Redemptive History (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and today is the last part of the conference series that we've been airing on No Compromise Radio from the

Nebraska Gospel Network's conference entitled In Step with the Gospel.

It was at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Kearney, Nebraska, and my friend Gordon arranged this for me.

And this is part two, The Gospel and Redemptive History. The audience was pastors, leaders, and lay people in this particular message, and I think it's important because we wanna make sure we teach the

Old Testament properly. Dare to be a Daniel, Goliath's five stones picking up,

David didn't have faith. What was really the point to all that? So today, The Gospel and Redemptive History from a message

I preached last year at a conference at the Nebraska Gospel Network. You can

Google them, Nebraska Gospel Network, and see what's on tap for the coming conference. Mike Abendroth, God bless you.

S. Lewis Johnson tells a neat story, a true story about Rolls -Royces. And S.

Lewis recounts the story, and David Platt has since retold the story. But a

German bought a Rolls -Royce and is in Germany on the Autobahn, and the Rolls -Royce breaks down.

He calls London, I have a Rolls -Royce, it broke down. Okay, go to the hotel, we'll take care of it, sir. Two guys fly in from London over to Berlin, and then the helicopter, they repair it.

Several days later, the guy's on his way. Well, he was a businessman, and he wanted to get his accounts all taken care of.

So he called up Rolls -Royce and said, my name is Hans, and my

Rolls -Royce broke down, and I'd like to clear up the bill. I'm sure it was expensive. And so there was some checking, and the lady got back on the line, and she said,

Hans, we have no record of your Rolls -Royce ever breaking down. No, it was on such and such a day, at such and such a place.

Sir, I've double -checked the records and talked to my boss. We have no record of the Rolls -Royce ever breaking down.

Then S. Lewis said, you know what? That's the illustration of justification. Can you imagine, based on what the last head did,

Adam, that when God looks at you, he looks at you with the eyes of you never, ever sinning, never lying, never cheating, never not loving your neighbors yourself, that you never, ever sin.

Can you imagine that? When God looks at you, he looks at you as if you've never sinned. And then positively, then

God looks at you as if you perfectly obeyed, perfectly obeyed, thought, word, deed.

So when we're looking here, and that's a good illustration of justification. God has no record. And I always think to myself,

God knew every sin I'd sin, and yet he still saved me and declared me righteous. Christ paid for those sins. So Matthew chapter four, here's my point.

If you're not thinking redemptively, historically, I'm determined to know nothing among you except Christ, even him crucified, we turn lessons about Jesus into how -to lessons.

I'm not saying you can never say, this is how you do it. What would Jesus do? But if that's the message in Matthew four, you've missed the message.

Israel fails, Adam fails, and Jesus, our great representative, succeeded.

Who's the hero of the story? Me? I looked at my old notes, and I had three ways to overcome temptation.

Was the primary message. No, the primary message is Jesus Christ. It was 2000, the year was 2000,

Sinclair Ferguson was still the pastor of St. George's Tron in Glasgow, just took over for Eric Alexander.

And he was preaching through Mark at the time, and I was preaching through Mark. No, strike that. He had a commentary on Mark, and I was preaching through Mark, and S.

Lewis, excuse me, Sinclair Ferguson preached, and he descended down from the pulpit stairs and sat down, and after the service,

I said, Dr. Ferguson, my name's Mike Ebendroth, and we have family here in Scotland, and we're visiting, and I had a pastoral question to ask you,

I'm a pastor. Oh, please, he said, I'd love to answer your question. And I said,

I'm preaching through the book of Mark, but I'm having a hard time figuring out application for the congregation. Kind of what they should do after the sermons.

Week in and week out, what they should do, because the sermon's all, I mean, the text is all about Jesus. And I wish

I could have a Scottish accent when I tell you this next line. The final question on my ordination was, if you could ask the

Lord for anything to help you in your ministry, what would you ask for? And I said, a Scottish accent? He said, what's wrong with showing the people the glory and majesty and excellency of Jesus Christ every week?

What's wrong with that? But we are a how -to people, aren't we? We're a get -her -done people.

I want five easy things to do. I'm not doing so well being a husband, let me have those five things

I gotta do, and once I do them, I'm gonna be in good shape. We're just get -her -done people. And here this passage is, we can't do it,

Adam didn't do it, Israel didn't do it, we'll never do it, and we had someone who accomplished the work that God demanded, do this and live, and Jesus accomplished that work.

