Our Old Testament reading this morning comes from the book of Revelation, chapter 5. Revelation, chapter 5. We’re reading verses, the first 10 verses from that chapter, Revelation 5. Revelation 5, verses 1 to 10. Once more, please give your attention to God’s holy and inspired word. Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it. One of the elders said to me, Weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. Between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns, with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And he went and he took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll of the four living creatures, And the 20 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and a golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood, you ransomed people for God, for every tribe and language and people and nation. from every tribe and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. The word of the Lord.

We continue in 1 John chapter two this morning, beginning chapter two. And before we go to the Lord, let’s ask his blessing upon the preaching and the hearing and reading that word once more, would you?

Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, we come again before you with humility, with a posture of eagerness to hear from you. And we confess that this is your word, breathed out by you and given to us as your covenant people. But Lord, we also confess that we are often so hard of hearing, and so we ask that your gracious spirit would grant us grace this day, that you would give us ears to hear and hearts that are ready and willing to believe what you tell us. We pray, Lord, that you would magnify your son in our midst, and that the good news of the gospel as it is presented in him would come to us again and afresh, and Lord, that we would find hope and life in believing. And so we ask, Father, grace for your people, and grace for the one who speaks on your behalf, in order that you might be magnified in all the earth. We ask this all in Christ’s name, and all God’s people said, amen.

First John, chapter two, beginning at verse one. And I’ll be reading verses one to six, The focus this morning of the sermon will be verses one and two, really verse two, but let’s read 1 John 2, verses one to six. And let’s once more give our full attention to the word of our God. My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments, whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

So far the reading of God’s word. May indeed add his blessing upon it as we hear expounded now.

What has been said that the fight for truth needs to be fought in every generation. Every generation, the church must fight and defend what she believes about truth, about the core teachings. For instance, about God’s word. Our doctrine of scripture must be defended in every generation. It’s authority, it’s inerrancy, it’s truthfulness, it’s historicity, the transmission of the text, the preservation of that text. And other core truths of our faith as well need fighting for and defending. And one of the key components of the Christian faith that the church has needed to defend for 2,000 years is the doctrine of the atonement, the atonement of Christ. Our passage this morning, verses one to two, is about a vital truth of the Christian faith, the atonement of Jesus Christ. Really, verse two, I’ll be focusing on this morning and kind of laying some groundwork so we understand what he’s talking about, and we’ll look at a bigger, context of this passage in the next couple of weeks. But we wanna get this down first, and then we’ll understand the passage better, and we’ll spare ourselves from some of the misconceptions and misunderstandings of what these verses are saying. We can look at the Apostle Paul, and he summed up his preaching in what way do you remember? He said, in 1 Corinthians 2, I for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. We read things like this, the preaching of the cross, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the death of Christ, the shed blood of Christ, and the atonement of Christ. These aren’t talking about many different things, but they all speak of one and the same thing. And that’s the message of the cross, that it is nothing less than the message of salvation. In 1 Corinthians 1.18, Paul says this, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The power of God, the word of the cross is the power of God for those who are being saved. As I said, 1 John 2, 2 is misused by many, many, many in the church historically. Some read this verse and say, well, there you have it. The atonement of Christ was universal, it was for all people of all time, the whole world, right? But of course that won’t work because we know that all people of all time are not saved. Many people go on to eternal perdition, right? Narrow is the gate. the Gospels tell us, and there are few that find it. And there’s this nagging reality as well that we’re confronted with, if you were to hold that view, that the Bible says otherwise. According to Scripture, Christ’s atonement was particular, not unlimited, but limited. It was intended for those whom God had set his love upon before the foundation of the world, those whom he had predestined to give spiritual life. And so by limited or particular atonement, we mean that Christ did not die on the cross for all