God\'s Sanctifying Work

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Apendraw. It's Wednesday, that means it's a video today and brought my four different shirts to record four shows.

And off we go. Don't forget, you can get the new book, King, How the

Sovereignty of God Changes Everything. I had my friend, Todd Friel, write me an endorsement, which they call in the business, a puff.

And here's what Todd Friel said. You are holding what is destined to be one of the worst selling books of all time.

There are a plethora of books describing Jesus as friend because they sell. There are very few books that describe

Jesus as king. It's about time that a book is written and published to balance the scales of our understanding of our

God. Evangelicals need to read this book. I had told Todd the story about, St.

Clair Ferguson said, books about Jesus don't sell. That always struck me as kind of funny, sad funny in a way.

So my name is Mike Apendraw, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Today, I want to talk about sanctification.

I know you think I'm an antinomian, but no, I wanna talk about sanctification.

By the way, we're on American Gospel and the Wednesday show is on American Gospel and just found out this week,

Mario told me that a public access station is covering us. I think it's in Southbridge, yeah,

Southbridge, Mass. And so, hey, we're on the, the tentacles of NOCO are reaching everywhere.

Public access TV. I used to be on public access TV with my friend

Edwin and we were on a North Hollywood station and it was 1995 and it was called

Narrow Gate Ministries, Matthew 7, enter through the narrow gate. I'm sure I scolded people,

I'm sure I was just ornery, but we filmed at Mario in a motorcycle repair garage.

And then I just had a pulpit that I would stand behind and I had kind of a suit on the top and I had shorts and flip -flops on because I was behind the pulpit and it was hot.

And I just remember the smell of grease and smell of motorcycle bearings and other things.

Today, I wanna talk about sanctification and I know you know it's important.

What is sanctification? What is holy living? How do we go about it today? Sanctification, and the way

I want to do this is I wanna do it in kind of an adversarial way. I don't think

I would do this when I would preach on the topic, but in terms of how to get you to listen, it's basically going to be, you think you know about sanctification?

I don't think you do, that type of thing. I'm sure you do, you listen to No Compromise Radio, you listen to the Pactum, you listen to Abound in Grace Radio.

I know you know, but just for the sake of a difference in how to preach something kind of like the one we did a couple of weeks ago, how to be a boring preacher,

I mean, it was the opposite. Here's gonna be, you think you know about this? I dare you, I don't think you do.

I think you're ill -informed. So I want you, the listener to go and the viewer to go, no, no,

I do know that, you're wrong, because that'll get you to pay attention. So some adversarial statements that I'm gonna teach you about gospel and sanctification.

Number one, you think you know what the definition of sanctification is, but I don't think you do.

You don't really understand the definition of sanctification. If I were to ask you, hey, what's the definition of sanctification?

You're probably going to say something about you living a holy life. You obeying

God's law. As a Christian, learning and growing and obeying and saying no to sin and yes to righteousness.

But that's not the technical definition of sanctification. It might be involved in the conversation.

It might be fruits and evidences of sanctification, but the definition of sanctification is what?

And so let me just give you a couple verses first. Leviticus 20, verse eight.

I am the Lord who sanctifies you. I'm guessing that when

I talk about sanctification, you're talking about more what you do, your holy life, your obedience.

Hebrews 13, 20 and 21. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our

Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, here's this God, equip you with everything good that you may do

His will. Here's this God who working in us, that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever.

God sanctifies. God alone sanctifies. When it comes to the definition of sanctification, you need to make sure you understand that it is

God who is the sanctifier. And the reformed confessions and catechisms assist.

The Westminster Shorter, number 35, what is sanctification? Let's see if there's anything in here about your living, your holiness.

Let's see if it's front end stated. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace,

God working, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God.

God is the one renewing and are enabled. God is enabling us more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness.

And so when it comes to sanctification, I wanna make sure you talk about God's work first and how

God's grace, God empowers, God equips,

God enables, God renews. Let's make sure we talk about sanctification as properly

God's work. We are being sanctified by God. God is sanctifying you.

