Monergistic Sanctification (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry.

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I think we have 10 Patreon supporters, which is more than I deserve, and sometimes people send me money in the mail.

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So what are we doing this for? What's the purpose? It's not going to be for my retirement, although when

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I was younger, I thought, well, maybe that could be the case. Yesterday we had, hopefully we have on,

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I have to call it a half hour, but the plan is to have Johnny Gibson on, Jonathan Gibson, Be Thou My Vision, excellent devotional, and then two days ago, in NOCO time, we were talking a little bit about sanctification.

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I've done some shows before about errors of sanctification, and I was just trying to redo that a little bit and talk about it, since it's so important to make sure that we understand sanctification is monergistic, sanctification is

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Christ's work in us, while justification is Christ's work for us. And how do we respond?

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What do we do? Our exertion, our works, our faithfulness, our obedience is a consequence to God sanctifying us, but it's not technically called sanctification.

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We want people to obey as Christians and be faithful. We just, like Luther said, want works to be thought of properly, even here in sanctification.

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We know faith seeks virtues, 2 Peter 1, making every effort add to your faith virtue.

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We know that faith has consequences. We understand that God says to be holy, but we also understand what we are like, even as redeemed people, and we know we don't make ourselves holy.

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Mike, make yourself holy. One scholar said we are justified by grace through a faith that simply rests in Christ, and we are sanctified by grace through a faith resting in Christ is working through love.

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There you go. That's what we're trying to teach here. We're trying to teach you that Luther would say faith is a busy thing, that is, faith of a

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Christian, still walking by faith, not just faith for initial sanctification, i .e.

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justification, but also for the response consequence to holy sanctification, that is, holy living.

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Of course you're to be seeking out unity. Of course you are to say no to sexual sin.

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Of course you're to say no to idolatry. Of course you're to say yes to use your spiritual gifts and love other people and build up other people.

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Of course you're trying to do that. We believe in imperatives in the New Testament for Christian people in a

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Christian church. They're there. Exhortations are there. But the question really is, who, what, when, where, why, and how?

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No, just kidding. Oh, here's that Luther quote. Our faith in Christ does not free us from works, but from the false opinions concerning works, that is, from the foolish presumption that justification is acquired through works.

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And may I add the foolish presumption that works are somehow individualistic, bootstrap pulling,

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Christians have to do it on their own, I sanctify myself. That just sounds so funny.

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None of us would say, many of us would say sanctification is synergistic because it says work out your salvation in fear and trembling.

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Many would say that. And we'll get to that passage maybe a little bit later today in the show. But not really many people would say,

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I sanctify myself. I sanctify myself along with God. Oh, here's what

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Orman said, Michael Horton. It is simply better to say that we are working out that salvation that Christ has already won for us and given to us by his spirit through the gospel.

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Though in sanctification, unlike justification, faith is active in good works, the gospel is always the ground and the spirit is always the source of our sanctification as well as our justification.

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Well, therefore, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Philippians 2, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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The only option really we have is we sanctify ourselves or we co -sanctify ourselves. Boving, many indeed acknowledge that we are justified by the righteousness of Christ but seem to think that at least as they act as if they must be sanctified by holiness they themselves have acquired.

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Do you live out your Christian faith or do you somehow live up to Christ's example?

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That's what some people ask. I'm asking, too. If you go to Berkhoff and his concise summary of the

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Christian faith, which I really, really like, I think it's in the back of the new Banner reissue of his

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Systematic Theology, he has a section called Sanctification and Good Works. And he says, contrary to what people think about our views of law, gospel, and the third use of the law and reformed views of monogistic sanctification,

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Berkhoff, quote, sanctification naturally leads to a life of good works. These may be called the fruits of sanctification.

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Good works are not perfect works but the works spring for the principle of love to God or faith in him.

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See, faith even for the Christian. Now we're able to do these things.

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We are able to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord while pleasing Titus chapter 2, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.

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God is the sanctifier, the fruits of sanctification. We respond with faith, consequently we do good works.

