Some people who are a bit familiar with the Christian faith will say things like this to us.
I've rarely had anybody say, I've had people say something like this to me face to face.
It's more something that you read or you'll see on YouTube.
You Christians are crazy.
You believe in a petty tyrant, thin-skinned God who's always angry
and is always seeking to mete out his anger at human beings
who are just basically trying to mind their own business.
And how preposterous is this to think that your God is just so completely consumed with anger
and consumed with judgment, and that's bad enough.
But it's even worse that you Christians think that the brilliant idea around this
is that he should kill his son and that somehow or another that lets you all off the hook.
How is that not something like child abuse?
How is that not just something that fosters anger in people and fosters,
in fact, gives permission for people to do horrible things to their kids?
The whole idea of Christianity is completely and utterly preposterous.
Here endeth the sermon. No.
I don't know if you've ever had anybody say that.
You can read about it.
People like Christopher Hitchens were very famous for going on rants like this.
Often one of the things that Christians will say in the face of that,
and I've only had it maybe twice,
somebody say something along that lines to me in a coffee shop.
In fact, in both cases, they said it with quite a loud voice.
And I'll be honest with you.
I got very red-faced
because the whole Starbucks turned to look at me
as this guy went on this rant about me.
But usually you don't have people say that to your face.
You'll just see it in YouTube.
A lot of times Christians, in response to this,
will say something like,
well, that's sort of more of an Old Testament idea,
and Christians aren't Old Testament people.
We're New Testament people.
And the New Testament really portrays God as love and Jesus as love,
and that's not the right way to understand what the Christian faith is.
Now, the unfortunate thing is
that if the person speaking to you knows the Bible at all,
they'll say,
I'm sorry, it's in the New Testament.
And that's the verse that we're looking at today,
is one of the times in the New Testament
where, in fact,
the anger of God at sin
is, in fact,
very specifically and explicitly taught.
It's just not often recognized
because it's an old-fashioned word
that we don't use very often.
So if you would just turn your Bibles again,
I'm going to bring it to your attention.
I'm going to read the three verses before it,
or the four verses before it,
and then the key verse.
And this is going to be one of those Sundays
where we're just going to really camp
on this idea of God's anger.
And I can't give you advice
about how to handle a conversation like that with people.
Probably my main advice would be to say,
listen, you've caught me really off guard on this.
How about if you talk to my pastor?
Or just caught you off guard.
Maybe we can get together in a week,
and I'd love to try to explore this with you.
I'm not quite sure what to say,
but I'd love to continue.
And that might be just the best thing that you can do.
But we're going to explore this idea
and the objections that most Canadians would have to it.
But let's look at it first.
It's 1 John, right at the back of your Bible,
chapter 1, verse 8, and we'll start there.
If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins,
he, that is God, is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned,
we make him, that is God, a liar,
and his word is not in us.
My little children,
I am 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
and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world.
And the word propitiation means
something which turns aside.
I'm going to unpack the idea a little bit more.
Something that turns aside God's anger.
That's what it means.
And it's here, it's in chapter 4,
it's in the book of Romans,
and it takes place in a noun form
in a variety of other places in the Gospels.
I think it's a total of six times
in the New Testament this word is used.
So if we have somebody making this
very strong case against Christianity
and we try to say it's an Old Testament idea,
not a New Testament idea,
if they know the Bible at all,
they'll come back at us
and we won't really know what to do.
So let's just think about it for a second.
Well, the first thing about this
is to think about anger.
I mean, that's where a lot of this gets its power.
This is quite a few years ago now,
but there was a woman
who used to go to this church.
This is a long, long time ago.
I've been here a long time.
I hadn't realized it was as long
until Andrew got up and reminded us.
Just if you're wondering,
I came here as a pastor at 14,
so 25 years, I'm only 39.
Not true.
But there was a woman
who was about to start having children
and one day she wanted to talk to me
and we set up a time to talk.
And one of the things that she shared with me
is that she had a mom,
she was really looking forward to getting married,
but she had a great fear about having children.
And the reason she had a great fear
about having children
is that she herself had a mom
who was very anger driven.
