Beza Briefing - The Holy Spirit and Temptation

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

Theology, the Lord Jesus, and the Show’s Recurring Themes

Michael Abendroth here at the helm, and we, I, you, like to talk about theology, like to talk about the Lord Jesus, like to talk about His Word. You can reach me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. If you go on the website, NoCompromiseRadio .com, and order the book, Sexual Fidelity, a book I wrote, I think 30 chapters, kind of one per day type of thing for a month, a thousand or so words per chapter I wrote, based on conversations I�ve had with my son when my son was younger, and we needed to talk about sex from a biblical perspective.

There�s nothing in the book that�s untoward or outrageous or trying to push the envelope so you will buy it. I think the only time I ever talked about anything, close to even anatomy, was in the chapter on how to talk to your children about sex, right, the mom and dad together sitting there talking about how God made things and how great God is and how it�s for marriage and et cetera.

So anyway, if you order that book, you�ll get things to go bump in the church for free, for gratis. So just order online. You can�t save free. I�ll just put one in for free. I�m the shipper. I�m the packer.

I�m the receiver. The Green Bay Packers I used to like, but no longer. If you want to go to the YouTube channel, No Compromise Radio YouTube, I should probably have some more new ones out pretty soon.

Ben will help me. We got done filming American Gospel, three part, my session, two and a half hours worth, and I�ll make it on the show for two minutes, but that�s okay. It�s two more minutes than I deserve.

I tried to be biblical. I tried not to say fully God, fully man, 100 God, 100 man. I tried to say truly, perfectly, verily, very God of very God. So anyway, what do we do here at the show? Well, we talk about a variety of things.

We have reoccurring themes besides the Lord Jesus, the one who never compromised. Those reoccurring themes are things like preaching versus scolding, duplex gratia, that is Christ for pardon when you�re initially saved, justification, and Christ for power.

You want to live a holy life, a faithful life? I�m glad you do. So do I. How could we do that? The law doesn�t animate. The law doesn�t energize. It directs the believer, and we need the Lord Jesus. We�re motivated by Him, His Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

The Son is sent by the Father, and then the Father and the Son. We have the Spirit of God proceed from them. Anyway, we talk about that, and we also have a little section called the Beza Briefing, and so today is the Beza Briefing.

Reading Beza as a Guide to Christian Life and Doctrine

Theodore Beza, as you know by now if you listen to the show, took over for Calvin. He wrote a little short systematic theology, and I�ve made it a practice, and I�d like you to make it a practice over the years to just regularly read systematic theologies.

What I end up doing now is on my desk at home, I have a study at home as well, I have Turreton, I have Abrakel, Wilhelmus Abrakel, and I have Richard Mueller, and I just read a few pages of each when I go down to the office.

I don�t do it every day. I�d like to do it every day, but I�m on probably page 200 of each of those, and as time goes on, I just have another systematic theology read. You think to yourself, �Yes, Berkhoff is wonderful, but we�ve got the new volumes by Beakey and Smalley, maybe.

Did he help write it or write it And you�ve got, I�m blanking out, Bavink, so you�ve got dogmatic theologies, reformed theologies, systematic theologies, biblical theologies, and I just try to regularly read those.

It�s the same thing when it comes to Heidelberg Catechism, Belgian Confession, I just try to regularly read those things, and it just keeps me, hopefully, thinking rightly, so I don�t say things like, �Fully God, fully man, 100 God, 100 man.

I say qualitative things. He�s truly God, Jesus, and truly man. Today in the BASIC Briefing, we�re up to page 20, section 412, 4 .12, and so what I do on this show for this particular topic is I start to read the BASIC Briefing briefly, and then I make my own comments, and it�s kind of fun because I�ve forgotten what some of these paragraphs say.

I mean, how could I remember? My COVID brain these days is not too good, although I did have my blood numbers done at the cancer hospital not that long ago, not too bad. One number may be kind of like, �Huh, what�s that

But come back in August and we retest and figure it out. I�ve also kind of got my GI problem solved, and I�m dairy-free, which includes lactose, and I am gluten-free. I might as well just keep going.

I might as well just give up meats and eggs. Maybe that�s next. My friend said, �You should watch the Netflix documentary, What the Health And I think it�s about trying to get people to be vegan. At the time right now, I wouldn�t even mind that because as much as I like to eat meat, I would rather have just kind of normal life when it comes to just, we call it GI, right?

