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Voddie Baucham - The Reformation Part 2 · Voddie Baucham Sermons

0:01
Speaker 1: Greetings. Really? I said greetings. Good morning. Good day. Good day. Yeah.
0:11
Speaker 1: How are you? Good, good, good. It's a delight to
0:15
Speaker 1: be here. It took a while for us to get here,
0:19
Speaker 1: but we made it. And this 15-hour time difference from
0:24
Speaker 1: where we started has got us a little turned around
0:30
Speaker 1: Somebody asked me today when we got here. And you
0:35
Speaker 1: would have thought that they had asked me to solve
0:38
Speaker 1: a quadratic equation. Just trying to think about what day
0:43
Speaker 1: is it. But we are delighted to be here. My
0:48
Speaker 1: assignment is to address the issue of the Reformation and
0:52
Speaker 1: the restoration of the mission of the church. And as
0:57
Speaker 1: we think about that, I want to Think about that
0:59
Speaker 1: in a couple of different ways. I don't think most Christians,
1:05
Speaker 1: most Protestants, appreciate the magnitude of the Reformation. For one thing,
1:14
Speaker 1: most Protestants don't really know much about the difference between
1:19
Speaker 1: Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in terms of our theology. Most
1:24
Speaker 1: Protestants have very little understanding of the Protestant Reformation, maybe
1:30
Speaker 1: they have heard about, you know, the nailing of the
1:33
Speaker 1: 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church, and,
1:37
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you know the name John Calvin and
1:41
Speaker 1: things like this, but we really don't understand the magnitude
1:45
Speaker 1: of what happened and the significance of it as it
1:50
Speaker 1: relates to the mission of the church. And what I
1:55
Speaker 1: want to do today is I want to address... the
1:59
Speaker 1: way we think about the gospel message. We just heard
2:06
Speaker 1: so beautifully the theology surrounding the person and work of Christ.
2:12
Speaker 1: What happens at the Reformation is we essentially go to
2:16
Speaker 1: war over what it means to proclaim that. Because it
2:23
Speaker 1: has tremendous implications. Now, in order to understand this, first
2:27
Speaker 1: understand that Catholicism is a sacramental and sacerdotal religion. What
2:34
Speaker 1: do those words mean? Well, I'm glad you asked. Sacramental.
2:40
Speaker 1: Sacramental religion. Grace is dispensed through the sacraments. Seven sacraments
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Speaker 1: in particular within the Roman Catholic Church. Any good Roman
2:55
Speaker 1: Catholics in here that grew up Roman Catholic? and you
2:58
Speaker 1: learned about these sacraments, and when you're an infant, you're baptized,
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Speaker 1: and then you're confirmed, and then after you've been confirmed,
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Speaker 1: you can have your first communion. And then there's marriage,
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Speaker 1: another one, and then there's confession, and then there's religious orders,
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Speaker 1: and then there's last rites. And all of these things
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Speaker 1: are incredibly important because they are the means to by
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Speaker 1: which and through which grace is dispensed to the believer.
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Speaker 1: And this grace being dispensed is important because think of it,
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Speaker 1: the best way I can explain it is this, you
3:40
Speaker 1: think of it as though you have a jug, right?
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Speaker 1: And this jug is where you put your grace. And
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Speaker 1: eventually you go to heaven when that jug is full,
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Speaker 1: when it's completely full, okay? Each one of these sacraments
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Speaker 1: kind of fills up your jug. Now, when you sin,
4:04
Speaker 1: you empty your jug. And so your jug's always kind
4:09
Speaker 1: of wrestling to go up or down, right? And if
4:12
Speaker 1: you're really faithful and if you go to Mass and
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Speaker 1: take the Eucharist and you go to confession and you
4:20
Speaker 1: get married and you a part of religious orders and
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Speaker 1: all that, so that you're filling up that jug and
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Speaker 1: your good deeds that you do, these things are filling
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Speaker 1: up that jug. But again, sin's taking that thing away.
