Prayer Service 10-18-23
Notes
Transcript
Opening Prayer.
Supplications First.
Layce’s Dad and Brother (Hugh and Travis)
Those affected by wars in Israel and Ukraine
The Legges and the Sawyers
HeartCry, RBNetwork, and IMB missionaries
Ongoing Health Needs: Luke Walters, Mark Hill, Danny Williams, Gale Jenkins, Sonya Picon, Makenna Cook, Ty Benton, Hope Sanders, Allen Garver, Randy Young.
Help for our Marriages and Families
Help for our Nation
Help for “our” church.
Introduction:
-Well, with Reformation Day coming up soon...
…I thought it would be a good idea...
…to spend a few weeks looking at the...
Five Solas
Five Solas
I want to begin with a short historical overview.
It wasn’t just a coincidence that the Reformation was ignited...
…on the day that we call Halloween.
We often overlook this correlation...
…but Martin Luther...
…intentionally chose that day to nail his 95 Theses...
…to the castle church door in Wittenburg, Germany.
This commentary explains why that was:
All Saints Day:
A feast celebrated in the Western Church on the first of November to commemorate Christian martyrs and all those who have led conspicuously holy lives. . .
It is also known as All Hallows, and so the popular celebration of Halloween (traditionally spelled Hallowe’en) began as a celebration of All Hallows Eve.
On the day after the feast, All Souls Day, the Catholic Church prays for all departed souls, but particularly those undergoing purgation - Dictionary of Christianity in America
Here’s why that matters...
And how it came to raise the ire of Martin Luther.
In 1517, a Dominican itinerant named John Tetzel began to sell indulgences near Wittenberg with the offer of the forgiveness of sins.
This crass practice had been inaugurated during the Crusades to raise money for the church.
Commoners could purchase from the church a letter that allegedly freed a dead loved one from purgatory.
Tetzel’s famous line was, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
This horrible abuse enraged Luther. He determined that there must be a public debate on the matter.
On October 31, 1517, he nailed a list of Ninety-five Theses regarding indulgences to the front door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg — Pillars of Grace
So on the eve of this “holy day” that both:
celebrates the dead...
sought to work them out of Purgatory...
…Luther seeks to engage in public debate...
…about the unbiblical nature of:
The “sacrament of penance”
The selling/granting of indulgences.
Here are a few of his theses statements:
1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” [Matt. 4:17], He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
2. This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.
21. Thus those indulgence preachers are in error who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by the papal indulgences.
27. They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.
32. Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned, together with their teachers.
36. Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters.
62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God. - Luther’s Works, Volume 31
Luther had intended these theses...
…to be the catalyst for local, scholarly debate.
But as divine Providence would have it...
…a copy fell into the hands of a man...
…who was in the possession of one of the newly invented:
Gutenberg printing presses!
With this new technology behind it...
…Luther’s theses “went viral”
What came about as an unintended consequence of this event...
…was a wide-scale, much needed reformation of Western Christianity.
Steve Lawson explains:
In time, the message of the Reformers became encapsulated in five slogans known as the solas of the Reformation:
sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”), solus Christus (“Christ alone”), sola gratia (“grace alone”), sola fide (“faith alone”), and soli Deo gloria (“the glory of God alone”).
The first of these, sola Scriptura, was the defining benchmark of the movement. - Steve Lawson
You see, The Reformation was essentially...
…a “back-to-the-Bible” movement.
This “Sola” is the one that gave birth to the rest.
Sola Scriptura
Sola Scriptura
When it comes to religious authority...
…you basically have 3 options
1.) The Authority of Scripture as Ultimate
Sola Scriptura
2.) The Interpretive Authority of that Scripture by the church
De facto Sola Ecclessia
3.) The authority of human reason.
James Montgomery Boice explains the Reformed position:
“The Bible alone is our ultimate authority—not the pope, not the church, not the traditions of the church or church councils, still less personal intimations or subjective feelings, but Scripture only.” — JMB
This was the whole crux of the Reformation.
Who/what had the ultimate and primary religious authority.
At the Diet of Worms...
…when Luther was on trial for heresy...
…and being commanded to recant or else...
…he gave this reply...
…that would come to illustrate the very heart of the Reformation that would follow:
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.
I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.” — Luther
-Now, Catholicism would say here,
“On what authority...
…did Luther make this claim?”
In other words…
…are Luther and the other magisterial Reformers...
…not doing the same thing you’re accusing us of?
Arbitrarily asserting dogma!
Well, brethren, that’s a great question.
And it brings to mind a cardinal Christian truth:
That Scripture is self-attesting.
For “Sola Scriptura” to be true...
…then the primacy of Scripture...
…must be a dogma that comes from the Scripture itself.
What does it say?
Well, the go-to text is of course:
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:20–21 (ESV)
20 ...no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Sola Scriptura has always been the understanding:
Deuteronomy 4:2 (ESV)
2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
Deuteronomy 12:32 (ESV)
32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.
Very Next Verse:
Deuteronomy 13:1–5 (ESV)
1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
-Remember acts 17.
Acts 17:10–11 (ESV)
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.
11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
The Apostles (who did have Revelatory authority)...
…commending the practice of Sola Scriptura!
1 Corinthians 4:1–2 (ESV)
1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
Faithful to what?
1 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)
6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.
The antidote to sectarian division...
…it the primacy of the Word of God.
Galatians 1:8–9 (ESV)
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 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.
2 Corinthians 11:3–4 (ESV)
3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
Jude 3 (ESV)
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
-We have a clear...
Refutation of Sola Ecclessia...
Affirmation of Sola Scriptura, in...
Mark 7:5–13 (ESV)
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)—
12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
So, wherein does the ULTIMATE authority lie?
In the Word of God Alone.
Prayer of Adoration
Prayer of Adoration