The Beza Briefing: More on Law and Gospel (Part 2)

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Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, and his steadfast love endures forever.

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It's Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio. To start the show like we normally do, welcome to No Compromise Radio.

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But I had my Bible randomly turned to Jeremiah chapter 33, and that was verse 11.

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So I thought I would read it, because it's such a good truth that's reiterated many, many times in the scriptures.

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Well, what's going on here? Well, it's a sunny day today. It's about 60, and I've been trying to meet with the deacons individually.

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Every fall I try to meet with them one -on -one, have a little lunch, and then every spring as well.

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So I just got done meeting with one of the faithful deacons here at bbcchurch .org.

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And that was good. We were just talking about ministry, trying to thank him, trying to encourage him. We had some really good food.

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There's a Thai place in town that has the tenderest chicken.

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I get the mango curry chicken. You know, the hipster podcast, Pactum, and other things, you know, they talk about food,

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Pat does, or other things. And so, hey, I get to talk about food too, spicy mango curry chicken.

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And basically what happens is, oh, train of thought here.

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Omaha Bible Church has a pastor named Pat Abendroth.

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And guess what is happening at Omaha Bible Church? There's something brand new.

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While they've had conferences in the past, there's something brand new, and it's called the

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Pactum Conference. Oh, that makes sense. 2023 Pactum Conference.

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It's called All Things New. October 6th and 7th of this year, 2023,

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Omaha, Nebraska. And there are going to be four speakers. Daryl Hart's going to be there,

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DG Hart. And he's going to preach on Sunday, excuse me, a Friday night, two sessions.

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Then Pat Abendroth will preach a session. Then on Saturday morning,

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Michael Beck from Two Age Sojourners, I believe that's what it's called, a

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New Zealand podcast. And then he's going to preach Sunday morning, do a session or two on Saturday because he's flown a long way.

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And I get one session and one Q &A, but I'm the brother. So that's okay. I get to go home to see family.

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All Things New, October 6th and 7th. You can register at thepactum .org. Let's see, is it .org?

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Thepactum .org. I don't know. The registrations on Brush of Fire is who he's using for registration.

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All Things New, October 6th and 7th, 2023. I don't know

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Michael Beck very well. I like him, but it's going to be fun behind the scenes, hanging out with these guys and picking

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Daryl Hart's brain. All Things New in Revelation 21 is Pat's message. Machen and the

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Age to Come, DG Hart. A History of Social Justice and Over -Realized Eschatology, DG Hart.

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Then on Saturday, The Logic of Two Ages, Michael Beck. The Myth of Future Justification, and that's me.

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And Pat says he wants me to name names. And so, you know, Federal Vision People, New Perspectives, John Piper.

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New Creation and Already Not Yet, Michael Beck. That's Saturday. Then Sunday, Q &A with Michael Beck, Mike Abendroth and Pat Abendroth.

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Worship Service, Michael Beck preaching. So there you have it, Pactum Conference 2023,

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All Things New. Looking forward to it. Although it's the Lord's will if we do this or do that, right? I was supposed to speak at a

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Pactum Conference, Omaha Bible Church Conference two years ago. And I think, who was there?

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Fesco and Matthew Barrett. And I was supposed to be the other speaker and I was afraid. I was just scared. I was really scared.

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And it was about the Trinity too, no less. And I'm like, oh, I'm scared.

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I see Fesco and Barrett. So anyway, this one is going to be a little bit easier.

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This is up my wheelhouse, in my wheelhouse, along my wheelhouse, I guess prepositions do matter.

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Today is another installment of the Baeser Briefing. And Teddy Baeser, The Christian Faith, A Concise Systematic Theology that is so wonderful.

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I've been reading it word for word on air. I know I don't have an editor, but last show, yesterday,

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I believe I didn't make but hardly a couple of mistakes, a couple few.

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And so I'm trying to read carefully and slowly. And if you want to put it at 1 .5 speed, you can.