4:35
Speaker 1: If you're really, really good, you end your life not
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Speaker 1: with your jug full. Nobody ends their life with their
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Speaker 1: jug full, which is why they have purgatory. You go
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Speaker 1: to purgatory to suffer so that you can finish filling
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Speaker 1: up your jug and then be released into heaven. By
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Speaker 1: the way, this is why indulgences were so important. We
5:04
Speaker 1: all remember John Tetzel, right? He's raising money to build St.
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Speaker 1: Peter's Cathedral. That famous saying, whenever a coin in the
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Speaker 1: coffers ring, a soul from purgatory springs. John Tetzel is
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Speaker 1: selling plenary indulgences. What's a plenary indulgence? Well, in a
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Speaker 1: conference setting, oftentimes you'll have breakout sessions and then you
5:34
Speaker 1: have plenary sessions, right? The plenary session is the one
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Speaker 1: that everybody comes to. It's like this, right? Everybody comes
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Speaker 1: to the plenary session. Well, a plenary indulgence is an
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Speaker 1: indulgence that fills up whatever gap remains in your grace jar.
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Speaker 1: You get a plenary indulgence, you go straight to heaven. Now,
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Speaker 1: plenary indulgences aren't great for people who are living. Because
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Speaker 1: if you're living and you go get a plenary indulgence,
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Speaker 1: then before you make it back home, you've sinned again,
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Speaker 1: so you've lost some of that. But if you're dead,
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Speaker 1: if you're dead and you can get a plenary indulgence,
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Speaker 1: you may have a thousand years left in purgatory, but
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Speaker 1: that moment, you go to heaven. Hence the statement, whenever
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Speaker 1: a coin in the coffers ring, a soul from purgatory springs.
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Speaker 1: Tetzel was put his hand over a fire and people
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Speaker 1: watching would be in awe and there would be screams
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Speaker 1: and gasps as he put his hand over the fire
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Speaker 1: and talked to people about their dead relatives who were
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Speaker 1: suffering right now in purgatory who could be released if
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Speaker 1: they would be given By the way, this is what
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Speaker 1: incensed and motivated Luther. Not to leave Catholicism. The nailing
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Speaker 1: of the, you know, 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg,
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Speaker 1: that was inviting a debate. That wasn't saying, I'm out.
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Speaker 1: It was saying, we do better. So this was... The
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Speaker 1: framework still is, by the way, the framework. And there's
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Speaker 1: more than that. This framework also creates an incredibly powerful entity,
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Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic Church, the wealthiest landowner on planet Earth today,
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Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic Church. They have their own country. in
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Speaker 1: the midst of another country, incredibly wealthy. They were able
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Speaker 1: to establish universities and hospitals and so much more through
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Speaker 1: all the wealth attained. And one of the things that
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Speaker 1: that does and has done is sort of create in
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Speaker 1: our minds this image of what the mission of the
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Speaker 1: church is. And you can see it if you pay
8:22
Speaker 1: close attention. If you watch television or you watch the movies,
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Speaker 1: who are the good Christians? We know who the bad
8:29
Speaker 1: Christians are, right? If you're watching a television show or
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Speaker 1: a movie, you know, the bad Christians are the one
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Speaker 1: who they're going to go blow up an abortion clinic
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Speaker 1: or they're going to abuse their kids, you know, in
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Speaker 1: the name of homeschooling or whatever. You know who the
8:46
Speaker 1: bad Christians are, right? They're in everything. Who are the
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Speaker 1: good Christians? The good Christians are the ones who run
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Speaker 1: food pantries. Right? Or the good Christians are the ones
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Speaker 1: who are political organizers on behalf of grossly unbiblical political movements.
