2nd Thessalonians

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Thanksgiving to God for our Salvation (2)

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The ABC’s of the Christian Life (3): Following Jesus unto Salvation (1)

The ABC’s of the Christian Life (3): Following Jesus unto Salvation (1)

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🎵Living
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Forever by JP De Ovando🎵 We sang several hymns today.
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There were psalms put to music. The last hymn we sang was Psalm 32, where David was praising
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God that God had so freely forgiven him of his sin. And of course, we sang
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Psalm 23 earlier, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And of course, that's old
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English. And I suppose in today's culture, particularly for the young children, we understand when we say, the
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Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, it means I shall not be in need. I shall not be in want, because the
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Lord is our shepherd. He provides for us, thankfully. Well, here we are back in our study of 2
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Thessalonians 2. And this is what, our eighth Sunday in this book.
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We took a hiatus last week appreciative of David Green preaching for us. But we return to our study this morning.
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Now, the Apostle Paul in this chapter had instructed this church about the coming apostasy, the falling away of many who profess to be
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Christian, falling away into error and heresy. And then secondly, the rise of the man of sin, or the man of lawlessness, the
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Antichrist within Christendom. And Paul wrote, only after these two events occurred would the
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Lord Jesus return the second time, the second coming, at which time he will gather together to himself all
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Christians and he will bring judgment upon the world. That's what Paul declared very clearly in 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 -4.
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But the ones who refuse to believe the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ would choose rather to believe the lie of this man of lawlessness rather than believe the truth that's in Jesus Christ.
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And in God's judgment upon them, God himself, we read in verse 11 and 12, will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie of this man of lawlessness.
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A lie that's contrary to the true gospel that's in Jesus Christ. And so God in his judgment would send them this strong delusion that they believe the lie of the
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Antichrist so that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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And so God's not trying to save everybody in the world. Thankfully, God is saving a people, a people he's given to Jesus Christ.
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And if you want to be among those people, believe the gospel, believe on the Lord Jesus. If you refuse, however,
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I wouldn't be surprised to see you believing the lie of the man of lawlessness, a teaching and a belief, a religion which is contrary to the true gospel.
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Because God himself will justly judge you if you refuse the gracious gospel that he's provided for you through Jesus Christ.
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But in contrast to those whom God will damn on that day of judgment when Jesus returns, his people will receive their promised salvation, will be delivered from ourselves and delivered from condemnation on the day of judgment.
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Of course their blessing, the blessing of Christians on that day will not be earned by them or received due to anything meritorious that they have done or haven't done or promised to do, will do, might do, no.
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But solely due to the grace of God that God has lavished upon sinners. Because of this truth of God's sovereign grace that Paul is emphasizing here,
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God is sovereign in the dispensing of his grace. We read in 2 Thessalonians 2 .13
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-17, the verses we want to give attention to today, that Paul was compelled to thank
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God for these Christians, for it was due to God's grace alone that he had granted them salvation. You and I deserve damnation if we have salvation that's wholly due to the grace of God, so that he alone gets the credit for it.
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We began to address this two weeks ago. Let's read these verses again, 2
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Thessalonians 2 .13 -17. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the
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Lord, because God shows you as the first fruits to be saved. And we pointed out two weeks ago that that's really not a good translation, in my opinion, in the
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ESV. Rather, the other translations, the New King James Version, New American Standard Version, even the
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NIV, I think rightly translates it, because God shows you from the beginning to be saved through sanctification by the
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Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
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Then we have a doxology. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
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When we began to look at these verses two weeks ago, we suggested this three -point outline, giving thanks to God for our salvation, verses 13 and 14.
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Secondly, rendering faithful obedience to God's word in response to our salvation by grace, verse 15.
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And then this doxology we just mentioned, praying to God that He would comfort and establish our hearts.
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And when we addressed this two weeks ago, we addressed the first of these matters in some detail, giving thanks to God for our salvation.
