00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcription
1/0
Psalm number 79, Psalm number 79, and there are two verses there. We're beginning a series today on the five solas of the Reformation. We have a very nice object lesson over here so that you'll be able to keep your place as we go through them. This will serve today as the introduction to that series. And so we'll touch on a little bit of all of them, but mainly we're going to give some background and give some good reasons why we need to be paying attention to them. and why we ought to be attending services over the next several weeks as we go over the five solas. But let's start with our scripture, Psalm number 79 and verses eight and nine. Oh, remember not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us. Prevent us being an old English word, which means to go before us. Let thy tender mercies speedily go before us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name, and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy name's sake. So good to see a New Testament style verse in the Old Testament, isn't it? All of the elements of the New Testament gospel are right there in those two verses. And it reminds us again of why we do what we do. We are gospel people. We believe the gospel. We try to live the gospel. We eat, breathe, live what we can of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Several years ago, I was asked as editor of the Baptist Bible Tribune to preach at a national meeting of our preachers in Dallas. I usually got to do that at least once or twice a year. And in that sermon, I took up the definition of the term fundamentalist and how that term has come to have some connotations and references that make us uneasy when we refer to ourselves as fundamentalists. In the world of conservative Christianity, of which we are a part, the words fundamentalist and fundamentalism have a specific meaning. And those words mean, and they refer to Christians who believe what are called the fundamentals of the faith. Things like the inspiration of scripture, the deity of Christ, and other basic doctrines that have been common to Christianity, both ancient and modern. These things have not changed. They're still there in the scriptures, and they still ought to be preached and taught, and we consider them fundamentals of the faith. It was a useful term in its day. It was coined in the late part of the 1800s during the liberal modernist versus fundamentalist controversies. And when you describe somebody as a fundamentalist in that kind of a context, nobody would ever bat an eye. However, if you hear the term fundamentalist in a newscast today, or read it in print, the older usage is not what people are usually talking about at all. Theology is a long ways from their thinking. These days, the word is usually used to describe an extreme form of a belief system, either religious or political, and nearly always it's in a negative reference. And so in my sermon to the preachers in that fellowship, I suggested that we look around for a better adjective or descriptor to accurately describe what it was that we are and what we believe. And I then offered up the word evangelical to them for their consideration. Now, you have to understand something about independent Baptist preachers. When you say the word evangelical around many of them, it gets real quiet real quickly. And that's exactly what happened the day that I mentioned that idea to those preachers. I'm sure some of the hearers even thought I was joking. I remember your father standing up and giving me a standing ovation when I said it. And so I guess I guess I was kind of on the right track. Baptists I've been hanging around with for these last 50 years rarely refer to themselves as evangelicals, although they plainly are evangelical. But just as moderns like to use the word fundamentalist to describe religious extremists or terrorists, my Baptist friends thought an evangelical was by definition a compromiser of God's truth. However, I survived the day. I kept my job. And by the end of the message, I even won a few converts to my way of thinking. And here's why. The word itself comes from a very good Greek word, eangelion. And it is the word used by the angel who announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds when he said, I bring you good tidings. That's the word, good tidings. The eangelion, or if you wanted to put it into English letters, the evangel. And it is the same word that Jesus used when he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he hath anointed me to preach the gospel, the angelion, to the poor. There that word is translated plainly gospel. That's the way the word angelion is consistently used in the New Testament. Good news, good tidings, the gospel. And so I determined, and I presented to those preachers that day, that if the evangel is a gospel, the gospel, then an evangelical by definition is a gospel person. But as you probably know, even the definition of the term evangelical has been open to some debate over the years. However, there was a time when an evangelical could be clearly identified as it should be with a gospel person one who believes the gospel identifies with the gospel and lives by the gospel now what you put a bookmark down at that spot in the sermon right now and will be coming back to it in a little bit but for now let's go ahead and get on with the business that's been given to me and that is to take a look at our banner here and see what it says. The Five Solas of the Reformation. We'll explain to you why it's titled that way in a minute. Sola