The Five Solas of the Reformation by Claudie Ramirez

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Well, happy Reformation Sunday. It's been said that Martin Luther, a monk in a mallet, changed the world.

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It's true. Martin Luther's actions on October 31st, 1517, when he nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Castle Church door at Wittenberg, not only did it change church history, but you can make a substantial argument that it changed the course of Western civilization.

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I think, and I thank you, Marcus, too, by the way, for that. I know Marcus and I had a conversation about that.

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I asked him, I said, if you could film that, what would it look like in your mind?

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And that's exactly what Marcus came up with, and it was perfect. But I think what we witnessed there is proper

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Christian conduct, quite frankly. Luther conducted himself in such a way as to give an example, a very bold example, of proper

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Christian conduct. His intent was to have a scholarly conversation.

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What transpired, however, was literally a religious, political, intellectual, and cultural upheaval, without question.

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When it comes to Christian conduct, for us as believers, the

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Scriptures, they should just literally permeate every aspect of our lives and our thoughts, our words, our deeds.

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We react consistently with who God is according to his command and in his compliance with his authority, whether if it's in conversations with one another, if it's here in church, if it's civilly, we're to act according to his command.

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So whatever the action in the world, in the church, throughout all of life, in the performance of every single duty that we do, we're to do everything in the strength of Christ, in view of Christ, with nothing but his honor and glory in mind.

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And with that in mind, as for the reading of God's Word, Colossians chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, hear the words of the living

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God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for this time, this place.

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We thank you, God, for those that have come before us who have been an example to us through scripture, through men like Martin Luther and others who took a bold stand.

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And they took a bold stand for the truth of scripture, not only in the church but within the state too.

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And I pray, God, that if there's anything that we take from this today, as is by word and by deed, what we do, not just in and amongst ourselves here in our

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Christian ghetto but out in the world, Lord, that we take what we know to be true about the

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Reformation, about the five solas, and we put them into action. God, we're so grateful for your unyielding grace, your mercy, and we pray this for the sake of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So, Christian conduct.

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In the world today, we're surrounded by slogans and mottos, right?

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You see it in advertising, you see it in churches, you see it all over the place.

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And I think, quite frankly, to some degree, we're really numb to it. You turn on your television, you see slogans such as, the ultimate driving machine.

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You know, it's supposed to mean something to you when they tell you this. The Oxford Dictionary defines a motto as this, a short sentence or phrase chosen as encapsulating the beliefs or ideals of an individual, family, or institution.

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For me, personally, as a United States Marine, Semper Fidelis, Latin phrase, means always faithful.

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It's something that we, as Marines, try to practice. It means faithful to God, country, and Corps.

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It's a motto that we use. That's one example. Another example,

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I don't know if anybody has a coin in here, on your coin, our currency says something on there.

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It's our nation's motto. Does anybody know what it is? In God we trust.

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Do you believe that? As Christians we do, right?

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In our Christian ghetto, we say yes. We believe that. We affirm that.

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In God we trust. Does our nation do that? No?

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I'll leave that there. We'll get back to that. But mottos, they really mean nothing if they're not held to by word and deed.

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The five solas of the Reformation, they're essentially five mottos that came about during the Reformation to summarize the

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Reformers' theological convictions about the essentials of Christianity. Five Latin phrases, sola scriptura, scripture alone, sola gratia, grace alone, sola fide, faith alone, sola

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Christus, Christ alone, and sola Deo gloria, glory to God alone. These five solas were the foundation from where we build our protest against Roman Catholic orthodoxy.

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We're going to look at these today quickly. There's several things I want to get to. We're going to cover a lot of ground, but it was

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James Montgomery Boyce who really, he wrote a really good summary of the solas, and I'm not ashamed to say that I borrowed from them, but we're going to look at those today.

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But the first being sola scriptura, scripture alone. The Roman Catholic Church taught that the foundation for faith in practice was a combination of the scriptures, sacred tradition, and the teachings of the magisterium and the

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Pope. When the Reformers used the word sola scriptura, they were expressing their concern for the

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Bible's authority, and what they meant is that the Bible alone is our ultimate authority.

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Not the Pope, not the church, not the traditions of the church or councils, not even personal inclinations or subjective feelings, but scripture only.

