Godhead Covenant (Part 1)

No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise. What blows your mind?

What Blows Your Mind and Why the Trinity Before Time Is More Astonishing

What makes you think, the more I contemplate that, the more incredibly great it is? Like the older I get, there are fewer and fewer of those kind of things. But what blows your proverbial mind? I just had a list of a few things in no particular order.

One was when my wife Kim said, yes, when I asked her, would you marry me? I could just transport back to the place where I was when I asked her. My mind was blown when I watched each one of my children be born.

Haley, Luke, Maddie, and Gracie. When I saw that, I thought, I cannot believe what I'm seeing. The wonders of evolution. I mean, I just could not believe it. Nothing times eternity equals everything. I was just amazed.

With all seriousness, I am still mind boggled. My mind is still in amazement that after everything that I've done in my unregenerate life, that I could be a pastor. I could preach the Word for a holy God.

I'm amazed by that. My mind was blown away the first time I stood next to the Sea of Galilee and thought it might not be at this exact spot, but Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, walked by this body of water.

He also walked upon it as well. And my mind, of course, flashes to the time in 1989 where God showed me my sin, my need of a Savior, granted me faith and repentance and trust in Christ alone. That was mind-boggling.

I used to be a child of darkness, then He transformed me into the kingdom of His light. But you know, there's something more mind-blowing than any of these things. And that is what happened within the Trinity before time began.

If you can get your mind wrapped around the idea that the Scriptures teach before time began, the Trinity had a discussion. The Trinity talked to one another. The Father, Son, and the Spirit, the Eternal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Eternal Spirit had a pact, had an agreement, had an arrangement, had a covenant, had a guarantee to show glory, their glory to the world.

That boggles my mind. Now, some of you I know well, some of you I don't know that well. For those of you that don't know me well and you'd like to know what gets me up in the morning, what makes my tick, what's He all about?

This topic today, it's it. I'm so glad I don't have to get up to you in front of you this morning and say, alright, it's another year, so let me give you my pastoral exhortation. You know, you did a pretty good job last year, just do a better job this year.

You know, you were pretty nice last year, and it's nice to be nice after all, but I want you to be nicer this year. You were good last year. Some of you were better than others, I know. But I just want you to be better this year when you see from Scripture that God, before time began, made a promise.

By the way, if you're a Christian, you're included in that promise. You're not going to be thinking about your health, you're not going to be thinking about your finances, you're not going to be thinking about what could happen this year.

You're going to think, I can't believe what's happening. You'll be like Lloyd-Jones, and Lloyd-Jones says, if you get this down, you are going to be standing on your tiptoes praising God. So let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10.

As we've had a small detour from 1 Corinthians, Jonathan Edwards would have a detour once in a while, and he called those detours, occasional sermons. So here's an occasional sermon. Hebrews chapter 10, what did Jesus say before He was born?

I thought I was done last week, but I'm so intrigued by the topic, so drawn in that I can't stop myself. It's great. I'm like with Paul in Romans 11, where he says, oh, the depth and the riches. You know, that's a Greek word, oh, this interjection, oh, wow.

Sometimes I like to push the envelope a little bit, so I'll just kind of push it to start. Look, if you're a Christian this morning, I dare you to just say, you know, this is kind of boring. You know, theology is boring.

Remember, if you say theology is boring, theology is just truth about God. Doctrine doesn't really matter. Remember, doctrine is truth about God. Truth about God doesn't matter. Truth about God is boring.

When you look at this, you're going to say, no, I feel like standing on tiptoes. I feel like I want to just kind of explode. So as far as I'm concerned, there might be an occasional sermon part three next week, because I'm in no rush.

This is just where I want to just kind of sit and marinate. This is what I call crockpot theology. You just put all that meat in there in a barbecue sauce, and you get those special kind of the bread buns there, and you just kind of just let it cook all day long, and you just keep smelling it.

You just think, when is it going to be ready? We having lunch today here? Do we cancel that? You say, I'd like to praise God more. This topic relates to that. I'd like to have more assurance of my salvation.

This topic relates to that. I wonder if you could lose your salvation. This topic addresses that. What about free will? This topic addresses that. What about evangelism? This topic addresses that. A great Baptist preacher said, the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead.

The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the intention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his father.

There's something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity. It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity, so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity.

But I have to give this caveat to start, buyer beware. When you learn about this God, this great God, he's not the pantheistic God who just says, whatever happens. He's not the deist God that says, you know, just all wound up, just let her go.

He's the God that when you understand him, he demands everything, complete allegiance. And as we study this also, it's very, very humbling. The Puritan John Flavel said, they that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud.

So I like that. I like it when the focus is taken off of me. Because when I focus on myself too much, frankly, sometimes I'm not that happy. It's not that good. And everything in our society is you, you, you.

I ate Kashi cereal this morning, and the name of my Kashi cereal was called what? You. It's a big you. It's all about you. And I was glad for the pomegranates, and I was glad for the, you know, boysenberries or whatever.

But it was about us. And hear this idea, what happened in eternity past between the Father, Son, and the Spirit. By the way, where were you during that council? I wasn't there. You weren't there. This is pre-us.