So I think I've got your attention. Everybody's, so let me give you a couple definitions of redemptive history, and a few things that will probably help you as well.

Like I said, this is a big issue, lots of new books about this. Redemptive history, let me give you

John Frame's definition. By the way, if you wanna email me and ask me for any of these quotes, any of the notes, any of the stuff that I have,

I'll be glad to send it to you. Just write info at nocompromisedradio .com and it'll come to me and I'll send it to you.

Info at nocompromisedradio .com. And if you say, I'd like to have that quote, I wanna have those notes,

I'll be happy to send it to you. My associate pastor said you won't be able to read it, but I'll send it to you.

But seriously, if you want any quote I give, I'll send you the quote. Redemptive history,

John Frame says, is that series of events by which God redeems his people from sin, a narrative fulfilled in Christ.

It is the principle subject matter of scripture, a unified purpose with Christ at the center.

Let me give you Sidney Gredanus's redemptive history definition. Viewing the whole counsel of God with all its teachings, laws, prophecies, and visions in light of Jesus Christ.

Now you can get more technical, I understand that. But in general, one purpose of the

Bible culminated in one person. Turn your Bibles please to Ephesians chapter one, and let me show you this one purpose in the

Bible. I do not believe in the decrees of God, I believe in the decree of God.

I do not believe in the purposes of God, I believe in the purpose of God. I do not believe in the plans of God, I believe in the plan of God.

Why is that? Can you imagine God's plan is singular? How do you plan?

Here's how I plan. I think on Thursday I'll get up and go to the Manchester airport and fly to Omaha, go sleep at my brother's house, get up and drive over.

Then I get to the airport and then they say seven birds flew into the engine and you'll be staying home today. Okay, then

I drive back home. I have contingency plans, I have if then, I have flow charts, if this happens, then that happens.

That's how I plan, God doesn't plan that way. God has one eternal purpose, singular.

How about that? That should just boggle your mind when you just sit back and go, wait a second, let's look at Ephesians 1, verse 11 to see if it's true.

The determination of everything in the world is one plan of God. Also, we have obtained

Ephesians 1, 11, inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will.

Whatever comes to pass is the purpose and decree of God. And in my mind, the most incredible thing is the singular noun used, the decree of God, the grammatical number.

Regularly, the singular is used in the Bible. Succession of thought is too human for God.

God's singular plan is immutable because He doesn't change. It's never changing because He's all wise.

Robert Dabney said, the Presbyterian of the South, "'It is one act of the divine mind and not many.'"

Can you imagine? No sorting, no processing, no filtering. When I was at the

University of Nebraska and took computer language class in 1982, we had to learn

COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, and BASICPLUS. Young people have no idea what any of those are.

Those are old. We didn't even have to use PASCAL, but we maybe probably should have. And I had to do a bunch of typing and then put things in the card reader for my program to work.

And we'd go down to the computer lab and hand them a stack of cards about that big and they'd put them in the card reader and just go...

And then it would say, my lunar module crashed on the moon. I couldn't land it.

That's not the way God thinks with sorting and evaluating. Listen for singular or plural when it comes to divine plan in Isaiah 46.

Just listen. "'Declaring the end from the beginning "'and from the ancient times things "'which had not been done, saying, "'My purpose will be established "'and

I will accomplish all my good pleasure.'" The infinite mind comprehensively and simultaneously decreeing everything singularly.

Look down in chapter three, verse 11, with the highlight of this unifying theme,

Christ Jesus. So we've got one theme and one person and everything in the Bible points to that one theme with all its promises, with all its fulfillments, with all its predictions.

Some explicitly, the Messiah's going to be born in Bethlehem, some more symbolically with sacrifices.

But Christ's work, especially on the cross, saving the church is the climax of history.

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose. What was made known through the church can be traced back to the eternal purpose of God, which

He carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord. He carried out the wishes of His divine purpose through Christ Jesus.

I like what O 'Brien said, "'God's making known His many -splendored wisdom "'through the church to the authorities "'in the heavenly realms was

His intention "'through all eternity, and He has now "'accomplished this in Jesus.'"

So would it shock you if I read this verse, 2 Corinthians 1 .20, "'For all the promises of God find their yes in Christ.'"