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Theodore Baeser, The Christian Faith. Sections like the Father, the Son, the

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Holy Spirit, the Church, Judgment, and Conclusion. I think those are the different chapters and we're in chapter four, the

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Holy Spirit. And as advertised, this is the section we're in and boy, it's going to be good.

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The other fruit of the preaching of the law. Once the preaching of the gospel has effectually done its work.

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Last time we talked about the law, first use, how it shows us our sins as unbelievers. And it's a mirror and it tells us that we have fallen short of the grace of God and his glory.

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And we are transgressors and trespass and sin, and therefore we need a savior. First use of the law.

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And if you want to use first use when you're preaching to unbelievers, great. If you use first use while you're preaching to believers,

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I don't even have a problem with that in terms of showing people what they were rescued from as law breakers.

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That'd be fine by me. No problem. It's not like we can never talk about first use to believers. We just don't put them back under the covenant of works, to quote my friend,

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Scott Clark, as if it were possible. It means you can't put them under covenant of works because covenant works was with Adams, the

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Adam, the covenant of works. It's like we're under a covenant of works now as unbelievers, but as believers, well, let's see what

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Beza has to say about once you've given the law to unbelievers, is law of the law of God now null and void and fulfilled and the end of the law because of Jesus?

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Is there any room for law in the Christian faith? I think, you know, the answer among the effects that Jesus Christ produces when he dwells in us, we have shown, and this is not the least, that he creates in us a pure heart.

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See, once I said I didn't make mistakes, there's the first one, at least the first big one. Psalm 51, to know,

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Jeremiah 24, to will and to do what is of God, Philippians 2. Previously, we were slaves in sin,

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Romans 6, enemies of God, Ephesians 2, incapable of even thinking anything. Good.

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2 Corinthians 3, thus Beza says, when our disposition has changed, the preaching of the law begins also to change its effect in us such that instead of terrifying us, it consoles us, 1

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John 2, 2 Peter 1. Instead of showing us how near our damnation is, it serves as a guide.

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It serves as a guide. It serves as a guide. He did not repeat those words, but I did.

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To teach us the good works, Jeremiah 31, Romans 7, in which God has purposed we shall walk,

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Ephesians 2. 10. Finally, instead of being an unpleasant and unbearable yoke, it becomes pleasant and light to us,

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Matthew 11. There remains with us only one regret, that of not being able to obey it perfectly as we wish to do on account of the remnant of our corruption, which battles against the spirit,

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Romans 7. But all this regret does not drive us to despair, but rather drives us to pray ardently to our

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Father who strengthens us more and more, Romans 8. Did you hear that, dear Christian, struggling

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Christian, weak Christian, Christian who, like me, wishes you could obey more than you do?

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I mean, does that drive you to despair? You don't obey like you should. You've been a Christian for five years, 10 years, 30 years, 50 years.

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You don't obey like you should, and just, you know, you're sad about it. Well, I don't think you can not be but sad about it.

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But what about driving you to despair? This regret that drives to despair, as Beza says.

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He says, no, don't let it drive you to despair. Rather, it should drive you to pray for more strength.

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Lord, give me more strength when it comes to obeying you. Do you think that'd be a good prayer to pray, even right now?

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Lord, please help me, strengthen me to obey you more and more.

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Does that sound antinomian to you? Does that sound anti -law to you? Does that sound like Romans 7 to Theodore Beza, is a mature

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Christian man who prays, I'd like to obey you more, but I just am having a hard time, but I don't want to be driven to despair.

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Beza goes on, faith, which is the testimony of the spirit of God crying in our hearts, Romans 8, indeed assures us that the curse of the law has been blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ, to whom it unites us,

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Romans 1. Moreover, the same faith also assures us that the spirit shall conquer however long he tarries,

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Romans 6. And even death shall be the means of our victory, John 5, 1 Corinthians 15, Hebrews 2.