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We first considered that we ought to always give thanks to God for you, Paul said when he thought about the
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Thessalonians. He knew their salvation was due to God's grace working in them. And then secondly, we considered the special love that God has for His people, even from eternity.
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God doesn't love everybody alike, although He's loving to all, but God loves His people.
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Paul called these Christians brothers beloved of the Lord. God calls
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His elect His beloved and no others, and this is consistent throughout all scripture. Again, although He is loving in all of His actions, even to His enemies, and we're to be the same way, but He loves
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His people because He sees them to be in union with His Son, whom He loves dearly. His Son is the beloved one, and because He sees you as a believer in Him, He loves you too, in the same way, which is a wonderful exhibition of His grace and kindness toward us.
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I recall years ago, someone asking in a Bible study, what does it precisely mean when
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God says that we are His beloved? And there was a pause, you know, thinking, well, how do we describe that?
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And my friend Doug from Arkansas spoke up. Well, it means He's beloved of God. That's exactly right.
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The Christian is beloved of God, even from eternity. Even when we were in our sin,
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God had a love for us. He had compassion for us and determined to save us from our guilt and condemnation.
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And so He loves us with an everlasting love, a covenant love, a unique love that He has for His people because He regards them, not because they're more lovely, but He regards them as love because they are in union with His beloved
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Son. And then we examine the matter of God's election of His beloved ones from eternity.
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That'll get a rise, won't it, when you talk about election? But it's a perfectly good word and doctrine taught in the scriptures,
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God's election of sinners. God had chosen them from the beginning to be saved.
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We chose Christ to be our Savior. He chose us before He even created the world.
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Which is an amazing, amazing truth. And then Paul described the manner in which
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God called His chosen ones to salvation through the sanctification of the
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Spirit. The Holy Spirit set them apart and enabled them and moved them to believe the truth.
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And that is the truth of the gospel. And so He saved us. He took action. You know, the good shepherd,
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Jesus is a good shepherd. He seeks the sheep, right? And I've always kind of thought for many years, you know, how silly it is to talk about, and I understand it, you know,
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I found Jesus. No, He wasn't lost. We were lost. He found us.
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He's the shepherd, and He finds His sheep and then puts them on His shoulders and brings them back.
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We were the ones who wandered and strayed and were lost and without hope. He's the one who found us.
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And so God sets apart His chosen ones from the fallen world, calling them effectually by His Holy Spirit.
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That means He's always successful in calling His people. And whereby they believe the truth of the gospel and they are saved wonderfully, wonderfully.
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And verse 14 speaks of this effectual calling. Paul wrote, to this
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He called you through our gospel. And so God calls people to Himself, to salvation, to the gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that deserves attention all to its own. You know,
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Christ has all glory, doesn't He, in heaven and earth, all power, all authority, King of kings and Lord of lords.
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And through salvation, we obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we're going to share with Him in that kingly authority.
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We're joint heirs with Christ. Incredible. God extends
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His effectual call of the gospel to specific individuals, even to each one of His elect. And this is the call of God that is extended to those who have ears to hear.
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Not everybody who has ears have ears to hear. Only those that have had their ears opened by the
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Holy Spirit. The Hebrew Old Testament is very expressive, very picturesque.
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And when it talks about opening the ears, God opening the ears, it's actually God, like, digging out the wax of the ears so they can hear.
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And it's the Lord enables sinners to hear and understand. And so the
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Holy Spirit issues this effectual call to the elect through the general call of the gospel. We preach the gospel to every creature, a sincere presentation, offer of Christ.
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We can tell anybody, anywhere, at any time, come to Jesus Christ and have salvation, have your sins forgiven, receive the gift of righteousness, the gift of eternal life.
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But that gospel falls on deaf ears because we're sinners. But God issues this effectual call to the soul by the
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Holy Spirit. And so that gospel has understanding and meaning to the one who's affected by the call.
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And there's a desire, there's attractiveness, there's an interest, there's a longing for that wells up within that person.
