What Jesus Accomplished (Part 2)

What do you know? Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Mike Ebendroth here with a little background music that I quite enjoy.

Got my new Rodecaster Pro 2, so I'm able to, with better clarity, to talk to you about the

Lord Jesus, the one who never compromised. Can you imagine? I don't want to compromise.

You don't want to compromise. Let's get back on music, actually. But anyway,

He is the one who said, I always do the things pleasing of the Father. And the Father said, this is my beloved

Son in whom I am, what, well -pleased. So on No Compromise Radio, that is our theme, the

Lord Jesus. And we've turned from a discernment ministry, probably, in the day, to now something that doesn't get the ratings that it used to.

When I used to do Paige Turner, our book burner, a lot of ratings on that. Once in a while, we give the message moment.

That's still around. What else do we do sometimes? Who knows? You can write me, excuse me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

It is in real time, December 22nd, Thursday, before the bomb cyclone. Some of you probably already have some cold weather.

Some of you, I'm sorry to say, probably have had cancellations in your flights. This is going to be played the following week.

So you probably, on the 27th, listened to this, the 28th, the 29th, somewhere in there. Sorry if you couldn't get home for Christmas.

But it's a pagan holiday anyway. Just kidding.

I hope you went to church on Sunday, unless you had the bomb cyclone at your house.

We're talking about Jesus and what He accomplished when

He came to the earth. The Incarnation gives us ample opportunity to talk about His coming to earth, assuming human nature, right?

Because God can't die, humans can die, so the

God -man comes. And of course, if you say, well, did His divine nature die? I think you probably should listen to Matthew Barrett to get that question answered.

Of course, God's nature, He can't die. But the human nature of Jesus certainly can die.

I mean, what was Jesus doing in the womb of Mary? Well, His human nature was growing, and He was a baby.

His divine nature was upholding the universe, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1. It's fun to think about, isn't it? It is absolutely mind -blowing to think about, and that's why when we, on No Compromise Radio, want to work through certain things, we have a variety of little presets that I can use any time

I would like. But just, I'm not going to use it right now, right? Not right now.

And what did all the people say? Okay, I lied.

We saw last time, probably yesterday, that Jesus came to destroy. One of the purposes of the

Incarnation that is designed to give you assurance and hope and a full resting in the

Lord Jesus, He came to destroy the works of the devil, right? He rendered inoperative Satan, a weapon that is accusing us of sin, and then going to the

Father and saying, we deserve eternal punishment. That's been taken care of, obviously.

The second word I want to talk about, they're not all alliterated, is deliver.

So far, we have alliteration, but it's not going to be throughout the entire message. Jesus' death delivered slaves,

Hebrews 2 .15, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Fear of death is very common. Do you fear death?

Are you afraid of death? That's a good question. If you're an unbeliever, you certainly should be.

If you're a Christian, should you be afraid of death? I mean, sin,

Satan, death. One of the reasons why Jesus came to the earth is that He might break the power of Satan.

That's what we saw last time. And also rescue people who were enslaved.

Now, slaves to sin, we talk about that a lot, redemption. Here we're talking about a different kind of slavery, lifelong slavery.

Hmm, interesting. We were created to rule, Psalm 8, and now we're slaves paralyzed by the savage fear of death.

I was trying to think of another word that started with S. That's the only one I could kind of think of. Jesus releases or delivers or sets free or liberates.

The idea here in the original is to break the connection, to give freedom.

One writer said the believer's fear of death no longer paralyzes and enslaves because Jesus has disabled death's master.

You don't need to be enslaved to that fear of death because you know what's going to happen.

Jesus came to earth to deliver you from that. That's convicting to me. As I lay there last year in the hospital, contemplating life and death,

I knew something was bad when they said, I think we're going to have to tap your lung.

I'm like, oh, that's called tap out. That's what they do to people who are dying. They tap their lungs.

They tap other people's lungs for other reasons too. Let's see, what else?

I just got a text. Why is R. Scott Clark texting me? Oh, I know why.

