Five Solas (part 2) - [Ephesians 2:8-9]

Well, as you know, we've been going through a series, or we started a series called the five solas. Sola meaning alone, talking about some theological truths that can undergird you in troubled times.

Truths that don't just stem from the Reformation, but stem from the Bible. And if you think of maybe

Greek architecture, you can think of the floor or the groundwork, and that would be the first sola of sola scriptura, scripture alone.

If you think about some of those Greek beams, right? Columns, different kinds of columns.

I think there are three different kinds, but the one in the center holding everything up, the centerpiece, solus

Christus, by Christ alone. Then you've got another column next to that by grace alone, sola what?

Gratia. And the other side, you've got sola fide. So you've got the foundation of the word,

Christ in the center where he belongs, by grace alone, through faith alone. And then the roof or the overarching principle would be sola dei.

So easy for me to say, solo soli deo gloria.

I'm gonna have to get my prepositions in Greek, Latin things right. So I thought to myself, you know what? Does the world have some solas?

You know, we have some solas, but does the world and Christian Smith is a man who studies youth a lot.

And he said, this is what the American youth believe. And so I'm gonna give you their five solas.

The groundwork for everything is that God exists and he just watches over the world.

And I call that deism alone, right? That's the under arching principle that there's a God, but he doesn't meddle in your life.

The centerpiece of the world's solas is that God wants people to be good and nice.

I just call that nice alone, right? Just be nice to everybody. Did you know congregation, it's nice to be nice and it's good to be good.

Another column is the central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.

And I just call that happy alone. Or you can call it warm fuzzies alone if you want the Latin. Another pillar is

God does not need to be particularly involved in my life until I have a big problem. I just call that genie alone.

You rub the bottle and you get God the genie. And then the overarching principle to all this is that good people go to heaven when they die.

And I call that a big fat fraud alone. But thankfully for us, we have the scriptures and God has revealed himself through the scriptures and we can study the real truth.

And so today we're gonna look again, part two of the five solas of the Reformation found in the

Bible. And last week we got through what? One quarter of the first one. Now I was gonna turn it into a five part series but maybe it'll be a three part series.

I'm not in a hurry. I'm glad to be alive, aren't you? Amen. And so we'll just take our time.

By the way, thanks for praying for me. I feel much stronger every week. Good report this week from the doctor and the

CAT scan. And so I feel like I'm almost ready to get back in my three point stance. But I wouldn't be able to get up if I did.

So maybe that'll be next week. So here's the plan. I'm gonna quickly review the first sola, sola scriptura.

And then we'll move to the second one and get in depth there. So what I've tried to do with this is for every sola, we'll look at an

Old Testament passage and a New Testament passage to ground these truths from the Bible because that's what they are.

This is not some superimposed truth that we look at scripture through the lens of these. No, rather they're found in the scripture.

And I think they'll really help you. Every person, and I mean this, every person here needs to understand these five solas.

I should be able to drive to your house at night, honk or run up to the door or like take slow walk up to the door.

I went up three flights of stairs yesterday at once. That was pretty good. And come to your door and knock on the door and say, what are the five solas of the

Reformation? And you should be able to know. All right. Sound good,

Austin? Okay, good. And Daniel, you're seated in the wrong seat. Okay.

Just for quick review, turn your Bibles to Psalm 19. That is the first passage we'll look at under the sola scriptura topic.

Sola means alone. And these are principles held by theologians, not just Luther and Calvin and others.

But if you go back to Paul and here even in the Old Testament, we have scripture alone, not traditions, not magisterium.

The final and ultimate authority is scripture. In contradistinction to those who would say it's scripture plus feelings, scriptures plus tradition, scripture plus whatever my pastor says, it is scripture alone.

It has the final authority for your life, for your faith, and even in this church.

It's not the Presbyterians, the presbyters, the elders, bishops, overseers, and then the

Bible, it's completely flipped around the right way. And that is the Bible is the final source of authority for all

Christians. And remember Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect. It showed six descriptions of what the

Lord does through his word. Here's one, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true.

They are righteous all together. So you see the sufficiency of God's word.

