Sola Gratia

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Transcript:

Well, we’re going to be in Luke chapter 15 this morning, Luke chapter 15, and we’re going to be talking about the grace of God and how the grace of God alone is what makes salvation possible. And last week, if you remember, I introduced you to the background of the Protestant Reformation, how 500 years ago, and the anniversary is on Tuesday, the 31st, how 500 years ago Martin Luther wrote a letter outlining 95 areas of disagreement with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and he nailed it to the door of the church in the town where he served.

That was sort of their bulletin board, and he posted it there hoping to spark a debate and a discussion, and from that story, we studied the doctrine of sola scriptura, which is just fancy theological talk or Latin for the idea that scripture alone, it’s scripture alone and not church tradition that speaks with God’s authority for how we ought to measure our beliefs and our behavior. That it’s the idea that God’s word calls the shots, and while tradition, you know, while there’s a place for tradition, it’s not really authoritative. And if our church traditions, and we talked about how we have our own traditions, we do, we don’t like to admit that, but we do, we have our traditions, there’s nothing wrong with tradition until you elevate it to the level of God’s Word.

For example, we take the Lord’s Supper the fifth Sunday, any time there’s a fifth Sunday in the month. That doesn’t come from God’s Word, does it? We talked about that last week.

I asked you, what does it say about the frequency of observing the Lord’s Supper? And it says, as often as you do this, there’s really not a set time. Some churches do it every week.

some churches do it four times a year we do it four or five there’s no set schedule it’s just as often as you do it do these things so we have our tradition that we do it on the fifth Sunday and that’s okay as long as we’re not violating God’s word the Pharisees though were going against the word of God with their traditions and there are religions there are denominations that teach that the church is authoritative and that it’s equal and sometimes greater equal to and sometimes greater than scripture, where we believe that where God’s word speaks, it has the authority that nothing else has. And as we studied this, we heard Luther’s words declaring that his conscience was bound by the word of God alone.

He said in his speech before the emperor and to some of the representatives of the pope that I’m convinced of this, and unless I can be convinced otherwise by scripture, I have to stand right here and I can’t move for you or anyone else. That was his answer to them, that that his conscience was bound by the word of God as ours ought to be. You know, it’s not right because the preacher says it.

Even if that preacher’s me, I tell you all the time, check what I say against God’s word. It’s not true and right because I say it. It’s not true and right because it’s the position of this church or any other church.

It’s true and right because it’s what God’s word says. And more importantly than learning Luther’s words, we looked at Jesus’ words last week as he chastised the Pharisees for the way they were elevating their man-made traditions over the clear teaching of God’s word. We talked about how they were designating some of their resources as Corban, saying we’re going to set it aside for the use of the temple when really it was just what we’d call today a tax shelter to keep from having to give it to take care of their elderly parents when God’s word had told them to honor their father and their mother.

And so they were using their traditions to get around obedience to God’s word. And that’s one thing Jesus was not going to put up with. Today we’re going to continue to look at some of these biblical doctrines that grew out of this Reformation 500 years ago.

They weren’t all spelled out in Luther’s letters, but that was kind of the spark that set a wildfire across Europe where the truth that had been underground for all this time, hidden pockets of believers underground being persecuted by both the church and the government had kept the truth alive for 1,500 years, but suddenly what was hidden now came out in the open. And the next of these biblical doctrines we’re going to learn about today is sola gratia. That’s, don’t get hung up on the theological words, okay?

That just means grace alone, okay? You may walk out of here and not remember sola gratia, and that’s okay. I even had to, if you caught that, I even had to stop and pause and think, am I pronouncing this correctly?

Still not 100% sure I am. If you don’t remember the word sola gratia, that’s fine. As long as you remember that salvation is by God’s grace alone, that’s the most important thing.

The Bible teaches that God’s grace is the only thing that saves us. It’s pretty clear about that. 500 years ago, when he wrote his letters, Luther objected strongly to the teaching that indulgences played any role in a person’s salvation.

