What Jesus Said Before He Was Born (Part 3)

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, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. Somebody just recently said, �Maybe we should videotape the studio and we can watch you as you�re in the studio on No Compromise Radio. Well, I don�t know if it would take very much to do.

Probably put a camera up there or some Skype thing or something. I have no idea. But what would I do? I have my, I think it�s actually Starbucks coffee today, it�s a Starbucks mug. I have that right here.

I have some kind of gym shorts on. They basically look like sweatpants. They look like pajamas. And I think that would be very scary. Sometimes I get on my phone and check my messages while I�m talking.

There�s an In-N-Out bumper sticker here with some Holy Land oil, papers everywhere, fans. Sometimes my office has got, well, there�s books all over, jammed every which way. There�s a little bike over there to ride.

I don�t think anybody really wants to see what�s going on here. So right at the moment, No Compromise Radio is radio alone. So today we�re going to continue with this theme. What did Jesus say before he was born?

The covenant of redemption, the covenant arrangement, the agreement before time, the promise within the Trinity, the guarantee of people to be saved for the glory of the triune God. Covenant theologian, dispensationalist, or anywhere in between, you all have to believe that Hebrews 10 is true, that the Father had prepared a body for the Son, and the Son said sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

I have come to do your will, O God. There was a conversation in eternity past between the Father and the Son and the Spirit. And so whether you�re a doctrines of grace person, whether you�re a leaky dispensationalist, no matter what you are, you have to believe that there is a promise within the triune Godhead.

And so that�s what we�re looking at today. And what I�d especially like to do is address the passage in Titus chapter 1. So if you�re driving, don�t turn your Bibles to Titus 1, but if you have your Bible, you should look at Titus chapter 1 as we work through a no-compromise radio ministry when this promise to save people occurred.

And as you go through this, you�re going to say to yourself, I wasn�t there. My free will wasn�t there. I wasn�t at Calvary. My free will wasn�t at Calvary. Faith didn�t die on the cross for me. Free will didn�t die on the cross for me.

Salvation from beginning to end is a work of the triune God Himself. And the sooner we get it into our notion that God is sovereign, God is loving, generous, kind, gracious, compassionate, just, holy, wrathful, all these things.

But He is sovereign. And so we need to see the sovereignty of God, including salvation. So if you�re saved, it�s because God saved you. Nobody else, nothing else. Salvation plus something is nothing. So when it comes to, I hate to quote Karl Barth today, but I will quote Karl Barth.

He said, what separates Christianity and Catholicism, for instance, is the word �and. Faith and works. Grace and faith. You know, that kind of thing. The Bible and tradition. The Bible and the magisterium.

For us as Christians, it is the Bible alone, and it is Christ alone who saves. The triune God is not �and your faith. It is not �and something else. We come to the text, and we just let it ride. It says what it says.

And it exalts God. It praises God. It lifts Him up to the highest, and it lowers men. I know men didn�t write this book. Men devoid of the Spirit. But men moved by the Spirit of God, and they talk about the depths of the depravity, the heinousness of sin.

And that all does what? Creates bad self-esteem? No, it creates in us the honest assessment of our hearts, so that when God saves us, we say to ourselves, instead of �it�s a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God.

Instead of us saying, �Oh, this is the God who said, �Vengeance is mine. I will repay. This is the God who says, �I�m going to judge my people. Instead of that, we say, we get what�s promised as children, as sons.

And we have this promise that judgment has been poured out on Jesus in our place. And it was a terrifying thing for Jesus to fall into the hands of the living God, because He took our sins. He bore our sins on His body on the tree.

The Trinity, the Covenant of Redemption, and Titus 1

So my goal at No Compromise Radio is many. And one of my goals is this. So you think biblically about salvation, repentance, election, the atonement, the resurrection. And a great way for you to do that is to look at what happened in eternity past.

Because you weren�t there. There�s no corridor of time to look down. If God would have looked down the corridor of time, He would have saw you dead in your trespasses and sins. Father Satan himself, wanting to kill Jesus if you could get your arms that long or go back in time.

And so we have a great Savior. And I�m here to tell you that as long as I�m on the air, I�m going to keep boasting in this great God. Let him who boasts. Hey, we�re all boasters. You were born a boaster.

I love to boast. But it just has to be in the right object. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. So Titus chapter 1. Let me read you these verses and you�re going to have your proverbial mind blown by Titus chapter 1.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God�s elect. So Paul says, I�m writing to you, Titus, and my ministry is threefold. One, I�m in ministry so that the elect people who aren�t believers yet, the unregenerate elect, will believe for the faith of God�s elect.