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Other sources of authority may have an important role to play, and we see them in scripture. Some are even established by God, such as the authority of church elders, the authority of the state, the authority of parents over children, but scripture alone is truly ultimate.

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Therefore, if any of these authorities depart from biblical teaching, they're to be judged by the

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Bible and rejected. One of the verses that you hear commonly is 2

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Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. It's Paul writing to Timothy, he 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 work.

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The scripture here, we hear it a lot, we use it here at Apologia Theanostas, God breathed.

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It's his perfect, infallible, inerrant word. When scripture speaks, God speaks. The divine content of both the

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Old Testament and the New Testament teaches the will of God and provides truth for life. It convinces men of truth and confounds those who should deny it.

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Scripture for us communicates all religious knowledge. Ben Warburton was a gentleman who wrote a book called

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Calvinism, and I'm going to read to you just a brief portion of this book, and it's concerning scripture's final authority.

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He says this, he says, scripture is the great final tribunal. The truth or falsity of our beliefs is measured by the corresponding agreement with or diversity from that form of doctrine that is set forth in the unerring revelation of God that has given to us in his inspired word.

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It is by this criteria and by this criteria alone that every form of belief, be it religious or be it scientific, must be tried, and if they speak not according to this word, it's because there is no light in them.

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We believe in the full verbal inspiration of the word of God. We hold it to be the only authority in all matters and assert that no doctrine can be true or essential if it does not find a place in his word.

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Sola gratia, grace alone. The Roman Catholic Church taught that we are saved through a combination of God's grace, the merits that we accumulate through penance and good works, and the abundance of merits that the saints before us accumulated.

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That's Rome's stance. The reformers said the words sola gratia mean that means that human beings have no claim upon God in the sense that that is

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God owes us nothing except just punishment for our many and very willful sins.

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Therefore if he does save sinners, which he does in the case of some but not all, it is only because it pleases him to do it.

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Apart from this grace and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that flows from it, no one would be saved.

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Since in our lost condition, human beings are not capable of winning, seeking out, or even cooperating with God's grace.

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By insisting on grace alone, the reformers were denying that human methods, techniques, or strategies in themselves could ever bring alone, or excuse me, ever bring anyone to faith.

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It is grace alone expressed through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ, releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from death to spiritual life.

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One of the verses the reformers used was Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 6. Blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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Even as he chose us in him from the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

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Salvation is an act of God's grace. In this providential grace, he has granted believers total blessing.

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Second Peter chapter 1 verse 3, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.

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God chooses us by himself and for himself for his own glory.

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Before the foundation of the world, independent of any human will or merit, he did that. Those who are saved to become eternally united with Christ, his imputed righteousness has been granted to us, placing us in a holy and blameless position before God.

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Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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God gives his elect his nature. He makes them his children in the image of his

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Son for his glory. It is God's undeserved love and favor that has made it possible for wretches such as us to be accepted by God through the work of his

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Son, and because we are accepted in Christ, we like Christ are beloved of the Father. Faith alone.

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The Reformed Catholic Church taught that we are justified by faith and the works that we produce, which the righteousness that God infuses in us, the faith brings about.

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The Reformers, they were never tired of saying that justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone.

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When put into theological shorthand, the doctrine was expressed as justification by faith alone.

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The article by which the church stands and falls, according to Martin Luther. The Reformers called justification by faith

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Christianity's material principle, because it involves the very matter or substance of what a person must understand and believe to be saved.

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The justification is a declaration of God based on the work of Christ. It flows from God's grace and it comes to the individual, not by anything he or she might do, but by faith alone.

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We may state the full doctrine as justification is the act of God by which he declares sinners to be righteous, because of Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.

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Galatians 2 verse 16, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

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We also have believed in Jesus Christ. In order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

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Salvation is only through faith in Christ and not by law. No one can keep God's law perfectly, and our good works are but filthy rags, as we know from Isaiah 64, chapter 64.

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Therefore, our works can in no way be the grounds for acceptance before God. Only the merit of Christ can set us right with God, and we access this merit by trusting

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Christ alone. Faith is not something that we work up inside of ourselves. Yes, we put our faith in Christ, but it is

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God who gives us faith and guarantees that we will exercise it into salvation. If the

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Holy Spirit changes our hearts, we will not refuse the call to trust in Christ. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God.

