Monergistic Sanctification (Part 1)

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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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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

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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.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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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

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here. Been playing around with Twitter a little bit these days, and I don�t know if I�m going to keep doing it or not, but I don�t know.

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It�s fairly interesting. I�ve met a lot of friends on Twitter and kind of see what�s new in the zoo, evangelical zoo, the evangelical stew.

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It is February 17th today, Thursday. These shows will air next week, and my time, or right now, your time.

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How do you like that? I�ve got a lot of good feedback on Pastor Steve and Mike Abendroth.

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I just like to talk about yourself in the third person. I�m just trying to get the grammar right. That�s what I was trying to do, punctuation.

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Our series, Steve and I, we did a series. I did a series, therefore it�s Steve and I, not me did a series.

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Steve and me did a series. Steve and I did a series on motivations for obedience for the

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Christian. We believe that Christians should obey. They should live faithful lives. They should say no to sin and yes to righteousness, both mortification of sin and vivification of sin,

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I mean of righteousness, living to righteousness. We believe that. We just don�t believe kind of the

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Wesleyan way, the Arminian way. Anyway, thanks for your feedback from that series. I appreciate it.

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Went in for a lung test yesterday, and they put you in this little plexiglass, I don�t know, three by three, four by four box, and you sit in it, and they seal you up.

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You could probably get claustrophobic, and you put your mouth on a, oh, similar to a scuba mouthpiece or a snorkel mouthpiece where you put your mouth over it completely, and then there�s a couple of things on each side for your teeth to kind of bite down.

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One of the tests, they put some carbon monoxide. She said it�s the same amount of carbon monoxide in a cigarette, and they want to see how your lungs,

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I don�t know, what happens when that dissipates or something. Anyway, they said my lungs weren�t too bad, and I still, on the bicycle, when

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I�m pedaling on the life cycle, if I go pretty fast for RPMs and a high tension, my, oh, probably over 20 minutes,

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I�ll slowly drop my O2 down to 90 and then have to slow down. That shouldn�t be happening.

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It should be the other way. The more you�re huffing and puffing on a bike, the more oxygen you should have. Anyway, we�ll just live with it and appreciate all your prayers.

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I really appreciate it. I did receive, February 2nd, an email, and let�s see.

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I won�t tell you who sent it, but I�ll just give you the rest of the details.

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I don�t know if this person wants me to put their name on it. I also wanted to say thank you for your ministry.

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I have recently been deconstructing out of the personality -driven, non -confessional, non -credal, more law than gospel, dispensational, culture -driven movement.

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It has been quite the change for me, learning a lot. Also, a big thank you for actually calling out

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Doug Wilson. I just learned about him and his ministry and was so sad to see the things he says and the horrific things that seem to go on over there.

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I was then even sadder to see all the men slash ministries I used to follow and listen to associate with him and are silent on his controversies, but they seem to have no problem calling out left -wing controversial people.

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It was so hard for me to see. Anyway, thank you for all the help that you and your brother, Pat Abendroth, the pactum, have provided for the church in learning about doctrine.

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I really can�t even tell you how much my thinking has changed on all the issues mentioned above, the most important one being law gospel.

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It�s kind of fun, isn�t it? I am simply learning and then

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I pass on what I�ve learned. I think all of us should have progress in our theology and doctrine and maturation.

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Pastoral epistles talk about that too. You�d hate to have Timothy or Titus never learn, never grow.

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A lot of us, we learn and grow in particular ways. Maybe it�s in holy living where we have more self -control or we bite our tongue more or something like that.

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I like that. That�s good. That�s a good measuring stick. Many people, though, they weren�t raised with the three forms of unity and confessions and creeds, and they�re raised more in an

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Arminian background, and therefore some of the changes are theological changes, not just simply understanding theology better and appreciating

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Christ�s love for us more like Paul would pray in Ephesians 1 and then also in Ephesians 3.

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Anyway, it�s just nice to know the whole Doug Wilson thing. I think I�ve said it before, to my knowledge, and people can correct me if I�m wrong,

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Doug Wilson was kicked out of his denomination years ago for denying Sola Fide, and while other people and Doug have tried to say, �No,

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I actually believe in Sola Fide ,� I don�t think he has been anything but slippery when it comes to new perspectives, sorry, a federal vision, and there�s not all these definitions that apply to me, etc.

