In this issue. Church Plant Update. Evangelism Testimonies. A Baptism. Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath.

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1 In this issue Church Plant Update Evangelism Testimonies A Baptism Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath Helping Orphans Other Announcements Support Information

2 Church Planting Update Since the last update, our Sunday meetings have been continuing as we pray, sing hymns unto our God, exhort one another, and go through the book of 1 John verse by verse. The attendance has nearly flattened out at about 5 regulars, and with us 3 that totals 8. Fellowshipping with us are Artemio a.k.a. Juan el Bautista, Giancarlo, the young brother who has been converted about a year, Madison who was recently baptized, and a sister from our neighborhood who comes faithfully every week and many times brings snacks for everyone to eat as we fellowship afterwards. The old man David (the ex-catholic) still comes around but has not been coming every week. He wanted us to baptize him but we had no peace that he was truly converted even though he seemed to say everything right. It ended up all coming out later by his own admission that he is full of unbelief and questions the justice of God because of bad things that have happened to him. He confessed that he has no saving faith but that he knows the Word of God is true. He could use your prayers. Another unconverted man has also visited us a few times. He listens to the Word and Lina even laid it down hard to him that since he is living in continual sin, he s not a real Christian. Thank the Lord, he continues to come around even though we tell him the truth about his spiritual state before God (as is evident by the fruits in his life). Please pray for his conversion. We are currently praying and looking for a place in el Centro (downtown, Guadalajara) to hold our meetings in, but as of yet, to no avail. We will continue to pray and keep our eyes open. This would help the work tremendously if the Lord would be in it, because many people express a sincere desire to come to our meetings but when they learn of the location and how far it is, they say they cannot. Though the numbers of our meetings have not grown numerically lately, we know the Lord is at work and the depth of the work is growing as we fellowship and teach the Word of God. It s better to have a few real disciples than a multitude of goats. Prayer Requests: - That the Lord would pour out His Spirit in our midst. - That those who are congregating would grow in grace. - That the Lord would add to our number and establish a local church. - That the Lord would help Josef to continue to preach and teach in Spanish. - If it s the Lord s will, that He provide a place in downtown Guadalajara for us to hold meetings.

3 Evangelism and Open Air Preaching Testimonies A Healing Testimony by Aaron Block About four weeks ago in Centro, after open air preaching a man came up to me requesting prayer. He professed to be a believer, having been saved from drugs and all other kinds of sins seven years back. He told me he had a severe infirmity to the prostrate and no doctor or treatment had been able to help him. But he believed that the Lord could heal him, and since he saw that Josef and Lina were praying for someone at the moment, he came up to me asking that we do the same with him. So a short time later I called Lina over and we prayed with him. He thanked us and promptly left, telling me he would try to come to our Bible studies. As the weeks passed I kind of forgot about him but just last week on Sept. 25 he came up to Lina and told her that he had been completely healed the pain was gone and the doctors couldn t find anything wrong with him. And not only that, but earlier that day he had been witnessing to his daughter, who wasn t right with the Lord but knew she needed to be. The man brought her along with him to Centro that evening, and after Lina talked to her she broke down weeping on the spot and made a profession of faith in Christ. The man rejoiced and glorified God for his healing and for his daughter s repentance. He excitedly told Lina that he was willing to do anything for the Lord. Prayer Requests: - For God to be glorified to the uttermost in our evangelism. - For souls to get saved!!! - For power from on high to preach and testify. - For the Lord to confirm His Word in miraculous ways. - For the Lord to ordain encounters with those He s already calling. - For those we evangelize and receive the Gospel to congregate with us, or in biblical fellowship. - For the thousands of people we preached to that have the seed of the Gospel in their hearts. We praise our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who not only has the power to heal, but to save to the uttermost those who call upon His name! Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. -2 Corinthians 2:14

4 The Pictures above show various members of our evangelism team sharing the Gospel with strangers on the street in our regular fishing hole, Plaza Tapatia, during a day last month. We are out there every Saturday with the team and to the praise and glory of God, since preaching here for over a year and a half now, thousands have heard the Gospel. Usually as Aaron and Josef open air preach, the team is engaging people in personal conversation. The young man in the shirt with the horizontal blue stripes is brother Giancarlo who has about a year of being converted from a lifestyle of radical sin. He has been fellowshipping with us and we are discipling him on a regular basis. The picture below is brother Artemio preaching hard and strong. He s an elderly man who walks with a cane but has a fire in his bones. He also fellowships with us in our Sunday meetings. Artemio preaches in el Centro every Thursday and Saturday, and we help his ministry by giving him tracts and Bibles from time to time. Please pray for him because as he advances in age, he is buffeted with numerous infirmities that sometimes hinder him from working and preaching.