It is a grace of God. God is the active one. We are passive, being renewed, being enabled.

You don't say, I sanctify myself. I co -sanctify myself with God's help.

I don't want you to think justification is God's work. Glorification is God's work and sanctification is your work.

God does his part, you do your part. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18.

And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed in the same image, one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. You are sanctified by the

Spirit of God. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. In 1 Peter 1, verse two, it's sanctification of the

Spirit. Sanctification is not your part and God's part. It is God's work of free grace in us.

So I don't want you to be obnoxious like I am when you meet someone and they talk about, well, my sanctification and holy living and everything else.

You're like, no, no, it's monergistic and you don't know what you're talking about. Remember, this is just for the show today. You think you know, but you don't.

You say to yourself, well, if it's a work of God's free grace, what's my response? Oh, we're gonna talk about that.

But immediately your response should be, thank you, Lord, that you're the one. Thank you that you're working in me.

Thank you that you're sanctifying me. Number two, you probably think that if you quote

Philippians 2 to me, that proves your point that you co -sanctify with God. People say, well, you know, it's synergistic sanctification.

It's me and God kind of working together. And to prove the point to you, Mike Abendroth, you monergistic sanctification guy,

Philippians 2, what about that? Well, okay, what about that? Philippians 2, 12 and 13.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

See there, I'm working it out. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

What do we do with those verses? God is the source of both the desire to will and the ability to work, to live a holy life.

One writer said he assigns the praise to God alone by affirming that it is he who works in us both to will and to do.

Hence it follows that all our holiness and righteousness are free gifts of God.

I know you know this verse, this maybe helps. Ephesians 2, 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I think that Philippians 2 teaches monergistic sanctification.

Adversarial statement number three. You probably forgot that there are two main uses for the word sanctification.

Progressive, holy, we're responding to God's sanctifying work saying no to sin and yes to righteousness, but also remember positional.

There's positional and progressive. You are sanctified by God initially at justification, set apart for God's work.

1 Corinthians 1, 2, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.

So remember, we talk about sanctification, there's positional, you're set apart for God's work.

God's will sets you apart. And then there's practical or progressive.

When we respond to God's grace, learning, growing, say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

Number four, adversarial statement number four. It's not that adversarial, but it's just for the point.

You don't really understand fully God's sanctifying work. That's an easy one, that's true.

Here's my point. There's a book written by Walter Marshall, a great book on sanctification, God's Mystery of Sanctification, more properly titled,

The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. How does this all work? God's sanctifying and we respond with faith, we respond with killing sin, we respond with living to righteousness.

Well, I can read the verses, but there's some mystery here. Scott Clark said, it's not complex, but it's mysterious because we cannot exactly say how or when or to what degree the spirit is presently at work in us.

And yet we know he is. So just because we can't figure it all out, we shouldn't say to ourselves, well, it's not working, it's not happening.

No, no, we respond to God's sanctifying work. We are responsible to do things, to not complain, to not be bitter, to forgive, et cetera.

But how do we know what's going on? How do we understand two truths that seem like they're hard for us to grasp?

Jerry Bridges, a man that you should read regularly, said, you know what?

He was an engineer. And he said, I wanna know exactly how things work as an engineer.

I wanna analyze it and that's my training. And so Bridges said regarding the transforming work of the spirit of God in us, sanctifying us, and then our responsibility to kill sin and live to righteousness, how does this work together?

He said, I kept trying to answer the question of exactly how my personal responsibility for growing in holiness fits together with the work of the

Holy Spirit. I finally, Bridges said, gave up. I concluded that God has not answered that question anywhere in the

Bible. The mutual relationship of the Holy Spirit and human personality in the work of sanctification is a mystery known only to God.

But our inability to explain just how God works in and through our personalities should not keep us from believing that He does.

And so how does this work when God says He's the sanctifier and we respond to that by killing sin and living to righteousness, what do

I do? And the answer is you respond with faith and you say, it's true. I know it's happening.

