AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
We were so pleased today to have my dear friend Dr. Mike Canham from Cornerstone Seminary here to preach. He did an outstanding job on helping Christians face times of trial and temptation from the account of Abraham’s call to sacrifice Isaac.
Don’t miss it!
My wonderful wife and I just got back from this year’s annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, and what a blessing the sessions we were able to attend this year were. Some highlights were:
William Lane Craig responding to a new book attacking penal substitutionary atonement. He dismantled it handily – reasserting the orthodox Reformed position.
Douglas Groothuis on What Philosophers wish Theologians knew. With his classic wry humor and a slight by-path on discussing the current trial of his brilliant wife’s struggle with dementia. His book on that is due out this Monday – “Walking Through Twilight.” An absolute must read.
A wonderful festschrift for Vern Poythress that even brought Wayne Grudem to tears as he recounted Poythress’s influence on his own life.
David Allen’s wonderful paper on Calvin’s view of the Atonement.
Not to mention D. A. Carson, Thom Schreiner, Al Mohler, Andy Naselli, Sam Storms, Greg Beale, and a host of others. Too many to attend them all.
And a spectacular 3 hour presentation (by multiple speakers) on the subject of Theistic Evolution. I’ll be reviewing this 1000 page tome soon, but to have a roster of top-tier scientists, philosophers, and theologians dealing with topic in such depth was worth the 6 hour drive each way and the cost of the conference and the hotel room. Their object in equipping the saints to be able to stand our ground against popular evolutionary myths and especially capitulations in the Church by groups like BioLogos was nothing short of stunning – and highly energizing.
If you can only buy one major book this year ($65.00 IS steep) – save your pennies and do it. Spectacular.
There were a few more but I wanted to tease you all with the Theistic Evolution book. GET IT!
Am I a Christian?
1 Thess. 1 (Entire)
Acts 17:1-12
AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
I fully intended to pick up in chapter 4 of our study in the book of Revelation this week, but something keeps nagging at me. So I decided to take this week to address what has been on my mind of late.
It occurs to me more and more, especially as I see the state of our nation, and the state of the broader church in our nation, that a Biblical sense of what being a Christian is – is seldom as informed by the Bible itself, as it is by opinions, feelings, culture, and religious systems.
What do we even mean by it? – being a Christian that is. Ed went a long way in helping us this last Wednesday night in our study of the 20 basic Bible doctrines every Christian ought to know.
So let’s build upon that even a bit more.
And let’s begin first by differentiating between the Biblical DEFINITION of a Christian, and a Biblical DESCRIPTION of a Christian.
Our Wednesday night study was dealing more with definition. As Ed showed us, a Christian is one who has been supernaturally regenerated – born again and indwelt by the Spirit of God. Raised from a state of spiritual deadness to life, and given sight. Sight in terms of the reality of God and the Bible as God’s Word, and Jesus Christ in His substitutionary atoning work. A vision of their own sinfulness, the justness of God’s coming wrath upon that sinfulness. That their sin has separated them from God and that Jesus Christ alone can satisfy God for their sin, in such a way as to see the sinner and God reconciled.
In short, a Christian is: One who being regenerated by the Spirit of God – and having heard the Gospel of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection for sinners; Believes that Gospel as true and trusts themselves and their salvation to Christ and His finished work on Calvary alone.
So BEING a Christian is not a matter of being a part of a particular church or group, or even simply subscribing to a set of truths – even though that is involved – but in a true, fundamental inward change supernaturally wrought by the Holy Spirit.
Unquestionably there are a host of other things that accompany these essentials, but it is absolutely certain this change is at the core.
Moving beyond the mere definition, it is also good to look at a sound description. After all, this it seems is where even more confusion arises. For the culture, individuals, various religious and even secular groups -virtually all have some idea of what a Christian ought to look like.
In our current society, that is often associated with political affiliation; stands on certain social causes; behaviors that may or may not be directed by Scripture etc. While there may be SOME truth in that, to be clear one can be pro-life without being a Christian. One can be conservative, or liberal, and not be a Christian. One can hold to the existence of God, special creation, gun control or not, abortion or not, big government or not, teetotalling or not, homeschooling or not, common core or not, tattoos or not, King James only or not, or a million others, and not be a Christian.
Being a Christian will certainly impact how you stand on one or all of these things – but standing on a particular side of such things does not make one a Christian.
Well then, what kind of objective evidence, Biblical evidence might be safely marshalled to help us answer this question? Fundamentally, all other things aside, what does a Biblical Christian (that is actually a redundancy) look like in the eyes of God? In the Bible?
It is that which brings us to the text we have today in 1 Thess. 1, specifically vss. 9-10.
Somme background is helpful here. Thessalonica was a large and cosmopolitan city of 100K- 200K people. Acts 17 records Paul’s visit there, the riot that ensued and how he and Silas had to scurry away just to stay alive. Later, Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to check on the new believers. And is it Timothy’s report which notes the key things we want to look at this morning.
How were the Christians doing? What marked them out AS true Christians in this large, cultural center with lots of competing religions and ideas? What set them apart from moral and faithful Jews, and other groups? What could Timothy tell Paul which would set Paul’s mind at ease that these had truly become Christians?
Four things: They had –
1 Turned TO God, FROM idols
2 To SERVE the Living God
3 And to wait for His Son from Heaven who He raised from the dead.
4 Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
4 Powerful descriptors that for the Apostle, assured him that these were now genuine Believers – true, Biblical, Christians.
Now this needs some unpacking. For in truth, as Acts 17 records, not all those who heard Paul preach on the 3 consecutive sabbaths he did there, were idolaters in the sense of serving literal pagan idols.
Paul’s preaching was done in the Synagogue at least primarily. So as Acts 17:4 reads: “And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.” A rather mixed crowd.
History tells us that wealthy women of the day had a tendency to seek out and attach themselves to various religious groups, even funding them. Many did this with Judaism as with other religions. Pagan, Gentile women with religious fascinations.
But if this started in the synagogue, why then was this issue of idols front and center? The answer is, because in essence, anything that takes the place of God in any way in our lives – is itself a “false” god – and idol – even Judaism itself. Let me elaborate.
Idolatry comes in several different forms.
PURE or FORMAL Idolatry. Pagan worship with god substitutes represented by images of different kinds. This is what most of think of first when we hear the term idolatry. Worship of pagan gods. The Bible names many of these especially in the OT – Molech, Baal, Ashtoroth, Rephan, etc. And some in the NT like those we saw in the Revelation cities like Diana and others.
This form of idolatry has a very interesting subset – Atheism. For in Atheism, man makes himself the measure of all things. He worships his desires, dreams, purposes, etc. The idol is self.
MIXED Idolatry. This was especially attractive to some pagans because in it, you either simply add Christ to your existing god or gods, or you in some way come to Christ but also add another god or gods to Him as valid as well.
This became very common during the conquest of the Mayans, Incas and other people groups when the Roman Catholic missionaries tried to convert them. They found if they let them keep their existing gods, they were pretty willing to add Jesus to them. And so the missionaries claimed success in converting them, when in fact they had just obscured Christianity and reinforced the false worship of the idolaters.
DISGUISED Idolatry. This is the idolatry of the religious – like the Jews Paul was preaching to. This is serving the God of the Bible, but as though He is a pagan god. That shows itself in a number of ways.
One way is serving God, SLAVISHLY like He is a harsh task-master and needs human appeasing through our sacrifices and rituals. We have an example of this in Micah 6:1-8.
Truth be told, there are many who would call themselves Christians today who serve God this way. And He rejects it.
A second kind of DISGUISED idolatry is serving God SUPERSTITIOUSLY (Deut. 18:9-14) This shows itself in things like thinking God must be addressed in Elizabethan English or your not using the right magic phrases; putting superstitious emphases on certain Postures in prayer; adding requirements God never did like requiring certain amounts of time in prayer or Bible reading where if you don’t meet the quota, you’re sinning. Adopting a special “Prayer voice”. Making deals with God. Etc.
A 3rd kind is like that of Nadab & Abihu in Lev. 10 – where they just decided to get real innovative with God’s proscribed form of worship and in offering strange fire before God He had not commanded, they were killed for. SELF-ORIGINATED worship.
And 4th we might SELF-CENTERED WORSHIP (Matt. 15:9). Where we craft Church after the likes and dislikes of the people, without seeking to see what God says worship ought to be like from the Scriptures.
In these 2, worship itself becomes an idol.
At the bottom of all of these, is a man-centered approach to God, and it is as much idolatry as is outright paganism. And this was surely where most of Judaism was in Paul’s day – where it was superstition about God’s name, following rites and rituals rather than worrying about a heart which is right before God by God’s appointed means.
And it is from all of these types of idolatry that Timothy told Paul – the Believing Thessalonians had turned FROM, and turned TO God instead.
In a word, this is the idea wrapped up in the word repentance. Turning away from one thing and to another. Away from sin to righteousness. Away from rites and rituals to faith in the finished work of Christ. Away from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness. Away from superstition to the true and living God.
Let me tease this out just a tad more for our use today. For as I said already, an idol is anything that takes God’s rightful place in our hearts and minds. And there is a simple test we can use for hunting out possible idols in our own lives.
I can detect and locate idols by asking myself a few questions. I give you 5 here. Which unfortunately we can’t expand upon right now.
What do I FEAR most? Matt. 10:26-28 – “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops…And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
What do I VALUE or DESIRE most? Matt. 6:21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. i.e. what elicits my greatest devotion
What fills in the box when I say: “If only X______________ THEN, I would be happy”? Or better, without X_____ I cannot be happy.