You never knew what would set off her mom's anger,
but something would set it off.
It was all very idiosyncratic.
It was always something self-centered,
something that offended her in some way.
And she would set off her mom's anger.
And then her mom was very, very, very,
she used corporal physical punishment
and was very, very violent with this woman.
And she said,
the problem is
that I see my mom and myself more and more.
And I'm just really, really worried
that if I actually have kids,
if I'm able to have kids,
that I'll end up being like my mom
and that I'll have this anger
and I'll do so much violence to them.
Now, we had several conversations around all of this
and the point of it isn't
how you counsel somebody about something like that,
but the fact of the matter is
is that we all know anger driven individuals,
every single one of us.
In fact, if we were just to say,
let's share some stories afterwards
about anger driven people,
we'd all have stories.
In fact, we might start trying to top each other
with stories about anger.
And so when we hear this idea of this idea of propitiation,
that God's anger has to be turned aside,
the first thing that we do
is start to think of anger driven individuals.
In fact,
that'd be exactly what people in Jesus' time
would have thought about
because one of the things
that characterized the gods and the goddesses
is you never knew when you were going to piss them off
and when they were pissed off,
boy, they were pissed off
and they would do all sorts of terrible things to you.
Now, what I would just say to that
is I'd say one particular thing for us as Christians
when we see this idea,
which is very unsettling,
and that is this,
Christians all accept
that the most perfect revelation of God is Jesus.
And all I would say to anybody,
if I had the chance,
is I'd say,
I just challenge you to this.
I ask you to read the four gospels.
Just read the four gospels.
It's recognized that these are
either eyewitness biographies of Jesus
or based on eyewitness testimony of Jesus.
And I ask you,
read these four gospels
and then see if Jesus is an anger driven individual.
And nobody could read the stories of Jesus
and think that he was an anger driven individual.
And then I might say,
and not only is Jesus not an anger driven individual,
but if you know anything at all about the Christian faith,
that the heart of the Christian faith
is this idea of the Trinity.
You're going to get sort of a bit bored of me
always going back to who God is,
but the fact that the God is triune
is unbelievably important.
The fact of the matter is,
is that you could wonder about Allah's anger.
But the fact is that
the Christian doctrine of the Trinity
shows that before there were any human beings,
before there was a creation at all,
that from all eternity,
the Father loved the Son
and the Son loved the Father.
And the Holy Spirit both loved the Father and the Son
and is the love between the Father and the Son.
And you can see that
that there's this fundamental harmony,
that there's no anger in God in his very nature.
And that God in his very nature
creates not out of anger,
but out of love and out of goodness.
And so whatever this doctrine means,
what we have to understand is
God is not an anger driven petty tyrant.
Listen again.
My little children,
I am 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.
But some of you might say,
but George, you're still, I don't know,
like, but don't you think
a God that never gets angry is a better God?
Like, don't you think that
that should be what we're evolving to,
is to not be angry?
Don't you think if God is really God
that he should evolve
to never even having this line
of propitiation in the Bible at all?
To which I would just say this.
Think about anger again a little bit more.
Now, no longer thinking about
anger driven individuals
who are petty tyrants.
Imagine that you were to take
a group of people
and you were to show them
a documentary,
maybe even a bit of a graphic documentary,
of the many places in the world
where either young girls
are stolen from their family
to satisfy the sexual lusts of men,
or where parents actually
sell their young girls,
like very, very young girls.
And imagine you watch that video.
Would it be a sign of moral evolution
if you were not mad at that?
Somebody who could watch that
and think about it
and not be mad,
it's a sign
that they're immoral.
They're missing something.
To not be angry
at real abusive evil.
In fact, even think about it for a second.
Imagine that after the video
that not only is one of the people
not mad at it,
but they then give you a long argument
as to why it's not as bad as it looks.
They become a spin doctor for evil
and you would look and say,
you're a spin...
They would not be a person
that any one of us would point to
and say this is an example
of highly evolved moral person.
We would say there's something wrong with you.
And it's the same thing as this.
Why would we want a God
that's never angry at evil?