You see its power. You see what it does to people, how it is exalted in scripture even.

And so this is the watchword. This is the formal principle of the reformation that the absolute norm of doctrine, the final authority is scripture alone.

It's not tradition plus the Bible. Tradition can be a testimony to the word, can it not?

If somebody 500 years ago taught something in accordance with the scripture, we would say wonderful and good.

But when it deviates from scripture, we reject it. We must evaluate everything in light of scripture.

And by the way, I know you do this, but I'll remind you, you ought to evaluate everything I say in light of the

Bible. You ought not to believe anything I say that if it doesn't come from the Bible. And you have a right to ask me or any of the elders here, you know,

I was wondering about the statement of faith or I was wondering about what you said. Can you kind of clarify that? Because it's not my authority, it's the authority of scripture.

We believe in Christian tradition as long as it is subordinate to the final authority, the

Bible. Turn to 2 Timothy 3, just for a quick review. This is the

New Testament passage under sola scriptura, the sole source of divine revelation.

We understand that there can be good traditions. We understand that there can be bad traditions. And if it's a good tradition, accept it.

The Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, something that an old Bible teacher taught, something that a reformer taught, something that Augustine taught.

It doesn't mean we have to just come to it and come to the Bible with no resources, kind of baldly or just in a bare sense, only the

Bible. I'm gonna look at the Bible like nobody's ever read the Bible before. That's not what sola scriptura teaches.

Sola scriptura teaches that we must evaluate everything under the final authority of scripture. And if somebody has taught us in a creed or a council something true from scripture, we accept it.

And if they teach something that's not true, prayers for the dead, we reject it. And 2

Timothy 3 .15, it says, and from childhood 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.

All scripture, of course, Old Testament, 1 Timothy, he's talking about here, which includes everything now, all scripture is breathed out by God.

It's profitable for all kinds of things, teaching, reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God, the preacher, and ultimately those who he preaches to will benefit, may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

One of the things about that passage I really like, it blends with my love of history.

I love to study Shackleton and the endurance. How many people know about the endurance in Shackleton?

Every young man and young lady should read Shackleton's account. And they go on these long trips and they're in these boats and it's 100 years ago.

And do I have enough rope? Do I have enough oars? What if this breaks? Do I need nails for the carpenter?

What about the lemons in case we get scurvy? We better make sure everything's packed on that boat because we need to be thoroughly equipped.

And so that's what the word of God does. It understood, it understands, of course, the

Lord understands, whether it's psychology or philosophies or education or anything else, can we trust this book that was written 2 ,000 years ago, 3 ,000 years ago?

It is equipped. You can parachute a pastor behind enemy lines with the

Holy Spirit and the Bible and that place can be turned right side up, true? Everything you need is here because it's final.

It is the authority of God himself. Scripture has the authority.

No priest, no pastor, no Pope. I don't give this authority. The Pope doesn't give this authority.

No experience. Scripture alone. Luther said, the word of God is the true holy thing above all things.

Indeed, it is the only one we Christians acknowledge and have. Though we have the bones of all saints or all the holy and consecrated vestments gathered into one heap, they could not help us in the slightest thing because they are all dead things that can sanctify no one.

But God's word is the treasure that sanctifies all things. And so that's what we believe here.

That's what we teach here. That's why when you look at the sign Bethlehem Bible Church, you're gonna get what?

The Bible. You mean you're gonna read from the Old Testament too and the New Testament? You're gonna sing songs? Remember one time

I probably told you the story. There was a really huffy dad. He was in a huff and it was during a wanna and I could tell he was causing a scene over here.

And I said, oh, sir, come on, come into my office. So we sat down and I was kind of sizing him up.

Could I take him or not? This is the days where you had the computer monitors.

They're like eight feet wide and long. And I thought he's gonna knock that thing down.

I know it, he just so mad. And I said, well, what seems to be the problem? He goes, you're teaching my daughter that she's a sinner because I think the

Sparky acronym in Awana was S for sinner or something. I'm a sinner. All the kids run around,

I'm a sinner. I'm like, yes, that's what we're gonna teach. He goes, I can't believe you're teaching that. I said, so come on here with me and take a look at this sign.

