The Beza Briefing - The Law and the Gospel

Duplex Gratia. Welcome to Duplex Gratia Radio. I almost changed the name of No Compromise Radio to Duplex Gratia. You know, some Latin, Latin, but we're still called No Compromise Radio, although I do own duplexgratia .com and at duplexgratia at Twitter.

So who knows what we'll do with that. But this is No Compromise Radio. Am I No Compromise Radio? Are you No Compromise Radio? Don't forget, you can order the new daily devotional, 31-day devotional called Gospel Assurance on Amazon.

It's the new one, it's shorter, it's a little more devotional. 9 .99, it's white and yellow. So it's got the exact same material. You can find the exact same material in the bigger book, Gospel Assurance, the 31-day guide, except this is the condensed version.

One page, on one side of the page, it has the information and on the other side, it's got a blank page for notes. It does have the same introduction, except I think I said devotion and not guide in the introduction, but we'll see.

I had been told by people that love me, Mike, you wrote the first one, Gospel Assurance for people like you, and there are other people that just wanted a little simpler, a little easier, maybe for family, maybe for quick devotions, and they're never gonna make it through the other one.

So I thought, okay, it's not that hard to kind of cut and paste, and between Paige helping me format and Stephen helping me with the book cover, excuse me, it worked out fine. Got our new soundboard here, so I can pull up our new Do It Right song any time we want.

Uh-huh, I like that. I had New Order Ceremony all ready to go for the no-co music, but I think with some kind of rights and some kind of copyrights and everything else, here, we're all legal, we're all legit, everything works out.

Theodore Beza and the Holy Spirit’s Work in Salvation

Today, we are having another episode of the Beza Briefing. I was gonna say, I could probably just read the Gospel Assurance book, although somebody is reading it for me, and it will be on Audible probably within the next month.

How about that? So we've got Kindle, Audible, print. I'm gonna try to finish up the S. Lewis Johnson Colossian thing, and off we go. Oh, I did wanna say Westminster Seminary, Escondido, West Cal has a conference coming up, and I will, Lord willing, be at the conference.

I have my ticket. My brother will be there, Pat, Pactam Abendroth. John and Justin of Theocast will be there. Scott Clark will be there, and we have four podcasts. We have Heidelcast, Theocast, Pactamcast, and No Compromisecast, all four in the same room.

We're gonna talk about what makes us tick, what about faith, what about Sola Fide, what about Duplex Gratia, all that. You're invited if you wanna come. I think it's, whatever it is, the 13th of January, and we're gonna meet at West Cal.

We have a room at five o 'clock. I think the conference starts at seven, so this is like pre-conference. I think that's right. Is that January? I could actually look it up right now. I could probably pause our little recording if I wanted to, but I'm just gonna look it up right now since I've got it in front of me, and here it is, California, West Cal Conference, January 13th and 14th, and the Pactam, Theocast, Heidelcast, and No Compromise radio will be at Westminster Seminary Escondido at 5 p .m.

It's free if you wanna sit in and listen, and that would be great. I don't really know what's gonna happen there. We're gonna record a show or two, and then we'll play that show, I think, on all of the respective podcasts.

So I think it's basically all the Baptist against R. Scott Clarke won't be talking about baptism. That was a delayed, that was a delayed. That was better. All right, Theodore Beza, the Christian faith successor to Calvin.

We call him Teddy B. We call him Teddy Beza. We call him Theodore Bezer or Teddy Bezer, and he has a short, concise summary of the Christian faith, and we're in the section on the Holy Spirit, and a lot of this has to do with soteriology because he, the Holy Spirit, is the one applying the work that Christ achieved for us.

So, okay, I just hit a mute. Huh, that worked, okay. If you don't like me reading and then making comments randomly, then find a different podcast. Oh, I have been listening to James Montgomery Boyce lately.

Bible hour, Bible study hour, something like that. I think I listen to a lot of podcasts, but I like to listen to some preaching. So, here at No Compromise Radio, on Mondays you get sermons, right? And the other days you get pontifications.

