The Trinity (Part 2)

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

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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

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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.

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

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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 our

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is

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Mike Abendroth, and it is a sunny day here in New England.

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It's winter through May. Actually, I had a couple of nice days of sun, and it was raining again.

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Anyway, sun. I think some of you in Wyoming and other places, I think the two places where No Compromise Radio is played on the radio,

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Wyoming and Alaska, it's been snowing. Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Last time, we talked about the

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Trinity, and is the Trinity and the study of the Trinity more vexing to you, or does it propel you into praise?

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A praise propulsion. I have to write that down.

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I just thought of that. Praise pro -pulsion. So that's show two.

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That's today. If you have a Bible, turn to Titus chapter one, and let's talk shop.

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Let's talk what happened. Somebody's mowing outside. They are not to be doing that when I'm doing the show. This is high tech here.

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Here they go, mowing. The mowing ministry. I hope they're thinking about the triune God as they mow, to the glory of the triune

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God. If you want to write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. And we've got the

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Israel trip coming up 2023, February 21st. Right now, it's information only.

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If you want to get put on that list, let me know, and then we'll have the deposits due pretty soon. Titus chapter one tells us that before Genesis one, one, before anything was created,

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Satan obviously wasn't created, but before the angels who became

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Satan was created, everything was created upright and good. Before people were created, there was a promise made.

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It talks about Titus chapter one, verse two, that very thing. In hope of eternal life, which

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God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. Today on the show, we're going to talk about that intra -Trinitarian promise before the ages began, because I want you to think about the

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Trinity. God is one, in essence, in being, in nature, and God has three subsistences or persons, the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father's not the Son, the Son's not the Spirit, the Spirit's not the Father. The Father is the beginner, the

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Son is the begotten, and the Son proceeds from both. And we have to think about it not in human terms, because neither the

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Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit ever had a beginning. This is an eternal procession, eternal begottenness for the

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Spirit of God and then the Son of God. What does the text say not?

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What does the text not say? When you study the Bible, that's a very important thing that you could work through, and you say to yourself, huh, what does it say, all right, and what does it not say?

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It does not say God promised to them. It says God promised. And now we have big construction trucks going through the parking lot, for what,

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I don't know. God promised. It doesn't say to somebody, so you ask yourself the question, to whom, or if we're in Nebraska, to who did

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God make the promise? Were there animals there?

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Maybe He promised the animals. Did He promise to women, men, angels,

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Adam, Eve? Oh, I know, maybe He promised this to Methuselah, because Methuselah was how old?

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Anybody remember? 969, 969 years. What if you got a bad back at age 25?

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How'd that work out? There was no one there. The answer to the question, to whom did

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God make the promise, finds itself in the Trinity, the triune

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God. The Trinity solves that problem, provides the answer. You would read, of course, in Luke 22,

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Jesus said, I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me a kingdom, and that's really the question.

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When was this assignment given? Before time, space, angels, people, matter.

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Why can I not talk today? I'm so tired. I'm drinking coffee, trying to plow through. I'm doing the show, even though I don't want to do the show.

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Does it show? The triune

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God makes promises, a decree, a covenant, a pact. Here it says promise.

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Here we get to peer into the Godhead, as it were, by divine revelation, the internal work of God, and we get to see what he's like, and we get to see the

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Godhead, and this is how God reveals himself and who he is.

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We call that ad intra, right? We're looking at this internal work of God for who he is.

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Lenten Baptist Confession. In this divine and infinite being, there are three subsistences, the

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Father, the Word, or the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided.

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The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the

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Father, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and of the Son, all infinite, without beginning, therefore, but one

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God. This God is a promise proclaimer.

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We've got praise propulsion, now we have promise proclamation. He decrees, the

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Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they decree. We don't know everything, but we are told he made a promise.

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Luther said Christianity did not originate by accident or in the fate of the stars, as many empty -headed people presume, but Christianity became what it was to be by the certain counsel and premeditated ordination of God, and might

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I add, the triune God. This is his purpose, this is his determination for something.

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This is his decree, right? And it says in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the decrees of God are his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

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Paul said, Titus, I'm writing this letter to encourage you, and elect people are gonna come to faith, they're gonna grow in holy conduct and in Christ -like character, they're gonna make it all the way to glorification, and I know this because God never lies and he made a promise.

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People on Crete might lie, but God doesn't lie. He has one decree, and we're gonna learn about that decree, and that decree's going to be perfect, ultimate, could not get a better decree, could not be a more wise decree.

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We have a perfect mind of God, perfect decree. Humans have decision -making processes and flowcharts and plan

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A, plan B, backup plans. Nope, there's no decision -making process, there's a promise.

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Of course, we see that language in Ephesians 1, according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will.

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God, the triune God, decrees, and he decrees well, and all three members decree the exact same thing.

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There's a harmonious unity with these three persons, one in essence, one in knowledge, one in will.

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It would be impossible in any work, add extra, one writer said, for one of the divine persons to will and to do one thing, and another of the divine persons to will and to do another.

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Again, for us, it's flowcharts. For God, it's in accordance, Ephesians 3, with his eternal purpose.