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Solus Christus, Christ alone. The Roman Catholic position was that we are saved by the merits of Christ and the saints, and that we approach

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God through Christ, the saints, and Mary, who all pray and intercede for us.

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The medieval church, it's interesting, and they added many things to the human achievements, or they added many human achievements to Christ's work, so it was no longer possible to say that salvation was entirely by Christ and his atonement.

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It was the work of God plus our own righteousness. It's the most basic of all heresies.

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The Reformation motto, Solus Christus, was formed to repudiate this error. It affirmed that salvation has been accomplished once and for all by the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ alone.

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His sinless life and substitutionary atonement, for our justification, and any gospel that fails to acknowledge that or denies it is a false gospel that will save no one.

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One of the verses the Reformers used was 1st Timothy chapter 2 verses 5 and 6, for there is one

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God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

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One of the verses that we like to use, especially when we're out at the

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Mormon temple, is one that the Reformers would use in refuting this doctrine in Roman Catholic orthodoxy, and there is one

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God, no other way to salvation. It's Isaiah chapter 43 verses 10 and 11. I think we know it by heart, right?

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Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I am the Lord, and besides me there is no

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Savior. Jesus Christ is the only mediator who can restore peace between God and sinners. God, by his mercy, sent his

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Son into the world to bring about reconciliation. Doing the will of his Father Christ, once and for all achieved reconciliation for his people by his substitutionary work on the cross, he took our place on the cross and bore the curse due to us, and by his sacrifice, by his blood, made peace for us.

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This mediating role, or the mediating roles of Christ, prophet, priest, and king, now unite in Christ.

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He's the all -sufficient Savior. As for the elect, we obey him as our king, we trust him as our priest, and we learn from him as our prophet.

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Sola Deo Gloria, glory to God alone. Roman Catholic Church adhered to what

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Martin Luther called the theology of glory. It was in opposition to the theology of the cross, in which the glory for a sinner's salvation could be attributed partly to Christ, partly to Mary and the saints, and partly to the sinner himself.

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Each of the great solas is summed up in the fifth Reformation motto, Sola Deo Gloria, meaning, to God alone be the glory.

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It was the Apostle Paul who expressed in Romans chapter 11, verse 36, when he wrote, to him be the glory forever, amen.

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These words follow naturally from the preceding words, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

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So it's because all things really are from God, and to God that we say, to God be the glory.

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God is a source and a sustainer of all things for his own glory. There never will be a time, there's not one moment, when the affairs of the universe will not be attributed to the glory of God.

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The glory of God is the goal of all things. Isaiah chapter 43, verses 6 and 7, says,

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I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold.

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Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who was called by my name, whom

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I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. The mission of the church is to declare

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God's glory among the nations. Psalm 96, verses 1 through 3,

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O sing the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.

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John Piper wrote an article for Tabletalk magazine, this is several months ago, talking specifically about God's glory, and I'll read to you what he wrote here, he says, we must constantly remind ourselves that we are speaking of a glory that is ultimately beyond any comprehension in creation.

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The glory of God is how we designate the infinite beauty and the infinite greatness of the person who was before anything else.

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This beauty and greatness exists without origin, without comparison, and without analogy, without being judged by any external criteria.

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God's glory is the all -defining, absolutely original standard of greatness and beauty.

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All created greatness and beauty comes from it and points to it, but such things do not comprehensively or adequately reproduce it.

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So that was it, that was the fundamentals of the five solas of the

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Reformation. At the beginning, I talked about Christian conduct, and one of the things that intrigued me as I was going through and studying this was the

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Reformers, obviously turning back to the truth of Scripture, had the desire for the church to follow that direction,

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Rome decided to do what Rome decided to do, but as I was looking at some of the different doctrines of the

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Roman Catholic Church, one of them struck me, and it's the Marian doctrine, the doctrine of the

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Roman Catholic Church and their view of Mary. And they have, it's several thoughts concerning Mary, her perpetual virginity, her immaculate conception, they believe she was born sinless, they believe that she, in her assumption, was taken up bodily into heaven.

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They speak, as we saw earlier, like these mediatorial attributes that she has. In other words, in Roman Catholicism, you can pray to Mary, or somehow she's supposed to intercede for you between you and Christ.

