Sola Fide - [Romans]

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now when i was in europe the last ten days i let a reformation tour and really send it around luther uh...
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in germany calvin in geneva and in france of course and then also svingley in switzerland and if you want to think about what the reformation recovered maybe you say you know this is the doctrines of grace or you most likely would say the solas of the reformation the solas the great onlys of the reformation well according to christian smith as he studied the national uh...
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youth and religion folks he said this is what people tend to believe today and i call them the world's solas a god who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth they believe that there's a god and he watches over things number two god wants people to be good nice and fair to each other as taught in the bible and by most world religions three the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself four god does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when god is needed to resolve a problem and five good people go to heaven when they die now that's a big difference big change from the solas of the reformation to what people believe today if i ask you what are the solas do you think you can come up with all five of them probably the beginning you would say rightfully so sola scriptura it is god's word alone it is inerrant it is infallible it is sufficient second timothy three it says all scripture is breathed out by god and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of god may be complete equipped for every good the reformers knew that when the bible says it is written are thus sayeth the lord that was sola scriptura spurgeon said when they heard the word of god they bowed their head in reverence so odd it to be with us back in those days it was a roman catholic church that said it's not just the bible it's the magisterium it's the leaders its tradition as well back in those days the anabaptist the crazy anabaptist would hear a word from god outside scripture and really nothing has changed today people deny sola scriptura by adding the magisterium and tradition and personal experiences and god told me in a particular way apart from scripture there's another sola that you know is sola christus solas christus christ alone first timothy chapter two for there's one god and there's one mediator between god and men the man christ jesus you cannot say to yourself i will trust in christ uh...
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for nine hundred and ninety nine parts but that last part i'll trust in myself that last part i'll trust in my baptism that last little part that one one thousandths of a particle i'll trust in tradition are my parents are something else for jesus it's all or nothing he either is your mediator or he is not jesus is the one who loved us and gave himself for us and he's the only one by which we have access did you know the university of virginia sociologist james hunter said thirty five percent of evangelical seminarians deny that faith in christ is absolutely necessary and what happens is you say well the more we think we're good the better we think we are the less we need jesus the only savior sprawl said to the degree to the degree that people think they're good enough to pass divine inspection that's the extent that they will not see christ as necessary there's another sola sola gratia grace alone ephesians one in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace this unmerited demerited favor of god god doesn't forgive you for any reason found in you he forgives because he's generous he's he's gracious he's full of grace if you're a christian you're saved because of grace by grace you're saved now i just was in the swiss alps and we were thinking about julie andrews and sound of music and maria said nothing comes from nothing nothing ever could so somewhere in my youth or childhood i must have done something good that's exactly what the medieval church thought you do your part with your own free will and god will do the rest that sounds like today that denies sola gratia norman geisler writes god would save all men if he could he will save the greatest number actually achievable without violating their free will that's a denial of sola gratia well there's another sola that we you know about sola deo gloria when we went to bach's church and we saw his organ and you realize when he would write things he would always sign it s d g sola deo gloria to god alone be the glory whether you eat or drink or whatever you do first corinthians 10 do all for the glory of god man's chief end is to glorify god and enjoy him forever so said the westminster divines everything about god in his universe speaks of his god -centeredness schuler was wrong robert schuler was wrong when he said the reformation blew it all why because the reformation was to god -centered rather than man -centered but there's one more sola that we left out and that's what i want to talk about today and that is sola fide please take your bibles and turn to the book of romans sola fide faith alone this is what we call the material principle of the reformation justification by faith alone a trusting a believing a resting upon the promises in person of the lord jesus christ this luther said is the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls this is what calvin said is the main hinge on which the religion turns the religion of christianity this is the doctor that we've even heard from and about in hebrews the just shall live by faith is the sole instrument whereby we receive grace friends it is faith plus nothing not faith plus incense faith plus beads faith plus rosaries faith plus baptism faith plus asceticism faith plus denial sola fide trusting in christ and if this is so important you're gonna say to yourself now i understand why it's attacked so often luther said you just can't preach this enough because we are works righteousness people and we start beginning we begin to think you know what uh...