So here's what we're after. We're after if God's got one thought in His mind, and that is the world and the

Bible, and one key hero, Christ Jesus, then shouldn't we, at least as Bible teachers,

Bible students, have something of that in our mind? God's got one purpose, and that purpose exalts

Christ. So shouldn't that bit of theology flow into my methodology? If God has one purpose in one person exalting

Christ Jesus, shouldn't that show up when we teach the Bible? Well, that's a rhetorical question.

Of course it should. Let's turn to Luke 24.

You know I was gonna turn to Luke 24. I just wanna read these verses. Anyone here that knows these verses would say, well, you've gotta talk about these verses when it comes to redemptive history.

Looking at the Old Testament specifically, with the eyes of there's a central theme about a central person.

Christ, of course, appears to His disciples after His resurrection. Luke 24, verse 25 to 27.

God's plan focuses on Christ and His glory. Then certainly it would be natural to assume that the

Old Testament pointed toward that purpose and that person. O foolish ones,

He said to them, Luke 24, 25, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. Jesus is the theme of God's scriptures.

Look down at verse 44, please. Down at verse 44, we have other interesting insight talking about the law of Moses, the prophets, and the

Psalms, the Bible. The Old Testament as a whole with its promises, symbols, and pictures pointing to Christ and what

He did, Luke 24, 44. Then He said to them, these are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms must be fulfilled. And then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

It's amazing. And said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day from the dead, third day rise from the dead rather, and that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things. Redemptive history basically means that there's a single theme to the world culminated in Christ Jesus.

And you said, Mike, you just keep saying that all the time. That's true, because I want you to get it. One purpose, one person.

Why is this important, this redemptive history? Let me give you a few reasons why it's important. That's kind of the theme here this morning, the gospel, why it's important.

Redemptive history, why it's important. Why is it important to think about redemptive history before you teach the

Bible? One, redemptive history keeps the focus on Jesus.

It's kind of a good thing if you're a teacher of the Bible, isn't it? To focus on Jesus. Jesus is the hero.

Sometime for fun, you should count how many characters are in the Bible. David, Goliath, Abraham, Moses, Caleb, Joshua, Ruth, Esther.

But when you realize that the star of the Bible is Jesus, then you teach these characters in light of that.

Let's push it a little bit. What if we get the Book of Mormon, and then I learn about some good characters in the

Book of Mormon who are honest, upright, full of integrity, men who love justice, and I use the

Book of Mormon to say, you should be honorable, love justice, and tell the truth. What if I use the

Quran to do the same thing? You know, the Quran talks about integrity, justice, vindication, enemies.

You ought to be honest, courageous. You ought to dare to be a Muhammad too. But now we have the

Bibles, the Scriptures, and the Scriptures are all culminating in Christ. Big picture, sometimes smaller picture, and so we should be people that teach about Jesus as well.

Paul said, I've got a message, and I preach Christ. It helps us not just stay away from Bible heroes and lessons, but you know what it also keeps us from?

Preaching ourselves. Preaching about interactualization and psychology and Judas's emotional state,

Mary's grief. Do I have this faith? Do I have this emotional state?

Michael Horton talks about a series of messages given by a pastor, how to get up when life's got you down.

That's just moralism. If you're preaching Christ, you're not preaching moralism because moralism says, do good, be good.

It's nice to be nice, and it's good to be good. Isn't it nice to be nice and good to be good? I like neighbors like that, but you can go to hell being nice and being good.

And so if you're preaching Christ, by definition, moralism is an imperative, do this and live.

When you preach Christ, it's He's done this and affected eternal life.

Moralism says, do this and live, and we go, we can't. How about this?

What if you use the Bible as a handbook for life? An answer to every question, kind of trivial pursuit.

Horton says, that's what these guys did who were Pharisees. What happens if a person divorces and remarries?

Why do your disciples pick grain on the Sabbath? Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? That's not how we want to teach some kind of pragmatism, moralism.

Listen to what Van Dyck said. Appealing to the pronouncements of Scripture, I could as well preach on the death of Prince William I in this manner, as I could on the death of Jacob.

I could hold up Napoleon as an example, as Nebuchadnezzar, because in both cases, normativity must be carried out from somewhere else.

In other words, could you use Aesop's fables to teach moral examples? And I tell my kids,

I mean, for my dad, he didn't like elbows on the table. I go, well, whatever. I let kids have elbows on the table, but I like when my kids get done, before they get up from the table, they say, mom, that was a good meal.

