The Wooden Memorial

Do you know why you will never have to face the wrath of God? The only reason why is if you stand in Christ, there has been some point in your life where you have recognized there's nothing in your hands you can bring to Him. That God Himself offered God the Son as the only sacrifice that could satisfy His holy standard.

And the only thing we can do is run to Him. You can do all the good things you want to do and you can join the church and you can get baptized and do all those wonderful things, but it could never satisfy God's holiness. Hello and welcome to Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Today we are in part three of a very important series called Sola Fide. Stephen, in this series you've been looking at the critical doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Yes, God, and this is something, friends, that has to be continually reiterated. We need to keep dusting off these glorious doctrines because they get covered up.

They get covered over with ritual, with religion, with the games and the charades that are played out in the religious world. And we forget the simplicity – the apostle Paul called it – of the gospel. This is justification by faith alone. What do you need to be right with God? You need to burn a candle?

You need to go sit out in the rain for an hour? Do you need to take a pilgrimage? Or do you simply need to place your faith in the crosswork of Christ? This is why this is so critical. And this happens to be, Scott, one of my favorite chapters, one of my favorite passages, because it sets the stage for what will become a reformation 500 years ago when you think about it. This is what people died for and the religious freedom that we enjoy today and some of these great doctrines that we hold dear today, like faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone.

Boy, this is so critical. In fact, I have carved into my pulpit the words sola scriptura, the scriptures alone. We go to the scriptures alone to discover that our salvation is by faith alone through the grace of Christ alone, and this is all to the glory of God alone. This doctrine stands in stark contrast to the religions of the world where people are seeking to please and find God's favor through their own efforts. And it also goes against the nature of the human heart, because we tend to be wired to think that we can somehow earn God's favor, and he'll like me better tomorrow if I can do something good today.

That's so true. I've asked a thousand people over the years, if you died and stood at the gate of heaven and knocked on it, and should God come to that gate and say, well, hello, what do you want? And you said, well, I want to come in. If God said to you, why should I let you in?

What would you say? What would you think God would want to hear you say that would swing open the gate of heaven? And you know, I've had people tell me, well, I try to keep the Ten Commandments, or I try to be a good person, or I love God and I hope he lets me in, or I try to be a good influence, and on down the list they go and it all revolves around I. I've done this.

I'm trying to do this. And I have to tell them, look, you probably have two saviors in your life, Jesus and you. You're only going to get into heaven by trusting in one Savior, faith in Christ alone.

Amen. Well, friends, as I mentioned earlier, this is message three in that series entitled Sola Fide. Stephen's entitled the message you're about to hear, The Wooden Memorial. Now, when Stephen first preached this message, he did it on what is a holiday here in the United States, a holiday called Memorial Day. So you'll hear some references to that along the way.

So that sets some context. But now here's Stephen with today's message from God's Word. Our lives are characterized, I think, by one word, and that's the word hurry.

Busy would be a sister word. It's good to stop and reflect on how grateful we are for our heroes who serve us and Christ, of course, and shift in our thinking to Him. So it's good to stop and to remember.

We're always in a hurry. I love the little plaque my wife has on one of the counters in the kitchen that seems to sum it up really well. The plaque says, I know God placed me on earth to accomplish certain things.

I'm so far behind I'll never die. Maybe you've come here today and you feel that way. Well, today will be a time to just remember some great truths that can so easily be forgotten. Memorial Day, also known as Decoration Day, originally began to commemorate the fallen soldiers in the American Civil War. Over a period of time, it was broadened to include honoring all military who died in wartime. Memorials are not unique to our American way of life. I was reading just this past week that Israel observes a Memorial Day as well, every year, to honor its dead. They have a custom of putting the pictures of their deceased soldiers on screens in public places and going through them, listing their name, giving honor to them.

Great Britain, it's interesting. I also read recently, in our lifetime, discovered ancient documents that revealed memorial services were held for Viking warriors who died in battle. Two 10th century stones were discovered not too long ago, two tall jelling stones, they're called, or tall pillars covered with royal inscriptions.

