Penal Substitutionary Atonement

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I want to invite you to take out your Bible and turn with me to the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament.
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This morning we are going to be looking at Isaiah chapter 53.
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Isaiah 53.
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Over the past few weeks we have been examining a very unpopular subject in modern Christianity.
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We have been talking about the wrath of God.
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And what prompted this series was an event that happened in a mainline denomination here in the United States.
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Which decided while creating its new hymnal that it would not include a song called In Christ Alone.
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The reason for the exclusion of that song was that the song included the term where on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied.
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And of course the ones of that denomination decided that they did not want to have any reference to the satisfaction of the wrath of God through the work of Christ on the cross.
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And that led us to a conversation that we have been having.
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A series of sermons we have been having over the last few weeks.
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And the question we asked was, well do we still believe in the wrath of God? In the first sermon we looked at the wrath of God as it is demonstrated through the Bible.
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And we looked at how the wrath of God was demonstrated in Genesis.
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In the very first chapters of Genesis when man sinned God's wrath fell upon them.
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Death was the result of man's sin and is a picture of God's wrath.
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And then we went on to see how the wrath of God was demonstrated in the story of Noah and the flood.
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And the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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And on and on and on throughout the Old Testament and even into the New Testament.
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With Ananias and Savira and Herod and others who underwent the immediate wrath of God as a result of their sins.
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And then last week we said, well do we still see God's wrath today? And we said, yes we do.
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We still see God's wrath.
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Even today we see the wrath of consequence.
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We see the wrath of abandonment.
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And of course we see death even today demonstrating that God's wrath is still at work.
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Because we all die as a result of sin.
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The Bible says, by one man sin entered the world and death through sin.
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And death spread to all men because all sinned.
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Death would not exist if sin did not exist.
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The Bible clearly teaches.
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And so this leads us to today's message.
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Because today we're going to talk about a subject which is very important in regard to the wrath of God.
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We're going to be talking about a subject.
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And it's a big phrase.
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And I just had a light bulb moment while we were having this offering.
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I went over and asked Aaron, I said, would you go put this on the screen so that people will see it.
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Because I know as soon as I say this phrase, some of you, it may just confuse you.
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So I said, well maybe giving you a visual will help.
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But if you'll put the word up on the screen.
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The phrase that's very important for us to learn, and this is going to be the focus of today's message, is called Penal Substitutionary Atonement.
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Penal Substitutionary Atonement.
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This doctrine is the very foundation of our faith.
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And most people don't understand it.
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So today, I'm going to teach it to you.
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I'm going to help you explain it.
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And understand it.
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So that we know what it means.
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The question of this, or the teaching of this is simple.
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Did Christ suffer the wrath of God on our behalf when He was on the cross? And if He suffered the wrath of God on our behalf, did He satisfy it? And that's what it's taught in Penal Substitutionary Atonement.
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Let me break it down very quickly.
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Penal means what? Penalty.
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Right? Substitutionary means to put someone else in the place of something.
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I work part time as a substitute teacher.
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The teacher's out, I'm in.
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Right? So we know that we all are familiar with the word substitute.
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Just because it's a big phrase doesn't mean it's hard to understand.
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And atonement means what? Atonement means that there are two warring parties.
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Two parties at enmity with one another.
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And they are brought together at one.
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The term atonement is also atonement.
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To be brought, those who are separated are brought together as one.
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So, the penalty was paid by the substitute.
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And it made an atonement.
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That's where this doctrine comes from.
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And this very important phrase should be understood by all believers.
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But yet, there are a lot of believers who no longer want to believe this.
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Because they do not want to believe that Christ suffered the wrath of God for us.
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In fact, they don't want to believe that God has wrath to give at all anyway.
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So today, what we're going to do is we're going to begin by examining Isaiah 53.
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Isaiah 53 is to me the greatest expression.
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Though it is in prophetic terms, it is the greatest expression of the picture of the wrath of God going on to the person of Christ that we have in all of the Bible.
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Though it is given to us in prophetic utterance.
