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The Five Solas (2022): Sola Fide · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

• 0:00
  Tomorrow we may find ourselves inclined to celebrate the 505th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 theses being nailed to the door of the Wittenberg church.
• 0:12
  ! An event which ignited a flame of doctrinal purification in Europe.
• 0:18
  The argument of this document or his reasons why the selling of indulgences for the forgiveness of sin was not biblical.
• 0:30
  This was done in a way, I think many people think that it was this massive act of boldness, which it was bold to be sure, but people think, whoa, he nailed something to a church door.
• 0:43
  This is where notifications were posted in the day.
• 0:48
  What Luther was doing was trying to begin a conversation.
• 0:51
  He was trying to draw the church back to the scripture.
• 0:56
  It was his great desire to see the Catholic Church actually reform.
• 1:03
  In fact, it's a little interesting that we call it the Reformation when in fact it was a separation, most largely.
• 1:10
  Much of the reformers' teaching, which we are indebted to and grateful for, has been summed up systematically in what are known as the five solas of the Reformation.
• 1:23
  They are sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, and soli Deo Gloria.
• 1:33
  If that all sounded like a different language to you, it is.
• 1:37
  That's Latin.
• 1:39
  And I would encourage you to know at least some Latin if you're going to read well what those who've gone before us have written about the Bible.
• 1:48
  So, let me give it to you in English.
• 1:51
  The Bible alone teaches us that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
• 2:06
  Now, the reformers were speaking to audiences that considered themselves Christian, much like our day.
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  Generally, there was not opposition in their day to scripture or grace or faith or Christ or the glory of God.
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  But there was addition and subtraction from these key doctrines.
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  And that is why the reformers loved the word alone or only.
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  They were drawing attention to this and saying this and nothing else.
• 2:39
  There exists in every age a temptation to drift from the absolutes.
• 2:47
  I think the great danger for us is that these grand truths get assumed.
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  That the battle for them has already been fought.
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  And we may come to think that they no longer need to be contended for.
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  And we may get distracted by lesser disagreement.
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  And certainly there are many truths to uphold and to stand firm on.
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  But let us not lose sight of the gospel itself.
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  So as a continued brief break from Romans, my original plan for Romans has just been thrown out the window at this point.
• 3:25
  And I hope to get back on track next week.
• 3:28
  But as a break from that, let's consider the reformation theme today of Sola Fide by turning to Galatians chapter 3.
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  I do hope you have a copy of God's word with you today.
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  Probably pull it up on your phone.
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  People died that you might hold that precious word in your hands today.
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  Our text will be Galatians 3 verses 10 through 14.
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  Before I read it, beloved, let me remind you that this is God's word to us.
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  It has bearing for us today.
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  It was written for his glory and for our good.
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  And so we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
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  Galatians chapter 3 verse 10 and following.
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  For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
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  For it is written,
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  Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law.
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  And do them.
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  Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.
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  For the righteous shall live by faith.
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  But the law is not of faith.
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  Rather, the one who does them shall live by them.
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  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
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  For it is written,
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  Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
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  So that in Christ Jesus,
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  The blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
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  So that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
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  Now the producer of a podcast called The White Horse Inn conducted a survey at a conference for evangelical pastors where he asked the following questions.
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  Remember the framework here.
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  He's at a conference of pastors, professing evangelical pastors.
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  And he asked these two questions.
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  Are we justified by faith alone?
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  By faith and works?
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  Or by works alone?
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  And, second question,
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  In your view, is justification a one-time declaration or a lifelong process?
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  These two questions are pursuing the same point.
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  A point that is extremely vital to a proper understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ.
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  So take a moment and consider how you would answer those two questions.
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  Here they are again.
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  Question one,
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  Are we justified by faith alone?
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  By faith and works?
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  Or by works alone?
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  And, number two,
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  In your view, is justification a one-time declaration or a lifelong process?
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  Now remember, I'm saying to you,
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  We need to contend for truth in our day.
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  So, here's the great example of that.
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  The majority response of the pastors at this particular conference were,
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  We are justified by faith and works.
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  Now, I think this is a response likely resulting from a misunderstanding of James' argument from the book of James.
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  I think they're accessing some scripture references in their mind,
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  But they're not articulating well the proper position.
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  And, again, the majority response of these pastors is justification is a lifelong process.