They call it gut. Why do they call it gut? I�ve got gut problems. The third assault of the same temptation, the natural pollution or original sin which is in our persons makes God hate us still. What Beza is doing is saying, �We are tempted to think wrongly about God.

We are pushed and forced, and you can almost go back to the garden, or you could go back to the garden, and think about what Satan did with Eve, Adam standing right there, and questioning the character of God, and a temptation could be for us and probably is regularly for us.

The natural pollution, original sin, Adam sin, which is in our persons, makes God hate us still. Is that true? Does God hate a Christian? If you�re a Christian today, does God hate you? Does God despise you?

Is God angry with you? You say, �Well, generally, no, but think about your last week. What should you have done for the Lord regarding obedience, summarized by love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself?

To what degree did you do that? And therefore, when you start thinking like that, you�re like, �Huh, I didn�t measure up to what I know is right, conduct befitting an officer, I didn�t do that, and am I really a child

Beza wants to work through this, and he says, �There remains yet to Satan an assault with his temptation about our unworthiness as follows. Although you have satisfied for the penalty of your sins in the person of Jesus Christ, and are also through faith covered with His righteousness, you are nevertheless corrupt in your own nature.

In it there dwells still the root of all sin. So, that�s what we talked about on the show last time, these temptations. And so, therefore, I needed to review that a little bit, because the next section, 413, where we are, it�s called Remedy Against the Second Temptation, Have We Faith or Not?

And so, do we really believe? Since this is still happening, you�ve got natural pollution, original sin, what do we do? I mean, are we still polluted in body and soul? Aren�t we engrafted into Christ?

And so, Beza writes, that�s just a quick little review, �In the second temptation, Satan will then answer that the Lord Jesus did not die for all sinners, seeing that all will not be saved. Let us then have recourse to our faith, and reply to him that in truth, only believers will receive the fruit of the suffering and satisfaction of Jesus Christ.

But instead of disturbing us, this gives us assurance, for we know that we have faith. Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 2, 1 John 4. �As we have said before, it is not enough to have a general and confused belief that Jesus Christ came to take away the sins of the world, but it is necessary that each apply to himself, and appropriate to himself, Jesus Christ through faith, so that each concludes in himself, �I am in Jesus Christ through faith.

That is why I cannot perish, and am sure of my salvation. Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 2, 1 John 5. And that harkens back to Luther often talking about personal pronouns. It�s one thing to say Jesus is Lord, but Jesus is my Lord.

We had some baptisms here at the church, and the one man particularly said something that was striking to me, �When I read the passage, �All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God as God was convicting me and drawing him to himself, I read that as, �And I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That�s what�s happening here, except it�s on the positive side. And you can say, �Dear Christian, can you not? I am in Jesus Christ through faith, and I cannot perish. That�s good. The world�s crazy, everything�s going awry, weird things happening with evangelicalism, but I�m safe and secure.

The Spirit’s Witness, Regeneration, and Sanctification

Beza, �Thus to confirm that we have repulsed Satan in the three preceding assaults of the first temptation, and in order to resist the second, it is necessary to know if we have this faith or not. The means is to return from the effects to the cause which produces him.

Now the effects which Jesus produces in us, when we have taken hold of him by faith, are two. In the first place, there is the testimony which the Holy Spirit gives to our spirit that we are children of God, and enables us to cry with assurance, �Abba, Father.

Romans 8, Galatians 4. And that, by the way, that cry is a real shriek. It�s a cry of a lady who�s giving birth to a baby. And I remember Sinclair Ferguson, both S. Lewis Johnson and Sinclair Ferguson have influenced me.

And Sinclair Ferguson would talk about when you are really, really hurting, in whatever kind of trial, the reaction somewhere there in you is, �God, help. You look to God, you cry unto God, �Father.

And I know when I was in a big trial last year in the hospital, thinking I�m not going to make it, almost not making it, I couldn�t really pray much, I couldn�t think well, and I just said, �Help often.