Gratia, grace alone. Sola Fide, faith alone. Solus Christus, Christ alone. Solo Deo Gloria, glory of God alone. And Sola Scriptura, scripture alone. Let's make some observations. First of all, the phrases are all in Latin. The Latin letters are big, the English letters are small. Why would good English-speaking Baptists who use the King James Version of the Bible put Latin phrases on the wall? Why would we do such a thing? Well, it's kind of a long story, but I can shorten it up a little bit. What we recognize as the Roman Catholic Church didn't just appear all at once out of nowhere. It took shape over a few hundred years after the death and crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. And it was mightily influenced at the time by its environment and the culture of Rome especially as the church or the churches that were situated in Rome in the capital of the empire gained importance along with those who led the church in Rome. Eventually, the bishop of the church in Rome was considered to be the chief over the church or the Pope. The Pontifex Maximus was one of the titles given to him. He was the bridge to God. That was the idea. Even though the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and even though the New Testament was written in the Greek language, the theological and worship language of the church became Latin because that was the language of Rome. Soon there was a Latin version of the Bible and the church, after that version appeared, allowed the use of no other type of Bible anywhere where there was a Roman Catholic Church. It didn't matter whether that church was in England, or Germany, or any other part of Europe, or had gone off to the east somewhere, you still had to have the Latin version of the Bible. All priests learned Latin. The scholars wrote in Latin. The churches worshipped in Latin. And so, as the arguments and the discussions that led up to the Reformation in the 15th and 16th centuries developed, those discussions were held in what language do you think? They were held in Latin, of course, because that was the language of the theology and the scholarship of the day. And these phrases on the wall describe the ideas that came up in those discussions that led to the Reformation. And that explains the title up there. And they were the phrases that they used when they spoke with one another of what the Bible taught, as they compared what the Bible taught with what they had been taught. And then look at the words themselves. We have the translation of each of these solas. Sola scriptura, that's pretty easy. Scriptura looks a lot like the word scripture. Sola gracia, that looks a little bit like the word grace, and so that's not too hard. Sola Fide, it's not quite so obvious, but if you have a background in the Romantic languages, Spanish, for instance, or, of course, if you have any background in Latin, of course, Fide, you'd see that has to do with fidelity, which has to do with faith. So, faith alone. And then, Solus Christus, that's fairly obvious as well, Christ alone. And Soli Deo Gloria, Deo meaning God, Gloria, the God, to the glory of God alone. And so they're translated that way. Now, each one of them says something about sola being alone, alone, alone, alone. Question somebody might have would be if they are alone, why are there five of them up there? Why doesn't it say grace one of five or faith one of five instead of alone, alone, alone? Well, there's a reason for that as well. What do we mean when we say scripture alone or grace alone or faith alone and so on? If they are alone, why do we have the five phrases? Again, this has to do with those discusses and those addresses and those debates that they were having. By the time of the 1500s, the Roman Catholic Church had by this time become guilty of many, many errors. We certainly don't have the time to go into all of those, but believe me, You can get into a lot of trouble theologically over a period of 1,200, 1,300 years. You can go astray so many different ways, it's not even funny. But these phrases give you some insight into the major conflicts that the Reformation began to address and why there was a Reformation to begin with. For instance, take a look at the one at the bottom of the list, which will be the first one I believe that pastor will be covering starting next week, scripture alone. When this phrase was used, it was to emphasize that scripture alone is the final authority for our lives, for our faith, and for our church. It is final and it is sufficient. The Catholic Church had thought that the church itself was the final authority for Christian believers, that the Pope and his teachings were infallible, and they thought the same for their traditions and for their creeds and for the results of their councils. As words came forth out of the church with that official stamp of approval upon them, it was said, this is final authority. The reformers said, that's not so. Among Martin Luther's crimes and heresies that the Catholic Church accused him of, according to the church's accusations, he was translating the Bible into German so that common people could read God's word for themselves. Now, the last thing that the Catholic Church wanted was common people reading the Bible and arguing with the priest. Do you not know how hard The official church worked against those who wanted to put copies of God's word into the hands of the individuals? Did you know that they used to put Latin Bibles on the pulpits of churches and put a chain on it so that nobody could remove it from the pulpit and read it for themselves? It wasn't