So part of my ministry is revolving justification, if you will, and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. So I�m also placed as a gospel minister. First, I preach the gospel and God saves through the preaching of the gospel.

And he makes them born again through that word, James chapter 1 verse 18, 1 Peter chapter 1. Second of all, I want to minister God�s word to Christians and they will grow in sanctification. So I�m on earth for several reasons.

One, Titus, for justification. Two, for sanctification. And then he says in verse 2, Titus chapter 1, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. So he says, I�m here for justification, for sanctification.

And then God brings his children home. He glorifies them through their perseverance, through his preservation, through the word, through the promises, through the promises of be faithful to the end. And I�m here for justification, sanctification, and for glorification.

That�s why I�m a gospel minister. And if you�re a pastor, that�s what you�re around for too. You preach the gospel, people get saved. You preach the gospel, people grow. You preach the gospel. When I say gospel, I mean preach all the Bible.

And God uses the preached word to help keep his faithful ones faithful all the way to the end, his elect ones all the way there. But tucked in here in verse 2, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised when?

Before the ages began. So no compromise radio listeners, especially if you�re an Arminian, especially if you�re a Keswickian, especially if you�re charismatic, especially if you�re, you fill in the blank.

It�s really for everybody. When did this promise occur? And to whom was this promise given? Can you imagine in eternity past, who was there? Don�t say angels. They weren�t there. Don�t say Satan. He wasn�t there.

Don�t say you. You weren�t there. If you can go back to the very beginning of all beginnings, which there was no beginning because it wasn�t a beginning for God. It was the beginning of time in Genesis 1, 1.

But can you imagine you go back in eternity past? God made a promise to himself within his triune nature. God makes a promise. How great is that? You better just stop and let that sink in. Dwight Pentecost used to say that�s what selah means.

S-E-L-A-H. Stop and let that sink in. Selah. So, before time began, there was a promise. There�s only one being. And that being, one essence, one nature, God himself, the Father, God himself the Son, God himself the Spirit, one God.

And there was a promise in this trinity, an arrangement, a covenant, a guarantee, an agreement. Can you imagine that? And here, Paul says, I want to make sure you realize that this is a God who doesn�t lie.

He doesn�t lie. Now, why would that be such a big deal? You know, liar, liar, pants on fire, God lies. Well, see now, if I had a video on me today, I�d be yawning because I�m yawning. Now, I better have some more of this coffee.

Pizza is probably number one, but here�s Starbucks coffee to you. Thank you, Eric Johanson, for that coffee. My number one barista. So, listen, God promises he can never lie. Why is that important? Well, because Paul is writing to Timothy on which island?

Crete. Timothy�s on Crete. And you know what? Cretans are always what? Liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. Titus chapter 1, verse 12. There was a saying, there was a true saying, unbelievers said it, believers said it, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

Do you know on that island of Crete? They were known for their lying. I don�t know if you ever watched Survivor and they have Redemption Island or Castaway Island or something like that. Gilligan�s Island, I guess you could look at.

Here, this is Liar Island. I wonder if that would sell on CBS, the new contestants for Liar Island. That�s Crete. Liars there. I just was in Athens and in Corinth and Greece and I was too sick, but someone said that they would pay for my flight to fly from Athens to Crete.

I want to just fly to the airport, walk around for half a day, hang out by the ocean, get back on the flight and fly back just to say I�ve been to Liar Island. Crete. Just to say that I had been to Crete.

The one who never lies. Do you know what the Greek word for lie is? Kretidzo. Crete. Idzo. Kretidzo. That�s a wordplay. Kretin means liar. Isn�t that interesting? Kretin means liar. I used to only, I didn�t know what a Kretin was.

I only heard the Ramones song about the Kretin bop or something. Kretin hop. Now I know a lot more. They were liars. They even followed in Crete, the unbelievers, a lying god. Did you know Zeus? He had to lie to sleep with a human woman by taking on the form of her husband.

So their god that they worship, Zeus, he�s a liar to have sex with a human woman in their mythology. The Kretins themselves lied that Zeus�s tomb was on Crete. That was a lie. These people, by nature, by reputation, by proximity, they lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.

Kretin means liar. And do you know one thing about God though and his promise before the ages began? He never lies. Wow. He never lies. How much more meaningful is that text when you think through it that way?

This is God who made a promise in eternity past and he never lies. We�ve all broken promises and we�ve seen what a broken promise will do in society, whether that�s a business promise, whether that�s a promise by a politician, whether that�s a promise of marriage till death do us part for better or for worse.

