true God, he's told you why he's full of anger and fury. It's all the ungodliness and all the unrighteousness of men. And this anger against it is essential to his nature.

He's not trying to hate all ungodliness and all unrighteousness in mankind, he doesn't have to work it up, he must hate it. Because of his perfect goodness, he must hate all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men spends the next two chapters proving that he's talking about you. So that you don't deflect and duck and say, good for you God for being angry against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men. No, yours and yours and yours and mine. So it is God's perfectly good and appropriate fury.

Wow, we can't even, we could never say that in the human sphere. Our anger, our wrath is so often mixed with sinfulness. But in God it's not that way at all. He's not ticked off. He hates ungodliness and unrighteousness, and he doesn't have to work it up.

It's who he is to be perfectly good and to hate ungodliness and unrighteousness. It is God's perfectly good and appropriate fury against all of my ungodliness and unrighteousness and yours. Now That's the state of things. God can't be anything other than He is. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He's always hated ungodliness and unrighteousness, and He always will. So then, what can be put forward to satisfy and bring an end to this fury? And who would even attempt it? It is the blood of the anointed Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is God Himself, God the Father, who does it to satisfy and bring to an end His own fury against my sin.

Amazing. Turn to Isaiah 53. Amazing. Turn to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 will make you think, wow, I don't need the New Testament to preach the Gospel.

It's wonderful and glorious to have the New Testament. I'm not lobbying that we throw away the New Testament. I'm just saying you've got it pretty fully in Isaiah 53, which is this prophecy of a suffering servant who would give his life the innocent dying for the guilty. Isaiah 53. I'm going to read 4 through 6 and then skip down to 10.

So if you're with me in Isaiah 53, follow along as I read 4-6. Surely He, who's He the suffering servant that the chapter is talking about, Jesus is the fulfillment of this. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all Skip down to ten yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. I hate this translation. It should be crushed Thank you and ASB ESV and IV for rendering that crushed it ought to be crushed Yet it pleased the Lord to crush him. It pleased the Father to crush the Son.

Why? Because He didn't love the Son? No. This is the Son that He does love. But to satisfy and to bring to his end his fury against all the ungodliness and all the unrighteousness of people that he intended to make the objects of his mercy and the objects of his love.

This is how God might be just, maintain his justice, every nanosecond of eternity maintaining his justice, and the justifier, and the one who declares innocent, declares righteous, the one who has faith in Jesus. Wow, that's a gentle way to say it. He could have said, and the sinner who has faith in Jesus, and the rebel who has faith in Jesus. How can God be just, maintain His justice, and declare innocent the rebel? Because the rebel has trusted in Jesus.

And Jesus is the one that God has set forth as the propitiation, the one who could satisfy and bring to an end his fury against all the ungodliness and all unrighteousness in that sinner. God does not overlook justice. He does not pretend that he does not see one single sin. He does not pretend that one single sin does not matter. To him, He hates them all.

He must. He is God. He is good. He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God Himself anoints the Savior, His own beloved Son, who pays the debt for the sinner.

And all the sinner does is trust in that Savior. It is a free gift. The Savior pays the price. God's anger is satisfied and brought to an end. God is just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus.

Friends, this is the righteousness of God on display. It is not God passing over justice. It is God fully applying justice, but in a way that allows Him to have mercy on sinners. Look at the cross. What do you see in the cross?

The fury of God poured out against all unrighteousness and all ungodliness. If he's not full of hatred towards sin, why is anyone dying on the cross? If he's content for every guilty one to bear his own guilt, why is Jesus dying on that cross? He has made a way. Finally, what does verse 25c mean?

Wow, now I'm dividing verses into thirds. 25c. 25c is after the third comma. So let's look at verse 25 we'll get to after the third comma. Verse 25, look back at that.

Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, first comma, through faith, second comma, to demonstrate his righteousness, third comma, this part. Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. That sort of sounds like setting aside justice. In his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. Here's what Rob Ventura says in his commentary.

He quotes a commentator known as McDonald. I know Rob Ventura. I don't know who McDonald is, but I like what he says. So here's what he says. McDonald well observes.

The answer is that although Christ had not yet died, God knew that he would die. So we're talking about every generation, every nation, every century of time before the death of Jesus Christ. He hadn't died yet to pay the ransom for any sinners, but God knew that He would. He saved men on the basis of the still future work of Christ. Even if Old Testament saints didn't know about Calvary, God knew about it.

And He put all the value of Christ's work to their account when they believed God. In a very real sense, Old Testament believers were saved on credit. They were saved on the basis of a price still to be paid. They looked forward to Calvary. We look back to it.

I would say this. That's true at a macro level. Meaning, looking across the whole earth, looking across all the nations for all that time. God occasionally did things like the flood, like Sodom and Gomorrah, to help us remember that he reserves the right to pay the wages for sin on the spot at any time when Adam and Eve sinned. He could have brought the whole human race, two people at that time, he could have paid them their wages on the spot, and there never would have been a human race.

No one could accuse God of being anything but just for doing that. Or at any point in time in between. So things like the flood, things like Sodom and Gomorrah aren't the rule, they're the exception. God just reminding us that in His justice at any moment He could pay the wages of sin, which is death. And He's right and just to do it.

But he's patient. The rule is he's patient. And so for all those centuries, for all those nations. Instantaneous judgment was the exception and not the rule. And, he saved sinners on the basis of a sacrifice that hadn't even been made yet, but he knew it would be made, and he knew that with perfect certainty because he's God.

So, it's true at a macro level, it's true at a micro level. What do I mean by that? Forget about the nations, forget about the thousands of years, what about you in your lifetime? You are the micro level. If you're a believer, would God have been unjust to cut you off in your sins before you believed.

Who could accuse God? If you're not a believer but you're alive today, Would God have been unjust to cut you off before this moment? No! No! He is God!

Let me close with this. Let me close with this. Worship this God. This. Worship this God.

Worship the God who would take his own son and set him forth as and set him forth as that thing that would satisfy and bring to an end his perfectly good and appropriate fury against my ungodliness and unrighteousness. God has anointed a Savior. He set him apart. He has commissioned him for the great work of saving sinners. And He is doing it in the world today.

How many people will be saved today? It's a big number. I don't know the number. Sinners are being saved today because God has set forth His Son to satisfy and bring it in to his anger against the sins of those people. God may you be seen in all your glory, not as a reluctant for giver, but as one who actually sets forth the son of your love in order to satisfy and bring to an end your Perfectly good and appropriate fury against ungodliness and unrighteousness.

Thank you. Thank you God you ought to be worshipped Thank you in Jesus name amen