I think we're going to have another article on the Heidel blog. A lot of his authors, they're way above my pay grade in terms of theological acumen.

I just write from the pastoral perspective. We just write from the

Baptist perspective. You know, you look at churches and there's a church that said something like, in the old days, congregational and reformed.

It had the name of the church, Congregational and Reformed, and when I knew the people there, I thought it's exactly right in that order.

They are more congregational than they are reformed in practice. Interesting.

All right, back to this. Jesus came to earth to deliver you from fear of death.

I don't like laying there thinking I'm going to die. Actually, I don't like it—I mean,

I have to like it in the sense that God's sovereign, but I had to experience that. It's part of the

Lord's work in my life, but man, I didn't like that at all. That was no fun.

And now, short of an instant death or the return of Christ, some type of nuclear bomb or an accident or something,

I have to do that again. Maybe this year, maybe next year, maybe in 10 years, maybe in 20 years.

Who knows? But yikes, I don't like that idea. O2 monitors and heart rate monitors and oxygen and lung tapping and all this, yikes.

Jesus came, though, so that I wouldn't have to fret like I do, so I wouldn't have to worry like I do.

Not all the time, but sometimes. Satisfaction's been paid. He's taken us from one state to another, domain of darkness into the kingdom of the

Beloved Son. And we ought not to have any fear of death, because to be absent from the body is to be with the

Lord. Jesus said, do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

That is to say, if we were not right with God, if we were not children of God, if we did not have an elder brother, our

Savior Jesus, we ought to be afraid. But now that we are right with God and we are children of God, we don't have to be afraid.

That slow strangulation feeling, no, no, that you're subject to this slavery, this bondage, this servitude, no, no.

To deliver all those who through fear of death, you could make it pretty broad here, the experience of dying, the concern that maybe there's nothing after you die, there's no resurrection after you die, you have to go to hell when you die.

But if you add them all up, Jesus came to deliver. And then you hear things like this instead, the

Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You have probably heard of Deardall Compromised Radio Listener, the book entitled

Facing Death. And I don't know who

Billy Barnhouse is, must be Donald Gray Barnhouse's son, but he was talking about Donald Gray Barnhouse.

And here's what Facing Death book says, Cancer took his first wife, leaving him with three children all under 12.

The day of the funeral, Barnhouse and his family were driving to the service when a large truck passed them, casting a noticeable shadow across their car.

Turning to his oldest daughter, who was staring sadly out the window, Barnhouse asked,

Tell me, sweetheart, would you rather be run over by that truck or its shadow? Looking curiously at her father, she replied,

By the shadow, I guess, it can't hurt you. Speaking to all his children, he said,

Your mother has not been overridden by death, but by the shadow of death, that is nothing to fear.

I like that. Why do I have any fears? Why do you have any fears?

Since Jesus has conquered death, he's paid for it. Jesus paid it all.

We don't have to pay anything, dear Christian. So we are of good courage, 2 Corinthians 5, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the

Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

Philippians 1, For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Bildad in the book of Job calls death the king of terrors.

That's not so for us, right, Christians? Jesus is alive. Jesus has victory over the grave.

Jesus has victory over death. Jesus has victory over Satan. He has conquered death and Satan.

God is a consuming fire, and it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. As an unbeliever, we don't want to fall into his hands, but now as a believer, do we have to worry?

Can we not think to ourselves that death is swallowed up in victory, that death is death? Excuse me, death is dead?

Paul shouts out. It's a cry of victory in 1 Corinthians 15, 55.

Oh, death, where's your victory? Oh, death, where's your sting? Sounds like Hosea language to me.

Where's the sting of death? Spurgeon said it's a very natural thing that man should fear to die, for man was not originally created to die.

When Adam and Eve were first placed in the Garden of Eden, they were in such a condition that they might have remained there for a myriad of years if they had kept their integrity.

There was no reason why unfallen man should die, but now that we have sinned, the seeds of corruption are in this flesh of ours and is appointed unto men once to die.

He goes on to say, let us never try to get rid of it, as some do, by forgetting all about death. That would be to live as brutes that perish.