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That's the Holy Spirit calling that person to salvation. And so when the gospel is preached, the
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Holy Spirit makes it understandable and makes it attractive to the one he's calling to salvation.
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And God makes that sinner willing in the day of his power, to God's power, to make you a sinner willing to come to Christ.
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Because we would have been on the side of those who, we will not have this man rule over us, let's crucify him. We would all have been that way if it were not for the grace of God.
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And so the sinner responds to the gospel, repents of his sin, believes on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and is gloriously forgiven of his sin and granted new life in Christ.
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And so this is the call of God. It's an effectual call. God is always successful. You know,
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God always accomplishes his purpose. And it may be in a child, it may be, you know,
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I was converted at 19. I won't go into detail, but I wouldn't have seen to my next door neighbor who'd been living with, next to him for 17 years, and spoke to him about, for about five minutes.
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And he knocked on my door 20 minutes later. He says, I went back in the backyard, thinking about what you said.
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I broke out in tears, crying. He brought over a New Testament. Should I read this?
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You know, I hope the Lord's calling him. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Paul described his own experience of this effectual call.
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You know, Paul was going to persecute the church. He was looking for Christians to bind them and even kill them. And then we read, he tells what happened.
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When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me, not just to me, but in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, that is the
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Gentiles, I, a medialeck, conferred not with flesh and blood. I didn't go and get advice and seek counsel.
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He said, Christ saved me. And I preached, transformed utterly.
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And so before we ever called on God to save us, he called on us to save us. Or we would have never called on him.
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The effectual call is the inward call of the Holy Spirit, whereby he enables us to hear, to understand, and to desire and delight in what we hear.
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I remember when I was converted, I thought this is wonderful. All my friends are going to be happy to hear this.
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They weren't. I was. This is frequently referred to as an effectual call, again, because it always results in success.
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God doesn't fail in anything he attempts to do. When he purposed to go down into Egypt, bring Israel out under Moses, you know, there wasn't any doubt it wasn't going to happen.
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He purposed to save Israel and he did. And if you are one of God's elect, he's going to save your soul.
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You can be the most stubborn, ignorant, defiant, rebellious person in this room.
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But if God has set his love upon you, he's going to win you over to himself. Thankfully, if it weren't that way, none of us would ever be converted.
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If we got our own way and let our fallen heart lead us. And so it's an effectual call because it always results in bringing the one to faith in Jesus Christ.
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Here's a good definition. Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds to the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills.
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He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered us in the gospel.
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That's a good definition. And so God saves his people through his gospel, the good news of salvation from sin through the
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Lord Jesus. The gospel, of course, is contained in the Bible, God's word.
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It's the truth of the gospel and therefore the scriptures. The Bible is the means that God chiefly uses to save his people.
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The Bible is the tool, the instrument that God uses. He calls people from his word.
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The writers of the New Testament stated that it was through the proclamation of the word of God that God saves his people.
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In one place it says through the foolishness of preaching, God has chosen or determined to save those who believe.
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James wrote of his own will, of God's own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.
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That brought us forth speaks of the new birth, brought us into spiritual life of his own will.
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Yes, you willingly embrace Christ, but the only reason you did it because of his own will, he begot you again.
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And so your belief on Christ was really a response to what he had already done in your soul.
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Paul wrote in Ephesians, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth. See, trust, faith comes upon hearing the word of God as the scriptures state.
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And then Peter wrote of coming to salvation in terms of being born again. Since you have purified your, he's writing
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Christians, since you have purified your souls and obey the truth of the spirit and sincere love for the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again.
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Not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides forever.
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That's why we preach the scriptures, the word of God, because this is what God has promised to use to convert his people.
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And he goes on to explain all flesh is as grass. You know, you and I have no capability of ourselves to bring forth fruit or life.
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The glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers, its flower falls away, but the word of the
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Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
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And so God uses the preaching of the Holy Bible to bring about the salvation of his people.
