Equipping Eve: What Is Sanctification?

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus? Well, it's true there's no shortage of candy-coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benziger, a friend of No Compromise Radio, and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Show Introduction and Audience Instructions

Well, hello, ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve. I'm your host, Erin Benziger. You can check us out on Facebook, on Twitter, if you just search in either of those forms for Equipping Eve, you will find us.

You can visit our website, equippingeve .com or .org, and you can email me there, or you can just send an email to equippingeve at gmail .com. That is all the ways that you can get a hold of me. Just a reminder, ladies, this is a show for you.

So guys, gentlemen, if you're listening, we appreciate the support, we appreciate that you want to hear what's going on in the show, but we would ask, so that we can be faithful to our Lord and to His Word and the commands contained therein, we would ask that you not listen as a means of being taught.

This is a show for women, and men, I understand, maybe you want to take a listen before you recommend it to your wife, sister, mother, I understand that, and I appreciate that, and I think that's great, and that's okay, or perhaps you want to listen with your wife, and that's all okay as well, but we do like to make clear here that this show is designed for women because I am a woman, and each show does contain elements of teaching, and so we want to be faithful to the Word and to our Savior there, and refrain from taking authority and teaching men.

So I thank you for respecting that. I do get occasional emails from men saying, hey, can I listen? Is that okay? And, well, can you? I can't stop you, but is it okay? Search the scriptures, and I think you'll find your answer rather quickly, but for those of you who are tuning in, ladies, thanks for joining us again today.

I know sometimes it's difficult to remember that the show airs every two weeks instead of every week or every day. It's just a matter of finding time to get everything done. This is obviously not my only job, and as much as I enjoy this ministry and love being able to connect with you ladies in one way or another, the bottom line is there simply is not time to do a daily talk show.

This is not the only thing I do. So we will remain every two weeks here for the foreseeable future, but let me know your thoughts on that. Let me know. Should we think about increasing the frequency of the show?

Should we think about decreasing the frequency of the show, and can you decrease the frequency of the show? If you're of that opinion, let me know. Hey, should we just put a big cancel button on it? Who knows?

I hope not. Okay. What should we talk about today? Well, we should start, as we often do here at Equipping Eve, with a moment of insanity, and this is where I like to go to my bookshelf and grab a bad book.

That's right. I have bad books on my bookshelf, and most of them were purchased specifically for that purpose, which is sad, but I always purchase when they're cheap. Don't worry. I don't spend full price on heresy, but I did receive several really bad books for my birthday, which was several months ago now, and I haven't even had a chance to go through all of them, but I picked one up today.

It's a little devotional, Five Minutes with Jesus, because that's all you need, is just five minutes with Jesus, and it's funny to me that Five Minutes with Jesus is a book that's not the Bible. Anyway, Five Minutes with Jesus, piece four today by Sheila Walsh, so there you go.

If you Google Sheila Walsh, you'll see why she is not my favorite. Sheila Walsh is a speaker, teacher, I think she's a musician as well, and like I say, if you Google her, I think if you go onto YouTube, you might find an interesting interview with her.

There might be angels and stuffed animals involved. I'll say no more and let you find that yourself. You're welcome. Okay, so, Five Minutes with Jesus, piece four today by Sheila Walsh. So I just opened this up.

You know, I did that whole thing that you should not do with the Bible. Just open it up and just read whatever passage jumps off the page. Well, that can be pretty bad, because if you start taking that literally and you open to Judas Hung himself, you have a problem.

So be careful with that method of Bible study. Anyway, I did that with this book, though, because I figured it's all bad. I opened to a chapter called Perfect Peace. She writes, poor Nicholas Herman didn't have much going for him.

Even after he dedicated his life to Christ, are you ready for it? And became a monk, he found himself on the periphery of the monastic community. That must have been a hard pill to swallow. You've dedicated your whole life to serve God and entered the monastery only to find out you're at the bottom of the monk totem pole.

His job working in the kitchen was simple enough, but there are reports that he was constantly breaking things and as a result, finding himself the target of the other brother's ridicule. A monk's life was not an easy one to begin with, but add to that a menial job, daily failure and personal isolation from his community, it would be easy to conclude that Nicholas was utterly miserable.