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Thus is brought to completion in us by degrees, the remainder of true repentance, which comes from true conversion.

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It begins with contrition or the feeling of sin and progresses by amendment of all that is in the man, visible and invisible, 1

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Thessalonians 5 .23. That is also why we conclude that this leads every true penitent to confess his fault before him whom it concerns.

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That is to say, before those who have been offended and even before the whole assembly of the church, if that is necessary.

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This confession must be accompanied according to the measure in which this is possible with restitution and satisfaction towards one neighbor for without this repentance can only be feigned and counterfeit.

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Thus, it is easy to see that we do not reject, but on the contrary, require as necessary to salvation, the true confession, which has been ordained of God.

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Nevertheless, we do. We have no desire to torment consciences by our acular confession,

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A -U -R -I -C -U -L -A -R, our acular as it is called, which men have invented in place of true confession and repentance, nor to establish toward God any other satisfaction than the whole or the sole satisfaction of Jesus Christ.

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Theodore Beza, Holy Spirit, Chapter 4, Section 30. Aren't these good? Does it make you want to go buy this?

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Should have a link from No Compromise Radio so I get two cents for every copy sold. I'd have a dime by now.

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Remember five and dime stores? Everything cost a nickel or 10 cents. Now dollar stores don't even charge a dollar.

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They charge a dollar 25. Oh, I haven't seen many of those stickers anymore, but I live in Massachusetts.

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It was the Joe Biden stickers. Said I did that or something pointing. Do you ever see those stickers anymore?

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Where I live, I haven't seen one of those for a year or something like that. I didn't put any stickers out either, but I haven't seen them.

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This is Massachusetts, by the way, where even Republicans are Democrats. The Commonwealth.

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It's either California or Massachusetts. That's where I usually am. And I only visit Florida once in a while.

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We're having some kind of bi -coastal schizophrenia. Who knows? 430.

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That's not the time. That's the chapter and section. Chapter four, section 30. The second means which the

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Holy Spirit uses to enable us to enjoy Jesus Christ and why the Lord has never been content solely with the preaching of his word.

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What's that going to be? What do you mean he's not content with the sole preaching of the word? What are the ordinary means of grace, by the way?

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Preaching of the word, period? All right. It's getting very interesting around here.

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We have said that the sacraments are the other means. See, we jump to conclusions, don't we?

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The other instrument by which the Holy Spirit applies to us all that is necessary for our salvation. But since by this word is generally understood all the signs by which any sacred and spiritual thing is declared to us.

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It is necessary, first of all, to limit the meaning of the word. Therefore, we must understand that our

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God, who is perfectly merciful in using our very poor and miserable nature as a means to better manifest his goodness and long suffering, has not been content to simply make known to us and to show us as it were from a distance, the means by which it has pleased him to save us.

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By the way, just stop and let that settle in for a second with a Selah moment, by which it has pleased him to save us.

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It pleased God to save you. No, we won't say we're pleasing in his eyes as unbelievers.

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In Christ, now that's different. But just the fact that I think some preachers, and I probably have done this in the past and believe this in the past, sadly and to my shame, that God was reticent to save.

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God was hesitating. God didn't really want to. Against his better judgment, would he save people like us?

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That kind of thinking using anthropomorphic language, language of analogy, by which it pleased him to save us.

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It pleased God to save you, dear Christian. Do you think he's going to lose you? Do you think he's going to abandon you?

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I think he was pleased to save you all the way to glory. That might include a few spankings, as it were, but it pleased him to save you.

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That's wonderful news. That's worth the whole show today, don't you think? That's worth the whole show today. It pleased him to save us.

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Nevertheless, Beza goes on. Even in this, he uses incomprehensible gentleness and compassion in informing us of his will through men similar to ourselves.

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Deuteronomy 18, greater prophet, right, than Moses. Philippians 2, 2 Corinthians 5.

