500 ago, on October 31st, a very special thing took place in Church history. A Catholic priest named Martin nailed a challenge to the Catholic Church on a Church door Wittenberg, Germany. It was called the “95 Theses” (or 95 criticisms) of the Roman Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences - which were essentially legal papers that “sold forgiveness”. The Catholic church taught that people who bought these papers were assured that they would not suffer for their sins in a fictitious place called Purgatory. Purgatory was a place where “good Catholics” had to go to work off the guilt of sins they already been forgiven of.
Luther rejected that false teaching and the Church became so angry with him that they intended to have him executed … but they just couldn’t get it done. But Luther wasn’t the first to challenge Catholic teachings.
ILLUS: About 200 yrs before Martin Luther, a Catholic priest in England named John Wycliffe had the audacity to declare that the pope and the church were second in authority to Scripture (That’s something the Catholic Church denies. They believe that they wrote the Bible, therefore they have authority interpret it or alter it as they see fit); he denied that the church had the authority to sell forgiveness (indulgences) and he began a translation of the Bible into English. This English translation wasn’t finished until after he died a natural death 64, but the Catholic Church wasn’t pleased that he was doing that. They condemned Wycliffe with these words:
"By this translation, the Scriptures have become vulgar, and they are more available to lay, and even to women who can read, than they were to learned scholars, who have a high intelligence. So the pearl of the gospel is scattered and trodden underfoot by swine."
For this reason the followers of Wycliffe’s teachings were often designated by Catholic officials as "Bible men". Bible men… there’s an insult for you. About 30 yrs. later, Catholic officials dug up Wycliffe’s body, burned his remains, and scattered his ashes over the river Swift to show their disdain for his efforts.
ILLUS: About 30 years after Wycliffe died, a man named John Hus also rejected indulgences and taught that we don’t have to pay for or work off our sins (essentially what Luther did 100 years later). The Church arrested him and burned him to death at the stake for his teachings.
These were brave men who faced the threat of death because they stood up for Scripture, but it was only when Martin Luther came along that things began to change. From the 1500s on, about 250 other brave men stepped up to join him, and they began what we call the REFORMATION MOVEMENT. They built their theology around something they eventually called the “5 Solas”. The 5 Solas were doctrines that they believed would be the 5 foundational truths of their belief system.
Sola means “Alone” or “Only”.
Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”): The Bible alone is our highest authority.
Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.
Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.
One Reformation Scholar said this about these 5 solas:
“Without these five confessional statements – Scripture alone, Christ alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and Glory to God alone – we do not have a true church, and certainly not one that will survive for very long. For how can any church be a true and faithful church if it does not stand for Scripture alone, is not committed to a biblical gospel, and does not exist for God’s glory? A church without these convictions has ceased to be a true church, whatever else it may be.” (James Montgomery Boice “Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace”, published by Crossway Books in 2001)
Now, that’s quite an endorsement of the 5 Solas. He was saying that if you don’t embrace these 5 statements you don’t have much of a church. And I have to agree - this all seems to be some pretty good stuff. But until the past year and a half I had never heard of the 5 Solas of the reformation movement (it was only because of the hoopla surrounding this being the 500th anniversary of Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses). How many of you have ever heard of these 5 Solas? (Only 2 or 3 people in each service raised their hands). That’s interesting. But there’s probably a very good reason you haven’t heard of these before… but we’ll talk about that in a few minutes.
First I want us to look at these Solas one at a time:
“Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.”
Paul writes in Ephesians 1:11–12 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, SO THAT we who were the first to hope in Christ might be TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY.”
In other words – one of the reasons God saved us was so that we could reflect His glory. Jesus said it this way
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and…” (Pause and wait for the audience to fill in the rest). That’s right – so that “they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
Everything we do should reflect back on god so that people around us would glorify God. There’s a poem I like that talks about this:
Have you been called to serve where others tried and failed? But with God's help and strength YOUR efforts have prevailed? (Pause) Touch not the glory.
Has God appointed you to some great, noble cause? Or put you where you hear the sound of men's applause? (Pause) Touch not the glory.
Have you some special gift? Some riches you can share? Or have you learned the art of intercessory prayer? (Pause) Touch not the glory.
A watching world still waits to see what can be done, through one who touches not that which is God's alone... Touch not the glory!” (Words by Erma Davison from the song, “Touch Not The Glory,” (C) 1993 Ron and Patricia Owens.)
God is really serious about this. In Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD: that is my name: and MY GLORY WILL I NOT GIVE to another…”
Now why would we want to “touch the glory” anyway? Well – here’s the problem We all like to be noticed. We all like to be appreciated. And so oftentimes, nice church people do what they do to get attention for themselves.