Strangely enough, though, Nicholas, who took the name Brother Lawrence when he became a monk, lived a life of deep contentment and peace. As a matter of fact, he was so obviously joyful and at peace that people began asking him the reason for his joy and the basis of his peace.

Brother Lawrence told them the answer was simple, but a matter of tremendous discipline. He told them that he, quote, practiced the presence of God moment by moment. He never allowed his heart to wander from the heart of his beloved savior.

According to Brother Lawrence, we should feed and nourish our souls with high notions of God. Even if you peeled potatoes, he did it for the glory of God. And it goes on. A little bit of truth there. Do all things unto the Lord and we do all things for his glory.

So ladies, if you're a housewife and you feel like, what am I doing for the Lord? I wash dishes. I clean up after children. I do laundry. How is that possibly to God's glory? It is to God's glory doing those things for the glory of God, because that is where he has placed you at this point in time in your life.

That can be done to the glory of God. Perhaps you're a career woman. Do your job to the glory of God. Maybe it's not a career. Maybe you just have a job that you don't particularly care for. Do it unto the glory of God.

So there's, of course, elements of truth in here. But of course, we see the irony in that she claims that this man is a Christian, but he is a Catholic monk. Well, there's a problem. And Brother Lawrence, actually, if you read his book, you will find incredible elements of the contemplative and the mystic there.

So Brother Lawrence is not a resource I recommend at all. This whole practicing the presence of God thing, I don't understand what that is supposed to mean. God is omnipresent. I don't practice his presence.

That makes no sense. Do I stay in communion with him, pray without ceasing, constantly praying to God throughout the day? Of course. Do I read my Bible so that I can hear what the Lord has to say to me?

Through his word, not through audible voices? Yes, of course. Do I desire and strive for holiness so that my mind is transformed and I'm not conformed to this world? Yes, of course. I do those things.

I don't do those things apart from the power of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit. And I do not, quote, practice the presence of God because that doesn't make any sense. That is your moment of insanity.

You're welcome. Moving on. We just mentioned pursuing holiness and living a sanctified life, desiring sanctification, desiring holiness in a pursuit of righteousness. And that is what I'd like to talk about today, ladies.

And I can hear it. I can hear it. Some of you are groaning. You're thinking, oh, great. Here's a legalistic show. She's going to tell us all these things we have to do. And that makes us holy. No, no, no.

Hopefully you will find that that is not actually what we're doing. But we do need to consider what the scriptures say about sanctification. I think that is a topic that is sometimes, oh, shunned. No, we don't like to talk about sanctification.

We love the doctrine of justification, you know, that upon salvation we are justified before God. We are reckoned righteous. We love the doctrine of glorification, that someday we will be made completely holy and we will be with our Lord forever.

We love these things. But sanctification is like, ooh, ooh, so I have to do things? Oh, no, no, no. That's not the gospel. The gospel isn't about doing. And we recoil at that. We recoil at this transformation because it goes against our fallen nature.

However, ladies, let's remember, if we have been saved, we have a new nature. We are made a new creature in Christ. And so we are given new desires that we should want to pursue holiness. So in order to facilitate this discussion, I am going to be looking at a little book, but a wonderful book, called Sanctification, The Christian's Pursuit of God-Given Holiness.

And this is written by Mike Riccardi. He co-pastors Grace Life out at Grace Community Church, co-pastors that with Phil Johnson. And full disclosure, I was given this book as a gift, but not by Mike Riccardi.

I was actually given it by Phil. So thank you, Phil. And thank you, Mike, for writing this. This is a fantastic little book. It's short. It's very accessible. And it's packed with wonderful biblical truth, which is not a surprise.

Because if you have ever heard Mike Riccardi preach, you understand that he loves the Lord and loves his word. And just expounds it with such clarity and depth and skill. So he's a very skilled preacher.

And we're very blessed to have this book now that we can read and understand a little bit more about sanctification. So we're going to turn to this book and another book that you can't... And another book that, of course, must be included in every conversation about sanctification.

And that is Holiness by J .C. Ryle. And I'm going to turn to that one first. In order to define sanctification, J .C. Ryle says, Sanctification is that inward spiritual work that the Lord Jesus Christ works in a man by the Holy Ghost when he calls him to be a true believer.

