 The title of our sermon this morning is the Foundation of Reformation, the foundation of Reformation. And it's not unusual at this time of year to find churches taking time in their preaching and teaching minister to remember an event or a period in church history known as the Protestant Reformation. And although the burning fuse of Reformation had been lit long before by men like Wycliffe and Huss, it was the work of a German monk by the name of Martin Luther that set off the explosion that has come to be known as the Protestant Reformation. It was the last day of October in 1517, Luther, a Roman Catholic at the time, took a document that he had written entitled The 95 Theses and with growing, with maturing convictions to uphold the truth of God as revealed in God's word, Luther went to the castle door or the castle church door in the small town of Wittenberg to nail his 95 theses there to the door in Germany. The action, this action was a typical way of sparking debate on important theological matters and that's what Luther set out to do. He set out to spark debate. However, the Lord had different plans in mind and the Lord used this otherwise simple spark to start a roaring fire that would sweep across Europe and throughout the world. It was the eve of All Hallows Day or Halloween. People would be flooding to the church at Wittenberg to see that church's collection of over 19,000 relics. There were pieces of Mary's hair. There were pieces of the manger. One person said there was enough pieces of the cross floating around to rebuild Noah's Ark. But it wasn't merely curiosity. It wasn't merely interest in these relics that brought people out to see them. What actually brought the people out to the relics was a false promise. What brought people to Wittenberg to see that display was false hope. It was a false hope that their time in purgatory, a false place, would be reduced for every relic revered, for every relic venerated 100 days off your time in purgatory, off your time in torment being cleansed of your former sins. But that absurd practice as unbiblical and as ungodly as it is wasn't even what compelled Luther to the church door that night on All Hallows Eve. Luther actually went to the door of the church that night in protest against the practice of indulgences. The Sistine Chapel was going to be built in Vatican City and money had to be raised for its construction. It was going to be a very expensive project. So Pope Leo X commissioned a monk named Tetzel to sell what he called indulgences. If someone bought an indulgence from Tetzel, they would receive forgiveness or absolution for the punishment due their sin. Tetzel would sing. He had a jingle. He was a master salesman and Tetzel would sing as he went when the coin in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory springs. It was this ungodly, this unbiblical practice, this false hope, this false promise that would drive Luther back to the text of Scripture and it would compel Luther up to the door of the castle church at Wittenberg. The Catholic church continues to make these man-made fictitious and superstitious practices even to this very day. And anyone who doesn't believe what Rome has concocted is said to be anathema or cursed to hell. So why would Martin Luther do such a thing? Why couldn't Martin Luther just go along to get along? Right? Why would others like him battle and fight for the truth? Why would they put their own lives at risk? Why would many of them give their bodies to be burned? Why were so many martyred for their faith? Why would we take time now during a worship service like this to consider these things and to remember the events and the people involved in them? Many would say today, what are you getting worked up about? Take it easy. There's nothing more to see here. Why are you getting so worked up? We can't make mountains out of molehills. That's what you're doing. You're making a mountain out of a molehill. The Reformation, many would say afterwards, the Reformation was nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. Great, swelling words, foaming, upheaval, battles that in the end simply don't matter. You know, we need to focus on what we're for and not what we're against. Actually had someone say that to me not too terribly long ago. You need to focus more on what you're for and not what you're against. Don't worry about what you're against. Focus on what we're for. Tolerance, understanding, reconciliation, all these things are the great themes of our day. If you speak too harshly, you're going to offend people. If you take a strong stance for the truth, you're going to turn people off to the gospel. Besides, we all believe in Christ. We all believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. We just need to love one another. Besides, Jesus Christ is love. What you claim to be love is actually hate when it's served up with a lie. What you claim to be love is actually hate when it's served up with a lie. Bold-hearted men are always called mean-spirited by cowards. Thank you, Mr. Spurgeon. So why would we then, why would we take time to remember the Reformation? Why would we think about these things? Why did the Reformation happen? What was the big deal? And why are we spending time on it today? I want to give you three reasons. First, the first reason that we would remember the Reformation is because it honors the Lord to remember and to consider his great works in history among his people. That's what the Reformation was. Reformation was a great work of God among his people in history. God's people have always done this. We see that in the words of Psalm 44. Remember verse 1 with me, Psalm 44 verse 1, We've heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us the deeds that you did in their days and days of old. We remember what God has done because they've testified to us of that great work. It says in verse 2, You drove out the nations with your hand, but them you planted, you afflicted the people, you cast them out, for they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them. But it was your right hand, God. It was your arm, the light of your countenance, because you favored them. Albert Martin commenting on this text says, The psalmist's concern here in Psalm 44 is not that of a