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  Now, if you answer these questions in the same way,
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  I want to tell you this morning that you are dreadfully wrong.
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  This is likely not entirely your fault.
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  You may have grown up in a church with a pastor that never addressed the matter or did so poorly.
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  But, beloved, a proper understanding of justification is at the very heart of the gospel.
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  And at the end of all things, you will not be able to plead before God that your Bible went unread because of the church you grew up in.
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  The scripture is clear on the matter.
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  If we fail to understand justification through faith alone,
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  We fail to understand the gospel.
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  In fact, any misunderstanding of justification is antithetical to the gospel and is very egregious.
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  I fear that in our day there is more misunderstanding of how a person is saved than there was in the medieval Europe of Luther's day.
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  He was able to at least point at a single heresy where we find many complications of heresy in our day.
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  So let's be sure today that we all have a clear understanding of justification through faith alone so that we can be saved.
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  You may not be in Christ this morning.
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  We want you to hear the gospel and respond in repentance and faith so that we can have assurance of that salvation.
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  What is true of the gospel of Jesus Christ for us?
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  And so that we can help others come to faith and have assurance of their salvation.
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  So to do so, we're going to look at this text in Galatians and ask and answer in some measure four questions.
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  Number one, what does it mean to be justified?
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  Number two, why do we need to be justified through faith?
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  Number three, how are we justified through faith?
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  And number four, what is the relationship between faith and works?
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  So number one, what does it mean to be justified?
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  You won't find this definition in the text.
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  I'm going to give to you a definition that will be a working one and we may use it again this morning.
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  Justification is a one-time declaration that we are righteous before God.
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  The doctrine includes both the idea that our guilt has been expunged, has been forgiven, it no longer exists, and that we have been granted perfection.
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  Our debt has been canceled.
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  Our debt has been canceled and to our credit has been all of the righteousness that God requires.
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  The occasion for Paul's writing this letter to the Galatian church was men who had come teaching what Paul calls a different and contrary gospel.
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  In Galatians chapter one and verse six into seven, he says, I am astonished that you were so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel.
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  Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
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  He then has strong words for anyone who would preach such a gospel.
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  He says, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.
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  As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
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  These men that he's referring to who are often called Judaizers were teaching faith in Jesus Christ plus circumcision and the observation of certain feasts.
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  We see this evidence throughout the test, we see this evidence throughout the test, but Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus the observation of certain feasts equals justification.
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  Faith and works equals justification.
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  They said, in essence, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Faith is good, but also, and Paul cries out an emphatic no, by faith alone is one justified before God.
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  So, what does it mean to be justified?
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  It means to be declared righteous before God, right?
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  Our guilt expunged, Jesus' perfection granted to us.
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  This is the doctrine of double imputation.
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  Second question, why?
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  Why do we need to be justified through faith?
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  Why does this matter at all?
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  And I love here in these few verses, verse 10 and verse 11 and verse 12, as Paul is apt to do, he preaches a short expositional sermon and he cites the text again and again.
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  He says, beginning in verse 10, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
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  For it is written, and this is Deuteronomy 27, 26, curse be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.
• 12:39
  Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for, this is Habakkuk 2, 4, the righteous shall live by faith.
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  But the law is not of faith, rather, Leviticus 18, 5, the one who does them shall live by them.
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  We are, apart from the intervention of God in Christ, cursed and incapable of earning our justification.
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  This is the argument that Paul is making here.
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  He's saying to these Galatian believers, why would you put any value for your justification in circumcision or in keeping feasts, right?
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  These will never justify you before God.
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  The law was always meant, firstly, to point us to our need of a savior, someone to fulfill its demands on our behalf.
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  As previously stated, we are justified through faith alone.
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  No one is or ever will be justified by their works.
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  Paul is so abundantly clear about this.
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  Romans 3, verse 10 and following.
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  This is a text that I read last week, but it bears repeating it.
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  Another one of his wonderful Old Testament expositions.
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  He's citing from Psalm 14, 1 through 3, and 53, 1 through 3, and Psalm 5, 9, and Psalm 143, and Psalm 110, verse 7, and Proverbs 1, 16, and 3, 15 through 17, and Isaiah 59, 7 through 8, and Psalm 36, 1.
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  The Bible is replete with this.
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  It's everywhere in it.