Why would we want a God
who is not angry at...
During Cambodia,
when the Pol Pot killed
one-third of the population
of the country,
why would we want a God
who's not angry at that?
The fact of the matter is
is that God's...
This doctrine of God's settled anger
against evil
is in fact a good thing.
Like, why would you want to worship a God
that does not get angry
at great evil and injustice?
Listen again to the text.
My little children,
I am 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.
But some of you might say,
George, here's part of the problem.
The idea of sin
is just a completely
and utterly ridiculous idea.
And it is.
I don't watch very many comedians
on Netflix
or any of the other places
where you can watch comedians.
But I can tell you this.
The little that I know about them,
that if a comedian
came out onto the stage
and began by saying,
I'm a sinner,
the whole audience would laugh.
I want to talk about
how bad a sinner I am,
the whole audience would laugh.
It instantly conjures up
prune-like spinsters
frowning at people having fun.
Nuns and monks
who are completely and utterly
off their rockers
with fasting
and self-flagellation,
being upset with people.
That's the image
that it conjures to our society
and our culture.
And it's one of the reasons
why usually if I talk
to non-Christians,
I won't use the word sin.
I would only use the word sin
if I had really developed
a very long relationship with them.
I would, in fact,
talk about evil and wickedness.
But, in fact,
the idea of sin
is something which is
a very, very important word
for Christians to remember.
It's a very, very good word
for Christians to remember
because it includes God in it.
that if I was just to use
the way Canadians speak
about right and wrong
and I would do something,
maybe I punch Chris.
I'd never punch Chris.
He's younger, vastly bigger,
and stronger than me.
It would be a foolish thing to do.
But let's say for some reason
I decided I would punch Chris.
Well, people can say,
well, you've done something
wrong to Chris.
It was also a really stupid thing to do.
But you did a wrong thing to Chris.
And it's just between you and Chris.
Why on earth does it include
something like God?
It's just between the two of you.
So here's where the word,
this is where the doctrine of sin
is very important
for Christians to remember
because it actually opens up
the fact that it's never
just a private act of evil
against a person.
There's something else involved.
And I'll give you a story,
an illustration
to help you to understand it.
I was going to originally use
that some Canadians went
and invaded the U.S. embassy
and took part of it over.
But given how people in Canada
feel about Trump,
we might cheer at that.
So I won't use the U.S.
as an example.
Imagine that there's a group
of Canadians,
three or four from this church
after the service,
and they go to the French embassy.
And while they go
into the French embassy,
they punch the guards
and go into the embassy
and start throwing their weight around,
punching a couple
of the embassy staff
and maybe even punching
the ambassador from France.
Now here's the question.
Is their action
just a sin
or just a wrongdoing
against the individuals
that they punch?
No.
It's an offense against France.
In fact,
it would be the case
that if after they came out,
Canadians just said,
yay, way to go,
and the Canadian government
refused to try to punish them at all
or do anything at all like that,
not only would the people
who were punched be upset,
all of France would be upset.
All of France would be upset
because it wasn't just
an individual act
against a particular person.
It was an act
of aggression
against France.
And that's how everybody
in Canada
and throughout the entire world
would understand it.
And you see,
this is then
why the doctrine of sin
is very important.
It's why churches
need to never lose
the doctrine of sin
because to say
that something's wrong
or something's evil
can easily seem
as if it's just between me
and the person who's wrong.
But the idea of sin
always brings
to our remembrance
that it's also
something against God.
God is included.
Why?
God is the creator
of all things.
He is the sustainer
of all things.
He is sovereign
over all things.
He has never renounced
his sovereignty.
He didn't go down
and look and say,
I'm sick and tired
of Canada.
I'm sick and tired
of the earth.
I'm just going to forget
about it.
If he forgot about it,
we wouldn't exist.
He's never given up
his sovereignty
over the entire world.
And so every act
against the created order,
because it can be,
it's a sin to pollute.
It's a sin to rape the earth.
Any act against animals
which is cruel
is a sin.
It's against God's creation.
And any act
against a human being
is also a sin.