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And what is more, stammers, so to speak, with us as nurses do with their little children.

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1 Thessalonians 2 .7, right? That old baby talk quote that I haven't memorized, but Steve Meister knows perfectly.

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When I brought it up, he gave me the exact quote. I said, I didn't want the French edition. I wanted the third edition in Latin.

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He stammers to speak as nurses do with their little children. But in addition to crown his infinite goodness, his will to add to the preaching of his words, certain actions which are designed to compel the most uneducated and stubborn in the world to believe more and more that God is not mocking them and offering them eternal life by this most wondrous means, the death of his own son.

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And so let's say you're uneducated. I wonder if there's kind of a picture that tells a story informed by the Bible, of course.

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Thus, by such signs and actions, all their senses are driven to consent to the doctrine of the gospel as they were already fully enjoying the salvation which is promised to them.

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In the same way, we see if it is proper to make a comparison between affairs in the world and the incomprehensible goodness of God, that when judicially the possession or ownership of something is awarded to us, certain ceremonies and actions will be used in the act of taking possession or in the execution of a warrant to assure us and to testify to others that such and such belongs to us.

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Even in our civil affairs, although a lawyer has signed a contract and appended the name of the witnesses, in addition to all this, the seal of the office where the contract was drawn up will be affixed so as to render the contract more valid and authentic.

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Romans 4. Well, you see where he's going here, don't you? Of course you do. Thus, from the beginning, our

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Lord was not content with announcing to Adam the grace by which he had purposed to save his church through his son.

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He willed to add there to sacrifices as living figures of the future sacrifice of Jesus Christ to strengthen the faith of the children of God in the redemption which they were awaiting.

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Hebrews 11. Then afterwards, it's hard for me, by the way, with this

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English, afterwards, towards, backwards. I don't believe it's proper

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English to have the S at the end in American English, but it is in British English.

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What do we call that? The UK English. So when I say afterwards, it just strikes me as rascal.

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All right. Where am I? Then afterwards, renewing this covenant of grace and mercy to Abraham, he added there to the sacrament of circumcision,

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Genesis 17. Finally, at the time of Moses, he added there to the sacrament of the Passover lamb and many other ceremonies,

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Exodus 12. These sacraments representing to them what Jesus Christ would accomplish in his time.

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That is to say, all the mystery of their salvation. The apostle declares this amply in the book of Hebrews.

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Now, I don't like flavored coffee. That's me sipping coffee.

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And now I know why, because there's only a K -cup around here at the church and they were all decaf and there was a

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Pete's, I don't know, some caramel, caramel something.

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Man, it's bad. That's like the worst coffee I've ever had. I think Pete's is fine. I like Pete's. Still promote

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Pete's. Don't drink as much as I used to. My friend, by the way, Ray Johnson, who's with the

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Lord now a couple of years, he said one year to me, and he was very supportive of No Compromise Radio, bought all the original equipment, paid for the few years that we were on the radio here at WVNE 760

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AM. We don't pay for Alaska. We don't pay for Montana. Sorry, Wyoming. What's the difference?

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But anyway, he sent me two pounds of Pete's coffee every month, just I was on the drop ship.

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And he said, that's your Christmas present. So after 12 months, I thought it's over, the 13th month it came and I called him and I said,

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I've got another two more pounds. He said, will you drink them? Well, yeah, not I won't drink the beans, but I'll make them into coffee and then drink them.

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And he said, well, I'll just let it keep going. So I think for eight years, Ray Johnson, I think it's,

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I mean, we should probably calculate that and just to see, cause this is kind of fun little diversion here. Just when people are taught the word of God, they do nice things.

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And so let's just say, I think it was like $32 times 12. So each bag was 16 bucks.

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That's $384 a year times eight years. I don't know why

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I'm laughing. That is $3 ,072 worth of Pete's coffee that was sent to my house.

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Oh, I loved Ray, not just for that, but he was generous to many people behind the scenes.