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maybe i do contribute to my standing before god maybe this is something i can do i mean after all we're getter done people were new england people we have autonomy and we contribute and we're individuals but it is sola fide the just shall live by faith faith alone if you look at chapter two in the book of romans we'll get back to hebrews enough but this is on my mind and i've been speaking so often of the solas wanna make sure we understand sola fide because there's all kinds of attack these days and when you do understand sola fide you'll think you know what i'm happy because if i had to get heaven based on anything that i did i wouldn't make it how do you get to heaven well romans chapter two verse thirteen gives us away for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before god but the doers of the law who will be justified romans two thirteen if you perfectly keep the law which is a perfect reflection of god's holiness guess what you can earn heaven the problem is the writer paul has already said in chapter one that the gentiles are unrighteous that the jews and the religious people are unrighteous there's no possible way adam has fallen we have fallen in adam he's not saying you can he's saying but if anybody does do this what would god hold against you there'd be no law against you for god to punish even in verse sixty notice of the same chapter romans two he will render to each one according to his works to those who by patience and well doing seek glory and honor and immortality he will give eternal life perfectly keep the law and you will earn heaven except we all know we're sinful and fallen but thankfully there's one who never sinned there's one who perfectly obeyed the law and we know his name is christ jesus while we either jew or gentile chapter three have fallen short summarize in chapter three you can find a section there in verses ten through eighteen there is none righteous no not one no one understands no one seeks for god all have turned aside together they have become worthless no one does good jesus is the only one who perfectly satisfied the law of god who perfectly obeyed the father with heart soul mind and strength god requires perfection god's heaven is perfect and you either have to perfectly obey or you have to have someone perfectly obey for you pay for your sins those are the two options those are the methods of salvation methods of justification perfectly obey our trust in one trust alone sola fide in the one who perfectly obeyed and the one who perfectly assuage god's wrath in our place you say yes but this forensic declaration this guilty kind of language that would say guilty in the courtroom the positive side is not guilty in the courtroom does that change me on the inside we'll talk about our personal righteousness later but this now is just a declaration god declares you to be righteous before you actually become righteous people don't like this the roman catholics don't like it finney didn't like it here's what finney said the doctrine of an imputed righteousness is another gospel for sinners to be forensically pronounced just is impossible and absurd and even in our own day clark pinnock said i cannot deny that most believers end their earthly lives imperfectly sanctified and far from complete i cannot deny the wisdom in possibly giving them an opportunity to close the gap and grow to maturity after death in other words purgatory you are justified by faith alone and that means no merit no work by us only by the finished work of christ how do you obtain this righteousness i could answer two ways there's no way you could obtain it because you can't earn it but god has provided that when you trust in him that when you look remember when moses put up the serpent in the wilderness and those people were required to do what to look to believe credited them righteousness now look at chapter three verse nineteen as we come to this great passage in three twenty one and following about justification by faith alone in sola fide you notice how chapter three ends verse nineteen begins to to land the chapter plane the section at least now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law what's the purpose of the law it can't save it was never meant to it was to do what so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to god when you understand god's requirements and you realize that you haven't done them who could perfectly forever then pretty soon you go i i have no defense i offer no rationale i have no excuse i have nothing more to say that's why when you preach the gospel to your friends and you never talk about the law of course they would say i'll take jesus in eternal life and everything else but you start with the law and god's requirements because of who he is and then when they say yes but i'm better and i'm good and i'm this and that then you don't give them who god is yet in terms of his saving person christ jesus you give them more law the person that has heard the requirements of god says you know what i'm guilty guilty is charged i mean can you imagine you really stand before god on that judgment day and god says you've lied you've cheated you haven't loved me with your whole uh...