As long as you are looking for that thing to make you happy, then your attainment of it will be dissatisfying. It will leave you unhappy and discontented.
If my ultimate and supreme happiness isn’t in him, then I am trading “creatures” for the Creator.
What do I seek my ultimate JOY in? 1Pet. 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
Ps. 16:11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
God in His goodness has given us countless things we may freely enjoy – but all of them are only meant to be tokens of Him – in whom we are to seek our supreme joy. Especially when we see how fleeting earthly joys are.
What DICTATES my BEHAVIOUR most? Jer. 7:23-24 “But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” The juxtaposition of self-determination vs. love for God-determination.
How do I make up my mind about what is right or wrong to do in any given situation? My own opinion? Feelings?
What do I place my HOPE in? What is my hope for the future?
What is my hope for right standing w/ God?
What is the source of my peace of mind?
What do I look to for a sense of well-being?
What is my comfort in the hard times?
Answer these, and you will know what your god or gods are. And the 1st mark of the truly converted soul is that one seeks to turn away from those gods – to the true and Living God. Nor is this done just once – but it becomes a lifestyle of turning from those false gods to the God of the Bible over and over and over.
With that established we can work through the balance of these very rapidly.
2 The genuine Christian turns from idols to God – To SERVE the Living God.
The genuine Christian now realizing all that has been done for them in Christ – seeks to serve this merciful, gracious, loving, pardoning, holy God. You’ve saved me for yourself – now use me! How can I serve your ends, your agenda, your plans and purposes, your kingdom?
If your Christianity is all wrapped up in God just being a blessing dispenser, without any regard for what it means to be His servant, saved for His purposes, you need to ask yourself if you have truly come to faith.
Coming to Christ is not a ticket to earthly and worldly pleasures, but the gift of eternal bliss in the service of the King!
One of Christ’s harshest rebukes in the NT is couched in a parable in Luke 19. The Nobleman in the parable (an allusion to Jesus Himself) was to go into a far country to be given final title to a land and a people. When he left, the Nobleman gave 10 servants money to invest on his behalf while gone. Startlingly, the text says: Luke 19:14 “But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’”
What was the problem? They liked the money but they hated Him in that they did not want Him to REIGN over them. Fine and well to take his gifts, but they reject his right of authority over them. So Jesus adds after settling with those who took the money – Luke 19:27 “But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’ ”
Many is the professed Christian who wants Jesus as a gift giver, a forgiver of sins, a healer and Savior – but if they do not want Him to reign over them – He counts them His enemies, and they will not escape His wrath. These are profoundly sobering words. Especially to all of us who take the name Christian to ourselves today. Do we want Him to reign over us?
The genuine Christian turns from idols to God – To SERVE the Living God…AND
3 To WAIT for His Son from Heaven who He raised from the dead.
The genuine Christian lives a life of expectancy and hope located in the return of Jesus either to translate us or resurrect us to be with Him forever. And this hope is fueled by the conviction that Christ was raised from the dead already as the first-fruits of God’s people.
Christians are those living now, with their eternity in view, and have stopped living for just today or the foreseeable future. They say with Paul: 2 Timothy 4:8 “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
Beloved, if you are not one who loves His appearing, and is longing and looking for it, you need to ask if you ever been truly born again?
The genuine Christian turns from idols to God – To SERVE the Living God and to WAIT for His Son from Heaven who He raised from the dead…
Christians are living these ways, because they have a sense of the wrath of God which was due them, and the wonder of knowing they’ve been delivered from God’s coming wrath on all the world through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. All of this is wrapped up – not in religion or a system – but in Jesus Christ.
Christians know – know in their very bones, God in His holiness and justice must one day set the universe to rights. And they have a true sense of the reality of that coming day, and have run to Christ for shelter. Have run to the cross to have His blood plead on their behalf as having washed away their guilt and the stain of their sins. And they keep running to Him in every failure, with every sin, with all of their brokenness, for they know that they know that they know on the authority of God’s Word, that no one can deliver them but the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
So let me bring all this down to you once again:
Have you turned and continue to turn TO God, FROM idols?
Have you turned, so as to SERVE the Living God?
Are you consciously waiting for His Son from Heaven who He raised from the dead,
Trusting in this Jesus alone, who delivers us from the wrath to come?
If so, you rightly call yourself a Christian today.
If not, no matter what your religion, or profession or to use the modern parlance – your self-identification – you are still dead in your trespasses and sins, and need to be born again by the Spirit of God. The wrath of God still remains on you as Jesus said in John 3:36.
But it is not too late! You can come to Him today! You can a call upon Him for forgiveness, and to have your guilt expunged by His blood and to be made His own and reconciled to the Father. Won’t you come to Him today?
5 Solas 5
Soli Deo Gloria
Isaiah 48:1-11
Ephesians 1:3-14
Matthew 6:9-13
AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
We’ve arrived at the 5th of the slogans of the Protestant Reformation – Soli Deo Gloria – to the glory of God alone.
And while this slogan may be the most misunderstood of the 5, it is to me the sweetest and most comprehensive of all.
The central idea is simple. Once again, following the logic of all 5 together, it is on the authority of the Scripture alone and its revelation that we understand salvation – the recovery of lost men to right relationship with God – is based upon grace alone as opposed to human worthiness or merit; through faith alone as opposed to any good works we might be able to accomplish; on the basis of the finished work of Christ alone on the Cross. Conclusion: All the credit, all the glory for our salvation belongs to Him alone.
While it may seem more than apparent at this point that salvation is wholly owing to God alone given what we’ve looked at these past few weeks, this last watchword extends far beyond salvation only. For the Reformers, everything in all reality is ultimately wrapped up in this thought: All that God does is ultimately for His own glory. From creation to His plan of salvation to how He interacts with humankind and administrates the cosmos – all He does, He does ultimately for His own glory.
If we are honest, for many of us the sound of that is hard on our ears. The reason why it sounds so hard, is because we have fallen notions of what it means exactly and why it is so important. We’ll come back to that. But first we need to see why the Reformers may have arrived at this conclusion.
The simple answer is, because they were now reading their Bibles for the first time. Then they mused on passages like Isaiah 48:9-11“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
And Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
And Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
The “heavens” is not a sentient being. Creation can’t declare anything on its own – this must be the design of them. And who designed them this way but God Himself?
Romans 11:36 sums this up magnificently when it states: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
So the creation is for His own glory; the salvation and the deliverance of the Jews was for His own glory; all things coming from Him and through Him and are to be TO Him – and this for His glory: How are we to think about all this? What are we to do with this pervasive theme in Scripture? This is what the Reformers were trying to unpack.
In doing so, we need to try and answer 2 key questions.
First – what exactly IS the glory of God?
Second – what does it mean then to glorify God?
So what exactly is God’s glory? Quite simply, His glory is the revelation of Himself. Of who and what He truly is. This being the case, glorifying God is not making something of Him He is not, nor attributing anything to Him He has not done, for the reality is we cannot make Him any more wonderful than He actually is. Therefore, to glorify Him is simply to make Him known for who and what He is.
Let’s take few minutes to see how this thread does indeed run through the whole of the Biblical worldview.
We go back to creation itself and we read: Romans 1:19–20 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
The Creation declares His glory by revealing things about Him to us. Specifically in this passage, His power – look at the vastness and complexity and magnitude of the universe – what POWER it must take to create it! And, His divine nature is seen here, in the genius, order, wisdom and astonishing detail, and how it all functions with its properties. And then in its seeming agelessness, His eternality. In other words, it simply tells us about Him.
So what of the Fall? That too is wrapped up in this theme, for: Romans 1:21-23 says: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
We see then how the distorting or obscuring the wonder of who and what He is at the heart of humankind’s rebellion. Indeed: Romans 3: 23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Concerning our lives today the Scripture says: Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
And as Romans 5:1-2 says: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
And in day to day life: 1 Corinthians 10:11 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
How about growth in the Christian life?: 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
Indeed all of salvation springs from this same fountain: Ephesians 1:3-14 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Philippians 1: 9-11“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Even Hell is connected to this theme: 2 Thessalonians 1: 9-10 “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”
So, Philippians 2:9-11 “For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So we can see Biblically how the glory, the revealing of God permeates the whole of Scripture and all of life itself, let alone the spiritual life.
But why? WHY does the glory of God and glorifying Him occupy this place? I want to offer up just 3 key reasons this morning.
As we saw already in Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
If God is who the Bible portrays Him to be – it is only fitting that He receive all glory. And how DOES the Bible portray Him?
18th century theologian Adam Clarke in His commentary on Genesis 1:1 wrote: “A general definition of this great First Cause, as far as human words dare attempt one, may be thus given: The eternal, independent, and self-existent Being: the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only to himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind. Reader, such is the God of the Bible; but how widely different from the God of most human creeds and apprehensions!”
When God is as we see here, the highest, most wonderful, most lovely, desirable and magnificent of all beings – and at that the source and fountain of all good, mercy, grace, holiness, justice, purity, wisdom, love, compassion, gentleness, power, genius, perfection and ability – if He is not worthy of ALL glory – no one and no thing is worthy of any!
No wonder then C. H. Spurgeon noted: “It has been said by some one that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.”
The reason why we recoil at the idea that all glory belongs to God is 2-fold: First, we are so self-absorbed in our fallenness. And second, because we have such a low concept of Him.
God is worthy of all glory is the first reason. He is worthy because of who and what He is and all that He has done.
Spurgeon again: “There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with the solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God. We shall be obliged to feel “Great God, how infinite art thou, What worthless worms are we!”