Thanks for preparing it. May I please be excused? Yes, you may. You stand up and you push your chair in and you take your plate away.

That's how things ought to be done, Massachusetts. There's nothing wrong with telling people this is what we do in our house, but if you teach the

Bible and give lessons like that alone, then how can you be thinking about the main purpose and flow of the

Bible that's culminated in a person in Christ? Don't you think every message you give should have something to do with redemptive history?

I think the answer is yes. And here's what I do sometimes. I'm preaching through 1

Corinthians right now. I'm in chapter nine, verse 15. It's my 78th message. I was going too slow, but I'm a slow learner.

So here's this long book, longer than Romans by verses, 1 Corinthians. And here's what we do if we're not careful.

I'm in the section now about liberty. We have liberty in Christ Jesus. You know, if God has declared you righteous and just and punished

Jesus for your sins, what you put in your mouth doesn't make you more lovable to God. Did you know that?

If you want to take a bunch of tobacco, roll it up, light it on fire and inhale, you're still just as justified as you were.

I think some people here do that. You put some kind of grape juice that might have fermented a little bit and you drink it some, maybe even at communion service, you're just as justified.

But this whole section on liberty, if I'm not careful, I say, you have liberty, you have liberty, you have liberty.

But what Paul does in 1 Corinthians 1, verses one to eight is what? Here's who you are in Christ, here's how

He's called you and in light of who you are, live it out. Same thing in Romans, right? First 11 chapters, here's who you are, live it out, chapters 12 and following.

Colossians one and two, here's who you are, three and four, live it out, three, five and following. Ephesians, it's the same paradigm.

But what we do if we're not careful, especially pastors here who like sequential expository verse by verse preaching, and by the way,

I like it and that's what I try to do. But if we're not careful and we're atomistically saying, what does this verse mean, picking it apart, all the different verses, and we never stop at the end of the week and look back and say, how does this fit into the plan of God's redemptive history?

We could be in trouble. Because my sermons could be in Ephesians, husbands love your wives, wives submit to your husbands.

Children obey your parents. Are those okay to say? Yes, but part of my message should be a telescoping back a little bit saying, how does this fit into the big picture?

How about with David and Goliath? Got any Goliath's in your life? Maybe some of you do with the bullying craze that's out there now.

Is that the message? You got some Goliath's in your life and you better get rid of them? Really, that's the message?

Is how to get rid of the Goliath's in your life? I thought it was a message on not too much faith because he picked up more stones than he needed.

See, I can make it into anything I want. It's the ingenuity of the preacher, the Bible teacher or the

Sunday school teacher that then rules versus how does this fit into redemptive history? Who is

David? Who's the real David? Who does David foreshadow? Who is David on earth trying to defend?

Not even himself, but the glory and the God of Israel. So I think redemptive history keeps us focused on one,

Jesus. Number two, it helps us remember the continuity of the

Old and New Testament. The continuity of the Old and New Testament.

All 66 books. I have a question for you. If you're gonna teach Esther, what are you gonna teach when you teach the book of Esther?

I hope you teach it. I hope you say, you know what? I'd like to teach Esther. Let's use some no compromise language.

I double dog dare you. Actually, you know what? In Massachusetts, I was learning all these new phrase.

We don't dog pile in Massachusetts. We dog pile around here, right? Everybody jumps on a kid, dog pile.

We don't dog pile in Massachusetts. We pig pile. That's what they call it, pig pile. Let me give you another one.

We don't eat potatoes. They don't call them potatoes either. You know what they call them?

Badatas. Figure that out. You'd like to have some badatas today? Yeah, I guess.

Sunny side up. All right, here's one other one. If someone says, well, you know,

I don't really, I like Gatorade, not Propel.

And then they'll say, in affirmation, trying to tell me they also like Gatorade, they say, so don't

I. So don't I. Yeah, I thought of some kind of Amy Grant song.

So don't I, so don't I. Air care common, add an I. I mean, I have no idea.

By the way, I talked to Daniel Block and he said, I know 14 Semitic languages and air care common is not in any one of them.

It's a made up thing. It actually wasn't Amy Grant who wrote it. I think Michael Smith wrote it.

But anyway, what does that have to do with nothing? Has nothing to do with anything except you needed a break for a second.

I just gave you a break, a sanctified break. And when I step to the side of the pulpit, that means this isn't coming from the

Bible. Now we'll be engaged again. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.