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  Don't miss it.
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  He says in Romans 3, 10 and following, citing these texts.
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  None is righteous.
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  No, not one.
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  That includes you, apart from Christ.
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  No one understands.
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  No one seeks for God.
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  All have turned aside.
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  Together they have become worthless.
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  No one does good.
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  Not even one.
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  Their throat is an open grave.
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  They use their tongues to deceive.
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  The venom of ass is under their lips.
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  Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
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  Their feet are swift to shed blood.
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  In their paths are ruin and misery.
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  And the way of peace they have not known.
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  There is no fear of God before their eyes.
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  It doesn't matter where you find yourself positioned in life.
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  You may have grown up in the church.
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  You may be a generally moral person.
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  But this is true of you.
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  There is no exception clause in it anywhere.
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  There's no parenthetical unless you grew up in a Southern Baptist church.
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  In fact, if there were to be a parenthetical in this, he might say, especially if you grew up in a Southern Baptist church.
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  Paul has been pressing this same point in his letter to the Galatians.
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  Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16.
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  There he writes, we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
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  So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
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  Because by works of the law, no one will be justified.
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  Are we beating the dead horse?
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  Sadly, I think that we too quickly forget these precious and wonderful truths.
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  Once a person realizes their need of justification, there is no greater question for that person to ask than how must I be justified?
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  When an individual realizes their great guilt, the weight of their rebellion against the most holy God, this is the question that follows.
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  How might I be saved?
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  It is of highest importance this morning that you see your need of justification by faith alone.
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  Now, what is faith?
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  Faith is not merely a mental ascension, but it is belief or I prefer trust.
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  It is throwing yourself on the mercy of Christ and the promises found in him in the scripture.
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  Because this trust cannot be displaced anywhere that you would like.
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  There is one way that we are saved.
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  We are justified before God.
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  And that is by faith in Christ.
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  The reformer said alone.
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  Christ alone.
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  You cannot simply have faith in anything, but you must place your trust in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  So, we must think why we need to be justified through faith.
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  We can't accomplish it on our own.
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  We must see it accomplished by someone else.
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  We must have a righteousness that's granted to us.
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  We must have the forgiveness of our sins accomplished for us by another.
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  Which leads us to our third question.
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  How is it?
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  How is it that we are justified through faith?
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  Look at the rest of our text.
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  Verse 13 and 14.
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  Paul here says Christ redeemed us, bought us out of the slavery of sin.
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  Redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
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  For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
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  So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
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  That we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
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  So, saving faith, trust that Jesus is the Christ.
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  This promised redeemer and the son of God.
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  It throws itself on his perfect life and his sacrificial death.
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  First John 5.1 says,
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  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.
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  There's a lot packed into Paul saying Christ.
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  The Christ, right?
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  The promised redeemer has redeemed us.
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  And saving faith, trust in the work of Christ.
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  The text says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
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  So that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
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  I see in these two phrases both sides of justification.
• 19:50
  Recall that I previously defined justification as a one-time declaration that we are righteous before God.
• 19:58
  The doctrine includes both the idea that our guilt has been expunged and that we have been granted perfection.
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  So number one, we see that our sins have been forgiven because Christ became a curse for us.
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  Because God is just.
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  He cannot merely dismiss crimes against him.
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  He can't set aside his justice.
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  God is always who he is at all times.
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  He can't simply like overlook it the way we can tend to do.
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  He must punish sin.
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  It must be punished.
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  So if there was any way for our sin to be forgiven, it must be punished in someone else.
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  If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then your sins were punished in him.
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  This is often called Jesus passive obedience.
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  He died in your place.
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  He was the sacrifice that you needed in your stead as your substitute.
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  This is called substitutionary atonement or if you like penal substitutionary atonement.
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  It is the very core of the gospel.
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  And many in our day who profess to be Christians deny this doctrine.
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  Your sins were imputed to Christ as he suffered on the cross.
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  He experienced the infinite wrath that was due your sin if you would just believe in him.
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  So the debt could be canceled because he paid it on your behalf and mine.
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  And secondly, we have been granted his righteousness because we have received the promised spirit through faith.
• 21:56
  In verse 11, Paul writes Habakkuk 2.4, the righteous shall live by faith.
