Five Solas - [1 Corinthians 10:31]

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Well, I have been out of the hospital for about nine weeks now. So I thought it would be my pleasure and duty this morning to give you a virus, to give you a contagion.
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Not a physical one, because I now have immunity, but a theological contagion, an intellectual virus.
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Today, we're gonna talk about something that should encourage your hearts, should give you hope and joy, appreciation for the
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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have the great privilege and duty today to talk about Scripture, to talk about the center of Scripture, Jesus, to talk about how gracious our
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God is, to understand how we can receive Him by faith alone to His glory.
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Today, we're gonna talk about the five solas of the Reformation. Could you name them?
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If I ask someone to name the five solas of the Reformation, I wonder if you could name them. After all, they don't just stem from the
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Reformation, they're from the Bible. So this morning, I'd like to look at the five solas of the
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Reformation so that you might understand who Jesus is better, have confidence in Scripture, know that if you're saved, it's by grace alone, through faith alone to the glory of God alone.
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The way I like to think about these is the foundation, the platform is Scripture, sola
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Scriptura. Then you have three pillars. And the center pillar, of course, is the
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Lord Jesus. And then the next pillar over is grace. The pillar to the left of Jesus, my left of Jesus, is faith and everything over and arching and with a panoply of praise is
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God alone be the glory. So we're gonna talk about Scripture, we're going to talk about Jesus, grace, faith, and the glory of God.
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Wouldn't you like my job to get up and talk about that? It is gonna be wonderful and encouraging. Many of you know the solas.
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I had been working on this message this summer, but somehow I missed Sunday, Reformation Day, at the end of October.
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So as far as I'm concerned, today is October 31st. And we're gonna do the five solas of the
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Reformation. It's gonna be pretty simple. We're gonna look at the five solas probably this week and next. And I'm going to give you an
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Old Testament passage that we'll look through and a New Testament passage that both teach those truths.
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So an Old Testament passage and a New Testament passage. So you can have 10 passages to say to yourself, these are stabilizers, these are important, these are passages that I should know well.
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If I'm a Christian for a long time, you probably already know these. If you're a new Christian, great. That's one of the reasons why we're glad you're here and I'm gonna preach on this topic.
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And you say, oh, I heard that word topic and I thought it was a venial sin to preach topically.
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Well, you just do it twice a year and then you repent and go back to exposition. No, there's nothing wrong with topics.
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We have all kinds of topics. The question is from the pulpit, are they tied to and tethered to scripture, right?
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You can teach textually from the scriptures on a topic.
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And that's exactly what we're going to do. Soon enough, we'll be into Ephesians and Zephaniah and Obadiah and a few other passages like that are books verse by verse.
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But today and next week, somebody said to me, why don't we just do five weeks on the solas?
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Well, one of the reasons I come on Sunday is to see what I'll say and for how long I'll say it. So it might be five weeks, you never know.
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Now, before we get into the Old Testament and New Testament passage for each of these, I want you to understand something. These were against the backdrop in a particular historical situation with the
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Roman Catholic Church. And so the Protestants who had these solas, they were against something, but they were for something.
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And sometimes in our circles, we're never supposed to be against anything because that's not loving.
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We're always supposed to be for things. There are slogans in evangelicalism. You need to be known for what you're for, not what you're against.
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But here in this particular case, and certainly I'm for righteousness, that means I'm against sin with you all.
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I'm for the glory of God, so I'm not for the glory of man. When we're for something, we're against something.
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When it comes to truth, I'm against lies, so I'm for truth. These solas of the
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Reformation, I think are going to be important for another reason. We live in a place that's by profession at least, 80 %
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Roman Catholic. And so I know you love your Roman Catholic friends. Maybe we have some here today. They aren't our enemies.
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We want to tell them the truth, right? If we are right, the only reason we're right is by the grace of God, right?
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If we understand that it's scripture alone because of Jesus alone, through faith alone, because of grace alone, for the glory of God alone, it's not because we came up with it, because somehow we're better or smarter or anything like that.
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So I think this will help you. It will also help you with assurance. If this was a junior high class,
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I'd say, what's the root word in assurance? And you would say, what? Sure, how can
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I know for sure that I'm a Christian? After all, I sinned this week, did you?