They live their little day here without any thought beyond the present. The ox and the sheep go to the slaughterhouse without the power to look beyond this present life.

I would not like to obtain peace of mind by descending to the level of those dumb driven cattle. Yet there are many men whose only peace arises from thoughtlessness.

Yet that is a sorry peace which cannot endure contemplation and consideration. He so took upon himself flesh and blood as to die in our nature, that thus he might slay death and might set us free from all fear of death.

Do you not see that? That if the representative man, Christ Jesus, died, he also rose again, and that so also will all who are in him rise up too?

If you are in him, you shall rise again. Therefore fear not to lie down in your last sleep, for the trumpet shall awaken you, and your body shall be molded afresh like unto his glorious body, and your soul and body together shall dwell in infinite bliss forever.

Therefore comfort one another with these words." Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and that last quote is right there from 1

Thessalonians chapter 4. Is it a precious thing when one of the godly ones dies?

Is it? That's a good question. Is it a blessing to die in Christ?

Number three. Number three on No Compromise Radio Ministry. I think the one that I maybe have appreciated the most in this section because I've learned something new is this number three, seize.

He's kind of making a little parenthesis, and he says something with the

English word in the ESV, help, but it's really to seize. I'll read it in the English first,

ESV. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

Helps. It means to take hold of. It means to hold someone's hand.

Yes, it means to rescue, but it means to seize.

It means to grab. It means to give help.

You draw one to yourself, and it is a present tense. He keeps on doing it, right?

You think of to grab in order to help, and Jesus took the blind man by the hand in order to heal him.

That's the word he took. He seized. He took the man with drops, he says, to heal him.

He took him. Peter is falling back into the water, remember?

So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink.

He cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him,

O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got in the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly you are the son to take hold of.

And of course, if you're a Jewish person and you're reading Hebrews, God takes hold of Israel by the hand and brings them out of Egypt, Jeremiah 31, when

I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That's exactly the language used even in chapter 8 of Hebrews, when

I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, to lay hold of with the view of helping, to grasp the hand and lift somebody up.

Sinners need help. Sinners need rescuing. Sinners can't rescue themselves.

We are sinful and we need redemption, and someone is going to have to do that. Because we were weak, and it has to be at the right time where Christ dies for the ungodly, and God comes to our rescue.

Not the rescue of angels. That's the point. He doesn't come and help angels.

They sinned. They just got judgment. But for us, we sinned, and we're getting mercy and grace.

God is coming to help us. And if you want the seed of Abraham here to be

Jewish people or God's people in general, whatever you want there, that's not my concern at the moment.

He's here to help. He's here. You either think He's here to help the seed of Abraham as a

Jewish race as a whole, or both Jews and Gentiles. But if you're going to argue that and forget that He comes to seize and to take hold of and to grip not angels, but men, then

I think you're down a bad rabbit hole of eschatology. What does

ESV study Bible says? Paul states the main point of his argument. Those who belong to Christ are part of Abraham's family, and hence they do not need to be circumcised to become part of God's people.

God gives assurance. He delivers, He destroys, and He seizes.

He's grabbed hold of you. That's good to know. That's good to know. Number four, identify.

Number four, identify. Why can I praise the Lord in the midst of the world today?

Well, let me give you some reasons. And it's the reason because it has been accomplished by, and Jesus came to do this at the

Incarnation. Destroy, deliver, seize, and now identify. The word's not used, but the idea is there in verse 17.

Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God.

He had to be made like his brothers in every respect. He had to be.

Of course, not sin, but if you're going to be a high priest and represent other people, you're going to have to be a people.

You're going to have to be a person. He had to be. This is language of to owe something, debts and loans and sums and rents.

It's basically talking about moral obligation. He had to. He owed it.

He ought to. It's a moral obligation. The nature of Jesus, as one writer said, the nature of the work

Jesus came to accomplish demanded the Incarnation, right? You begin to think of other concepts about true humanity and true man who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

All this so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service to God in every way, right?