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Anyway, when you deny Sola Fide, and you get kicked out and then start your own denomination, that�s enough for me, let alone the awful language in books and the whole issue there with the court case, and theonomy stuff, post -Reconstruction stuff, whatever you want to say, and I know people are going to try to pigeonhole me, but I think people like him because he�s kind of on our side of the cultural war.

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I think people like him because he writes well. I was reading Credenda Agenda, the magazine,

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I don�t know if Canon Press or they still put it out, but I was reading that back in seminary days.

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If I thought a lecture was boring, I�d pull out my Credenda Agenda and just laugh. I mean, it is funny, it is irreverent, it is satirical, they write well, but I don�t have time for people slash ministries and writers who write well and teach me bad stuff.

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I�ve talked to many pastor friends these days, and a lot of them are having to deal with the fallout.

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You know, it�s one thing when you�re a pastor and there�s no internet, and you�re just out in the middle of nowhere.

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I mean, I�m in a town of 6 ,000 -7 ,000 people here in central Massachusetts, and where would the people here learn anything about theology, pro or con?

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Well, in the old days, they�d learn it from the pulpit, that would be it. There would be some tracts, tract societies, and some literature, but not a whole lot.

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People didn�t have a lot of money for that, and it was just harder to get. I�m not saying there wasn�t anything, but it wasn�t as pervasive as it is now.

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Seriously, any particular doctrine that you, the listener, want to learn about, all you have to do is click on the internet, and whichever view you want, you can find.

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Now, it might be a kook who�s going to teach you what you want to hear.

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It might be somebody slick and articulate. Lots of times, I don�t know why this is, this is just my perception, where there�s kooky theology, somebody will send me a link, �Hey, what do you think about this guy ?�

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You can almost get a feel, a vibe, a subjective kind of awareness from the way the website�s set up.

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I�m not saying No Compromise Radio and Bethlehem Bible Church websites are all that, but you might look at them and say, �Boring, old, when are you going to update it ?�

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I don�t know what you might say, but I hope you don�t say kook. Anyway, just because somebody�s a celebrity or a culture warrior or,

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I don�t know, the patriarchal thing and the male -female, it just,

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I could go through it. You know what, I talked to my friend yesterday, and he also has a podcast, not my brother, but somebody else, and I said, �One day

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I should just list a bunch of quotes from people, and it could be Doug Wilson, and not say who�s saying them until the very end.�

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I�ve done that before when I�d say, �Do you agree with this? Is this good news ?� And it�s something about gospel plus works and final justification and blah, blah, blah.

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And I�d say, �That�s not good news. Who said it ?� And then I�d say, �Richard Baxter.� �Who said it ?� �John Piper.� �Who said it ?�

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So then you wait to the very end, and everybody would say, �Oh, that�s wrong, not knowing who said it.�

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But if you front load it and say, �Doug Wilson said ,� then he�s already got so much street cred with people that they would believe something that�s false, or they might believe somebody that�s false because of the name.

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And that certainly could be true for me. I mean, I�m not some big celebrity or anything, but oh, if Mike says it and people have been here for 20 -some years, they would give me the benefit of the doubt in light of who

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I am and what I�ve taught in the past. I understand that. Anyway, my name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.

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I think tomorrow we�re going to have on Jonathan Gibson, and he has that excellent new devotional called

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Be Thou My Vision. It is a crossway book, and it is not going to steal the thunder.

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It�s something that I�m using every day and love it. We�ll talk to him tomorrow in no cold time,

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Wednesday, as we try to pick up some interviews here or there. I want to get Pat Ebendroth back on the show, and I�ll probably get

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Scott Clarke, too, to do a few things. Anyway, today for the rest of the show, I�d like to talk about sanctification.

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Have you ever prayed �Lord God, Triune God, Father, thank you for sanctifying me.�

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Have you ever prayed that? I could flip it around this way. Do you, dear

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Christian, sanctify yourself? Who�s the sanctifier? Who does the sanctifying? You look at categories of theology, and let�s say you go to really any statement of faith,

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Reformed statements of faith, and even statements of faith that people write on their own. Warning!

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Warning! If I would have written the statement of faith here at Bethlehem Bible Church 25 years ago, oh, brother!