5 A Baptism Last month, we took Madison, a sister in the Lord and new believer, out to a river to baptize her at her request. You can watch a video of it here: Please pray for her that the Lord would just pour down His glorious grace upon her and cause her to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Pray that she would be strong in the faith and overcome all the wiles of the Devil and walk in victory always. Before: After: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. -2 Corinthians 5:17

6 Propitiation by Josef Urban Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath There is perhaps no other word in the entire Bible that is more important or more packed with truth when it comes to explaining the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ than the word, propitiation. Without understanding the theological concept behind this unordinary word, one cannot understand why Jesus really died. Yet sadly, it seems that the truth behind this word has been largely lost in modern times, as the true nature of the cross of Christ is often diminished or neglected in modern preaching in favor of emphasizing the love of God or the more pleasant themes that people like to hear. Yet in the face of all opposition, we must return to the biblical Gospel. And believing in and understanding Jesus Christ as our propitiation is absolutely essential to believing the true Gospel. Let me state this very clearly: If we lose the theological concept of propitiation in our preaching then we lose the Gospel itself. That is not to say that to preach propitiation is to preach the whole Gospel, as if all we ever need to preach is the truth of propitiation and thereby we are preaching the whole counsel of God. The true Gospel encompasses a variety of interrelated theological themes that are each packed into words that are all extremely important, as can be seen by words such as atonement, substitution, redemption, reconciliation, resurrection, and so on. All these words are tremendously important when it comes to understanding the cross, and we should never exalt one over against the others in such a way as to emphasize a supposed truth summarized in one while neglecting essential truth contained in the others. However, what I am saying here is that if we lose sight of the propitiatory nature of Christ s death and of the just and holy nature of the wrath of God being satisfied on the cross of Calvary, and somehow invent a gospel that involves no concept of the holy anger and wrath of God being appeased and of His unbending justice being satisfied, then we inevitably lose sight of the very Gospel itself. This subject is truly of vital importance.

7 Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath (page 2) The exact word propitiation appears just a handful of times in the New Testament among the more literal English translations (such as the KJV, NKJV, NASB, and ESV). In Romans 3:24-25, we are told of, Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood. In Hebrews 9:5, the same Greek word that was used in Romans 3:25 (hilasterion) is translated mercy seat to refer to the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. In 1 John 2:1-2, we read: My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Then in 1 John 4:10, the beloved apostle uses the term again: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The word propitiation refers to a sacrifice that appeases God s wrath by satisfying His justice. To propitiate, in Scripture, is to placate and appease the wrath of God on behalf of a guilty sinner who deserves to be punished, and in terms of the Gospel, it is to turn such wrath into divine favor. Let s now look at the testimony of Scripture For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:23-26). In these verses, Jesus Christ is said to have been set forth on a public display as our propitiation according to the sovereign plan of God. Specifically, the propitiation was made by His blood, that is, His finished work in propitiating God on our behalf was accomplished by the shedding of His blood (all that He accomplished in His substitutionary death). The benefits of this propitiation, which include forgiveness and justification, are received through faith by the one who believes in Jesus Christ. The reason God openly set forth His own Son as a propitiation was to demonstrate His righteousness in order to satisfy His eternal justice in such a way that He could forgive a guilty sinner without laying aside what justice demanded, thus allowing God to be perfectly just while at the same time pardoning guilty criminals who believe in Jesus. In order to understand this passage of Scripture better, we need to understand something about the flow of thought in the first few chapters of the book of Romans. In these chapters, starting in 1:18, the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, lays down a masterful prosecution against all of mankind, denouncing every member of Adam s fallen race with the charge of transgressing the holy Law of God. All the way through until 3:21, no hope is offered to the guilty sinner who has been stripped bare and openly shamed by the scathing indictment of the Holy Spirit. All are shown to be under sin, Jew and Gentile alike, and there is not a breath of relief offered between these verses which are designed to stop every mouth and show the whole world guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). All are shown to be guilty and deserving of the wrath of God. The apostle started his discourse by thundering forth the threat of the wrath of God: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). Then he continued his discourse expounding on the wrath of God: But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek (Rom. 2:5-6, 8-9). Then finally in chapter three, after he has completely destroyed any vain hope of carnal security in works based righteousness, right when the reader is grasping for breath and trembling under the thought of facing the vengeance of an angry God, the apostle offers to the condemned sinner his only hope for salvation: the propitiation that God set forth on the sinner s behalf (see Rom. 3:25).