But while the subject humbles the mind it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. He may be a naturalist, boasting of his ability to dissect a beetle, anatomize a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes with well nigh unutterable names; he may be a geologist, able to discourse of the megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kinds of extinct animals; he may imagine that his science, whatever it is, ennobles and enlarges his mind. I dare say it does, but after all, the most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatary. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning. ”
There is nothing God can give us that is better, better for us and more pleasurable and delightful and blessed than Himself! And so He promises to those who love Him that the ultimate blessing of all is wrapped up in this very same revelation: 1 Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
What is the ultimate blessing? In some capacity to know Him on the scale of how He in His infinite knowledge and wisdom – knows us.
John summarizes that blessing this way: 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
This is why we preach Christ – so as to have all men reconciled to this God. For to so see and know His glory is to be blessed ultimately, and that, beyond comprehension.
This is why we study His Word – that we might proclaim Him rightly as He is and in knowing Him more ourselves, can better be equipped to make Him known to others.
1 Corinthians 2:9–10 “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
This is why we are called to walk in the fullness of the Spirit – for to be filled with His fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – is to let others experience the glory of God THROUGH us – as those being remade into His image that we might reflect His glory without distortion once again.
When we sin, when we fail to live in this glory, we hide God’s glory from others and rob them of the ultimate blessing we are so privileged as Believers to be conduits of.
Perhaps now we can see why when Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He sets the very first priority on this: “Hallowed by thy name”. Let my Father’s reputation, the wonder of who He truly is be restored in all the cosmos. This is the single most necessary, blessed and wondrous thing that can happen. This was the passion of Jesus’ heart while He was here (John 17:4–6a “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.”)
If you are not a Christian here today – why do we preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you? That you may be reconciled to this God and Father of all. That you might be ultimately, eternally and infinitely blessed. John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
And Christian – I pray you regain something of the transcendent wonder of the God who created you for His glory, redeemed you for His glory and will preserve you to bring you home that you might lavish in His glory for all eternity.
To be consumed with the wonder of Him, is as Spurgeon reminded us: “Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.”
5 Solas #4
Solus Christus
Acts 4:1-12; Col. 2 (entire); Hebrews 7:23-8:2; 9:24-28
AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
We’re continuing our short series on the solas of the Protestant Reformation.
5 key watchwords or slogans emerged during that time, that served as a galvanizing tool for those seeking reform in the Church.
Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, & Soli Deo Gloria
And these remain foundational to true Evanglicalism today. Though in all honesty, I find myself more and more hesitant to use the term Evangelical since in our time and culture, it seems to have been hi-jacked as a political tool rather than a sound, historical theological designation. We may need to re-think the name of our own assembly given how evangelical is heard by most ears today. But that is a topic for another time.
These 5 slogans not only crystalized the impetus behind the Reformation, they also present a coherent logic in how they hang together.
In Sola Scriptura, we saw the Reformers were calling the Church back to recognizing the Word of God as the final authority over what we are to believe and to practice, above every council, teaching or individual, even the Pope.
And it is in that Word of God that we come to the revelation that salvation is;
Sola Gratia, by grace alone as opposed to any personal merit or worthiness;
Sola Fide, by faith alone as opposed to any good works one might do no matter how noble or invented even by the Church;
And thus salvation is – Solus Christus, owing to Christ and His finished work on our behalf – alone.
He needs no help saving the souls of lost men. Salvation rests wholly in Him! That, as opposed to what the Church may think it needs to add to the equation.
This 4th point was absolutely essential as it struck at the very heart of what had gone so very wrong in the Church.
As an article in Ligonier Ministry’s TableTalk magazine notes: “The problem, then, was not the person of Christ. The problem was the work of Christ. The debate centered on the sacramental system Rome had constructed, a system in which the grace of Christ was mediated to the people through an elaborate system of priests and sacramental works. Through this sacramental system, the Roman church effectively controlled the Christian’s life from birth (baptism) to death (extreme unction) and even beyond (masses for the dead).”
In other words, the system the Church had created made the Church the sole dispenser of grace – without the Church’s mediation in addition to Christ’s work, you could not be saved.
What did that look like? Let me quote from the Catholic Catechism of today. Regarding the sacraments they say: “For the first of these is Baptism, the gate, as it were, to all the rest, by which we are born again unto Christ. The next is Confirmation, by virtue of which we grow up, and are strengthened in the grace of God…’ The third is the Eucharist, by which, as by a truly celestial food, our spirit is nurtured and sustained… Penance follows in the fourth place, by the aid of which health, which has been lost, is restored us, after we have received the wounds of sin. The fifth is Extreme Unction, by which the remains of sin are taken away, and the energies of the soul invigorated… The sixth is Orders, by which power is given to exercise perpetually in the church the public ministry of the sacraments, and to perform all the sacred functions. The last is matrimony…” Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Council of Trent, trans. Theodore Alois Buckley (London: George Routledge and Co., 1852), 149.
Here’s how that logic works: Since the Church alone could give holy orders to make priests, then only those under the authority of the Church could baptize – which they said the mere doing of causes the infant to be born again, regenerated; only they could bestow the Holy Spirit in confirmation; only they could turn the communion elements into the literal body and blood of Christ; only they could hear confession, forgive sin and offer penance; only they could rightly marry you and only they could give you last rites at death. And then beyond that, only they could give you indulgences to help you or others AFTER death.
And the Reformers were saying NO! This is all backwards. You are putting the Church in between Christ and His people.
Instead of it being Christ in His saving work who brings us into the Church by joining us to Himself, you’ve said it is the Church who alone has the power to bring us into Christ by first making us members of IT!
The church then became the mediator between God and man – when the Scripture said: 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”
And lest you think the Reformers were, or I am, distorting that – let me again cite current Roman Catholic Catechism: “All the sacraments are sacred links uniting the faithful with one another and binding them to Jesus Christ, and above all Baptism, the gate by which we enter into the Church.” Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 248.
More: “for as no one can gain admittance into a place without the aid of him to whom the keys have been committed, so we understand that no one can gain admission into heaven unless its gates be opened by the priests, to whose fidelity the Lord has confided its keys” Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Council of Trent, trans. Theodore Alois Buckley (London: George Routledge and Co., 1852), 281.
So the key issue here was this: The church rightly said that Jesus was the mediator between God and man, but it then interposed itself as the mediator between man and Jesus and then added more mediators.
Jesus’ said: John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
And the Church said: true, BUT – “no one can gain admission into heaven unless its gates be opened by the priests, to whose fidelity the Lord has confided its keys”
Now what opened all of this up for Luther especially at the time was this entire practice of indulgences which we’ve looked at briefly before.
And the idea that the Church has at its disposal what is a called a “treasury of merit” – the good works Jesus AND of the saints, which it alone administrates and can mete out at will to the spiritual benefit of the dead.
Since no one could get to heaven unless bona fide priests opened the gates – even after death you were bound to the Church more than to Christ!
So what is this Treasury of merit? Again the Catechism – “1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins.” Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 371.
Now there are 3 things sorely amiss here right off the bat.
What treasury could be accrued from that?
3. At worst, it inverts Christ and the church, at best, it mixes Christ’s redemptive work with that of Mary and the other saints.
Once again Paul reminds us: 1 Tim. 2:5 “There is ONE mediator between God and man.”
So the NT record consistently records things like: 1 Corinthians 1:22–24 “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
What did they preach? Christ and Him crucified, not the Church and its supposed power or authority.
We preach Christ and Him crucified, and not the sacraments.
We preach Christ and Him crucified and not the supposed merits of the saints.
So when the Philippian Jailor asks “what must I do to be saved?” Acts 16:31 Paul & Silas said: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” There were no 7 sacraments to point them to. Christ and Christ alone!
Acts 4:12 for “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Contrary to the council at Trent in its response to the Reformation where they codified as canon law: CANON IV. “If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that, without them, or without the desire thereof, men obtain of God, through faith alone, the grace of justification;-though all (the sacraments) are not indeed necessary for every individual; let him be anathema.”
As we’ve cited so many times in this series: Ephesians 2:8–10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
“Not a result of works” – Neither yours, nor the Church’s nor the saint’s. We are saved by Jesus Christ Himself – it is Jesus who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit: Mark 1:8 “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
And by virtue of possessing the Spirit, makes us one with Christ and His Church: 1 Corinthians 12:13 “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:18–22 “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
The Church doesn’t do these things – it is wholly owing to the work of Christ Jesus – ALONE!
So that was the battle then, and except for those still struggling to exit the Romanist church, the specifics do not seem to apply that much today. Or do they?
I think we can clearly see how solus Christus is still as necessary as ever.
Thesis 2: Solus Christus. We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.
We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.
Donald G. Bloesch, The Church: Sacraments, Worship, Ministry, Mission (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 290.
Waxing in depth about the high priesthood of Christ, the writer to the Hebrews sums it up this way: Hebrews 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
He – Jesus Christ. No one else.
Is able to save – This is HIS work, to seek and save the lost.
Save to the uttermost – To bring you to full completion by His salvific work, requiring no other intermediary. Justification, growth in Christ’s image, and glorification at the resurrection. He perfects His own.
Those who draw near to God THROUGH HIM – NOT through any other person or organization – it is through Christ we draw near to God.
He always lives to make intercession for us – What saint can possibly pray for us in some way Jesus cannot intercede for us before the throne of His Father? If Christ prays for me – ALL WILL BE WELL – if no one else in heaven or earth ever utters my name to God.
Christ our great intercessor!
Now what can anyone suppose to add to His great saving work without blasphemy?
Christian – you are complete in Him! Turn to Christ Jesus at every juncture. He WILL meet you there.