Sometimes, you know, when kids say, daddy, am I growing? And we put them over by the door and mark off how tall they are and the date, you know, am

I growing? Yes, we are growing. God is growing us. He's sanctifying us. One day, He'll glorify us.

And because we can't figure out sanctification and what our responsibility is figuring out all these details, here's what

I do. If I can't figure out something about the triune

God, I just believe it and then say, you know what? I'm finite and I'm fallen.

And the gap between me understanding God shouldn't cause me to worry, shouldn't cause me to fret, shouldn't make me bummed, it should make me worship.

So I grab hold of the truths of the Bible and it says, God is the sanctifier. And yes, these are some laws in the

Bible that I'm supposed to do and that how this works and the relationship between the two,

I just think, you know what? I'm just gonna take it by faith and I'm not gonna put God in court and ask him a bunch of questions.

It's true. God sanctifies you, dear Christian, progressively. And your response is to obey, to be holy, to say no to sin.

All right, Mike Cabendroth here, kind of adversarial statements about sanctification. Number five, you probably forget union with Christ because you love

Sola Fide so much. We talk about justification by faith alone all the time.

Sola Fide, faith alone. Good, right, important, reformation truth.

But we don't wanna overlook union with Christ. Now we could argue which one is primary, secondary, how this all works, kind of the battle of the

Westminster seminaries, Philly and Escondido. But I don't wanna talk about that today. I want you to remember,

Christian, that because you're united with Christ, you are dead to the dominion of sin and alive to righteousness.

You can obey God. You have the power to do that now because of the union with Christ.

John Owen said, pastors have two problems. One, persuading unbelievers that they're under the dominion of sin, like sin dominates them, sin controls them.

It's hard for unbelievers to grasp that. But pastors have another problem, persuading believers that they're not under the dominion of sin.

We don't have to sin. We will sin because we're not glorified, but we don't have to.

Union with Christ. Remember, it is Christ for pardon, justification, and Christ for power, sanctification, the ability to obey.

And it's all related to Jesus. Jesus is important for holy living.

Think about what happens in a lot of churches. You go to the sermons and there's not a whole lot about Jesus. He's assumed,

He's not denied. He's in the statement of faith. He might be talked about in Jesus' name, but the sermons tend to be law -driven, do things, morals, ethics only, apart from the one who's enabling, who's empowering.

And we don't get a lot of Jesus talk. But remember, the power to say no to sin and yes to righteousness revolves around Jesus Christ and union with Him.

The chapter probably about union is Romans 6. Here's what

Romans 6 says. What should we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

And of course, we're not to continue in sin that grace may abound, but the doctrine of justification by faith alone could lend itself to that.

If you say, you know what? Well, I guess we could still sin and not lose our salvation. That's true. He says in chapter six, verse two, by no means, how can we who died to sin still live in it?

Sin's power is broken for the believer. Sin can make no longer any legal claims for the believer.

The penalty of sin does not apply to the believer because Jesus paid for our sins.

We have died to the dominating power of sin, died with Christ, died to the guilt of sin.

And as a consequence, we die to the dominion of sin all because of Jesus.

The explanation, verse three, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Jesus's death is your death,

Christian. Jesus's life is your life, Christian. And you are united by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Verse five, for if we have been united with Him, that's where we get the idea of union.

If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

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.

So this is where we get the language of mortification, killing sin, saying no to sin, and vivification, or living for righteousness' sake.

For the one who has died, Romans 6, 7, has been set free from sin. And he keeps going. Now, if we've died with Christ, we believe we'll also live with Him.

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

He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. That's where we get the language, mortification, death, killing sin, vivification, living for righteousness.

So in the middle of all this, we now have the very first command in Romans. What's the first command in Romans?

I mean, I didn't see any commands in chapter one, two, three, four, five, six. 611 is the first command in all of Romans.

That could be another adversarial statement. I bet you don't know where the first command is in Romans. So you must also, here's the command, consider yourselves dead to sin, mortification, and alive to God, vivification, to God in Christ Jesus.