8 Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath (page 3) In other words, all the wrath that was building up as we suppressed the truth in unrighteousness was poured out upon the propitiatory sacrifice. All the holy anger, fierce wrath, and fiery indignation of God that we were treasuring up for ourselves by our countless transgressions came crushing down on the head of Him who was our Substitute. All the wrath that was stored up and waiting to be unleashed upon those guilty sinners who would one day believe the Gospel was unleashed upon the Son of God on the cross of Calvary. He bore the wrath of God expounded on in those first three chapters by bearing the iniquities of those condemned there, and by being crushed by the Father in the place of all those who would believe the Gospel so as to satisfy God s wrath against sin on behalf of those who have faith in Jesus. This is why the prophet Isaiah wrote: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Is. 53:4-6). Notice the prophet says Jesus was, bruised for our iniquities. The Hebrew word for bruised here is daka, which should literally be translated in modern language as crushed (see ESV). In the same chapter a few verses down, in verse 10, we read: Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. The same Hebrew word is used here for bruised (crushed) as in verse 5. Thus verse 10 reveals to us that it wasn t the Roman soldiers that crushed the Son of God, it wasn t merely the scourges or the scoffing or the nails or the crown of thorns. Nor was it Jews who crushed Him. It was actually the LORD who crushed His own Son! God s holy justice was offended by guilty criminals and the Lord demanded that the just nature of His Law be vindicated. Thus wrath had to be poured out on the guilty. But instead of the guilty suffering for their own sin, the Son of God in His love and mercy came down and bore their iniquities and was crushed in their place in order to satisfy justice and secure for them the pardon of God. The picture is of a holy God who is absolutely perfect and just and utterly abhors sin, but who has been offended by guilty sinners and whose righteous anger against sin is boiling over and ready to burst forth in the full fury of omnipotence upon the guilty party, but yet in His great love, wanting to spare the sinner from eternal condemnation, sent His only Son to bear upon His own self the wrath and fury of divine justice as the sinner s Substitute. In such a way, justice is satisfied and God can forgive the sinner without doing damage to the demands of the perfect justice that His just nature required. A cup of wrath was awaiting the sinner and justice demanded that it be drank to the last drop (see Isa. 51:17, Jer. 25:15, Rev. 14:10). Yet Jesus Christ drank the cup in the sinner s place, and emptied divine justice of all its claims upon the sinner who believes the Gospel, leaving not a single drop of condemnation left in the cup to be poured out over the head of the pardoned sinner. This is why Jesus said in John 18:11: Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me? Notice that it was the Father who gave the Son the cup to drink. This wasn t just a cup of suffering the pains of being tortured and murdered by men, but this is the cup of the wrath of God given to Him by the Father and poured out upon the Son by the Father. This is the cup of which the psalmist said: For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, And the wine is red; It is fully mixed, and He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down (Psa. 75:8). Jesus Christ drank that cup of wrath in the place of the wicked. He drank down the dregs of that cup and dried the wrath of God of its fury against those who believe the Gospel. In this way He propitiated the wrath of God. Jesus was treated as if He were sin so that the sinner could be treated as if he were perfectly righteous. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). He bore the iniquities of all who would believe the Gospel, and He, the Just One, suffered and died in the place of the unjust: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). Now the ungodly sinner who believes with a true faith in the Son of God can be saved by the grace of God: But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). God did all this for us because He loves us, and now, we are saved from the wrath of God by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him (Rom. 5:8-9).