The sign says Bethlehem. I know, maybe it could be a better name, but Bible Church, what are we going to get?

You're gonna come to this worship service and I hope you say, there's nothing like this in the world. That's the point because we're going to teach you the

Bible because we have no other authority. My dad used to say,

I trust that guy as far as I can what? Throw him. That's what you should think about me and the rest of the elders.

I trust that guy as far as I can throw him in light of does he teach the scripture or not? And when we don't, it's time to be removed.

Scripture alone. And remember, it's not just against Rome was this battle.

It was against crazy charismatics who said, God told me something that's outside of scripture.

Yeah, Rome, the Pope only hears from God. Here with the radical Anabaptists, everybody does.

No, the Bible does not speak outside of his word. And we with the reformers should say, I have coveted with my

Lord that he should not send me visions or dreams or angels. I am content with this gift of the scriptures, which teaches and supplies all that is necessary, both for this life and that which is to come.

So the first sola is scripture alone. That's the baseline. That's the foundation.

And now let's look at the second ones. And that is solus Christus, Christ alone. This is the center pillar.

We might have to start with scripture, but the centerpiece is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, his sufficient work, his redeeming work, his exclusive work.

Now the Old Testament passage that we looked at was Job 9, and I'll just read it because it talks about having a mediator or an arbiter or a go -between.

For he is not a man as I am, though I might answer him, that we should come together in a trial.

Job was lamenting, there's no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on both. Let him,

God, take his rod away from me and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him for I am not so in myself.

The whole issue is if you're gonna stand before God and one day you will, can you just stand there at the bar of God's justice by yourself?

What would you say? You die and one day you will and so will I. We stand before God and then what do we say?

We're not gonna say, well, you know what? That time I sinned, I had a headache and I didn't get enough sleep and I have all these excuses.

There'll be no banter back and forth. There'll be no rationale. There'll be no apologies. There'll be no repentance then.

It's all too late. You stand before the bar of God's justice and you're gonna hear one word, guilty on all charges.

And you're not gonna be able to buy off some judge or have some special jury that's bribed.

You're gonna need somebody to step in and say, excuse me, your honor, those debts have all been paid for by me.

You're gonna need a mediator. You're gonna need a high priest, a high priest who has no sin, tempted, yes, in every respect, but without sin.

The center of this whole sola is found around Christ alone, through Jesus alone, not

Jesus plus, that's the thing. If it's scripture alone, it's not scripture plus anything. It's not plus God told me, it's not plus tradition.

And if it's Jesus alone, it's not Jesus plus Mary, Martha, Mike, or anybody else.

It's not Jesus plus fasting. It's not Jesus plus quiet times. It's not Jesus plus pilgrimages.

It's not Jesus plus me even doing anything. Christ alone brings salvation, solus

Christus. When you look at the empty tomb, it settles it all. And so for the

New Testament passage, I'd like you to turn to 1 Timothy 3, 1

Timothy 3. So in all of these, I want you to think, okay, five solas, it means alone or only.

The baseline is scripture. We've looked at Psalm 19, 2 Timothy 3.

Now we have the center pillar, it's Christ alone. And we know that he is the only savior and there's salvation in no other.

And if you'd like to go to heaven, it's belief in Jesus alone. And by the way, if you don't get this right, there's damnation, remember, because Paul said, even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be what?

Accursed. It's like heaven and hell on the line. Eternity is a very, very long time.

You lay in your deathbed and you think, you know what? I'm all in, as it were, for Christ's work because I know

I'm sinful. I know I could not come up with any excuse. It's important to get this right. Christ's life,

Christ's death, Christ's ascension, Christ's return, Christ alone. It is his sinless life for ours.

And so this passage here in 1 Timothy 2 is a great passage on Jesus the mediator.

If Job was great in the Old Testament, so too 1 Timothy is great. And Paul is writing to a pastor and every pastor needs to know that the mediator must be

Jesus. I am not the holy man. And you can just watch my life long enough and you might see me say something to my wife or do something with my kids that's inappropriate.

So I'm sad that I do that. But the good news is out of that sadness, you realize I'm not your priest.

Sometimes during Christmas, we'll have visitors and I'll greet people at the door. Remember we used to do that before COVID?

Shaking hands, I love you. Sometimes people will see me at the door and they'll say, thank you,

Father. And what they mean is I'm the father around here. I'm the big shot.

I'm the one that you want to get through God, you go through me. And I don't usually correct them verbally.

And I just think to myself, there's one prophet, there's one priest, there's one king. And it certainly isn't me.

So who is it? 1 Timothy 2 .5, there's one God. We are monotheistic. You say, well,

Jews are monotheistic. People that follow Islam, they're monotheistic. There's one

God. You can just hear Deuteronomy 6 .4 shouting, there's one God. And if it's going to be

Christ alone, there better be only one mediator. What if there's two mediators? It wouldn't be Christ alone.

But here, and one mediator, one go -between, one priest, also between God and men, the man,

Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony born at the proper time.

Solus Christus, one mediator. We live in a world now where there's many ways to get to God as long as you're sincere.

And we're here to tell you that the Bible teaches, and that's why you're here at this church, that there's one mediator, and he deserves all the praise and thanks.

Now, earlier, if you go to chapter 2, verse 1, the context is you should pray for all kinds of people, even as Scott did today.

First of all then, chapter 2, verse 1, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.

And all can mean all kinds of people or every person in the world. Well, here it's all kinds of people because we can tell by the next verse.

What kinds of people should we pray for? These kinds of people. Kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

And now Paul is saying we ought to pray for those people because they need the

Savior. And by the way, there's only one Savior. He is the mediator, Christ Jesus. And by the way, don't you love it here when it says between God and man, the man

Christ Jesus. Have you ever thought about that for a second? What if he just said the Jew Christ Jesus? Well, he's the only mediator then between God and man for Jewish people.

Why does he say the man here, Christ Jesus? Why doesn't he say, well,

I could push this a little bit in light of social justice and critical race theory. What if he says the white man

Jesus? What if he says, well, you know what? The black man Jesus, the red man

Jesus. What does he say here? By the way, there's not two races. There's one race, correct? The human race.

And there's one God, one people, and only one mediator, and he's truly man.

I get so frustrated when people try to pit us against other people when I'm thinking you're either having

Adam for your father or the last Adam as your Savior, that's it. And so we see everyone through the lens of there's a holy

God, they're sinful along with us, and we need a go -between, we need a mediator, we need someone to step in between the two of us.

And it's certainly not Mary, it's certainly not me, it's certainly not the Pope.

I mean, just think about it for a second. You stand before God on that great day. Luther said,

I have two days in my calendar, today, and on that day you stand before God.

And you know all your sins. No, you don't even know the half of them because we sin so often, we just breathe and live in sin so often.

And then you're like, well, you know what? I'd like to call Mike Ebendroth to come and help me. Oh, you're smoked.

I'd like to have Pope Francis come and talk. He'll be my defense lawyer. He'll stand between God and me.

It's crazy, you need to have someone perfect to stand before you who says, I'm your representative because I'm truly man.

You have to have a representative who's truly man. He can't be some kind of angel because we're not angels.

Has to be a human being, as it were. There's one God, one meter also between God and men, the man

Christ Jesus. And there's only one man who's truly man and truly God.

That's why we believe in exclusive Savior Christ alone. Our world is inclusive.

Everybody gets to heaven by their own religion. Our world is pluralism. There's some truth to all these different religions and they all kind of finally lead to Jesus.

You don't even have to believe in Jesus because Jesus will actually save you even though you don't believe in him because he saves all people.

Those are just all lies. He's the mediator between all men. It doesn't matter what you look like, what your background is, are you

Jew or Gentile, male or female, white or black, it doesn't matter. Used to be a prostitute or used to be a homeschool kid.

It matters not. There's one man, Christ Jesus himself, a man who can mediate between God and his people.

You say, well, he's just a man. How can he help? Oh, yes, he's a man, that's true.