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Well, let's return to our text now and look at verse 15. And here we read that we are to render faithful obedience to God's word in response to our salvation by his grace.
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And so this is how Christians are to live. The same word of God that converted us is to govern us in the way we live.
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We read in verse 15, so then brothers stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by letter.
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The response that we Christians should have to the grace of God that has brought us to salvation is to order our lives according to the
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Christian faith that's been delivered to us. Our lives are to be governed, our thinking, our behavior is to be governed by the word of God.
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The same word that saved us governs us. Now he uses the expression, the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by letter.
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That's kind of an unusual statement. Traditions that you were taught. Paul is referring to the apostolic doctrines, the doctrines of the apostles, the 12 apostles, and then
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Paul was the 13th apostle to the Gentiles. The traditions taught by us taught to the churches.
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Now at the time Paul wrote this letter, 2 Thessalonians, not many of the New Testament books had been written yet.
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The canon, which is taken from the Latin word meaning rule or standard by which we assess and measure things, the canon of the
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New Testament, the 27 books that we have in the New Testament hadn't been written in completion, in fullness.
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Only a few books had been written, a few letters. First Thessalonians had been written, second Thessalonians is before us, but they were probably
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Paul's maybe second and third letter that he wrote, and so there are another nine or ten that he hadn't written yet.
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And so the New Testament wasn't complete. Perhaps the Gospel of Mark had been written by this time, but even if it had been written, it hadn't been widely circulated.
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The other three Gospels, Matthew, Luke, and John hadn't been written as of yet.
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Matthew and Luke maybe in the 60s AD, this may have been the latter 50s, and then
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Gospel of John wasn't written until the 90s, mid 90s perhaps, AD. However, there was a great deal of oral tradition that was being circulated.
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The Apostles were going around and telling people what they had seen, what they heard. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would help you
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Apostles to remember these things. And so the Apostles, when they taught, they spoke with authority, even though the authority of the
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Lord Jesus Apostle means someone sent, and Jesus sent them. And that's why there were only 12
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Apostles when Judas died, he had to be replaced, Acts chapter 1, because there were 12 tribes of Israel, and there were now 12
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Apostles who were now leading, governing the tribes of Israel. Paul was called to be an
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Apostle to the Gentiles. And so everything they taught was authoritative, as authoritative as Scripture.
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And as the Apostles began to die out through the first century, and as it came to be understood that Jesus wasn't coming back immediately, but it was going to be a while, the record of the
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Apostles began to be recorded. And the Epistles, and then the
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Gospels, the witness of the Apostles, Matthew, Mark was probably a recollection of Peter's experiences.
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And then Luke was probably Paul's, and John his own. And so these began to be recorded, and then came to be recognized as Scripture later by the
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Church. But the knowledge of these things were still being circulated by means of oral tradition.
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And they're called Traditions, and they were understood to be true. There were a lot of false traditions too, false teaching, were much better off than they were, because we have the whole
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New Testament. But they had Traditions, and so Paul is saying, you hold to the
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Traditions taught by us. Not just any Traditions out there, but the Traditions taught by us.
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Paul's including himself as an Apostle here. You hold to those things. These teachings govern you.
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And either by our spoken word, or by our letter. Paul had written singular letter, he'd written 1
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Thessalonians. They already had. And so as we look at this verse, so then brothers stand firm and hold to the
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Traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or our letter. We would extend that of course, to apply to the
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New Testament for us. Because again, the New Testament is the written down testimony of the
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Apostles. And so, Paul is urging these Christians to acknowledge and submit to the
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Apostolic Witness, available to them. By extension and application, we are to order our lives according to the
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Holy Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament. It's the Word of God. And so our
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New Testament contains the Witness of the Apostles, recorded and passed on by the Churches. The New Testament contains what
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Paul described here as the Traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
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Here's a commentator that confirms what we've just said. Linked with this is the injunction to hold the
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Traditions. The verb hold is used by Paul elsewhere only in Colossians 2 .19,
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holding fast to Christ the head. It is often used in the literal sense of holding with the hand.