They were discovered in Sweden, built by their last pagan king in honor of his wife, Queen Tyre. Memorial stones, Memorial Days, Memorial Events, Memorial Buildings, Memorial Museums, all, I think, reveal the nature of the human heart the world over to remember its heroes. There's even a way that you can remember your loved ones without ever having served in the military. I read recently that you could join, if you had enough money, the International Star Registry. You could actually name a star after your loved one. You get a picture of the constellation, the star circled in red, the dedication date, telescopic coordinates of your star. These star names, by the way, are copyrighted, protected by the federal government. Future generations I read can identify the star name in a directory and locate the actual star you've named for your loved one. Since 1979, hundreds of thousands of stars have been named for dignitaries, celebrities, and individuals worldwide. There's a way to remember, huh?

Your own star. Perhaps the most famous of all memorials is the Lincoln Memorial, located one end of the mall in Washington D.C. In that memorial is a mural depicting the unity of the northern and southern states. The Lincoln Memorial was designed, it's a rather stunning piece of architecture. It was designed to resemble a Greek temple.

It has 36 Grecian columns representing the number of states when Lincoln was assassinated. There isn't any doubt that the greater the hero, the more significant the monument, the more stunning, the more beautiful the memorial. For the believer, the memorial of our Lord, who is the hero of our salvation, who gave his life for our eternal freedom. It's a monument not of marble, not of columns.

It's a hill called Golgotha. It's a memorial of our Gospel. It's the image of our liberation.

It's found in what we call the mind. It's a simple wooden cross where our Lord Jesus died on its wooden beams. The apostle Paul said, God forbid that I would ever glory in anything except the cross of Jesus Christ.

That crosswork. God forbid that I should ever be turned away and give glory to something other than our Savior and that death on a cross. The cross of Jesus Christ is a memorial of at least two great doctrinal truths. They're bound up in words that don't mean as much to us today.

In fact, I'm sure one of them is all but forgotten. These are two words that God intended to declare and speak and be forever remembered at the cross as it stands as our memorial to our Redeemer. So I want you to turn in your Bibles back to what we left off in our study in Romans chapter 3. I want to show you a couple of verses and we'll pull just two words out. The cross is an everlasting memorial of at least two things.

You can circle the two words. I'll point them out as we read. Let's go back to where we left off, verse 23.

Just for the sake of refreshing our own memory, start there and we'll work forward. Romans 3 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption. There's a word that I want to point out. Redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. Propitiation is the other word that I want to point out. Paul writes in the last part of verse 24 of our redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. In fact, one Bible scholar says that that one phrase could very well represent the theme of the entire book of Romans.

It doesn't mean as much to us today because the word isn't used as they would have used it here. The original word for redemption, lutrao, is a word that refers to a number of things. It's a reference to the price that's paid to redeem a prisoner from prison.

It was also used to refer to the price paid to redeem a slave and to lose his bonds and get rid of his chains to literally set him free. We sang just a moment ago, wonderfully, by the way, the great truth. The hymn writer took that thought and used it to fashion the lyrics, the imagery where he wrote, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I awoke, my dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed thee. Galatians 5, 1, no wonder the apostle Paul shouts with great joy, you, believer, you who know the truth have been made free. Later in chapter five, verse 13, he says, you were called to freedom. Jesus Christ had earlier promised in John 8, 32, you, those of you who believe in him, who place your faith in him, you will know that truth and that truth will set you what? Free, free from the guilt of sin, free from enslavement to sin, free from eternal punishment for sin, eventually free from the very presence of sin. Now, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word that is the counterpart to the Greek New Testament word, lutrao, is the word ga'el, which means to redeem.

The noun form is the word goel, goel. It shows up especially in the Old Testament as it refers to the kinsman redeemer. There's a wonderful romance story. Maybe you've read it.

It's been a bestseller for years. It's a love story about a woman who lost her husband to illness. She was reduced to poverty. She went to a foreign country to forage and beg just to survive. One day she met her Prince Charming, a wealthy land baron who swept her off her feet and married her and they lived happily ever after. The name of that romance narrative is called the Book of Ruth.

Some of you are way ahead. Prince Charming was Boaz. So you stayed awake in Sunday School.

Very good. According to Old Testament law, if someone lost their possessions and their inheritance through debt or death with no one to claim it, a relative could buy the property and redeem it. He could become a goel, a redeemer, the same word used of Christ in the New Testament. And that relative, of course, in this wonderful narrative in the Book of Ruth was Boaz and he would follow the Jewish law and he would redeem the estate not because he wanted more land but because he wanted the woman that came with that estate and that was Ruth, the widow. The stipulation in Jewish law for the redemption of an estate followed three things. Number one, he had to be a relative of the family. Number two, he had to be willing to redeem, could be forced to. And third, he had to have enough to pay the price of redemption.

