Preexistence of Jesus (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 of 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. Welcome. Our slogan here, �Always Biblical, Always Provocative, Always in That Order. That�s what we�re looking for. Someone emailed me and said, �I listen to your sermons in the show, and I usually get convicted and encouraged in that order.

I thought, �Right on That�s just the way it should go. Do I ever compromise? The answer is yes. Do I like it? The answer is no. That�s why we try to often and regularly point you to the one who never compromised, Jesus Christ, the God-man, not God and man, although partially true, better put together with a dash, hyphen.

What�s the difference between a dash and a hyphen? I know not the difference. God-man, Jesus Christ, the God-man. Today, we�re going to continue with our series on Christology, the study of Jesus Christ, the study of the Messiah, Christ.

The Eternal Son and the Incarnation in Hebrews 10

Last time, we were talking about how we know Jesus was alive before he was born, the Son of God, technically, the second person of the Trinity, the Eternal Son. And we worked our way through his appearances as the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, his creative power described by the New Testament that he created everything.

And then we were looking at Hebrews. In Hebrews 10, as the writer is trying to tell us how superior Jesus is to everything and everyone, including now the Old Covenant. In Hebrews 10, sacrifices every year, over and over and over, show what?

Well, that they keep sinning, yes, but it shows that sacrificial system, by God�s design, by the way, is inadequate. It is insufficient. It is deficient. It�s not sinful, but it just doesn�t last. Why?

Because there�s the next year, and there�s the next year, and there�s the next year. And so, trying to show that Jesus Christ was, of course, he added human nature, but the Eternal Son was eternal, in fact, because it says in Hebrews 10 .5, this is where we left off last time, �Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said�.

And so, for those of you that missed last time, shame on you. Those of you tuning in for the first time today, good for you. See, shame and good, always in that order. When you were born, what did you say?

Well, I know you didn�t articulate any syllable that made any sense. Well, you uttered syllables, or you said something, you screamed, you yelled, you cried. We know what that means. It�s cold. It�s bad.

I don�t think they spank kids anymore. Maybe some people do. I don�t know. Those kids, they deserve it. They got it coming. Was it unforgiving with Clint Eastwood? Shot somebody and said something to the effect when the man said to Clint, �Why did you shoot him

�He didn�t even deserve it. �How do you know he had it coming And then Mr. Eastwood said, �Everybody�s got it coming. That�s so true. That is so true. Christ came into the world, Hebrews 10, 5, �sacrifices and offerings this is what he said, �you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, �Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Jesus Christ is going to obey the Father, and here it says, �when Christ came into the world.

This is a Jewish way of saying when Jesus was born, a Semitic way of saying when Jesus was born. Did I just say that? Yeah, it refers to the birth of someone. Here we have the incarnation of Jesus, and we have the author of Hebrews giving us a quote from the Psalms, or from the Psalm, no, from Psalms, it�s better.

And what�s going on here? Well, what we have, Psalm 40, of course, I�m just trying to see my notes here. You can write us if you want at info at nocompromisedradio .com, that�s what you do when you stall.

Psalm 40, verses 6 -8, we need a body. Somebody in a body is going to have to obey in our place because we�re humans, and so we need a representative, and so full obedience as a man is needed. Why did Jesus come to die for his people?

Because he needed to become a man and have a human body, right? How are you going to make satisfaction for the Father�s demand that humans do this and live? God the Father, it just says, we just got done reading it, doesn�t want offerings and sacrifices that are repeatable.

He wants the perfect sacrifice, and only the perfect God-man could make that sacrifice, Jesus Christ, right? Ever ask why Jesus had to be born? This answers the question. Why did the sin-bearer have to be the God-man?

Well, he had to be man because he needed to be our representative so he could stand in our stead, on our place, on our behalf, for our sake. And he had to be God because there would be an infinite amount of righteousness that he could bestow on all those who would ever believe.

From sacrifice and offering, with burnt offerings and sin offerings, it�s not poetical, it�s every sacrifice that the Jewish system had, Jesus is a better sacrifice. Those things are repeatable, and so Jesus does not have to die sadly.

I mean, what does this all point to when you think about the mass and how many masses people have? 1 Samuel 15, 22, �Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as obeying the voice of the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. And so, you disobey, then you have a sacrifice. You obey, there you go. Listen to what Kistenmacher said, �God is not satisfied only with sacrifices.

Sacrifices are but substitutes. Instead, he wants genuine, devoted service. He delights in perfect obedience to his will. So, the writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 40, verses 6 through 8, �Here I am, I have come to do your will.

And I�ve got the question. This is all leading up to something, and here�s the lead up. Ready? When was that decided? When was God�s will decided? Okay, so when you look at these verses again, verses 10 through 7, �I have come to do your will, O God.