On Fridays you get reruns. Hopefully they're not when I had a little bit different glossable theology. It wasn't all bad, though. Actually, higher ratings and higher Patreon support when it was the old school.

What does that tell you? It tells you that the more Reformed you become, the less people care. In the old days, if everybody is, I'm in attack mode and no compromise mode and anti-Voskamp and anti-Keller, anti-Beth Moore.

I don't mean their person, but their theology. Then what's the response of people? You're right, that's the response. Now what's the response of people? They're going to other discernment ministries. Theodore Beza, the Christian faith.

Under section 420, remedy against the last and most dangerous temptation. Are we elect or not? And what Satan is doing. Remember last time we talked on the Beza show, how interesting it was that when you're languishing and troubled regarding your faults and carelessness and your faith seems to be languishing and extinguished.

Remember some of the Old Testament saints and it says that they were children of God no matter how great the sins were that they had committed. That's the section that we're in. In the fourth place, by having recourse to the sure and true remedy, the certainty of our eternal election founded upon the immutable purpose of God.

And to have a sure testimony of this infallible election when the effects of faith will seem to have perished and to have been extinguished in us after the example of David. Let us remember former days and we shall certainly find so many evident testimonies of the favor of God towards us in all kinds of ways that we shall not be able to doubt his fatherly affection.

See what he's doing there? If you're having trouble now, what do you do? You look backward and you say, huh, but I remember those days I could see. I could see more evidence, I could see more fruit and I remember what God was doing then.

And certainly if he started a work, he will be faithful to complete that work. We shall also find in former times the effects of faith and consequently of our election and salvation, finding them so evident in ourselves that even the devil would not know how to deny that we were then in the grace of God and that we had true faith for without faith, no one can please God.

And if Satan thereupon answers that we had true faith then, but that we have lost it, Satan thereupon answers, God is, oh, sorry, I misread, but that we have lost it and that God has totally removed his grace from us.

Let us reply to him boldly that this doctrine is also false and it's author a great liar. These two points are infallible. First, that God never changes his mind. Second, that he has once purposed must be fulfilled no matter what hindrances arise.

Let us add this further point. Faith is a special gift and belongs to the elect alone. I prove it by this. Whoever believes is united to Jesus Christ. That is why he can never perish, John 6 verses 40 and 50.

Beza goes on, this being so, we must necessarily acknowledge that the gift of true faith by which we are justified can never be separated from the gift of perseverance. Even if from time to time, faith is found to be very low, even if perseverance has sometimes obstacles.

So contrary to federal vision, where you are united to Christ by baptism and you receive all his benefits, as long as you persevere, this is not what Beza is saying. Beza said, the testimony that the Lord gives to St. Peter, I have prayed that your faith will not fail, Luke 22, is heard by all those in whom election and salvation are found in the same condition as in St. Peter, including you, dear listener.

This shows us clearly that it was not by emotion of faith or of the Holy Spirit that St. Peter sinned, but by reason of flesh and blood. Thus he had not then totally lost faith and the Holy Spirit had not entirely abandoned him, but in him, faith was only for a while as hidden and sleeping.

Nevertheless, the seed of the spirit of adoption was in some corner of his heart. We see the same thing in the person of David after he has been awakened from sleep by the word of the prophet. For the Lord did not give him then the Holy Spirit as if he had previously taken him completely from him, but he awakened in him the power of the Holy Spirit who was sleeping.

Otherwise, David would not have cried, take not thy Holy Spirit from me, Psalm 51, but instead he would have said, give back thy Holy Spirit to me. Moreover, he would not have been able to say that in faith if he had not been totally destitute of the Holy Spirit.

My Cave in the North No Compromise Radio, also known as Duplex Gratia Radio, we are reading through the Christian faith by Theodore Beza. Therefore, this must be explained clearly. It is true, some are happy with only an appearance and show of faith and wrongly persuade themselves that they have faith.

They thus deceive themselves and others with them. For from there, they take the pretext to allow themselves to practice evil. As if a man could have justification without having at the same time sanctification.