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None of that is found in Scripture, but it's what Rome holds to. But something occurred to me, and it's gonna require a little participation from you guys today, but if you can remember back when, during Easter, Jeff used an illustration concerning Christ on the cross, and for me it was very powerful, and I've quite frankly never forgot it.

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And I need you bear with me here for just a moment, but if you recall,

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Jeff was telling us that, and it's true, we know it, that the Jews, the Psalms, they used them as hymns, they would sing them, right?

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And they knew them so very well. It was just second nature, second hand to them.

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They could quote from the Psalms, they could sing from the Psalms, and by way of example, Jeff did something, and if you guys remember this, we'll do it again.

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It's just to show you what that looks like, at least for us here today. So if I were to say, and again, it's gonna require your participation, if I were to say, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

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I once was lost, but now I'm found. I'm blind, but now I see. Right.

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Jesus is on the cross, and he says something from the cross that,

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I'll say, let me say this, of all the times that Christ, in his earthly ministry, declared himself to be the

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Messiah. His I Am statements, his interaction with the woman at the well, you just go down the list of where he declares himself

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Messiah. For me, the most powerful place he did it was from the cross, because from the cross, if you remember, he says, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There's, you can go and you can look through all the different commentaries in the

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Bible about that, Christ saying that on the cross, and you'll hear all kinds of things. But what

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Christ is doing from the cross is he's quoting Psalm 22. He's quoting Psalm 22.

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It's a messianic psalm, and he's announcing from the cross, I'm the Messiah, just simply by quoting that psalm.

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It's amazing, it's absolutely amazing, and in Luke's account, and this is what's powerful, in Luke's account, those that witnessed that, they left that scene beating their chests, pounding their breaths.

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To the Jew, when you speak of the heart, you speak of the

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Spirit, and it's in the center of you. It's not so much as a organ that's pumping blood through your body, it's the center of who you are.

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In Luke's description, when he says they're, they go away beating and pounding their breasts, they are expressing on the outside how they feel on the inside.

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What they're doing is they're literally trying to pull their chest, their heart out of them, because they just witnessed the murder of the

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Messiah. It's powerful. Now, in that same vein, it's why I told you to bear with me for a moment, when it concerns the

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Marian doctrine, you might think, well, Claudia, where are you going with this? I'm going to a very neat place with this,

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I believe. Mary, and again, in that same vein of knowing the

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Psalms, knowing her scripture, I want you to read something, and I think this really, for me, really flies in the face of Roman Catholic orthodoxy when it comes to their view of Mary, and I'm gonna read this.

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I know here at Apologia Church, we start Christmas celebration when October 1st, typically, around here, so with that in mind, if you want to, please turn to Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 54.

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In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

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Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said,

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Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

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And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall call his name

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Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the

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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

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And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her,

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The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the

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Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

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For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the

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Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

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In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah.

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And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

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And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

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And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

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Here we go. This is the part I really want you to see, guys. And Mary said, and this is a song, by the way.

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She sings this. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my

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Savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now and all generations will call me blessed.

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For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

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He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and in the thoughts of their hearts.

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He has brought down from the mighty their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

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He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. And he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

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I'm going to submit to you, brothers and sisters, word and deed. Like I said earlier, this is the topic of what we're talking about today.

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By word, song, and by deed, what

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Mary does here is really amazing. And I don't know of the Reformers if they look back on this, but what you see in what

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Mary did here is literally the five solos of the Protestant Reformation, right? Grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, with Scripture, and you might think that's a little odd, just what we just read.

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Scripture alone is the sole authority, right? What she's singing here literally are psalms, bits and pieces of psalms.

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She even sings part of the law here. It's amazing, this song that she sings. And what's even more amazing to me, and ladies, this is something that I'm not going to get just simply because I'm a man, but she's doing something here in this moment that's, in my humble opinion, is one of the most beautiful things that I think you'll see in Scripture.

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She's singing praises to her Savior while she's carrying him in her womb.

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I don't get that. I cannot wrap my mind around that.

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It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. What she's doing here is the fulfillment, like I said, of what we see in the five solos of the

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Reformation. She's literally, by word and deed, praising God in her womb, Scripture alone.