The only way we can be saved is we need not just a substitute, although that's wonderful, but we need a representative.

And he identifies with us by becoming human, by assuming human nature.

And therefore, now this high priest is merciful and faithful. Last time

I checked, Yahweh, he's merciful and faithful. He's gracious and merciful, right?

That's what we're thinking about. We're talking about Jesus is trustworthy, Jesus is faithful.

Jesus is faithful to the God who sent him. He's not unfaithful.

He's not unmerciful, right?

He's not like Eli's own sons. No, he's not like that at all.

Number five, propitiation. Where am I here on this show? Where am I? Do I have any other things that I haven't used in my lineup?

I have so many. One, two, three, four. Four presets, times two, four, six, eight, so that's 32 presets that I would be able to use any time

I pleased, right? Even when bad guys show up. That's a lot shorter than I thought.

Huh. All right. Number five, propitiate. Destroy, deliver, seize, identify, propitiate.

Here in the same section, he says to make propitiation for the sins of the people. So, we're sinners, and God is holy, and therefore

God is showing his wrath against sin and sinful people, and we need to have our sins not just taken away, expiation, but propitiation, wrath assuaged, wrath exhausted, to be put away.

Jesus bears our sins, and he is the one who absorbs the wrath of God, divine wrath.

So we don't have to. The divine wrath against sin is true, and now we need someone to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for those in covenant relationship with God.

Other religions, they try to assuage God's wrath or God's wraths, and we know that that's not going to happen, and we know 1

John 4, 10, in this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins.

We have committed a crime, we have offenses, we have guilt, we have debt, and God needs to be assuaged his wrath.

There needs to be atonement, there needs to be reconciliation, we need to be pardoned, we need to be accepted.

There needs to be a sacrifice to make atonement, and Owen writes a lot about that, satisfying the righteous demands of God's justice.

And did you know, high priest here, applied to Jesus here in the New Testament, what do priests do?

They pray, I think Jesus prays in Hebrews 7, and they offer sacrifice, and he is the sacrifice.

And finally, number six, he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

We have a different word for help, and that's our number six. Help. Deliver, destroy, seize, identify, propitiate, and help.

He comes to help in temptation, in suffering. This is not an academic exercise with Jesus, this is very personal, this is not a lab experiment.

No, no. This is, as some call it, pity under control. No, no, no.

That's what high priest used to have to be like, according to Philo, not showing feelings. But here we have a sympathetic and merciful high priest who comes to give help to those who are tempted.

You ever been tempted? You ever been thinking, you know what, I want the crown before the cross,

I fall into temptation. No, he is able to help.

I like that, he's able to help. Chapter four, he's able to sympathize with their weaknesses. Chapter seven, he's able to save those completely who come to him through him.

And now we have help, that old word, succoring, where it means to help. A little child cries, and we run over to that child and bring that little child help when they need the help.

King James even says it that way, for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor those that are tempted.

Isn't that good? Don't you need that? Don't you need that, dear Christian, dear listener?

He himself, emphatically, the eternal Son, assumes humanity and does that for you?

Yes, he did it to please the Father, that's true, but he also did it for you. What a Savior. What a great

Savior you have. What a great high priest, offering his blood and dying for you.

The surety pays the dreadful debt. That's amazing. And therefore we believe with the

Belgic Confession of the Last Judgment that what happens? What happens to us?

The faithful and the elect will be crowned with glory and honor, and the Son will profess their names before God as Father and the holy and elect angels.

All tears will be wiped away from their eyes and their cause. At present, condemned as heretical and evil by many judges and civil officers, will be acknowledged as the cause of the

Son of God. And as a gracious reward, the Lord will make them possess a glory such as the human heart could never imagine.

So we look forward to that great day—that's good language there—that great day with longing in order to fully enjoy the promises of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. That is wonderful. That is No Compromise Radio Ministries finale today, talking about the

Lord Jesus and who He is and what He has done for us. Sent by the Father, mission accomplished.

And He's going to be coming back, too. Don't you know that? This is Mike Abenroth, NoCompromiseRadio .com.