If you remember the story from last week, One of the problems that he had was that the Catholic Church was financing the refurbishment of St. Peter’s Basilica by selling these things called indulgences, which was basically an indulgence, was basically a certificate from the Pope that you could buy for a set amount of money that would erase some of your sins and would either get you eternal life or would get some time off of the time that you spent in purgatory. And so people were guaranteed that some or all of their sins were forgiven because they had this piece of paper.

And some of you are laughing, and it is laughable. Do you think at all that I could give you a piece of paper and, Jared, sign it at the bottom and say, your sins are forgiven because I said so. Here’s your piece of paper.

Do you think for one moment that’s going to cut any ice with God? Who am I to sign a piece of paper and say your sins are forgiven? That is what God takes care of.

So they were selling these certificates that said people could get out of purgatory and into heaven. And what Luther said in one of his 95 theses, this letter that he nailed to the door, he said it is vain to trust in salvation by indulgence letters, even though the indulgence commissary or even the Pope were to offer his soul as security. And what he’s saying there is even if the indulgence salesman or the Pope himself were to say, I swear on my own soul that that’s good and that’s going to get you into heaven.

He said, it is still ridiculous to trust your eternal destiny to that piece of paper. I mean, y’all see how ridiculous that is. The people were not being taught the Bible in that day.

And so they didn’t see how ridiculous that is. And so a lot of good men and women, a lot of sincere men and women died and likely went to hell because they were putting their trust in pieces of paper for money that they had given. Now, to be fair, during that time, as now, the Catholic Church did teach that grace was necessary for salvation.

They still do. I hear it said all the time, well, we trust in grace and the Catholic Church trusts in works. It’s not entirely true.

They believe in grace, and they believed even in Luther’s day in grace. They just believed in grace plus works. And I spent some time this week rereading parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Council of Trent trying to understand how these things fit together, and I can’t make sense of it.

How works and grace are supposed to play this part together when God’s word, as I understand it, is so clear. Nowadays, they teach that grace is necessary for salvation, but on top of that, you need other things like the sacraments. And today, it’s not just a Catholic thing.

There are people from all walks of life, in all religions, and you know what? Lots of people sitting in the pews of Baptist churches on any given Sunday morning trusting for their eternal salvation in something other than grace. They may even believe grace is necessary, but they’re putting part of their trust in something else and saying this is necessary too.

That they need grace plus something else. People trust all the time in things like living a good life. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve talked to people and said, do you know you’re going to heaven?

Why would God let you in? And well, I just hope that when when all is said and done, the good outweighs the bad, and God will let me in. That is not biblical. That is anti-biblical. That goes against the clear teaching of God’s Word.

Baptism. Baptism. If I could just be baptized, I’ll go to heaven.

No. There is nothing about that water that saves you. There are some passages in Scripture that look like they could be talking about water baptism being part of salvation.

Those passages that are really difficult are not talking about that, and those passages that are really clear, say it’s by grace alone and has nothing to do with works that you can do. You know what? When we baptize somebody, there’s nothing magical about this water.

It comes from the Bolegs, Lima, whatever water thing, whatever water tower, just like the water at your house, or if you’re in Seminole, the Seminole water. It comes out of a tower just like everybody else’s water. There’s nothing mystical about it.

Church membership. There’s nothing magical about signing your name on one of these little pieces of paper that we have down here at the front and getting your letter sent here or make it. There’s nothing magical about putting your name on that church roll that saves you.

Church attendance. I’m glad you’re here today. You know what?

We have a good time together just fellowshipping. We have, you can see, you know, we harass each other. We have a good time together.

We love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Not only that, we have a good time studying God’s word together and we enjoy praising him together. I’m glad that you’re here with us for that this morning, but God is not up there in heaven sitting there taking attendance and saying, oh, Julie was here this morning. I guess she gets to go to heaven now.