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And as I said before, this is really hard to figure out and we really can't say exactly how this all works.

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Scott Clarke said it's not complex but it is mysterious because we cannot say exactly how or when or to what degree the

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Spirit is presently at work in us and yet we know that he really is. So some of the stuff I've done in past shows but I just wanted to talk about it right now.

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I think that I should have said but didn't say last time that it's helpful if you understand the difference between justification and sanctification.

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Okay, here's my take. Evangelicalism in our circles doesn't understand sanctification well, in my mind not biblically.

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And pretty much everything I've done on the show or lots of that I've done, I used to have one view and now

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I have a different view. So I know these people because they're my friends and they're my colleagues and I read them even if I don't know them and I've been kind of in the same fabric that they have been in.

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And therefore a lot of this is just a psychoanalysis where I had the problem of sanctification and now

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I don't anymore but now I see it. If I have a hard time understanding unconditional election, it's because I've had a hard time understanding depravity, right?

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We know that. We've talked about that on the show. Similarly, I think we should probably go back to justification because that's going to help us with sanctification.

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How can you really understand sanctification if we as evangelicals don't really understand justification?

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It is easy to blend the two, to commingle the two, to say justification or sanctification are somehow combined.

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I am not saying that one doesn't follow the other immediately, but I am saying that there's a difference between Christ for us, justification, courtroom language, and Christ in us,

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God progressively strengthening us, and having sin being progressively weakened.

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That's what I am saying. J .C. Ryle, sometimes his sanctification stuff,

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I'm like, eh, it could be a little bit better. His Holiness Book, of course, is a classic, so I'm going to seem like a jerk if I don't completely like it.

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I just read a little section that had some good things in it and some things I disagreed with, but here's the things that I liked.

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He had a section, what's the same with justification and sanctification, and here's what he said.

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Both proceed from the free grace of God. So I really like that. I don't know if he was consistent later with monergistic sanctification, but here, supernatural, free, sovereign grace.

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Both are part of the great work of salvation which Christ in the eternal covenant has undertaken on behalf of his people. Christ is the fountain of life from which pardon and holiness both flow.

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So here we have what we call the duplex gratia. We'll talk more about that. We talk about that almost every show.

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Double benefit, Christ for us, Christ in us, Christ for justification,

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Christ for sanctification. What's the same with justification and sanctification, Ryle?

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Both are found in the same persons. If you're justified, you'll always be sanctified. That's his point.

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They're together, not mixed, but one follows the other. One leads to another.

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There's an order there. I'm not even talking about time order necessarily, but certainly a logical order, and of course the second you're justified, sanctification begins.

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So that's Ryle's third or fourth point, both begin at the same time. Then he says, well, what about the difference?

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Okay, so that's a good way to work a problem. Okay, we have theological issues, and it seems like we're having a hard time understanding justification and sanctification.

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Are they the same? Well, no, but there's some similarities, right? It's about the

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Spirit of God dwelling in us, who is sent by the Father and the Son, and that kind of thing.

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Well, what are the differences? Justification is a reckoning, Ryle said, and counting man to be righteous for the sake of another, even

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Jesus Christ. Sanctification is actually making a man inwardly righteous, though it may be to a very feeble degree.

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Righteousness we have for our justification is not our own, but it's the perfect righteousness of the great mediator,

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Jesus Christ. The righteousness we have by sanctification is our own righteousness, imparted, inherent, and wrought in us by the

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Holy Spirit, but mingled with much infirmity and imperfection. That's what Ryle says. Do you believe that?

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C. In justification, our own works have no place at all, and simple faith in Christ is the one needful thing.

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In sanctification, our own works are of vast importance, and God bids us fight and watch and pray and strive and take pains and labor.

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Although I would say it a little differently, this is Ryle's deal. Justification gives our title to heaven and boldness to enter in.

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Sanctification gives us our fitness for heaven and prepares us to enjoy it when we dwell there. So, justification, completed work.