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Okay, let's just take a deep breath there for a second. See, it's good to have a breath. It's good to be able to breathe.

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What we have here in Titus 1, we're peering behind the curtain, metaphorically speaking, into the

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Godhead, and there's gonna be a promise within the triune God that we're told about. We get to understand that God has a plan, and that his purpose is going to come to fruition, and it's going to be for praise.

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This unbegotten Father, the begotten Son, and the proceeding Holy Spirit, they all decree. And not only that, they didn't have to decree, but they did.

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Put it this way, the triune God is free to decree or to refrain from decreeing. Did God have to decree anything?

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He could do whatever he wanted, right? He has free will. He's free to do this or to do that, the church had said.

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He's free to decree or not to decree. We've learned God does decree.

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He made a promise. And here, we're under, we're putting

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God under no obligation that he had to decree. God has free will. It being said, God was alone when he made his decrees, the triune

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God, no one else. And his determinations were influenced by no external cause. He was free to decree or not to decree, and to decree one thing and not another.

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This liberty we must ascribe to him who is supreme, independent, and sovereign in all his doings. He freely did this, unalterably did this, consulting only his own wise and holy will, the 1689 says.

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I ask with Isaiah, who has directed the spirit of the Lord or who, excuse me, or as his counselor has informed him, with whom did he consult and who gave him understanding?

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And who taught him in the paths of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him of the way of understanding?

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Who did that? Well, we have these people going across the street, parking and becoming very loud.

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That's what they're doing. I should have told them they're not allowed to do that. We're doing radio shows.

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Huh. They don't care. Off they go, up and over the street. Crazy. All right.

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Well, I don't have to go out and be mean quite yet, although I'm tired enough, I could easily go do that.

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Who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him of the way of understanding?

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Isaiah chapter 40. The triune God did not have to decree anything.

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He was free. He was content. He turned a relationship within the Godhead, blessed, and he didn't have to do anything, but he did.

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And so that should make us happy because we didn't have to exist, but we do. Right?

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You say, well, I'm not understanding all this. Well, it still can be true, right? Lorraine Bettner would say, you don't have to understand

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Einstein's theory of relativity to accept that it's true. Thomas Watson.

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God is but one. Yet are there three distinct persons subsisting in one Godhead? This is a sacred mystery, which the light within man could never have discovered.

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As the two natures in Christ, yet but one person is a wonder. So three persons, yet but one

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Godhead. Here's a great deep, that's what it says. Here's a great deep. The Father, God, the

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Son, God, the Holy Spirit, God, yet not three gods, but one God. The three persons in the blessed Trinity are distinguished, but not divided.

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Three substances, but one essence. And they are free. He, God, decreed you, your life, your friends, your family, heaven, hell, four seasons, taste buds, gravity, the list could go on and on, and he was free to either decree or not decree.

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And you ask yourself the question, well, why would he decree anything? And the answer is love, right?

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Everything flows from the eternal love of the triune God. John Owen said that God distinctly,

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God's distinctly Trinitarian goodness and glory is the ultimate end of his decree to create and redeem humans, which is for his glory from his love.

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And of course, you understand that Jesus is a God of love.

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The Father is a God of love. This Holy Spirit is a God of love. God is love.

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God decrees freely, but he freely decrees because he is love.

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Now let's think about this for a second. If God was one, no persons, just one person, one

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God, one person, not one God, three persons, then there would be no love within the

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Trinity because can you have love exist by itself?

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There's got to be a lover, doesn't there? Beloved, you know, some of these analogies break down, but you have to realize, okay, what could

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God love before anything was made? Let's put it that way. What would he love? Who would he love?

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Does God need creation in order to love? These are all good questions.

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One writer said, but understanding God in this way, Augustine not only explained the Trinity but made it a necessary part of the divine being.

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Without the trying framework, God would not be the love that the New Testament says he was.

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You say, well, you know, if he's one God, he might want to love. He might learn to love, but he's

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God himself. How can he be God himself if he's a lone God? Well, he's a lone

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God, but he subsists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this relationship.

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We have more people just messing up all my time frame here with all these workers out here.

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I guess this is my last show until tomorrow. From eternity past, one writer said, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have been in community, in relationship.

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They've loved each other. That loving relationship is bound up in the very nature of God himself.

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Does love require an object? Does love require a relationship? Well, these are things that are good to think about on No Compromise Radio.

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One writer said, if God is not Trinity, God is not love. For love requires three things, a lover, a beloved, and a relationship between them type of thing.

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And again, I don't want to push that too far. I just want you to be thinking this. The Father loves the

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Son, true? The Son loves the Father, true? The Father loves the Holy Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit loves the Father. The Son loves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit loves the Son, right? You've got this decreeing

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God who decrees from love. Barrett said, every operation is from the

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Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit, in love. Well, today on No Compromise Radio, even though we're having distractions, it's not a good day for me to have distractions.

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Did you ever just have a day that just kind of, for no reason, right? It's a great day. I'm saved.

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I'm secure. I'm sealed to the day of redemption. I have a great wife and kids. I have all these things. It's just like,

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I'm just off of here. Probably my neck or something. Who knows? What can I blame it on? To whom must I blame?