I mean, God knows you’re here, but he’s not taking attendance because he’s working on a perfect attendance award at the end of all of this. Communion. Folks, when we take the Lord’s supper in a little bit, it is a serious, solemn, somber thing that we must not treat lightly.

It is important because of what it symbolizes. But can I let you in on a little secret? There’s nothing magical about the elements of the Lord’s Supper.

I was telling Brother Greg yesterday how disappointed I was around the time I was in college and realized that when we take the Lord’s Supper, that juice that’s in there, it’s Welch’s. You can buy it at the grocery store. Now, I have to order the bread from somewhere because I have to make sure it’s unleavened, but we could go get flatbread from Walmart and cut it up in pieces, and I normally send Charla and say, if you’re going to the grocery store this week, could you pick up some grape juice we’re having the Lord’s Supper?

There is nothing magical about these elements. What’s important about them is what they represent. Don’t trust in those things for your salvation.

Some people trust in giving. Oh, I gave lots of money. There’s a joke on a sitcom I used to watch where a man says, I’ve given thousands of dollars to the Catholic Church over the years, and I’m assured that I’ll have certain powers in the afterlife.

He was trusting. Yeah, it was a joke. But he was trusting.

The idea was that he was trusting. I’ve given X number of dollars to the church, so I’ll get into heaven. Folks, anything that you can trust in other than grace will let you down.

Anything you can trust your eternal security into other than grace is foolishness. None of these things work. The Bible teaches that salvation is by grace alone and that our works do not contribute.

Now, we’re going to be in Luke chapter 15 today, but just real quick, one of the places that conveys this really well is in Ephesians chapter 2. And if you’ve been here for any length of time, you’ve heard me quote this dozens of times. Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 7, says that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The clear teaching of Scripture is that God desires to show his kindness to us, to lavish his grace on us, and that it’s by his grace that we’re saved, because he is gracious, because he is kind, and that it has nothing to do with any goodness within us, nothing to do with any works, lest we have any reason to boast about it. If you’re to be saved, it is totally and completely by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, which we’ll talk about over the next two weeks. But this concept was explained by Paul, that it’s by grace, through faith, and it’s illustrated in a story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 15, which is one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture.

In the beginning of this story, Jesus is talking about a wicked and rebellious son who rejected his father’s love. You’re probably familiar with the story. This son demanded his portion of the inheritance that he was owed, and he set out to squander this inheritance on a wicked and irresponsible lifestyle.

And when he went out with all his money to do his wicked things, times were good for him at first, and friends were plenty as long as the money lasted. But eventually the money ran out as it always seems to do, and when it did, his friends, his so-called friends disappeared and he was left destitute and alone. Now that would be bad enough, but this took place during a time of economic hardship during a famine.

There was no food. The whole country was suffering and it was hard for him to find any work. So eventually he took a job feeding a farmer’s pigs.

And some of you probably think big deal I’ve done that. It’s nasty work. I’ve never fed pigs.

I’ve been around some farm animals, never had to feed pigs. I’m thankful for that. It kind of sounds like one of those things you’d see Mike Rowe do on television, dirty jobs.

As a matter of fact, I think I’ve seen him do some things with pigs that I wouldn’t want to be part of. It’s bad enough. It’s a dirty job.

Somebody’s got to do it, though. But when you think about his culture, that pigs were considered unclean. And it’s something that a good, respectable Jewish boy should never be involved in.

We don’t have a lot of things in our culture that are taboo anymore, do we? We’re kind of in an anything-goes culture nowadays. I was thinking about this this week.

What would be in our culture, what would have as much a stigma as feeding pigs would in theirs? And the only things that I could come up with were dogfighting and white supremacy. So imagine he’s, in order to survive, he’s become those two things.

We think people that fight dogs are just evil. And that’s one of the few things you can’t get by with nowadays, that and being a white supremacist, and rightfully so on both of them. But think about how our society looks at those two things, combine it, that gives you an idea of how low he had sunk.

