Federal Headship (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 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, ministry. Usually when

I'm here in the studio, I have to turn down Steve's guest volume because he's in here doing shows with me and now we have no message moments, no

Steve Cooley, he's on sabbatical, No Compromise Radio today, trying to point you to the one who never compromised, the

Lord Jesus Christ. What can I tell you today? Well, you can always write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Unless you're super duper uber rude, I probably will respond to you.

And if it's not, I usually do, but if it's not me, it's usually Ray or somebody. Somebody down low on the toilet bowl.

Seriously, I get everyone. The info at No Compromise Radio goes straight to my Google account and I get those wherever I might be in the world.

So today, where in the world am I? Well, I'm in West Boylston. It's rainy, it's cold, it's spring.

Hallelujah. Bloom where you are planted. We're talking about federal headship.

I believe this is part three today, federal headship. I just did a little NoCo 90 on federal headship.

I think this show today will air in June, but I did that back in April because today in real time, it's

April. So it's an ongoing thing. People email and say, I didn't agree with that show.

I liked the show. Why did you say that? To whom were you referring? And I have to say, I have no idea.

They're just all repeats to me. So we're working through Romans chapter five here on No Compromise Radio.

And we're talking about federal headship. And we haven't gotten too far. We basically dealt with Romans chapter five, verse 12, because all sinned.

How can they all sin? How can people die between Adam and Moses if there's no law?

Well, we're working through the issues here and we believe that the Bible teaches clearly federal headship.

Adam was a federal head and his first sin and only his first sin was credited to everyone else. And so let's see what the message says.

This is in honor of Steve Cooley, since Steve is still on shabbatical. You know the story of how

Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in. Now, see, here's the thing. I'm going to bet you,

I'm not a betting man, but I guess I'm gonna bet today. I'm going to bet you 500 no -code dollars, which it's like one of those

Bitcoins. It's not worth too much. I'm going to bet you 500 no -code dollars that the sense of Romans five in the message is not going to be federally related, covenantally related, representative.

It's going to be Pelagian, Seminole. It will be realistic. It will be hereditary depravity.

It will be something, but it won't be federal headship. So that's my bet. I haven't read this before. I have to admit that although I've read through the

King James, the New King James, I don't know if I made it through the NIV or not. I've read through the

NAS many times, ESV, yes, but I have not read through the

Message Bible. So I'm sorry for that. I always like to listen to S. Lewis Johnson, and he says, well, I started reading through the

Bible this year for the third time. It's just, where are people like that?

Martha and I were reading the Bible for the third time together. Where are people like that?

You know the story of how, this is Eugene Peterson, of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in.

First sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear.

There's been a disturbance in the force. If only I could imitate people like Frank Gorshin.

Remember Frank Gorshin? He was the Riddler, the Riddler. I loved those shows when

I was a kid. Not Buddy Rich, but Rich Little, ba -bum -bum, okay.

But the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses.

So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses.

Even though, excuse me, even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, the separation from God.

But Adam who got us into this also points ahead to the one who will get us out of it. Now, so far, no federal headship, although it was very true that even over those whose sinning was not like that, like the transgression of Adam, that's verse 14.

Peterson gets the concept there right, but still not federal headship. See, that was easy to say once you quote the

Bible, once you read the Bible. Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death -dealing sin.

If one man's sin puts crowds of people at the dead -end abyss, sin saloon, of separation from God, just think what

God's gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do. I don't think I'd use the word pouring.

Call me old -fashioned, call me reformed. And we're just pouring this.

The pouring was with the love of God in verse, chapter five, verses one and following.

That's where it should be, like in verse five. Just think what the gift of God poured through one man,

Jesus Christ, will do. There's no comparison between the death -dealing sin and then this generous life -giving gift.

I agree with that. The verdict on that one sin, well, that's pretty good, was the death sentence.

The verdict on the many sins that followed was the wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes sovereign life in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life gift, this grand setting everything right that one man,

Jesus, provides? Grasping with both hands.

Okay, I'm gonna see if I can find that someplace. Is there anything about faith in this section?

Is there anything about faith in verse 15? 15, no, 16, yet, 17, no, 18, no, 19, no, 20, no, 21, no.

Obviously we're saved through faith. Paul's talked about that earlier in Romans chapter three.

He gives an illustration of that with Abraham in Romans chapter four. But I wouldn't insert that here into Romans chapter five, would you?

Here it is in a nutshell. The message says, why are we doing all this? Because we're talking about Romans chapter five and Steve's gone.

Here it is in a nutshell. Just as one person did it wrong, I did it wrong, brother, and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right, got us out of it.

But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life. One man said no to God, put many people in the wrong.

One man said yes to God, put many people in the right. All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers.

But sin didn't and doesn't have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace.

When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. I call you on that.

Raise you. All sin can do is threaten us with death. And that's the end of it.

Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life. A life that goes on and on and on.