And so therefore
it is appropriate
for God to be upset.
Nobody would wonder
why France was upset
that Canadians went in
and punched the ambassador.
We wouldn't think
they were being ridiculous.
And so it is
that every human being
needs to understand
that their wrong actions
is also something
against God.
Listen again to the text.
My little children,
I am 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.
Some of you might say,
I'm the downtown version
of a Kanata soccer mom.
Like, everybody loves me.
I don't do anything bad.
Like, I'm a good person.
Like, you'd want to have me
as your neighbor.
Like, the school loves it
that my kids go to that school
because I volunteer
and help them out
all the time.
I'm a good employee.
Like, I'm a good person.
Like, I've never done
anything against God.
Like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can see that God
should do something
about those people
who abuse children
and Paul Pot
and what he did
in Cambodia,
but I'm a good person.
I'm a soccer mom.
I'm a deputy minister
in the civil service.
Like, I know how to mind
my P's and Q's
and dot my I's
and cross my T's.
I haven't done racist things
or anything like that
that's going to get me
in trouble.
Well, you can look
through my whole
Twitter history.
Nothing bad.
Well, the illustration
of the French embassy
once again
would show us the problem.
Let's say in this
particular case
that a group of you
go in
and you punch
the guard and all
and you punch
the ambassador
but then you take over
a whole floor
of the embassy
and you seal it off
and through the door
you apologize
for having punched
the person
but basically
the fact of the matter
is you say,
listen,
I love the location.
This is way nicer
than my apartment
or my house.
I don't have to pay
anything for it.
Like, the furniture
is really nice.
It's really clean
and by the way
I expect the French
government
to keep sending in
a maid every day
and clean everything
like that
and I'll just ignore France.
I'll just live here
but I'll ignore France.
Well, what would we say?
Well, we think
actually what we would think
is we'd think
they were mentally ill.
Like, we'd say
anybody who thinks
they can take over
the third floor
or the second floor
of the French embassy
and just live there
as if it's theirs
and doesn't think
there should be
any consequences
or that they've bothered
the French government
and that if the French government
is mad,
it's like,
what's your problem?
Like, we'd think
you're missing something,
like you're mentally ill.
But that's exactly
the story of the soccer mom
or the deputy minister.
We live in God's world.
We breathe his air.
We depend upon gravity.
We didn't create ourselves.
God gave us
the gift of life.
Every single breath
we take
is given to us
by God.
Every thought
that we have in our mind
is given to us
by God.
Everything that is good
is, in a sense,
coming from God.
We consistently
and utterly
live in God's world
and yet,
if we completely
and utterly
ignore him,
it's no different
than taking over
the third floor
of the embassy,
thinking it's yours
and ignoring
the French government
and then wondering
why they think
it's wrong.
Once again,
listen to the text.
My little children,
I am 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.
But then some of you
might say,
okay, well,
this propitiation,
the siniest side
of the wrath of God,
well, why doesn't God
just get over it?
Like, isn't that
a sign of maturity?
Like, the mature person
gets over it.
Why doesn't God
just get over it?
Now,
think about it
for a second.
Who usually says
get over it?
The person who's
done the wrong.
Imagine this scenario.
My wife isn't here
because we had
three of our grandchildren
come and spend
a sleepover,
and anyway,
that's why she's not
here this morning.
But imagine
that I'm up here,
and then halfway
through the service,
my wife Louise
comes walking
on the stage.
She singles to Andrew
with, you know how
women can have the look?
The look.
I can't do it.
I should have somebody
come up here
and give the look.
Andrew has been married
for many years.
He understands
the look.
And she points to this,
and Andrew
quickly turns it on,
and then she points
at me,
and he quickly
mutes me.
And then Louise
gets up on the stage
and tells you
the terrible thing
I did to her
this past week.
And you were all
horrified
at what I've done.
And then I say
to Andrew,
to that,
and I'd say
to Louise,
why don't you
just get over it?
How would that
go over
with the whole room?
Would any of you
say,
George,
you hear
what she just said?
you can't say,
why don't you
just get over it?
So why is it
that we can say
that to God?