historian. It's not merely a historical record. His account here is concerned is that of a saint, that of a believer who longs to see the name and cause of God advanced in his own generation, longs to see the work of God made clear and manifest. So we cannot contemplate for long God's past dealings in Psalm 44 verses 1 through 3 without this prayer then bursting from his heart in verse 4. You are my king, oh God. Command victories for Jacob. In other words, command victories in my time. Command victories for my generation. Through you, verse 5, we will push down our enemies. Through your name, we will trample those who rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, nor shall my sword save me, but you have saved us from our enemies and have put to shame those who hated us. In God, we boast all day long and praise your name forever, say la. These are God's works in history. That's the Reformation. It's God's work in history. The Reformation is the single greatest outpouring of God's spirit upon the hearts and minds of men since the time of the apostles. It is a great work of God. He worked through them. He worked in them. They may have planted, they may have watered. It was God who gave the increase. The Reformers would be the first to say that they were nothing themselves. Apart from God, they could do nothing. One plant out of the water is it's God who gives the increase. God works. And one of the blessed promises of God's word is that God has worked. We see God's faithfulness in time. And that's a testimony to us that God will work even in our day. And so thinking about the Reformation emboldens our faith that God is still at work and God will work even in our time. So why would we remember the Reformation? Second reason, that bold hearted, embattled and uncompromising spirit that we find in the time of the Reformation is as necessary in our day as it ever has been. More than being marked by mere cowardice, our day is marked by ignorance, marked by indifference, and that among professing Christians, an unwillingness to offend for the sake of truth, an unwillingness to contend earnestly for the faith, an unwillingness to draw biblical lines, or to challenge those who desire to do away with them or blur them. Darkness and immorality pervade our day just as darkness, ignorance, and immorality pervaded their day. In keeping with Paul's command to Timothy, in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 13, we must hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Our generation can't hold fast to anything. Apart from the Lord, we won't. Apart from the help of God's Spirit, we won't hold fast. But today, when no one wants to define anything, you notice confessions of faith or statements of faith are getting shorter and shorter and shorter, more and more vanilla. They don't want to say anything that would exclude anyone or offend anyone. We live in a day and age where no one wants to define anything. No one wants to take a stand for anything, least of all hard truths from God's word. No one wants to offend. That's the unpardonable sin is offense or intolerance, right? We must, Paul says, hold fast the pattern of sound words, especially in a day like our day. The time has now come when many will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they've heaped up teachers for themselves who have turned their ears away from the truth and turned them aside to fables. That marks our day. We need an understanding of the Reformation, an understanding of what those men and women did, an understanding of what God has done in history to embolden our faith to fight the same battles in our day. Third, Third, without the clear and faithful proclamation of gospel truth, people perish, inhale eternally, people perish. We must, brothers and sisters, we must contend earnestly for the faith in our day, just as they did in their day, because souls are at stake, souls are at stake. The lawless one works all unrighteousness and deception among those who perish, because they do not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And we must preach that gospel truth so that sinners might be saved. We have to preach the gospel. In the days of the prophet Amos, the Lord said this. He said to Amos, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, from north to east, they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it. And what we find missing altogether in the silence of that day is that which may be drowned out in the meaningless and erroneous noise of our day. And brothers and sisters, listen, we cannot remain silent. We cannot remain silent. The gospel must be preached. Hearing the truth of God in our day is like finding a glass of fresh water in a sea of pollution. And unless you speak, unless I speak, the gospel is threatened to be drowned out by meaningless clatter as it was drowned out in the silence of God in the days of Amos. To Jeremiah, to the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord said an astonishing and a horrible thing has been committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule by their own power and my people love to have it so. But God asked the question, but what will you do in the end? That is a terrifying, frightful question. What will you do? And if that's your condition, and that's what you're sitting under, then what will you do in the end when you face him in judgment and you believed a lie? Describes our day just as it does Jeremiah's day. Doesn't it's amazing how relevant the word of God is in our own day? Professing Christians love to have it so. Professing Christians love false teachers. You walk in any Christian bookstore, quote unquote Christian bookstore, and look at the books on the shelves. What are the books that are selling? What are the sermons that people are listening to? What are the churches that people are flocking to? flocking to error, flocking to teachers, heaped up to tickle their ears. What does all this mean? What does all this mean? Well, it means that the work that began with the Reformation is far from over. The battles that began with Satan in the garden is far from over. And as long as the Lord tarries, we must contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. And we call ourselves reformed. We call ourselves