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How can I know for certain that I'm a Christian and have assurance, even though I battle with sin daily, even though I don't do what
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I'm supposed to do, even though I'm living in a Roman seven world? Is there really no condemnation for someone like me?
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I think this will help us. Now, the reformers didn't say there were five solas. That's kind of a 20th century thing that we have, but they did talk a lot about scripture over tradition.
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They talked a lot about grace over works, our merit or somehow earning salvation.
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And they talked a lot about faith, not works. But now today we have the five solas.
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And by the way, sola means only, it's a Latin word. And I'm gonna say quite a few Latin words today because I stand in the long line of R .C.
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Sproul and others. You ever watch R .C. Sproul? You ought to watch R .C. Sproul. And he loves to write on the chalkboard,
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Latin words. I was there once for that. And I've said to you before, I have a special anointing because I personally saw
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R .C. Sproul write Latin words. If it's scripture alone, then it's not tradition plus scripture.
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If it's Jesus alone, it's not Jesus plus another mediator or spiritual leader. If it's grace alone, it's not
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I'm working with God. He alone works. If it's faith alone, it's not, well, my faith plus my works.
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And if it's to God's glory alone, we'll never get to heaven. And as my brother would say, fist bump
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God and say, we did it. So those are the five solas of the Reformation. Let's look at the first sola of the
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Reformation. And that is sola scriptura. Please turn your Bibles to Psalm 19 this morning.
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Psalm 19, we're gonna look at an Old Testament passage and a New Testament passage that will teach, that will reinforce, that will help you with your mind to say the final authority in my life is scripture.
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The ultimate final authority is scripture. Scripture alone, sola scriptura.
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It is alone the final authority, the final source of authority in your life.
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When we say scripture alone, we're meaning it's not scripture as just partial authority and traditions and popes and councils or pastors.
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No, it is the Bible alone as the final authority.
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Even Calvin said, we affirm that we desire to follow scripture alone. Daily oracles are not sent from heaven for it pleased the
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Lord to hallow his truth to everlasting remembrance in the scriptures alone.
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This is the watchword of the Reformation. This is called the formal principle of the Reformation.
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And it lends itself for you to think about scriptures, authority, clarity, sufficiency.
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And Psalm 19 is one of these great Psalms where you think the first six verses talks about nature and how nature declares the glory of God.
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This is a hymn of praise. It's like you walk outside and you look at the sun and you're like, wow.
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And you begin to sing praises that God would create something so magnificent, so wonderful. And it says in verse one, does it not?
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The heavens declare the glory of God. The sky above proclaims his handiwork.
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And it just goes on day after day, night after night. And we don't know much when it comes to special revelation.
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It says verse three, so there's no speech nor their words whose voice is not heard. Everybody knows it.
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Everybody understands that God is wise and powerful, but he also is more than that. And so the second part of the
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Psalm lends itself to talk about not God revealing himself in nature, but in scripture.
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And let's just quickly work through verses seven through 11. And notice what it says about scripture.
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I feel like I'm preaching to the choir. I am preaching to the congregation. We know this, but it's just good to be settled in these truths again.
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It's good to be settled in these truths, even if you're a Christian for 30 years, because you'll be training other Christians, will you not?
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And now we go from the world of God to the word of God. And we see six descriptions of God's word and six things that it does.
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Isn't this great? Verse seven, the law of the Lord, that's Yahweh, his personal name.
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I mean, back in verse one, it talked about God, the creator. Yeah, you understand God is a creator, the word
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God or Elohim. Now we see Yahweh. Now we see his personal touch, as it were. And the law of the
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Lord is what? It's perfect. And what does it do? What do you need right off the bat when it comes to the word?
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I'm a sinner and I need my soul restored. That's what it does. It's perfect and it restores the soul.
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It revives, it gives me cleansing, it gives me forgiveness, exactly what I need.
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The thing on the top of the list of what I need as a sinner is restoration.
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And that's what it does. Look at verse seven. It also says the testimony of the Lord. That's another name for the word of God, the law of the
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Lord, the testimony of the Lord. Those are all both names rather for the word of God is sure making the wise simple.
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Simple. Are you inexperienced? Do you need wisdom? I need wisdom and it comes down to scripture giving me that trustworthy, unwavering confidence in every aspect of living.