Wait a second, I just need to be told to do something. I like doing, I'm a man of action.

And the first thing in Romans, Paul says, is not to do something, it's to think something.

It's to believe something. Believe that you're dead to sin's penalty, dead to sin's dominion, and that you can say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

You can live a holy life by the power of Jesus Christ. You say, well, if I'm dead to the dominion of sin, and Jerry Bridges talks about this, well,

I still struggle with sin. I still sin. What's going on?

I know I don't have to pay the penalty for my sin, but there's a power struggle going on.

And here's what Bridges said. The answer to the question, will I still struggle with sin patterns in my life, lies in the word struggle.

Unbelievers do not struggle with sin. They may seek to overcome a bad habit, but they do not see that habit as sin.

They do not have a sense of sin against a holy God. Believers, on the other hand, struggle with sin as sin.

We see our sinful words, thoughts, and deeds as sin against God, and we feel guilty because of it.

This is where we must continue to go back to the gospel, to consider ourselves dead to sin, and to believe the gospel.

Very, very good news. When you think about sanctification, you need to be thinking about Jesus and how you're united with Him and how you don't have to pay for those sins.

You don't even have to be under the power of that domination of sin anymore. This should give you comfort.

This should give you hope. This should make you say, you know, there's a sin that I'm dealing with all the time, but I sometimes forget

I have the power, communion with Christ, to say no to the sin. All sin is against God, and God has given me a remedy, and I don't wanna detach the remedy from who

God is and His power, His strength. I can't do it on my own. I need Him. My sanctification is theirs.

It's flowing from the person and work of Jesus. Louis Burkhoff wrote, he,

God, freely works within us through the Holy Spirit on the basis of the righteousness of Christ.

I wanna kill sin. I wanna live for the Lord. It all revolves around who Jesus is.

Well, today we're looking at adversarial statements when it comes to sanctification. Number six, number six.

You probably believe that your first response to God's sanctifying work is obedience.

First thing I do, God's sanctifying, Mike, you've convinced me monergistically God does all these things.

He's the sanctifier. He glorifies. He justifies. It's all a work of God's free grace.

And therefore, the first thing I need to do is kill sin and live to righteousness. Well, back to chapter six, verse 11.

So also you must consider the first response to God's sanctifying work is faith. Wait, what?

How? Sola fide, justified by faith alone, and you are also sanctified by faith alone.

And the fruits and evidences and the response will be obedience. That's for certain. But the first response is faith.

Thinking to yourself, I am dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. I can't see that. I can't experience that.

I just have to take it by faith. In your faith, you recognize, dear believer, that every blessing comes from Jesus.

By faith alone, you think I can't do anything apart from union with Christ. By faith alone, the

Spirit of God, He said, He's dwelling within me, and I have the power for not just pardon, but the power to say no to sin.

It's true. I have to believe by faith in the sanctifying category that Jesus is praying for me, that Jesus wants my best, sanctify them in truth.

Your word is truth. That's John 17. Hebrews 7, He's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him.

Since He, Jesus, always lives to make intercession for them. But I have to be believing these things are true.

I have to believe that sanctifying the work of God is actually happening. That's what faith does.

I can't see any of that. I see Jesus by faith. How do I see Jesus? Well, I see

Him by faith through the scriptures. I have to believe that Jesus has forgiven me.

I have to believe that I have Jesus's righteousness. I have to believe that in fact, this is being done.

Very interesting story that Joel Beakey has in the reprint of the book, the mystery,

Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall. Lots of times Marshall would have all kinds of distress and kind of like a spiritual depression.

And he didn't know what to do. And so he went to Thomas Goodwin and Thomas Goodwin gave opposite advice of Richard Baxter.

Baxter is gonna point you within a lot. And what does Marshall want?

He wants responses from Goodwin. And here's what it says. For those of you that struggle, Goodwin's response was that Marshall had forgotten to mention the greatest sin of all.