reformed. That means that you and I brothers, sisters, we are children of the Reformation, so to speak, descendants of the Reformation. We hold to reformed theology. What does that mean? What does that mean to be reformed? What does it mean that we are descendants of the Reformation? Reformed Baptists didn't come from the Anabaptists, that group of heretics. Reformed Baptists came out of the Reformation. What does it mean to be reformed? It means that we hold to that biblical expression of God's truth understood by those who came out of the Reformation, where every assertion of truth and every practice was tested and held against the authority and veracity of the Word of the living God. It means that we, you and I now stand downstream from those who went before us. And it's now our turn as it was once theirs. It's now our turn to add our blood, our sweat, our tears to that very stream, so that those who stand downstream from us one day may be blessed as we have been. I'm reminded of a hymn by Isaac Watts. I've quoted this hymn before I like it. Here it is. Listen, am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause or blush to speak His name? Now that is a challenge, right? Isn't it? Am I a soldier of the cross? Do I claim to be a follower of the Lamb? Then shall I fear to own His cause or blush to speak His name? May it never be. Must I be born to paradise on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? They put their blood in that river. What are we willing to give? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vain world a friend to grace? To help me on to God? Certainly not. Sure then, I must fight if I would reign. Increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain supported by thy word. And when thine illustrious day shall rise and all thy saints shall shine and shouts of victory rend the skies the glory, Lord, be thine. It's our time now, brothers and sisters. This is our blessed opportunity given us by the Lord. This is our day of Reformation. And the Lord Jesus Christ reigns. Much can be learned from the battleground of the Reformation. In the time we have a lot of this morning, I want to give you five theological principles that arose from the Reformation that continue to have significance and importance in our day. I want to give you five theological principles that have significance, continuing significance in our own day. They are worth fighting for today, right? These theological principles are known as the five solas of the Reformation. The first is Sola Scriptura, or scripture alone, scripture alone, Sola Scriptura. At the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church had been given over to the traditions of men. These traditions of the Catholic Church obscured the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to the Roman Catholic Church, the revelation of God is made up of both tradition and scripture, not scripture alone, but tradition and scripture. From the catechism of the Catholic Church, the catechism says this, sacred tradition and sacred scripture then are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. Both scripture and tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. What's interesting that they said there, that at least they're equal, that tradition should be accepted with equal reverence to scripture. But what does the Lord say? The Lord himself in Mark chapter seven, tradition, if given a foothold, always supplants the word of God. You do away with the commandments of God by your tradition. That's exactly what's happened with the Roman Catholic Church. Furthermore, Roman Catholic Church claims that the living teaching office of the church alone has the authority to articulate or interpret the word of God. That means that you don't and I don't, right? It was this error that led the Roman Catholic Church to produce and codify an unbiblical system of works righteousness. This is where this leads. These errors lead to further error leads to heresy leads to an ungodly unbiblical so called gospel. Under that unbiblical system, we then find a desperate and despairing Martin Luther forlorned at the end of his wits at the end of his rope. Luther applied himself diligently under this system to pursuing right standing with God. Luther wanted to be right with God. He wanted to be forgiven of his sin. He wanted to know that he was going to heaven. He wanted to be at peace with God, reconcile with God, and he knew that he wasn't. And so he pursued that as the church taught him to. He pursued that right standing with God through the sacrament or the system of penance. In keeping with Roman Catholic doctrine, every sin had to be confessed and every sin had to be absolved by a priest. And so Luther confessed frequently. He confessed daily for as long as six hours he spent in confession on one occasion. He was terrified that after hours and hours of confession, Luther would be on his way out the door and realize there was another sin that he'd forgotten, something else would be revealed to his heart, something else would be revealed to his tender conscience and Luther was terrified that he wouldn't be forgiven. He saw himself and by consequence all men as hopelessly sinful. Now is that true? That's absolutely true. That's exactly what the Bible says. Hopelessly sinful. That all men are desperately enslaved to sin. He was seized by thoughts of death, paralyzed by thoughts of hell, an avengeful God who would pour out punishment on him for his sin. As works of satisfaction in keeping with this system of penance, Luther would go above and beyond to ensure that he was pleasing in God's sight with works of satisfaction. Luther would fast for days on end. He shriveled up to virtually nothing. He would strip down to nothing in the cold and sit freezing on his cell floor. He would whip himself all of this to gain absolution for his sin. All of this to somehow punish himself temporarily to please the God that he saw as being wrathful against him for his sin. All in an effort to be reconciled to God. All in an effort to find true peace with God. Of course, this is what he was taught. All to assuage his guilty conscience. The experience left Luther with absolutely no confidence in his own merit. Left Luther with no confidence that he could appease