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I think sometimes we say to ourselves, I just wanna have an open mind, right? That's what a naive person would say according to Hebrew scriptures.
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I'm gonna have an open mind. I don't care what goes in it and I don't care what goes out of it. A wise person says,
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I'm gonna guard what goes in. I'm gonna guard what goes out. Making wise the simple, making wise the person that says, ah,
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I'm just open to every idea. There's another name for the word of God in verse eight, the precepts of the
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Lord. What are they? They're right. And what do they do if you have something right?
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I mean, in a world where people say things like this, well, my truth, whenever somebody tells me my truth,
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I go, you're a liar. Oh, I don't say it out loud. No, no, my mind says it.
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Although I'm afraid of myself because kids have no filter and they just say whatever. And one time my mom came home from the beauty salon.
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She said, well, what do you think? And I said, it looks like the bride of Frankenstein's hairdo. That was bad to say.
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Kids, don't watch Frankenstein number one and don't say that to your mother. But then when you get older, it's like you lose your filter too.
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Like, what will I say? Here we have something that's right and true.
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It's not my truth. It's absolute truth. It's absolute truth.
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No commas, no well, but through your experience, what about surveys? What do they say?
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No, we have scripture. It revives the soul. It gives you wisdom. It's right.
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It rejoices the heart. That's the response of something knowing that it's right. Especially you lay on your deathbed and you go, heaven, hell is real.
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I need to believe the right thing, not the wrong thing. The commandment of the
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Lord, there's another term for scripture. The commandment of Yahweh is, well, if Yahweh is pure,
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I would imagine what he says is pure. And it's true. It's pure and enlightening the eyes.
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The precepts of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, pure, clear, radiant, no evil, no air, no sin, no taint.
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That's exactly what verse nine says. The fear of the Lord. By the way, that's a synonym for the law of God because the fear of the
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Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the law is supposed to put the commandments of God.
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The instructions of God are to make you think, I should reverence God. I should have the fear of the Lord.
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And they are clean. Notice verse nine, enduring forever. I mean, if things are unpure, they don't last.
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If things are tarnished, they fail. If things have something in them that's not right, they don't last very long.
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But here, since God is pure, since God's word is pure, how long does pure last? How long does holiness last?
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They endure forever. And then lastly, verse nine, the judgments of the Lord. That's a description of God's word.
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They are righteous all together. Six names, six effects.
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And if you've got that, then why would you go to psychology? Why would you go to tradition?
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Why would you go to, well, God told me something outside of his word. Verse 10 shows the response.
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They're more desirable than gold. Before you crazy people hear Bitcoin, I'm sorry.
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It's down 20 % than much fine gold.
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Sweeter also than the sweetest thing you could have back in those days. Sweeter also than honey.
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And then there's so much of it, the drippings of the honey. God shows himself in nature.
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It's a song of praise. God speaks specifically to his people and all who will listen.
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It's a song of praise. Well, if God's word is so great, why would I say, you know what?
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I'll put scripture here and my feelings here. I'll put scripture here and I'll put tradition here.
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I'll put scripture here. And then why would we do that? Verse 11, moreover by them thy servant is warned in keeping them there is great.
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Now, when I say sola scriptura, I'm not saying you can't learn from creeds, our councils are even from good tradition.
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Here's what I mean by that. Let's use tradition one, two and zero for a little explanation.
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Here's tradition one category. Anything that the Bible teaches that tradition has taught us or affirms with scripture is fine.
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So for instance, if there have been councils like at Nicaea or Chalcedon, and you talk about the triune nature of God, I don't discard those because I say, oh, that's sola scriptura.
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No, I say that's true as long as they match up to the word of God. If they have the same content of scripture, then
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I believe them. The Holy Spirit's been working in history. And if a creed like the
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Nicene Creed is true to scripture, I believe it. If it testifies to the word of God, I believe it.
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Otherwise it's just, well, the Bible and I come to the Bible like nobody else has existed.
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So to repeat, all tradition isn't bad. Only unbiblical tradition is bad.
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So tradition one is anything that the church has taught that lines up with scripture, well,
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I would embrace. Why would I just say Apostle's Creed, Nicene Creed, Westminster Confession, anything else,
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Belgium Confession, that's all done. I don't want anything to do with that. What the church has taught about the nature of the
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Trinity, I don't have anything to do that. No, it lines up with scripture. I embrace that. But what if it teaches something that's not in scripture?