Why don't you
just get over it?
Why don't you
just get over it?
Listen to the text
again.
My little children,
I am 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.
He is the propitiation
for our sins,
the one who deals
with God's wrath
in a just way.
But,
some of you
might say,
okay,
George,
I think God's
still a little bit
overreacting
about this whole thing,
this anger thing,
you know?
Because I'm not
that bad a guy
or a gal.
Here's another thing.
Just imagine
for a moment,
if I ask you,
can you think
of somebody
who did something
wrong to you
that you still
remember and are
bothered by?
My guess is
every single one
of us will
instantly remember
something that's
happened to us
that was wrong
and we still
remember.
In fact,
I would bet
that if I said,
we're going to
take 20 minutes,
half an hour,
I'd like you to
write down 10
things you remember
that have been
wrong to you
and you still
remember and
it still bothers you,
probably all of us
would be able
to write that list.
Some of us might
actually,
when we start
to think about it,
this is one of
the problems
with memory,
is that it might
go back to something
when we were 12
or 10 or 8.
We all know
what it is,
especially for those
of us who are a little
bit older,
that all of a sudden
we smell a smell
or we hear a sound
or we see a scene
and it brings us
right back to that
time when we were 12
or when we were 16
or some other time
and we remember
once again,
it might have slipped
our mind,
but it's never really
gone away.
We remember that thing
which is wrong.
We all have that,
but the very,
very sobering thing
is that people
have those same
thoughts and memories
about me
and about you.
The fact of the matter
is we all know
that we do things
that are wrong
and they can trouble us.
They can make us sleepless.
They can make us ashamed.
They can trouble us
and I talked about that
a little bit last week
in the sermon
about one of the sources
of like a type
of secular cursing.
But the fact of the matter
is is that even though
we can be troubled
very much by certain things
that most of us
actually very quickly
discount the way
we've hurt another person
and no longer
think about it.
So imagine what
it would be like
if all of a sudden
God was to show up
and he was to
freeze me in space
and all of a sudden
people who remembered
something that I had
done wrong to them
or I had done wrong
to others that they loved
and they still remembered
it and it still hurt them
and they start to file in
because they're going
to remind me about it.
Every seat in here
would be full.
God is able to bring them
and they remembered.
Every seat in this room
would be full.
In fact, this room
would be too small.
I don't know how big
the room would have to be.
It might have to sit
several thousand.
The fact of the matter is
is that I would be horrified.
I would see people
I wouldn't remember
but then if they start
to voice it
they say,
George, this is what
you did to me
when I was 10.
This is what you did
to me when I was 8
and you were 8.
This is what you did
to me, George,
when you first got ordained.
This is how you spoke
in such a way
and how it hurt me.
And many people
would have more than
one thing that they
would say
and the room
would have
not just 300 and some
but 3,000 and some
and I would have to
stand there
in the face
of all those people
throughout my life
that I have done
something wrong to them
that it was sufficiently wrong
that they still remember it
and it still bothers them
and hurts them.
How could I stand
in front of that?
And if you folks here
were able
by the power of God
to all be off
on the side
and to watch that
you would get quieter
and quieter
as the room filled
and as each person
came in
as they told the whole room
what it was that I had done
and you would know
that I had no hope
at all
of satisfying
their righteous
anger
and bother
at what I had done
to them.
I might be able
to handle
one or two
or three or four
but I couldn't handle
them all.
See the God
who does exist
is a God
who knows all things
sees all things
and he doesn't forget
and his not forgetting
isn't a bad thing
because remember
what I just said?
Why don't you just
forget about it?
Whoa!
No, no, no, no.
There's some things
you don't forget about.
How could I possibly
stand
before these demands
and God hasn't even
added his own voice
and nobody has even
added the things
that I've said
and done in my own mind
that only God
has known?
Could you imagine
what it would be like
if God all of a sudden
revealed to every person
the different things
in my mind
that I have thought
and done
and said
in my mind
that have been silent
and how big the room
would be
and how could I stand
before it?
Listen again.
My little children
I am 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 our advocate
and he's not just
our advocate
he's not just
the righteous one.