God or earn forgiveness. Luther would try, and as much as he would try, he would sin again, and he would sin again, and he would sin again. And no absolution could have been good enough or meritorious enough to please a holy and perfectly, infinitely righteous God. You see, Luther was despairing. Luther was hopeless. He was destitute. He was bankrupt. And he began to see then the entire system is bankrupt. Why am I going through all of this if it affords me no hope of reconciliation with God? He saw the entire system as unable to save. He was destined for torment. He was destined to be placed under the wrath of God for his sin. He was condemned. And a question ate away in the back of Luther's mind. It began to gnaw at his heart. How can a sinful man ever be right with a holy God? It looked entirely impossible to Luther. Have you experienced that yourself? Have you come to that place that Luther's come to? That's what the Scripture teaches. Listen, how is it possible that a sinner like you, a sinner like me, can be reconciled to an infinitely holy, perfectly righteous, vengeful and avenging God? How can we be right with God? Apart from God, it's impossible. You are hopeless. I'm hopeless. We have no righteousness to commend us before him. All of our works are as filthy rags, the prophet Isaiah says. We can't do anything to commend ourselves. We are bankrupt. We are hopeless. We are destitute. The Scripture says you are poor, miserable, blind and naked. How can a sinful man be right with a holy God? Luther turned to Scripture and found his answer in Romans chapter one, verse 16. Turn there with me. Romans chapter one, verse 16. Luther had someone over him who was at a loss for how to help Luther. And so he pointed Luther to biblical studies, pointed Luther back to Scripture. And Luther went back to Scripture and it was in Scripture that Luther found the answer to his problem, his dilemma. Luther turned to Romans chapter one, verse 16, among many other passages, the Psalms included. But in Romans chapter one, verse 16, the Apostle Paul says this. He says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. For that gospel is the power of God to salvation, for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now listen to Luther's own words on this passage. Luther said, I greatly longed to understand Paul's epistle to the Romans. And nothing stood in the way of me understanding that letter, but that one expression, the justice of God. Luther had trouble understanding that particular truth, the justice of God. Because Luther says, I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. In other words, Luther saw the justice of God as factual evidence that God is righteous and he is unrighteous. And God is just in punishing the unrighteous. And so all that Luther expected from the gospel was punishment to his sin. He says, my situation was that although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner, troubled in conscience, and had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Sounds like the Apostle Paul doesn't it? Before the law, he says, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews, before the law, blameless, but in the eyes of God, ungodly, unrighteous. Luther saw himself as an impeccable monk, a blameless monk, but he stood before God nonetheless as a sinner, and his conscience accused him. He had no confidence that any of his own merit would ever assuage God or placate God's wrath. Therefore, Luther says, I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated him and murmured against him. He saw God as someone only who would condemn him. Yet, he said, I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant here. So night and day, he says, I pondered until at last I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that the just shall live by his faith. Apart from faith, the just isn't just. Apart from faith, the just is unjust, and he will die in his sins. He will die in his unrighteousness. But Luther sees the connection between the justice of God and the statement that the just shall live by his faith. And then he said, I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith in Christ. Thereupon, I felt myself to be reborn and have gone through open gates into paradise. The whole scripture took on a new meaning. And whereas before the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven. The righteousness, the perfection, the holiness that we need in order to be reconciled to a holy God was not a righteousness that Luther could earn. It was not a righteousness that he would ever attain to in his own efforts. It was a righteousness that Jesus Christ had already earned. It was a righteousness that was given to the sinner on the basis of faith freely by God's grace. And it was given immediately in Christ the moment that we place our faith and trust in him. And suddenly in a moment, in a moment, Luther found the peace that he so desperately longed for. Amazing, isn't it? That's the truth of the gospel. That's the gospel. Where are you this morning? Where are you this morning? Have you come to the place where you agree with scripture? You may not understand it. We can certify that you don't fully understand it. I don't fully understand it. Our own wickedness, the depths of our own depravity. But the Bible diagnosis our condition clearly gives us a clear diagnosis of our sinful state. Do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe what the Word of God says about you? Do you have any conviction over your sin? Do you see yourself as bankrupt before a holy God? Do you see yourself as void of any righteousness with which you may commend yourself to God? Can you see how there is no hope for you to attain peace with God, apart from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? It just so happens that the peace afforded by Luther, afforded Luther by the Spirit of God through the Word of God, was found in direct contrast with that system imposed on him by the Roman Catholic Church. These things are set in opposition. And the principle then of Sola Scriptura or Scripture alone was then planted deep within the heart of Luther. This is where the truth of the living God comes from. This is that which we can put our faith and trust in, right? The Lord Jesus Christ revealed in his Word. Luther was faced then with a question at the heart of the Reformation. Do I submit myself to the decrees of popes and councils? Or do I submit myself to the Word of God alone and embrace this promise from his Word? Who has ultimate authority? Is it going to be men, popes, councils, magisterium? Or is it going to be the Word of God alone? Not just Scripture, Scripture alone. Is the church the ultimate authority or is it the Bible, the Word of the living God? For Luther, the answer was clear, straightforward, simple, plain, Sola Scriptura. It would be later in this conflict with the church that Luther would then be brought before a council known as the diet of verms. And there at the diet, he was confronted with his own preaching, his own teaching, his own writing, or a stack of books on the table. With his own life hanging in the balance, Luther was given an opportunity to recant what he had written. It would be his own conviction regarding Sola Scriptura that would motivate his answer to the council. And here it is. Luther said this, Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and reasoning, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. We need the same convictions. We need the same convictions. James Montgomery Boy said this. He said in the 16th century, the battle was against those who wanted to add church traditions to Scripture. But in our day, the battle is against those who would have us to use worldly means to do God's work. We find practice in the Scriptures. That's why we practice the regulative principle as a church. We find what we are to do, how we are to do it. We find that all in the Bible. Worldly wisdom, worldly entertainment, worldly psychology, business models, business methods, church growth practices, human reason, church placebos, all an effect of abandoning solo scriptura. We need to have those same convictions. Secondly, one, the first, solo scriptura. Two, solo gradia. Solo gradia, grace alone. Not just grace, grace alone. Salvation is all of grace. Salvation is entirely of grace. From start to finish, salvation is all of grace. So many in our day today do not take the Scripture seriously. They don't take the Bible seriously. So they never come to the place where they face the same dilemma that Luther faced. If you don't take the Bible seriously, you don't take the Word of God seriously, you don't take what the Word of God says about you seriously, then you don't come to the same dilemma, the same question, the same problem that Luther came to. When you take the Bible seriously, when you understand what the Bible says about you, then you come to the place, as Luther did, where you see yourself as bankrupt and you're faced with the same dilemma. You're faced with the same dilemma that all genuine Christians face. If you're a genuine Christian, you faced this, the place where they see themselves as exceedingly sinful, the place where they see themselves as deserving of the wrath of God, destined for hell, citizens of hell, sons of their father the devil, children of disobedience, right where you see every faculty corrupted by sin, your imagination corrupted by sin, your desires corrupted by sin, your will corrupted by sin, your actions corrupted by sin. And you see God as dwelling in unapproachable light full of glory, worthy of all honor and praise. You may come to the point of asking the same question that Luther asked, how can a sinful man be right with a holy God? But you'll find coming to that question that the world vomits up a host of damning answers. Rome says you have to earn it. False religion says you have to earn it. Like Luther the Catholic monk, you must perform works of satisfaction, maintaining your justification. Others believe they're a good person. They disregard the diagnosis of Scripture. They disregard God's word concerning themselves, and they say, you know what, I'm a pretty good guy. And at the end of the day, when God takes out the scales of his justice, my good works are going to outweigh my bad works, and I'm going to make it in. I may squeak in. I may just get an outhouse on the edge of heaven, but I'm going to make it in. No. Many believe that they must earnestly say a prayer. If I say this prayer and I mean it when I say it, then I'll know that Jesus Christ has saved me. He's come to live inside my heart. They rest all their hope of heaven on the notion that Jesus saves them when they pray it right. The question is this. Does man do anything to earn or deserve God's grace and salvation? Does man do anything to affect the work of God in salvation? Does man take the first steps? Does man bring about then the desired response of God? Is there any work we can do? Is there anything we can do to earn it? Anything we do that can merit God's favor toward us? From baptism to penance to walking an aisle, to saying a prayer, to performing sacraments, going to Mass, is there a work that we can do? What is it? Is there a work that we can do to be saved? Some act of man's free will whereby we draw forth a saving response from God. Or is salvation all of grace from beginning to end? Those two things are diametrically opposed. Is it God Himself who initiates? Is it God Himself who calls? Is it God Himself who grants and justifies and sanctifies and glorifies? Is our salvation God initiating? God reaching out to lost sinners, dead in trespasses, and entirely independent of any reward for any work they have done? Giving them by a free and sovereign act of His own will, salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Is that how it works? Tell me the Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Let's take a look at Solagradia. Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, you'll see that we are dead in trespasses and sins, and it is God who makes the sinner alive in Christ. You'll see that we, being dead in trespasses and sins, walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. You'll find in verse 4, according to God's own mercy, He does this, and because of His great love, verse 5, even though we are dead in our sin, repeating verses 1 through 3, it is God who makes us alive in Christ, saving us entirely by grace. He does this, in other words, solely deogloria. For His glory alone, we see that in verse 7. And then Paul repeats that truth. He expands on it beginning in verse 8. Look at verse 8. For, he says, by grace you have been saved through faith. He expands on the truth of Solagradia by first reminding us of how we are not saved. Look at how we are not saved, verse 8. And that, that salvation by grace through faith is not of yourselves. Listen, it is not of yourself. It is not of yourself. It is not your own doing. It is, verse 8, the gift of God. In other words, God's free and sovereign decision to save you had nothing to do with you. Even the faith through which you believe the gospel is not your own doing, salvation is by grace. That salvation by grace through faith is, in its entirety, a gift of God. We don't contribute anything to our salvation. We are dead in trespasses and sins. How much can a dead man contribute to his own salvation? Not of works, verse 9. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. God doesn't save you because you do something or because you do anything that's good. God doesn't save you because you've done anything better or smarter or more clever than someone else or because he knew that you would believe in him and because he saw that you would believe in him, he decided to accept you or to save you. No. Think about it this way. I've used this illustration before. Have yourself and a friend, right? Let's say that you're a Christian. You profess to be a Christian. You profess to have turned from your sins to put your faith and trust in Christ. But you say, the reason that I'm saved is because I walked in aisle and I said a prayer. And when I said it, I meant it. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that he says he is. And because I've said this prayer earnestly, sincerely, I believe that Jesus Christ has come to live inside my heart. I believe that Jesus has saved me because I said this prayer. You have a friend who hasn't said that prayer. You're just as smart as you, just as gifted as you, just as good looking as you are or not good looking as you are. Whatever it may be, right? There's no difference. There's no distinction. Why is it that you are saved and your friend is not saved? Why is it? Well, you'll say because I made the decision to pray and receive Christ as my Savior. I made the decision to go forward. I made the decision to go to church. I made the decision to walk that aisle. I made the decision to say that prayer. I asked Jesus into my heart and my friend did not. Was that because you're smarter than that person? No, you would say that's not the case. Is it because you're more clever than they are? You're more thoughtful than they are. You saw the right thing to do and so you did it. They didn't recognize the right thing to do and so they didn't do it. You believe they don't believe. Is it because you're more holy than they are? No professing Christian would ever say such a thing. We know that that's not right. But why isn't it right? If that's the way that you think, you've done the smart thing. They've done the foolish thing. You've done the wise thing. They've done the unwise thing. You've done that, which you believe that you were supposed to do. They haven't done that, which you suppose they should do. You have something about which you can boast. Do you see how much, how that's a work? How that whole system is based upon a work. It's based upon a superstitious little sacrament of praying some silly little prayer because you think that saying that sincerely is going to reconcile you to the living God. It's not what the Bible teaches. The prayer is nowhere in the Bible. It's not on the basis of works. It is a gift of God. Lest anyone should boast. Verse 10, for we are His workmanship. If you're in Christ, you are entirely His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. You are a new creation in Christ. He's the one who does the creating work, not you. Created in Christ Jesus for good works. The Christian is a product of God's work from start to finish. He is the potter. We are the clay. He has complete sovereignty over the lump of clay. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The Christian is a work of new creation. God bringing something out of nothing. God bringing love and devotion out of a new heart in Christ when there was no real love and devotion for the Lord Jesus Christ before. God bringing new desires out of a heart that was once devoid of any desire, true desire for God, for the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't create ourselves. God does that creating work. What is the response then of the Christian? No boasting. No boasting. It's humility. It's humility. Think about where you came from. Think about the sin that you were rescued out of. Think about what you deserve. Think about what he has done. Think about what it has cost him. And the response of the Christian is humility. All praise and glory belongs to God alone. Solideo gloria. Third, sola fide, sola fide. Sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide. Faith alone. Not faith plus works, faith alone. Rome taught that God's treasury, saving grace, was available to the sinner through various means. You could access that treasury through multiple means, through baptism, through prayers, through sacraments, through indulgences. But we saw in Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, that our salvation is by grace alone. And that grace alone through faith alone. Listen to our confession, the London Baptist Confession of 1689. Listen to chapter 11, beginning in paragraph 1. Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins. In other words, by not by giving them the ability to become righteous themselves, right? Then requiring them to doggedly work to become righteous, or to become justified, or to maintain their justification. It's not the way that it works. He doesn't infuse righteousness into them. He forgives them of their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, not by imputing faith itself, or the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing Christ's active obedience under the law, and passive obedience in his death, for their whole and soul righteousness. And that's done by faith, which faith they have not of themselves, it is a gift of God. In other words, for the one who puts faith in Christ, genuinely, for the one who is justified, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, his perfect obedience in life, being obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross, his active obedience, and his passive obedience, the things which he has suffered, all of that is credited to the one who puts faith in Christ as their own righteousness before God. My works count nothing. There's nothing that I can do. Jesus Christ has done it. So it's his perfect obedience, his active obedience, his passive obedience, his perfect life is given to me as if it's my life, and that's done by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious gift. Can you see how pointless and fruitless Luther's agonizing was over trying to be righteous himself? Just simply cannot do anything to merit or earn salvation, right standing before God. Jesus Christ has done it all. Faith, thus receiving, listen, faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness is the alone instrument of justification. The only way that you can be justified, reconciled to God, is by receiving open, empty hands of faith. Just simply by receiving and believing upon, resting on the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness. I have none of my own. I have none of my nothing in my hands I bring simply to your cross I cling, right? He is my righteousness. And that alone, faith alone justifies. Yet it is not alone. That faith is not alone in the person justified, but it is ever accompanied then with all other saving graces and is no dead faith. But that faith works by love. It's a working, loving, empowering, enabling faith. We are credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and that freely by the grace of God through faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. It's a faith that works. It's a faith that is thriving and healthy and growing and maturing. Faith, if it's real, if it's true, if it's saving will produce good works. Those works contribute nothing to our justification. If you don't have them, it proves that your faith is not real. This salvation by grace alone through faith alone is found in Christ alone, solace, Christus, solace, Christus. Turn with me to Romans chapter three, Romans chapter three and drop down to verse 19 with me. Romans, Romans chapter three, verse 19. Listen to the Apostle Paul here in verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Works of the law can't bring about any merit, can't earn anything through works of the law. The law can only expose guilt. This is true of every single person. We are in bondage to sin and the law says so. We are totally depraved and the law says so, such that we are shut up under the law. You can't open your mouth. You have no defense. It's our tendency to give a defense, isn't it? A tendency to give a defense. But we have nothing to say because the law condemns us. The law says we are guilty. Therefore, verse 20, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be ever justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. No one is justified by keeping the law or doing anything under the law. We're not justified in that way. Verse 21, But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even namely the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ, given to all and on all who believe, who put their faith and trust in Christ. For there is no difference. It's a gift in other words. There is no difference because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You see? That's the doctrine of imputation, the imputation, the crediting of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, his active and passive obedience by imputed or a gifted righteousness, righteousness that is not our own, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness. By imputed righteousness, we are declared to be righteous. We are counted righteous. Luther would call it an alien righteousness, a righteousness counted to us, but a righteousness that is not a righteousness that is not our own. That's what we need. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. Luther found the perfect righteousness that was needed. He found that by faith in Christ. Verse 24, Being justified freely by his grace, grace alone, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, solus Christus, whom God set forth as a propitiation, as a satisfaction by his blood through faith, sola fide, to demonstrate his righteousness, the Lord's righteousness, because in his forbearance, in his patience, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Back to Luther's question, right? How could a sinful man be right with a holy God? How can God remain just and holy, true to his law, true to his word, and justify an ungodly sinner? How is it possible? Jesus Christ, solus Christus, right? Jesus Christ took upon himself the wrath of Almighty God for the sins of his people. God wasn't just sweeping sin under the rug. He wasn't just turning a blind eye to sin. He's not arbitrary or capricious like ala. God deals with sin according to his word, and he does so in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he does so for the benefit of his people. Luther came to understand this. John Calvin said this, he used this story, I love this. He used the story of Jacob from Genesis to explain this principle, this point. Listen, as Jacob himself did not of himself deserve the right of the firstborn. Remember Jacob and Esau, who was the firstborn? Esau was the firstborn, so Jacob had no right to the firstborn, the right of the firstborn, right? To the birthright. Jacob himself, did not of himself deserve the right of the firstborn, concealed in his brother's clothing, wearing his brother's coat, which gave an agreeable odor. He ingratiated himself with his father, so that to his own benefit, he received the blessing while impersonating another. So even using the selfishness of Jacob as an example of the gospel. Listen, we in like manner hide under the precious purity of our firstborn brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may be attested righteous in God's sight. We become closed in him, you see? And this is indeed the truth. For in order that we may appear before God's face unto salvation, we must smell sweetly with his odor. And our