ILLUS: I once took part in a community sing in another community. There were specials and hymns singing and so on. But what caught my attention was the behavior of the pianist. He was very good. But he did something very odd. He’d play the verse as we sang along… but then he’d play an interlude. He’d play the 2nd verse for us… and then another interlude. He did this for each and every song we sang. Now, why would he do that? He did that because he wanted everybody to see how good he was! That’s not a good idea. He was trying to steal the glory from God and shower it on himself.
Music folks tend to do that sometimes. So do preachers, and Sunday School teachers, and Elders and just good solid workers in the church.
(Pause) Don’t touch the glory. It’s not yours, it’s His. And the church that understands that will serve God with all of their hearts and shake the world for Jesus.
Only God should get the glory for the glory belongs to God!
The 2nd Sola I want to look at this morning is: “Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.”
In John 14:6 Jesus said … “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME.
In Acts 4:12 Peter echoes Jesus: “… there is SALVATION IN NO ONE ELSE, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”
Now, why is that important? Why can’t people be saved in any other way? Well, because the ONLY other way to be saved would be based upon OUR righteousness. We’d have to be good enough to be good enough to get into heaven. BUT if we ever could be good enough to be good enough to get into heaven, then God would have to let us in… because we’d deserve it!!! He couldn't keep us out if He wanted to do, because we'd bought our ticket based on our own self-righteousness.
But the Bible teaches that’s never going to happen. None of us righteous enough to get into heaven. Romans tells us that “ALL of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So how many of you have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? (Everyone’s hand went up). Good, that means you agree with God. You also agree, that since you don’t deserve to go to heaven, you’d have a problem if it all depended on your righteousness. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. So if you and I got what we deserved… we’d go to hell.
Thus, the only way you and I’d ever have a chance of getting into heaven would be if someone would take our punishment for us. If someone else died in our place. But of course that someone would have to be without any sin of their own. They’d have to be the perfect sacrifice. Well, who do we know that would be without sin? That would be God wouldn’t it? Therefore (for us to have a chance of ever getting into heaven) God would have to take on human form and die in our place. That’s why Jesus was called “Immanuel” – “God with us.”
That was Jesus. Thus it’s by Christ alone that we are saved.
Now that leads us to the 3rd of the Solas: “Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.”
I did a word search a few years ago to find out what the Bible said “saved us”, and guess what the most frequent thing Scripture said was that saved us? In one form or another the most prominent reference to what saves us was “the Grace of God”. The “Grace of God’ means… you and I didn’t deserve to be saved. God DECIDED to save us.
“… God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved… For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:4-5; 8-9
While we were still dead in our trespasses - even when we had done nothing (and could do nothing) that would require God to forgive us - it was THEN that God choose to FORGIVE us… it was a GIFT.
Without the grace of God you could believe all day long; you could repent of your sins till you were blue in the face; you could confess Jesus as your Lord and Master over and over again; and you could be buried in the waters of baptism until the bubbles stopped coming to the surface - and it would do you absolutely no good. Because, without God mercy and grace… we’d all go to hell.
Now that brings me to the last 2 solas…. And here’s where the problem lies.
“Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”): The Bible alone is our highest authority.”
Now, how many of you believe that the BIBLE ALONE is our highest authority? Of course you do. In fact, one of our brotherhood’s mottos is: “Where the Bible speaks we speak and where the Bible is silent we are silent.”
Now if that was what the Reformation Movement meant by Sola Scriptura then we’d have no problem with with this “Sola”. But one reformation scholar describes “sola Scriptura” this way:
“Sola Scriptura acknowledges the authority of the CHURCH and its TRADITION, including CREEDS and CONFESSIONS, but always as subordinate to, and only as they agree with, the Scriptures…. More robust creeds and confessions seek to articulate what the entire Bible says on a given subject or a range of subjects. This is NECESSARY because IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to turn to one passage or book of the Bible to define baptism, prayer, atonement, or any other doctrine.”
(Rev. Jason Helopoulos is associate pastor of University Reformed Church (PCA) in East Lansing, Mich. He is author of “The New Pastor’s Handbook” and “A Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home.”)
ILLUS: Now, for the uninitiated, let me explain what is meant “traditions”, “creeds”, and “confessions.” Essentially these are human definitions of Biblical truths - and many of them are definitions that we’d agree with in principle. The problem we have with traditions, creeds and books of doctrine is that they end up being “filters” through which believers view Scripture. (I placed a piece of paper on top of a Bible and identified it as a Creed”) Rather than read Scripture, the folks in these kinds of churches simply believe the Creed/tradition/book of doctrine is the truth thru which the Bible must be understood. And that’s essentially what this reformation scholar was saying: he was saying we NEED church traditions and creeds because you could never arrive at a proper conclusion of what the Bible says by simply reading Scripture. It would be impossible because you’re just not smart enough!!!
Now, that’s pure hog wash! It’s balderdash! (Can I be any clearer than that?) And I can prove that this assumption by this reformation scholar is hogwash!!!