He is the propitiation
for our sins.
He is the one
who satisfies
God's proper anger
at the evil
that I have done
the things
which I should have done
which I did not do
which demand
that there be
some satisfaction
of justice
and he is the one
who satisfies
God's proper anger
because he is just
and he does something
for me
in my place
when I could not stand
for I would be
completely
and utterly
unmade.
Why didn't he just
pardon me?
Really?
If just before Trump
whenever it is
whether he loses
this election
or whether he has
to step down
at the end
if just at the end
of that
if Trump takes
all of his cronies
and pardons them
how many of you
will celebrate it
and say that's a good thing
he just gave him a pardon?
What will you say?
That dirty rascal
It's not a sign
of justice
Justice needs
to be paid
Here's this two
final types
of things
to understand
what it is
that Jesus
does for me
Two of them
are both
illustrations
that I've used
before
in different contexts
I apologize
for those
who've heard them
before
but I'm still
using them
because they're
a very good one
You see
what we want
is we want
some type
of satisfaction
Justice
when things
have been wrong
there needs
to be
not just
justice
shown
but there needs
to be
Here's the
illustration
I've used
before
You have
a young
woman
and her
husband
is off
traveling a lot
for the job
they're just
starting out in life
they live
paycheck to
paycheck
they don't
shop at
Nordstrom's
they shop
at Walmart
they look
forward to
the day
they could
afford Costco
they just
shop at
Walmart
they go
to
Fresco
they go
to the
reduced
section
if they
go into
Loblaws
they're just
getting
paycheck to
paycheck
but the
young woman's
mom has
given her
a couple
of extra
dollars
to treat
the kids
and so
the husband
has gone
on one
of his
trips
trying to
make some
money
and she
goes to
this little
restaurant
just a
family
restaurant
takes her
three little
kids
five
three
and one
into the
restaurant
they're basically
good kids
but she
goes into
the restaurant
she has
the restaurant
time from
hell
her waiter
or waitress
has that
perfect ability
to not see
when you signal
you know those
times when you're
in the waitress
and the waitress
just seems to
have that ability
to not see you
and respond
and so
they're not
getting served
and the kids
start to get
a bit antsy
and then finally
they come
and they bring
them water
and the waitress
throws up
and goes
okay
like what
do you want
like this
and she's
just really
rude to her
and she looks
at her kids
and she rolls
her eyes
and she's rude
and she's
really slow
with the food
and so the kids
make a little
bit of mess
they spill
their water
and every time
the waitress
comes with a
loud sigh
she sighs
about having
to clean up
the mess
and people
in the restaurant
are now
looking
and then finally
the food
comes
and the waitress
gets the order
all wrong
but rather than
the waitress
apologizing
she says it
you know
women like you
just make me
sick and tired
like you just
have baby brain
and baby brain
and mommy brain
I didn't get the order
wrong
you got the order
wrong
she says it
with a loud voice
and the whole restaurant
is looking at the mom
and the poor mom
is getting all red faced
completely and utterly
embarrassed
she doesn't know
what to do
so she ends up
just giving in to it
because she can't
stand up for herself
and her kids are upset
and everybody in the room
is looking at her
and she just feels
completely terrible
and so she's leaving
the restaurant
and as she's leaving
the restaurant
finally she's trying
to get her kids out
she's just
the tears are coming
down her face
she doesn't care
about her makeup
being wrecked
and her tears
are coming down
the face
and there's an
older woman
who comes into
the restaurant
she sees
this young woman
with the three
little kids
and the older woman
says
honey
like dear
what's wrong
and the woman
it's the first time
she's been in the
whole restaurant
that anybody's
even shown
any compassion
to her at all
and she just
starts to blurt
it out
how terrible
it's been
and how the waitress
mistreated her
and how everything's
wrong
and the food was wrong
and she gets all upset
and the woman
you can just see
her heart's breaking
with compassion
the older woman
for her
and then she says
I'm the owner
of the restaurant
I'm going to make it right
I want you to be satisfied
I'm going to make it right
we could all discuss
afterwards
over coffee
about how she's going to make it right
part of her making it right
is going to cost herself
right
the owner