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It's God's grace, right? It showed her favor. She came to him. She said, by faith, let it be so.

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So you see it. It's all there. It's all wrapped up in Mary, and again, which

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I believe to be, in this particular case, when we look at Mary and we look at Marian doctrine, what the

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Roman Catholic Church has to say about Mary is absolutely just a bunch of hogwash, as far as I'm concerned, just because of what we just saw there.

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I encourage you to study that if you have the opportunity. It's worth every bit of it.

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It's something that I had to share, and my intention wasn't to initially do it at first, but I just couldn't resist.

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Lastly, and I told you we would get back to this, let me ask you this.

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Are the five solos of the Reformation, are they relevant now? Do you say yes?

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Yeah? I would say yes without question, and it defines who we are.

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Again, we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

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We say that we have one rule and authority, Scripture alone, and we're to act in that manner by word and deed.

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As I said earlier in that part about our nation and the motto that our nation has, in God we trust.

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We say we do in our nation, but I think from what the question I asked before, do we act that way as a whole?

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Our nation as a whole, do we act that way in God we trust? I don't, we don't. Our leaders don't govern that way.

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Are we under the judgment of God right now? Absolutely we are, without question.

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Some say that we're trying to patch holes in a seeking ship. Others say ships already down at the bottom.

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I would happen to agree with that, but either way, whatever your view, we're under judgment.

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Some, the question is this, as a nation, what

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God do we trust? Because it's not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's not the triune

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God of the universe, by no means. Consider this, I want you to consider this.

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Our current president, the beginning of his first term, and he might even have done it in the second,

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I don't know, he claimed Christianity. After eight years, brothers and sisters, by his words and his deeds, he's been, he's, he's proved to be no more

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Christian than Judas. And maybe that's not even the most, you know, the best example to use, because in my opinion,

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I mean, Judas, he at least had enough resolve to give back his blood money.

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What we see in our presidential election now is, you know,

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Jezebel or Herod's gonna be the next president, right? We've left, you know, we've completely left our

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Christian roots. Whether you like it or not, we live in a secular socialist society. We seek money and favor from other nations through the equivalent of Canaanites.

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We allow them to have influence over how we govern our nation. We sacrifice the innocent at the altar of Moloch, right?

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We murder children at the rate of 3 ,000 a day. Gay marriage, gender equality, feminism, and it's not just national repentance that we look for, we're asking for, but it's repentance within the church.

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The American church, loved ones, we've allowed wolves in, okay? You know the junk, you see it.

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Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, Crufflo Dollar, Jory Micah, Matthew Vines, go down the list.

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It's if the church, it's like we have the equivalent of the sheriples in the sanctuary.

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I mean, it's disgusting. We want a Savior, but not as rule.

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We want God's law here, but we don't want it over here, and we say that as Christians, mind you.

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If we call the church and our nation to repentance, then what? Our friend,

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Dr. Joel McDermott, recently wrote an article in the American Vision, and it was entitled,

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Why Every Nation is a Theocracy. If you haven't read the article, I encourage you to do it. I'm gonna read bits and pieces of this.

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I want you to, from what I just said, but just put this into perspective. He said, the truth is, every nation has a

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God. Even a nation that claims to have freedom of religion has adopted some

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God or gods, and that nation will rule upon the supremacy of that God.

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You cannot separate the laws of the land from their God. In our nation, we seem to have many gods.

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From some secularists of all sorts, the God may be the Constitution, the law of the land, we the people, democracy, nine -robed bandits of the

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Supreme Court, and many other sources. For conservatives and liberals alike,

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God is ultimately the state. Our nation strives to find objective truth and law apart from Christ.

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We were taken from a society where God is God to one which man plays

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God. No matter which way you look at it, every society bases its laws upon its religion.

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You cannot have a standard of morality without claiming to have a belief system. The belief system we adopt is our religion.

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The object of religion is either the Creator, Yahweh, or its creation, the person, the people collectively, animals, nature, what have you.

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So no matter the structure, republic, monarchy, democracy, it is ultimately a theocracy.

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It's ultimately a theocracy. Christians say God is judging our nation because of its lawlessness, but we're the first ones to say we don't want

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His laws. He went on further to say that it's time to turn to the worldview of the

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Bible. If we believe what we say about God, our nation, and judgment, then let's also act like we believe what

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He says about the rule of His Son on earth. And thank you, Tim, for reading Psalm 2, because I'm going to read it again.