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Speaker 1: Can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. Right? Those
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Speaker 1: are the good Christians. The good Christians are the ones
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Speaker 1: who go. And so we see the mission of the
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Speaker 1: church as being part of religious orders, essentially, and going
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Speaker 1: out and doing these good deeds in the name of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: That's the mission of the church. And so we have
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Speaker 1: this problem on two fronts. On the one hand, we
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Speaker 1: have a a wrong impression of what we're here to do.
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Speaker 1: And on the other hand, we have a wrong understanding
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Speaker 1: of how it is that God saves sinners. And so
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Speaker 1: out of the Reformation comes the five solas. The five
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Speaker 1: solas go to the heart of not only our message,
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Speaker 1: but our mission. Ultimately, the mission of the church is
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Speaker 1: the right, plain, and consistent proclamation of the gospel to
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Speaker 1: a lost, hurting, and dying world. Everything else is secondary
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Speaker 1: to that. Nothing else is as important than that. Certainly
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Speaker 1: not more important than that. Nothing else substitutes for that.
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Speaker 1: If we are known as the kindest people, the most
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Speaker 1: charitable people, and by the way, we are. Amen. Christians
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Speaker 1: are the most charitable people in the world. But if
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Speaker 1: we're just known as the kindest people and the most
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Speaker 1: charitable people, but we are not known as rightly dividing
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Speaker 1: the word of truth, rightly proclaiming the gospel of the
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, rightly calling men, women, boys, and girls
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Speaker 1: everywhere to repent and believe the gospel, then we've missed it.
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Speaker 1: We've missed it. So I want us to look at
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Speaker 1: a passage of Scripture today that's been alluded to. It's
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Speaker 1: Romans 3. Romans 3, look at the beginning of verse 21.
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Speaker 1: And we're going to see the solos of the Reformation
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Speaker 1: here in Romans 3. And address this issue of justification.
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Speaker 1: First listen to this. This is from the Second London
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Speaker 1: Baptist Confession. Speaking of Reformed Baptists. Chapter 11, justification. If
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Speaker 1: you have any background in Roman Catholicism, you will see
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Speaker 1: that this paragraph, this statement is pointed directly at Rome.
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Speaker 1: Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies, not
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Speaker 1: by infusing righteousness into them. Again, a direct confrontation of Rome.
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Speaker 1: but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting
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Speaker 1: their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, again,
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Speaker 1: directly confronting Rome, or done by them, but for Christ's
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Speaker 1: sake alone, not by imputing faith itself, again, pointing directly
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Speaker 1: at Rome, the act of believing or any other evangelical
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Speaker 1: obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing Christ's
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Speaker 1: active unto the whole law. We heard about that earlier.
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Speaker 1: And passive obedience in his death for their whole and
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Speaker 1: sole righteousness. They are receiving and resting on him and
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Speaker 1: his righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves.
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Speaker 1: It is the gift of God. Language there coming directly
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Speaker 1: from Romans chapter 3. So let's look here at the
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Speaker 1: message that we are called to proclaim, the message that
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Speaker 1: was restored, the message that is our mission, the message
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Speaker 1: at the heart of the Reformation. Romans 3, verse 21.
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Speaker 1: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart
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Speaker 1: from the law, although the law and the prophets bear
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Speaker 1: witness to it. the righteousness of God through faith in
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. For all who believe, for there is no
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Speaker 1: distinction for all of sin and fall short of the
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Speaker 1: glory of God and are justified by His grace as
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Speaker 1: a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
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Speaker 1: whom God has put forth as a propitiation by His
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Speaker 1: blood to be received by faith. That was to show
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Speaker 1: God's righteousness because In his divine forbearance, he had passed
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Speaker 1: over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at
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Speaker 1: the present time so that he might be just and
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Speaker 1: the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Amen.
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Speaker 1: Let's look at these. But first, I want to say this.