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Sanctification, not perfect until heaven. Justification has no growth or increase.

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Sanctification is a progressive work. And there we have

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Ryle, J. C. Ryle, the Anglican. Now, a lot of our confusion happens because we, these days, are kind of functional

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Catholics, and we blend the two, right? For Rome, justification is a process by which their followers are made, are progressively becoming more sanctified.

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Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1989, justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inner or interior man.

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How are you going to get to heaven with something imperfect? If they're blended, well, then we stand before God with what?

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That's why it has to be the perfect work of Christ. And we know, with Calvin, that the remains of sin always exist in the righteous.

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That's why justification has to be different than sanctification. What are we going to do with imperfect works?

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Because we're always going to be imperfect and then stand before the judgment seat of God. Charles Hodge said, for this our own righteousness is utterly inadequate.

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I mean, what we do, our life of holy living, will that cancel out the debt that we've incurred via our sin and trespasses and transgressions?

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While sanctification and justification are joined, or as Westminster Larger Catechism says, inseparably joined, they differ.

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One imputes the righteousness of Christ, in sanctification his spirit infuses grace and enables to the exercise thereof.

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In the former, justification, sin is pardoned. In the other, sanctification, it is subdued. Okay, that's important language.

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Imputation, impartation, or infusion, justification, sanctification. Christ's work, justification, his perfect law -keeping, we are not perfectly keeping the law afterwards.

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Some people think that there's a little hitch in the step. They think that after justification, well, you might wait a little bit before sanctification really kicks in.

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He who abides in me, Jesus said, John 15, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.

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There is such thing as a dead faith. Now, some of you people that have been listening to me, you might think to yourself, well, he sure talks a lot about Christ and his work, and even for sanctification, and he doesn't give a lot of commands and all that stuff.

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Well, I don't think you're really listening very closely, but of course, I'm far from a perfect man.

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I believe that James 2 is in the Bible, and it's not a right -straw epistle. It's what we need.

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We have to just think about these things clearly. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

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Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

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So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

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Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

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You believe God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. You want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

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Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son on the altar?

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You see, shown, shown, shown. You see, show. You see, show.

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You see, shown. You see. How can you see my faith? Well, you can't see my faith, but you can see the fruits of my faith, can you not?

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How do we know Abraham is a Christian believer? Well, we're going to read things in the

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Bible that would teach us that, least of which would be Romans chapter 4,

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Hebrews 11. How would we look at his life, though, and see?

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Well, God knows, but we don't know. But we see, sanctification will happen.

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It will happen imperfectly, but it will happen invariably. When you are made new, you're a new creation in Christ, old has passed away, behold new has come, 2

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Corinthians 5, you're going to be different. Far from perfect, but you're going to be different.

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My biggest problem, really, when it comes to sanctification, besides the whole monergistic debate and the duplex gratia discussion, because that's basically what

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I'm going to talk about right now, is we forget about Jesus. We forget about Jesus when it comes to sanctification.

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We forget Galatians 2 .20, I think I said that two shows ago, about who

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Jesus is for the Christian, and does Jesus forgive the sins of Christians too?

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You start with Christ, what we call the gospel, and you get sanctification in the bargain,

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Horton said. Begin with Christ and move on to something else, and you lose both. The work of God is a declaration, the work of God is renewal, mortification, vivification.

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You enjoy everything about Jesus by faith. This is the dual grace, justification and sanctification, and from whence does that come?

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The union that you have with Jesus Christ. Right?

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You get a double grace, reconciled to God, Calvin said, and sanctified by Christ's Spirit so that you can cultivate blamelessness and purity of life.

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We've said this many times, and we're saying it again. You can't say to yourself, you know what?

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Everything about my justification is free, sovereign, gracious, wonderful, merciful,

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God working alone, monergistic, and then say, well, but for sanctification, the focus is more on me.

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Oh, I mean, you can say it, but I don't want you to say it. Pardon and for power, that's what

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Jesus does for His people, and that's wonderful. I don't want sanctification diminished because it diminishes the work of Christ, and it also takes away your assurance because you're not secure.