Verse 7, �I have come to do your will. When was that will decided? Accident, coincidence, wink-a-dink, it was planned in eternity past. And this tells us that Jesus had to exist, the Son of God had to exist before Genesis 1 -1.

Luke 22 -22, �The Son of Man is going as it has been determined. When was it determined? Acts 2 -23, �This man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. When was it predetermined and planned?

Acts 4 -28, �Herod, Pilate, and the Jews, Gentiles, they all crucified Jesus, to do whatever hand and thy purpose predestined to occur. That must be King James, to do whatever hand. The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, right?

It's ordained that He would be slain. The Father commands the Son to live, die, and be raised from the dead. The question is, when? Listen to John 10 -18, �I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take it up again.

This command I receive from my Father. I receive a command from my Father to die on the cross for sinners. When did I receive that? At His baptism? No. Mount of temptation? No. Mount of transfiguration?

No. In eternity past. We're talking about the pre-existence of Jesus. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, John 17 -4. When was that work given to the second person of the Trinity?

Answer, pre-Genesis 1 -1, in what we call eternity past. And so, what I'd like you to do is, if you have your Bibles, and you're not driving a car or truck, we've got truckers, I can't remember the truckers' names, well, we've got Bible-thumping wingnuts, they listen, and you're like, what's a Bible-thumping wingnut?

Then you better type it in, you can listen to podcasts. I got interviewed by them, I don't know, a month ago? And one of them's driving a truck, got another email from somebody else, listen to your podcast, driving a truck.

You know, some people, like James White, he told me he listens at like 1 .5 speed or something in NoCo, so I think the truckers should just slow it down a little bit, because they've got lots of time, so listen to it at 0 .5 speed.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio. Why did I just think of an Elvis Costello song, Radio, Radio? I don't know. Because I'm bombarded by the world, that's why. So, John, the Gospel of Jesus, according to the Apostle John.

The Son Sent by the Father in John’s Gospel

We're just going to take a little preview, a little overview, a fun little trip through this recurrent theme in John's Gospel, that Jesus was sent. And so if you're sent on something, you have to be around before you're actually arriving.

Does that make sense? Still to this day, I cannot figure out, I'm sitting here in the No Compromise Radio studio, and it says University of Notre Dame. Someone put a Notre Dame cup in place of my Do Not Be Surprised mug with all kinds of coffee remnant.

Now, what's wrong with coffee remnant? Nothing. Remnant's in the Bible. I don't think coffee's in the Bible, but I don't even think tea is for you tea lovers, so I don't know. What kind of drinks are in the Bible?

Answer, water and wine. And my King James Only friends, allegedly, say that's grape juice. Yeah, sure, that's what it was. After they picked the grapes and smashed them up and made juice, it didn't really ferment.

It ferments everywhere except in the Bible times and the Bible lands, and then it doesn't ferment. My wife was making some grape, some conchid grape jam the other day. And I thought, if this sets out too long, it's going to throw me for a loop.

I haven't had a drink in, uh, I don't know, 25 years. Yeah, coming up, 25 years. 25 years this November. I think this show's going to be played in October. 25 years. It's about time I break the fast, right?

Well, I've had a drink. I have to correct myself. I've had wine, and I've had NyQuil. Plain label, of course, and NyQuil's expensive, but if you had a NyQuil habit, that's worse than having an alcohol habit.

No, I've had wine in communion, so I guess I'm not a total teetotaler. Totally teetotally. Tea time. John 3 .17, we're talking about eternity past. You want to call it a covenant? You want to call it a promise?

You want to call it an agreement? You want to call it a pact? You want to call it a pactum? You want to call it a bond? You want to call it a testament? You want to call it a something foitus? You can call it any of those things you want.

Probably most people call it the covenant of redemption. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. He sent his son. For whom, verse 34 of the same chapter, chapter 3, for whom God has sent, utters the words of God.

Verse 29, this is the work of God in John 6, that you believe in him whom he has sent. Now, most of the time when you look, and I've said this often on No Compromise Radio, most of the time when I talk about my origin, I say I'm born.

I was born in 1960, which is true. On May 12th, which is true. Keep the cards and letters coming. And I was born in Clarkson Hospital, which is true. And the language that I use is born. I do not use language like this.

On May 12th, 1960, I was sent to the world. On May 12th, 1960, I was made manifest. On May 12th, 1960, I had come into the world. Why do we not talk about me that way? Well, it's my show. I should be able to talk about me the whatever way me, myself, and my own want to.

But I don't talk that way because I didn't pre-exist. Oh, I was alive before 1960, May 12th, but I wasn't alive May 12th, 1959. Wasn't a thought, wasn't around, nobody knew me. Of course, God understood that I would be born and he knew me and he chose me in eternity past.