He not only washes him from his sins in his own blood, but he also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world, puts a new principle in his heart, and makes him practically godly in life.

Practically godly. I love that. That's where it's at. Makes him practically godly in life. And note that Ryle says that the Holy Spirit does this work. So let's consider that as we go along. So if we start out here in Mike Riccardi's book, he makes some excellent points regarding what sanctification is, how we pursue it.

And he, of course, turns to scripture. He gives us two anchor texts for the discussion. The first of these is Philippians 2, verses 12 to 13, which says,. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. That's Philippians 2, 12 to 13. And remember, ladies, I use the New American Standard version. ESV is also a good version that I recommend, but the NASB is my favorite.

The second anchor text that Riccardi gives us is 2 Corinthians 3, 18. 2 Corinthians 3, 18 says,. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

Ladies, if we look at these texts, what we see, the first point that Riccardi makes, and I love this, it's so key, it's so key, is that sanctification is internal and supernatural, first and foremost.

Internal and supernatural. He turns to Romans 12, verse 2 to expand on this thought, which says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

The whole point here, ladies, is internal and supernatural. The point here is that we are not called merely to conform to good morals on the outside. We're not just called to good behavior. Yes, that happens.

But anybody can be a quote unquote good person. How many good people, air quotes, have you known who have not been Christians? They do not love the Lord. But they maybe do more charity work than you do.

They are just nicer people than a lot of the Christians you may know. Again, perhaps using the term loosely. There are a lot of good people out there. It's very easy to outwardly change our behavior. That is not what Scripture calls us to, first and foremost, for means of sanctification.

That is not sanctification. That is a practical outworking of sanctification. That is the visible fruit of sanctification. Some of the visible fruit of sanctification. But ultimately and fundamentally, sanctification is an internal work.

Look back at this Romans 12 verse that we just saw. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Our minds have to be transformed. We saw that same language in 2 Corinthians 3.

That we're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Just as from the Lord the Spirit. We're called not just to outward morality. But we are called to inward transformation. Riccardi writes, Do you see that?

We don't just do what God commands. We do do that. But that's not all we do. We love what God loves. And then act accordingly. I mean that makes sense, doesn't it? You love your spouse. And you act accordingly.

It's not just a matter of going through the motions. It's a matter of inward transformation. Later in his book, Riccardi writes,. The Christian is not merely someone who has, quote, made a decision for Jesus and has cleaned up his life a little bit via behavior modification.

Becoming a Christian means spiritual heart surgery. Being given an entirely new heart. Which is to say new affections and new desires. And so we are commanded not only to do justly, but also to love mercy.

We are commanded not just that we should give generously, but that we should be cheerful givers. Pastors and elders are commanded not merely to shepherd the flock of God, but to shepherd the flock of God willingly and eagerly.

Do you see that, ladies? Do you see that? It's not just that we are called in scripture to do certain things and just change our actions. We are called to have a transformed mind, a transformed heart, and attitude toward those behaviors.

And if we've been saved by God, we will. Do you see how this works? It just all flows together so naturally and so perfectly. So you can say that a discussion of sanctification is a legalistic one, but then you don't understand what the scriptures say about the true nature of sanctification.

Riccardi goes on, he says, God's word contains commands that cover the full range of human emotions, as well as human behavior and actions. We are not to covet, but to be content. We are to hope in God, to fear God, to experience peace, to long for, i .e., earnestly desire the pure milk of the word.

We are commanded to be tenderhearted, broken in spirit and contrite over sin, and, of course, to rejoice always. I go through all of that to try to make it plain that God commands us not only to do, but also to feel.

This means that the counsel that says just do your duty and your feelings will follow is a confused piece of advice. Joy, gladness, hope, cheerfulness, all of that is our duty. So if God loves a cheerful giver, and you give begrudgingly without cheerfulness, you've done your duty to give, but you've not done your duty to give cheerfully.

You've obeyed the command to give, but you have not obeyed the command to give cheerfully. And no, this isn't about money. It's just that that is the illustration that he chose to use in that instance.

So do you see the difference here? This is not just behavior modification. Behavior modification becomes an outworking of our transformed mind, our new desires, our new heart, our new nature that we are given when we are saved by Christ.