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It denotes a firm grip. It is used of holding the Traditions of the elders in Mark 7, 3 and 8.
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Now of course, that was negative. They shouldn't have been holding the Traditions of the elders, the oral Tradition. Traditions is a word that points us to the fact that the
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Christian message is essentially derivative. In other words, it was given by God and derived from that revelation to us.
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It's passed on. It does not originate in man's fertile imaginations. It rests on the facts of the life, death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
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Paul disclaims originating these things, expressly says that the things he passed on he himself first received.
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He declared that in 1 Corinthians 15, 3. For us, these Traditions are embodied in the documents of the
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New Testament. But for Paul's readers there was no such volume. For them, the
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Christian Traditions were principally those they had received by word of mouth. Paul also associates epistle of hours with the spoken word.
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By this he probably means for Thessalonians. He puts no difference between the authority of the written word and the spoken word.
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Both alike were in very deed the word of God as we see. And then he cites a couple other verses for that.
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Now the word Tradition is important. We have to give some attention to this. Paul used the Greek word tas paradoxes.
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And that three letter word tas is just the definite article, the word the in English.
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It's a plural noun, not a singular tradition, but the Traditions. Paul used this word in one other place.
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He hadn't written it yet when he wrote this epistle. But in 1 Corinthians 11, 2 he would use this word again.
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Now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Traditions again just as I delivered them to you.
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So they were teachings that Paul had delivered onto them. And so the context of both these verses indicate what
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Paul meant by the word was official, authoritative teaching, which later came to be recognized when written down as authoritative
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Holy Scripture, the New Testament. He was not speaking of the Traditions that were apart from the
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Holy Scriptures. He was speaking of the Traditions that would before long become acknowledged as the
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Holy Scriptures. He was writing before the New Testament was completed. Now a foundation of our
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Protestant understanding of divine truth is that the Bible and the Bible alone is the sole source of information regarding what we're to believe and how we're to live.
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And so our confession that dates back to the 17th century reads, the
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Holy Scripture is the only sufficient certain. Everything else is uncertain.
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The Holy Scripture is certain, an infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.
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The Scripture alone. And so we employ the Scriptures in our understanding of truth and our assessment of truth claims.
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The Holy Scripture is our canon, our rule. The canon was like a reed, like a measuring stick that they would measure the length of things.
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And the Bible is our canon by which we measure all truth claims. If it lines up with the
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Bible, it's true. If it doesn't, it's false. Again, our confession states, the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined and all decrees, counsels, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits are to be examined in whose sentence we are to rest can be no other but the
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Holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit into a Scripture so delivered our faith is finally resolved.
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That speaks about the sufficiency of the Bible in all matters of faith and practice.
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And so our Protestant conviction was formed and established back in the 16th and 17th century, of course in conflict with Roman Catholicism.
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Protestants protested what Rome taught for many centuries, because they believed
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Rome had departed from the Holy Bible. Now Rome affirms, along with us
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Protestants, that the Bible is the Holy Scripture, is the Word of God. But it believes,
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Rome, Roman Catholicism, believes there is a second authority alongside the Bible with equal authority as the
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Bible. Rome claims that God's revelation of truth continues through what it officially calls
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Tradition of the Church. And I make that capital T, because Tradition is a specific body of written literature that Rome says is as authoritative for faith and practice as the
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Bible. And that's why I felt I needed to mention this, because Paul says, hold to the
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Traditions. And Rome says, hold to the Tradition. But the two are not the same.
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And we need to understand this. Roman Catholic tradition is taught to be as authoritative as Scripture.