1 John 2, 1 John 3, 1 John 4. Against such monstrosities, some allege and often repeat that their sins make them lose and cause to disappear faith in the Holy Spirit. But this must be understood of a kind of faith to which the reprobate themselves can attain.

These can not only introduce themselves into the church, but also taste of the good gift of God. Nevertheless, they never swallow it. You can hear the Hebrew six language there. They have never truly partaken of him.

This belongs only to the elect and is never found in others. Or the doctrine we have put forth can be understood in this sense. The effects and fruits of faith can well be invisible for a time, but in such a way that the root and seed of faith remains.

In its own time, it will appear in visible manner. These foundations being laid, I say that whoever once in his life has had a sure testimony of true faith is assured that it is still in him and that it will be there till the end.

Although for a while, it is neither felt nor perceived. Does it follow that a little child has no reasonable soul in him because he cannot make use of it? Or that a drunk man has no soul capable of reason because for a little while he has lost the feeling and use of it?

Or that the vital force disappears in him who for a while seems more dead than alive, not only in the judgment of the doctors, but also according to the judgment and feeling of him who is sick? Besa is trying to get you, dear listener, to look and see the evidence of the Spirit of God's work in your life.

All right, let's say you've been a Christian for 30 years, 10 years, five years, 50 years, and you're struggling now with assurance. Somebody should probably write a book called Gospel Assurance. And in that book, they should say, you should look in your life and see if there's evidences, because it's not your doing and you didn't change yourself.

The Spirit of God works in his people, and if you can see evidence of the Spirit of God's work in your life at any time, he must be working in your life all the time. You just can't feel it or perceive it.

Besa said, what then? Those who have once believed, shall they have as much liberty to do evil and sin at their leisure? For I see that certain put forward such allegations to cry down and defame this doctrine of particular election.

Yet, if it is taken away, where will finally be our consolation? Since faith, through which alone we are justified, puts no other condition to the universal promises, that is to say, to those which are presented to every sinner without distinction, but that they be applied to himself by each believer.

But to this, St. Paul will reply from me that the children of God are governed by the Spirit of God and that being freed from sin, they shall no longer persist in it. For whoever is justified through faith is also sanctified by the Spirit of Christ and this is why he resists sin, even if sometimes he seems for a while to be forsaken by God or rather to have forsaken God.

This case which we have highlighted is not at all the case of those who have truly believed and we must not think that this doctrine will get us bogged down, but rather it should lead us to put all our energy into living united to God and His righteousness through the power of the Holy Spirit, whom we have received as a sure pledge of our adoption.

Indeed, the more precious the effects of faith are to us, the more in this hard fighting they can be weapons and arguments against Satan and the more also we should be careful and diligent to guard them.

In brief then, let all those who wage war against this doctrine election as if it gave pretext and license to do evil, know that they have no more reason in their argument than if they were to say that we are inciting men to stop eating and drinking, are directing them to idleness when we affirm that the term of our life is so certain and limited that it is impossible to go beyond it.

Divine Sovereignty and the Charge of Antinomianism

Now that is good preaching. Well, if you're elect and you don't have to obey because it doesn't really matter and once God saves you, you're always saved in perseverance of the faith and the elect will make it to the end and if you're elect, you're gonna be glorified and that just spawns loose living, antinomianism, a lack of piety.

Really? So do you believe? So you certainly believe that God determines our days. He determined who is your mother, who is your father, where you were born, what kind of parents you would have, what century you'd be born in, what era, what country.

Aren't you believing in the sovereignty of God in those things? Yes, people have to believe that because we can show them Psalm 139, et cetera, that our days are ordained. That's hard to say. Our days are ordained.

Alif, bet, gimel, dalet, ha, hey. Vav, zayin, khet, tet, yod. See, that's what's going through my mind. Alphabet, Hebrew alphabet for kids. Too bad I can't sing. Okay, so if your days are numbered, eternal purpose, then does that mean I'm a Jew?