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That's tradition two. That's prayers for the dead. That's purgatory. That's other things. So if scripture teaches something and tradition, the church, what about even me?
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Your pastor has taught you something. If it lines up with scripture, you keep it.
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If it doesn't, then you toss it. Because the only other option really is what we call tradition zero.
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And tradition zero isn't sola scriptura, it's solo scriptura. It's just the Bible. I've come to the
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Bible like nobody's ever read the Bible. Don't do that. That's how cults start. I'm coming to the
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Bible like I've never read the Bible before. No, matter of fact, with all these solas out and this
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Latin, Calvin called this not sola scriptura, he called it nuda scriptura.
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Bare scripture alone. Yes, it is the final authority, but there are other resources for theology that you can consult.
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The ultimate, final authority is scripture. And any person, me, or any creator or council that teaches what scripture teaches, well, that's
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OK to believe. Sola scriptura says that's fine. It's not, well, Bible only, we can't listen to Mike.
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No, no, as long as he's within scripture, he's within scriptural bounds, fine. But the second I go to tradition and say, well, now the
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Bible teaches things that are outside the Bible, or there are things in the Bible that you don't understand without me, or the tradition goes over the
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Bible, I put a creed over the Bible, then we have to say no. Turn to 2
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Timothy chapter 3 for our New Testament passage. Our Old Testament passage that extols scripture is
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Psalm 19. The New Testament passage is one you know very well. It's 2 Timothy chapter 3.
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As you're turning there, it's OK to study church history and learn from church fathers if they're teaching things according to scripture.
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And it's not OK to read tradition that contradicts scripture. Sola scriptura says the final authority is scripture, and we can learn that the
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Holy Spirit has worked through different men in church history.
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The sole written source of authority is scripture. Now we come to this pastoral epistle, and Paul is writing to Timothy his understudy.
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And what does he say in chapter 3 verse 15 to pick it up mid -English sentence? And that from childhood,
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Timothy, you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
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Timothy, remember, you've been taught from a young age to learn about scripture, to learn about the Messiah from scripture.
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And the Messiah has been revealed to you through scripture, faith in Christ Jesus. But also when you're here at Ephesus or wherever you might go, or if Titus was in Crete, you have everything you need when it comes to scripture.
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What does a pastor need in his tool bag? Verse 16, all scripture, by the way, what's he referring to there?
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Be careful before you blurt out the answer. All scripture is referring to what? You're like, well, you just told me to be careful, so I'm not answering.
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Yes, all the Old Testament, and certainly 1 Timothy, right? 1
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Timothy we know is scripture, and Paul wrote that first. So there could be some New Testament writings in here, but generally speaking, all scripture is talking about the
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Old Testament. And what is it? Verse 16, is inspired by God.
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That's interesting. For the last 11 weeks of my life, I've had a little friend, and my little friend is a spirometer.
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And I just have to blow into that spirometer several times a day. In the hospital, I think I had to do it 10 times an hour, and it measures how much lung capacity
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I have. And so it's kind of a game because I wanna win, but the person I'm competing against is myself, my life, so I thought
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I'd try. And I have to blow into this spirometer, and the gauge goes up to like 500, 600.
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What's my lung capacity? And so I'm trying to exercise my lungs. A spirometer. And so here, when you think of spirometer, in the spirometer, no, that's what
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I do. I'm sucking it in to see what my lung capacity is. Spirometer, spiration, inspired.
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That's the wrong word here, and I think the ESV says the right word. What's the ESV say? Breathe out, so it's not, and it's like you think of a sailboat on the ocean, and it's got the sail up, and God is breathing out the wind to move that sailboat wherever it's supposed to go.
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That's the idea here. All Scripture is God breathed. I mean, when you think about final authority, sola scriptura,
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I want something that comes from God, not somebody with a peyote party and some kind of a sweating tent.
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What do they call those? Sweat lodge, yeah, thanks. You have one in your backyard now. It's not hot enough for my liking.
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The historical context is everybody's saying things. God told me the Anabaptists were doing that.
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You can only believe things what the Pope says and how he says things. Well, what's my authority?