Unbeliever – He is all you need for salvation, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to the Father and growth in your spiritual life. He alone could deal with sin, and it is He who gives the Spirit by which you can walk with Him in power and perpetual fellowship. Turn to Jesus today. He alone can save you from bondage to your present sin, and the wrath to come.
John Newton on Matt 22: Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ?”
1 WHAT think you of Christ? is the test,
To try both your state and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of him.
As Jesus appears in your view,
As he is beloved or not;
So God is disposed to you,
And mercy or wrath are your lot.
2 Some take him a creature to be,
A man, or an angel at most:
Sure these have not feelings like me,
Nor know themselves wretched and lost.
So guilty, so helpless am I,
I durst not confide in his blood,
Nor on his protection rely,
Unless I were sure he is God.
3 Some call him Saviour, in word,
But mix their own works with his plan;
And hope he his help will afford,
When they have done all that they can:
If doings prove rather too light,
(A little, they own, they may fail),
They purpose to make up full weight,
By casting his name in the scale.
4 Some style him the pearl of great price,
And say he’s the fountain of joys;
Yet feed upon folly and vice,
And cleave to the world and its toys;
Like Judas, the Saviour they kiss,
And while they salute him, betray;
Ah! what will profession like this
Avail in his terrible day?
5 If ask’d, what of Jesus I think,
Though still my best thoughts are but poor,
I say, he’s my meat and my drink,
My life, and my strength, and my store;
My Shepherd, my Husband, my Friend,
My Saviour from sin and from thrall;
My hope from beginning to end,
My portion, my Lord, and my All.
John Newton and Richard Cecil, The Works of John Newton, vol. 3 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 403–404.
Sola Fide
1 Cor. 15:1-11; Eph. 2:1-10; Heb. 11:1-7
AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
Once again, we are working through the 5 “Solas” of the Protestant Reformation on the occasion of this month being the 500th anniversary of it’s spark. The tipping point was Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door to protest many of the corruptions that had crept into the Catholic Church, and calling for Reform.
Luther himself was a powerful, complex, controversial, brilliant and polarizing man.
He didn’t come from noble stock. His parents had both been domestic servants. With some help from relatives, Martin’s parents moved to a mining town where the elder Luther got work in a copper mine. He worked his way up and eventually became part owner and a citizen of some standing. But Luther notes both of his parents were severely physically abusive.
Luther’s Dad wanted him to go into law, and in fact he completed 2 law degrees in record time. But being frightened of death in a lightening storm at the age of 21, he promised St. Anne that if he survived he’d become a monk. Which promise he kept much to his father’s everlasting consternation. Monks don’t earn much money nor have standing in the community.
Luther again excelled in his education, took a doctorate and eventually became head over 10 monasteries at the same time. All without yet being a true Believer in Christ – a serious, but albeit lost religionist.
Luther was plagued by the Church’s insistence that one had to be completely righteous before God. As one writer put it “As a beginning theology student, Luther was taught the prevailing orthodoxy, and parts of his early lectures as a professor show he believed it. His teachers, following the Bible, taught that God demanded absolute righteousness, as in the passage “Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” People needed to love God absolutely and their neighbors as themselves. They should have the unshakable faith of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his son.”
I.e. The individual had to bring their own righteousness to God BEFORE they could receive grace for salvation.
Last time, when we looked at Sola Gratia (grace alone), we dealt with that very question – how can I BE good enough, worthy enough to have eternal life?
But it was in returning to God’s Word as the final authority over these matters – Sola Scriptura – above the then teaching of the church, that Luther’s dilemma was solved at last. Yet not without years of agonizing struggle, and keen guilt for his sins. The more he came to know himself, as an honest man, the more he knew he wasn’t righteous, and certainly not as holy as God! So if that was required, he was doomed.
In fact, this is what secured the power base of the Church. Since one could not be as holy as they needed to be, the Church alone could dispense the rites, rituals and other means to help make up the gap. So it was indulgences became a major part of the landscape. For giving sums of money to the church, one could purchase for themselves and others, years taken off their time spent in purgatory after death. They could purchase grace to some extent, a part of their own salvation.
Not only could money purchase grace to help in salvation, so could good works. Especially certain works the Church dreamt up for themselves.
One of these which Luther himself experienced is still active today. It is called “The Pontifical Shrine of the Scala Santa” or the Holy Stairs.”
These stairs found in the Vatican are 28 marble steps which they claim were the steps Jesus walked up to stand before Pilate. The Church claims that Constantine’s Mother Saint Helena brought the stairs from Jerusalem in the 300’s.
It is taught that when one climbs them, and stops at each step “meditating on the Passion of Jesus and recite the Creed, one Our Father, one Hail Mary, one Glory be and a prayer for the intention of the Pope, and also go to Confession and received Holy Communion.” This slide is from their current official site.
In 1510, Luther performed this work being promised that for each step, 9 years would be taken off of his time in Purgatory – or of someone else he specified.
Such good works were part and parcel of one’s ultimate salvation.
And whether or not one buys into the Romanist teaching on this subject, the truth is many people have a superstitious view of good works they’ve invented for themselves to soothe their consciences into believing that being a church goer, a tither, a Bible reader, serving as a deacon or doing other good things somehow make them fit for Heaven as well.
Be it institutional or personal, the notion of good works contributing to one’s justification – one’s standing before God – is a lie.
It is both a direct contradiction of the Bible’s teaching about how one becomes right with God, and, it implies that Jesus’ sacrificial death was not sufficient to save us, and that we can supply what is missing in His salvific work. It is both the demeaning of the Cross, and the elevation of human ability – it is arrogance.
But it was in Romans 1:17 where Luther encountered Paul’s words as quoted from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk 2:4 – “the just (or righteous) shall live by faith.” That offered the key to unlock the dungeon of his tortured conscience, and the recovery of the Gospel to the Church.
You see part of the problem was the church then using the Latin Vulgate – an ancient Latin translation of the Bible – as the only official translation of the Bible. And in it, the word “righteous” in Romans 1:17 was translated “justificari” meaning it is the person who is themselves righteous or just who can therefore live by faith. One who was intrinsically righteous – having a righteous nature.
But as Luther was now reading the original Greek for the first time, he realized the meaning of δίκαιος (righteous or just) was that it is those who live by faith God pronounces just or righteous. They do not bring their righteousness to the table, but are declared righteous by God as they believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus – and His dying as their substitute! It is an imputed righteousness. God counts the Believer as righteous and treats him or her as righteous as they have faith in Jesus. Even while they themselves still have indwelling sin! It is a FORENSIC or legal righteousness – a pronouncement, not a state of being.
Romans 4:4-8 “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
Philippians 3:8-9 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”
Whereas the issue in Sola Gratia is how can I be good enough in myself to merit eternal life, in Sola Fide the question is how can I do enough righteous things to earn eternal life?
And the answer to both is – you can do neither!
Rom. 4:5 – God justifies the ungodly and undeserving, and grants salvation as a gift and not a wage for doing good things or having lived a righteous life – through FAITH alone.
As Eph. 2:8-10 unpacks it: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Yes, it is true, good works will FOLLOW salvation, but they are not the cause of salvation.
All of this begs 3 more all important questions which we must investigate in order to put this all together – If the Scripture is true and a person is justified by grace through faith as a gift – what then is this faith that is being talked about?
How does it work?
And how do I get it?
What is the faith which the Bible is referring to here?
To answer that we need to see how the Bible itself uses the word, and not come to it with our own definition.
As the Church in Luther’s day had redefined grace to be something you earn, and had mis-defined justification as something you were – righteous yourself – so today, faith has taken on all kinds of uses and meanings which are foreign to the Bible. And if we pour those meanings into the text, we mutilate the text and make it say what it not only doesn’t, but can’t!
Perhaps it is best to start with what faith isn’t? For the Bile uses the word quite specifically.
1. No such thing as generic faith.
The idea that someone is a person of faith without respect to the revelation of God in His Word or His stated promises, is not present in the Bible.
The idea that someone is just a person of “faith” – meaning they simply trust that somehow everything will turn out all right or for the good or that they are simply optimistic is totally absent from Scripture.
No one is said to have faith in the Bible, but those who have believed God – believed the message of the Gospel – believed what God has revealed.
2. Nor are there other “faiths” in the Bible.
Those who hold to religious beliefs which are not given by God or originate in the Bible are never referred to as “faiths” but as idolatry, false religion or superstition. The modern notion of people of other faiths again, is simply foreign to Scripture.
Defining faith: Faith is believing what God has revealed as true, and ordering one’s life accordingly.
This is the unbroken pattern of Scripture. And we can see it demonstrated for us in that amazing chapter on faith – Heb. 11.
Let’s look at one example and then you can see that this pattern is noted in every single case.
Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
It is this simple 3-fold pattern that Bible repeats over and over that shows us what Biblical saving faith looks like.
So how does it work?
In Luther’s day, Phillip Melancthon, Luther’s younger associate layed it out this way to help us understand the necessary elements of saving faith. He noted 3 components to saving faith: Noticia, Assensus, Fiducia
Noticia – A message. There is information given – revelation by God. Information which must be understood. In the case of salvation, the message is the Gospel. What Paul says in 1 Cor. 15. 1–4 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
Assensus – Agreement. There is a reception of the message as true. One says “yes! I believe this! Christ died for my sins according to the plan of God revealed in the Scriptures. And He was buried, and He rose again the 3rd day – again, all in accordance with what was revealed in the Scriptures. I believe this is true.”