men who ever lived, but he died only for those whom the Father chose, Ephesians 2 tells us. And so the scope of the atonement is limited to those whom he chose to the elect. Scripture says, and we read in Matthew 26, and we’ll look at this in much more detail next week. In Matthew 26, 28, he says, this is my blood of the covenant. which is to be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. Many, right? And so this is a difficult doctrine for many to discuss and believe and comprehend. It’s hard to grasp for many. And why is that? I wonder if you were to answer that. Why is this so hard for people to affirm? And there are a number of reasons, I think. In part, it’s because many in the American church have placed a low value on church history, so we’re ignorant of history, by and large, not our group, necessarily, but many are. We have forgotten where we have been, and we have forgotten the challenges that we have fought through. Many, sadly, think that ancient church history is speaking of the 1800s, right? It’s not. Another reason is that we are very much influenced by the distinctives that identify and shape who we are as Westerners, as those in America. Things like individualism, pragmatism, a distorted view of fairness. And these and other factors discolor the lenses with which we interpret things. And we see that we’ve been so inundated with the teaching that Christ died for all men everywhere who’ve ever lived. But as always, we must be diligent to mine the Scriptures, to examine the Scriptures carefully. And we must not allow ourselves to be ruled by emotional considerations, or what we may have just accepted because of tradition. This morning, we’re gonna look at this. Considering this great doctrine of the atonement of Christ, by answering three questions, I hope, we’ll probably just get to two, but I’m gonna lay it out for you. What is the atonement? What did the cross accomplish? and then for whom did Christ die, right? What is the atonement? What did the cross accomplish? And then for whom did Christ die? And so with that, let’s look briefly at the atonement, right? What is the atonement? There’s handfuls of words that we find in scripture that seem technical to us because we don’t use them in our day-to-day lives, like propitiation and expiation and atonements. But we need to understand what these mean. Atonement, this word comes from the Old Testament word, which means to cover, to cover, right? And we think of Noah in Genesis 6, when God gave him instructions to build this ark, he told him to cover it inside and out with pitch, right? That’s the word, to cover. the atonement. The yearly day of atonement that we read about in the Old Testament was the time when the high priest offered, you remember, two goats, right, the day of atonement, two goats. One was a scapegoat to be placed symbolically, the sins placed upon that goat and sent out of the camp. And the other was a sin offering for Israel. The goat given for the sin offering was an atonement. It was a covering for the sins of Israel. And the blood of this atonement was taken and sprinkled upon the mercy seat, or another word for this mercy seat was the seat of propitiation. propitiation. Don’t worry, I’ll define that later on. The atonement sin, I’m sorry, the atonement for sins was the offering of life, right, the blood, offering of the life of that sacrificial animal, right, to cover or to appease the sins of Israel. But the book of Hebrews tells us so, you know, way from far in time, from the Old Testament, it tells us that Through the Day of Atonement and through the many sins that the Old Testament sacrifices, a great lesson was taught to the people of God, and that is this. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And the book of Hebrews also teaches us that all of these animals, the goats and the lambs and so forth, could not, in reality, ever provide for forgiveness and cleansing, truly, forever, for good, for all. He tells us that they symbolically looked what? Forward to a far greater atonement, and that is the sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ upon the cross, the offering of himself. And in reality, that word atonement only begins to scratch the surface of what Christ really did accomplish on the cross for his people. In the cross of Christ, we find the total and complete resolution of the very wrath of God against sin, right? The resolution of that wrath against sin. And in the cross of Christ, we find the bright and shining revelation of the wonder of his love towards sinners. And certainly, there was much more that we could look at in regard to the complexities and the glories of all of these things. But for our purpose this morning, with this brief understanding of what atonement is, we must move on to the, you know, out of the shadows of the Old Testament, if you will, and into the descriptive words of the New Testament, and begin to answer that second question. And that is, what did the cross accomplish? What was accomplished in the cross of Christ? And the first thing that we see is that the cross of Jesus Christ accomplished salvation. How? By fully satisfying the demands of the creation covenant’s sanctions for us. Right, those sanctions for us. He fully satisfied those. And the second is that the cross actually and really redeemed a people. Really and actually fully redeemed a