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heart soul mind and strength you haven't loved me as your neighbor i mean would we dare say that's not true i don't believe that i mean it will be silence standing before god we will say guilty is charged that's why lloyd jones says you do not begin to be a christian until your mouth is shut you put up your arguments and produce all your righteousness and then the law speaks and it all withers verse twenty for by the works of the law trying ourselves to obey god to get to heaven no human being will be pronounced righteous justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin the harder you try to get to heaven on your own the more difficult it becomes because that law keeping is not made for you to get to heaven it's trying to convict you so you look to christ jesus the law can't save but here's what it can do verse twenty it'll prove that no one can be justified in god's sight makes you know your sin and when you hear proper biblical preaching about sin then you don't say to yourself well at least i'm not as bad as my wife i'm not as bad as this other person at least i'm not blowing up people on the london bridge do you notice the text will be justified in his sight there's no bell curve there the thrice holy god and you and me you don't compare yourself against anyone then paul knows for a person to become a christian first he has to have a reason to want to be saved i'm judged and damned left to myself i need a savior now it could just stop there god would be just and right he doesn't deserve no one deserves to be saved but now here it turns and here we see the gospel this is this is the good news of the gospel verse twenty one oh remember lloyd jones says the butts of the bible dead in trespass sin ephesians chapter two verse four what but god here but now oh there's a hope there's a contrast this is the turning point chapter one sin chapter two sin chapter three so far sin it's black black black and now comes the light of the gospel there's hope there was wrath revealed chapter one but now sin was confirmed but now you can't save yourself but someone can save you but now the righteousness of god has been manifested apart from the law there's another way to be saved from you keeping the law perfectly although the law and prophets bear witness to it the old testament has taught this way back in genesis chapter fifteen the just shall live by faith there's a different way to be saved than perfectly keeping the law i think it's true when people say you know the unbeliever secretly has devised a program and a plan so he can get off on judgment day i did the same thing when i was a kid but it had to do with like elevators and things so i thought you know if this elevator shaft uh...
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uh... you know the elevator cable ever breaks and i go hurling down to the ground you know right before the very bottom i'll what jump and i had it all planned so i could never die the unbeliever with a twisted mind has it all figured out how can i stand before god on that day and somehow satisfy him with less than perfect obedience now if god was like a grandpa or grandma maybe he might overlook the sin maybe might say you know what my standard is no longer my holiness and my justice and my righteousness it's a little less i'm kind of like george burns oh you know kind of that kind of god there are two questions that every person has to ask themselves have i perfectly kept god's law and did i ever sin by failing to obey god's law psalm 130 god if you mark iniquities who could stand but then the verse goes on but with you there is forgiveness and so we come to justification by faith maybe the most important paragraph ever written said leon morris i don't know what your favorite book of the bible is this might be your favorite little paragraph this is the central point the chief point the culminating point in the entire epistle you need god's righteousness to get to heaven how do you get it it's all planned by god there's a one named jesus who perfectly obeyed perfectly kept the law in our place now before i read it read it remember luther luther in fifteen seventeen he nails a ninety five thesis he's not a christian but he's realizing something's wrong with the papacy something's wrong with indulgences something that is wrong with the pope can get people out of purgatory for money why won't he just let everybody out for the sake of love what kind of wicked person keeps people in purgatory and says you can't get out unless your relative pays me but luther had a bigger problem than with rome it was his own sinful heart and he knew deep down he was sinful but for luther he could do all the external monkish things perfectly and when they say you know what show up to pray at four in the morning he could do it read your bible he could do it pray he could do it he could do all the externals but he knew on the inside he was wicked luther said i was indeed a pious monk and followed the rules of my order more strictly than i can express this is kind of funny if ever a monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works i should certainly have been entitled to it of all the friars who have known me they can testify if i continued much longer i should have been carried by my self denials even unto death by means of my watchings prayers readings and other labors i mean he went to confession every single day sometimes six hours a day somebody in our group a few weeks ago when we were at a catholic church looking at it they snuck into the confessional i thought you know that's a pretty low thing for a protestant to do so i just walked over and i put my foot down really low and locked them in and moved myself over so they couldn't see so i thought you need to be locked in a confessional for a few days luther knew it's from the inside as well jesus taught it in the sermon on the mount it's not just did you commit adultery but have you ever looked upon anybody with lust he knew the standards of god and it tortured him and he was thinking god has righteous standards and that's all when it comes to the righteousness of god these