What Jesus Said Before He Was Born (Part 4)

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, and today we are continuing, I think it is part four. Our church is known as the Church of the Two-Part Sermon. So much richness in God�s Word that it�s hard for me to pack it all into one sermon.

I try to speak rapidly as well, so if you�d like to have two sermons on a Sunday morning, just come to Bethlehem Bible Church. I�ll give you two sermons for the price of one. I�m looking outside, it�s snowing today.

Sun and snow, that�s weird. Part four on this theme, what did Jesus say before He was born? That is not to say what did the angel of the Lord say in the Old Testament, although that was the second person of the Trinity.

But what about an eternity past? What happened for all the centuries and eons and all the eternities before Genesis 1? What did God do? What did He say? Did He say anything? If you go to Hebrews chapter 10, you can see the Father and the Son.

There was some speaking there, the Son talking to the Father, and we�ve been going through what we call the Divine Covenant of Redemption, the agreement that the triune God had to save sinners, to think about salvation in a federal way or a representative way.

This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, considering salvation in a covenantal fashion. I don�t mean that I�m a covenant theologian, I do not embrace all of covenant theology, but I do think of salvation in a covenant perspective.

This is the blood of the new covenant, shed for many for the remission of sins. There is a way to think about salvation, and it is a triune covenant, the Father, Son and the Spirit promising before eternity began, before time began in eternity, that they would save some.

And so today, I�d like you to look at Ephesians chapter 1 to continue on this theme. When was this? When did God decide to save you? Did He decide to save you when you repented, when you believed, when you trusted, or did He decide to save you before you were born?

Did He decide to save you in this Trinitarian council, this pact in the Trinity, this guarantee, promise before you were even born? And that�s the Bible�s answer, is before you were born. And this should increase your adoration, your awe, your praise, your wonder, your bewilderment that God would plan this great salvation.

We often talk about the plan of salvation. This is at the beginning of the plan. It unfolds itself throughout time, prophets proclaiming Christ, John the Baptist the forerunner, Jesus Himself coming, dying on Calvary, being raised from the dead.

There is an unfolding of the plan, but the plan initiated in eternity. It was planned in eternity past. And so Ephesians chapter 1 tells us that very thing. As a matter of fact, Paul�s apostolic praise that he has praises God for election before he praises God for Christ�s redemption.

That�s all together, and you�ve got to start someplace, but I find it interesting that he starts with election. 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.

We weren�t going to be holy and blameless on our own, so He chose us in order that we might be. He didn�t choose us because we were holy and believed, or blameless and then repented. No, He chose us that we might do those things.

That was our response. That wasn�t the cause of this whole thing. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. Well, predestination, a bunch of robots, a bunch of puppets, it�s the most unloving impersonal thing you could ever come up with.

Well, that�s not what Paul says, that�s not what the Bible says, that�s not what God says. In love, He predestined us. Now, you just need to stop and let that sink in. Let that sink in. In love, He predestined us.

Say it after me. Turn to the person to your left, and if everybody does that, then who are you going to talk to? In love, He predestined us. Don�t you find it corny when you�re in a church, everybody looks at the person to your left and says, �God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

I don�t know, I just always found that kind of corny. But anyway, here, in love, Ephesians 1, 4 and 5, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Christ Jesus according to the purpose of His will.

Can you imagine that? Whose will was it? His will. That�s exactly what Hebrews 10 talks about, that the Son, according to the will of God, has taken a body upon Himself so that He might perfectly obey the law in our place, perfectly die a sinner�s death even though He never sinned in our place, and then was raised from the dead to confirm that great transaction of active and passive obedience of Jesus Christ according to the purpose, Ephesians 1, 5, of His will.

This is an eternity past, before you were good, before you exercised your free will, before you repented or believed. An old woman said to John Newton, �I�m sure that God chose me before I was born, for He never would have chosen me afterwards.

Isn�t that so true? I know God chose me because if He would see who I was, in time He�d never choose me. But before time, He chose me. God�s sovereign will, God�s sovereign choice was at the foundation, before the foundation of the world.