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And so some may look at verse 15, in fact, I suspect Roman Catholics do, and argue, you see, we are to stand firm with regard to the
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Tradition, just like Paul said. But they are mistakenly concluding this commends the authority of official
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Tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, and it does not. Paul defines what Traditions are, those
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Traditions that we taught you, spoke to you, or wrote to you. He's not talking about things that were taught after him, but things that had preceded him.
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Very important. So we, as Protestants, would argue that this belief of Rome is really the source of all their problem, that we would regard as problem.
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What does the Roman Catholic Church claim regarding its Tradition? Well, here is the official statement from the Catechism of the
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Catholic Church regarding Tradition. In order that the full and living
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Gospel might always be preserved in the Church, the Apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority.
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Indeed, the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the Aspired Books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time.
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So they are transmission accomplished in the Holy Spirit is called Tradition, and then
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I embolden these and italicize these, and notice what it says, since it is distinct from Holy Scripture.
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See, they separate. Tradition and Holy Scripture, they are not the same. Two sources of authority, though closely connected to it.
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Through Tradition, the Church in her doctrine, life, and worship perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.
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Well, how then does Scripture and Tradition, according to Rome, relate to one another? And they spell it out very clearly.
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Article 80. Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, that's the Bible, then are bound closely together and communicate one with the other.
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For both of them, flowing out from the same divine wellspring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.
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Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own, always to the close of the age, two distinct modes of transmission.
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And there you have the main difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Two sources of authority.
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Protestants say the Holy Bible only. Romanism says the Holy Bible and Tradition.
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81. Sacred Scripture is the speech of God, as it is put down in writing under the breath of the
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Holy Spirit, and Holy Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the
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Apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the
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Apostles, so that, enlightened by the Spirit of Truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching.
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And as a result, the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, does not, this is important, look what it says, does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the
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Holy Scriptures alone. See? God reveals truth outside of the
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Bible, apart from the Bible, and so the Church has authority. And in actuality, what happens over time?
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Tradition trumps Scripture. And this has happened over the centuries.
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And so Rome reasons this way. First, Apostles left bishops as their successors.
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Bishops had the same authority as the Apostles. They gave them their own position of teaching authority.
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Secondly, this living transmission accomplished in the Holy Spirit is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely related to it.
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And then third, both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.
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You are to have as much respect and attention and obedience to official
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Church Tradition as you are to the Bible, is what is taught. And I witnessed this firsthand years ago.
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I've told you about this in the past. When I was completing my Ph .D. work, I had to take two classes in a seminary, commensurate with the scholarly standards of our own.
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And so I took two classes over at GTU in Berkeley, California, Graduate Theological Union, and one of the classes was a class on the
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Apostolic Fathers, and it was taught by a Roman Catholic Dominican priest. And it was a very good class, and I really enjoyed it.
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But he began teaching the class, teaching 2 Peter and Jude, because scholarly opinion did not believe 2
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Peter and Jude were written by Peter and Jude, but rather written by those who came after the
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Apostles. And so he treated it as though it was post -biblical. And then he addressed the
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Apostolic Fathers. And the Apostolic Fathers are a group of ten writings or letters written by those who came after the
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Apostles. And so they date anywhere from about 80 A .D.
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on up into the 2nd century. And so we went through each of these in detail, read them.
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And it was interesting. I appreciated when he treated 2 Peter and Jude with authority of Scripture.
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But then he dealt with the first Apostolic Fathers, 1
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Clement was the first of the ten books. And I noticed he was treating it with the same degree of respect and authority as he had 2
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Peter and Jude. And so what was being revealed is how they review
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Scripture and Tradition. Scripture is true, they would argue, but as more information is revealed to the
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Church, it is accepted as authoritative also. And so they basically argue, well,
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Scripture was applicable and applied to those people in the 1st century, but we have more information now, and this is what we are to believe today.
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And over the centuries they gradually got farther and farther away from the Bible in so many areas of belief and practice.
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So by the time you get to the 16th century and the rise of the Protestants, and medieval
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Roman Catholicism was far removed from anything taught in the New Testament. I wish we had time to go into some detail about that.