I'm not making this up. World without end, amen. In peace, let us pray to the

Lord. Lord, have mercy. Help, save, peace, forgive, fend us in God. Oh, by thy grace, amen, amen.

See how my high liturgy comes back just when I need it the most? Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Why don't you just get a regular

Bible? Frankly, I would prefer you to get a good word -for -word

English translation, New American Standard, New King James, King James, ESV, that's fine by me.

If you have to go dynamic equivalent, you wanna get NIV, the old one, 84, okay.

I get all that, I understand it. You say, well, what about the Holman? I don't, you know, I've never read the

Holman Bible, but I got a bunch of free ones in the mail the other day, so on my Greece trip, I'm gonna try to read,

I don't think I'm gonna get through the whole New Testament because I'm gonna be busy living the New Testament. Can you imagine standing there?

I've been to Athens before on Mars Hill. I've been to Greece, no,

I've been to Corinth before. The canal is very impressive, I'll tell you that.

But I have not been to Crete, and I can't wait to see if there's a bunch of evil beast and lazy gluttons there.

This testimony is true. I have not been to Patmos. I just want to walk around and read

Revelation chapter one. How great would that be? I haven't been to Ephesus before.

I'd like to read Ephesians chapter one. I only need to read one sentence in all the book of Ephesians to get that.

One, chapter one, that is, verse three to 14, that's only one sentence. 203 words, beautiful words, one sentence.

I have not been to Thessalonica, Thessaloniki. I would like to order a cappuccino fredo on Thessaloniki, and I have not been to Berea.

They're more noble up there, I've heard. And see, I need Steve, because it doesn't really, it doesn't make it funny when you're by yourself, a veritable fusillage.

I know, it's fusillade, I know, but I'm just saying that, et cetera, et cetera. Milk. So anyway,

I'm going to be there soon enough. What does that have to do with anything? Well, I'm going to read the Holman New Testament while I'm there.

So we're going to see what the Holman Bible's like. That is a Southern Baptist production brought to you by the

Southern Baptists. All right, back to Romans 5 for real.

Here's the scoop. God ordained that Adam would stand, not just for himself, but also his offspring.

And because God does everything correct, whatever he does is right, and just, and good, he imputes the guilt of the first sin committed by the head of the covenant to everyone else, everyone except Jesus.

Then consequently, get this order right, consequently, as a result, people are born depraved.

Romans 5, verse 12 isn't talking about inherited depravity, although we inherit depravity from Adam.

What's talked about in Romans 5, verse 12 is Adam's first sin.

In other words, the corruption we have on the inside isn't the cause of our condemnation.

Arthur Pink said, antecedent to any personal act of ours, we stand accursed by the divine law.

Why? Because it was that one transgression. But see, here's the good news. We like imputation here at No Compromise Radio, and we like federal representation, covenant headship.

Why is that? Because Adam was our representative, but there's another one who could be a representative.

We get another representative, and of course, it's the last Adam, Jesus Christ. Now think about this for a moment.

This is all 13 minutes so far leading up to this point. Angels did not have a representative.

Can you imagine? Angels weren't favored. When angels fell, and they fell into sin, no representative.

They fell in their own right, they're judged based on what they did. Too bad the angels say, we don't have a representative.

For us though, we have a representative. Why do I know this is true?

Because it's simple in Romans chapter five. We have the tale of two representatives, and Paul is trying to let us know this.

Remember last time? How can anyone save a lot of people? How can anyone represent someone?

How is anyone saved through Jesus Christ? How can this one man, although more than just a man, the

God -man, how can he save many? Chapter five, verse one through, chapter five, verse 21 through.

How can we be saved through one man? And so what Paul does is he says, you're lost by one man, you can be saved by one man.

There is representative headship, federal headship in the

Bible. And you can just go other places to see that general concept, because people push against it, even though they live in a federal government where the

Congress makes decisions for us, and when we're at war with North Korea, if that were to happen, that's in the news now, we would all be at war.

Remember the curse of Canaan fell on all his posterity? That's Genesis chapter 9, 25.

That's representation. The sins of the fathers affect the children.

That's representation. Exodus 20, shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the

Lord, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

That's representation. The Egyptians perished for Pharaoh's sin.

Achan's whole family died for his theft. Joshua chapter 7, verse 24.

Israel suffered for David's sin. Second Samuel 24, it says, so the

Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and there died the people, from Dan to Beersheba, 70 ,000 men.

Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, behold,

I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house.

That's representation. Leprosy visited Gehazi, and then it passed to his seed forever, 2

Kings 5. Verse 27 says, therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.

So he, Gehazi, went out from his presence a leper like snow.

The blood of the prophets was exacted of the members of Christ's generation. Luke 11 .50

says Arthur Pink. Luke 11 .50 says, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation.

Federal representatives, their actions become our actions by imputation.