But chapter three, verse 16, what does it say? Here's a great extolling of Jesus, the

God man. If you say, well, Paul is just saying you need a man. No, no, and Jesus is only a man and therefore

Jesus isn't God. I have some hermeneutical exhortations for you and here's the hermeneutical exhortation that works really well for almost all hermeneutics.

Keep what? Reading, good. I wasn't very bold of you, but that's all right.

Keep reading. Chapter three, verse 16. This is a creed actually.

It's an inscripturated creed, but it's a creed nonetheless. And creed just means what we believe. Great indeed we confess.

We all agree it's a creed. That we all agree with is the mystery of godliness. And then look at this extolling of Jesus who alone could do this.

He was manifest in the flesh. He took on human flesh. That's why we celebrate the incarnation at Christmas.

He's vindicated or justified by the spirit. He said he was God. He said he was sinless.

He raises Lazarus from the dead and all kinds of other miracles. How do we know it's true? Well, he's been raised from the dead.

And the spirit of God says, I raise you because you are true and right. If Jesus fails in his mission, our sins, he stays in the grave.

But the father raises him, the son raises himself. And here the focus is vindicated by the spirit.

That's the God man seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world and taken up in glory.

There's a rival party. There's a dispute between God and man. And you need a mediator, you need a go -between.

And it has to be someone who's perfectly man and perfectly God. That's why it can't be any person, whether they sit on a throne in Rome or they stand in the pulpit in West Boylston.

Jesus is the only go -between. Verse six of chapter two. Let's go back there. Why is he the only go -between?

Well, he's the only one who's God and man, but also he's going to have to not just represent us by his perfect law -keeping.

Something has to be done for my sins. The judge isn't just going to say, well, it's no big deal anymore.

Verse six, who gave himself as a ransom for all kinds of people, the same all kinds of people that were up in chapter two.

This is not everybody goes to heaven. We pray for all kinds of people. He ransoms all kinds of people.

That's all Paul is saying. He gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony born at the proper time.

Jesus is the ransom. Now, even for our day, you think, okay, ransom.

When do we use the word ransom? Well, somebody's hijacked, right? And there's a ransom price for that hijacked plane to have all the people taken off.

Back in this day, though, it tended to be people are slaves in the

Roman system and there's a slave price to buy that slave and to get that slave out and to free the slave.

That's the word here, ransom. We can't pay our own ransom. We don't have enough money, our currency, because we are so indebted ourselves to sin.

We need someone else to do it. And we need someone who can save us and give us the exchange price for our sins.

What would be the exchange price for all Mike Abendroth's sins? That's a pretty big number.

But since Jesus is divine and Jesus is man, he's able to do that and no one else.

That's why it is soulless Christus Christ alone who dies on behalf of sinners, who is in fact the payment and gives us freedom from slavery to sin.

He gives himself. The Cambridge Statement said, "'We affirm 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.'"

And you say, well, Rome believes in Jesus. That's true, but they believe in Jesus plus.

They believe that Jesus is the head and the church is the body. Aquinas said, "'Head and members form as it were one and the same mystical person.'"

I'm not your priest. I'm not your mediator. I can't absolve you for sins through the sacraments.

The Roman Catholic church's catechism as of today teaches, quote, "'The Roman Pontiff by reason of his office as vicar of Christ and as pastor of the entire church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.'"

End quote. He's not a vicar. I'm not a vicar. You say, well,

I need a vicar. Where's Jesus? Jesus is in heaven. I kind of like to have a vicar now. John 14,

Jesus said, "'I will ask the father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever.

That is the spirit of truth.'" We have a comforter. We have somebody. Of course we do.

Now, what if I were to change my name? You know, there's a big argument in evangelicalism. Am I called lead pastor?

Am I called teaching pastor? Am I called pastor -pastor? There's a guy in Vermont, matter of fact, his name is

Wes Pastor and he's a pastor. And so I thought that's so funny, pastor -pastor. And he turns and listens.

He's a good guy, by the way. What if I were to change my name on the sign?

What if I were to say, you know what? I've been here almost 25 years and I think I need a better title. Pontifex Abendroth.