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So, let's stand together and read Isaiah 53.
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We're going to start at verse 4.
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The first three verses are introductory.
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But verse 4 begins the language of the penalty.
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It says in verse 4, it says, Surely He has borne our griefs.
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Later I will demonstrate the He here is referring to Christ.
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Who will come and bear the griefs of many.
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This is a prophecy.
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It says, Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
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Yet we esteem Him stricken, smitten by God.
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Please focus and remember that part.
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Because that is so important.
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Smitten by God and afflicted.
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But He was wounded for our transgressions.
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He was crushed for our iniquities.
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Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
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And with His stripes we are healed.
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All we like sheep have gone astray.
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We have turned everyone to His own way.
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And the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
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He was oppressed and He was afflicted.
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Yet He opened not His mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.
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And like a sheep that before its shears is silent.
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So He opened not His mouth.
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By oppression and judgment He was taken away.
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And for as for His generation who considered that He was cut off from the land of the living.
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Stricken for the transgression of My people.
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And they made His grave with the wicked.
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And with a rich man in his death.
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Although He had done no violence and there was no deceit in His mouth.
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Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.
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He has put Him to grief.
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When His soul makes an offering for guilt.
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He shall see His offspring.
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He shall prolong His days.
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The will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
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Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied.
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By His knowledge shall the righteous one My servant make many to be accounted righteous.
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And He shall bear their iniquities.
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Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the many.
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And He shall divide the spoil with the strong.
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Because He poured out His soul to death.
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And was numbered with the transgressors.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for the clarity of Your Word.
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The power of Your Word.
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And I thank You that as we spend this opportunity today studying.
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I just pray Lord first and foremost that You keep me from error.
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I pray that You open the hearts of the people to the truth.
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That You teach them through Your Word being preached today.
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And that Your Holy Spirit ultimately be the teacher.
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And Lord ultimately that Your Word would be clear.
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That though we be talking about deep and serious doctrine.
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Powerful truths that are often not spoke.
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Help us Lord to have our hearts and minds in tune to You.
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To not glaze over in our minds.
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Glaze over with our eyes.
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But to focus this morning on the truth of Your Word.
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In Jesus name we pray.
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Amen.
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When we discuss the atonement of Christ.
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We must understand that there is not a universal understanding of what that term means.
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In its simplest form I've already told you what the word atonement means.
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It means the bringing together of two parties which are at odds with one another.
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To make an atonement where there was a divide.
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The atonement broadly speaking refers to the saving work of Jesus Christ.
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John Wesley, a man that I do not quote often because we share many theological divisions.
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But yet he was at the same time a Christian man and a brilliant scholar.
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Just we were divided on a few issues.
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But I do quote him here because I think he was very right in this.
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He said nothing in the Christian system is of greater consequence than the doctrine of the atonement.
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Nothing in the Christian system is of greater consequence than the doctrine of the atonement.
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And as I said though there are many areas that I would disagree with Wesley on.
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This is one that I think that he hit the nail on the head.
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This is the issue.
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How is it? How is it that a holy God who is angry over sin, who by his divine justice cannot even look upon sin, is able to take sinful creatures like you and I and welcome them into his family as sons and daughters? Well the answer is through the atonement.
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I mean that's the answer.
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But the question then becomes well how then does this atonement operate? How then does this atonement work? What does it even mean? And there have been many theories postulated about the atonement.
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There are popular views.
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One is called the Christus Victor model.
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The Christus Victor model.
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And this is what it says.
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It says that the atonement is a divine conflict and victory in which Jesus Christ fights against and triumphs over the evil powers of the world.
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That's the view.
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That Jesus fought against evil and he won.
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There are some who believe that that's the atonement.
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There was evil in the world.
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Christ fought against it and he won.
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He was the victor.
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And that sounds good.
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And a lot of us say well that doesn't sound bad at all.
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To say Christ is the victor over evil? Hey that sounds good.
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What's wrong with that? Well let's continue on and we'll see.