This shouldn't be new for us. When the United States declared war on Japan in December, 1941, there was one person in the

Congress who voted against the declaration. Jeanette Rankin was her name, and she stood alone opposing everyone else.

And yet when the decision was final, since she was a citizen, she was at war with Japan along with everyone else.

The nation acts as a unit. Federal headship isn't new, although it is strange for us in our individualistic, self -centered, no one's going to rule over us society.

We don't think about the moral unit as the community, as our society, as our nation.

We think individually. We have a wrong view. So we'll certainly, if it's not wrong, we don't have a really good understanding of how the ancient people in the

Bible days thought about the solidarity of the community. That solidarity,

John Murray says, either works for good or it works for evil.

Just as sin came into the world through one man, Romans 5, 12, through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Paul is comparing the saving work of Christ with the condemning work of Adam.

Salvation through the deeds and work and action of one man, Jesus Christ.

Condemnation through one man, Adam. Condemnation through one, righteousness through another.

How can Jesus, one man, save many? Well, Paul uses Adam to point out to the fact that one man's actions affect other people.

And this is by God's all -wise decree. This was his determined decree. Adam's sin wasn't his alone.

It was placed in everybody else's account, everyone except Jesus's account. It was placed

David's account, Abraham's account,

Ruth's account, Mary, the mother of Jesus, her account,

Paul's account, Peter's account, Billy Graham's account, everyone's account.

It pleased God to deal with the world by federal representation.

Now, think about this. Jewish people, Jonathan Edwards said, were prejudiced against the doctrine of universal sinfulness.

And you know, what did the Jews think? We're children of Abraham. Father Abraham and many sons. Many sons have

Father Abraham. I'm one of them. If you're circumcised, let's just praise the Lord. Or something like that. Have I been singing twice today on No Compromise Radio?

Where's Steve Cooley when I need him? Edwards says in his book,

The Original Sin, On Original Sin, rather, it was therefore exceeding proper and what the apostles designed most naturally led him to, that they, the

Jews, should take their eyes off of their father, Abraham, their father in distinction from other nations, and direct them to their father,

Adam. See, that's what Paul's trying to do. Edwards goes on, who was the common father of mankind, equally of Jews and Gentiles, end quote.

Right? That's what Paul is trying to go through here. No one has righteousness. Gentiles don't have it.

So -called moral people don't have it. Jews don't have it. One deed of one man affected a lot of person.

Adam. No wonder the American Atheist Journal says this.

Christians and Christianity has fought, but still fights and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason

Jesus's earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Now, this is from the American Atheist Journal, September 1978, page 30.

You want the quote? Email me at infoatnocompromiseradio .com. Send in a love gift of any size.

Just kidding. Email me. I'll send you the quote. Destroy Adam and Eve and original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the

Son of God. If Jesus was not the Redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then

Christianity is nothing. No wonder there's an attack on Genesis 1, 2, and 3.

Paul is trying to tell the folks, and I'm trying to tell you over and over and over a variety of different ways, men are saved precisely in the same manner in which they were lost, according to Thomas and Steele.

And by the way, if you need one book on Romans, you could probably get Moo's commentary or Murray's commentary.

Thomas Schreiner's is excellent. I probably like Moo's the best. I don't know, maybe Murray I like the best,

I'm not sure. Soon I'm gonna like S. Lewis Johnson's Romans commentary the best. Actually, I've been working on that thing 10, 15, 20 hours a week.

I don't know how long I've been working on that. It should come out sometime soon, Discovering Romans Spiritual Revival for the

Soul, S. Lewis Johnson Jr., adapted by the broken and wounded

Mike Abenroth. So, but the one that you should get if you just have a little bit of money to spend, which is a good more, it's more of an overview.

It's a good more overview. It's by Steele, S -T -E -E -L -E -N,

Thomas. The Interpretive Outline of Romans. I think that's it.

Excellent, cool charts, graphs, pictures. Well, no pictures, but some good drawings that'll help you understand the book of Romans.

It's obvious that Paul accepted the historicity of Genesis as he goes back to this very topic.

The federal head, Adam. This isn't a concept. This isn't, wasn't some monkey man who finally got self -consciousness and was self -actualized, and then he became the first Adam.

No, Adam, designated by God as a federal head. What Eve did affected herself, of course, but nothing happened to the race.

Nothing happened to all those in Eve because Adam was a representative. One man said after Eve's sin, nothing happened, but after the federal head sinned, all hell broke loose.

That would be true. It wasn't the eating of the apple that was somehow associated with alcohol.

People like to talk about that, or associated with sex. No, it was just blatant unbelief. Will he obey the word of God?

No. So, my name's Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio. We're still talking about federal headship in Romans chapter five because it's so fascinating, and I'd like to try to talk about this as often as I can because it shows you that Jesus Christ is greater than sin, greater than Adam, and he is the great one that we might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our risen

Lord. That's what I'm after, so you can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com. 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 1015 and in the evening at six. 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 in staff or management.