The Beza Briefing - The Mediator, Jesus Christ

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.

I just was out shoveling a little bit, and I think I�ve lost my breath. I�m glad that I can actually shovel and have some breath to lose. That�s a good thing. That�s a praise when you actually have breath to lose.

Pulmonologist tomorrow. We�ll see how we�re doing. I felt like I was getting better every week. I�m not really feeling that, but maybe it�s slow progress now. Who knows? But glad to be alive, glad to be on the radio, and glad to be live.

No Compromise Radio. Remember those old church announcement bloopers? It�s funny. You get the church bulletin slash program, and you look through it, and you think, �Oh, look at the typos or possessive pronouns are wrong or possessive apostrophes are wrong.

Yeah, I am kind of losing my voice. Am I not? That�s not good. I have this book called Theological Miscellany by TJ McTavish, and it�s got all kinds of tidbits about Christianity. I just was looking at a couple because I thought I could use a good laugh.

For those who have children, these are church announcement bloopers. For those that have children and don�t know it, we have a nursery downstairs. Barbara C. remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions.

She�s also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack�s sermons. Speaking of pastors, the pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing �Break forth in joy. Thursday night, potluck supper, prayer and medication to follow.

Maybe this is my all-time favorite. These ones that have to do with weight or, you know, codependency groups. Low self-esteem support group will meet Thursday at 7 p .m. Please use the back door. Weight watchers will meet at 7 p .m. at the First Presbyterian Church.

Please use the large double door at the side entrance. You have to admit that�s kind of funny, don�t you? You have to admit it. Ladies, don�t forget the rummage sale. It is a good chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.

Bring your husbands. Irving Benson and Jesse Carter were married on October 24th in the church. So ends a friendship that began in school days. At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be �What is hell

Come early and listen to our choir practice. So much for that and no compromise radio ministry. Kind of an interesting little book. Large denominations it has, U .S. denominations. What about railroad chapel cars?

I mean, did you know about that? Railroad chapel cars? You think, okay, railroads are big. What do we do? Especially people traveling on Sundays and in the 1890s through the 1940s, some churches and missionary organizations had railroad chapel cars.

Kind of a neat way to go about it. You could preach and minister the sacraments and maybe you could get to know some people and go plant a church if that was their final destination. Quote, the Episcopal Church operated three cars.

The first was the cathedral car of the North Dakota Church of the Advent. This is not a blooper. Which the Pullman Company of Chicago built in 1890. I think Pullman was building the railroad tracks from Chicago to the west.

I can't remember who was building from the west. Pacific was building from the west to the east. The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan operated two additional cars converted from existing railway rolling stock.

Not to be outdone, quote, Baptist Chapel cars traveled throughout the west beginning in 1891. I'm reading a book called Tombstone by Tom Clavin or Tom Glavin. And it's about Doc Holliday and the Earps and the Clantons and Johnny Ringo and those kind of guys.

And that was about the same time frame. I think Wyatt Earp died in the 1900s. That was kind of amazing to me. Evangel was the first car the American Baptist Publications Society operated, followed by Emanuel, Glad Tidings, Goodwill, Messenger of Peace, and Herald of Hope.

The last Baptist car, Grace, was dedicated in 1915 and is displayed today at Green Lake Wisconsin. Smith and Barney of Dayton, Ohio, built most of the Baptist cars. And of course, not to be outdone, the Catholics had their own cars, St. Anthony, St. Peter, and St. Paul.

Hm. St. Paul apparently served until 1954. So that's kind of interesting little tidbits that really don't mean anything to anyone except maybe you, my no-go listeners. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about original sin.

Original Sin and Theodore Beza's Christian Faith

Original sin and the remedy for original sin from Theodore Beza in the book called The Christian Faith. The Christian Faith is a short little summary of Christianity, approximately 100 pages that you can buy online.

I think mine came from the UK. And I think what you need to do when it comes to Beza is to say to yourself, hm, 1558, old isn't always good, but in this particular case it is. And here is a man, Beza, who is the successor to John Calvin in Geneva.