• 22:02
  And in Romans 8.4 and verse 9, Paul says,
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  In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
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  You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
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  If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
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  You see, God requires perfection.
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  And through faith we are made perfect in Christ.
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  We're given the seal of our salvation, the Holy Spirit.
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  Christ perfectly kept God's law and his righteousness is imputed to us.
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  The great exchange Martin Luther called this.
• 22:47
  We can find in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21, a beautiful summary of Christ's work in our justification.
• 22:57
  For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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  This double imputation is what justifies us through faith.
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  It cannot be achieved by works, but only through faith in Jesus Christ's person and his work.
• 23:22
  Faith is the instrument of our justification.
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  But our justification is still all of grace.
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  That is why we do not say we are justified because of faith.
• 23:37
  That is why we wring out the treasures of texts like Ephesians chapter 2, which we looked at last week.
• 23:47
  We are justified by grace alone through faith alone.
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  Grace at work in us bringing about faith.
• 23:57
  The reformers spoke of faith like an open hand, a hand that receives the merit of Christ.
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  This is why we so often link the solas together as we speak of them.
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  We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
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  In this way, saving faith is a resting faith.
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  It rests in Christ's work on our behalf.
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  And beloved, I am a driven person.
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  I'm the worst boss that I've ever had.
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  I'm very critical of myself.
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  I always feel like I could be doing more and better.
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  The gospel speaks to this for me.
• 24:49
  I'm so quick to forget.
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  I'm so apt to think that I have to now keep up.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:56
  Saved by grace alone through faith alone.
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  But now, but now I got to get busy.
• 25:01
  I tend to have a debtor's ethic.
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  But saving faith is a resting faith.
• 25:09
  Jesus said it is finished.
• 25:12
  My acceptance before God is all because of what he accomplished and not because of what I accomplish.
• 25:22
  Jesus told a parable in Luke chapter 18.
• 25:26
  I think just a few weeks ago, Cody brought this text to us during our Lord's Supper gathering.
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  He said this to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
• 25:41
  Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
• 25:47
  The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
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  I fast twice a week.
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  I give tithes of all that I get.
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  And I think in all of us, there's this tendency to allow self-righteousness to take hold in our hearts rather than be humble like this tax collector.
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  This is Luke 18, verse 13 and following the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.
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  But he beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
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  And Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
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  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
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  But the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
• 26:46
  I hope this morning that you, along with me, are resting in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  But what of works?
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  Right.
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  Question number four.
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  What is the relationship between faith and works?
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  What of all the commands of Scripture?
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  What of the moral law?
• 27:14
  Can a Christian now just live in any way that they please?
• 27:18
  Paul denounces this type of thinking in Romans chapter six.
• 27:22
  He says, what shall we say?
• 27:24
  Then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
• 27:27
  And he says with the strongest language Paul uses in Greek by no means.
• 27:33
  How can we who died to sin still live in it?
• 27:40
  If we are, in fact, in Christ, if he has made us new birth in us faith, that is also going to produce good works.
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  Right.
• 27:50
  We now have Galatians 3, 14 tells us the spirit of Christ within us.
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  Good works are the evidence of true faith.
• 28:02
  And we must get this equation right.
• 28:04
  And I know that I tell you this often.
• 28:06
  So not Jesus plus circumcision and the observation of certain feasts equals justification.
• 28:11
  This is the problem for the Galatian believers.
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  Or Jesus plus attending church or sharing the gospel.
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  Or going on mission trips or dressing a particular way or avoiding coarse joking or serving the poor equals justification.
• 28:30
  All good things.
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  But rather, faith in Jesus Christ equals justification.
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  Which yields good works.
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  Evidences.
• 28:43
  True faith.
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  Evidences itself.
• 28:47
  In good works.
• 28:47
  Martin Luther notoriously called the book of James an epistle of straw.
• 28:55
  Yikes.
• 28:56
  And he wished it had been excluded from the canon because of its apparent contradiction of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
• 29:05
  In fact, he offered an award to anyone who could reconcile James and Paul.
• 29:10
  I think this was largely a reaction to Rome's improper use of the book of James.
• 29:18
  It was widely abused.
• 29:20
  And I think it was his kind of knee-jerk response to the way that they used it to teach justification by works.
• 29:29
  So let's think together briefly.
• 29:31
  We, not too long ago, studied the book of James.