ILLUS: How did Luther, and Wycliffe and John Hus - and all those other guys - discover that the Catholic church was teaching wrong things? Did they turn to Church Tradition? Did they study Church Creeds? Did they meditate on books of doctrine? No? Well, where did they get the idea that Catholicism was wrong? They arrived at their conclusions by studying scripture!
They were Bible men learning Bible truths from Bible passages.
If you want truth about God’s will, don’t look to man-made creeds or traditions or books of doctrine, or any other form of human reasoning, because they don’t have the power OR the authority of Scripture.
II Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is GOD-BREATHED and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, SO THAT the man of God may be THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED for every good work.” (You don’t need anything else).
In fact (unlike human creeds/ traditions/ or books of doctrine), Hebrews 4:12 says “… the word of God is LIVING and ACTIVE, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
God’s Word is a powerful tool. It can accomplish wayyyy more than any mortal creed, tradition or book of Doctrine. In fact God tells us in Isaiah 55:11 “… my word that goes out from my mouth… will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
No mortal teaching can claim that kind of power.
ILLUS: And there’s another problem with Creeds. Back when Brad Taylor was our youth minister he’d often work with youth ministers from denominational churches in town. He once shared something he’d seen take place with these other youth ministers that shocked him. He found that these other youth ministers could quote you their church creeds flawlessly from memory. But when asked to give Bible verses to support those creeds… they hadn’t a clue. WHY? Because they’d become so reliant on those creeds that they never bothered to study Scripture for themselves.
And that’s why you’ve never heard of the 5 Solas from this pulpit or from any of our Sunday School classes. Those Five Solas are essentially a CREED - a Creed that many churches build their theology around. Now I don’t mean to be too harsh with the Reformation fathers for doing this, because it was that creed that served as a tool to bludgeon their way through the false teachings of the Catholic Church. But as a Creed it is inferior to knowing the Word of God itself.
The last Sola points out the weakness of human creeds like this one. “Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith ALONE in Jesus Christ.”
By faith ALONE? Where on earth does the Bible ever say that? It doesn’t. The only time the words “faith alone” EVER occur in Scripture is in James where it tells us that we are not saved by “faith alone.” (James 2:24)
If you were to do a study of Scripture as to what saves us - here’s a few of the things you’d find:
GOD’S PART
* The Words of Christ’s (John 6:63).
* The Works of Christ’s (John 20:30–31).
* The Blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14).
* God’s mercy (Titus 3:5).
* The Holy Spirit (John 16:8; Titus 3:5).
* We’re saved by Grace (Ephesians 2:8).
OUR PART
* Faith (Romans 10:10).
* Repentance (Luke 13:3; 2 Peter 3:9).
* Baptism (Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21; Titus 3:5).
* Calling on His name (Acts 2:21).
* Confessing Jesus is our Lord and Savior (Romans 10:10).
* We’re saved by heeding and continuing in the doctrine (1 Timothy 4:16).
All of this passages are part of the deal. Human creeds would pick and choose which ones they’d prefer… but you don’t get to pick and choose (this is not a smorgasbord). You either do things God’s way or you don’t. And if you don’t… you risk missing out on heaven.
CLOSE: Randy Alcorn tells the story of a professional singer Ruthanna Metzgar. She’d been asked to sing at the wedding of a very wealthy man. The wedding reception was to be held on the top two floors of Seattle’s Columbia Tower, the Northwest’s tallest skyscraper. She and her husband, Roy, were excited about attending.
At the reception, the bride and groom approached a beautiful glass and brass staircase that led to the top floor. Someone ceremoniously cut a satin ribbon draped across the bottom of the stairs, and the bride and groom ascended, followed by their guests. At the top of the stairs, outside the door to the great banquet room, the maître d’ stood holding a bound book…. And he asked them: “May I have your name please?”
She said “I’m Ruthanna Metzgar and this is my husband Roy.”
He searched the M’s. “I’m not finding it. Would you spell it, please?”
She spelled her name slowly. But after searching the book, the maitre d’ looked up and said, “I’m sorry, but your name’s not here.”
“There must be some mistake,” she replied. “I’m the singer!”
The maître d’ answered, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you did. Without your name in the book you cannot attend the banquet.” He motioned to a waiter and said, “Show these people to the service elevator, please.”
The Metzgars followed the waiter past beautifully decorated tables laden with shrimp, whole smoked salmon, and magnificent carved ice sculptures. An orchestra was preparing to perform, the musicians all dressed in white tuxedos. They were placed on the service elevator and were transported down to the garage where they got in their car and left.
They drove away in silence, and after a few moments Roy reached over put his hand on her arm. “Sweetheart, what happened?”
She began to cry as she said “When the invitation arrived, I was busy. I never bothered to RSVP. Besides, I was the singer. Surely I could go to the reception without returning the RSVP!” (Randy Alcorn – 50 Days of Heaven p. 23)