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What's my final authority? What can I go to? I'm just gonna have to live my life just getting tossed to and fro the rest of my life.
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Where is truth? Just give me some truth. Well, the truth is something that's breathed out by God.
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It should not surprise us that God breathed life into the nostrils of Adam, Genesis 2.
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It should not surprise us that the Lord Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, receive the Holy Ghost, John 20.
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He's not saying the people are God -breathed or inspired. He's saying what they're writing here specifically is.
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Breathe out by God. Now, Paul knew that Timothy's detractors, they love genealogies.
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Oh, those are important. They love other parts of scripture. Those are important. And Timothy says, no, no, all scripture, all the
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Old Testament, and of course, we would know every New Testament book is God -breathed. And what happens with this
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God -breathed word? What do you think it'd be good for? You think it would be having a expiration date?
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Here, it's profitable. Of course, it's profitable, because it's God -breathed, all of it.
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And what does it do for teaching who God is? What does it require? Who Jesus is? What's faith?
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What's grace? Rebuking, I have it measured up to the law of God. Correcting, putting me in the right path again, because just like a good father with a son, here's the right way you should go, son.
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That's what it does, it corrects. And it does really everything when it comes to right living, training in righteousness.
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No wonder the Reformation said, you know what, we're buried underneath all these layers of tradition, and what men say, what does
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God say? Verse 17, that the man of God, that's an
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Old Testament term, by the way, for preacher. These new modern translations that say we want a genderless
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Bible and say the people of God. It's true for you people, but the text is that the man of God may be complete.
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What's a pastor need when he's at Ephesus? He needs the scriptures, that's what he needs, that the man of God may be complete, equipped or adequate for every good work.
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The sufficiency of scripture, that means there are no deficiencies in scripture. Scriptures make you adequate,
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Timothy, and of course, all that would follow Timothy, including his congregation. Everything been planned out by God.
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Now, when I think of Psalm 19 and 2 Timothy 3, it's against the backdrop of two particular groups of people
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I mentioned earlier, the Roman Catholic Church, because they exalted tradition, and the anti -Baptist charismatic mystics.
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Let's talk a little bit about Rome first, and then the anti -Baptist charismatics. True or false, it is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, sacred scriptures, and teaching authority of the church in accordance with God's most wise design are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others.
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False, that's Vatican II, 1962. Rome hasn't changed her view when it comes to authority, final authority.
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For us, it's scripture, sola scriptura. For them, it's scripture, the teaching of the church, and scripture.
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Roman Catholic theologian John Eck, centuries ago, said, the scriptures are not authentic except by the authority of the church.
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Pope Pius IX said in 1870, I am tradition. And one of the problems was, if you went over to the
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Bible and read it without the layers of bad tradition, without the layers of the church interpreting for you, guess what would happen to you?
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Besides, you might die for it. You'd become a Protestant. I have to believe
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Rome because Rome tells me so. That's not sola scriptura. Essentially, you know what that is? Sola ecclesia.
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Scripture has authority. No priest gives it authority. No pastor gives it authority. No pope gives it authority.
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No experience gives it authority. Luther said, though we have the bones of all the saints for all the holy and consecrated vestments gathered together in one heap, they could not help us in the slightest degree.
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But God's word is the treasure that sanctifies all things. True or false?
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If anyone receives not as sacred and canonical the said books entire with all their parts as they have been used to be read in the
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Roman Catholic church, knowingly and deliberately do people condemn traditions aforehand.
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Let them be anathema. And the answer is false. If you say it's the Bible alone for final authority, you are anathema according to Rome.
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What is Timothy hearing from Paul? Timothy, you can't know the
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Bible unless I, Paul, help you. Unless I, Paul, write off what it means.
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Unless I, Paul, gives you the secret inside knowledge. I, matter of fact, am your disciple. Er, who would you be,
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Timothy, without me? That's not what Paul says. There's another master for Timothy.
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And it's not Paul. It's ultimately the Lord. Now that's kind of Rome, and many of you know the background with Rome.
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But I think in our day, we could be bolstered in our sola scriptura doctrine so that we can talk to modern day charismatics.
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As my friend used to say, of course, many charismatics are Christians and they'll be in heaven one day.
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They don't know why they'll be in heaven, but they'll be there. I didn't say that, my friend did.