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Because the second view of the atonement is what's called the healing model of the atonement.
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And that is that man was broken and that Christ came and brought healing and restoration from sin.
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Which was more of a sickness.
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We were sick over our sin and Christ healed us of our sickness.
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Again that doesn't sound too bad.
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And people say well pastor Christ is the Christus victor model.
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Christ is victor over evil.
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That sounds pretty good.
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And we were sick over sin and Christ he came as the healer and he healed our sickness.
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And you know hooray.
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What's wrong with that? Well the third view.
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The view that I will be postulating.
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The view that I believe is biblical.
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Not that the other two are necessarily wrong.
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But they miss the point.
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Entirely.
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Because though Christ was the victor.
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And though Christ does bring healing in his wings.
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It misses the point entirely of the purpose of the cross.
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Because it is only in penal substitutionary atonement.
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That we find this truth.
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The father.
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Because of his love for human beings.
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Sent his son to satisfy his own divine demand of justice.
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So that Christ took the place that we deserved.
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The place of his wrath.
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And the punishment and penalty which we had incurred by sin.
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Was given to Christ as our substitute.
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So that we could be counted as free from the guilt of our sin.
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The penalty has been paid by the substitute who is Christ.
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But you see this takes a very important step of faith for someone.
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It takes the step of realizing that God was actually angry enough about sin to do something about it.
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People don't want to take that step.
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People don't want a God who is angry about sin.
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People don't want a God who is wrathful over their sin.
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And as such when you start saying.
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It's sort of like today.
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If you go out to say somebody.
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If you tell somebody well Jesus died for your sins.
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They'll say why? My sins aren't that bad.
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In fact compared to you I'm a saint.
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I don't know if you've ever heard that.
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I've heard people be just that ornery about it.
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They'll just straight up say.
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You know what? My sins you know yeah.
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But hey nobody's perfect.
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What's the big deal? You see understanding penal substitutionary atonement.
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Means that we must first conceive that there was a penalty that was due.
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We must first conceive that our sin was actually worthy of punishment.
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And because people do not want to conceive that their sin was worthy of punishment.
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They do not conceive to the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement.
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And thus they have to find another reason why Christ went to the cross.
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Well he went to the cross simply to be the victor over evil.
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Or he went to the cross to bring healing.
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No he went to the cross for one reason.
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To experience on the cross the wrath of God for me.
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And for you.
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He actually experienced the wrath of God for us.
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I mentioned earlier during communion about the movie The Passion of the Christ.
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And I don't know how many of you remember The Passion of the Christ.
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It was a very popular movie when it came out.
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I must tell you I was never much of a fan of it.
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And I hate to break anyone's heart or burst anyone's bubble.
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I never was much of a fan.
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Because it was very very Catholic.
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It was actually written and directed by a Catholic.
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It was put together by a Catholic.
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And the seven stages of the cross which were found in Jerusalem.
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And all these things that were supposed to have happened that day.
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They're all in the movie.
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It has a lot of Catholic undertones.
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And that's not why I didn't necessarily like it.
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But I saw all that in it.
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But the one thing I didn't like.
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Was the fact that there was such a to do made about how much Christ suffered physically.
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And Christ did suffer physically.
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I mean he really did.
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Christ suffered physically.
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He was beaten with a scourge.
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He carried a cross beam.
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He was nailed to that cross and he hung and he died of asphyxiation.
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Actually he gave up his spirit the Bible says.
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He didn't die but actually gave his life.
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Willingly.
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This is why it was so surprising to Pilate when he died as fast as he did.
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Because some men took two or three days to die on a cross.
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Because the way you die on a cross is that slowly your body constricts around your lungs.
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And collapses your lungs so that you can no longer breathe.
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And for some men that can take days.
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Because they just don't want to die.
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Christ died very quickly.
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And when they came to tell Pilate he said he's dead already.
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It was surprising.
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But the point that I'm trying to make is about the movie.
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It was such this glorification of the physical violence that Christ underwent.
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And it was terrible.
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It was bad.