I'm trying to tell you not to eat because it doesn't matter what you do. Don't sleep because it doesn't matter what you do. Don't exercise. Are we inciting men to stop eating and drinking? Of course not.

The answer is no. In Hebrew, lo, lo, lo, lo, lo. Our salvation depends on the eternal purpose of God. That's important. It's more necessary that our salvation be in better and more secure hands than our own.

It's true that certain put forward many arguments against this doctrine, but it is very easy to rebuff them, as is amply set out and clearly shown in several books written on the subject in our time. And that was back in the 1500s.

The Holy Spirit Creates Faith Through the Word and Sacraments

How much more now? 421, the means by which the Holy Spirit uses to create faith in the heart of the elect. Beza is systematically, no pun intended. How do we work that? Huh, how do we do that? There. Systematically walking through the Holy Spirit's work and applying the salvation that Christ has earned for us, the Christ who was sent by the Father.

We have shown in the preceding articles that it is the Holy Spirit who creates faith in us, this true instrument by which we embrace Christ so as to draw from him all that is required for our justification and salvation.

It is necessary that in the second place, we should know what means the Holy Spirit uses to create faith in us. Then finally, how he uses them. Now we have already said that he makes use of two means, the word and the sacraments.

We shall speak of both distinctly. Why am I laughing, you say? I was just reading a text while I was reading the book. That's one of the hardest things to do. You're reading out loud a book on the radio with a worldwide audience, and then you have to read a text from your son.

The Law and the Gospel as the Two Principal Parts of the Word of God

422, that which we call the word of God, it's two parts, the law and the gospel. Come on, we have arrived. Theodore Beza, law and gospel. I thought it was just for Lutherans. Come on, what is going on?

Law and gospel for the reformed, really? Amen. On this subject, we call the word of God, the canonical books of the Old and New Testament, for so they proceed from the mouth of God. Here's the famous quote.

Here's the famous Beza quote. We divide this word into two principal parts or kinds. The one is called the law and the other, the gospel, for all the rest can be gathered under the one or the other of these headings.

That, my friends, is what I'm talking about. What we call law, when it's distinguished from the gospel and is taken from one of the two parts of the word, is a doctrine whose seed is written by nature in our hearts.

However, so that we may have a more exact knowledge, it was written by God on two tables and is briefly comprehended in 10 Commandments. In these, he sets out for us the obedience and perfect righteousness which we owe to his majesty and our neighbors.

This, on contrasting terms, either perpetual life, if we keep perfect, lead the law without omitting a single point, or eternal death if we do not fulfill the contents of each commandment, Deuteronomy 30, James 2.

You can hear the Westminster language that they derive probably from this and other writers, perfect, entire, exact, perpetual obedience. And here we're talking about the first use of the law, right, law, showing us our sin and misery.

What we call gospel, good news, is a doctrine which is not at all in us by nature, but which is revealed from heaven, Matthew 16, John 1. See, that's important. That's why we have to go preach the gospel.

Of course, we preach the law to people, but they know law, but there's no possibility they could know gospel. Here, it says, by it, God testifies, by it, the gospel, God testifies to us that it is his purpose to save us freely by his only Son, Romans 3.

Provided that by faith we embrace him as our only wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 1 Corinthians 1. By it, I say, the Lord testifies to us all these things and even does it in such a manner that at the same time he renews our persons in a powerful way so that we may embrace the benefits which are offered to us, 1 Corinthians 2.

Law and gospel. Word of God, two parts. Super famous, Beza. Now he's going to talk in 423, the similarities and differences between law and gospel. If you wanna know what No Compromise Radio is all about, it's about Christ-centered preaching, it's about law gospel, it's about duplex gratia, Christ for pardon, Christ for power, it's about assurance of salvation, it's about monergistic sanctification.

That's what we're about. Sola fide. That is what drives No Compromise Radio. Man, if I had a megaphone, I could shout it from the megaphone. What is No Compromise Radio all about? Christ-centered preaching, duplex gratia, law gospel, Christ for pardon, Christ for power, assurance, sola fide.