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Speaker 1: We see in this text that justification brings righteousness that
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Speaker 1: the law requires but could not give. Justification is a
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Speaker 1: declaration of righteousness. It brings righteousness that the law requires,
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Speaker 1: but could not give. And that may seem completely and
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Speaker 1: utterly unfair, that the law would require a righteousness that
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Speaker 1: was unachievable in and through the law. But that is
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Speaker 1: because the law was not intended to make men righteous.
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Speaker 1: The law was intended to show men their unrighteousness. The
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Speaker 1: law was intended to make men know that they were
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Speaker 1: incapable of being righteous in and of themselves. Now, had
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Speaker 1: the law done this and not had gospel accompanying it,
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Speaker 1: that would have been horrible. If you just have the
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Speaker 1: law that says, here's where you have to get, and
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Speaker 1: you can't get there, and there's nothing added to that
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Speaker 1: We're in a horrible condition. But when the law says
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Speaker 1: this is what is required, you can't get there from here.
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Speaker 1: And then alongside it, there is the gospel that says,
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Speaker 1: here is the way. We see in this the goodness
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Speaker 1: of our God. We see this truth here in the
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Speaker 1: first statement. But now the righteousness of God has been
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Speaker 1: manifested apart from the law, although the law and the
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Speaker 1: prophets bear witness to it. They bear witness to it,
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Speaker 1: but they're not enough. They bear witness to it, but
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Speaker 1: they bear witness to something that you cannot attain in
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Speaker 1: and of yourself. They bear witness to something that is
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Speaker 1: beyond the law's capabilities. They bear witness to these facts.
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Speaker 1: All men are unrighteous. Every last one. We've seen that
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Speaker 1: earlier in Romans. There is none righteous, no, not even one.
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Speaker 1: All men are accountable to God's law. All men everywhere.
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Speaker 1: You don't have to acknowledge God's law to be accountable
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Speaker 1: to God's law. All men everywhere. It's interesting. I saw,
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Speaker 1: and I know we have different sports here, but one
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Speaker 1: sport that people kind of understand universally is baseball. Play
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Speaker 1: baseball at those places. Play basketball at those places. People
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Speaker 1: understand baseball. They know, you know, you sit there and
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Speaker 1: you play. Baseball has a lot of rules. So many
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Speaker 1: rules in baseball. And I saw a play the other day,
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Speaker 1: and this happens about once a season, right, where something
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Speaker 1: happens that nobody's ever seen before. And then it turns
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Speaker 1: out there's a rule in the rule book that applies
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Speaker 1: to this. And what happened is, and you get baseball, right?
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Speaker 1: I mean, there's the pitcher and then there's the batter.
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Speaker 1: And here you guys have that other thing that's like baseball, right?
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Speaker 1: You got the cricket thing, right? So the guy pitches
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Speaker 1: and there's a guy who's there. He's the catcher. And
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Speaker 1: the ball is pitched and it goes past the catcher.
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Speaker 1: and it goes into the umpire's pocket. And everybody's standing
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Speaker 1: around looking for the ball. Everybody's looking for the ball, right?
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Speaker 1: Base runners are advancing because nobody's found the ball. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: they figure out that the ball is in the umpire's pocket.
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Speaker 1: And so they take the ball out of the umpire's pocket,
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Speaker 1: and they go, and the umpires confer with one another,
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Speaker 1: and they confer with the rule book, and then they
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Speaker 1: make a ruling. Not everybody was happy with the ruling,
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Speaker 1: but here's what they learned. You don't have to know
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Speaker 1: the law to be accountable to it. Amen? If you
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Speaker 1: get pulled over for a traffic violation, officer, I didn't know,
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Speaker 1: is not an acceptable response. Amen? The law of God
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Speaker 1: works like that. All men are accountable to the law
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Speaker 1: of God. You don't have to agree to it. It
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Speaker 1: is a fact. No man keeps the law. No man.
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Speaker 1: As James tells us in James 2.10, if anyone would
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Speaker 1: keep the whole law but violate it at one point,
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Speaker 1: he is guilty of all of it. You are a
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Speaker 1: lawbreaker and that is enough. And the law in and
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Speaker 1: of itself cannot save. That's what this first statement says.