are the standards of god and that part was right he understood righteous god requires righteousness but what he didn't get is that god the righteous god provides righteousness to people who trust in the son luther we fled from christ as from the devil and we ran to the virgin mary and saint barbara for we were taught that everyone must appear before the judgment seat of christ with his works often i was horrified at the name of jesus and when i thought about jesus on the cross it was as if i had been struck by lightning when i heard his name mentioned i would have rather heard the name of the devil for i believe that i must by my good works make christ my gracious friend and thereby reconcile an angry god and he had a mentor and his name was stoppets and as i taught the people on the tour stoppets said stop it that's how you remember stoppets stop it stop looking at yourself and look to jesus stop looking on the inside and look at the one who's on the outside who dies on a cross for sinners like you luther to stoppets i cannot and dare not come to god until i'm a better man i have not yet repented sufficiently stoppets you got to go ahead and go ahead and laugh he didn't say stop it but close christ came to save not good men but sinners love god and you are repented there's no real repentance that does not begin in the love of god in other words you don't have to do anything to earn god's favor you have to trust in what god has done for sinners and another light went on about fifteen fifteen luther's reading the psalms and he comes to psalm twenty two verse one where it says my god my god why have you forsaken me and then luther realizes this righteous just god who demands righteousness also will punish the unrighteous but instead of punishing the unrighteous those who look to jesus and trust in him he the father punishes the son in the place and everywhere you go if you look back at roman chapter three it's the righteousness of god the righteousness of god the righteousness of god how do you get it says in verse twenty two the righteousness of god through what faith in jesus christ for all who believe there's no distinction now some people think this is referring to the faithfulness of jesus has nothing to do with that although jesus is faithful you're not talking about what jesus has done with his faithful living here he's talking about the response of the gospel and that is faith there's the way of the law to get to heaven and their their way of faith it doesn't matter if you're a jew or a gentile faith in jesus christ the messiah for all who believe there's no distinction because there's no distinction of sinners jews and gentiles both of sin chapters one and two and three for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god everybody's sinful and doesn't matter if you're the woman at the well or stalin or anybody in between everyone fall short of the glory of god and then it says in verse twenty four and are justified by his grace as a gift this is justification by faith alone through faith justified when you stand before that tribunal of god you will want him to say not guilty and the only way he'll say not guilty is if you're trusting in the one who's your substitute and who's your representative the one who did live a perfect life and the one who paid for your sins that's the only way this is the foundation of the christian religion now when he says justified there in verse twenty four you ought to think as i said before courtroom language legal language not guilty what's the opposite of justified well he talks about in chapter eight verse one does he not there's now no there is therefore now know what condemnation for those in christ jesus the opposite of condemned declared righteous not guilty you say i'd love justification because god treats me just as if i've never sinned is that true i like that that's kinda like stop it for stop its but it's more than that justification is god treats me as though i've never seen because jesus paid for every one of those sins and also god treats me as if i perfectly obey the law because all of christ obedience gets credited to my account as well you know it's true because god raised him from the dead just think if you had one sin that wasn't covered i often think of the space shuttle how big's an o -ring one small imperfection cannot shield you from the thrice holy god but when you stand in christ righteousness he's cloaked us as with a garment it says in isaiah sixty one then god sees no sin because he sees his son and you're in christ you have union with christ now i must stop for a moment and ask you do you believe this are you a believer in the lord jesus christ well my mom believes for me my friend believes for me you must believe some people say well you know what i'm trusting when i walk the aisle that saved me that's a denial of sola fide you know i prayed the prayer and therefore god saved me that's a denial of sola fide you know i i i'm a church member that will save me that's a denial of sola fide the question is do you believe that's the only question are you believing right now of course rome messed this up because they were talking about justification meaning something changes in your heart they were confusing sanctification with justification justification is not a process it's a gavel going down a judicial verdict and do you earn it what's the text say verse twenty four being justified as a gift by his grace that word gift you could translate it freely i mean it's free it's free and it's by god's grace through the redemption that is in christ jesus only in christ only from him you can begin to think like a jew and imagine the exodus and being redeemed by god to be set free to be liberated whom god put forward verse twenty five as a propitiation the wrath is assuaged by his blood to be received by what faith this was to show god's righteousness because in his forbearance divine forbearance he had passed over former sins now as i've taught before there's the word expiation and the word propitiation and remember if you think back to the day of atonement that might be a good illustration for these two words in trying to understand one of