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During the Reformation, they had Catholics here saying, scripture's not final, there's three things. But you also had kind of crazy charismatics, right?
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There's conservative charismatics. There are crazy charismatics. And they happen to be within the Anabaptist movement.
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Ana means, again, Baptist means to baptize. And just because you're a Baptist doesn't mean you're an
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Anabaptist. And they used to say things like this, these radical Anabaptists.
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You know, the Pope, he's the only one that hears really from God in the Roman Catholic Church. There's a bunch of us that hear from God, directly, without scriptures.
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God told me, ever met anybody that said that? Well, you know, you do a lot of study and everything, but God just talks to me.
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I'm thinking, I know I'm no big shot or anything, but you can't even describe the Trinity yet God talks to you.
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You'd think He'd talk to somebody that at least understood Triune Orthodoxy. And if somebody says
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God told me, they are saying, I have authority. Because God told me to do something.
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And that was going on back in that day. Continuing revelation. The Anabaptist radicals.
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Luther called them fanatics. He said, they have swallowed the
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Holy Spirit feathers and all. God has spoken,
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Hebrews 1. He doesn't keep speaking. He doesn't need to, because as the redemptive work of Christ was finished, so too the canon of scripture was closed and He has told us everything we need to know.
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There are no deficiencies in scripture. God is speaking now through His inscripturated word only.
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The canon is closed. If you want to know what God says and thinks, don't ask your friend who says,
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God told me something. I mean, my friend Justin Peters likes to say, I think I have a shirt of his too, that said, if you want to hear
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God talk, read the scriptures out loud. That's pretty good. I don't need anyone to tell me
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God said something. I don't need subjectivity. I don't need to have somebody say, well, yeah, here's the
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Bible and all that, but I have an experience. Matter of fact, some of those Anabaptist extreme charismatics, they disdained study.
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They said about Luther that Luther wanted to send them off to college so they could unlearn what the
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Holy Spirit would say. It reminds me when people say now, Mike, did you happen to go learn the Bible in cemetery?
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Some classes were so boring, I did sleep. Cemetery means sleeping place. So when people come around today and they say, well,
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God told me, and they have this mystical experience. I think Calvin is right.
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When the fanatics boast extravagantly of the Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the word of God so they can make room for their own falsehoods.
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When somebody says, God told me, and it's not in Scripture, my friend would say, you should say to them, get behind me,
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Satan. Because when God speaks, it's very, very important. Wasn't that long ago,
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Jesus Calling was out. That is a blasphemous book. Jesus Calling with all the new things that Jesus supposedly said.
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If people had direct communication with the Holy Spirit apart from the word, they don't have direct communication with the
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Holy Spirit. The final authority is Scripture. And with the
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Cambridge Declaration, I read this. We affirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience.
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The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin, and is the standard by which all
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Christian behavior must be measured. We deny that any creed, council, or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the
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Holy Spirit speaks independently or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.
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And if sola scriptura is true, and it is, then friend, rejoice that you have a preserved copy in your hand.
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I bet you you've got dozens of copies in your hand, or at least in your home. God bolstering up men like Tyndale and others.
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I think, oh, to have the Bible. So read the Bible. Don't settle for anything but the
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Bible. Remember the power of the Word in the Bible. Remember, it's fine to read traditions that uphold the truths of the
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Bible. The foundation in the Reformation, the final authority was
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Scripture alone, sola scriptura. Secondly, solus Christus. You might think sola
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Christus, but the way it's working with grammar here, it's solus, S -O -L -U -S,
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Christus. And this is the center pillar. If the foundation was Scripture, what's in the center?
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We might not start with Christ, we'll start with Scripture, but of course the centerpiece is Christ. And what you'll see in the
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Bible with Christ as the center is that He is exclusively the Savior and sufficiently the
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Savior. Exclusively the Savior and sufficiently the Savior. And by the way, both are attacked today.
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And when churches don't preach who Christ is, vacuums are certainly to be filled.
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Jesus is exclusively the substitutionary Savior. He's exclusively the representative between God and man, and He is sufficiently the
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Savior. Now, for our Old Testament passage, I'd like you to turn to Job, to Job.