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You don't know, well, am I going to make it, what am I going to do? For Paul, gospel takes care of everything for us.

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In justification, we're no longer condemned, and also when it comes to our slavery and corruption and everything else,

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Christ for us, Christ in us, Christ for pardon, Christ for power, double benefit of Jesus, duplex gratia.

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Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

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For me, sorry, far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me, and I the world.

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Those are passages of Galatians 5 and Galatians 6.

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I'd encourage you to read, again, Romans chapter 6, verses 1 to 14.

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I think that's going to be helpful for you. Sin's power, broken. Your debt is canceled, sin's power canceled.

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What are we going to do, just forget about Jesus? Oh, I'm all about Jesus, my wonderful Savior. For justification, sanctification, you better get going, law only.

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But this is how I hear many preachers preach. This is what Graham Goldsworthy calls a theoretical gospel and an operational gospel in the life of a local church.

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Theoretically, of course, they believe in the death, burial, and resurrection, but operational in the fabric of the church, including preaching and including

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Sunday schools, including Bible classes, where's the person and work of the

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Lord Jesus? In Him, in Him, in Him, in Him. Maybe 150 times in the New Testament, some scholars say, in Christ Jesus, in Jesus, in Him.

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We're united. We don't say Jesus for justification, ourselves for sanctification.

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Everything we have, Calvin would say, the source of love is the grace of Christ.

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I mean, in the old days, people would say you can't have

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Jesus as Savior, not Lord. You can't have a bifurcated Christ. Well, I'm also saying, and that's that Lordship controversy we can talk about again, but what

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I'm saying here, in a similar fashion, you can't have Jesus for sanctification, justification, and not have

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Him for sanctification. We live to righteousness and die to sin.

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That's what we do, and that's why we need to be reading the Gospels regularly as Christians and preaching

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Christ Jesus regularly to our people. Spurgeon said, another class of ministers have preached the precepts and little else.

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We want these men as we want the others. They're useful and act as antidotes to each other, but their ministries are not complete.

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If you're preaching about duty and command, it is very proper, but if it'd be the one sole theme of the teaching, it becomes very legal in the long run, and after a while, the true gospel, which has the power to make us keep the precept, gets flung into the background, and the precept is not kept after all.

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Do do do generally ends in nothing being done.

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T. David Corden says, preach Christ and you will have morality. Fill the sails of your hearer's souls with the wind and confidence in the

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Redeemer. They will trust Him as their sanctifier and long to see His fruit in their lives. Fill their minds and imaginations with a vision of the loveliness and perfection of Christ in His person, and the flock will long to be like Him.

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Impress upon the weak, their wavering hearts the utter competence of the mediation of the one who ever lives to make intercession for them, and they will long to serve and comfort others even as Christ has served and comforted them.

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Eyes on Jesus, Christian. Eyes on Jesus, Christian. Sinclair Ferguson, the ability to focus our gaze, fill our minds, and devote our hearts to Jesus Christ is a basic element in real

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Christian growth. Inability to do so is a sign of immaturity. Some Christians never appear to make such progress.

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Spiritual focus and concentration are beyond them. They seem to be dominated by feelings rather than the gospel.

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Their powers of concentration on spiritual realities are underdeveloped. They find it difficult to devote their attention to Christ in private or in public, in prayer, in singing

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God's praise, or in reading His word. Therefore, dear Bible teacher, dear dad and mom, dear preacher, dear listener, let's focus on the person and work of the

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Lord Jesus. Otherwise, the only other option is focus on your performance, your works.

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That would be bad. And all this leads to the wonderful truth of guilt, grace, and gratitude.

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Right? Guilt, grace, and gratitude. Eighty -nine chapters of the

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Gospels, plenty for you to read. I, in the morning, read my Bible, and then

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I begin listening to a gospel account, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, as I'm getting ready for the day, trying to flood my mind so that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

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No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.