vices must be covered and buried by his perfection. I love that. It's a beautiful picture. In other words, we are clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve were clothed in the skin of the sacrificial animal as a picture of this. Rather than standing before God in the fig leaves of their own righteousness, we are clothed in the clean, white, stainless, perfect robes of Christ's righteousness. And this blessed estate is only through faith, faith alone. If I belong to Adam through my birth under the law, and we all do apart from Christ when you're born, you're born in Adam. But if I belong to Adam through my birth under the law, I share his guilt and I share his death. But if by faith I belong to, or I am in union with Christ, then I share in his righteousness and I share in his death for sinners. Luther came to understand this. Martin Luther, to a young friend who was struggling with guilt, struggling with his failure, Martin Luther wrote this. He said, when the devil throws our sins up to us, now you think with me for a moment, right? Martin Luther has come to an understanding of justification by faith alone, by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone. Martin Luther is now a saved person and he's come to embrace this glorious truth from God's word, Sola Scriptura. So then he's talking with a friend and he's counseling his friend now. Listen to what Martin Luther says. When the devil throws up our sins to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak this way. I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? And you hear Luther write his voice booming saying that. Of course I deserve death and hell. What of it? Right? You're going to accuse me? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means, for I know one who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and where he is there, I shall be also. That's faith in Jesus Christ, right? That's faith in Jesus Christ and it's all Jesus Christ. No one else. All of this, all of this is solely deogloria to the glory of God alone. So that man doesn't glory in himself, you see? All of this, it's magnificent. It's brilliant. It's majestic. It's glory. This great salvation that we've been delivered to. No man could have ever conceived of this. The proof of that is that anything that man conceives is wrought with wickedness and folly and foolishness. It's you get false religion. This is all to the glory of God. All the other solos point to or serve this truth solely deogloria. The glory belongs in this. The glory belongs to God alone, not in any way to the wisdom of men, not in any way to the winds of men. It doesn't matter what the Roman Catholic Church says or does. It doesn't matter what councils come up with. It doesn't matter what magisteriums say or do. It is entirely by God's word, Sola Scriptura. The salvation is by grace, Sola Gratia, through faith, Sola Fidei, in Christ alone, Sola's Christus to the glory of God alone. When we say Sola Gratia, Sola Fidei, Sola's Christus, we are cutting off any possibility of any glory owing to man for his status with God. But I said that prayer and I meant it when I said it. You're boasting. That's a boast before God. You think God owes you? But I went to Mass. I was at church every time the doors were open. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, wasn't I at church every time the doors were open? He'll say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. You who practice lawlessness, God will not share his glory with another. First Corinthians chapter one, listen, beginning in verse 26, Paul says this, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised. God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are so that no flesh should glory in his presence solely, Dale, Gloria. But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. You see, it's of him that you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. I don't know how anyone could have said it any clearer than the way Paul and ultimately the Holy Spirit says it in verse 30 of him, you are in Christ Jesus. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Begin that today if you haven't already. Begin that today. Luther sat one day with the Bible in his hand. Not unlike you're sitting here this morning with the Bible in yours. And Luther turned to Romans chapter one. He had been thinking on that passage. He had been meditating on it. He had been praying over it, working through it, racking his mind what is meant by the words of Paul, the just will live by their faith. And upon understanding his own condition upon understanding the gift of God in the gospel, understanding the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, Luther said it was as though the gates of paradise had been open to him. And what did Luther do? Luther with that truth presented to him simply believed, right? He trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart welled up with joy overflowed at the gift of God in Christ to save him by believing, by putting his faith and his trust in the Lord. And Luther was gloriously transformed. No more despair. No more under the condemnation of God. No more a debtor for his own sin. Now forgiven in Christ, forgiven in Christ cleansed a new man. And now out of love for the Lord Jesus Christ, what did Luther do? Luther became the bull of the Reformation, served the Lord in his day, right? Loved the Lord, witnessed for the Lord, preached the gospel, loved the Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit of God works in our day too. And the spirit of God works. Many of you here today are testimonies of that glorious work, right? Having turned from sin to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from sin now. Why will you die? Why will you perish? Why will you continue in your sin? The free offer of grace is held out to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says if God extends the scepter, right? The gold scepter. And he says, you can come. You can come. Come to me. All you who weary and are heavy-layed and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, right? Come. Turn from sin. Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and be saved. All praise, honor, and glory to the one who is alone worthy of it. Amen. Amen.