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All of the Old Testament speaks generally of Jesus, right? Jesus said, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me,
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John 5. But here we have some specific things. I remember Luke's professor,
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Abner Chow, teaching Luke this, and Luke then teaching me this. I'll never forget, we were driving on the
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Great Vine in California, and we were listening to some holy music. I think it was Bob Marley and the
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Wailers. Just father -son time. And Luke's like, dad, dad, can
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I turn the radio off and tell you what I've been learning in Bible school? I said, beat it, kid. I don't wanna learn about Bible school.
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Where's Tom Brady? No, I said, I would love that. Can you imagine? One of your kids says, this is what
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I've been learning about the Lord Jesus in school. So I want you to learn this. Job is the first book written in all the
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Bible. It didn't happen first, right? Genesis 1 -1. But it was written,
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I think rightly with Chow, to get you to start asking questions. There's all kinds of questions and ideas in Job where you go, hmm, what should
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I look for in the other 65 books of the Bible? If this is a precursor, if this is a taste, if this is like a little appetizer, what's the main course?
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What should I be looking for? What pairs with this food that I have as an appetizer? What's gonna go on?
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What should I be looking for when I read the Bible? Job 7, verse 21. What you should be looking for is, if I could only be forgiven.
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Is there a God that forgives? Job 7 -21. Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?
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For now I shall lie in the earth. You will seek me, but I shall not be.
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Oh, if I could just be forgiven. Job 14, if you'll skip up to Job 14, please.
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What do you look for when you're reading other books of the Bible? A God who forgives. And also, is there gonna be a resurrection?
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Am I gonna live again? Job 14 -14, if a man dies, shall he live again?
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All the days of my service I would wait till my renewal shall come. Oh, if I could just understand a
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God who forgives and if there just could be a resurrection, there needs to be something more. And then
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Job 9, if you'll back up to that. Here we see the heartbeat of Solus Christus.
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Jesus, the mediator. Jesus, the advocate. Jesus, the go -between. Have you ever seen,
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I know there's a couple of guys here that do fights and MMA stuff, or they wanna be MMA people. We have both categories.
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And what's, two guys are like, they're together and they're fighting.
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Maybe boxing's better here. And they're too close and they're grabbing each other and everything like they're not supposed to in boxing at least.
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And what's a referee do? He gets in between the two sweaty opponents and then he says what?
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Anybody know? I still have COVID fog, so I'm gonna just use that till the cows come home.
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Break it up! Don't they say that? Sometimes maybe high school fights and you're like, hey, break it up, the teacher's coming.
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Who's gonna get in between these people to say, you have to stop. This has to not continue any longer.
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A referee, an umpire, an arbiter, a mediator. The Reformation said, it's not
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Pope, it's not Mary, it's not councils, it's no one. Who's the one that can get in between?
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He's gonna have to be man and he's gonna have to be God to get in between man and God. Verse 32 of Job 9.
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Here's the Old Testament passage that lends itself to the question, what's in the rest of the
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Bible? I need to be forgiven, there needs to be a resurrection. Job 9 .32,
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for he is not a man as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
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There's no arbiter between us, referee, umpire, who might lay his hands on us both.
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It's gonna have to be God who does this. Verse 34, let him take his rod away from me and let not dread of him terrify me.
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Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.
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Job knows the only way I'm going to survive is if I could have a God who forgives sins.
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I'll read 65 books of the Bible to see that. And a God who resurrects not just himself, but every person, either to life or to death.
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And a God who is a mediator. The Reformation singled out the mediatorial work of Jesus as the head of the church.
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Without Jesus, we do nothing. With him, we do all things. It is Christ plus no one, plus nothing.
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It is Christ alone. It is Jesus alone. No fastings, no indulgences, no pilgrimage, nothing.
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No Bible quiet times in our modern day. It is Christ alone. Now time is fleeting, so we're gonna look at the
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New Testament passage that you can probably get. What passage, when I think about the mediatorial work of Jesus, do you think
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I would go to for solus Christus in the New Testament? Pardon me?
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First Timothy chapter two. We're gonna do that soon enough, but I think I'll end on something that's important for us to understand.
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Solus Christus means Christ alone. No other mediators. You don't have to do anything else, including have some kind of indulgences.
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Now as you know, the castle church in Wittenberg, where Luther was, and where he nailed the nine to five thesis, they had a collection of indulgences there.