like today. You go into a home, even a non-Christian home, you're likely to find a Bible somewhere. but they were very, very rare in those days, and it was by design that they were rare. So when you think of the phrase scripture alone, what they were saying was, we say scripture alone as opposed to what the church is saying regarding final authority. It alone means that God's word alone is the basis of our faith. Now, something similar happens when you look at grace alone and faith alone. Salvation by faith in Christ, though declared clearly in the Bible, anybody can see it. And in the writings of the early church fathers, remember I said they didn't go all off the rails all at one time. You can find some fairly good theology in the first couple of 300 years of what we would call the Catholic Church. We call it the Church Fathers. And they are still widely read today and studied today, and they believe pretty much like we do. So even though salvation by grace and faith was declared clearly in the Bible, And in the writings of those early church fathers, who were themselves evangelicals, gospel people, it had been largely neglected by the church as a whole. Especially in the medieval time, just preceding the time of the Reformation, those bishops and priests proclaimed a different gospel that speaks of a righteousness that is attained by one's meticulous practice of the various rituals of the church. But the truth is that no man's good works will merit God's favor to the point of salvation. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Our good works result from the salvation that we receive by our faith. as Paul declared in Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 10. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. How could any Catholic bishop read these words and not make good sense out of them? Lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Now, it was at this point precisely where Martin Luther, who was a priest in the Catholic Church, found himself when he was studying a passage of the Book of Romans, which is a dangerous thing for any person of a wayward faith to do. You don't want to go to the Book of Romans. It will change what you believe. But he was studying chapter one, verses 16 and 17, between the years 1513 and 1516. Now remember, he didn't do the Wittenberg thing until 35. And so this is a good 20 years before that. He's reading the scriptures for himself. And he's reading these words, for I am not ashamed. of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written that just shall live by faith. Now let me say here that Father Luther does not know it yet, but he is on his way from being a Catholic and becoming an evangelical, a gospel person. He's not quite there yet, but he's well on his way. And so he reads Paul, and he reads where Paul says that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, not to everyone who works, or adheres to the faith of the church, or considers the Pope his spiritual father. But Paul says the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, and therein, that is, in that gospel, is the righteousness of God. And the just or the righteous shall live by faith. I can just imagine Father Luther looking at that, taking off his spectacles, wiping his eyes, and reminding himself that that phrase is used in the Old Testament as well. What could that possibly mean? The just shall live by faith or the righteous shall live by faith. Remember, reading the Bible for yourself is considered to be quite dangerous in the 1500s. And asking questions about what it means and not going through the church is also quite dangerous. But Luther does think on it and he comes to this conclusion. The righteousness of God in this text is not, as he had been taught, referring to some kind of special title you receive by doing the things the church prescribes, working to achieve your own righteousness, but is due only to God's activity when He clothes sinners in His righteousness and the righteousness of Christ through the gift of faith. That was his conclusion. And having realized those great truths, salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, Luther writes this, And looking back on that experience, quote, thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. Say now, how did that happen? The word of God has power to change hearts and minds. And he goes on, now the whole of scripture took on a new meaning. And whereas before the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweeter in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven. So Father Luther became Brother Luther. And so now you know why the phrases are in Latin and what they mean whenever they use the word alone to describe them. Now, we've actually got a little time here. I think I can clear up another couple of issues for us. Do not look in your Bible for a place that says, this is the chapter that lists the five solas. There's no such place in the Bible. They're not like the Ten Commandments or the Lord's Prayer. You can't just go to a spot and say, here are the five things. And to be honest, there may be a few things we could add to the list. Pastor and I were just talking to this the other day. Some people have expressed maybe there's seven, maybe even eight solas. And that's okay. They're not scripture. But that doesn't mean that they were just made up out of whole cloth. At least three of the five, rather, scripture and grace and faith alone, are found in the writings of the Reformers themselves. Not in any list, mind you, but as it comes up in the conversation and in the discussions that