But secondly, it's important to realize we talk about all these commands even when we talk about inward commands, the way we're supposed to change inwardly. So again, it's all this stuff I have to do.

It's all about me just doing. No, no, no. Sanctification is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5 .23 says, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass. You see, the Holy Spirit empowers our sanctification. If we go out and do it on our own, you're only going to change your behavior. But because we are given the Holy Spirit at salvation, it is that Holy Spirit that transforms our minds, transforms our desires, our hearts, and allows us to grow in sanctification in this life.

How does the Holy Spirit do this? The Holy Spirit employs various means in order to grow us in sanctification. So, okay, I don't just have to change my behavior. I've got the Holy Spirit. I can just let go and let God, I'll just sit back and say, Hey, God, sanctify me.

I'll just be sitting right here on the couch waiting. Let me know when you're done. No, no, no. No, no, no. The Holy Spirit and God has given us various means here in this life. We must use those means, employ those means in order to grow in sanctification, which, again, we will do if we have been saved and been given new desires and a new mind and a new heart.

Scripture, Prayer, and Fellowship as Means of Sanctification

So what kind of means does the Holy Spirit use to grow us in sanctification, to aid us in our pursuit of holiness? Well, the first and most obvious of these means, of course, is Scripture, the Word of God.

2 Timothy 3 leads, if you'll turn with me there, to a very familiar passage. 2 Timothy 3, 16 says, All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training, and righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.

Psalm 1, 2 -3 says, His delight, well, let's start back. Psalm 1 -1. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does he prospers.

Do you see the result of meditating and delighting in the law, the Scriptures, the law of the Lord, meaning the Word of God? So do you see how the Spirit employs the means of the Scriptures? Psalm 19.

We all love Psalm 19. Turn to Psalm 19, verses 7 -11. It's a beautiful description of the Word of God. The psalmist writes, The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true.

They are righteous altogether. This is all describing the Word of God. I mean, think of how high and lofty this description is, ladies. Going on, verse 10. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them your servant is warned in keeping them. There is great reward. This glorious Word, the Holy Spirit employs, uses to sanctify us. The more we're in the Word of God, the more we grow to look like Christ and the more we desire to look like him.

James 1. James 1. James is one of my favorite books. Do you love the book of James? I love the book of James. Anyway, James 1. Turn there with me, ladies. Verse 23. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Do you see it? Do you see how this glorious Word is used to sanctify us? This is why we love it. We love the Word of God not just because we find comfort and encouragement in it. Sure, you can turn to a psalm and find comfort and encouragement.

You can also turn to a psalm and realize the holiness and the judgments of God. You see, the Word of God doesn't just give us a warm fuzzy. It convicts us, doesn't it? It challenges us. It calls us out on our sin.

It says, hey, wait a minute, you're doing this, and God says no. God says, if you love him, you don't do this. The Word of God, we love it because it grows us and challenges us and convicts us. So that is the first means of many that the Holy Spirit uses to sanctify us.

The second that Mike Riccardi touches on is prayer. Prayer is a means employed by the Holy Spirit for sanctification. John 14, verses 13 to 14, says, Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Jesus calling us to pray. First John 1 .9, a verse I'm sure we all love, says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

How do we go to the Lord in confession? Through prayer. Through prayer. Another means employed by the Holy Spirit for sanctification is fellowship with other believers. We are called to fellowship with other believers.

Iron sharpens iron, after all. And that is Proverbs 27 .17. I got ahead of myself. Proverbs 27 .17. Iron sharpens iron. So one man sharpens another. Hebrews 10. Oh, let's go back to verse 19 just so that we're reading in context.

Hebrews 10 .19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

So what do we have so far? We have scripture. We have prayer. We have fellowship with other believers. Something else that we find perhaps challenging, another means that is used to sanctify us ladies, and we have to be honest about it, is trials.

And we all go through these, big ones, little ones. We all have trials. We know that when we become Christians, we will not have a rose garden of life. Riccardi says that trials, when handled biblically, there's the key, how often do we fail to handle them biblically, but when handled biblically, trials produce perseverance, character, and hope.