9 Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath (page 4) So how can a just God forgive a guilty sinner and still remain just? How can God be just, and the justifier of the guilty at the same time? Jesus Christ Himself is the answer to our great dilemma. He was our suffering Substitute and now, as a result, is our sinless Savior who saves us from the wrath of God. As mentioned earlier, the same Greek word that was used in Romans 3:25 (hilasterion) is translated mercy seat to refer to the lid of the Ark of the Covenant in Hebrews 9:5. In the Septuagint (an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament), the same Greek word was used almost exclusively to refer to the mercy seat on the Ark of God. If we apply the concept of the mercy seat to Romans 3:25, we learn that Jesus Christ Himself is our mercy seat. This may have very well been in the mind of the apostle Paul when the Holy Spirit inspired him to write such words. Let s take a look at this concept. The Ark of the Covenant was located in the Holy of Holies inside the tabernacle and later, the temple of God. Inside it was the tablets of the Law of God (Ex. 25:16, 21). Covering the Ark was the mercy seat, with two cherubim seated on top with their wings stretched out over it as the guardians of the holiness of God. Between the cherubim, above the mercy seat, was the immediate presence of God (Ex. 25:22, Psa. 80:1, 99:1). Nobody except the High Priest of Israel was permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies and approach the Ark, and he was only allowed once per year on Yom Kippur, the annual Day of Atonement (see Lev. 16). On that day, he would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of the atoning sacrifice upon and before the mercy seat in order to make atonement for the sins of God s covenant people. In that way, God s wrath would be propitiated and their sins would be forgiven. Of course, all this was just a shadow and not the real substance of salvation, because it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins (Heb. 10:4). Yet we see in this a wonderful picture of the Savior s work. Hebrews chapter 9 relates the Old Testament Day of Atonement to the work of Christ on our behalf. It says that Jesus Christ is our great High Priest and He entered the immediate presence of God for us in Heaven. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:11-12). He is not only the High Priest, however, but He is also the sacrifice and it was His own blood that He offered to God. And He is not only the High Priest and the sacrifice, but He is also the mercy seat, the very place where a holy God comes into reconciliation with sinful man and meet him in mercy by means of a propitiatory sacrifice. Inside the Ark of the Covenant, under the mercy seat, was the testimony of the Law of God that man had violated. This broken Law cried out for justice and for the death of those who transgressed it. Above the mercy seat, God was enthroned in His perfect purity and holiness as a righteous Judge, full of wrath against sin. Yet in between God and His violated Law was the mercy seat, acting as a mediator between the two. It was precisely on this mercy seat that the blood of atonement was sprinkled by a Man (God who became a Man) in order to reconcile God and man. The offended Law was appeased by the blood of the sacrifice, and God could forgive His covenant people, those who repent and believe the Gospel, because Christ is the bloody mercy seat that reconciles us to God. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). Just as the blood-covered mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant was the place where sinful man (the High Priest representing the nation of Israel) met with a holy God, so now, Jesus Christ as our great mercy seat is the place where we, as sinful creatures, meet in peace with a just and holy God and find reconciliation. In the Old Testament, we see this tremendous doctrine of propitiation symbolically foreshadowed in numerous places in addition to the Day of Atonement spoken of in Leviticus 16. In the book of Numbers, we read of a situation that happened when the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron (and thus complained against the Lord). And they had the audacity to do this right after the rebellion of Korah after seeing the ground open up and swallow them alive into the pit! Here s the story: On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of the LORD. Now it happened, when the