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Speaker 1: is all about. And this is why the Reformation is
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Speaker 1: so important in restoring our mission. Our mission is to
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Speaker 1: get people to recognize these truths and then bring them
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Speaker 1: to a point where they recognize the gospel as their
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Speaker 1: only hope. Not the sacraments of a religious organization, but
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Speaker 1: the message of the gospel. That's our mission. Secondly, we
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Speaker 1: see that justification is, now we get into the solos.
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Speaker 1: We see that justification is by faith alone. Let's continue.
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Speaker 1: The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for
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Speaker 1: all who believe, for there is no distinction, all have
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Speaker 1: sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This
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Speaker 1: is a universal application. For all who believe. There's also
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Speaker 1: this Jew-Gentile example. There's no distinction, for all have sinned
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Speaker 1: and fall short of the glory of God. Why do
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Speaker 1: we know this is a Jew-Gentile example? Well, from verse 1,
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Speaker 1: or chapter 1, verse 18, we have the guilt of
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Speaker 1: the Gentiles. Paul gives us this introduction in Romans 1
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Speaker 1: through 17, and then in verse 18, he lays out
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Speaker 1: why the Gentiles are guilty. In chapter 2, he lays
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Speaker 1: out why the Jews are guilty. And then in chapter 3,
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Speaker 1: he begins to talk about why the whole world is guilty.
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Speaker 1: So that ultimately he's making the point, Jews are guilty.
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Speaker 1: Of course we understand the Gentiles are guilty. The Jews
21:48
Speaker 1: who listen to him will say, absolutely, the Gentiles are guilty.
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Speaker 1: Because they don't have the law, they don't keep the law.
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Speaker 1: And after he gets agreement on that, he says, by
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Speaker 1: the way, the Jews are guilty as well. You have
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Speaker 1: the law, but you don't keep the law. You're guilty.
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Speaker 1: The whole world is guilty before God. And at this point,
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Speaker 1: when we recognize that the whole world is guilty before God,
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Speaker 1: there is a need for some answer to our problem.
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Speaker 1: And that's what Paul is giving us here. The answer
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Speaker 1: is justification by faith alone. In Romans 9, 30-32, he writes,
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Speaker 1: What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not
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Speaker 1: pursue righteousness have attained it? That is a righteousness that
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Speaker 1: is by faith? But that Israel, who pursued a law
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Speaker 1: that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching
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Speaker 1: the law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith,
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Speaker 1: but as if it were based on works. There is
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Speaker 1: salvation for all who believe. The heart of the matter is,
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Speaker 1: all who are saved are saved by faith. and by
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Speaker 1: faith alone. This is our mission. And think about this
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Speaker 1: in light of a sacramental, sacerdotal religion that says, number one,
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Speaker 1: grace is dispensed to you. By the way, I talked
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Speaker 1: about sacramental but not sacerdotal because here's where the church
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Speaker 1: gets its power in Roman Catholicism. The sacraments. There are
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Speaker 1: these seven sacraments. And grace is dispensed to you through
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Speaker 1: these seven sacraments. That's sacramentalism. Sacerdotalism is grace is only
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Speaker 1: dispensed to you efficaciously when it's dispensed to you by
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Speaker 1: the priest. That's where the church gets its power. You
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Speaker 1: can't get to heaven without us. The Reformation obliterates that.
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Speaker 1: We are saved, we are justified by faith alone, apart
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Speaker 1: from works of the law and apart from anything that
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Speaker 1: is granted to us by any man. What is the
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Speaker 1: Catholic response to this? Well, after the Reformation, there was
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Speaker 1: the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent is Rome's response,
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Speaker 1: Rome's direct response. to the doctrines of the Reformation. Council
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Speaker 1: of Trent, Senate 6, Canon 9. If anyone says that
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Speaker 1: by faith alone the sinner is justified, so as to
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Speaker 1: mean that nothing else is required to cooperate in order
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Speaker 1: to obtain the grace of justification, let him be anathema.