Kind of sounds good to me. Don't have to change the P for the pastor, we just change it to pontifex.

What is a pontifex? Well, maybe you've been to Rome and you've been to the pontificio. Pontifus Maximus is what they call

Roman Caesar. And now all of a sudden the Pope is called the supreme pontiff, pontifex.

That means bridge builder. It means mediator. If I call myself pontifex, that means you want to go through God, to go to God, you go through me.

And the scriptures teach it's Jesus alone. Even the word Pope comes from the word papa or father.

And I believe Jesus said in Matthew 23, do not call anyone on earth father, for one is your father who is in heaven.

When it comes to spiritual truth, we don't call other people's father and we don't call them bridge builders either.

Luther, the Pope is not the head of all Christendom by divine right or according to God's word.

Rather, the Pope is the real antichrist who raised himself over and set himself against Christ. For the

Pope will not permit people to be saved except by his own power, which amounts to nothing since it is neither established nor commanded by God.

This is actually what St. Paul calls exalting oneself over and against. You say, yeah, but sometimes

Jesus is so stern. If only I could have someone kind and feminine like his mother, maybe she would be a good mediatrix.

That's what some people are wanting now in the Roman Catholic church. That's not true. Some people say, well, you know what?

There's a lot of saints who've lived in the past, maybe even Mother Teresa, and she's earned enough merit, not only to get into heaven for herself, but she has extra merit.

And she could give me some of that extra merit, could she not? The treasury of merit's not true.

It is Christ alone. Christ bore our sins. Christ took away our sins.

Christ purged our sins. He made an end of sin. And it is Jesus alone.

That is why we proclaim Christ every single week. The foundation is

Scripture alone. No traditions, no God told me. In the centerpiece, it's Jesus alone.

That's why he's to be proclaimed every week, gladly. And now we come to another pillar.

And that pillar is sola gratia, grace alone. Sola gratia, grace alone. And we're gonna do the same thing we did with the first two.

That is we're gonna look at an Old Testament passage and a New Testament passage to try to nail these in, to try to give us some stability.

Grace alone means it's not grace plus. So right, we're known for what we're for, but we're also known for what we're against.

And we're for grace, and we're against anything that's added to grace. Because Romans 11 .6

says you add works to grace, what do you get? Huh? Some of you look a little tired.

If you add works to grace, what do you get? It destroys grace.

Now, I have to be careful these days because I wanna make sure I say things properly.

In the old days, we had a dog and the dog would be running around the backyard and I would have the kids go clean up after the dog.

And sometimes I would try to teach the kids about grace alone. And now we have to protect it because it's God's favor alone, nothing we add.

On judgment day, we're not gonna high five God, we did it together, we're in this together, you did your part,

I did mine. You voted yes, Satan voted no, I cast the deciding vote. That just takes away from the glory of God and grace alone.

And so I'd say to the kids when maybe they were making brownies, how little of what you picked up in the backyard could we put in the brownie mix and you'd still eat it?

What's the smallest amount? Like a thimble full? We have a lot of visitors, this will be their last

Sunday here. Well, we need more seats, so. If you think that's gross,

I'll tell you something grosser. Yeah, Jesus did everything and now I add. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.

But you know what, that's not really true because I'm an American and I try to be working and it's built into my system and I just wanna work and do and keep the law and it's gotta be somehow a cooperation.

My hand and God's hand, we did it together. And grace alone says that's not true at all. It is distinct from grace plus cooperation, plus works, plus merit.

Grace alone is the ground of your salvation. If you'd like to get to heaven, it is by grace alone.

If you're going to heaven, it's by grace alone and that is God's sovereign grace. In heaven, you will have no claim upon God for entrance except the perfect work of Christ.

Did you know that? Yes, I deserve to be damned, but the Bible says that there's a savior,

Jesus, and if you rest in Him and trust in Him and believe in Him, you have entrance into heaven. That's it, it's on His work.

God owes us nothing except punishment, but He saves by grace alone.

God helps those who help themselves. I hope you're looking at me like I'm crazy.