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It was horrific.
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But beloved that is not the point.
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What Christ suffered physically did not count one iota.
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In comparison to what he suffered as the wrath of God was poured out upon him.
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When Christ cried tears of blood the night before going to the cross.
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It was not because the Romans were about to nail him to a cross.
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I'm sorry if that offends you.
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But it is the truth.
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He did not say father take this cup from me.
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I mean many men have gone boldly to their deaths.
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Many men have gone boldly to horrific deaths.
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Christ did not cry out for the removal of the cup of the Roman persecution.
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He cried out that the cup of the father's wrath would not be poured out upon him.
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Father if it be thy will take this cup from me.
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Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done.
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We must remember that the punishment that Christ received on the cross primarily was the punishment of God.
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Not the punishment of men.
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So why do people get offended by this? Well because again they do not want to see God as a wrathful God.
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And as such a doctrine like this causes them great discomfort.
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In fact there are some people who flat out deny it.
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There are some you could easily find.
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I would say there are churches in this area that are teaching this morning that what I'm saying is absolute falsehood.
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There's a man in the UK.
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Not that that's in this area but the one I could find to quote I'm sorry.
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There's a man in the UK.
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His name is Stephen Chalk.
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And he attacks this doctrine.
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He attacks penal substitutionary atonement.
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And he says it portrays God as vengeful and unable to have a loving relationship with his son.
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He said that penal substitutionary atonement is a theory rooted in violence and retribution notions of justice.
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And is incompatible at least as currently taught and understood with any authentically Christian understanding of the character of God.
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He says it's a form of cosmic child abuse.
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That's his argument.
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That penal substitutionary atonement where God would put his wrath on his son for our benefit.
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That he would pour out his wrath upon his son.
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That's child abuse.
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Cosmic child abuse.
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And other opponents of penal substitutionary atonement say well it's just unjust.
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They say it's not fair to punish somebody on behalf of another.
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And the reality is there really isn't around the world you probably couldn't find a justice system that would allow that.
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We probably couldn't find a justice system that would allow somebody to take somebody else's place.
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You know if I commit a crime and my friend Nathan said you know what I love Keith and I want to take his place and he went to jail for me.
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He'll like me that much.
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But if he did the judge wouldn't allow it.
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They wouldn't allow the punishment of one to be transferred to another.
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So there are some who say well it's just unjust.
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It doesn't work legally.
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But the reality is who makes that decision? Who makes the decision as to whether something is just or unjust? The lawgiver makes the decision whether something is just or unjust right? And who is the ultimate lawgiver? It is God.
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God is the one who determines whether something is just or unjust.
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And if God has determined to allow his son to be the penalty bearer for those of us who deserve a penalty.
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So that we will not receive the penalty in and of ourselves.
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It is God's prerogative as the lawgiver to do just that.
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So to say it is unjust is to put yourself above God and to say that you somehow understand justice better than the one who created justice to begin with.
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It's utter foolishness.
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And putting the objections aside for a moment.
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Just think of this.
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If the Bible does teach penal substitutionary atonement which we're getting to.
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I promise I'll show you that it does.
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But if the Bible does teach it.
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All of these arguments are null and void because the Bible says this.
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The Bible says the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.
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So as wise as Stephen Chalk may think he is.
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As wise as the opponents of penal substitutionary atonement may think they are.
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As smart as these guys may think they are.
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And how many legal ideas that they've come in to challenge this view.
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If it is what the Bible teaches.
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The Bible says that their wisdom is nothing but foolishness in the eyes of God.
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So the reality is if the Bible teaches penal substitutionary atonement then it doesn't matter what their arguments are.
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It only matters what the Bible teaches.
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So the question becomes again.
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Does the Bible teach this truth? Well we're in Isaiah 53.
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I hope you still have your Bibles open.
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Because we're going to see in Isaiah 53 what Isaiah says about this.
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Now again I want to remind you.
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Isaiah 53 was written before Christ came.
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Isaiah 53 was written as what we call a messianic prophecy.