And that by definition, that by nature, shows that it�s free from human�s will, human�s responsibility, human�s actions. It is free. Calvin said, �The very time of election shows it to be free, for what could we have deserved are in what did our merit consist before the world was made.

So, what was your contribution in the eternal covenant of redemption before Genesis 1, 1? We gave nothing. We said nothing. We contributed nothing. We are recipients of this from the foundation of the world promise.

This from the foundation of the world agreement, before we did anything good. Michael Horton is right when he says, �If God looked down the corridor of time, what would He have seen in us besides sin and resistance?

How could He foresee an exercise of the will that He Himself did not grant, since no one can come to the Father unless the one who sent Me draws Him Could the language be more explicit? Second Thessalonians 2 .13,.

�But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

Do you have to believe? Yes. Must you repent? Yes. Are those things causing salvation, allowing God to save you? No. They are in response to. God makes you born again and you believe. God regenerates and you repent.

Those things follow. Those things, yes, in time, they're simultaneous. You don't have a regenerate unbeliever and you don't have an unregenerate believer. But logically, you have to have a new birth before you can breathe out faith and repentance.

This whole quarters of time deal, God looks down the corridors of time, where did we get that? That has nothing to do with the Bible. That has to do with the pride of man, the arrogance of man, the ignorance of man.

I think maybe Satan came up with that, but not the Bible. The Bible doesn't do that. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, �There is a great eternal counsel held between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This verse tells us when it was held, before the foundation of the world. Lloyd-Jones says, �Do we realize that our salvation was planned before the world was planned or created? It is the realization of this fact that makes a man stand on tiptoe and shout out praise to God, chosen before the foundation of the world.

The three blessed persons in the eternal counsel were concerned about us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lloyd-Jones goes on to say, here we are on No Compromise Radio, and Lloyd-Jones said regarding Ephesians chapter 1 in this great commentary, multi-volume, �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. David Martin Lloyd-Jones. So when we think of salvation, we ought to think of it biblically, and we ought to say to ourselves, it was not a flowchart type of thing.

If this happened, then that. It's not some kind of checkmate thing. It was not an accident. It was not serendipitous. It was not coincidental. It was not lucky. It was not any of those things. It was planned before time began, and what theologians call the covenant of redemption.

You don't like covenant? Call it promise. Call it arrangement. Call it pact. Call it eternal counsel, like Lloyd-Jones did. It is a fact, though, that the Father, Son, and the Spirit in eternity past made a plan, and that plan was for the Son to go rescue.

The Father would choose, the Son would rescue, and then the Spirit would apply that great work of salvation. That's why when it comes to the being of the Trinity, we say that God is equal in essence and nature.

But in the economy of the Trinity, how the Trinity functions, there seems to be a priority for the Father as the originator of salvation's plan, the Son as the executive, the one who executes that plan, and then the Spirit as the applier of that plan and the benefits of the plan.

True or false? The Father commanded the Son to die and be raised from the dead. Well, that answer is yes. John 10 .18. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I receive from my Father.

So this commandment, the Son received from the Father, to die and be raised from the dead. Now, here's my question for you at No Compromise Radio Ministry here in Worcester, out there on podcast land, across the country and the world.

When was that commandment given? It says right here, John 10 .18, I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I receive from my Father. When did the Son receive that commandment from the Father?

When Jesus was born? When Jesus was baptized? At the Transfiguration? At the Crucifixion? At the Resurrection? In between the Resurrection and the Ascension? When was that? Answer, an eternity passed in the covenant of redemption.

That's when, before Genesis 1 .1, the Father sent the Son into the world on a specific mission. Do you know there's a theme in John's Gospel? Here's what you should do. Look up the word sent in John's Gospel and see the theme where Jesus was sent by the Father.

When was this planned? When did this happen? When did the Father say, you go, and then the Son said, okay, I went? For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

John 3 .17. John 3 .34, for he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure. God sent, God sent, God sent. When was it planned? In eternity past. John 6 .29, Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.