Because he was working on sin. Not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and the sanctifying of his nature.

I believe that he takes my sins away at Calvary, but what about sanctifying work?

Marshall began to focus more on studying and preaching Christ. He realized that he had been trying to make his own righteousness, the basis of his dealings with God, as well as the ground of his peace.

Consequently, he had not submitted himself to the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. When he focused upon Christ, he found holiness, peace of conscience and joy in the

Holy Spirit. So by faith, we say to ourselves, he's purchased me and he's bought my justification, sanctification and glorification.

How about this? By faith, you have to say, he who began a good work in me is going to be faithful to complete it.

I always think about that song. He who began a good work in me. That's Philippians chapter one, verse six.

That God is helping me. I'm trusting, I'm believing that God is faithful and will mature me and will make me holy and will help me obey the

Christian life. Is it a heartfelt trust that empowers holy living?

Yes, that's what I'm trying to say. By faith, I have to say to myself, I sinned and is

God mad at me? No, no, is he gonna kick me out of the Lamb's book of life? No. So we pray things like,

Lord, thank you for sanctifying me. Left to my own, I'd be lacking. Help me trust in your sanctifying work all the more.

So this is Mike Gabendroth. Now this is, that's wrong. That's a demonstrative pronoun. This, I am

Mike Gabendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. I have my iPad here, Mario. When I do weddings or whatever, and I hold it,

I have to be careful because otherwise I'm promoting my show. Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry, all you heathens.

Lastly, adversarial number statement, statement number seven. When a friend calls you for advice with holy living, you probably give the wrong advice.

Here's what I'm after. Somebody calls you and says, I'm struggling with pornography, help me. Probably what you're gonna do is give them only law and you're not gonna give them gospel truths.

You're gonna say, you know what? Accountability partner, here's what you do with your computer, work out, run away from it, read your

Bible. Okay, good advice. But it's interesting, 1 Corinthians chapter six, there were sexual problems at the church of Corinth.

And while Paul said, don't be deceived, that's law. While Paul said, flee sexual immorality, that's law.

While Paul said, glorify God with your body, that's law. Good, good, and good. He also said things like, you know what?

The truth of the resurrection is important. This body is gonna be raised from the dead. He also said, your body is a temple of the

Holy Spirit. He said, you're bought with a price. He said, you're washed, set apart, sanctified, and you're justified.

All these other truths. So when people ask you, you know what? I'm struggling with bitterness, complaining, lack of contentment, worry, sexual problems.

We don't just say, this is what you should do. We talk about who the Lord is, then we talk about what they need to do.

Certainly flee sexual immorality, but also we need to talk about the faithfulness of God, who

Jesus is. Don't just give people law because my final statement, I guess

I can just add at number eight, law in and of itself doesn't motivate. Law shows the standard.

Law shows the direction of what we're supposed to do. But what motivates is who the Lord Jesus is.

Guilt, grace, gratitude. That's the way this all works. We have the engine of who

Jesus is, gospel truths, and then the law is how we're guided. So today,

I just wanted you to think a little bit about sanctification. And in light of God's sanctifying work, dear

Christian, you should believe that it's happening, keep trusting in the Lord, and then by his power, kill sin and live to righteousness.

My son Luke was looking at names for children when they had Eleazar, they didn't know what to name him. They were thinking through names like all parents do.

And one first name of a kid back in the Puritan days with a hyphen was named Kilsin, Kilsin Abendroth.

Oh, he's an antinomian. Anyway, he picked Eleazar instead of Kilsin. The other name that he saw was fly fornication.

That's a first name. Not even flee fornication, but fly from it. Just run as fast as you can, flee fornication.

So I want you to live a holy life. I want you to sweat and toil and labor against sin, but I don't want you to do it on your own.

And I don't want you to do it by your own power. And I want you to say, you know what? Every good thing comes from the hand of the

Lord. And Lord, would you even help me to do these things? And by the way, I know you're working in me. I can't even see it, but I'll trust that you are.