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It was written to the people of God so that they would know when their Messiah came.
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This is a picture of what he will be like.
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This is a picture of what he will do.
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In fact the first couple of verses in Isaiah 53 which we didn't read yet.
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But the first couple of verses kind of tell a little bit of something about him.
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It says who has believed what he has heard from us.
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And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.
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For he grew up before him like a young plant.
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And like a root out of dry ground.
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He had no form or majesty that we should look at him.
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And no beauty that we should desire him.
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I've always liked that verse.
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Because it speaks about something about Christ.
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There was nothing about Christ that would physically make him specifically attractive.
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Not that he was necessarily not a comely man.
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But I mean the idea that he didn't have any majesty.
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People didn't follow him because he was rich and powerful.
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And that's part of the point.
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He was born in a stable.
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He grew up as a carpenter.
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And he lived as an itinerant minister who owned nothing.
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He didn't have any reason why people would necessarily follow after him.
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And then in verse 3 it says he was despised and rejected by men.
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Yeah, I would say that's pretty true about Jesus.
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He said now wait a minute.
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Jesus was loved by people.
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Jesus was loved by people when Jesus was feeding their empty stomachs.
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Jesus fed the 5,000 and people couldn't wait to love on him.
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And then he started preaching in John chapter 6 about God's sovereignty and election.
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And his having been the bread come down from heaven.
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And unless you eat of this bread and drink of this blood, you will have no place with me.
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What happened? It said many of them departed from him that day.
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They didn't want to hear that mess.
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All they wanted was to eat the food that he made.
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They only wanted to have what he could give them physically.
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When he started giving them spiritual bread, they didn't want any of that.
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He was despised and rejected by men.
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Yes, they applauded him.
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Hosanna, glory to the king on Palm Sunday.
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But the same people who said Hosanna no more than four days later were calling crucify him, crucify him.
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He was despised and rejected by men.
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A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
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And as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.
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Now verse 4 comes in and we start seeing the language of the substitutionary atonement.
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We start seeing the language of the penal substitutionary atonement.
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It says, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
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Now, I just want you, if you underline your Bible, underline the term smitten by God.
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Because I don't think I really need to prove my point with anything other than that.
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Because what have I said so far? That when Christ was on the cross, he was receiving the punishment of God, the wrath of God, and this term says he was smitten by who? The Romans? No.
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He was smitten by the Jews? No.
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Who was he smitten by? He was smitten by God.
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The text is so clear, it leaves nothing to the imagination.
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This is what he endured.
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Verse 5.
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Very powerful verse.
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Very misunderstood verse.
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I'm glad I get to preach on this and it's a little off the subject, but I want to reference this.
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By his stripes we are healed.
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Because a lot of the charismatic Christians like to take that stripes we were healed and they apply that to physical healing.
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You want to talk about ripping a verse out of its context? That's ripping a verse out of its context.
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This context of this verse has nothing to do with physical healing whatsoever.
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This is 100% about our spiritual death that Christ has received the stripes, his punishment, so that we could be healed.
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This has nothing to do with physical healing.
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This has got to do with the fact that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and Christ took our punishment.
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So let's read it.
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It says, But he was pierced for our transgressions.
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He was crushed.
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And mark that word, crushed, because that's an important word.
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He was crushed for our iniquities.
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Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
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And by his stripes, or with his wounds, it says in the ESV, we are healed.
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This is talking about the fact that yes, when Christ went on the cross, he was crushed.
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When he was on the cross, he was pierced.
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When he was on the cross, he was striped with that lash.
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But all of that was on our behalf.
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And it goes on in verse 6.
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It says, All we like sheep have gone astray.
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We have turned every one to his own way.
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And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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That's it.
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God took all of that sin that we had amassed and are going to amass.
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He took every one of our sins, past, present, and future.
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I've heard people say, Well, Jesus only died for past sins.
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If Jesus only died for past sins, we're all in the future.
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Aren't we? Jesus died 2,000 years ago.
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That's a pretty big monster ball hanging out there.