10 Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath (page 5) congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting; and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting. And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces. So Moses said to Aaron, Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun. Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident. So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped (Num. 16:41-50). Notice in this story that the children of Israel had sinned, and that the wrath of God was unleashed upon them for their sin. God was consuming them in His anger. But then, Aaron, who was the High Priest, took a censer with fire from the altar and put incense on it and ran into the midst of the congregation to make atonement for them. The fire was taken from the altar of burnt offerings where sacrifices for sin were offered continually, and thus, the fire symbolically represented the blood of atonement. Then he stood between the dead and the living, mediating on behalf of the living, and the plague was stopped. Aaron s mediation had propitiated the wrath of God. This is what Christ our great High Priest has done for us. We had sinned and offended God and His wrath was to be unleashed upon us like a plague. But Jesus Christ offered up His own self as a sacrifice to God and His life of perfect obedience was as the sweet smelling aroma of the incense offered with the sacrifice. He propitiated the wrath of God and now, God can accept us because of His priestly work on our behalf, and not only has His wrath been propitiated on our behalf, but the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us as a free gift and God can take pleasure in accepting us. We also read of a similar happening in 2 Samuel 24. We are told that David sinned against the Lord by taking a census of the nation. The wrath of God was unleashed and swept through the nation like a plague and killed 70,000 men. Finally, by the word of the prophet Gad, David went up to threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite to offer a propitiatory sacrifice, and we read: And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel (2 Sam. 24:25). God s wrath was propitiated and the plague ceased. There are some who reject the idea of Christ suffering God s wrath in the place of the sinner. Among them are those who object by saying: If man has sinned and deserves the eternal wrath of God in Hell, than how is it that Christ is his actual Substitute if He only bore temporary wrath on the cross? They reason that if the punishment due to sinners is eternal, than how could Christ have literally suffered in their place to take the wrath of God upon Himself which they deserved if He did not suffer an eternity under the wrath of God? Thus they reason with their carnal minds that a finite sacrifice of six hours upon a cross could not have possibly been the equivalent of taking the punishment of an eternal Hell which is infinite in duration, which every sinner deserves. Yet this type of reasoning is not only flawed in logic but is blasphemous in nature. How dare you, oh man, suggest that the cross of Jesus Christ was a finite and not an infinite sacrifice! It is true that sinners deserve an infinite punishment in an eternal lake of fire, but the sacrifice of the Lord of glory was an infinite sacrifice because while upon that tree He bore the full force of the fury of the wrath of God in His Person all at once (something no finite creature could have done), and not only that, but His sacrifice was of infinite value! He was able to propitiate the wrath of God on behalf of every sinner who would believe the Gospel because He is worth more than all those sinners combined! He is of infinite value, thus His sacrifice was infinite in power and worth, and thus He was able to propitiate the wrath of God on behalf of sinners by being their actual Substitute for the infinite punishment they deserved!

11 Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath (page 6) It was the blood of Christ as our atoning sacrifice that propitiated the wrath of God on our behalf (Rom. 3:25). Sinners who refuse to repent and believe the Gospel will spend a whole eternity in the lake of fire because such torments can never atone for their sin and therefore they will be eternally cursed (Mat. 25:41). Fire and torment cannot finally appease the wrath of God because they cannot make atonement for sin, and as long as sin remains God s wrath remains. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse from sin and remove sin (Heb. 9:22, 1 Jn. 1:7). Therefore, those condemned to suffer the vengeance of God for all eternity will never find relief because their sin will remain forever, forever separating them from the favor and blessings of God. Yet on behalf of those who believe the Gospel, Christ bore the vengeance of His Father upon the cross and experienced the full force of His just wrath and in that time on the cross, experienced what it meant to be treated as sin, to become a curse and to be forsaken by God (2 Cor. 5:21, Gal. 3:13, Mat. 27:46). Then finally, after bearing such trauma as the sinner s Substitute, in addition to all the blood being shed since the agony of hemorrhaging blood in Gethsemane all the way through the six brutal hours of hanging between heaven and earth upon the cross, ultimately the spear that pierced His side spilled the blood that quenched the flame of eternal vengeance and flowed like a river to wash away all the stains of guilty sinners. Some object to the idea of propitiation by saying that the whole notion of it makes God out to be an angry tyrant or a monster of some sort. They view wrath as an undesirable or ugly emotion that is far from the perfection that characterizes God. They say that God is only love, and that God doesn t require an actual payment to be made to satisfy any wrath on His part, and they object by saying that this idea of appeasing angry deity with a sacrifice is a pagan concept. Some even go so far as to call the idea of propitiation blasphemy. Yet, these objections find their origin in pagan Greek philosophy and not in the Hebrew Scriptures, and are propagated in modern times by the humanistic spirit that has pervaded much of modern scholarship. We have already shown that the concept of the wrath of God against sinners is taught all throughout Scripture, and we haven t even scratched the surface of all the texts which speak of it. As can be seen by reading through the Bible, punishment for sin is not just the natural consequence of sin, but punishment for sin has been pronounced forth by a righteous Judge who demands that the standards of His holy nature as revealed in the Law be satisfied. There are some who say, God doesn t punish anybody because He s good, but little do they realize that it is because God is good that He must punish sin. A good judge must execute the penalty of the law upon the guilty criminal. If a good judge were to pardon a criminal without satisfying the demands of the law it would not be a good action, it would be an abomination to God (Pro. 17:15). Punishment for sin in Scripture is not just suffering the natural consequences of sin in itself, such as the result of sticking your finger in a fire and experiencing the natural consequences of such an action. No, there is a holy judge who says that the wicked will have coals of fire poured out over their heads and will be cast into fire (Psa. 140:10). As the prophet said: God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; The LORD avenges and is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies (Nah. 1:2). This is the God to whom we will have to answer one day. His love does not contradict His wrath. His mercy does not contradict His justice. His acceptance of sinners does not contradict His holiness. And He can now forgive sinners and justify them and accept them eternally in the Beloved because of what the Son of God did on their behalf on the cross. Because of the cross, Mercy and truth have met together Righteousness and peace have kissed (Psa. 85:10). God can now show mercy to sinners without contradicting the truth of His righteous nature. Justice has been satisfied on behalf of the one believing in Jesus, and because of that, God can now be at peace with those against whom He was previously opposed to in His holiness. We can now have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). It is important to understand at this point, however, that the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ did not abruptly change the mind of God and force God to do something He otherwise did not want to do. Some preachers have portrayed God in this sort of way, as if the essential nature of the Father were one of only holiness and wrath while the essential nature of the Son were one of only love and mercy. The Son did not