And so that's what makes it so fascinating. That's what makes it so great. Left to ourselves, we'd be like Charles Heffey. Do you remember Charles Heffey, 2002? He wanted to change his name. Some people change their name to interesting things, numbers, ochocinco, you know, you get your name changed.

This man wanted to get his name changed to God, G-O-D. I think this is probably against the ACLU's ruling, though. The judge said no. Imagine that. The judge says no. So the guy said, okay, I want to change my name to I am who I am.

The judge said, well, what would your first name be then and all that? He said, I am. But you know, that's who I am, too. That's who you are. We're about ourselves, the pride and the arrogance and creatures thinking they're creators.

So I like this topic. So we can be with Jehoshaphat saying, oh, our God, our eyes are upon you. Well, we're in Hebrews chapter 10. What did Jesus say before he was born? As you know, this writer, the writer of Hebrews, is trying to tell people, some Christians, some not, that Jesus is great.

Everything about Jesus is better. He's more perfect. And the focus should be upon Christ. Don't deviate. Don't divert off from Christ Jesus. Make sure you be focused on the shepherd and the mediator of your soul.

And basically, he says to these Jews, don't turn your back on Jesus. Turn your back on everything but Jesus is really his theme. And our outline this morning will be a little bit different. I think basically what I want you to do is see maybe the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your salvation.

I don't think I'm going to get through all of those. And so we're just going to look at the what and the who and the why of what happened in eternity past so that you can be more thankful, praise God more, and we're going to look at what's called by theologians the covenant of redemption.

If you want to call it an agreement, you can, an arrangement, you can, a promise, you can, a guarantee, you can. I'm not a dispensationalist. I'm not a covenant theologian. When dispensationalists teach the truth, I believe it.

When covenant theologians teach the truth, I believe it. I believe in the covenant of redemption, but I also believe there's a future for Israel. But the language of covenant is biblical language. Listen to Jesus.

This cup that is poured out for you is the new, what, covenant in my blood. Paul, when he quoted Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

I read you this morning in Hebrews chapter 13, by the blood of the eternal, what, covenant, a bond that is blood-bought, a solemn promise. Salvation according to Jesus has to be thought of or conceived in some way with representation, with a federal nature, with covenant.

And so today we'll look at the covenant of redemption, number one, the what of the covenant. I want you to understand the what of the covenant, this eternal covenant, so your praise increases. It's going to have to, because that's what it's designed to do.

Focus off ourselves and focus upon the Lord. The what of the covenant, and this is where we were last week. I'll just read these verses to set the tone, because many were gone. Hebrews 10, verse 1. Now remember, the first four verses are to show us and to show the readers that continual sacrifices show that there is an inadequate forgiveness.

Because if it was adequate, one sacrifice, over. Hebrews 10, verse 1. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? Yes, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

But it doesn't clean your conscience. Verse 3. But in these sacrifices, Yom Kippur, every other one for that matter, there's a reminder of sins every year. The good news is, sacrifice showed that we were sinful, that the Israelites were sinful.

Verse 10. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Just won't happen. And then the writer of Hebrews quotes scripture to clinch his case. You've heard preachers do that?

The Bible says, and very often New Testament writers do that. And so here we overhear the what of the covenant. The son talking to the father before time began, before he was born, Hebrews 10, 5. What did you say before you were born?

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings, you, the father, have not desired, he's not talking to an angel, he's not talking to himself, but a body you have prepared for me.

In burnt offerings, he gives a list, in sin offerings, both plural, you've taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, talking to the father, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

There we get a peek into the what of the covenant, the eternal arrangement, the pact or promise between the father and the son to go rescue a people by the power of the spirit of God. He came into the world for that very purpose.

By the way, some sacrifices in the Old Testament, well, all of them were not made by willing participants. To get some of the sheep in, you'd have to get the Judas goat, by the way, I have a confession here, my font is now 12 instead of 11.

I fought this for years, and I've been preaching from 11 font for 20 years, and I finally made it up to 20. I mean to 12, excuse me. This makes it 20. Happy to be slaughtered, they actually had to be led in there by this kind of fake leader goat, Judas goat, but Jesus, he offered his body what, willingly.

It was a real body, it wasn't an animal body. It was once for all sacrificed to atone the sins of the people. Jewish sacrifices couldn't do that. True or false? Sacrifice was a substitute for godly conduct in the Old Testament.

As long as you have the sacrifice, you're good. No, the sacrifice needed to be perfect. God wanted the worshiper to be obedient. Who could be the perfect, obedient worshiper? The perfect, obedient person?

Well, Jesus had to be. That's why he said, I have come to do your will. We looked at this last week. What was said? We don't know everything that was said before time, but I liked Mr. Spurgeon in what he calls the mysterious council chamber, and this is Spurgeon trying to put into biblical conversation what the Father, Son, and the Spirit each said.

It's beautiful. Pay attention. I, the most high Jehovah, do hereby give unto my only begotten and well-beloved Son a people countless beyond the number of the stars, who shall be by him washed from sin, preserved and kept and led, and by him at least presented before my throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

I covenant by oath and swear by myself, because I can swear by no greater, that I give Christ Jesus to redeem these objects of my eternal love. Them I will forgive through the merit of his blood. To these will I give a perfect righteousness.