All that to say, then maybe he's got something to say. And I've been going through the Christian Faith book section by section. We're up to chapter 3, section 15. So 315, that's not a verse, but it's a section.

And so what we do in the Beza briefing, the Beza briefing, is I read some of this and then just throw in my comments. See? It's a variety hour, variety show. Summary of original sin. Oh, Theodore Beza.

Original sin is therefore the total corruption of the whole nature of man. Remember we talked about that, I think, in the last couple shows, wholly depraved, W-H-O-L-L-Y. Not H-O-L-Y, that would be a weird thing.

Wholly depraved, that's set apart depraved, that would not be right. But completely, totally, wholly, every faculty, will, nature, conscience, emotions, feelings, total corruption of the whole nature of man.

This corruption was transmitted from Adam to all his race and produces in men three kinds of sins which are as the fruits of it. So I wonder if I ask you the question, when Bible Answer Man used to be okay, or at least he was okay in my mind because I didn't know much, Walter Marshall, that would be a good book to read, The Mystery of Sanctification.

But Walter Martin, the original Bible Answer Man, would have these questions and then I would kind of turn down the radio or stop the tape and then see if I could answer the Bible Answer Man. Then Hank Hanegraaff took over and I think he's now Orthodox, capital O, and who knows what else.

But we don't listen to him anymore and neither should you. But here, on NOCO, we could have our own little Bible Answer Man. So if you had to think of three kinds of sins which are the fruits of Adam's sin, I wonder what it would be.

Okay, number one, or the first, comprises all internal thought and understanding in the mind or in the desires, even if the will does not give its consent to it. For God demands to be loved with all the mind and all the soul and all the heart.

And we have already said that all these things are totally corrupted in us. The second manner of sinning occurs when the will gives its consent to the internal thoughts and desires. The third covers all the sins which are committed when one takes the trouble to perform what one has thought and desired.

So we move from the mind to the actions. 316, how God has turned the sin of man to his glory. Now that's an amazing thing. Just yesterday, someone asked me, well, when an unbeliever says, you know, why do so many bad things happen to good people?

And if God's children, that is Christians, they go through trials too, what kind of God, what kind of father must he be to his children and how do we answer those questions? And I said, well, one thing that we have to be reminded of, and this is not original with me, when good things happen to bad people is the real mystery.

How can God, through common grace specifically, have all these good things happen to people that are flagrant blasphemers, flagrant violators? I'm not a big Edwards homeboy, but I think he's the one that said, let's say you have a servant and the whole year long he perfectly obeys the master except once a year he spits in his face.

What do you think is going to happen to that slave? And of course we know that sin is much greater than once per year. So I said to this lady, I was FaceTiming, it was my daughter's friend, and I was FaceTiming my daughter and she said, oh, my friend has this question about such and such.

And so we were all talking and I said, you know, in regard to this, whenever this is asked of me, I turn to Acts 2 and Acts 4 and discuss this worst sin of all time. And God can take the worst sin of all time, that is the crucifixion, the murder, the trial, the sinful trial of the Lord Jesus, trials, and turn it into good, salvation.

If he can do that, then I know he can take sin and be glorified out of it or from it. Let's see what Beza said. They would remain nothing more for the whole world except to go to its ruin, Romans 3 .19.

But God being not only very righteous, but also very merciful, had according to his infinite wisdom established eternally a way to turn all the evils to his great glory, to the greater manifestation of his infinite goodness, Romans 3, towards those whom he has chosen eternally so as to be glorified in their salvation, Romans 8 and 9.

And on the other side, he has turned the sin of man to the manifestation of his sovereign power and his wrath by the just condemnation of the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, Romans 9, Exodus 9.

In other words, this is the glory of God shown as his justice and judgment is meted out. Augustine well says, according to Beza, if all were saved, the wages of sin demanded by justice would be hidden.