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Why do the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the

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Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

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He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.

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Then He will speak with them in His wrath and terrify them with this fury, saying, as for me,

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I have set my king on Zion, on my holy hill. I will tell of the decree.

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The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nation's your heritage and the ends of the earth your possessions.

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You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, therefore,

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O kings, be wise, be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

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Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way. For His wrath is quickly kindled.

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Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. The reformers had a view, brothers and sisters, an understanding of the role between church and state.

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They did. And in a Christian nation, the church and state are, they're distinct from each other.

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The church ministers for the benefit of all humanity in all aspects of life, while the magistrate is bound to God's Word.

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Herman Bovink, we're studying that on Thursday nights. If you haven't been, I encourage you to do it. Herman Bovink, Zach just taught on this very thing this last

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Thursday, and it really, really stuck with me. But Herman Bovink, in Volume 4 of Reform Dogmatics, writes this, and this is about the relationship between the church and state.

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He says, just as God had appointed the government as sovereign in the state, so He anointed

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Jesus Christ as king of His church. State and church, therefore, were essentially distinct from each other in origin, nature, and government.

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To transfer the church's power to the state was a violation of the kingship of Christ. But the

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Reformed never meant the distinction to be a separation. On the contrary, just as the church distributes its spiritual goods for the benefits of all of natural life in family and society, and the arts and sciences, so the government in Christianity, or excuse me, so the government in a

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Christian country has the awesome calling to protect the true church, to support its expansion and extension, to resist all idolatry and false religion, and to destroy the kingdom of the

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Antichrist. They had no choice but to promote this teaching because they believed that the government had been appointed by God Himself for the purpose of restraining sin.

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That as such, it was bound to God's law and word. That not only the second table of the law, but also the first, had to be maintained in its domain and in its manner.

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That the content of the Bible was not exclusively religious and ethical and only valid for the church, but a word from God that goes out into the world of humanity and sheds light on every creature and all of life.

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Brothers and sisters, if our nation continues on the path that it's on, we're going to be holding to these simple doctrines as a matter of life or death.

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It's inevitable. Let me give you a quick example. These are folks that came, we talk about the

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Reformation, but these are folks that came before Martin Luther, okay? And these names may be familiar to you, but I just want to give you an idea of what happens, not only when you take a believer who holds to the truth of Scripture and they confront not only the church, but they confront the state.

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John Wycliffe, who was born in England, he was a forerunner of Luther. They call him the morning star of the Reformation.

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He saw the need of the Bible and common language of the people of England. He translated it from the Latin Vulgate into the

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English. He maintained that Christ was the head of the church and he found no scriptural justification for the papacy and regarded

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Scripture as the only rule and authority. He taught that we are not saved by our own merits, that the church is the elect of God made up in those predestined to blessedness, that the church is the invisible church of the elect and not that the visible

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Roman Catholic Church, so on and so forth. He held to the doctrines that essentially

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Luther did. In Faulk's Book of Martyrs says this of Wycliffe, it says, let me stop.

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He was arrested, he was brought actually to trial and he died before Rome could kill him, but in the

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Council of Constance in July of 1415 he was declared to have died a heretic and the council gave orders to have his remains dug up and burned.

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Faulk's Book of Martyrs says this, and so was he resolved into three elements, earth, fire, and water, thinking thereby utterly to extinguish and abolish both the name and the doctrine of Wycliffe forever.

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But these and all others must know that as there is no counsel against the Lord, there is no keeping down of verity, but it will spring up and come out of dust and ashes as appeared right well in this man.

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For though they dug up his body, burned his bones, and drowned his ashes, yet the Word of God and the truth of his doctrine with the fruit and the success thereof they could not burn.

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Another gentleman, John Huss from Czechoslovakia. Huss inherited same position as Wycliffe did.

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He was the critic of the church. Martin Luther happened upon a volume of his sermons and was overwhelmed in astonishment.

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Luther later wrote about Huss, he said, I could not understand for what cause they had burnt such a great man who explained the scriptures with so much gravity and skill.

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I said the Council of Constance earlier, that's where Wycliffe, the church declared him, died a heretic.