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There's a lot missing of 2,000 years of sins.
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That's all future.
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Jesus Christ died for every sin of every person that would believe on his name.
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He died for every one of our sins.
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No doubt.
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Right? So we have that.
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We have this iniquity.
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Every one of my sins laid upon him.
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He suffered the penalty for them.
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And then it goes on to talk about how he responded.
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It says in verse 7, He was oppressed.
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He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
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And how do we see that fulfilled in the New Testament? Christ is taken, and he doesn't argue with those who have brought him in.
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He doesn't provide a defense for himself.
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He opens not his mouth.
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Like a lamb is led to the slaughter of sheep that is before his shears to silent, he opened not his mouth.
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Verse 8, By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
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Well, that's true.
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He was certainly oppressed and judged incorrectly and unfairly, but he was still taken away.
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And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked.
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Interestingly enough, where did he die? In the midst of two wicked men.
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They made his grave with the wicked.
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And with a rich man at his death.
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Who was the rich man? Who was it? Yeah.
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The one who gave him his grave.
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A borrowed tomb, by the way.
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You don't borrow a tomb.
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Unless you don't plan on being there long.
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Just throwing that out there.
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That rich man gave him this tomb for use.
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And it says there he had done no violence.
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There was no deceit in his mouth.
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See, Isaiah 53 focuses on the fact that he was without sin.
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No violence, no deceit.
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But verse 10 is to me the most powerful of all of this.
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Because verse 10, in the very first part, it says, Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
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I told you earlier, I said mark in verse 5 where that word crush is used.
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It says he was pierced for our transgressions.
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He was crushed for our iniquities.
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And then here again in verse 10, Whose will was it to crush him? It was the will of the Lord to crush him.
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He has put him to grief.
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When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.
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He shall prolong his days.
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The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
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And this is starting to talk about the blessing.
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Because in this Christ's offspring, his brethren, his faithful ones, are now receiving the benefit of this punishment.
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It says out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.
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How is he satisfied? He's satisfied because his work was accomplished.
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By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.
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And he shall bear their iniquities.
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That's an important part too, because it says we will be accounted righteous.
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And he will bear our iniquities.
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That's what we call the double imputation.
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Our sins are given to Christ.
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All of the righteousness which he amassed.
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And you know, do you realize everything Christ ever did was righteous? Every breath Christ ever took was a righteous breath.
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Every word he ever said was a righteous word.
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And every action he ever took was a righteous action.
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And all that positive righteousness that he built up is given to us.
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So that we don't just stand before God having our sins erased.
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We stand before God having the righteousness of God.
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And what does this verse say? Accounted to us.
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We have been accounted righteous because of him.
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And it goes on in verse 12.
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Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many.
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And he shall divide the small with the strong.
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Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
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Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
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Consider that last phrase.
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He makes intercession for the transgressors.
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Intercession means that he had to make a mediation.
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Mediation.
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Intercession is mediation.
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It means to bring two warring parties together.
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This again is talking about the atonement.
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And who are the two parties? Us and God.
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And Christ makes an intercession for us with God.
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How does he do that? He satisfies the wrath of God for us.
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Beloved, I don't know how Isaiah could have been any clearer.
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I don't know how the word of God could be any clearer on this subject.
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And to be quite honest with you, those who deny the penal substitutionary atonement, those who deny that Christ took the wrath of God on himself on that cross, are denying the plain teaching of Scripture.
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Because they do not want to believe in a God who has the capacity for wrath.
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Now in my heart I'm thinking, I've got more to say.
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And I'm kind of just sitting here wondering if you've got the patience to hear it.
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I want you to hear just a few more things about this.
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Because I want to show you how this is not just something found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah.
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But it's something found all through the New Testament.
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Can I show you some verses and then we'll finalize this lesson.
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Look with me in the New Testament.
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I want to show you four quick verses.
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All that have one word that I think all of us need to understand.
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Go to Romans 3.23.
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Now most of us know Romans 3.23.