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Whoa! Anyway, there�s a reason why we have justification as a category, sanctification as a category, and then of good works, the next category.

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My point is, sanctification is a big deal. We have a category for it in Reformed confessions, so we know what to believe.

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We confess. We agree with these statements. The Westminster Larger Catechism, question and answer of 75, what is sanctification?

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Now, I did a show on this a while ago, but this is some new information, but I wanted to just kind of catch us up, because I just didn�t want to blaze right into it in case

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A, you�ve forgotten, B, I�ve forgotten, or C, you�re not a tried -and -true no -co -listener who�s listened to all 3 ,000 episodes.

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What is sanctification? Answer, Westminster Larger Catechism. Sanctification is a work of God�s grace.

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That�s why we call this monergistic sanctification. God is the sanctifier. �Whereby they whom

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God hath before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his

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Spirit ,� we have the triune God working, monergistically, �applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them.�

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Look at the active language of God, which means we passively receive this. �Renewed in their whole man.�

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I mean, we are passive, and we receive this. �Renewed in their whole man after the image of God, having the seeds of repentance unto life and all other saving graces put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased and strengthened.�

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God is the actor, we�re the receiver. �So that they more and more die unto sin and rise unto newness of life.�

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That�s why when we talk about sanctification, we say things like �mortification.�

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That�s the saying no, that�s the dying to, that�s the killing of. And then we say �vivification.�

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Sometimes I say �vivification ,� but it�s really �vivification ,� and that�s rising.

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That�s the positive side of newness of life. Philip Melanchthon, I think, is the one that really made that distinction in some type of formula.

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God, the sanctifier, is renewing us graciously, supernaturally, by His Holy Spirit.

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And if you want to look at different verses about sanctification, whether they�re initial sanctification, i .e.,

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justification, or ongoing sanctification, progressive sanctification, you�re going to see it�s

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God the one who�s doing the work. 2 Thessalonians 2, �But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the

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Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the

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Spirit and belief in the truth.� If you somehow think that God does everything in justification, that would be right.

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But then, often people think, then we do the sanctification. In the

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Bible, we are taught something called the duplex gratia. And the duplex gratia simply means a double grace.

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And we receive God�s grace, His sovereign grace, His free grace in justification. People say that�s for us, right?

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Christ for us, because we�re not talking about our inner person there. It�s a declaration, it�s forensic, it�s in a courtroom, justification, not guilty.

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And sanctification, God, sovereign, free, grace, working not for us, because that�s justification, but in us, that�s sanctification.

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1 Thessalonians 5, �Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the

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Lord Jesus.� John 17, 17, �Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth, the

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Son praying to the Father to do the sanctification.� Romans 15, �Sanctified by the

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Holy Spirit.� 1 Corinthians 1, �To those sanctified in Christ.�

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And whether you�re talking about initial justification, sanctification, or ongoing, it�s all the supernatural work of God.

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It is the triune work of God, where He is through, as Westminster talks about sometimes in the

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Confession of Faith, �Through the virtue of Christ�s death and resurrection, and the Word and the Spirit dwelling in Him.�

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And of course, there is a response. God is the sanctifier, and we don�t lay back and let

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God, we respond. While we are renewed, we are enabled, we do respond.

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And one of the main responses that we have is faith, justification by faith alone, sanctification by faith alone as well.

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And we read in Romans 6, �What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

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By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

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We were buried therefore.� This is the stuff that you have to believe. This is why I�m saying it�s by faith. You�re believing that this is true.

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�We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism unto death. And in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we had been united with Him in a death like His.�

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Do you believe that, Christian? �We shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.� Do you believe that?

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That�s why it�s sanctification by faith, by grace through faith. �We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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For the one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also live with Him.

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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

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For the death He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God.

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So you must consider or reckon� I think that�s the first command in all of Romans �yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.�

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We walk by faith. Jesus is alive. We believe that. He�s a

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Savior. Yes, we believe that. And He�s also a sanctifier. He�s given us the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us.

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And we reckon all this by faith. John Owen, �Let faith look on Christ in the gospel as He is set forth dying and crucified for us.

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Look on Him under the weight of our sins, praying, bleeding, dying. Bring Him in that condition into thy heart by faith.