Fiducia – Acting in trust. Having believed it is true, I now must commit myself to trusting in the truth of it for my salvation – abandoning hope in anything else. I will trust Christ and His substitutionary atoning death on my behalf – as all that is needed to be reconciled to God the Father. I must trust that He bore my guilt, took the penalty for my sin, and set me free.
We must hear and understand the Gospel.
We must believe the Gospel.
We must lay the whole of our weight upon the truth of it for the forgiveness of sins – and reconciliation to God the Father.
How do obtain this faith? Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
By hearing God’s Word, the message of the Gospel itself generates faith in the heart. This is why it is so important to attend to the hearing of God’s Word. This is God’s method and means.
Salvation, being made just in God’s eyes comes –
And we must always fight the tendency to draw back from faith to trust in rites, ceremonies and law keeping. Sola fide!
One last observation. Why does faith play this absolutely central role?
Because it is an absolute repudiation of what caused the Fall.
In the Garden, our first parents failed to believe God, and believed a lie instead.
In salvation, each of us is placed right at the same place once more. Will we believe, the lies of the World, the lies of the Devil, or the lies we create ourselves? Or will we believe the Word of God – what He has spoken, and cast ourselves completely on the finished work of Christ?
And so I ask you today – are you trusting Christ alone for your salvation? Are you putting all your eggs into the one basket of believing the Gospel, and looking nowhere else?
Ephesians 2:8–10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Sola Fide
Finding Christ in Las Vegas
2 Timothy 3
AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
As the news first broke and the horrors unfolded, the whole nation was transfixed by the mass shooting by gunman Stephen Paddock and his attack on the Rt. 91 Harvest Festival last Sunday night in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nearly 60 dead and 500 wounded as Paddock set up his shooting blind on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, and took indiscriminate aim on the crowd gathered to hear a series of country music bands.
And as late as last night, one of the headlines I read led with these words: “Still no clear motive for the Las Vegas attacks.”
Motive. It’s one thing when a natural disaster takes place – we don’t always immediately look for a specific cause. But even then speculation can run wild – because we need to make sense of things. Striving to know WHY anything happens in our lives or that impacts us greatly – helps make it less scary.
If, as in this case we think we can attach a specific motive to Paddock’s actions, then we regain some sort of power over what seems so random and utterly unpreventable. We want to know why, so that we can take steps to prevent possible recurrences.
The impulse isn’t wrong. It’s right to look for causes when and where we can. Part of our created constitution is the capacity to learn and do better when things have gone awry due to something we might have or have not done in the first place.
But what are we to do, how are we to think, when all the scrutiny and investigation leads us to a blank page? When no clear cause, or in this case, no clear motive emerges to help assuage our fears. When we cannot explain it, and therefore are utterly powerless to prevent its like from happening again – what do we do then?
For some, there is simply a mad rush to do “something” – ANYTHING – whether it could have any possible real impact on the future or not. Doing SOMETHING is better than doing NOTHING, even if the something in fact does nothing relevant to the situation. At least we feel better.
Others will simply bury their heads in the sand and think no more about it. It’s done. Nothing else is to be said, and they think no more deeply than that. This is its own kind of tragedy.
Some will be overcome with fear. They find the randomness so overwhelming that they cannot feel safe from any possible disaster and they will seek either to medicate their fear or retreat to their homes, or simply live in unrelenting fearful torment.
But the Christian is privileged to take a different course altogether. For while we might flirt with all of the above, we are never without counsel and divine insight that both informs our hearts and minds where no other answers appear – and gives us solid direction in keeping our hearts and minds, even in the face of such seemingly random and inexplicable evil.
And so we run back to our God – the God David prays to in Psalm 61:1–3 by pleading: “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, 3 for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.” Which figure Solomon picks up on and reminds us in: Proverbs 18:10 “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.”
So this morning I would like to take us to one passage that for me has served to meet these kinds of circumstances over the years, in both some of my personal personal trials, and those on a larger scale. It is the 3rd chapter of Paul’s short letter to young Timothy as he is struggling to keep a lid on the Church in the city of Ephesus in the 1st century. Counsel breathed out by the Holy Spirit for just such times as these.
In the passage I want to note just 4 things:
I. A Divine EXPLANATION.
II. A Governed EXTENT to evil.
III. A Living EXAMPLE & EYEWITNESS to facing evil.
IV. An EXHORTATION for keeping the heart.
I. (1-4) A Divine EXPLANATION: But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
The Apostle Paul is warning his young charge that human nature is not to be underestimated in terms of how deeply sin has affected it.
It’s obvious that he doesn’t intend either Timothy nor other eventual readers to think that each person would be wholly characterized by the entire list here – rather that these characteristics will emerge more and more as controlling characteristics, and some manifesting certain ones more than others.
We all have our individual bents, our own particular sinful inclinations which plague us more than others. But they all have the same root – the fallen human nature.
What I find interesting here is how many of these tend toward violence and victimizing others. Abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, brutal, treacherous, reckless, and the like.
Others seem to be the fountain from which these kinds of behaviors flow: Lovers of self, Lovers of money, proud, arrogant, ungrateful, unholy, without self-control, not loving good, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
And these fountains as we might call them, can be found in those who claim some sort or religion or spirituality, as much as in those who in apparent godlessness take on aggressive, abusive and violent actions against others.
I find it also very telling that Paul says these will increase in the last days, in other words, these days which directly precede Christ’s return and His final judgment on this world – bear this telling mark of violence even as it characterized the human race just prior to the Flood in Noah’s day.
Note God’s reference to this in Genesis 6:11–13 as the leading cause before the Flood: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
So Jesus Himself will tell us: Matthew 24:37 “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
Contrary to those who pride themselves in the innate goodness of man and how we have evolved – the 20th century was the bloodiest in human history. Even as we make incredible advancements in science, technology and industry – we have also advanced in our tendency toward, and thirst for – violence!
Quora website: “Matthew White’s estimate – Worldwide Statistics of Casualties, Massacres, Disasters and Atrocities., a total of about 123 million people died in the wars of the 20th Century: 37 million military deaths, 27 million collateral civilian deaths, 41 million victims of genocide and other mass murder and 18 million victims of famine.”
All the above being the case, we need to also point out some very important aspects of the Holy Spirit’s revelation here through Paul.
1 – This is not a surprise to our God, and should not be to us. I didn’t say these things aren’t shocking. They ought always to be shocking and appalling to people saved by God’s good grace especially. But they ought not to be surprising. We are to expect this to be the case, because God has revealed that it will be the case in passages like this one.
Since we are forewarned, we ought not be to shaken as though something here is foreign to the way God said it would be.
2 – This is a stunning but realistic example of what the fallen heart of mankind does when unrestrained. When we think of sin in light terms, we discount just how evil sin really is, and imagine sinful man is just a little “off.”
3 – How gracious God is to keep this from being the norm.
4 – We must be prepared for more to come.
5 – This same condition will even spill over into the Church.
II. A Governed EXTENT to evil: 9 But they will not get very far,
God still reigns. He will only let these go so far. The miracle is that He restrains SO MUCH!
This is what theologians call the doctrine of COMMON GRACE. It is not the grace that saves the lost, but it is still God’s goodness toward fallen mankind that He prevents the worst from breaking out at all times.
Just imagine what this world would be like if the characteristics listed above, were permitted to be exercised by all the lost all the time to their fullest extent.
We would have long since destroyed the entire race, even as some have tried to exterminate individual races:
Think of the attempted genocide of the Jews under Hitler – murdering 6 million (and some think many more). And don’t forget that the 6 million or so Jews make up but 45% of all those Hitler tried to eradicate. He also sought to expunge the world of the Slavic races, the Gypsies and more.
In the 1930’s the Soviets starved somewhere between 2-7 million Ukranians.
The Khmer Rouge exterminated 21%-33% of total population of Cambodia, 100% of Cambodian Viets; 50% of Cambodian Chinese; 40% of Cambodian Lao and Thai and more. Millions!
And then you look at individuals who have become mass murderers like Stephen Paddock in Las Vegas and you realize – if God was not restraining such evil from being the norm – all would be lost.
He allows enough to remind us constantly that contrary to humanistic reasoning – the Bible is true: Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” He allows enough evil to be exposed, that it ought tom make us run to Him to find the answer in the redeeming grace of Jesus. For who can change the human heart? None but God alone.
III. A Living EXAMPLE & an EYEWITNESS to Facing evil: 10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Paul can say to Timothy here, look, you have seen me endure senseless suffering at almost every turn – so think about how I faced them and what impact they had on me.
2 Corinthians 11:24–28 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
And in all of this Timothy – how did I respond? Did I panic, or become overtaken by fear or cynicism? NO!
You know I never strayed from what I believed and taught (doctrine) – that I stayed my own soul on what God’s word taught about the nature of fallen mankind and living in this fallen world; how God remains actively sovereign over all even in the midst of massive trials; how His unchanging plan remains on course and how He makes provision for our every need in the midst of it all.
You saw how my doctrine formed the basis for how I lived (conduct)
And how it informed my goal(s) (aim) and kept them the same irrespective of the assaults and trials
How these things fueled my (faith) rather than dampening it
And how this solid understanding of God’s word gave me (patience) to endure until He fulfills all
Gave me (love), even for these so far gone in their wickedness
Giving me (steadfastness) so that I did not shift course in the face of it all even in the face of every persecution, tragedy and suffering.
You saw this Timothy – now let that inform how YOU face these all.
IV. An EXHORTATION for keeping the heart.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
So you too – don’t waver. Continue steadfast in the purpose and plan of God as revealed in His Word – remembering that you didn’t receive it from theoretical eggheads, but from those who have lived it and proven it true at every turn.