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And so over time, Tradition ultimately adds to what the Bible teaches. New teachings are embraced which conflict with the
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Bible, the written word of God. And this points to the contention that the Lord Jesus had with the
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Pharisees. And here is the answer to this whole issue. The Lord Jesus dealt with it in Mark chapter 7, when he was addressing the
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Pharisees. The Pharisees believed the Hebrew Scriptures, what we have is the
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Old Testament. But in addition to the Old Testament, the Pharisees believed in the
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Oral Tradition, which were Rabbinic Jewish Rabbi interpretations of the
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Old Testament that had been authoritatively taught in 3rd, 4th century
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BC, and then finally written down. And the Pharisees regarded this tradition,
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Oral Tradition, as authoritative as the Bible, as the Old Testament. The same thing that Rome has taught for the last 2 ,000 years.
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And so we have the account in Mark chapter 7, verses 5 -13. Pharisees and scribes asked
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Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? There you have it.
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They didn't ask the question, why do your disciples not eat according to the teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures, but rather, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the
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Jewish elders? But eat with defiled hands. They were supposed to, not just wash for hygiene, we do that, or we should, but they were ceremonially washing themselves before they ate, as a ritual, religious ritual.
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Jesus said to them, well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? He spoke directly, didn't he?
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It is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And then I embolden, italicize
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Jesus' words, in vain do they worship me. In other words, they're worshiping
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Jesus, but their worship is absolutely worthless. In vain.
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Useless. Counts for nothing. God has no regard for it. Why? Teaching is doctrines the commandments of men.
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You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. They were setting aside the commandment of God, the
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Scripture, the Word of God, in order to keep their tradition. He said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
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For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die.
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But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is Corban that is given to God.
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In other words, I've got this money, I know I should support you, dad, mom, because I'm supposed to honor you.
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The fifth commandment tells me that. But I'm going to take this money that should belong to you, and I'm dedicating it to God.
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Declaring it to Corban, and therefore I don't have to give it to you. And this was accepted in the oral tradition.
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And so Jesus says, you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the
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Word of God by your tradition you handed down, and many such things you do.
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This is why the Pharisees were so out to lunch in their faith and their practice, because they did not embrace the
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Bible alone, but embraced tradition. They argued they believed the
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Bible too, but ultimately tradition trumped the Bible. And when both
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God's Word and fallen man's tradition are held in equal esteem, fallen man's tradition will lead to defection and departure from the
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Word of God. For God has given us the Holy Scriptures alone to govern our faith and life before him.
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And so the authority of Holy Scripture alone came to be recognized as the formal principle of the Protestant Reformation.
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Sola Scriptura, the Latin phrase. Scripture alone. And so when we say that we hold the
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Sola Scriptura, we are asserting that the Bible is the only inspired and authoritative Word of God.
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It's the only source for Christian teaching. Here's our noon bell. I know what time we have.
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We had a speaker here years ago. I forget who it was now, but he heard that bell. He was preaching up here.
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He thought the deacons were in back telling him it was time to quit. I told him it means nothing.
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Just ignore it. And so we assert by the expression,
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Sola Scriptura, that the Bible alone is our authority in all matters of faith and practice. We're also saying that the
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Bible is understandable by the people. Rome says it is not. Rome says you have to embrace the understanding that the magisterium passes down.
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Magisterium, the Pope is in part of that magisterium, all the cardinals and whatever they say the
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Bible teaches, that's what Roman Catholics are to believe. But we say that the
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Bible is understandable. That's why, you know, Tyndale, Wycliffe, Luther sought to put the
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Bible in the language of the common people so the people could read the Bible. Rome had a list of forbidden books.
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Roman Catholics were not allowed to read these books. Now most of the books were philosophers and whatnot, Darwin and whatnot,
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Nietzsche, philosophers, but the Bible in one's own language was on that list until 1963.