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Speaker 1: It's always interesting to me when people today argue that
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Speaker 1: there is but little difference between Protestantism and Rome. Read
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Speaker 1: the Council of Trent. It'll disabuse you of that notion.
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Speaker 1: Not only are we justified by faith alone, but we
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Speaker 1: are justified by grace alone. By faith, through the grace
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Speaker 1: of God. The next statement, and are justified by His
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Speaker 1: grace as a gift. We are justified by His grace
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Speaker 1: as a gift. This is a gift that God gives
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Speaker 1: to us. It's not something that we earn. Even the
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Speaker 1: faith that we have, we did not earn. Look with
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Speaker 1: me at Ephesians chapter 2, if you will. And look
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Speaker 1: at verse 8. For by grace you were saved through faith.
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Speaker 1: And this is not your own doing. It is a
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Speaker 1: gift of God or the gift of God. Not as
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Speaker 1: a result of works so that no one may boast.
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Speaker 1: By grace, through faith, it is a gift of God.
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Speaker 1: Not as a result of your works so that no
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Speaker 1: one may boast. so that you will have nothing to
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Speaker 1: boast about. Back in our text, in Romans 3, after
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Speaker 1: our passage, look at the beginning of verse 27. Romans 3, 27.
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Speaker 1: Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By
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Speaker 1: what kind of law? By a law of works? No,
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Speaker 1: but by the law of faith. For we hold that
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Speaker 1: one is justified by faith apart from the works of
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Speaker 1: the law. Or is God the God of Jews only?
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Speaker 1: Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of
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Speaker 1: Gentiles also. Since God is one who will justify the
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Speaker 1: circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, do we
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Speaker 1: then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means.
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Speaker 1: On the contrary, we uphold the law. Faith alone. Grace alone.
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Speaker 1: A gift of Almighty God. not as a result of
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Speaker 1: our works. Well, what is Rome's response to this? Trent,
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Speaker 1: session six, canon 30. If anyone says that the guilt
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Speaker 1: is remitted to every penitent sinner after the grace of
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Speaker 1: justification has been received, and that the debt of eternal
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Speaker 1: punishment is so blotted out that there remains no debt
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Speaker 1: of temporal punishment to be just discharged, either in this
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Speaker 1: world or in the next in purgatory, before the entrance
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Speaker 1: of the kingdom of heaven can be opened, let him
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Speaker 1: be anathema. Faith alone. Grace alone. But also, justification is
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Speaker 1: through the atoning work of Christ alone. We've heard that
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Speaker 1: so clearly and so beautifully. But listen to what Paul
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Speaker 1: says as he continues. through the redemption that is in
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Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by
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Speaker 1: his blood to be received by faith. It's the work
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Speaker 1: of Christ alone. Not your work. It's the work of
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Speaker 1: Christ alone. Justification is not something that's earned. Grace alone,
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Speaker 1: faith alone, the work of Christ alone This is what
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Speaker 1: justifies us. There is no room for boasting because we
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Speaker 1: don't contribute. The only thing we contribute is the sin
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Speaker 1: that needs forgiving. And I know that as I say this,
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Speaker 1: we're conditioned this way. We get uncomfortable because we go, ah, brother, okay,
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Speaker 1: I get it and I hear you, but you know,
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Speaker 1: we don't want to be about that easy believism stuff.
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Speaker 1: There's also got to be some obedience, right? Amen? We're
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Speaker 1: confusing what the gospel produces. with what the gospel requires.
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Speaker 1: The gospel produces obedience. The gospel doesn't require obedience. Watch this.