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Apply His blood so shed to thy corruptions. Do this daily. The Spirit alone brings the cross of Christ into our hearts with its sin -killing.�

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What do we do when we know that God is sanctifying us and transforming us into the image of His Son?

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Charles Hodge said, �First, it is led to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus.

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This is the first step and secures all the rest.� Now, if you�re like me, you have to admit that kind of the way we�ve been taught or the way we just default in our own thinking � okay, we�re saved by faith, saved by grace, supernaturally, triunely, et cetera, and we get that.

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Well, what about sanctification? Where�s the talk about faith and sanctification? Now, if in fact

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I�m right that sanctification is God doing the work, monergistically, then before we even say we want to have a quiet time and we want to speak properly, we want to work hard, we want to whatever commands we have � and there are plenty of commands, we�re not antinomians � the first thing we have to kind of wrap our minds around is faith.

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Hodge goes on to say, �The soul by this act of faith becomes united to Christ. We are in Him by faith.

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The consequences of this union are participation in His merits and His perfect righteousness is imputed to the believer.

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He is therefore justified. Another consequence of the union with Christ affected by faith is the dwelling of the

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Holy Spirit. Christ is with us, and if the Spirit dwells in us, Christ dwells in us.

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In partaking therefore of the Holy Ghost, believers are partakers of the life of Christ.� Third, on No Compromise Radio, Charles Hodge, �The dwelling of the

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Holy Spirit, thus secured by union with Christ, becomes the source of a new spiritual life, which constantly increases in power until everything uncongenial with it is expelled.

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The soul is perfectly transformed into the image of Christ. The Spirit especially opens the eyes to see the glory of Christ.

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This apprehension of Christ is transforming.� Second Corinthians 3, �And we all with unfailed face, beholding the glory of the

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Lord, are being transformed, God is the working one, we are the passive ones, we receive into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the

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Lord who is the Spirit. We are the ones worked upon. Faith is essential in sanctification, the response to sanctification.

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I have been crucified with Christ, Galatians 2, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life

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I now live as a Christian. I live by what? Faith in the

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Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.� Now, here's the punchline, here's the key.

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If in fact sanctification is monergistic, supernatural, free, gracious, triune, and we say to ourselves, a la

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Romans 6, we're believing that, we're trusting that that's true. The other day I was praying, �God, thank you for sanctifying me.

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I'm taking that by faith. You said it, therefore I believe it. I'm going through certain trials and physical issues and other things.

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I'm trusting that you're sanctifying me. I'm resting in that fact. I know you're not going to just let me just go to my own devices.

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You're conforming me. You use these trials and sometimes wonderful providences, sometimes mysterious providences, sometimes frowning providences, but you are sanctifying me.

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My focus, here's the key, my focus then is upwardly.

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The opposite of that is what? Inwardly, or I thought you were going to say downwardly, up -down.

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But you know what I'm saying, introspection, examination. I'm not saying there's never a time that you can't examine yourself.

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That's another show. But we have an object of our faith, Jesus. Is he the risen

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Savior? Is he the conquering King? Is he a sufficient Savior?

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If you think sanctification, you just keep getting more holy, just keep trying harder, just as an individual, just move on, love

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God, love neighbor. If that's the extent of what you think of sanctification, you thought about it wrongly.

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That's not how scriptures talk about it. You think of sanctification and we need to believe this by faith.

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Whatever you need to say no to sin and to say yes to obey, you have that in Christ because he's given you one just like him, the

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Holy Spirit, and he dwells in you. Is, in fact, Jesus the fountain of the springs of living water for not just justification but sanctification?

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There's a reason why Colossians 219 is written, "...and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God."

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Everything we need as Christians, we have. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, right?

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In Christ Jesus. We do respond with exertion, we do respond with good works, but they're not properly called sanctification.

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They're the consequences of sanctification, the results, the response.

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Scott Clarke said they're the consequences of sanctification, which results in vigorous exertion by Christians. And you can see that in 2

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Peter, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, knowledge, self -control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection with love.

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My name is Mike Ebendroth. Today we're talking about sanctification and the big key point, the takeaway point is

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God is the justifier, God is the sanctifier. Duplex gratia, Christ for us,

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Christ in us. And of course we respond, but don't forget the main response is faith.

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Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 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.