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Romans 3.23 begins, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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But that's not where we're going to stop.
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Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift.
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Now I plan on talking about justification next week.
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But for now I just want to focus on this.
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It says, Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God put forward as a propitiation by His blood.
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Propitiation.
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That word.
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Beloved, that word is one of the most important words in the Bible.
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And just to show you that it's not in just one spot.
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The word propitiation.
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If you'll hold your place there.
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Turn to Hebrews 2.
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Hebrews 2.17.
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It says, Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect.
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This is talking about Jesus.
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He was made like us in every respect.
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So that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God.
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To make propitiation for the sins of His people.
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There's that word again.
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Propitiation is used again.
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Go with me to 1 John 2.
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Just keep going.
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1 John.
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Little book in the last parts of the New Testament here.
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This is a totally different author.
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We've had the Apostle Paul who's used the word propitiation.
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The writer of Hebrews used the word propitiation.
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Which we don't know who the writer of Hebrews was.
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We know that he was influenced by the Apostle Paul.
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So this word propitiation was an important word for Paul and whoever he influenced.
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But here is John.
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A different Apostle.
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And in 1 John 2.2.
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It says, He, speaking of Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins.
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And not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.
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Now, propitiation.
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Three times.
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One more time.
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Go to chapter 4.10.
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Chapter 4.10.
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And this is love.
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Not that we have loved God.
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But that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
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You think this is an important word? It's at least four times in the New Testament.
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It's an extremely important word.
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Because wrapped up in this word is everything that I have said today.
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Wrapped up in this word is everything that I have explained to you today.
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That Christ, when He went to the cross, took the punishment of God so as to satisfy His wrath.
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That is what propitiation means.
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To propitiate means to satisfy the anger or wrath of another.
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So when we say Christ propitiated God on the cross, it means He satisfied God's wrath on the cross.
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You know, there are some who don't like that word.
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There are even some who have tried to change it.
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And some of your Bibles may even be changed.
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Some of the newer translations have tried to change the word propitiate to the word expiate.
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Expiate simply means to cleanse.
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But I will tell you this.
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The difference may sound minuscule, but it's huge.
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The Greek word is very clear.
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And those who argue are simply trying to argue away the wrath of God.
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Expiate is not enough.
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The word should be propitiate.
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It's not just that Christ washed away our sins.
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But Christ actively took upon Himself God's wrath and satisfied the anger which He had.
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Remember what Isaiah said.
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It was God's will to crush Him.
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But why was it God's will to crush Him? So as to save us.
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So as to save us from the devastatingly crushing blow of His wrath.
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It was God's will to crush Him for us.
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God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.
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So that we might be called the righteousness of God in Him.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, we thank You.
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We thank You for the words of Isaiah which You inspired, Lord.
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That tell us that it was Your will to crush Jesus.
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And we thank You for Your word which tells us that the reason for that was to satisfy Your wrath against sin.
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So that we could stand before You as righteous.
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And Father, we know this.
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We know that Christ cried the night before He went to the cross.
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But yet He still stood boldly.
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He still said, nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done.
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He still stood in our place and He did so willingly.
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Demonstrating a love for us which we can barely fathom.
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And Father, we thank You for that demonstration of love.
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We thank You for the demonstration of sacrifice which was given to us in Christ.
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We thank You that He was willing to take upon Himself Your wrath.
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And to give us His blessed righteousness.
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And this morning I do pray.
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I pray that if there are those among us who have never heard the truth of the gospel.
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That they have never heard that their sin is worthy of punishment.
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But that Christ was willing to take that punishment upon Himself.
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And to give them His righteousness.
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I pray, oh Lord, that that message has been so clear this morning.
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And Lord, that if there's anyone here who's never heard it.
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That You would use this as the time to open their hearts and save their souls.
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So that they would trust fully and completely on the Son.
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And in Him find peace with You.
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We thank You for Your word.
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We thank You for Your truth.
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We thank You for this wonderful time to study.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Beloved, please stand as we sing.
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And if you have a need, please come.