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They had a collection of holy relics, of things that if you looked at them, you could get out of purgatory.
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So it wasn't just Christ alone to get me out. When Jesus said it is finished, the son came to seek and save the lost.
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He's a ransom for all. It's, you know what? I need Jesus plus something. Oh, maybe we'll have some relics.
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And they had a thorn they thought was genuine from the crown of thorns that the
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Roman soldiers put on Jesus's head. And not just any thorn, by the way, one that actually drew blood.
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They had some teeth there from Jerome and Augustine. They had some hair from Christ's beard, four hairs from Mary's head, three scraps of material from her clothing, some straw from the crib in which
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Christ had lain, one of the nails that had torn through his hands, some of the burning bush.
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And the Pope said back then in 1509, that if you go on Reformation Day, well, he didn't call it
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Reformation Day, All Saints Day. Sorry, you can edit that out. You could get time out of purgatory for you or someone else designating a total of 1 ,902 ,202 years and 207 days.
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It's pretty good. But it isn't Christ alone. Now, you know the guy named
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Tetzel, he wanted to sell indulgences. And he was a great marketer.
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He'd come into town with fanfare. And he'd come to the town carrying a big red cross, drum singing praise songs, velvet cushion where the indulgences were listed, mules load in the back with copies of the indulgences that anybody that paid money could get loved ones out of purgatory.
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And he said, press in now, come and buy while the market lasts. Should that cross be taken down, the market will close, heaven will depart, and then you will begin to knock and to weep because of your foolishness.
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Indulgences, Tetzel said, are the most precious and most noble of God's gifts. Tetzel said, this cross has as much saving power as the very cross of Christ.
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I would not change my privileges for those of St. Peter in heaven, Tetzel said, for I have saved more souls in my indulgences than the
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Apostle Peter by his sermons. There is no sin so great that an indulgence cannot remit.
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Well, to me, that strikes against who's gonna be the arbiter between man and God.
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Who's gonna be the one who gives his life a ransom for many? It's not Christ alone, it's Christ plus something else.
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And whether it's Roman Catholic or Protestant, something else, that's not good. Well, everybody kind of gets their due in life and certainly in eternity.
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You can imagine how angered Luther was. But I think Tetzel got his day on earth and of course, ultimately in the judgment seat.
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But a guy came to Tetzel in Leipzig and said, I'd like to buy an indulgence for a sin that I haven't committed, but I will.
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So I'm gonna commit a sin, could I have an indulgence for that sin? Well, certainly, but it's not gonna cost you 10 crowns, it's gonna cost you 30 crowns.
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Okay, here's the indulgence for the sin you will commit. Tetzel leaves town and these same people with other friends attack
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Tetzel on the road, beat him up and steal all his money. They go to court and the local ruler,
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Duke George, sets the nobleman free, declaring him to be acquitted because he had produced the indulgence.
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Your vicar isn't on this earth. I'm not some holy man. You have one ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the
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Father who makes intercession for you. He alone is the God -man mediator and when people start saying, no, it's
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Jesus plus, I'm sorry, I start getting angry. Jesus plus, you mean his work wasn't finished?
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And so the Reformation recovered. Yes, it's scripture alone, but in those scriptures, it teaches one person is the
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God -man who reconciles and redeems and it's proved it because he's been raised from the dead. And that's why this church, we teach from the
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Bible and we teach the personal work of the Lord Jesus because he's your only hope and you say, yes, but I'm already
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Christian, can you just tell me how to get through my Monday work week? I am telling you how to get through your
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Monday work week. We walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't need to be told to be on time.
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Well, I guess some people do these days. Young people, I'm like trying to tell them interview skills and everything, shake hands, don't sit down until they tell you to sit down, lean forward, all these other things.
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Maybe somebody needs to tell you that, but I'm not telling you that from the pulpit. Well, I just did, but my emphasis is the preached word and in moments, so for us as Christians, we rejoice that the only reason we think it's scripture alone and Christ alone is because the spirit alone has shown you that.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for Christ, for the scriptures. And Father, we need bravery.
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We need courage to stand up and teach the exclusivity of Jesus. No other savior, not
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Muhammad, not Joseph Smith, not Buddha. Help us, help us to be kind, help us to be gentle, but help us to tell the truth, speaking the truth in love.