the animals they laid the hands on the head of the animal and then they let that animal just run out to the wilderness off it went symbolizing expiation sins are gone sins are removed and it goes out to die the other one was this animal has to be killed in the place of us to assuage god because the wages of sin is what death and so this is propitiation god has wrath rightful wrath and instead of taking it out on us he takes it out on the animal and the animal is killed god put forward jesus as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith and you know what he did it in front of everybody this was not some secret handshake in the back room someplace or even in the middle of the holy of holies it's out outside the city it was to show his righteousness verse twenty six at the present time so he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in jesus there it is again faith faith faith not faith plus sacraments not faith plus marriage not faith plus last rites not faith plus anything faith alone god was righteous and he wasn't going to wink at sin or sweep it under the table he wasn't going to condone it or look the other way or forget it he had to punish it and he punishes it on jesus friends every sin that's ever been committed that you commit you'll either pay for or jesus will pay for one of the two god doesn't set aside the rules that would contradict who he is you say well my god's a loving god your god when you say that is a figment of your own imagination because the god who made the universe is both loving and holy and think about it if we had one smidgen of effort credit to our salvation what would we do i know what i would want to do i'd boast i'd take some credit god you did nine parts i did one part after all jesus died on the cross and all that but i got baptized and i got uh...
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confirmed and i got married in the church and i got all these other things et cetera et cetera thank you but when god does it all then who gets all the praise whenever you hear somebody talk about salvation you could ask this question there are other questions asked but you could ask this with your system of salvation who gets all the praise and if you're pelagian our pelagian's brother semi or arminian or anybody else by the way when you're in germany i can never tell a joke it's probably a good thing because i don't know how to joke in german i always have some translator my favorite translators when i say one two three then the german translator he mimics what i do it's perfect verse twenty seven what then becomes of our boasting if it's all of god all of grace jesus is the law keeper we're the lawbreaker god credits us christ righteousness god credits christ our sin god saves us by judicial verdict by propitiation by reconciliation by redemption what becomes of our boasting it's excluded show me a system of soteriology of salvation that leaves room for boasting and it won't be pauline it is built within our system that we contribute when all we contribute to our salvation is sin and rebellion no wonder the writer said when i survey the wondrous cross i pour contempt by the way that is what's going to make heaven so wonderful we're not going to be looking to anyone else because they didn't do anything either all together we'll be realizing he did it you know it's so crazy when we think of teams and you know i have to admit that when i moved to new england i was a green bay packer fan but you gotta go with a winner so now i'm a patriots fan of course i never got converted to be a celtics fan although i still take free tickets when they're offered to me baseball i don't know so but i do what you do i think the patriots are my team and i'll tell friends we won you know we did such a great job we came back my brother was over at our house for that super bowl and at halftime he looked at me and said they're going to come back and tie it i thought my brother's not only a pastor he's a prophet i mean this is really good i need him they're my team like like i contributed and i was out in the field and i did something at that fourth and five hundred i didn't do anything i was at home drinking ginger ale it's just built in our system and when you get to heaven no wonder all the elders swirl around saying worthy is
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God he gets the praise and the honor and the glory forever no wonder all the people are swirling around in roman chapter five worthy is the lamb who was slain if it's not sola fide you're offering something and you're robbing
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God glory and you boast if it is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone based on the scriptures alone it is to God alone be the glory there's no room for boasting and friends we're made to boast
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God made you to boast and to brag but in him verse twenty eight for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law in case we didn't get it what a good summary
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God declares you righteous not based on anything you do and don't begin to think somehow that faith is a work we'll talk about that next week it is not a work it's a gift faith is even a gift of God we're linked to Christ receive all his benefits by a trust, by a looking, by a reception by a true faith and confidence and that's all it is never does the scripture say you're saved because of faith it's always through faith by the means of faith and this makes us all equal verse twenty nine are as God the
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God of the Jews only is he not the God of the Gentiles also yes of Gentiles also since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith faith is the only way do we then overthrow the law by this faith verse thirty one by no means on the contrary we uphold the law when you talk about justification by faith alone you don't denigrate the law you uphold the law and you say yes
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God's standards are perfection and I cannot meet those perfect demands but I'm trusting in the one who did why did