No, that comes from the medieval era, by the way, that technically said God will not deny

His grace to those who do what they can. On your mark, get set, go. Now let's go to an

Old Testament passage, but it's a trick. I'm gonna trick you by going to the Old Testament, but not really going to the

Old Testament. We have Scripture alone, Psalm 19 and 2 Timothy 3. We have

Christ alone, Job 9 and 1 Timothy. And now we have grace alone, and the

Old Testament passage we're going to go to is Romans 3. Why is that a trick?

Because Romans 3 has a bunch of Old Testament quotes trying to teach the same thing.

Romans 3. To understand grace alone, the thing that you need to do is understand how you need grace, and how

I need grace, and how sinful we are. So when you go to Romans 3, this is what we call a haraz, this is a string of pearls, and just one verse after another, maybe it's in bold letters in your

Bible, maybe it's in large letters of your Bible, maybe it's indented in your Bible. And Romans 3 is from the

Old Testament, at least the section we're going to look at. And so we could go to each of these passages in the

Old Testament, or we could come to this little string of pearls with proof from the Old Testament in Romans 3.

And it's a passage that's very familiar to all of us, but let's just look at it a little bit. And this is why we need grace alone.

This is why we need sovereign, loving grace by God alone, through Christ alone, understood through the scriptures alone.

So what does it say in verse 9? He's trying to make sure everyone understands that they need the

Savior, both Jew and Gentile, and both moralist and immoral. What then?

Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both

Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written, now we come to verse 10.

Anybody know where this verse comes from? None is righteous, no, not one. And then, Psalm 14.

Psalm 14, no one's righteous. What about Mother Teresa? No, not one.

What about our pastor? No, not one. Paul now comes to kind of this trial, this jury, this judicial proceeding, and he's gonna try to prove, do you know what?

If it's not for grace alone, we'll never get there. And that's why all the praise is going to be to God alone forever and ever and ever.

That's why they're praising God right now, because it's grace alone. None is righteous, no, not one.

There's not an exception. I love my grandmother. I had two grandmothers, Grandmother Nona and Grandmother Hedwig.

I always thought that was interesting. She went by Erna Hedwig. I love them, but they're not righteous.

No one is. Think of the most righteous person you can think of on earth. And they're really not righteous in and of themselves.

It'd have to be the righteousness of God, the Father, the righteousness of God the Son given by the

Father. There's no exceptions. And he just gives the bad news before the good news.

If you don't know you're a sinner, then you don't care about having a Savior. There's a need for salvation for all of us because we all stand condemned.

Not even one. Ecclesiastes 7, there's not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

Not even one. There's a Russian poet and he said,

I don't know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like and it's terrible.

Verse 11 of Romans 3, we're establishing the need for grace. No one understands.

No one seeks for God. That's right there coming from Psalm 14 and Psalm 53.

Yes, even the Old Testament teaches the need for the grace of God. The need for the

Savior. Every single religion that says, I'm gonna try to get to God through these things can never make it.

Verse 12, all have turned aside, together they have become worthless.

No one does good, not even one. We're all heading in the wrong direction.

We're all going AWOL. We're all deserting. There's the fight, there's the battle, and we're running backward.

Together they've become useless. Boy, I don't like to know this, but I know it's true in my heart of hearts.

Verse 13, by the way, that was from Psalm 14. Now verse 13, their throat is an open grave.

Ever smell a dead animal? They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.

This is language from Psalm 5. Verse 14, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Seems like it's worse news. Verse 17, if you skip down there, in the way of peace they have not known.

That's Isaiah 57. There's no fear of God before their eyes. That's verse 18.

I mean, that's chapter three, verse 18. That's true, but that's from Psalm 36. We need help.

We need rescue. We need grace. And the Old Testament teaches it, and so does the

New Testament. Look at me, God, and see what I've done. No one could ever stand before God and say that.

God is no one's debtor. Why are you gonna go to heaven, dear

Christian, and your spouse isn't? Why are you gonna go to heaven and your daughter isn't our son, if they were to die today, an unbelieving son or daughter?

Our parents, our loved ones, or those at work, why you? What if you're a twin, and your twin is not believing in Jesus, and you are?