people. And so every person, as we know, is born into this world a covenant being, by virtue of their being created, they’re in covenant with God. And he is born under the obligation to God to trust and obey his God in thought, word, and deed, in totality, in perpetuity. And from the moment of conception until the moment of death, every human being is responsible to complete covenantal loyalty to God. This is part and parcel of being made in the image of God. We are made to reflect that image ethically in a life of trust and loyal obedience to God’s law, his will and his way. We know the sad news of the next part of the story, right, that because of our federal head, right, our covenant head, Adam, because of his failure to keep covenant with God, We are all by nature now totally corrupt. And therefore all are under the judgment of God regarding this creation covenant, this covenant of works from creation. We are creatures. if you will, with lives under sanctions, the cursed sanctions of the law, right? What are sanctions? When you hear that word, it’s another one of those words that we don’t use so often and we may misunderstand what they mean, but sanctions are the consequences of the covenant or the results of the covenant, right? The results of keeping or failing to keep the terms of the covenant. And so those consequences are either blessings for keeping covenant, life, or cursings for failing the covenant, death. life or death, and they are simply the judgment of God in either blessing or cursing, the sanctions of the covenant. And to live a life under sanctions means that everything we will do will be judged and thoroughly evaluated someday, and we will receive a just reward according to the strict sanctions of God’s covenant law. It has been and it always will be a reality that heaven must be earned. It must be earned. This has never changed. And Romans 2 tells us that God will render to every man according to his works, to his works. But under this covenant situation, I hope you’re feeling the problem of this. There are two problems, and these problems should horrify all of us. They are not small matters, but they are monumental problems. And the first problem that we see is that we are born sinful and guilty in Adam. The second problem is that we do sin, we practice sin, we sin. And so we violate the law of God in thought, word, and deed as a way of life, right? And so we are born in debt, and we continually add to that debt throughout the course of our lives with our failing to keep the law of God. So far from the groundless optimism of so many who deny this reality, what is the actual message from the biblical data? What do we actually see in Scripture? And the message to every human being who is hoping that they have been good enough to meet God’s approval with their lives, and when their lives are over is this, from Deuteronomy 27. Verse 26 says, cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them, by doing them. Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them, curse upon them. And the sanctions of the covenant for any disobedience is what? It’s cursing, damnation, death, wrath. That’s very bad news, it’s very bad news. The scripture tells us in Romans four and in Ephesians two, the law brings about wrath. We are by nature children of wrath. So man’s sinful nature and his disobedience to God’s law has landed him under the curse, under damnation and the just wrath of God. The covenant demands right, to which every human being is obligated. It demands they are more than anyone can bear. They’re more than anyone can bear. Why? It’s because everyone is a sinner and unwilling and unable to keep the covenant of works. Again, that doesn’t sound like a very positive scenario. It sounds kind of like a downer. But this is why it’s so very important for you to embrace Jesus Christ and his atonement for sinners. This is why it’s so important for you to believe in Christ and to receive his gift to you, to all who would believe. It’s because the cross of Jesus Christ has accomplished and fulfilled that which you would not and could not do. In the cross, Jesus has fulfilled the demands of that creation covenant, that covenant of works. Perfectly, he’s fulfilled them all. And by doing so, he has opened the door to a new covenant in him for those who find themselves united to him by faith, trusting in him in the gospel. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians 3, verse 13, about Christ’s atonement. Galatians 3, 13. We heard Deuteronomy, everyone who does not confirm the words of the law by doing them is accursed. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanging on a tree. And the word redeemed there, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Redeemed is another one of those words It means to buy or to purchase with a price. The very price we owed to God for satisfaction of the demands of his law were paid for by Jesus Christ. God’s law demands obedience. Heaven must be earned, and it was earned by Jesus Christ, by Christ himself, for all who have faith in him. God’s law demands this, but Christ paid it, and he exemplified it by his entire and perfect life of obedience and in his death upon the cross. So God’s violated law demands those sanctions of the curse, the results of the curse, right? Which are what? The just wrath of God, cursing. But Christ paid that with the sacrifice of his life and on the cross. And on the cross, Paul says that Christ became a curse for us, for us. Christ became the substitute, right? The substitution, substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. Him for us. And Christ became the once and for all time, what all those Old Testament lambs and goats anticipated, but could never accomplish fully. And that’s the full sacrificial satisfaction for sin, to appease God, to placate God. Listen to the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19. He says, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, right, you were ransomed, not with perishable things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, the precious blood of Christ. Christ’s life was perfect, it was flawless, unblemished, right? It’s total and completely satisfied every demand of God’s law, right? Peter says, goes on to say, Like that of a lamb, unblemished and spotless. Unblemished and spotless. No other blood but the blood of Christ. It’s precious. It’s precious. This is a word that we use even today, meaning value and worth, like gold and silver. But we speak of precious metals. Precious metals. They mean costly or valuable metals. And there’s only ever been one blood that matches the weight of precious, costly value that can pay the demands of our redemption. And that precious blood is the blood of Jesus Christ, the righteous. His blood and his alone can pay the price to redeem us. And once that price is paid, brothers and sisters, once that blood is shed, We go free. We’re free. We’re free from the bondage and guilt of sin, free to begin to keep the law, free to love him, free to love him, free to live lives of gratitude for our God who saved us. And at the moment of his death, you recall, what did he say? He said, it is finished. It is finished. It means paid in full, right? Not an ongoing pseudo-sacrifice every day in the elements of some kind of mass. It is finished, paid in full. And the covenantal and legal debt that we owed to God was paid with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And so therefore we are redeemed, redeemed, been bought back for the Lord. Christ redeemed us, Galatians 3 says, from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for us. And this sums up the idea of a propitiatory sacrifice. And we find that word in our verse, 1 John 2, 2. He is the propitiation for our sins, the propitiation for our sins. I know some English translations say atonement or expiation. But to make propitiation is to offer a sacrifice to satisfy divine wrath, divine wrath. And so propitiation, again, it’s not a word we use every day. But what does it do? It’s just that, propitiation pacifies, it appeases, it placates sin. It satisfies divine wrath, just wrath. And divine wrath, again, is God’s righteous judgment, is the curse of the broken law. But listen to the wonderful news, the wonderful good news later on in 1 John chapter 4, verse 10. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and set his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. to be that which appeases God for our sins, right, the propitiation. And the wrath and curse of God was fully appeased in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. He took the wrath for us. He took the curse for us, therefore uniting us to him. And also, what do we see that in the cross? The wrath and love of God in the cross is is united in the cross. We see both, right? His love and his wrath is dealt with. And so right here is the idea of substitution. And the old hymn says it well, right? The old hymn, Man of Sorrows, right? If I had been smart enough, I would have had us sing that today, but I’m not. Man of Sorrows, right? Listen, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood. sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior. What a Savior, right? In our place, condemned, he stood. 1 Peter goes on in chapter 3, and he says this, for Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, the righteous for the unrighteous, us. Why? Why is that? He goes on, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, alive in the spirit, right? It’s a glorious thing, brothers and sisters. Or 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake, he made him to be no sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the very righteousness of God. And do you see that there? Do you hear the gospel, the weight of the gospel? This is the heart of the gospel, right? And it’s so important that we understand. So follow me here. If you tune out, tune back in, listen to what went on here, right? Remember in the upper room, Jesus gives his disciples the cup of his blessing. And he says, drink the sweet fellowship I have with the Father. My peace I give to you, my joy I give to you, my glory I pray for you. And he presses that cup into the hands of the disciples, and he says, take, drink of it, all of you. And then in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tremblingly takes the cup from his father’s hand, right, the cup the prophet spoke of, the cup of God’s wrath against sin, the cup of judgment. And he drinks it, and he cries out on the cross, my God, I am forsaken. Why? Why am I forsaken? And the Father tells him, why, my son? Because I’m making you to be sin, although you knew no sin, that those who come and cast themselves upon