It was my prayer, �Help. And that�s the spirit of God. We cry with assurance, �Abba, Father. In the second place, Beza said, we must understand that when we apply to ourselves Jesus Christ by faith, this is not by some silly and vain fancy and imagining, but really, and in fact, though spiritually, Romans 6, verse 6, verse John 1, verse John 2, verse John 3, in the same way as the soul produces its effects when it is naturally united to the body, so when by faith Jesus Christ dwells in us in a spiritual manner, His power produces there and reveals there His graces, these are described in Scripture by the words �regeneration and sanctification and they make us new creatures with regard to the qualities that we can have, John 3, Ephesians 4.

This generation, that is to say, a new beginning and new creation, is divided into three parts. In the same way as the natural corruption which holds our person captive, both body and soul, produces in us sins and death, Romans 7, so the power of Jesus Christ flowing and entering into us with efficacy, as coming to take possession of us, produces in us three effects, the putting to death of sin, that is to say, of this natural corruption which the Scripture calls the old man, his burial, and finally, the resurrection of the new man.

St. Paul, in particular, describes these things at length, Romans 6 and elsewhere, 1 Peter 4. The putting of death of the corruption or of sin is an effect of Jesus Christ in us. Little by little, He destroys this cursed corruption of our nature so that it becomes less powerful to produce in us its effects.

The motions, the consents, and the other actions contrary to the will of God. Beza there is talking about what we would say is mortification, right? Morte, muerte, mortician, mortuary. It's death, death to sin, and on the positive side, it's living to righteousness, vivification, but let's talk about mortification.

God, the triune God, sanctifies us alone, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, He's the sanctifier, and He enables us through His sanctifying power, specifically the Spirit of God dwelling in us, to say no to sin and to mortify.

We don't do that on our own, we are receiving the power of God, we are enabled to, I think it's one of the confessions says, and then we begin to say no. Technically speaking, the effects of sanctification are mortification, that's one of the effects at least, other is living to righteousness, vivification.

And what is happening is that at regeneration, we now, new creatures in Christ, begin to do that, and it's a lifelong thing, right? We're not instantly glorified. Beza said the burying of the old man is an effect of the same Jesus Christ, Romans 6, Colossians 2, by His power, the old man who has received His death blow does not cease to be annihilated little by little.

In short, in the same way as the burying of our body is a progression from death, so the burying of our old man is a progression and consequence of His being put to death. That's interesting, makes me think about how long does it take to dig a grave, right?

To this end, the afflictions with which the Lord visits us daily, greatly severe, 2 Corinthians 4. He becomes likewise with physical and spiritual trials, which we must be diligently, which we must diligently make use of, to put to death more and more the rebellion of the flesh, which fights against the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 9, Galatians 5.

Finally, for believers, the first death is the completion of this putting to death and burying of sin, for it puts an end to the war of the flesh against the Spirit, Philippians 3. At our death, short of the Lord's return, that will be the final chapter of putting to death more and more the rebellion of the flesh.

It will be completed, the first death, that's our only death, right, as Christians. And we are going to be battling until the very end. That's why Paul in Ephesians 6 talks about this war against Satan and his organized legions and it's an ongoing battle.

You can look at some of the tenses there and figure out what's going on. The church is in a battle and she, you, part of the church, will continue that battle until glory. The resurrection of the new man, Beza said, this man whose qualities and faculties are truly renewed, is the third effect of the same Jesus Christ living in us, having put to death in our nature that which it had of corruption.

He then gives to us a new power and remakes us, thus our understanding and our judgment illuminated by the pure grace of the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1, and governed by the new power from which we draw from Jesus Christ, Romans 8, begin to understand and to approve which previously was folly to them, 1 Corinthians 2, and an abomination, Romans 8.

And in the second place, the will is ratified to hate sin and embrace righteousness, Romans 6. Finally, all the faculties of man begin to shun that which God has forbidden and to follow all that he has commanded, Romans 7, Philippians 2.

These are therefore the two effects that Jesus Christ produces in us. Notice he's the active one. He's producing. If we experience them, the conclusion is infallible. We have faith. And consequently, as we have said, we have in us Jesus Christ living eternally.

Assurance, Good Works, and the Fruit of Faith

Now, one of the things I've noticed, especially with some followers of what we call Lordship Salvation, if you say, well, you know, you continue in these sins, they might say, how can you call yourself a Christian?

I mean, there's a fake faith. There's a spurious faith. There's a faith that doesn't save. There's a demonic faith. And that's all true. But I would rather have them on the front say things like, not are you continuing in these sins, but something like this, although you might continue in certain sins, do you hate it that you do?