and part of it
might be
that she goes in
and she says
excuse me everybody
I really apologize
for the way my staff
have treated this young woman
what they did
was reprehensible
they're fired immediately
by the way
and I'm just really bad
I'm really sad
that this has come up
to upset you
and just to show you
my commitment
to this being a family restaurant
apple pie
for everyone
on me
and then she goes
and not only does she
give the lecture
to the waitress
and she fires the waitress
but she says
to the young woman
listen you're going to be
my guest in this restaurant
for the next year
you come in
you order anything you want
it's all on me
and all
everything is dealt with
the injustice is dealt with
her reputation
the lack of money
that she had
all of those things
and the woman goes away
thinking
it still was really hard
but justice was done
and I'm satisfied
imagine once again
all the people here
and they all have
these things about
that I have done wrong
and I can't deal with them
I might be able to make
amendment of life
for one or two
or three or four
but all of the things
and I can't possibly
deal with this
and the Bible says
that Jesus
is the propitiation
for my sins
for your sins
and what that means
is that Jesus
seeing my inability
to deal with justice
and understanding
all of us
intrinsically understanding
that what we need
with justice
is that it's made right
that there's
a satisfaction
and that's what it means
by satisfying God's anger
it's not that he's willful
it's not that he's hateful
he's only love
he's only driven by justice
and God can't just pardon me
because all of those
who have wronged me
can say
you can't just
there needs to be
some sense of satisfaction
and so in this profound
mystery of grace
God the son of God
takes my place
he is the perfect one
his sinless life
for mine
his place
he trades places
with me
at this profound
eternal level
that the anger of God
at my wrong
can be dealt with
the final example
I've used this before
because you might say
well how it is
that Jesus can do that
for me and for all the people
we inherently understand
that it is possible
for certain natural
representatives
to take the place
of many lives
two years from now
three years from now
COVID-19
is a long distant memory
there's been a vaccine
nobody in the earth
will get it
and you go to
Wembley Stadium
110,000 people
they're there to watch
a soccer game
a football game
and sometime
during the show
all of a sudden
a group of terrorists
they get all of the entrances
they lock them up
with chains
there's an announcement
made that
they put a small
nuclear bomb
in the very center
of the field
the whole place
is a hostage
they say
if anybody tries
to do anything
we're going to start
shooting innocent people
and all of England
and all of the world
will be spellbound
by this thing
terrorists
having taken over
110,000 people
in Wembley Stadium
and the whole world
would be captured by it
all of England
Scotland
Ireland
and Wales
Canada
United States
all of the former
commonwealth
everybody would be
mesmerized by this
110,000 people
held captive
by these terrorists
and if I called them up
and said
if you let them all go
I'll sit on the bomb
they'd go
what?
are you nuts?
hang up
I can't just go
and sit on a bomb
so they give
110,000 people up
the Queen
called them up
the Queen of England
called them up
and said
if you let those
110,000 people go
I will sit on the bomb
in their stead
the terrorists
would take that
in a moment
she naturally
could take the place
of 110,000 people
and no one
would question
or doubt it
this teaching
that when Jesus
dies on the cross
he is dying
as a propitiation
for your sin
and for mine
that God
the Son of God
if the Queen of England
can naturally stand
for 110,000 people
how much more
can God
the Son of God
stand for every
human being
who has ever lived
and ever will live
and how could it
not be
that he
by his
emptying himself
of his glory
of his divine
prerogatives
of his splendor
of his appearance
of God
and he's setting
all of these aside
so that he ends up
dying on a cross
and experiencing
all there is
to taste of death
you can see
that within this
that there is
a full
satisfaction
of justice
and the whole
gospel
is this
profound news
that God
never stops
being opposed
to injustice
he never stops
being opposed
to evil
and he does
not just merely
pardon and let go
his cronies
but that God
the Son of God
seen my great need
and yours
that we could not
deal with on our own
he comes to me
and says
take my hand
if you take my hand