And so – GO BACK TO THE WORD for insight, strength, courage and understanding in the midst of all you face.
“how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is 1breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” And, we might add – in every circumstance.
The Word alone can so brace the heart and mind so that you do not despair, panic, hide, become discouraged, become paralyzed by fear or lost in an endless quest to answer every “WHY?”.
We may never find out the precise motive or motives of Stephen Paddock. Nor do we need to.
It is enough to know that this is what the human heart does when it acts on the sinful impulses listed at the beginning of this chapter.
And the answer rests in one place alone: Hearts and minds transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling Spirit of Christ so as to give them love for God and for their fellow man, making such actions unthinkable.
SUMMARY:
Man left to himself is incurably wicked.
God in His grace restrains man from acting as fully on his wickedness as he otherwise would.
No expression of human wickedness ought to surprise or deter the Christian who understands God’s Word.
Christ WILL return, all justice WILL be meted out, and all Christians can live in the security of their loving and faithful Savior.
So where does the put you today listener?
Are you in Christ so as to live in these realities?
Or are you bound in fear and unknowing and bound and lost in your OWN sins?
Then this Gospel today is for you.
Christ has died.
He died at the hands of wicked men – fulfilling the perfect will of the Father to make a penal, substitutionary atonement for sin – so that all who put their faith in Him might be born again, forgiven of all their sin, have eternal life, and live consciously in His love and care and purposes until He comes to take us home to be with Him forever.
And He calls you today through the preaching of this Gospel to come to Him. To repent of your sin and self-rule, and to be set free to live for Him in the power of His Spirit.
And Believer – Our God has told us this is the way it will be.
He is not surprised by it, and neither ought we to be.
He has made provision for us in His Word.
As we keep our eyes fixed upon Him.
As we run to Him who is our strong tower in the times of trouble.
As we continue the course of serving Him and His Kingdom, anticipating His return.
As we keep coming back to His Word and anchor our souls in Biblical truth –
We can live, joyful, hopeful, trusting lives, held fast in the nail-scarred hands of our Savior – until He comes to make an end of all sin, and to take us home to be with Him in eternity.
Today may be deeply overshadowed and dark – but the darkness itself is the only a herald of His soon coming dawn. Rest in Him.
The Reformation – Part 2
Sola Gratia
Ephesians 2 (entire)
Romans 4:3-8
Romans 5:15-21
Romans 11:1-6
Nearing the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, we’re taking a few weeks to consider the 5 key slogans framing that amazing move of God reviving His church – the five “solas”.
Last we looked at the slogan – Sola Scriptura. By it, the Reformers were calling the Church back to Scripture Alone as its final authority in faith and practice.
It was not a call to abandon common sense, logic, history, science or the Church fathers, instead to say: where the Bible speaks, it speaks with absolute and final authority for the Church. No council, no organization, no individual has the right to override, ignore, twist, add to or take away from – Scripture. As God-breathed it stands in a place of singular supreme authority, especially over the conscience.
When this fundamental concept the FORMAL concept is surrendered, then fallen men will inevitably seize that authority for themselves – and someone or something else takes the rightful place of God Himself.
So it is, the second watchword of the Reformation grows directly out of this first one.
Hence we encounter the very next phrase: Sola Gratia – by Grace Alone.
Here, the Reformers were addressing the fact that over time, the Church had begun to redefine Scripture words and terms without reference to how the Bible uses them. And in so doing created a doctrine of salvation that directly contradicts the Bible’s own teaching.
If the Church, or an individual, takes the right to themselves to re-define the words the Bible uses, the Bible can be made to say anything you want to make it say. And nowhere was this more true than when it came to the concept of grace.
Sometimes, when Evangelicals critique the Romanist teaching on salvation, we oversimplify it and just say Rome teaches salvation by works apart from grace. This both inaccurate and unfair. By the time Luther and the others were calling for reform, the Church’s teaching on salvation HAD become pretty distorted, but it was so because of this issue of definitions. This will play a major role in the 3rd Sola when we look at Sola Fide as well.
So that we do not misrepresent the Roman view – let me quote 2 portions from the Council of Trent which was Rome’s official response to the Reformer’s complaints, and remains their official stance to this day:
CANON 9: “If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.”
Canon 30: “If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.”
Note 3 key things here:
1. One must co-operate in order to OBTAIN the grace of justification.
2. Christ’s satisfaction is not sufficient for our sin but guilt must still be met by temporal punishment either in this world or in Purgatory before the kingdom of Heaven can be opened to him.
3. And in both cases, the Roman Church said if one does not agree with them on this, they are not just wrong – but are “anathema” – under the judgment of God – cursed by Him and thus ex-communicated from the Church.
Now some might say, yeah, that was then – the 1500’s, surely since Vatican I & II things are far different: Today’s Roman Catholic Catechism lays it out: Paragraph 2027: “No man can merit the initial grace, which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.”
I took that directly from the Vatican Website, neither an ancient nor outside source.
In Luther’s day, what grace was and how it worked had been so redefined, that it bore very little resemblance to grace the way the Bible speaks of it.
The bottom line issue is one of worthiness when it comes to salvation.
The Reformers insisted that the Bible teaches that an individual’s worthiness could play no role in salvation, or salvation ceases to be a free gift. But the Roman view instead, if only in part, said and STILL says a person can MERIT for themselves and others – all the graces needed to attain eternal life. The worthiness of the individual to obtain eternal life is brought about by cooperating with the grace given at conversion.
Sola Gratia: [The] Latin phrase meaning “grace alone” that expresses the Reformation* doctrine that salvation* is all of divine grace at every stage, from election* to glorification.* Inherent in this phrase is the truth that no merit* of man either before, at, or after his regeneration* by the Holy Spirit* contributes to his salvation. The only merit by which a sinner is saved is Christ’s merit. Thus, sola gratia is usually employed in conjunction with solo Christo, “in or by Christ alone,” to denote that it is solely in Christ and by virtue of His atoning work that men receive the saving grace of God.[1]
So as I said above, at the heart of the issue is a salvation which someone can make themselves worthy of, versus a salvation which is freely given by God – to the undeserving. Or as God’s breathed out Word in Romans 4:3–6 states it: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:”
In other words, this comes down to the very Gospel we preach. A Gospel which announces the free gift of saving grace to all who will believe – versus a NON-Gospel, of entering into a man-made system of rites, rituals and regulations which help you become worthy. And just how worthy you have to be no one can tell you, because Purgatory is yet before you.
So why does this cooperative view of making ourselves worthy fail so miserably? I want to advance 7 Biblical arguments.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Because no one CAN make themselves worthy, therefore, no one is REQUIRED to make themselves worthy. We must receive salvation as it is, a free gift, with no attention to our own worthiness whatsoever. Christ does not save worthy people, He saves sinners, condemned and unclean and in no wise capable of making themselves worthy of His gift.
So the problem at the time of the Reformation was that people were brought into a slavish system of humanly invented rites, ceremonies, rules, regulations and requirements in order to finally help make themselves worthy of eternal justification. Which would still be followed by indeterminate periods of time in the afterlife in Purgatory, still paying for their own sins until the debt was fully discharged.
Today, the landscape is far different, but the need to be called back to Sola Gratia all the more necessary.
Not because people are so worried about making themselves fully worthy of final salvation – but because in our culture at least – people already judge themselves worthy – and so do not NEED to depend upon God’s grace in Christ alone.
After all – we’re all pretty good! We DESERVE nothing but the best.
God actually owes it to us in some respect. We DO merit it.
In this generation of self-esteem and the celebration of human accomplishment, the idea that we are very worthy beings is drilled into us from almost every corner and that from birth.
Just look at this small smattering of advertisements. See the theme? (Last image = Sony)
Sola Gratia is needed today more than ever because people no longer see themselves as UNworthy. And so the preaching of Christ has to be accompanied by a clear declaration of the true lostness and ruin of human kind. That as God breathed out through Paul in Romans 3:10–18 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
2 Applications:
Believer – Once in Christ, and we fail and commit sin, our tendency still is to try in some way to redeem ourselves in God’s eyes afterword.
It is a fool’s errand. We cannot do it. If we’ve sinned against other people, we need to make it right with them as best we can. But in terms of having sinned against God – we must cast ourselves back on grace and grace alone, and rest there.
Of course we repent and turn away from our sin anew – but we cannot somehow make up for sin in God’s eyes. Here, by faith, we look once again to the cross, and trust in His unmerited and free grace. We cannot merit forgiveness after we’ve come to Christ, any more than we could before we first came. We stand in this grace as Rom. 5 puts it – always.
Unbeliever – Beloved, there is only one way you can be saved from your sin – and that is to come to Christ guilty, condemned, unclean and in need of the free gift of His grace in Jesus Christ.
If you will not condemn yourself so as to receive His forgiveness and imputed righteousness today, then He will condemn you on the last day, and to an eternal condemnation from which there is no escape or hope of deliverance.
Come today to the Christ who justifies the wicked. He alone is sufficient for your sin.
If the Spirit is convicting you of your sin today, so that you long to be forgiven and reconciled to God – come and by His grace be justified by placing your entire trust in the finished work of Christ at Calvary – and not in any intrinsic merit you think you have, nor any you can somehow earn.
If this is you, any one of the elders here would be more than happy to spend some time with you right now to talk with you pray with you that you might be born again.
[1] Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms (Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International, 2002), 422.
The Reformation – Part 1
Sola Scriptura
2 Timothy 3:16-4:4
Isa. 8:19-20
Psalm 119:9-16
Psalm 19
AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
Having finished the first part of our study in the book of Revelation –it seemed good to me take a short detour for 2 reasons.