Are you distressed that you are? Are you finding yourself often more convicted, more quickly convicted, more soon to say to the Lord, please forgive me? Do you recognize it more? Is the struggle harder?

Do you have some type of conviction in your soul regarding these things? How could I sin against the one who loved me and gave himself for me? I think that's some of the added element that's needed in this particular conversation.

Here we have this sanctifying work of God, and of course, God could have immediately glorified us, but why didn't he? There's lots of answers for that. If you go to the Heidelberg Catechism, it says in question 115, why will God then have the Ten Commandments so strictly preached, since no man in this life can keep them?

Good question. First, that all our lifetime we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin and righteousness in Christ. Likewise, that we constantly endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in a life to come.

That's important. And did you know 115 followed 114? Question 114. But can those who are converted to God perfectly keep these commandments? No. But even the holiest of men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of disobedience, yet so that with a sincere resolution, they begin to live not only according to some, but all the commandments of God.

And I would like to see more of that in what we call the Lordship Debates. I'm obviously happy that the Lordship Salvation people have rightly diagnosed the problem. There are people that say they believe and they don't.

I mean, those people are deceived, right? That's 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10. Of course, 11 and 12, especially 11, talks about this great news about washing, justifying, sanctifying, etc. But here we understand, with the help of even Beza, that this is something that God is doing in us, and we respond.

Christ produces this in us. And we watch what's going on as we understand what sin is, how bad it is, how we want to turn from it, how we repent, how we're fighting the flesh, fighting against Satan. God is renewing our faculties.

Jesus is living in us by the Holy Spirit. And we say to ourselves, what do we do? Beza, it is therefore evident that each believer must watch above all to maintain, by continual supplication, this aforementioned testimony which the Spirit of God gives to his own.

He must also develop by continual exercise of good works to which this vocation calls him. See, far from being an antinomian, Beza doesn't say that. This is what you have to do, a continual exercise of good works, not as the ground of salvation, but as a fruit, as a lively effect.

The gift of regeneration which he received, Romans 12, it is this sense. It is said that he who is born of God does not sin, 1 John 5. That is to say, he does not addict himself to sin, but resist it more and more so that he has correspondingly more assurance of his election and calling, 2 Peter 1.

Since to this, no, excuse me, since to know this regeneration, it is necessary to come to its fruits. Thus, as I have said, the man being freed from the bondage of sin, that is to say, from his natural corruption, begins, thanks to the power of Jesus Christ who dwells in him, to produce the good fruits which we call good works.

This is why we say, and with good reason, that the faith of which we speak can no more exist without good works than the sun without light or fire without heat, 1 John 2, James chapter 2.". For Beza, on his section 413, when it comes to remedy against the second temptation, have we have faith, do we have faith or not?

Faith, Self-Examination, and the Spirit’s Work in Us

I want you to get the book, of course, and I also want you to just see this language of, if I was going to be crass, who's on first. All too often, we evangelicals think we're sanctifiers. We think we're co-sanctifiers.

We think somehow we are doing something with God's help, or we do something, then God does something. Beza's language is clear. God is active. We are passive in the sense that sanctifying work of God, God is working in us, and then as he works in us, we receive that work.

Then we are active in doing certain things, the fruit of good works, which we call good works, Beza said. Then we begin to be distressed, of course, with our sins, and we want to call out to God. Beza said he doesn't addict himself to sin, but resists it more and more, where you think, okay, the addict, he doesn't...

What Beza's not trying to say is, hey, you have to be sinless and grow and grow and grow to such a degree where you think, you know what? I remember when I first got married, I was selfish, and I'm no longer selfish.

Well, what's he say? Resist it more and more. Isn't that a sign of assurance? Isn't that something that would be good for a Christian to know that, yes, in fact, when you first were saved and you first were married, you were, in fact, very, very selfish.

And then now, while I'm still selfish, I don't like it when I am. I hate it. I want to repent. I go ask my wife for forgiveness. I see the effects of God, the Holy Spirit, in my life, and therefore I say, here's Beza's punchline, I have faith.

Because who would put those things in my heart? CNN? The world system? Satan? Would Satan put it in my heart to feel bad when I am selfish and all I want to do is take instead of self-sacrificially give, like the Lord Jesus Christ who loved the church and gave himself for her.

So that's a good effect of faith.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.