So Boaz was a relative of the family, a relative of Ruth's father-in-law who had also died. He was willing, boy was he willing, to redeem and he had enough money to pay the redemption price and to purchase, to repossess for that family name, the property. Put a perfect picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, our goel, our eternal kinsman redeemer. He became related to us by being born into the human race. He was willing to die, in fact, even death on a cross and he had enough being God to pay the penalty that would redeem us from sin. So the cross is a memorial to our kinsman redeemer.

He also bought us out of slavery. We were impoverished beggars and all those who are redeemed are now called in the New Testament, the bride of Jesus Christ. He's our bridegroom that sweeps us off our feet as it were. And one day we will find a wonderful ceremony where the bride will be presented to, Revelation talks about our gowns of white and will be presented to our bridegroom, the lamb, the Lord Jesus. And then we're going to have a wedding reception called the marriage supper of the lamb. And I want you to know this is going to be some wedding reception. This is going to be a northern wedding reception. This is a sit down meal, not a southern, you know, where you get punch in a few minutes if you're lucky. This one costs somebody a fortune.

In fact, that's why in the north they don't smile as much as in the south. They're still paying off their, okay, I'm outside the text here. All right.

What I do know for sure is after that wedding reception, we're going to be taken to the home our bridegroom has prepared for us and we're going to live happily ever after. That's a little bit of what the word redemption means. Paul goes on in verse 25 to talk about a word that we have all but forgotten, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood. There's a word we don't use very much probably because we can't pronounce it, right? Propitiation.

Why don't you say that with me? Propitiation. How many of you, that's the first time in your life you've ever said that word, okay?

Just about everybody. According to the text here, the cross is not only a public memorial to our redemption, but it is a public memorial to our propitiation. What does that mean? It's a word that simply put means, in fact, you might write it in the margin of your text if you have your Bible and a pencil. One word could be translated satisfaction. It refers specifically to a sacrifice that endures the full and final demand of God's holiness. It's the Greek word halasmas, and it refers to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which satisfies the holy wrath of God. It appears in other places in the New Testament in 1 John chapter 2 verse 2, for he himself, speaking of Christ, is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. John used it again in chapter 4 in that same letter verse 10, and this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. You see, my friend, the reason propitiation is all but forgotten is because we've forgotten that God is holy and God is just. We talk of God's love and God's mercy, and we forget the other attribute of holiness and justice. He hates sin. He will judge mankind, for no sinner can satisfy his holy standard. So mankind has created some religions in their effort to sort of distract God, to win him over with smiles and a few good deeds and maybe a little water and baptism and some money thrown into boot, and maybe God's so loving then that we're convinced that when we stand before him, he'll say, well, I noticed those things you did.

That's really wonderful. I'll just forget sin. I'll set aside my holy justice and my wrath that I have spoken of since the early days when scripture was written.

I'll put it all away and you just come on in. No, see, we don't understand propitiation because we don't understand our need for it and our hopelessness before him because we don't understand God's character. You remember Paul began this letter by talking about the wrath of God, Romans 1.18. In 1 Thessalonians chapter one verse seven, Paul refers to the future judging of this wrathful God embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. It says, the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God. Do you know God?

Are you sure you know him? Are you sure that his wrath and his holy judgment will never be enacted upon you in that day? In Hebrews chapter 10, we read of the terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume his enemies. Later in chapter 12, the author refers to God as a consuming fire. Most people like to think of God as a cozy fireplace, not a consuming fire. The truth is there isn't anything you can do to turn his wrath away. Whatever you bring in your hands, whatever you attempt to do will never satisfy God.

He needs propitiating outside of anything we can offer. That's the significance here of this text. It says, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood. The religions of the world, ladies and gentlemen, will put food on a plate before the image of a God to try to appease the angry God.

I've seen it. They will light mystical candles to somehow appease an angry God. They're close to the truth. There is sin and humanity is in trouble. And there is the natural understanding, the Bible says, that we are indeed in trouble before an angry being. So we don't like to talk about it. We delude ourselves and deceive ourselves into thinking that somehow we can satisfy this holy and awesome God with something we can do with our hands. But they are far from the truth, the wonderful truth.