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And then lastly, when I think about decrees and promises, that part of this loving

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God's triune, this triune God's decree is to rescue sinners.

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God didn't have to decree your rescue, dear Christian. He could have left you like the angels, that is to say, okay, no rescue for you.

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You sinned. It's over. But God made a promise. So this is the part of the show that I'm really excited about, and I'll try to show that unless there's a big problem outside.

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God's great plan is suggested in Ephesians 1, and of course in Titus chapter 1.

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There was a great eternal counsel between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But do we realize that our salvation was planned before the world was planned or created,

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Lloyd -Jones says? Is it the realization of this fact that makes man stand on tiptoe and shout out praise to God, chosen before the foundation of the world?

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The three persons in the eternal counsel were concerned about us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Lloyd -Jones goes on. The three persons met in conference. I speak with reverence in terms of Scripture and planned it.

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Let us get rid forever of the idea that salvation was an afterthought in the mind of God. It was not a thought that came to God after a man had fallen into sin.

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It was planned before the foundation of the world. Your salvation, my salvation, not accidental, not coincidental, it was planned, the promise of God.

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And here we have a little insight into the Father sending the Son. And of course, the

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Spirit, He is there. And we have something where theologians call it the covenant of redemption.

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The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, hmm, certainly then

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He must have been slain. And when was that decided? When did the

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Father command the Son to live, die, and rise again? When Jesus was baptized, at the transfiguration, at the resurrection, no, in eternity past.

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John 10, I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my

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Father. When? It has to be here in eternity past.

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John 3, 17, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

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Jesus answered, John 6, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He has sent.

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When did He decide to send Him? In time? No, no, before the foundation of the world, in eternity past.

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As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me.

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John 6. John chapter 8, if God were your

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Father, you would love me for I came from God and I'm here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me.

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This is eternal life, John 17, that you know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

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Verse 4, I glorified you, Father, on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

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Isn't that amazing? I mean, most of you already know this, but it's just good to sit back again and think, God, the triune

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God, promised, and to whom did He make the promise? It was within the

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Trinity, and the Son promised to obey the Father and go, right?

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The Son promised to be sent, right? I'm not talking about eternal functional subordination or something like that in the ontological

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Trinity. That's not what I'm talking about. So maybe I should be careful. I mean, you have to be so careful with your words now, don't you?

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Jesus Christ certainly was obedient, obedient to the point of death, even on a cross. What was God doing before He created the universe?

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Well, the triune God had perfect fellowship. The triune God loved one another.

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As Lloyd -Jones says, I speak reverently. John 17, 24,

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Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you love me before the foundation of the world.

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One writer said, in some sense, we can never understand that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have forever communicated and loved each other.

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Well, the Father gives the Son a work to accomplish in eternity past, and Jesus is sent, therefore

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Jesus had to be born, and then He had to perfectly obey, had to die a substitutionary death, had to be raised from the dead, had to ascend, etc.

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This is called good news. The Father sends the Son and the Holy Spirit. Could that summarize the

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Bible? Some have said that's a good summary of the Bible, the Father sending the Son and the

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Holy Spirit. You say, well, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Lord Jesus, too. Well, let's use the sending language of the

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Son. Let's use procession, inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But no matter how you slice it, it's good news.

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This is gospel. This is not law. This is not demands, but what God gives, what

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God offers, what God has done. We don't have any conditions here. We're not there.

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We didn't negotiate. It's Jesus is our righteousness. It was all planned.

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S .O .S. Johnson said the righteousness of God is that righteousness which is righteousness to require Him to righteously require.

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You and I, we were the recipients of this promise, this triune promise.

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And then in time, what do you see? In Trinitarian thought, we talk about economy of redemption, the economy of labor.

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And S .O .S. Johnson would say the Father, the originator, the Son, the executive, the spirit, the applier. The Father, the originator of the purpose of the ages, the

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Son, the executor of it in the carrying out of its redemptive work, and the spirit, the applier of it through the ministry of conviction of sin, regeneration, and faith in harmony with the nature of the relationship between the persons of the

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Trinity revealed in Scripture. Then he said, you can see that this must be the result of voluntary agreement among the persons of the

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Godhead. Johnson goes on, the very fact that they work in this way and are the persons of one

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God would indicate that it is a voluntary agreement among these persons to carry out those purposes.

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I think it's fair to say that the God of heaven is a covenantal God in this respect. Yes, I think so.

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Here we have the covenant of redemption. Before you were born, before I was born, before anything existed, in eternity past, before time began, before matter was,

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God determined a redemptive plan. People were chosen. Dear Christian, you were chosen.

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Your name was written down. Lord Jesus, go rescue him.

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The Father commanded, right? The promise was made before time began.

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One man said, that's staggering. You were chosen. You were chosen. Some people call this covenant pactum salutis, council of peace, covenant of life, covenant of designation.

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We call it the popular phrase, covenant of redemption, established before time, pre -temporal pactum salutis.

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Otherwise, without it, no salvation, no promise of heaven, no incarnation, no cross, no resurrection, no hope to be pitied in this world.

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Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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