We can find that in Romans 5, 3 -5. Proven faith, 1 Peter 1, 3 -7 discusses that. And endurance, James 1, 2 -4. In providential affliction, the people of God are spurred on to greater holiness. Paul speaks about the believers sharing in the sufferings of Christ as a means of becoming like him, as well as giving us the occasion to be comforted by the Father, and to thus comfort others.

And so, he writes, as you navigate the joys and trials and all the experiences of life, you need to face those experiences knowing that they are all providentially designed by God to make you more like Christ.

That is so key, ladies, and something that I forget. Way too often, the trials are providentially designed by God. It's not that God just sits back and lets things happen. No, no, no. They're ordained.

They are designed by God for you to make you look more like Christ. In the midst of trials, he says, you can remember that his purpose, God's purpose, in that difficulty or in that affliction is to conform you to the image of his Son.

What a privilege. What a privilege. Remember that, ladies. We all need to remember this. And so, you can go to him and say, Lord, your word says you're working all things for my sanctification. Show me how to grow to be more like Christ through this experience.

That is so key. So key, ladies, and I hope that we will all remember that moving forward. Finally, another means employed by the Holy Spirit for sanctification, this is by no means exhaustive, is obedience, our call to obedience.

John 15 .10, Jesus says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. John 14 .15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

We see similar calls in 1 John. We are called to obedience. And again, that goes back to what we were saying at the beginning. Obedience not just in our outward behavior, but in our attitudes and in our minds and in our desires.

Beholding Christ and Pursuing Holiness

Ladies, we're coming to the end of our time, and I know we've run through this topic of sanctification rather rapidly. But Riccardo makes the point, he goes back to one of his anchor texts, 2 Corinthians 3 .18, and says that this is really demonstrating that the pathway to Christlikeness is to behold the glory of the Lord.

You know, we talk about all these things. We practically see how scripture calls us to holiness and the way that we can utilize the means given to us to grow and to look more like Christ. Ultimately, if we behold the glory of the Lord, would we not long to look like him?

2 Corinthians 3 .18, remember, says we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

And it is through these means that we just discussed that we behold Christ. Remember, even in our trials, we understand and come to the Lord and say, I know you are desiring to make me look more like your son.

Help me to look more like your son through this. In his book, Riccardo quotes the Puritan John Owen, and John Owen writes, Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience.

It will fix the soul unto that object which is suited to give it delight, complacency, and satisfaction. When the mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and his glory, when the soul thereon cleaves unto him with intense affections, they will cast out, or not give admittance unto, those causes of spiritual weakness and indisposition.

And nothing will so much excite and encourage our souls hereunto as a constant view of Christ and his glory. I want to look more like Christ. Don't you? And if we fix our gaze on him, that pursuit of righteousness, that pursuit of holiness, that desire for sanctification, and to be conformed to his image grows and intensifies.

And we desire to be like our Lord, the one who purchased us with his precious, perfect blood. Well, ladies, I was going to turn to J .C. Ryle and discuss a little bit more on this topic from his book Holiness, but I think we have run out of time for the day, so perhaps we'll revisit this topic another day.

But ladies, I hope that you did not find this to be a discussion of things you need to do, but rather that you are encouraged to gaze upon Christ, not in the means of, okay, I'm just going to sit here on the couch and wait to be sanctified.

No, no, no. Gaze upon Christ and let that spur you on to a desire and an active pursuit of holiness. And know, ladies, that you are not doing this on your own. If you have been saved, you have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is transforming you so that you have new desires. He has renewed your mind so that you desire the things of the Lord. And the Holy Spirit will use these means to grow you. But that means you have to pick up your Bible and read it.

That means that you have to kneel before the Lord in prayer. That means that you should not forsake the assembling of the saints, that you should handle your trials biblically and desire and pursue obedience to the Lord.

And this is how we practically work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is how we pursue sanctification. What a privilege. I already said that, what a privilege to know that the Holy Father is conforming us to look like his precious son.

Don't ever let that thought be too far from your minds, ladies. I hope this has been an encouragement to you ladies. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to have this discussion with you today. And I hope you'll join us again next time.

And until that time, ladies, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped. Thanks for listening.

You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a No Compromise radio production. If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com. Or you can check out one of our two websites, do notbesurprised .com or equippingeve .org.

Thanks for listening.