I'll take your place
and you can have
my place
and I
am willing
to be undone
and unmade
for you
and that is
what the gospel is
that is what
the gospel is
that is what
the text here says
listen to it again
my little children
I am 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
just a couple of things
as we close
he's done it
but we need to receive it
and we can only receive it
not by weighing
our merits
but by saying
I need you
thank you for doing this
I
accept you
as my savior
and my lord
and
that profound thing
that you do for me
the second thing
about this
which is so important
for us
just as we close
is it helps us
to understand
why Christians
should never
be partners
or spin doctors
for evil
and injustice
because we see
that God
never lets
evil and injustice
off the hook
and as we are
formed and shaped
by the gospel
it means that
we should be formed
and shaped
to always be repelled
and horrified
and properly angry
at evil
and injustice
the gospel
shapes us
for goodness
and for justice
and for a hatred
a proper hatred
of evil
and injustice
and finally
only the gospel
provides the impetus
and the grounds
by which I can begin
to examine my own life
to know that
Jesus has dealt
with all of the
demands of justice
against me
with nothing left out
in his once for all
sacrifice
and to know
that when he
takes my place
and bears
the proper anger
of God
that justice
might be satisfied
and offers me
his place instead
and to know
that one day
I will dwell in glory
does not then
give me
not because of anything
I've done
or not because of my marriage
but purely because
what of Christ
has done for me
and that God
with perfect knowledge
there's nothing
in my past
present or future
that was not dealt
with by Jesus
upon his death
on the cross
that actually begins
to provide
a type of security
for me to look
at the evil
that I do
day by day
or maybe evil
that I have done
in the past
to begin to say
to God
and to people
that was wrong
I beg your forgiveness
how can I amend
my life
only in that
sure and strong
place
of the gospel
can we begin
to have a place
to stand
to see ourselves
without self-deception
without self-flattery
but to have one
who's our advocate
who can also speak
to us and say
George
let's look at this
together
remember I've already
paid for it
let's look at this
because evil
always ruins our lives
and is never the basis
of our identity
please stand
invite you to stand
just bow our heads
in prayer
father we give you
thanks and praise
that you do not
tolerate evil
and injustice
that it is always
wrong to you
we give you
thanks and praise
that you will
judge
father we confess
before you
that there is
no way
at all
on our own
merits
or by own
cleverness
or flattery
or spin
that we could
stand
before perfect
justice
we acknowledge
that our
standing
before you
our cry
to you
as our
father
our cry
to you
as our
father
who loves
us
is not
based on
our ability
to spin
our lives
but our
acknowledgement
that we
can only
stand
before you
because our
blessed
savior
jesus
is our
propitiation
that he
has stood
in our
place
and dealt
and been
dealt
the punishment
that we
properly
deserve
that justice
might be
satisfied
and has
not only
taken our
place
to bear
this
proper
anger
and evil
but has
offered
us
his
perfect
standing
with you
so father
we stand
here
only in
jesus
our
propitiation
and we
ask father
that as
your holy
spirit
draws us
to be
more
and more
to be
more deeply
knowledgeable
and aware
of what
it is
that jesus
has done
for us
that father
as this
becomes
more true
in our
lives
the way
that we
understand
ourselves
and see
our lives
and see
our past
and our
present
and our
future
we thank
you father
that it
is a place
by which
we can
deal with
those things
that we
do that
are wrong
day by
day
we thank
you father
that our
destiny
is secure
in jesus
and we
ask as well
that you
would so
grip us
with the
gospel
that we
are opposed
to all
evil and
injustice
in ourselves
and in
others
that you
would purify
our moral
sensibilities
and our
sensibilities
around justice
that we
would not
be swayed
by the
fashion
of the
powerful
and the
fashion
of the
media
but that
we would
be able
to look
upon your
perfect
face of
justice
and even
when the
whole world
says injustice
is just
that we
would know
that that
is not
true
and we
would not
bend our
knees
to injustice
or support
it
or applaud
it
but humbly
pray and
speak against
it
Lord
please make
us such
people
to your
honor and
your glory
and the
furtherance
of your
kingdom
and all
God's
people said
Amen