12 Propitiation: Satisfying God s Righteous Wrath (page 7) come and change the Father s mind and force the Father to be propitious toward sinners against His desire. It was God the Father Himself who sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and the Son came willingly according to the eternal plan of the Father to lay down His life for sinners (see John 10:18). And all this was motivated by the unfathomable redeeming love that God had toward His elect since eternity past. This is why Jesus is spoken of as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). It is because God is love that God sent and delivered up His only begotten Son for us. God s love is what motivated Him to send His Son, and the Son s love for the Father and for His elect is what motivated Him to lay down His life. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn. 4:10). If God wasn t love, the death of Christ on the cross would have never occurred. He would have never bore the wrath of God on behalf of hell-deserving sinners if God was not love. But it was precisely the love of God that motivated Him to ordain the death of His own Son in order to satisfy His justice and appease His wrath against the sin of all those who repent and believe the Gospel. Now, because the propitiatory sacrifice has been made, God takes pleasure in forgiving sinners. There is rejoicing in Heaven when a sinner repents (Luke 15:10). Like the father of the prodigal son who rejoiced to see his son return home, God rejoices with great joy to see sinners repent (see Luke 15:22-24). It is the heart of God revealed in the Gospel of His Son to save and not destroy men s lives (Luke 9:56). For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:17-18). God sent His Son into the world who made a propitiation to satisfy His holy wrath because, as God said through the prophet Ezekiel, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live (Ez. 33:11). Now the test of whether or not we are under the wrath of God, or whether we are under the grace and favor of God, is whether or not we are in Jesus Christ. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36). All sin requires punishment by the just Judge of the universe. The question is, dear reader: Has your sin been punished in Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, or are you still yet in your sin, about to face the punishment for your own sin yourself? If you are still in your sin, then you can be sure that the wrath of God is treasuring itself up over your head like a black cloud reading to burst forth with an almighty storm of holy indignation. Yet if you repent and believe the Gospel, if you thrust yourself in complete surrender upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and lay your life at His feet looking up to Him and Him alone to save you, then you can know that He Himself bore your sin in His own body upon that tree, and that there is no condemnation left for you (1 Pet. 2:24, Rom. 8:1). Oh, what a price He paid for unworthy sinners like us! How can our hearts not swell up with a deep, profound, and lasting love for Him who so loved us!

13 Helping Orphans in the Name of Jesus A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. -Psalms 68:5 It has been our burden for quite some time to find a worthy Christian orphanage to help. Thank the Lord that we finally found one right in the city of Guadalajara. While there are many orphanages all over the country of Mexico, the sad fact is that not many are teaching their children the Word of God, and not many are directed by trustworthy Christians. The orphanage we found is directed by a very nice Christian couple who have been caring for orphans for decades. They were actually in charge of a much larger orphanage in northern Mexico but felt the Lord calling them to move to Guadalajara to start a smaller orphanage because in the large one they just couldn t give all the children the care, love and attention they needed. So after leaving the other orphanage in the care of others, they started this work here with the heart to be a real father and mother to these hurting children. It is impressive that all of the kids at the orphanage call the directors, Papa and Mama. Some time ago, we went to the orphanage and did a one week Bible school for the children. (The pictures to the left are from that week.) This allowed the directors a week of rest during the days to catch up on other things and also, and most importantly, taught the children some basic Bible doctrines, such as sin, Heaven and Hell, the blood of Christ, and the new birth. Surprisingly, when we returned recently to visit, the children remembered all their memory Scriptures!