He sent the Son on a rescue mission that was determined in eternity past. That is why Jesus said in John 17, by the way, there's all kinds of sent stuff there, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have, what, sent.

I've glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. John 17 .4, when was that work given? When Jesus was a kid, 12 years old? No, in eternity past. That's what Titus 1 says.

That's what Ephesians 1 says. That's what Hebrews 10 says. The Father gives the Son a work to do in eternity past. Therefore, Jesus had to be born. The great high priest also had to be the sacrifice. The great high priest had to be the one who would be our representative, a vicarious substitute, because we could never obey from the heart and love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We could never obey from the heart and love our neighbors or self. We needed someone else to do that in our place. And then for the sins that we've committed, we needed to have someone die for those sins because we could never bear the eternal judgment of God.

We could never bear up under that judgment. So we have praise elicited from Paul's mouth, out of Paul's mouth, to say, yes, Ephesians 1, blessed be God, praising God. We're going to thank Him. That's why we want to give all the glory to God.

And I don't want to have you say, my faith contributed, my decision contributed, my altar call contributed, my sinner's prayer contributed, the Father, Son, and the Spirit contributed. One hundred percent of your salvation is done by God.

And the only thing you did is said, you know, here are my sins. You didn't do anything else. Of course, you responded to your salvation in what we call conversion, man's response, repentance, faith, repentance, belief, et cetera.

And so you have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the Father, the Originator, the Son, the Executive, and the Spirit, the Applier, what S. Lewis Johnson calls a division of labor in the Trinity. Of course, this was a voluntary agreement.

We have sometimes in evangelicalism this wrong thought that God the Father is the meanie and God the Son is the loving one. And poor God the Father, you know, he's all mean and mad and he had to punish the Son.

And is Jesus the one who loves us? If you remember this pact, this triune pact, and if you remember the essence and nature of God as one, you wouldn't think that way. You'd say to yourself, it's not the mean Father and the poor Son.

It's the loving Father, the loving Son, the loving Holy Spirit, deciding to love sinners, sinners that are unloving, sinners that are depraved, sinners that love Satan. Let's love them. And so the Father in love plans, originates.

The Son in love executes salvation, and the Spirit in love applies the work of the Son. And this is a great relationship, and it's a relationship of love and adoration. And we see in Ephesians 1, the Father choosing, verses 4 -6, the Son sacrificing and redeeming, verses 7 -12, and then the Spirit sealing in verses 13 -14.

And he does this to the praise of his glory. Nobody else gets the praise. Nobody else gets the glory, because we couldn't come up with such a salvation. God came to earth with a purpose, and that is to obey the Father as the Father had sent him.

And so when we think about all these things the last three times and then today, it should make us think this, that God's glory is more important than my salvation. God's glory is more important than my salvation.

It's all about God, Hebrews 10. It's all about God, Hebrews 1. It's all about God, Ephesians 1. It's all about God, Titus 1. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to your name be glory.

That's Psalm 115. God is a jealous God. His name is jealous. Everything about him is jealous, righteously jealous. He is a jealous God. That's what Joshua says. He is a holy God. He's a jealous God. That's what Deuteronomy says, a consuming fire, a jealous God.

He judges because of his jealousy. And Paul, in Ephesians 1, 25 years after the Damascus Road experience, he still couldn't get over that the Father chose, the Son died for, the Spirit seals, and he just praises God.

He blesses God. He extols God. And if you're a Christian, that's what you ought to do. You shouldn't hold on tight to your free will and you did this and you did that. Of course, you responded in faith, but you should be saying, I cannot believe God chose me.

He didn't have to choose anybody, but he chose me. Doesn't that give you praise in your lips and thankfulness in your heart to be blessed? Paul pours out the praise. 202 words in Ephesians 1, 3 -14, all one sentence.

And Hendrickson said, they're all like prancing steeds pouring forth with impetuous speed. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

God gets glory by saving sinners like us. And we are thankful that we're the recipients, but we are incidental. We are the ones who are not the center of the universe. That's why salvation and eternal security are so important.