First, we’ve been very concentrated in our study and a little shift can bring some refreshment.
2nd, this year marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation achieved its momentum on the occasion of then Catholic Monk Martin Luther – nailing his famous 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg Germany on Oct. 31 1517.
The act itself was unremarkable. In Luther’s day, this was a standard way of sparking academic debate.
Someone would publicly post their ideas, and this would open the door for others to respond. No big deal.
But in this case, Luther’s stated concerns struck at the heart of the corruption that had crept into the then Church.
I want to be clear that there were many in what we would call the Catholic Church at that time, who were severely grieved by the state of the church morally and corruption. They were seeking to see the Church repent and reform – the way Jesus was calling upon 5 of the 7 churches we’ve just studied in the book of Revelation.
But instead of repenting and seeking reform, the Church hierarchy doubled down.
Church historian Phillip Schaff makes an important and helpful distinction in his writing on the Reformation when he separates Catholicism from Romanism. Without getting too complex,
Catholicism was at that point the most visible form of Christianity globally – however defective.
But Romanism is the result of the resistance of Catholicism to reform, and codified itself in the Council of Trent in 1545-1563.
Phillip Schaff writes about the situation when Luther posted his theses: “Theology was a maze of scholastic subtleties, Aristotelian dialectics and idle speculations, but ignored the great doctrines of the gospel. Carlstadt, the older colleague of Luther, confessed that he had been doctor of divinity before he had seen a complete copy of the Bible. Education was confined to priests and nobles. The mass of the laity could neither read nor write, and had no access to the word of God except the Scripture lessons from the pulpit.
The priest’s chief duty was to perform, by his magic words, the miracle of transubstantiation, and to offer the sacrifice of the mass for the living and the dead in a foreign tongue. Many did it mechanically, or with a skeptical reservation, especially in Italy. Preaching was neglected, and had reference, mostly, to indulgences, alms, pilgrimages and processions. The churches were overloaded with good and bad pictures, with real and fictitious relics. Saint-worship and image-worship, superstitious rites and ceremonies obstructed the direct worship of God in spirit and in truth.
Piety which should proceed from a living union of the soul with Christ and a consecration of character, was turned outward and reduced to a round of mechanical performances such as the recital of Paternosters and Ave marias, fasting, alms-giving, confession to the priest, and pilgrimage to a holy shrine. Good works were measured by the quantity rather than the quality, and vitiated by the principle of meritoriousness which appealed to the selfish motive of reward. Remission of sin could be bought with money; a shameful traffic in indulgences was carried on under the Pope’s sanction for filthy lucre as well as for the building of St. Peter’s Dome, and caused that outburst of moral indignation which was the beginning of the Reformation and of the fearful judgment on the Church of Rome.”
While for many the Reformation is at best a dim concept today, the reality is the reason why you and I sit here today praying directly to God the Father in Jesus’ name instead of Mary or the Saints; the reason why we enjoy the assurance of our salvation based upon the finished work of Christ on the cross rather than our own merit or good works; the reason why our consciences are not bound by anything other than Scripture itself; and the reason why we do not go through an endless set of rites and rituals to somehow be right with God – is because Evangelicals – theologically, not politically – are heirs of the Protestant Reformation.
At the very bottom of the need for and the meaning of the Reformation was the Gospel itself. And I hope to be unpacking that more in the next few weeks to come.
Amazingly the Reformation broke out virtually simultaneously in Germany and Switzerland – then quickly blazing through France, Scandinavia, Holland, Hungary, Bohemia and eventually Scotland and England.
As the Reformation progressed, those identifying themselves with this movement took up 5 watchwords or slogans that framed their ground and purpose.
Due to the day in which this took place, the slogans were all in Latin – and I’d like to take a week to look at each one separately.
The slogans are: Sola Scriptura; Sola Fide; Sola Gratia; Solus Christus; Soli Deo Gloria
And the first of these – Sola Scriptura, is what came to be known as the “formal” cause of the Reformation.
What is meant by using the term “formal” here is that this 1st idea is the one from which the rest are formed. Once this concept is in place, the “material” cause of the Reformation – justification by faith alone – the material which is woven from the “form” – then helps define the rest. We’ll unpack that more as we go.
The bottom consideration for us at this point is this: All that comes out of the Reformation has as its starting point – this idea: That the ultimate and final authority in all of life and practice for both the Church and the individual Believer, is the Scripture.
Contrary to the Romanist view, and that of every other religion and cult as well, is this – the Bible: No man, no organization, no council – even in Church history, no other writing or institution, influence or source has the right to bind the conscience of any human being in how one understands and serves God – above the Bible. NONE!
The Bible as our ultimate authority for faith and practice.
Put another way: The Bible alone can determine what can or cannot be required of people in order for them to be Christians, to be right with God.
Nothing less than the Bible.
Nothing more than the Bible.
Nothing other than the Bible.
Now this does NOT mean we reject all other things as utterly useless or that we read nothing else.
Church history has a great role for us in seeing how generations of Christians past understood the Scriptures. The Reformers were keen observers of Church history and the great preachers and commentators who came before them.
Those who have studied and been taught in the original languages, ancient cultures and sound principles of interpretation can also be of use. In fact, the Bible itself tells us that God has by His Spirit given the gifts of teachers and preachers to us, to help us in this regard. And to ignore His gifts is to reject Him and His wisdom and His provision for us.
So we read in Ephesians 4:11–14 “And he [JESUS] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
But we are all then responsible to study the Word for ourselves, and to test what is taught to us. To hold fast to that which is good, and to reject what is not.
The Apostle Paul noted this reality when he commended the people in the city of Berea for how they responded to his bringing the Gospel to them. Acts 17:10–11 “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
Hence we have our key text before us this morning.
2 Timothy 3:16–17
We do not hold that the Bible is inspired in the sense that it is brilliant or admirable or exceptional – but in that it is God’s own mind breathed out for us to take in. It is Divinely given.
But given for what? Why did God speak to us at all?
To know about Him.
About Humanity.
About why the world is the way it is.
How it came to be.
The purpose of all things – of life itself.
How to live with God in proper relationship in His universe.
It is not given to tell us how to fix our motorcycles, marriages, psyches, finances or society.
All that He reveals can and will impact all of those, but first and foremost, it is meant to teach us those things are most essential to know as being made His image-bearers and to carry out His plans and purposes in the world.
If humanity is just fine and natural the way we are, then there is no need of a Savior. No need of salvation. But the Word of God comes crashing into our world announcing to us that we are hopelessly and fatally in a fallen, sinful and rebellious condition against our God. It opens our eyes first to our need – so that we will seek the remedy.
So Romans 5:20a starts: “Now the law came in to increase the trespass”
Because it is our natural tendency to think well of ourselves, and because one of the by-products of The Fall is to make us insensible of our sinfulness, God’s Word brings that knowledge of that sinfulness into the full bright light so that we see it and ourselves as God sees us.
But then, as the Law can only expose sin, can only reveal to us what is wrong – can only reprove, God continues to breathe out to us His Gospel and so the Scripture is also given –
The one offended must be the One who appoints the means of satisfaction and reconciliation.
And so it is we hear that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became incarnate, lived under the Law of God perfectly fulfilling it in every way – and then died a substitutionary death in our place, taking the wrath due us upon Himself, so that all who Believe God’s Word and trust in the life, death, burial, resurrection and return of Jesus might have all of their sins forgiven, granted eternal life and be indwelt by God’s own Spirit.
We could not know one iota of this Gospel apart from the Bible.
We must be saved by HIS Gospel, according to His appointed means – and not by means and methods invented by us!
Every bit of man-made religion appeals to some other source.
We could never know – as we will see in the weeks to come – that this salvation is all of grace as opposed to human merit, and completely by faith as opposed to ma’s works.
If God had not breathed it out for us, we would be forever blind to it. And lost forever in our trespasses and sins.
And once again, our good and gracious God does not stop there – for God breathed out His word that we might also know how to LIVE for Him once we have been born again.
Or, as the text says: “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
No, the Scripture does not speak to every situation we may encounter individually or specifically.
And once again, it is not given to make us better employees, or better husbands, wives, children or parents. It is given to make us GODLY employees, GODLY husbands and wives and children and parents. And in pursuing GODLINESS, to bless others and serve God acceptably.
And in its genius, it does this in 3 primary ways:
So when we take the passage we read earlier in Isa. 8:19–20 “And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”
And couple it with Jesus’ own words in John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,” the utter importance of the Scripture becomes crystal clear – along with the revelation of the good of the God who stooped to our level to have them delivered to us.
But we need to consider one last thing before we close today.
It should abundantly clear given what we’ve looked thus far, how this unfolded in the time of the Reformation and the struggle for Protestantism to rise out of Catholicism and then in direct opposition to Romanism on this critical point.
But it is certainly no less important in our day.
While we may not be facing such systematized religion in addition to or contrary to the Scripture – we face a more subtle and perhaps more pernicious challenge to Sola Scriptura in our day:
For up against the absolute authority of Scripture for what we are to believe and how we are to live have risen two twin threats: Personal Opinion, and Feelings.
The Gospel remains the Gospel, only as God has communicated it to us – and it is not subject to amendment by our likes, dislikes, desires or feelings.
And a righteous life is defined by God’s revelation, not the ever changing morals of a fallen society.
Now, more than ever we need to lift the banner of Sola Scriptura on high in opposition to way our generation has lauded in its place – personal choice and opinion.
Repentance from sin – from what GOD calls sin.
Trust in the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
Belief in His bodily incarnation, penal death, resurrection and return.