I know, I know, I'll stop doing this probably as the show goes on. Better the megaphone then than the robot, or we have a small robot here too. What's similarities between law and gospel? Some wanna say not much.

Huh, let's find out. We must pay great attention to these things, for with good reason we can say that ignorance of this distinction between law and gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity.

That's another one of those killer quotes. The majority of men blinded by the just judgment of God have indeed never seriously considered what cursed the law subjects us to, nor why it has been ordained by God.

And for the gospel, they have nearly always thought that it was nothing other than a second law. Ouch, more perfect than the first. From this has come the erroneous distinction between precept and advice.

There has followed little by little the total ruin of the benefit of judgment of Jesus Christ. Don't merge law and gospel. Don't believe in glossable, as Horton said. I think you can get shirts from Pat Abendroth now at the Pactum, glossable.

You don't wanna merge these things. You don't merge them, they're immergeable. We don't wanna put them into each other's categories at all. But is there anything that's similar? Basa, we must besides consider these things.

The law and the gospel have in common that they're both from the one true God, always consistent with himself, Hebrews 1. We must not therefore think that God abolishes the essence of the law. On the contrary, the law establishes the essence of the gospel, Romans 10.

This is what we shall explain a little further on. For both set before us the same God and the essence of the same righteousness, Romans 3, which resides in perfect love to God and our neighbor. But there's a great difference in these points which we shall touch on, and especially concerning the means of obtaining this righteousness.

For in the first place we are alluded to before, the law is natural to man. God has engraven it in his heart from creation, Romans 1 and 2, when a long time afterward, God made and exhibited the two tablets of the law.

This was not to make a new law, but only to restore our first knowledge of the natural law, which because the corruption of sin was little by little becoming obliterated from the heart of man, Romans 7.

But the gospel is a supernatural doctrine which our nature could have never been able to imagine nor able to approve without a special grace of God, 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. But the Lord has revealed it first to Adam shortly after his sin, as Moses declares, Genesis 3.

Afterwards to the patriarchs and the prophets in increasing degrees as seemed good to him, Romans 1, Luke 1, until the day in which he manifested Jesus Christ in person. It is he who has clearly announced and accomplished all that is contained in the gospel, John 6, John 15.

This gospel God still reveals today and will reveal it until the end of the world by preaching instituted in his church, John 17, Matthew 28, 2 Corinthians 5. In the second place, the law lays bare to us the majesty and justice of God.

The gospel sets forth the same justice to us, but there is it pacified and satisfied by the mercy manifested in Christ, Hebrews 12. Law and gospel. We don't wanna confuse the two, but there are certain aspects of law and gospel that we can recognize some similarities.

In the third place, and we end here, the law sends us to ourselves in order to accomplish the righteousness which it commands us. That is to say the perfect obedience to the commandments which is necessary in order to escape guilt.

That is why it shows us our curse and subjects us to it as the apostle declares, Romans 3, Galatians 3. But the gospel teaches us where we shall find what we do not have, and having found it, how we should be able to enjoy it.

That is why it delivers us from the curse of the law, Romans 3, Galatians 3. In conclusion, the law pronounces us blessed when we accomplish it without omitting anything. The gospel promises us salvation when we believe.

That is to say when by faith we take hold of Jesus Christ who has everything which we lack and still more what we need. Now these two terms, do what the law commands, or to believe what God offers us in Christ Jesus, are the two things that which are not only very difficult but totally impossible to our corrupt nature.

This latter, says St. Paul, cannot even produce what is of God, 2 Corinthians 3. That is why it is necessary to add a fourth difference between the law and the gospel. And that is for our next Beza briefing.

That is so good. Theodore Beza, The Christian Faith on No Compromise Radio. I didn't mean to hit that one, sorry. Info at nocompromiseradio .com if you'd like to write us. You can go to the website, nocompromiseradio .com.

We're working on a new website for the church and for the show. Hopefully that's gonna be up soon enough. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to give us a five-star rating. Everybody says that, so now I have to start saying that instead of send me your shackles.

God bless you.