How do we know we have security of the saints, eternal security? Because if the Father chooses some and the Son dies for some, but then the Spirit doesn't regenerate those some and they're lost, it makes the Trinity look bad.

It makes God himself look bad. This has nothing to do with, well, it's something to do with us. That's thinking too small. Our salvation, if we've been chosen, Christ died for, we've been sealed, we've been sealed to the day of redemption because God does the great work.

So when it comes to eternal security, we go back to the eternal counsel and you should find your security there. Here we have the Father and the Son with what some have called a reciprocal promise. Son, here's a group of people to go die for and redeem.

Son, I died for them, Father. I can form them into my image and I know you love me, therefore now you love them. They're in me and I hand them back to you and these people now are redeemed and I give them back to you.

So salvation wasn't the work of the Father alone, the Son alone, the Spirit alone. No, it is for, it is a triune God's work for His glory, pre-time, intra-Trinitarian agreement. How about that? That makes me not think about my headache, my finances, my anything else.

I want to make sure that we are boasting in the Lord, that our praise is for God and God alone. I want you, if you're listening today to No Compromise Radio Ministry, to say theology isn't boring. Theology is awesome because it's the truth about God.

Just substitute the words truth about God for theology. Theology is boring. Truths about God are boring. See that doesn't indict God, that indicts people who would say it. People say, well I'm not really interested in theology, I have my life to live.

Well, you ought to be interested in this kind of theology that in eternity past there was a pact, an intra-Trinitarian agreement. That is interesting to me. That is interesting to Paul. You ought to say to yourself, I have assurance of my salvation because I don't love Jesus perfectly but I love Him.

I'm different than I used to be and I can see the change in my life. I see that before I wasn't concerned about sins against God, I was just concerned about sins against humanity, crimes, because they might lock me up and might do something bad to me.

But now I want God's glory manifest and His name to be proclaimed. I want to proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called me out of darkness into His marvelous light, 1 Peter 2. I see these truths and I say to myself, how could they be boring?

They help you live well, they also help you die well. How about Machen? Machen is on his deathbed, the great lion of the Christian faith, professor at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. He's out in South Dakota, exhausted, tired, preaching at these small churches and he writes a telegram to John Murray, dictates this telegram.

He says to John Murray, I am so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it. To think that the alien righteousness that's imputed to my account makes God the Father see me in His Son and I am loved as much as the Father loves the Son, I'm loved to that degree.

And therefore, I don't have to think about how my faith isn't perfect, because Jesus is. My repentance hasn't been perfect, Jesus is perfect. My life hasn't been perfect, Jesus is perfect. I haven't loved the Father like I should have, but Jesus has.

And the list goes on. So then that helps you die well. That helps you say, do you know, I could be like Paul at the end of my life and say, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.

There's going to be an exodus, I'm leaving. I fought the good fight, I finished the course, I've kept the faith. In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day.

And not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Friends, if you're a Christian, God made you a Christian. And if you're a Christian, you're forgiven. God granted forgiveness to you. You didn't do anything to earn it.

It's not any kind of merit to say my faith saved me. You're not saved by faith alone. Oh, did I just blaspheme? That's shorthand. I would say you're saved by faith alone. But here's what I mean by that.

You're saved by Christ's perfect work alone, determined in the eternal counsel of time. And then you're saved through faith in that great work. So for those of you that are going to write me and tell me that I'm going to send the tape to MacArthur, I believe that you're saved by the work of Christ alone within the triune Godhead in eternity past.

Of course, you have to believe and repent, but I want you to know those are gifts. I want you to know those don't cause your salvation. What happened in eternity past? What happened at Calvary? What happened to your life as the Spirit of God sealed you?

What made you born again? That's what saved you. And you responded with, worthy is the lamb who was slain. Theology is not boring. Preaching is not boring. Jesus isn't boring. Eternal counsels aren't boring.

Theology isn't boring. Doctrine is not boring. Doctrine is essential so you can think rightly about God. My name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. The covenant of redemption, the eternal promise before time began to save sinners like you.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 10 .15 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.