"Enough Is Enough!" Series

“Enough is Enough!”

Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 3:21-28

So most of us can picture an exasperated parent, perhaps it was you…. Your children were arguing or misbehaving and it’s just time to stop and you look at your kids and you say, that’s it! Enough is enough! That phrase can also be put into a question. When is enough, enough? When will I know whether or not I am doing enough? Maybe you work in a situation; in an office and you’re frustrated and you find yourself wondering, am I doing enough???.....will it ever be enough and you wonder will I ever be able to please my boss? So you go home each night with a nagging frustration of no matter how much you have done, no matter how hard you have worked…. Will it ever be enough? Have I done enough? Is my enough, really enough? And it can be a very frustrating place to be.

But let me tell you something that is even more frustrating. It is when you are asking that question about your relationship with God. And millions of people, some of you I am sure ask that question all the time. Is enough, enough? Is what I am doing enough to be forgiven? Is it enough to earn God’s love? People ask that question today and they were asking to 500 years ago during a time we now call the Protestant Reformation. There was a man named Martin Luther who had struggled with that very question; when is enough, enough?

Well we’ve been looking at 5 truths that have changed history. 500 years ago Martin Luther went to the church in Wittenberg Germany and he posted his 95 these. 95 complaints against the church. And these can be summed up in 5 teachings.

(1) Sola scriptura. Scripture alone. What is our authority? The Bible alone.

(2) Sola Gratia. Grace alone. What does it take to be saved? Grace. Nothing else.

(3) Solus Christus. Christ alone. We have one mediator. One. His name is Jesus Christ.

(4) Now today. Sola Fide. Faith alone. For by grace are you saved through faith.

These truths have absolutely change the history of the church and as I have said you must nail the same truths down in your life as well. What Martin Luther did 500 years ago you need to do today. Martin Luther didn’t come up with new ideas. Martin Luther went back to old ideas-to the message of Jesus; to the message of Scripture-the apostles and he asked the question, does my church look like what is described here again in NT and his answer was a resounding no. No it doesn’t.

Luther began reading Scripture he discovered the simple truth... We are not saved by how much we can do for God... We are saved by what Christ has done for us... By placing my faith in Christ and Christ alone. When Luther discovered this-he said, I feel now like I’ve been born again. Look at the Scripture with me. Romans 3:21-26 than one verse in Ephesians 2:8. I have it on the screen in several versions I want you to see it here... Ephesians 2:8.

When Luther saw this, he came to the conclusion that the system was broken and it must be fixed. Again this is not a message against the Catholic Church. The purpose of this series of messages is that God’s ways are better. We are sinners who are made right with God by grace alone, through faith alone in the person of Christ alone and that goes for their church and that goes in this church.

See the greatest moments in history have not been when people have come up with a new idea-you will remember Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun-the greatest moments in history have been when we have picked up this book and gone back to the master’s plan. When we have dug through the garbage in the false teachings, the truths that have been varied and have come back to what the Bible teaches us about how to follow Jesus. This series is not about which group do you want to be in?-this group or that group this is a group I want to be in. I want to be part of the group that goes right back to this book.

Verse 28. This is about as clear as it gets. There are three words that are very important here today. Three words I want us to look at. They are justification. Faith. Works. So was to talk about these three words and I want to help us understand what they really mean because we cannot understand faith alone until we get a handle on these three words.

1. Justification. It’s a legal word. It’s used in a court of law. And here is what we need to know. Justification is a position. It is not a process. It is where I am standing. God puts you in that position. You do not have to work to be justified. And when God justifies you it is just as if you have never sinned.