they had. The point here is, these ideas are not invented by the Reformers, they were found in the Bible by the Reformers. And it became the basis for their Reformation ideas. And each of them can be supported by a number of passages, which Pastor and I will be doing as we go through the five solas one by one. You'll not have any question in your mind about how biblical these ideas are when they're listed with the backup from the scripture. But they're not exhaustive. This is not intended to be a complete list of everything you need to know and do and say, okay? There are other important truths that Christians should embrace, but these provide a distillation, I think, probably, of the important teachings about salvation. If you want a good, clear picture of what it means to be saved, go to the Solas. They're about as clear as they can be. by God's grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone, received through faith alone, to the glory of God alone, with scripture alone as the final decisive and authority on those truths themselves. So really, and I don't think I'm making too big a claim, you're looking at the gospel. You're looking at the gospel. You're looking at the evangel. Evangelicals believe this because they're gospel people. See, these ideas are not just some things people thought 500 years ago. These are valid truths today, because they represent eternal truth, not invented by men, but found by men in the scriptures themselves. When challenged, we have to echo along with Luther, who said when he was under fire from the authorities, he said, I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the word of God. What we must do with the solos is not to allow them to remain mere words on a wall or simply ideas in our heads or matters of theology to discuss in theory. Rather, we have to let those ideas of scripture and grace and faith and Christ and the glory of God dominate our thoughts and our hearts as we go into 2018. That's how you become a gospel person. It's what happened to Luther when he said he walked through the gates to paradise. If you have not yourself repented of your sins, if you do not yet know a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ like the one I've been describing here today, I urge you today to walk through the open doors of paradise for yourself. Repent and believe the gospel so that you can be saved. Turn from following your ways and the ways of the world, and turn and believe on the Deliverer, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died, and buried, who rose again. And by that, you become a gospel person by definition. Now, I said to somebody not too long ago, I'd seen a few quotes from Martin Luther in some Christmas sermons when I was working on the Isaiah chapter 9 passage. And I told somebody, I said, you know, I think I'm going to have to read some more of this guy. I don't know why. It wasn't that I, I guess it was just other things I wanted to do. And so I never read much Luther in serious study. But I think I'm going to have to go back and rethink that decision. Not that I intend to become a Lutheran, mind you. You see, here's something about the Reformers, okay? What they did was good, but they never intended to start a new anything. They simply wanted to reform what was there, and they thought they could. But of course, the job was much, much too large. There was too much error, too much waywardness. It was too far off the path. Unfortunately, though, among the Reformers, there were different ideas. Now, they were all agreed on these things. But there were other ideas having to do with how the church operates, and how the authority goes in the church, and the meaning of baptism, and the meaning of the communion, and so on. And so that's the reason why you have Protestant denominations today. They're distinct from one another based upon those ideas. They are united, for the most part, on these ideas. Baptists and Presbyterians get along very, very well based on a document like this, do you understand? I think I'm going to have to go back and read some more Luther. Let me give you one last little section here of him and then I'm going to close for the day. Hereby it appears that the doctrine of the gospel, which of all others is most sweet and full of most singular consolation, speaks nothing of our works or of the works of the law, but of the inscrutable mercy and love of God towards the most wretched and miserable sinners. our most merciful father, seeing us to be oppressed and overwhelmed with the curse of the law, and that we could never be delivered from it of our own power, sent his only son into the world, and laid upon him all the sins of all men, saying, Be thou Peter that denier, Paul, that persecutor and cruel oppressor, David, that adulterer, that sinner who did eat the fruit in Eden, that thief who hanged upon the cross, even that person, myself, who has committed the sins of all, see thou for that thou pay and satisfy for them. I don't think there's any doubt in my mind that we will be able to have a visit with the former Father Luther. That is, if you walk through the doors of paradise as he did. He's a gospel person. Let's be gospel people. Let's pay attention to these things, see how we can incorporate them into our lives so that we can be unmistakably gospel people in the coming days.
Introduction to the Solas
Identifiant du sermon | 23181814220 |
Durée | 27:56 |
Date | |
Catégorie | Service du dimanche |
Texte biblique | Psaume 79 |
Langue | anglais |
Ajouter un commentaire
commentaires
Sans commentaires
© Droits d'auteur
2025 SermonAudio.