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Speaker 1: If the gospel required obedience in order for us to
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Speaker 1: be saved, then we wouldn't need the gospel because we
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Speaker 1: would be able to meet the requirements without it. Do
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Speaker 1: you follow? Obedience is what the gospel produces. Grace alone,
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Speaker 1: faith alone, the work of Christ alone His active and
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Speaker 1: passive obedience. In his active obedience, he keeps the entire
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Speaker 1: law on our behalf. And his righteousness is imputed to us.
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Speaker 1: In his passive obedience, he receives in himself the penalty
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Speaker 1: that is due to our sins. When our sinfulness is
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Speaker 1: imputed to him, this double imputation is essential. Christ's righteousness
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Speaker 1: imputed to us, our sinfulness imputed to him. This is
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Speaker 1: that great exchange that takes place on the cross. In
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Speaker 1: this propitiation by his blood that we've heard so eloquently
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Speaker 1: earlier today. That the wrath of God is completely and
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Speaker 1: utterly satisfied in the person and work of the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And our brother was so right If we're
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Speaker 1: not hearing about the wrath of God, we do not
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Speaker 1: comprehend the love of God. If we don't understand that
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Speaker 1: God is holy and he is righteous, and that he
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Speaker 1: must and that he will punish sin, all sin everywhere.
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Speaker 1: By the way, we get this. We all get this.
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Speaker 1: One of the first phrases that we learn to say
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Speaker 1: with confidence and conviction is, that's not fair. Amen. We
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Speaker 1: can say that one, can't we? And all the parents
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Speaker 1: in here, no. Like our kids can ring that one out.
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Speaker 1: You know, and it's usually accompanied with some, that's not fair.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's just, there's conviction in that one. It's
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Speaker 1: not fair. We know that righteousness is required. We get it.
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Speaker 1: We understand it. We understand that because we're made in
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Speaker 1: the image of God. And we cry out and we
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Speaker 1: yearn for righteousness. But we have a short-sightedness. We cry
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Speaker 1: out and we yearn for righteousness out there. But we
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Speaker 1: don't understand the implications of that righteousness that's required in here.
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Speaker 1: When somebody does something out there, we shake our fists
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Speaker 1: at God and we say, how dare you allow that?
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Speaker 1: That's because we willfully or willfully ignorant We're ignorant of
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Speaker 1: the fact that if God got rid of all sin
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Speaker 1: last night, none of us would be here today. The
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Speaker 1: wrath of God will be poured out, has been poured
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Speaker 1: out upon all sin. For those of us who are
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Speaker 1: found in Christ, the wrath of God was poured out
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Speaker 1: on Christ on our behalf. For those of us who
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Speaker 1: are not in Christ, the wrath of God will be
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Speaker 1: poured out on them throughout all eternity to the glory
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Speaker 1: of God and to the praise of His righteousness. It
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Speaker 1: is only when we understand this that we understand the
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Speaker 1: magnitude of Christ's glorious work on our behalf. Finally, This
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Speaker 1: is done to the glory of God alone. Listen as
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Speaker 1: Paul finishes. This was to show God's righteousness. By the way,
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Speaker 1: don't miss that. He doesn't say that this was to
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Speaker 1: save sinners. It was. But there's something else at play here.
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Speaker 1: God does this, not just to save sinners, but to
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Speaker 1: save people. This was to show God's righteousness because in
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Speaker 1: his divine forbearance he passed over former sins. It was
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Speaker 1: to show his righteousness at the present time so that
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Speaker 1: he might be just and the justifier of the one
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Speaker 1: who places faith in Jesus. So here are four of
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Speaker 1: the five solas. By grace alone, through faith alone, in
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Speaker 1: Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. There's only
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Speaker 1: one more sola, and that's sola scriptura. Where does that
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Speaker 1: fit in? Well, the reason that we know about salvation,
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Speaker 1: our grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and
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Speaker 1: to the glory of God alone, is based on the
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Speaker 1: authority of Scripture alone. Listen to Trent in response. Session 6,
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Speaker 1: Canon 24. If anyone says that the righteousness received is
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Speaker 1: not preserved and also not increased before God by good works,
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Speaker 1: but that those works are merely the fruits and signs
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Speaker 1: of justification obtained, but not a cause of its increase,
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Speaker 1: let him be At every point, at every point, Trent responds.