These will I adopt and make my sons and daughters, and these shall reign with me through Christ eternally. Now, those aren't the exact words, but that's exactly what the Father did. The Holy Spirit said, according to Spurgeon, I hereby covenant that all whom the Father giveth to the Son, I will in due time quicken.

I will show them their need of redemption. I will cut off from them all groundless hope and destroy their refuge of lies. I will bring them to the blood of sprinkling. I will give them faith whereby this blood is to be applied to them.

I will work in them every grace. I will cleanse them and drive out all their depravity, and they shall be presented at last spotless and faultless. The Son, the Father, the Spirit talking to one another.

Well, what's the Son say? This is maybe the best. My Father, on my part I covenant that in the fullness of time, I will become man. I will take upon myself the form and nature of the fallen race. I will live in their wretched world, and for my people will I keep the law perfectly.

I will work out a spotless righteousness, which shall be acceptable to the demands of thy just and holy law. In due time I will bear the sins of all my people. Thou shalt exact their debts on me. The chastisement of their peace I will endure, and by my stripes they will be healed.

My Father, said the Son, I covenant and promise that I will be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I will magnify thy law and make it honorable. I will suffer all they ought to have suffered.

I will endure the curse of thy law, and all the vials of thy wrath shall be emptied and spit upon my head. I will then rise again. I will ascend into heaven. I will intercede for them at the right hand, and I will make myself responsible for every one of them.

Surety that not one of those whom thou hast given me shall ever be lost. That I shall bring all my sheep, of whom by thy blood thou hast constituted me the shepherd, I will bring every one safe to thee at last.

Turn with me, if you would, to James chapter 1. James chapter 1. That is a masterpiece. We don't know if exactly word for word, but there was plenty of biblical language in there. What happened before time began?

The Father, Son, and the Spirit had an eternal pact, an agreement, a guarantee, yes, a covenant. And it was their wills, the one eternal will of God, that decided who was going to be saved and should anybody be saved.

God could have said, oh, you know what, like the angels, no salvation. He could have decided, let's save everyone. But here, what happened? Whose will was it? I ask you now, why, if you're going to heaven, why are you going to heaven?

Because you believed? No. Through your faith? Yes. But the only reason you're going to heaven is because God's will chose you in the eternal counsel of God. Whose will saved you? I ask the question, where was faith in this eternal counsel?

I ask the question, where was free will in this eternal counsel? Whose will saved us? James 1 .18, of His own will. That's just like the language of Hebrews 10, about the will of the Son, of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

God saved you by His own deliberate purpose and will, and you say, you know what, here you go again with all this kind of God sovereign over who goes to heaven and all that. Of course I'm doing that, because that's exactly what you need.

You need that. You need to say to yourself, before Jesus was born, He had a conversation with the Father and the Son, this eternal, mysterious counsel, a conversation, that's what we need to understand.

By the way, who could come up with such a thing? Listen to what they say in heaven, you are worthy, O Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

Our faith wasn't in the counsel, we weren't in the counsel, free will wasn't in the counsel, God wasn't up in the counsel saying, you know what, let's look down the quarters of time and we'll pick those who are, like Calvin said, who are really handsome, who are pretty, let's pick the pretty ones.

And without going off on too much of a deviation, what gives God more glory? Choosing the depraved people and then redeeming them and making them conform to the image of His Son, or choosing people that are pretty good.

I've said this a hundred times because I think it's so effective. When you see total makeovers, the makeup artist picks certain kinds of people to give a total makeover. What do they pick? Do they pick beautiful people to makeover or do they pick ugly people to makeover?

They pick ugly people! You're all looking at me like, I sure hope he doesn't say ugly from the pulpit again. Because then you say, the makeup artist, the hairdresser, those kind of people, they're good.

What they do, their handiwork is excellent. We are not saved because of faith. Faith is not salvific. We are saved through faith, not because of faith. We're saved because of the love of God in the triune council before eternity passed.

Our slogan should be with Ephesians chapter 2 regarding all of our salvation, not of ourselves, not of ourselves, not of ourselves, not of ourselves. Sometime when someone says to you, when did you get saved?

If you ask me, Mike, when did you get saved? I'd be tempted to just say, well, it was 1989 and my father died in January. I bought my first house in April. I asked him to marry me on May 6th. We got married on June 6th.

There's a lot of big things going on in my life and then around September is when I believed and trusted Christ Jesus with my life. That's true. But how about when someone says to you, when did you get saved?

Well, let me just tell you about what Jesus said before He was born in the eternal councils of the Trinity, because that's when I was ultimately saved. It was then. It was when the Father, Son, and the Spirit said, I'm going to pick some and I'm going to have the Son die for those some, the Spirit will regenerate those some, and before eternity passed, God chose me.

That would be an interesting testimony. God by Himself, for Himself, to please Himself, chose us in eternity past.

The Covenant of Redemption and the Eternal Counsel 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.

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