If none were saved, no one would see what grace bestows. A good quote from Augustine, Augustine. Augustine, car 54, where are you? If everybody was saved, well, then would we see God's justice on display?

And if no one were saved, well, what would grace look like? And we can argue sometime, not right now, what about attributes? Is grace an attribute? Is wrath an attribute? What are essential attributes, communicable, non-communicable?

Some good conversations. 317, Jesus Christ is the soul mediator chosen and promised by God. Beza, this soul in unique way is the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God with all which flows from it.

Bit by bit, this promise from Adam to John the Baptist, published and preached by the patriarchs and the prophets, and also typified in various ways under law. Genesis 3, 12, 18, 22, Deuteronomy 18, 2 Samuel 7, Romans 1.

Thus, the Son is fully contained in the books of the Old Testament so that the men of those times were saved by faith in Jesus Christ who was to come. And if we want to think about it, we can simply think that there's only one way of salvation.

There's not two ways, somehow keeping the law and then believing on the Messiah. It's the Messiah. If you think of Abraham and David in Romans 4, how are ungodly people saved? How are ungodly people justified?

It is the work of the triune God. It's not based on their own works at all, right? It has to be work, but it has to be perfect work, and therefore it has to be the work of another. That's why we talk about an alien righteousness, righteousness that's not from ourselves.

And when we work through these theological problems, we think to ourself, well, if Jesus is the only Savior because the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, then they were looking for the Messiah in the Old Testament, and we are looking back to the Messiah.

It's not really that much of a problem if you're thinking, how can they look forward to the Messiah? Well, yes, like we look back to the Messiah, but they also have Scripture. And you look at Micah chapter 5 and Isaiah chapter 9 and Psalm 16, and you can just keep going, Psalm 8, Psalm 2, Psalm 1, and all these things, 2 Samuel 7, like listed here, the great prophet that would come, and Deuteronomy chapter 18 that Moses talked about, a greater prophet will be raised from among you.

And I think in the Septuagint, in the Greek version of the Old Testament, you have the Hebrew version and the Greek version. In the Greek version, the Septuagint, I think it's a prophet will be resurrected among you.

I think the Hebrew is raised. That's kind of an interesting little thing, don't you think? I thought you'd think so too. 3 .18. Oh, one last thought on 3 .17. If Christ is the sole mediator, then they would have to look forward in the Old Testament, and we would have to look backward.

We can look forward because there's no one else, right? He's already been proclaimed. That's one of the problems with Jewish people today, looking for the Messiah. He's already come. He's not coming again for salvation, of course.

He is coming again for the second coming, and it'll be judgment. 2 Thessalonians 1. 3 .18. Today on Mike Abendroth's show, No Compromise Radio, see how I rescued that? We're talking about Theodore Beza and the Christian faith.

And 3 .18, the similarity and the difference between the Old and the New Testament. Well, this could get kind of spicy. When my daughter Haley was little, she would regularly say, because she couldn't get her SP out, so she'd just have, say, P instead of SP.

She'd taste something spicy, and she'd say, that's picey. That's picey. This is going to be picey, possibly. Possibly piceys. Virgo, piceys. No, we're not going to go down that alley. Speaking of alley, I did candle pin bowling the other day.

I haven't done candle pin bowling for years, and if you're listening today and you're not from New England, or you haven't lived in New England, candle pin bowling was developed here in Worcester, Massachusetts.

I can't remember the year, but the pins look like candles. They don't have that curvy shape to them like a typical bowling pin. And you use a smaller ball that doesn't have holes in it. It's harder to do.

You get three turns, and if you get everything down the first ball, you get a strike. Everything down with two balls, you get the spare, but you just add up all three for the open frames. I just kind of do a little spin because I'm so old and decrepit now, I can't really bend down like you're supposed to.

When I watch some of the pro candle pinners, is there such a thing? People that look like they were pros to me in the leagues, they release the ball almost on the ground, and I couldn't do that. So I did back spins and side spins.