Why? Because the one true God who is indeed angry with sin provided the sacrifice to pay the penalty for sin. See, that's the meaning here in this text of Christ's blood becoming our propitiation. This means that Jesus Christ himself in his death was the sacrifice who endured to the end the wrath of God and being God, the Son, was able to satisfy God the Father's holy standard, the only one that could. Then he offers to those of us who come like beggars and say, we have nothing to give you but sin. We want you to be our goel, our propitiation, our satisfaction. Christianity, ladies and gentlemen, is the only story of salvation where the God who was angry was totally satisfied in an offering that he provided himself.

Isn't that amazing? For God so loved the world that he what? That he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not what? But have everlasting life. The cross of Jesus Christ is a monument not only to the redemption of believers but the satisfaction of God for in Christ the fire of God's wrath is already burned.

He has endured it to the end and those who are in him will be saved. I've shared this illustration with you sometime ago. I can't come up with a better one to illustrate propitiation so let me use it in that context. I will never forget reading about a Midwestern prairie fire that was sweeping across the prairie and it was engulfing and devastating crops and houses, anyone who was in its way. This was in the days of the settlers. They had no one to call, no one to help. One particular family saw the smoke a long way off and knew exactly what it meant and could tell with the direction of the wind that they would never outrun it. It was coming right toward them. There was nowhere to go.

There was nowhere to hide. The father of the family did something unusual. He ran and got a brand from the fireplace and started their field on fire. He also lit fires around the edges of that field so that the wind would pick it up and it certainly did. It totally destroyed his field moving ahead of that prairie fire that was coming along a few miles behind. Then he and his family gathered into the wagon and wrapped themselves in wet blankets and drove out and stopped in the middle of that field and they waited. Then a few moments that great wall of fire came to the edge of the field and just sort of stopped as if it were looking for something to devour and it couldn't and it sort of licked its way along the edges all the way out, many acres out and then up the side and then it moved on. The family was safe.

Why? Because they were standing on ground that had already been burned. The ground that they were on was their propitiation. It had satisfied the fire already and could not be burned again. Do you know why you will never have to face the wrath of God? The only reason why is if you stand in Christ there has been some point in your life where you have recognized there's nothing in your hands you can bring to Him. That God himself offered God the Son as the only sacrifice that could satisfy his holy standard and the only thing we can do is run to Him.

If you want you can stay over here and you can do all the good things you want to do and you can join the church and you can get baptized and do all those wonderful things that are wonderful things to do but it could never satisfy God's holiness. He has provided the offering. He's provided the sacrifice and those who receive by faith. Did you notice in the text a little phrase whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through what? Through faith.

There it is. There's that wonderful thought of Sola Fidei, faith alone. Faith in Christ alone. There's nothing that we can have faith in ourselves ever hoping that God would be satisfied. Our faith is in Jesus Christ alone.

And when you place your faith in Jesus Christ you enter a parcel of ground as it were where the fire of wrath has already burned and you can be safe forever. What is the memorial to these great truths? What's the memorial to this eternal freedom and this divine hero?

It isn't a marble monument with beautiful columns. It's an old wooden cross beam. For those who come to that stained with royal blood find eternal freedom. Friend, our most fervent prayer for you is that you've experienced the forgiveness and salvation that comes from placing your faith in Jesus Christ. The sermon you just heard is called The Wooden Memorial. Our Bible teacher Steven Davey is in a series called Sola Fidei, faith alone.

It comes from Romans chapter 3 and outlines clearly from God's word how you and those you know can be reconciled to God. You can share this series with those who might need to hear it. Our website is wisdomonline.org. Today's lesson and all of the lessons in this series are posted there. You can share these lessons by sending the link to your friends or family. We also post each day's lesson to our Twitter feed and our Facebook page. If you prefer we can put these lessons on CDs for you and send them in the mail. Information about that is on the website or you can call us right now at 866-48-BIBLE.

We'd be happy to help you over the phone. Before we go today I want to share with you one more resource that you might be interested in. We have a gospel presentation called God's Wisdom for Your Heart. It's a short but thorough explanation of how a person can be saved. You can read it on our website or request a printed supply. Thanks for being with us today and join us back here next time for more wisdom for the heart. .