And as Scripture itself declares about salvation in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians: 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
Nothing less and noting other than turning from all the idols of self, self-righteousness, greed, personal advancement and pleasure,
To serve instead the Living and True God according to His own revelation
And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come
Is the Gospel.
And glory to God for His love, mercy, faithfulness and grace in seeing to it we have it preserved for us even to this very day.
Revelation Part 12
Lessons from the 7 Churches
AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE
Having spent these past several months carefully working through Jesus’ messages to the 7 Churches in Asia – it seems only fitting to go back and put all we’ve learned into a somewhat more compact package. That is my aim today at any rate.
And I’ve chosen to do that in 3 parts.
I. General Survey
If were to take Jesus’ repeated admonition at the end of each letter, and boil it all down, what would that look like? – 7 cross-cultural and trans-generational warnings.
Ephesus: Loss of their First LOVE, no apprehension of the wonder of Christ’s love anymore.
Smyrna: FAITHFUL unto death – in spite of severe testing.
Pergamum: IMMORALITY tied to idolatry.
Thyatira: PROPHETESS of compromise
Sardis: Deadliness of SELF-RELIANCE
Philadelphia: OPEN DOOR – poor and weak, but an entrance to the Throne
Laodicea: LUKEWARM – lack of fellowship with Christ producing uselessness.
Now we’ll boil that down even more before we’re done – but let’s just look at a number of overall observations that came to my mind as I was reviewing these 7 letters.
II. A Series of 5 Observations
OBS. 1 – Jesus writes to the Angel of each Church
Addressing the whole Church and its issues while calling upon each individual to take responsibility for all that is said.
Not only are they responsible for what is said to their particular church, but to ALL the Churches.
OBS. 2 – If there is anything we have seen so far in this collection of Jesus’ letters to the Churches in Asia minor, it is that there is no such thing as a “normal” Church.
Each of these is unique in its makeup, circumstances, challenges, advantages and culture.
American culture is obsessed with standardizing virtually everything. But real life has a way of bending and warping every constant we try to impose. We love the idea of “one size fits all.”
We want to be able to say: This is what a local church SHOULD look like. We want a template and a pattern in terms of activity, make up, type of outreach, involvements, etc.
And while in God’s economy there are certain norms and constants, nature itself testifies to the amazing variety God’s genius delights in. For all of the basic simplicity of water, still, no two snowflakes are precisely the same. For all the common traits of humanity, each one’s fingerprints are unique. And though all Believers are joined together in Christ’s church by the same Spirit, each one is still wholly an individual, and so are the churches comprised of these individuals in their particular circumstances and environments.
OBS. 3 – What is interesting to note are the things which DO NOT seem to concern Jesus given the other issues. Things which are nevertheless often what motivate people in assessing a Church they may or may not wish to attend or be members of.
We may give much more weight to things Jesus ultimately finds of little concern, while ignoring areas of grave concern.
Note how Jesus makes no positive or negative statements regarding the size of any of these assemblies.
No church is better or worse because it is large, no better or worse because it is small. This is a human consideration, not a Divine one.
He says absolutely nothing about the giftedness (or lack thereof) of its leadership in terms of preaching.
He doesn’t speak about worship styles.
Not a word about programs. Nothing about the order of their worship services, how many songs they might sing and of what kind – standing, sitting, kneeling or recitations.
How often they take the Lord’s supper, or whether or not people raise their hands in worship.
They had no Hillsong, no Sovereign Grace Ministries, no Keith Getty or Stuart Townend, no Trinity hymnal, Isaac Watts, John Newton or Augustus Toplady music. No smoke machines, lasers and no coffee bars. No organ. No worship team. No PowerPoint.
Jesus says nothing about church polity, how many elders or deacons or how they divide up their respective duties.
Whether or not they have pews, theater or stacked seating or no seating at all.
As you might imagine, He said nothing about air conditioning.
It’s a wonder Jesus would call them churches at all!
What we learn instead is that personal fidelity to Christ, the Gospel and living as unto Him are paramount to Jesus both among the people and the leadership.
And beyond that, the Church may look and sound and behave in very different ways in different places.
In fact, this may serve all of us well as we consider our own assembly, and should any one of us for some reason need to move beyond here and look for another Church sometime.
The things Jesus looks for in a Church are the things we ought to look for. It is not a matter of taste or style, as much as it is of substance.
Is the Word of God faithfully taught?
Is the truth of God’s Word upheld contrary to the errors of the age and false doctrine?
Are people directed to the God of the Bible?
Is holiness of life pursued?
Is love and fidelity toward Christ with the whole man emphasized?
Is the Gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone because of the substitutionary death of Christ alone preached, protected and passed on to the following generations?
Are all these rooted in the magnificent love and grace of Christ as the starting point?
OBS. 4 – Note what else is absent in each of the letters. Jesus never tells anyone to leave their defective church and run to another. Even in Laodicea, which was only 10 miles away from Hierapolis and pastored by the venerable Papias, and a mere 6 miles from Colossae.
Even these had some viable options within their general region.
I do not want to stress this too far, and to be fair, as best as we know, there was but one “church” in each of these towns. In that sense, there were no other, viable options. Maybe one couldn’t move from Laodicea to Hierapolis or Colossae.
But at the very least, they were to remain in fellowship with THE Church in the larger sense, and not to split off into merely private devotion or forsake the greater Body of Christ – even when it was in pretty tough shape.
I take it from Christ’s showing Himself as walking in the midst of the Churches that at a bare minimum the Gospel was still being preached despite the other problems that He cited. But where there is no Gospel, we must conclude that whatever it might be, what is left is not a true Church in the Biblical sense.
So Paul can write to the really messed up Corinthian Church AS a church when he notes: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that 1Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that 2he was buried, that 3he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that 4he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” They still identified with that, and thus were still a church.
In our generation we’ve seen an increasing tendency among some to say they cannot find a local assembly that comes up to their standards, and so they will just go off and be a sort of little church unto themselves.
But this text seems to omit that as a response to the even very severe problems noted.
In any event, just picking up and moving from church to church is not to be done lightly. 5 of these churches had very serious problems. And yet Jesus never counsels anyone to pack their bags and run. He calls each instead, to focus on their OWN hearing of what the Spirit says to the Churches.
OBS. 5 – All the above said, Jesus DID labor to point out 4 key considerations which apply to ALL His Church(s):
III. A SUMMARY OF THE REWARDS
We tend to look at these 2 chapters as mainly negative. But that is to misread it in my estimation. While there are in fact 5 exceedingly serious Reprimands, there are also 17 Rewards! More than 3x’s the number of reprimands!
In each letter, there were also great and glorious promises to those who “overcome” those pitfalls.
Ephesus: Those who seek to feed their souls on Christ’s love now, will enjoy an endless, eternal supply, feasting from the Tree of Life in the very midst of the Paradise of God.
Eden, but better.
Symrna:
Crown of Life. Spared the 2nd death.
Pergamum:
Hidden manna.
White stone.
New name written on the stone that no one knows.
Thyatira:
Authority over the nations.
The Morning Star.
Sardis:
White garment.
Assurance.
Divine recognition before the angelic host.
Philadelphia:
Public vindication from the persecutors.
Made a pillar in the Temple of God.
The name of God.
The name of the New Jerusalem.
Jesus’ own name.
Laodicea:
Fellowship and intimacy.
Sit with Jesus in His throne.
In all this we see the very essence of the Gospel don’t we?
Sin has taken a heavy toll in these churches and Believers, but Jesus is prepared not only to forgive the sin – but to richly, extravagantly reward the faithful repentant – for doing what it is only RIGHT they do!
Romans 5:18–21 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is the Gospel in all its power unpacked even more.
Sin was abounding in 5 of these Churches, but Jesus’ grace toward them all far outstrips all of their failures.
Heaps upon heaps of blessings and benefits are extended to each one who will hear His word, repent and trust Him fully.
An endless, uninterruptable and undefilable Eden in His presence.
The Crown of Life. Spared the 2nd death.
Hidden manna. Secret and absolute satisfaction none but His own can know.
White stone. God’s own vote of His eternal favor before His judgment bar.
New name written on the stone that no one knows – unspeakable intimacy with the Living God.
Authority over the nations. To rule and reign WITH HIM!
The Morning Star. The brightness and fullness of Christ Himself.
White garment. The righteousness of Christ to clothe us and cover all the sin defiled.
Assurance. A steadfast heart in the midst of every storm of life even now.
Divine recognition before the angelic host.
Public vindication from the persecutors faced in this life.
Made pillars in the Temple of God. Absolute security.
The name of God. Marked out as His in some way to define us from all other beings in the universe.
The name of the New Jerusalem. Identified as the place where God chooses to dwell and call home.
Jesus’ own name. Not just Christian’s – but Christ’s own ones – taking His name as our own – as in marriage.
Fellowship and intimacy.
Sit with Jesus in His throne.
All this for failing, sinful but repentant Believers.
All this too for you today if you are still outside of Christ. If you are still trusting in yourself that somehow you’re just good enough to gain Heaven. Not so bad as others, and so you might squeak in.
Or trusting in some rite or religious act like baptism or Bible reading or belonging to some Church – or even trying to make amends for your past sins.
No! The Gospel is a gospel of grace alone or it is no gospel at all.
Philippians 3:4–9 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Believer and even unbeliever here today – above all things is this: To belong to Jesus and to have His salvation and the rewards it brings – we must abandon all self-reliance, and look to Him as our all in all. From justification, to sanctification and on to the resurrection and final glorification.
1 Corinthians 1:26–31 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
ResponsiveReiding 