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We had a man and his son and his wife at this church at here at Bethlehem Bible Church.

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And the wife's still alive, Mrs. Shepard, but her husband,

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Tom and her son, Blake, special needs son, who are both really sick and we're going to die.

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Both are in heaven now. And I wanted to do something nice for the family as it's getting toward the end.

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And I found out that they liked helicopters, never been on a helicopter that I know of.

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And so I thought we need to have a helicopter ride for Tom and Nancy and Blake.

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And so I said, who do I know that has resources to do it? So I called up Ray, told him what it was.

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I think he said, keep this on the sly, don't tell anybody, et cetera, et cetera, arranged a helicopter ride.

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And it was wonderful to be able to do. Now, a side note that even makes it more special. The day of the helicopter ride was the day of our annual church picnic.

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We didn't have it last year, maybe didn't have it during COVID or something, but you're not allowed to go outside during COVID. Might get some fresh air.

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We have it at a little lake and there's a beach by the lake. And so we're all outside and it's kind of still chilly a little bit maybe, and kids swimming some.

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I usually would go in and swim with the kids. I think I was the only adult brave enough to jump in with the kids. And I'm glad I did that when

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I was 61. But now that I'm 63, I can't do it. Long story short, they go to the little airport, they get in the helicopter.

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Where would you like to go? Oh, let's fly over our house. They live in Shrewsbury, flew over the house.

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Where else should we go? Let's fly over the church. So they flew over the church building here in West Boylston. And then they said, well, there's the lunch at the picnic there at the

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Sterling Lake called East Washakam Lake. We used to rent a house right there on that lake.

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Wonderful lake. I just was kayaking in that lake three days ago. You can tell I'm old. Kim and I broke down and bought kayaks.

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The hardest part is lifting them up on top of the car. Young people do it too.

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I know that's true. They kayak. Yeah. They go fast and they just throw them up in the car. No problem. Plus my hands now with arthritis.

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My wife will hand me a can of, I don't know, pesto sauce. And it's like, I can't open it.

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I have to get those little tools. Sometimes I have to use like pliers. Anyway, here's the punchline. And it was all worth the wait because they flew over the picnic, the lunch at Washakam Lake.

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And they kind of did a little tilt, a little turn kind of thing. And we all were at the beach waving and smiling and crying.

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It was wonderful. So I don't know if it cost him $3 ,000 for that helicopter ride, but he sent me $3 ,000 for the beach coffee.

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And of course, he was the one, by the way, who said to me, Mike, you're going to start a radio show.

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I'll fund it. I don't want you asking for money. I'm tired of all these people at the end of the year asking for money, begathons and telethons and all these others.

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Don't ask for money. I'll pay for the stuff. Just don't ask for money. If you ask for money, I'm not going to pay for it anymore. So I don't think we've ever asked for money at No Compromise Radio.

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We will sell books, of course. I guess that's somehow, but you get something for that. And I think for years,

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I would say, if you know a millionaire, then tell him about the show and we'd love to take his money.

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So I've only asked money from millionaires and I've never gotten any. I shouldn't say that.

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We have 11 or 12 Patreon supporters, $148 a month, something like that. So that works out just right because I need a little bit of money for this, that, and the other here.

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I just bought a new $600 Roadcaster Pro 2, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And some people over the years have sent little gifts in.

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But the gift that kept on coming was $3 ,072 worth of Pete's coffee.

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And by the way, after Ray died, I officiated his funeral and things like that. He wanted me to preach the gospel, which

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I did. And after he died, I called his wife up and said, by the way, this is an ongoing gift and that's okay.

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We don't have to keep going. So anyway, I was doing Beza and we were getting up to sacraments.

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And definitions of sacraments. But that's going to have to wait until next time, because I wanted to end on a joyful note that what you do for the kingdom lasts forever.

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And there's ways to bless people, not just with money. My name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.