We�ve seen what broken promises can do. We�ve all experienced broken promises from other people. And sadly, we�ve all broken promises. By the way, I guess I can�t stand it. I have to do this. This is why the whole thing, of course, it died a slow, sad death.

But the whole promise keepers thing, we�re going to start a bunch. Like the Ten Commandments weren�t enough. Like the 613 Old Testament Commandments weren�t enough. Like the New Testament Commandments, the law of Christ, that wasn�t enough.

Let�s have some more laws to put people under, some more imperatives to put people under. And let�s tie race with that, too, because that�s a very important part of our gimmick. And now let�s talk about promise keepers.

Oh, no. I think they should have been called the Cretan keepers. They should have been called the Cretan keepers. Doesn�t that sound right? Cretan keepers. Fourth down and one. They miss it. They get fifth down, and they finally win.

University of Colorado. That�s a different story. Friends, we can�t keep promises. All the promises of God are yes and amen, 2 Corinthians 1, in Christ Jesus. There�s only one promise keeper. Now, of course, some of the promise keepers rallies.

Some of the Bible was taught. I get that. I�m glad that God could use any of His Word for any way He wants. But this whole idea of promise keepers. Remember, I got here to the church 14 years ago, Bethlehem Bible Church, Bethlehem Baptist Church at the time.

Everybody�s into promise keepers. I just thought, who wants to have some kind of man-centered, pietistic, legalistic set of more rules to live under? I remember talking to MacArthur about experiencing God, because that was here at the church, too, along with a bunch of other stuff that was wild.

John said, �Ah, experiencing God, it�ll die off on its own. Don�t worry about it. John was right, although it�s been kind of attempted to get resurrected for money sake, for motive sake. I don�t know the motives, but these kind of things put the focus in the wrong spot.

Let�s go back to the beginning. My name is Mike Avendroth. You can write me at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Got a few more emails from folks, and they�re coming fast and furious. Got a negative one today.

That�s okay. It�s probably good to get negative ones once in a while. So, we are at info at No Compromise Radio. If you want to listen to the old shows, I think we�re coming up on 400 shows. You can go to iTunes, type in �No Compromise.

You can go to NoCompromiseRadio .com and pull up the old podcast there. Josh has got them all lined up. We�re going to have some new artwork on the website here soon enough. I�m excited, by the way, on a side note, that I�m going to Nebraska to speak at a No Compromise conference.

I think the band Enfield will be there. I�ll have more information for you. It�s for high school kids in the middle of Nebraska. It�ll be a No Compromise conference, and I�m looking forward to speaking to some high school� I�m just going to say children.

They�re children to me. I�m 50, man. I�m going to have to put on my special emergent glasses. My head, I just shaved it the other day, so that�s kind of looking funky enough. I�m going to have to have some cool Tom�s shoes.

I did get new Tom�s shoes for Christmas. Some kind of cool shorts and a shirt, some kind of flowered shirt. I don�t know. What do emergent people wear anymore? What kind of cologne? Maybe it�s Calvin Klein 1.

Maybe that�s what they wear. I�m not sure, but I�m going to have to try to look cool, man, because it�s all about hipster looking and looking cool. So anyway, I�m looking forward to that, and I�m digressing.

Here we are, No Compromise Radio. The covenant agreement promised, to use Titus� language, Paul�s language in Titus, that God promised before the ages began. There was a promise in the Trinity before time began concerning the redemption of souls, election, godliness, eternal life, father choosing, the son dying for, and the spirit regenerating.

There was a promise. And that promise, Paul said to Titus, who�s in the middle of Lyre Island. Everybody�s lying at Crete. And he said, but here�s this great God that you can trust in. How meaningful that must have been for Titus to realize this great command of God.

Do you notice the text here in Titus 1? God promised to them. No, it doesn�t say that. God promised angels. God promised to dogs and cats. God promised to people. God promised to the other gods. God promised to Zeus.

God promised to Paul. God promised to Titus. God promised to you. No, God promised. It was to himself. It was to himself before the foundation of the world. Can you imagine that? Before time began, God determined to set up his plan of redemption.

Titus not only says this, but so does 2 Timothy 1 .9. God saved us and called us with the holy calling. Not according to our works. Why? Because we weren�t there. But according to his own purpose and grace.

When was that grace purposed? Which was given to us in Christ Jesus. Using the exact same phrase we find in Titus 1 .2. Before time began. Before time began. Listen to what MacArthur says. �The eternal pledge of our salvation, the divine covenant of our redemption, involved a promise made by the Father to the Son before time began.