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Speaker 1: And we see the clear distinction. What is our mission
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Speaker 1: as restored in the Reformation? Our mission is the clear
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Speaker 1: distinction consistent, unapologetic, passionate proclamation of the gospel. Because without this,
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Speaker 1: men cannot find peace with God. Apart from this, men
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Speaker 1: will continue to outwardly pursue righteousness through a law that
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Speaker 1: can never justify them. Apart from this, men will continue
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Speaker 1: to live under the oppressive hand of those who promise
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Speaker 1: to show them the way to be right with God,
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Speaker 1: but can never deliver. Apart from this, men will work
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Speaker 1: endlessly and aimlessly and fruitlessly. in order to attain a
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Speaker 1: righteousness that cannot be attained through the keeping of the law,
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Speaker 1: but can only be attained through the person and work
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Speaker 1: of Christ. And what's more, Christ will be robbed of
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Speaker 1: his glory. And our desire is that Christ might have
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Speaker 1: the fullness of the reward for which he died. Any
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Speaker 1: man who believes that he can be justified by works,
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Speaker 1: believes that the atoning death of Christ was either insufficient
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Speaker 1: or completely unnecessary. Anyone who believes that anything other than
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Speaker 1: this is the mission of the church is someone who
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Speaker 1: has completely lost the plot. This is why we exist. Again,
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Speaker 1: this makes us uncomfortable because we want the other shoe
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Speaker 1: to drop. Listen, we're here for hours more. We can
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Speaker 1: talk all you want about the fruit that this brings forth,
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Speaker 1: but it's important that we make a distinction between what
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Speaker 1: the gospel requires and what the gospel produces. If we
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Speaker 1: get confused there, then we obliterate the gospel completely and
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Speaker 1: we experience mission drift. We're here to be faithful. We're
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Speaker 1: here to be clear. We're here to be consistent. We're
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Speaker 1: here to call men to repentance and faith, to trust
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Speaker 1: and be justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in
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Speaker 1: Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone, and
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Speaker 1: to remind them again and again and again that our
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Speaker 1: authority for doing so is Scripture alone. Nothing in me,
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Speaker 1: nothing in any man or in any institution but the
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Speaker 1: God who has revealed Himself in His Word. And it's enough.
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Speaker 1: In fact, it's more than enough. Amen? Let's pray. As
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Speaker 1: we bow, allow me to remind you of these words
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Speaker 1: from the hymn writer Horatius Bonner. who captures this beautifully.
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Speaker 1: Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul.
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Speaker 1: Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my
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Speaker 1: spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give
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Speaker 1: me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs
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Speaker 1: and tears can bear my awful load. Thy grace alone,
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Speaker 1: O God, to me can pardon speak. Thy power alone,
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Speaker 1: O Son of God, can this sore bondage break. No
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Speaker 1: other work save thine. No other blood will do. No
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Speaker 1: strength save that which is divine can bear me safely through.
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Speaker 1: Our gracious God and our Father, we thank you and
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Speaker 1: we praise you for your goodness and kindness and mercy
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Speaker 1: to us through the person and work of Christ. We
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Speaker 1: thank you and we praise you for justification that is
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Speaker 1: ours by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone,
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Speaker 1: and to the glory of God alone. And we are
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Speaker 1: humbled that you have revealed yourself in your word so
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Speaker 1: that we might know these truths on the authority of
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Speaker 1: scripture alone. Grant by your grace that we might hold
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Speaker 1: firmly to the call that you've given us To be
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Speaker 1: faithful to this as our mission. So that Christ might
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Speaker 1: indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died.
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Speaker 1: We ask these things in his name and for his sake. Amen.