14 We will now be helping this orphanage in a variety of ways, including: 1. Most importantly, teaching the children the Word of God, both personally, and through recruiting other believers to do Bible programs. 2. Recruiting volunteers to help at the orphanage by volunteering their time and service. 3. Rounding up funds to donate to the orphanage in order to provide for the physical needs of the children and the staff who care for them. If you would like to travel to Guadalajara to volunteer your time at the orphanage, we have an application we can to you (we only accept pre-approved volunteers). Or if you would like to donate funds to the orphanage to help with their large sum of expenses, you can donate to us through paypal or send a check to the Mission Projects address below. Just follow the instructions under the Support us section of this newsletter. If donating in such a way, please be sure to specify that you want the funds to go to the orphanage. All funds specified for the orphanage will go 100% to them and we will keep nothing.

15 Other Announcements Buying a Booth in a Local Farmers Market Every Thursday there is a local street market that sets up on the street that is just a block away from our house. The whole neighborhood comes out to it to buy everything from fruits and vegetables to new clothes. It is an excellent place to come into contact with the people of the neighborhood. Thanks be to God, that there is a man who is selling his booths in order to move to a different place in Mexico. He has had them for more than 20 years. We have decided to purchase one and are supposed to meet with him soon to seal the deal. We plan on setting up a table in the booth in order to give away free Bibles, tracts, booklets, CD s of sermons, and other Gospel materials. We will also use it to preach the Gospel to those who come up to the table. It is an excellent opportunity to get us more exposure in our local neighborhood where we have our meetings on Sundays. We had been doing this at another market some distance away from our house, but that other market was not ideal for a number of reasons. With this one, we will actually own the spot we are on, and can have more liberty in preaching from it. Plus the location is much better for us. Since there is quite a nice sized space in the booth, we ve also thought about selling something from it in the space not used by the Gospel table (like clothes or food for instance). By selling something, it would help us build relationships with those who wouldn t approach to ask for a Bible, and it would also help us to supplement our income a little from time to time. The cost of the booth is about $1,000 US, plus we will have to spend a couple hundred dollars to purchase a tent and everything to set up in it. On top of this, as always, we will need a constant stream of Bibles and materials to give away. Thank the Lord that we have enough to purchase the booth right now because of supporters. We are so grateful to the Lord for you all. If you would like to help with this or any other project, we would be very grateful. The neighborhood this booth is in is extremely Catholic, so this will be a wonderful way to reach out with the true Gospel. Nationalization in Mexico Now that Lina officially has her Mexican citizenship, I (Josef) can now get nationalized in order to get permanent permission to stay in the country and even be allowed to enjoy privileges that other citizens enjoy. It is a short process so we hope to get it soon, Lord willing. The only catch is that it costs $500 to do the first step (of course, that s Mexico for you!). So we are praying that the Lord would make this a reality so I wouldn t have to leave every 6 months. Evangelism Videos in Spanish To see some of our recent open air preaching videos go to our Spanish Youtube page: Prayer Requests: - For Josef and Lina to continue to grow in faith and grace and for blessings upon their marriage. - For Aaron, first of all that he would prosper spiritually, and then, that the Lord would give him grace with his health problems and provide for his material needs. - For us all to be continually filled and baptized afresh in the Holy Spirit. - That the Lord would send more brethren our way that are in need of discipleship and biblical fellowship. - For those we are teaching and discipling, that they would grow in the Lord and be fruitful. - That God would RAISE UP MORE LABORERS!!! - FOR A BIBLICAL CHURCH TO GET PLANTED HERE IN GUADALAJARA!!!

16 Support Information If you would like to support us financially you can do so by going to our website: and clicking on the Donate page at the top of the website. Instructions are given there on how to donate online or by check. If you are donating for a specific project or purpose, please be sure to include a note with your donation to let us know. We are extremely grateful to the Lord for all the support we get. It all makes a difference and allows us (Josef & Lina and brother Aaron) to continue to focus full time on the work the Lord has set before us. And please remember us in your prayers, for without God s grace we cannot even tie our shoes. MAY THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!!! A reminder of God s covenant faithfulness as the Word is opened before an open air sermon.