I get all that. But only one time that I know of was Jesus ever said to be born, at least let me clarify that, that Jesus himself said he was born. And that was to Pilate when he said he was born, then he clarified it that he had been sent into the world.

And so this language of sent is very important. John 6, 38, 39, for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose none, or lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up in the last day.

I'm sending forth, sending forth. That's the idea. So let me write down here, May 12th, John 6, 57, as the living father sent me, I live because of the father. So whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me.

Sent, he was around in eternity past. He is eternal. He's never had a beginning. That is to say God has not had a beginning. God the son. Well, there was a beginning to his incarnation. Yes, that was at conception when the spirit of God hovered over Mary.

So none of Mary's sin could taint Jesus. John 8, 28. And Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the father taught me and he who sent me is with me.

You said, all right, already, I get it. But I'm not so sure we always get it. Sent, sent, sent. If I, excuse me, if God were your father, you would love me. For I came from God and here I am. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.

That is amazing. John 10. Do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent in the world? You are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God. And then John 11. So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father.

I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me. I know the new that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around. That they may believe that you sent me.

Amazing. Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God. Eternal. And then in one chapter alone, John 17. How many times do you see the word sent regarding the father sending Jesus? So many. John 17. Verse 3. And this is eternal life that they know you are the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Verse 8. For I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. Verse 18. And you sent me into this world.

So I also sent them into the world. Verse 21. That they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me. And I in you that they may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Verse 23.

I in them. You in me. That they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me. And finally in verse 25. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me.

In eternity past, the father gives the son work to accomplish. And Jesus had to then go be born of a woman. He had to go be born. He had to go be human. Now the passage I was referring to earlier with Pilate.

John 18. Pilate said, so you're a king? Jesus answered. You say that I am. For this purpose I was born. And now he, it's almost like he clarifies it. And for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? So Jesus is sent into the world and he perfectly obeys. This is what's called the covenant of redemption. Now there's another passage that we can look at.

It's Titus chapter 1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Christ, Jesus or Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect. And their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. In the hope of eternal life which God who never lies promised before the ages began.

And at the proper time has manifested his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. So Paul says to Titus, I'm in ministry for three reasons. Well, there are more, but for right now, here in this passage.

For the faith of God's elect. Justification, coming to saving faith. The knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. Sanctification, progressive sanctification. In the hope of eternal life, glorification.

Why am I a minister? Why am I a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ? Answer? For justification, sanctification, glorification. That's why I'm around. And by the way, there is hope for this because God promised this before the ages began.

Now here's the question. To whom did God make the promise? No angels, no men. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. There was a promise. That is amazing. God doesn't lie. Interesting, the word for lie is close to the word crete, where we get Cretan.

Which means liar. God's no Cretan. Everybody's doing the Cretan hop. Nope, not God. He promised eternal life. He never dies. God promised. It doesn't say God promised to them. God promised to the Cretans.

God promised to the apostles. It just says God promised. In eternity past, God gives the Son a bride. Arrange marriage. And He goes to rescue. Before time begins. That's amazing. Before time begins. That's why 2 Timothy 1 verse 9 says, God saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus.

Are you ready? Before time began. Before time began. The eternal purpose of God. That is why it says in Ephesians 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. When did God choose people in eternity past from the foundation of the world? It's like the lady that told John Newton, I know God had to choose me before I was born because He would never have chosen me afterwards.

True. As Spurgeon said, I think there's some truth in that. As my friends would say, truth. True that. Right? God has a plan to save sinners in eternity past. And since God is triune, Father, Son, and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, Father are eternal, and Jesus is eternal.

There's a council held between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones would say. The three persons met in conference, I speak with reverence in terms of scripture, and planned it.

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 man had fallen into sin. It was planned before the foundation of the world.

Foreordained. God commands the Son to die and rise again. At temptation? No. At baptism? No. At transfiguration? No. At resurrection? No. In eternity past. We call that the pactum salutis. We call that the covenant of peace.

We call that the council of peace. We call that the covenant of life. The covenant of designation. But maybe the covenant of redemption is the most well-known. Father, Son, and the Spirit, by mutual agreement sends the Son to perfectly obey the law unto death.

As Swiss theologian Johann Heinrich Heidegger said to the law unto the death which he must face on behalf of his chosen seed to be given him and promised him if he gave the obedience the seed in question as his own prerequisite and inheritance.

And in return the Son in promising his obedience to God the Father and producing it in a literal act demanded of him in turn the right to demand the seed for himself as an inheritance. And it's not prerequisite.

It's perquisite. Perquisite. Perquisite. Perquisite. P-E-R-Q-U-I-S-T-I-T-E. My name is Mike Abendroth. Jesus is the eternal Son, second person of the Trinity, and we have been looking at the covenant of redemption or promise of God.

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 bbcchurch .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.