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Jesus not just come down on Friday die on the cross and be raised from the dead because he needed to live a perfect righteous life why did he not just come and live to be five years old and then die on the cross because he had to live a perfectly righteous life when he gets baptized does he have to get baptized to identify as a sinner no he identifies with sinners permit me to do this to fulfill all righteousness we don't lower the law we uphold the law and Paul knew that not at all this is through faith because of grace nothing you can do makes you right before God if you think
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God requires us to be holy and because he requires us to be holy that we can be holy on our own you're misinformed about the fall of Adam God requires us to be holy but realizes we've fallen in Adam so he sends his son the last
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Adam to live the perfect life to die on the cross and to be raised from the dead you can only stand before God on that great day because of Christ's righteousness the gospel is like sola fide if you don't keep preaching the gospel in this generation the next generation forgets it if you don't talk about sola fide in this generation guess what you probably don't know this but there is a massive push like there has been for 20 years for Rome and evangelicals to get together
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Rome is smart evangelicals are very naive Rome won't change they get the evangelicals to change and they'll get them to change things like you know what we're saved by grace yeah sure saved by grace but the
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Catholics will never say by grace alone and the Catholics will say you know what we're saved by faith that's true but they can't say alone because they have to add the sacraments and other things there's a new book called the
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Benedict Option it's a destruction of sola fide Manhattan Declaration not that long ago it's a destruction of sola fide the
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Lutherans and the Catholics I'm sitting at the Reformation at Wittenberg I see Luther's pulpit I see Calvin's pulpit
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Zwingli's pulpit and now I'm thinking these guys I know they're rejoicing in the lamb who was slain but if they could see what was going on on earth and they're just like the capitulation of evangelicals because here's what we do you know what we don't want to say anything bad so we want unity at all costs even for truth friends
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James says that wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable it is never unity first by the way there is somebody who likes unity first and his name is the
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Antichrist now let's make it as practical as we can let's say somebody that you love your husband or wife sins against you and they come to you and they say please forgive me what do you do?
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what do you do? no I'm at the limit what if a friend in the church says you know what
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I've sinned against you let's even make it the other way around what if you go to someone and say I've sinned against you friends shouldn't it make it so much easier for us to love one another if we could say do you know what
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I'm sad to admit this but what Romans 1, 2 and 3 says about me and my sin it's true
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I'm sinful I'm corrupt even as a Christian I'm just a wreck spiritually
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I've asked the Lord to forgive me and now I would ask do you think you could forgive me? what justification my faith alone does it doesn't hide sin it recognizes it but it makes me say you know what why am
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I afraid now to say I'm a sinner because it's clear it's clear A. by scripture and B.
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by empirical evidence frankly just watch my life long enough doctrines like this on how the thrice holy
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God can be reconciled to sinful people is in fact the pattern for husbands and wives and wives and husbands and people in the church can't forgive your spouse you really think
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I'm going to believe you when you say I believe in Sola Fide now of course it could be true and God grants repentance but this is the doctrine that frees you to number one praise
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God and number two say do you know what if Jesus can accept sinful people by declaring them not guilty even before he changes them on the inside I can accept them too what a travesty to believe in Sola Fide and hold a grudge what a travesty to abandon
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Sola Fide for the sake of ecumenicalism but what a joy to say because of the scriptures alone and grace alone and Christ alone to the glory of God alone
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I'm trusting in God alone Father I thank you for this day
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I thank you for this truth that Paul would teach that Jesus would affirm even going back to the
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Old Testament Abraham believed and it was credited to him righteousness Father would you protect me and protect this dear church from just learning some doctrine that's irrelevant for today because this is relevant for how we worship you how we deal with other sinful
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Christians how we evangelize the lost would you help us we are weak but because of that recognition we know we're strong because we have a mighty