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Well, this is where Huss was tried at this at this council, and during his trial,

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Huss was frustrated that is to go beyond the place that he was at if you read the whole account, but he tells his accusers,

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I appeal to Jesus Christ, the only judge who is almighty and completely just. In his hands I plead my cause, not on the basis of false witnesses and erring counsels, but on truth and justice.

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And it's said of him that when he said these words, that he inflamed his adversaries according to the bishops that appointed by the council, stripped him of his priestly garments, degraded him, put a paper miter on his head, which was painted doubles, with this inscription, a ringleader of heretics, which when he saw it, he said, my

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Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, did wear a crown of thorns. Why should I not then, for his sake, again wear this light crown?

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Truly I will do it, and that willingly. At his execution, when the chain was put around him at the stake, he said with a smiling countenance, my

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Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should

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I be ashamed for this rusty one? When the straw was being piled up to his neck,

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Hus refused one last opportunity to recant, saying, no, I never preached any doctrine of an evil tendency, and what

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I taught with my lips, I now seal with my blood. With the flames applied,

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Fox's Book of Martyrs describes his last moments, and I want you to remember the verse that we have at the beginning, singing psalms and hymns, doing everything to the glory of God.

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Listen to this. When our martyrs sung a hymn with so loud and cheerful a voice that he was heard through all the cracklings of the combustibles and the noise of the multitude, at length his voice was interrupted by the severity of the flames which soon closed on his existence.

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Then, with great diligence, gathering the ashes together, they cast him into the

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River Rhine, that the least remnant of that man should not be left upon the earth, whose memory, notwithstanding, cannot be abolished out of the minds of the godly, neither by fire, neither by water, neither by any kind of torment.

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We're fond around here saying that theology matters, and it does. Eschatology matters, too. We say that a lot also.

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Jeff has, as we've been going through Matthew, reminded us of a few things, one of which is that John the

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Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, came preaching Matthew chapter 3, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

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Christ, when he starts his earthly ministry, Matthew chapter 4, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Matthew 12,

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Christ says this, but if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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And as always, the verse we quote all the time, Matthew 28, verse 18, and Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

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Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold,

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I am with you to the end of the age. The kingdom is a present reality, brothers and sisters. You can deny it all you want.

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I don't care what your eschatology is, I don't care what your view of this is, but it's a present reality right now.

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Christ has all authority in heaven on earth. He does. He's victorious and he's seated at the right hand of God, placing his enemies under his feet.

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The redemption of the world is a long and slow process. Extending through the centuries, we're moving along to our intended goal.

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Either Christ is victorious or he's not. And again, in face of what we're seeing right now in our nation, under judgment, with the choices like we said earlier, you're gonna see it, one of the two,

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Jezebel or Herod. We live in a day, despite our troubles, where the church is advancing.

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You look at the church in China, you look at the church in the Middle East, there are people in record numbers who are coming to Christ.

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Though we have a period of, at times, especially in this country, of spiritual prosperity, and at times, you know, parts of it, you know, spiritual depression, but overall there's progress.

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You look back across 2 ,000 years since Christ came, and you can see some pretty significant progress.

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So we continue to advance, even with the potential of persecution in our own nation.

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Something ought to echo from the past, from the unregenerate masses, and it's something that should ring in our ears.

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Crucify Him. Crucify Him. The blood be on us and our children. That's what you hear.

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That's what you hear when you're at the mill. Might as well be. That's the echoes in history.

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You can hear it ringing in your ears, but for us, brothers and sisters, you know what victory sounds like? You know what it sounds like?

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That's what it sounds like. Nails on a cross, nails on a church door.

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That's victory. We're going, we're moving, one way or the other. To God be the glory.

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Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, for this time. We thank you for, again, this place.

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God, you are so good. You, God, we know you're sovereign.

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We know, God, that all things happen according to your will.

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Lord, what will happen with this nation? Who knows? Quite frankly, as believers, our job is quite simple.

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It's to preach the gospel, irregardless of what happens, irregardless of persecution, irregardless of prosecution, for that matter.

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Lord, help us to be faithful, God, to, as we look back on the

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Reformers and the lives that they laid down for the sake of truth, let us be the same,

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God. We love you. We give you all glory and praise, and we pray this in the name of our