To whom did God make the promise? Himself. He promised himself. And so to think about the glory of God, to think about the exalted Christ, to think about eternity past. Isn�t that good for your mind?

Isn�t that a lot better than, �Oh, I have a headache and I�ve got bills to pay. And what am I going to do about homeschooling, public schooling, private schooling? What am I going to do about all these issues?

I think issues have to be resolved and you�ve got to make some decisions in your life. But would you just for a moment contemplate the eternal nature of God? Eternity. And somewhere back there in eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit made a pact.

And if you�re a Christian, can you imagine? You get the benefits of that promise. You are the recipients of this divinely glorifying pact. And you are a recipient of the grace of God by His own plan, His own purpose, His own arrangement, His own promise, His own guarantee, His own covenant.

And you didn�t have anything to do with that except you receive it. And it is by grace alone you are saved. Faith isn�t saving. Faith doesn�t cause your salvation. Faith looks away and says, �I don�t have anything to offer.

And God, you say, �Look to the cross and live. I�m looking. You say, �Look away from your sins and look to the one who forgives sins. I�m looking. You say, �Don�t trust in yourself and trust in the Lord God who saves sinners.

I�m looking. I�m trusting. You say that if you believe that sin is so bad it requires a sacrifice, blood to be shed, death, the wage of sin is death. I believe that. And I�m looking away from myself.

I deserve that. And you said, Father, that the Son would bear sins. And if you look to the cross and believe in this resurrected Savior, that this is how this is how saving faith is granted. I believe.

So, friends, before time began, you�ve got to think about your salvation. Sometimes people say this, �Well, when did you get saved? When did you get saved Well, what they usually mean is, when did you become regenerate?

When did you exercise saving faith? That�s what they want to know. But let�s do it a different way on No Compromise Radio. When did you get saved? Well, then what you should say is something like this.

Well, I got saved in eternity past when the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, a God who cannot lie, promised to themselves before ages began that the Father would choose some. He didn�t have to choose any.

He didn�t have to choose all. He should have chosen none, like the angels. But he chose some. The Son said, �You know, I�ll gladly go die for those same son. He didn�t say, �I�ll go die for less than those some that you�ve chosen, Father.

I�m not going to die for more, but I�m going to die for those exact some that you have given me. And then the Spirit said, �I will gladly go, and I will regenerate and seal to the day of redemption those that the Father has given to the Son and the Son has died for.

I won�t seal less. I won�t seal more. Perfect triune nature of God chooses, dies for, and then redeems those very some. Is that what you mean? When did you get saved? Oh, you didn�t mean that? Well, let me tell you another time.

Maybe this is what you mean when I got saved. When Jesus Christ at Calvary 2 ,000 years ago died a sinner�s death even though he never sinned, and he took all the wrath, holy wrath that I deserved that should have been poured out upon me in eternity forever.

He absorbed that. He absorbed and assuaged the wrath of God in my place. He lived a perfect life, and he died a perfect death, and God raised him from the dead. Do you mean that salvation? Or do you mean when God in 1989 showed me of my vileness, and I had to run from my own sin and run to the arms of the cross and place my faith in Christ Jesus, and the whole time I didn�t even know about it, but God was working in me, and then he gave me new life, and I responded with faith?

Do you mean that? Do you mean now I�m getting saved day by day by day as I�m, in other words, being sanctified as God is teaching me how to say no to sin and yes to righteousness? Do you mean that salvation?

Or do you mean my ultimate salvation, when ultimate in time, when I�m glorified? Because salvation is used for eternity past, at the cross, when I got saved, as I�m being saved, and when I will be saved.

What salvation is that? Now, isn�t that a much better way than to say, well, I walked the aisle and prayed the sinner�s prayer. That was 1989. That�s how I got saved. Which one gives God more glory? Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

So, if you�re a boaster, and I know you are, you�ve been made to boast. God made you to boast. Fine, you want to go to a Patriarchy game? I wouldn�t go on a Sunday morning, a Sunday afternoon to miss church, but I�d go on a Monday night.

I don�t care about going to those games. I don�t care about being excited about your kid�s recital, and they�re a great flute player. I don�t care about you getting excited because you think your wife is hot, and you think she�s beautiful, and you think she�s wonderful.

I think those things about my wife. But the ultimate praise is for God. For God and God alone. God said, I won�t give my glory to another. God is a jealous God. His name is jealous. And so, let�s give God the glory due his name.

He saved us in eternity past in a blood-bought covenant that has been sovereignly administered. The new covenant in my blood shed for you.

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 6. 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.