What does this have to do with anything? I have no idea. Therefore, there has never been and there never shall be but one covenant of salvation between God and men. Beza writes, Hebrews 13, Romans 3, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 10, Ephesians 1, and the whole epistle to the Hebrews.

I like that. The substance of this covenant is Jesus Christ. So there's one covenant, substance is Jesus, but having regard to the circumstances, there are two testaments or covenants. We have the authentic titles and contents of them, which we call Holy Scripture and the Word of God.

One is called the old and the other is new. The second is much better than the first for the first did declare Jesus Christ, but from afar, hidden under the shadows and images, which vanished at his coming.

He himself is the son of righteousness, John 4. One of the things we're going to have to do, dear No Compromise radio listeners, is when you think of Old Testament and New Testament, I think I've been helped when I focus more on the divine author.

When I'm trying to figure out continuity, discontinuity issues from old to new and from old and new. If you have discontinuity, you're probably going to be more of a dispensationalist, more of a two people of God.

And if there's more continuity between the old and new, you're going to be more covenantal, one people of God. Now, this is not the time for big hermeneutics lesson, but I do think if you want to study the Old and New Testament, I think you need to have more continuity and you need to have these things more linked together.

And the way that they are linked together is by the divine author. Of course, there are human authors and it's good if you want to study Moses and how he writes. But I definitely think there's more continuity between their Old Testament and New Testament.

Now, different covenants, we can talk about continuity between those, but we do have to remember that Abraham is not Moses. That's all I'll say for right now. 319. Why is it necessary that Jesus Christ be true man in nature, in his body and in his soul, but without any sin?

Now, I've said before that for years I said, truly, fully God, fully man, 100 God, 100 man. And those words are more quantitative words, quantity, a glass is three quarters full. But when we say God, man, and when we say he's God and he's man, those words that the reformers have used perfectly or truly, those are more qualitative words.

And so we've switched here on No Compromise Radio to do that very thing. It was funny when I got interviewed for American Gospel, the second movie, I said fully and fully and 100%, 100%. I wish I would not have done that, but it is what it is, a good pride breaker.

Here, Beza said, true man in nature, you know, truly man, in his body and his soul, without any sin. To be our representative, then to be our substitute, Jesus has to be truly man. He's going to have to, the eternal son, assume human nature.

It says, it was necessary that the mediator of this covenant and this reconciliation be true man, but without any stain or original sin or any other for the following reasons. And I could do this Bible answer man thing again today.

Why did Jesus, why would he have to be, why is he sinless? First, since God is very righteous and man is the object of his wrath because of natural corruption, it was necessary in order to reconcile men with God, that there be a true man in whom the ruins caused by this corruption would be totally repaired.

So man did it, Adam, man needs to undo it. That's a good way to think about it. Second, man is compelled to fulfill all the righteousness with God's demands from him in order to be glorified. Matthew 3, Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 5.

It was therefore necessary that there be a man who would perfectly fulfill all righteousness in order to please God. And that's where we think of the term representative. Adam was supposed to fulfill all righteousness.

Adam didn't, we're going to need another Adam, the last Adam to do that. Thirdly, all men are covered with an infinite number of sins, as much internal as external. That is why they are liable to the court, to the curse of God.

Romans 3, Isaiah 53. It was therefore necessary that there be a man who would fully satisfy the justice of God in order to pacify him. Finally, no corrupt man would be able in any way to even begin to fulfill the least of these actions.

He would first of all have had no need to have need of a redeemer for himself. So much was necessary for himself before he could buy back others or do anything pleasing or satisfying to God. It was therefore necessary that the mediator of men be true man in his body and soul and that he be nevertheless entirely pure and free from all sin.

Theodore Beza. That's good, that's rich stuff. That is why you should regularly read systematic theologies. And here's a cheap one. It's a little one. In the mornings I read the Berkhoff Summary of the Christian Faith.

And now on the radio I'm reading Theodore Beza, the Christian Faith, Chapter 3 on Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We'll pick it up again in the future. Why was it necessary that Jesus Christ be true 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.