you and are found in you may be my very righteousness, that they may be reconciled to me by the power of the gospel. And if you grasp that, if you grasp this reality, this truth, this promise, from the Scriptures, that the glory of the message of the atonement and reconciliation and exchange for you who believe. Have you grasped this? The glory and wonder that was brought by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. That’s what this is. It’s his life for your life, his death for your death. This is what the cross accomplished. Brothers and sisters, and do you grasp that in Christ, this is the exchange that is offered? I pray that you have both understood this and received it with joy and awe and wonder and thanksgiving and praise. And if you’ve not, I plead with you, come, come to Christ. Believe this day. If you take his life, he will take your death, right? If you take his life, he will take your death. And so brothers and sisters, grasp the unfathomable wonderful accomplishment for you in Christ, right? The hand of his eternal blessing bestowed on his son falls upon you because the hand of his judgment and curse has fallen upon the son of his eternal love. And the result of Christ’s work is that great exchange, which renders you the very righteousness of God. We’ll finish up this last question next week. But for now, I want us to feel the weight of the gospel, the weight of the gospel from these things, right? Do you feel as though you’re too far gone for God’s mercy? Do you think that Christ’s atonement couldn’t deal with your sin, or your darkness, or the blackness of your own heart, or the extent of your sin, that you’re just far too sinful? Or do you think, dear Christian, that you’ve blown it so grievously that you’ve sinned your way out of salvation in Jesus? or that you’ve just been too heinous or too awful. Listen, remember, and believe. None of those on whom God has sent his love are irredeemable or have out sinned his love. All right, again, listen to the passage. I’m writing these things to you that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins. There is yet hope for you and for me. There is yet hope, and Christian, there is yet hope again for you. Flee to him. Flee to Christ again. Give yourself again to the one who will never let you go. God provided for all of our needs, and he pleads, come, come for the first time, for again, and always come to me. for I’m always there with you. And so remember, brothers and sisters, let us be reconciled to God. Let us live to him, never forgetting the glory of this truth in all we do for all of our lives. And on this side of the consummation, until he returns and performs that final, right, what did the end of Revelation say? That final tear wiping and ends for all time, all mourning and all crying and death forever. Until then, for this in-between time that we are in, remember, rest, be assured, be secure. that that which was needed has been accomplished in the cross of Christ for those who trust themselves to him for their lives and believe on him. God in Christ has reconciled you to himself. This is your comfort and sweet hope, amen? Praise and thanks are to be given in our lives. Praise and thanksgiving for life moment by moment by moment, now and always and forever, amen.

Let’s pray. Our almighty and loving God, we thank you for the gift of your word. We pray now for the grace to believe what we have heard and to live in ways that honor you above all. Lord, we are blown away by the love that you’ve shown to us in Christ. We’re blown away by our slowness to comprehend and to believe in our feeble faith. Father, we pray, give us faith to believe, increase our faith, help us to trust in you and the truth that you tell us. We’ve been cleansed, Lord, that we are united to Jesus. Lord, grow us, sanctify us. We praise you for the wonder of your love and great mercy and your work in renewing your people. Lord God, we pray, help us again and again to believe these things that you tell us, and they’re glorious and beyond our infinite minds, that we are united to Jesus again. Lord, help me keep it to the front of our minds, indwelt with the spirit, new creations. Help us to live and think and pray in a way that brings honor to your name, that befits the profession of our lips. Lord, we do pray that as your word goes out this morning and has gone out here and around the world, that it would have its full power and powerful effect. Lord, we pray that you would continue to raise up men for the truth and that you would protect your church in truth. Lord, help all of us to be devoted to the life that you love in your will and your way. Lord, we do pray for the officers of your church. We pray that you would give them wisdom, that you give them love to care for your people, to bless them in their work, help them to keep short accounts, even as you, for all of us, Lord, help us keep short accounts with you and close accounts with you. We pray for all that are here and all that can’t be with us this morning for various reasons. Be merciful unto us, provide for our physical needs, strengthen us spiritually, and keep us, Lord, as you say, from growing satisfied and from going fearful, but strengthen us and conform us evermore into the image of our King, your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For it’s in his name that we pray. Amen.