• 29:34
  But if you will with me, I'd like to turn to James chapter 2.
• 29:39
  Let's think together about this relationship between faith and works.
• 29:47
  Let's do what we can to reconcile James and Paul in conclusion this morning.
• 29:53
  James chapter 2, beginning in verse 14.
• 30:01
  James writes,
• 30:02
  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
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  Can that faith save him?
• 30:10
  Right?
• 30:10
  You can already feel that.
• 30:11
  After everything I've said, what?
• 30:13
  What is going on?
• 30:14
  What is happening?
• 30:15
  In James' letter.
• 30:17
  He says,
• 30:18
  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them,
• 30:23
  Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
• 30:29
  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
• 30:35
  But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.
• 30:39
  Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.
• 30:44
  You believe that God is one, you do well.
• 30:46
  Even the demons believe and shudder.
• 30:51
  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
• 30:56
  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
• 31:02
  You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works.
• 31:08
  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, this is Genesis 15 and verse 6,
• 31:12
  Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
• 31:18
  And he was called a friend of God.
• 31:22
  So there's the end of verse 23.
• 31:25
  Now, another text.
• 31:26
  This is Paul.
• 31:27
  So we've got James.
• 31:29
  Let's pick up Paul.
• 31:30
  Romans chapter 4, verses 1 through 3.
• 31:34
  Listen to the apparent contradiction.
• 31:36
  Paul says, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?
• 31:46
  Or works, you could insert there.
• 31:49
  For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
• 31:56
  For what does the scripture say?
• 32:00
  Genesis chapter 15 and verse 6.
• 32:02
  They're citing the exact same Old Testament text.
• 32:05
  Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
• 32:13
  Do these two men disagree?
• 32:17
  I'd say to you, no, they do not.
• 32:20
  What James is trying to communicate is that true faith works itself out.
• 32:25
  It must give some evidence in the world that it, in fact, exists.
• 32:32
  How do we know that Abraham had faith in the promise of God?
• 32:38
  That he obeyed the command of God.
• 32:41
  He didn't just say, yeah, yeah, I know.
• 32:44
  You'll bring about a great offspring through my son.
• 32:48
  God says, but I'm asking you to sacrifice your son.
• 32:50
  He goes, well, I'm not going to do that.
• 32:51
  But I have faith that you're going to bring about a great offspring through my son.
• 32:57
  He evidenced that very faith.
• 33:03
  So, I think there's Paul and James reconciled.
• 33:09
  Paul driving a point where justified by faith alone.
• 33:12
  James driving the point which will evidence itself in work.
• 33:16
  It will show itself to be true faith in its working.
• 33:23
  And so, I feel like the offspring of Martin Luther owe me something.
• 33:27
  I think he made a promise.
• 33:29
  Come on, pay up, Luther.
• 33:31
  Now, later in his life, he seemed to arrive at the same conclusion.
• 33:35
  I'm very pleased to say.
• 33:36
  He said, oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith.
• 33:44
  And so, it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly.
• 33:48
  It does not ask whether there are good works to do.
• 33:51
  But before the question rises, it has already done them and is always at the doing of them.
• 33:57
  He also said, and this is the quotation on your bulletin this morning, faith is a living, restless thing.
• 34:05
  It cannot be inoperative.
• 34:07
  We are not saved by works.
• 34:09
  But if there be no works, there must be something amiss with faith.
• 34:16
  So, in conclusion, we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone.
• 34:25
  This justification is a one-time declaration of our righteousness in Christ, which evidences itself in our activity.
• 34:35
  Let us not confuse our sanctification with our justification.
• 34:41
  A faith that rests in the merits of Christ is a faith that works in grateful response.
• 34:48
  May we not lose sight that this is the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
• 34:56
  That it is a faith worth living for and it is a faith worth dying for.
• 35:02
  We suggest to you that this is a hill that we still need to stand on.
• 35:08
  We are still Protestants.
• 35:10
  And we must contend for this truth.
• 35:13
  Let us be vigilant to guard it in order that we can be saved.
• 35:21
  We can have the assurance of our salvation in the completed work of Christ.
• 35:26
  And so that we might help others come to faith and have assurance of their salvation.
• 35:33
  And may we do all of this to the glory of our great God.
• 35:38
  Let's pray.
• 35:39
  Let's pray.