What's the difference? Well, I study the Bible. I have an aptitude for church.

I go to church. I know spiritual things are important. I know it's important to read my

Bible and understand things, because the Bible is true. I know my twin sister, she could care less.

She's living in the world, and therefore, that's the difference. That's how we think.

But is that the right answer? What's the difference between you and anybody else who right now doesn't believe?

Superior, smarter, greater IQ, greater emotional quotient, greater anything spiritual quotient?

You know Latin words like sola? The answer is grace alone.

It has to be. It's not because we're more handsome,

John Calvin said. The reason why I'm a Christian and someone else isn't, is not because I've got logic and smarts.

The answer is grace alone. No wonder people sing about this.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. No wonder people write lyrics like this.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.

Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe it?

Where shall its praise begin? I know I love to sing that song.

Maybe the music isn't too good, but the lyrics are awesome. I'm sure the musically trained people in the church say,

I can't believe Evan Ross wants to sing that again. True or false?

By grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourself.

It is the gift of God. Not as a result of works that no one should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

And that, by the way, is from Ephesians chapter two. And that's our New Testament passage that we're gonna look at next week.

Say, pastor, you didn't get too far. Well, I can keep preaching. I'm feeling pretty strong now. Longest sermon

I ever preached was 92 minutes. You always say, well, why 92 minutes? Because 90 -minute cassettes are really 92 -minute cassettes.

And so I was in South Central LA and the pastor said at 46 minutes, you look at the guy at the tape thing, go like this.

That means flip the cassette over, hit record, and it was a 92 -minute sermon. I sure hope it's not online because it was probably a big bomb.

Congregation, that reminds me. Thank you, thank you for your patience the last 25 years.

I think for a long time, you put up with a young, zealous preacher who was learning.

But I think we've matured together, have we not? We've understood the importance of the Bible alone, Christ alone, and through grace alone, received by faith alone, to God's glory alone.

And so it's a real privilege for me to stand up here. And we will be back into verse -by -verse study soon enough.

But just to remind you of things that matter. This week, you're gonna read things about life, death, government, politics, racial wars, tornadoes,

COVID, vaccines, all kinds of things. I just want you to know

God's sovereign. God reigns, God wins. And if you watch

Fox News for 30 hours this week and read your Bible for 15, I'm not saying you lose your salvation, although you could.

I'm not saying that. But your lens is wrong. And I'm not saying you have to read your

Bible for 30 hours this week, but I want you to see through the lens of Scripture, the world.

This is your worldview. Scripture, Christ, grace, faith for the glory of God. That's why this is the first day of the week where we come again to be reminded that we believe the

Bible because of the grace of God. And we're okay with God as Christians because He's graced us.

And now we see everything through the lens of the most important thing in my life is taken care of.

I'm forgiven because I could die this week. And I have been reconciled to God by grace.

So since the most important thing is taken care of, I can rest in so many other areas. I'm not trying to say we ought to be hermits or do something like that.

I'm just saying, this is the lens for everything. That's why I'm not going to give you politics and health and book reviews and Oprah stuff on Sunday.

That's why we need this. And so we have this lens where we think, I know what happens because Christ alone,

He was not just eternal son, although He was. And He wasn't just born in a manger, although He was.

He didn't just live a perfect life, although He did. He didn't just die on the cross for my sins, although He did.

He didn't, I'm going to run out of room here and down we go. Healing service breaks out. He didn't only ascend, but He did.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for you, Christian. You go through a hard week, you go through difficult times.

Do you know this? Jesus is praying. What would you pay an old grandma who said, you know what?

I just don't have much of ministry now. I don't get out much, but I just pray for the people at church all the time.

I pray for them every day. What would be the value of that? That's wonderful, but there's something better.

Jesus is praying for you. He knows. So don't worry this week.

Don't fret this week. Don't have anxiety this week. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and what? He'll make your path straight.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Seal it in the hearts of these dear people.

We acknowledge again that the only reason we believe the Bible is true is by your Holy Spirit's illumination.

We would also say that the only reason we believe that Jesus is the only Savior, it's because it's in your word and you've shown us that by grace alone.