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And after 1963, Catholics were permitted to read the Bible, but at the same time they were urged only to read the
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Bible with the understanding passed on to them by the magisterium. And one of the reasons that so many
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Roman Catholics have departed from Catholicism is because they've been reading their
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Bible. That's how the Protestant Reformation began. Martin Luther learned
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Greek, started reading the New Testament and thinking, wow, we don't practice this or believe this.
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Surely if I inform the Pope, he's going to fix things. And that's what he did until finally the
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Pope said no and excommunicated him. We don't have time to go into detail, but I spent several pages here relating
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Martin Luther's response to all this and how he was excommunicated.
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And finally, when he was sent that papal bull, that announcement that he was excommunicated, he said that's it.
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And he burned it. And that's effectively when there was a solid break with Rome.
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We knew that there was no renovating the church, that they were set in their ways. Because Luther and Calvin and the other
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Protestants advocated, no, God has given us the Bible and the Bible alone is to be our authority.
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They were not saying all traditions were wrong, but they were saying all traditions and all councils' opinions.
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And when Luther was brought before the court of Rome to be assessed and judged, and he was asked if he embraced the findings of the councils, he says,
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I can't do that because they disagree with one another. There's no way I can agree to that.
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And then they said, well, you recant these books you've written, laid them all out before him. And he was a very sensitive guy.
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He says, give me the night to think about this, pray about this. He did. But the next day he came forth and said, hey, if you can show me from Scripture I'm wrong,
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I'll burn them myself. But otherwise, you know, if it's what
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Scripture says and here I stand, I can do no other. Unless you can convince me by Scripture and sound reason that I'm in error and what you're saying is true,
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I have to stand on this. And, you know, the Lord in his mercy and grace allowed him to escape there.
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And he went into hiding for months and he translated the New Testament into German at the
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Wartburg Castle there in Germany. And it really became the foundation of the modern German language.
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That's how influential it was. Well, I've included notes about that, that we don't have time to go through.
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But, you know, this is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther hanging those theses on that door, church door in Wittenberg.
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And it's a significant event in history. And we're standing on their shoulders today.
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But we affirm the principles they discovered. Solus Scriptura. Solus Christus.
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It's through Christ alone that we have salvation. Not through the church. Not through the Pope. Not through the sacraments.
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Through Christ alone we have salvation. And it's by God's grace alone.
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Sola Gratia. Not through our works, what we do, what we haven't done, what we promised to do, but through God's grace alone.
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And that we become justified before God. Sola Fide. Through faith alone. Not through our works.
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And it's all Sola Deo Gloria. All to the glory of God alone. So that we take no credit whatsoever for the salvation that we have.
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It's all due to God's grace toward us. Freely given us in the Gospel.
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Why would anybody turn away from that? It's because of sin, isn't it?
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Hardness of heart and ignorance and error when the Gospel is set forth so plainly and simply in the
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Scriptures for us. May the Holy Spirit enable each of us to embrace this holy and freshly.
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Affirm it. Tell our friends and family this glorious news. And God's going to use it, isn't he?
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The Lord does a work of salvation in these days. And it's wonderful to see people come to experience new life in Christ.
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And the transformation they experience in their lives and the joy they exhibit. It's just refreshing and encouraging to the church when we see that occur.
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And thank God. He always seems to be doing some work of salvation in somebody. Not in great numbers, but it's a wonderful thing, isn't it?
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To see real life before us. Well, let's pray. Thank you,
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Father, for your word. And we thank you, our God, for the confidence we have that the
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Bible alone reveals to us everything we should know and believe about you, about ourselves, and how we should live before you.
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And so we affirm, Lord, afresh, this principle of sola spiritura. And we desire, our
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God, to order our lives according to this word that you've given to us. We confess we need grace to do so, our
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God, for there are many things that would draw us away. The sin within us, the temptation of the devil, the allurement of the fallen world.
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May you help us, our God, by your grace to walk with you in faith and obedience. For we pray in Jesus' name.