He was in this job that no respectable person should have had. And at his lowest point, at his lowest point, he was reduced to eating the slop that he fed to the pigs. So not only is he feeding them, he’s eating with them.

He’s been reduced to getting down on their level. And he finds himself with nothing and with nowhere to run. That’s where the story picks up in verse 17.

And it says, and when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger. So my father’s servants have more than enough to eat, and here I am starving to death. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Make me as one of thy hired servants. So this prodigal son knew that in the father’s house, he could find everything he could ever need. Whatever he lacked, he would find in the father’s house.

As a starving man, as a man who was starving to death, he would literally find salvation in his father’s house. He would literally find the food that would keep him alive. But he recognized, rightly so, that he had absolutely no right to go back to his father’s house.

When he had asked for the inheritance and then squandered it the way he did, he took everything that his father and probably generations before him had worked for, that their family had struggled for and built up and saved. He took all of that and he squandered it on sin, but on top of that and saying, I want my inheritance and I’m leaving, he was basically saying to his father, I just wish, just as well you were dead. That’s, I don’t care about you, I’m out of here.

He had absolutely no right to go back to his father’s house. And he admits it. He says, I’ve sinned.

I’ve sinned before heaven. I’ve sinned against heaven and before thee is what he says. And that word sin, if you’ve been in church, you recognize that word, but a lot of times we use it and aren’t really clear what it means.

That word sin covers a whole multitude of areas. Within the scope of that word, we’ve got the ideas of transgressing, you know, breaking the rules, failing, being morally disqualified. And in the case of a runner or an athlete, disqualifying yourself from a prize.

So it’s not just, oops, I made a mistake. He made a life-altering choice that rendered him a moral failure and disqualified from anything in his father’s house. And folks, you and I, with our sin, we stand in the same place before God.

We failed and we’re out and we’ve been disqualified because of our sin. Anytime we disobey God. Because of his sin, the son recognized there was no way he could ever merit anything from his father.

No blessing, no place in his father’s house. The only thing that he could do was go back and throw himself on his father’s mercy. He did not deserve to be there.

But there was the glimmer of hope that maybe, maybe because my father is a kind man, maybe my father will be gracious enough that he will choose to allow me to be a servant in his household because I don’t deserve to even ask that. I don’t deserve to be a son. I don’t deserve to even be a servant, but maybe, maybe he’ll show me the kindness of letting me come back and be a servant.

And verse 20 says, and he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Folks, the story totally changes with our realization that the father was watching for his son.

He saw him from a long way away. Now, don’t take from that that he was out searching the highways and the hedges, but as he was going about his daily routine, taking care of his lands and animals and whatever else he had, he evidently had an eye out on the road watching because he saw his son when his son was far off. And what does he do?

He does the least dignified thing that a patriarch in that day could do. He drops everything he’s doing. He runs to the boy, grabs him, hugs him, kisses him, and weeps.

That’s not a power move, is it? My understanding is you go in for an audience with the Pope, you bow down and kiss the ring. He doesn’t come running to you and throw his arms around you.

It’s probably the same thing if you go visit the President. He probably wants you to bow down and kiss the ring. He’s not going to run to the door of the Oval Office and say, I’ve been waiting for you all this time.

I’m so glad you’re. . .

No. And that’s what this father did because he was moved with love and compassion. You know what?

That’s what our father does too. He’s full of compassion and he did everything that was necessary to seek us. We didn’t go looking for God.

He sought us out. Now don’t misunderstand. I still believe in free will.

I still believe that as far as we understand it, we have the ability to accept or reject God’s offer of forgiveness. But don’t think for a second. God forgives us because we went and sought him out and we’re so wonderful and we beat down his door until he said yes.

No, God was looking for us with compassion. The father saw him and he had compassion on his son. He didn’t have compassion because the son had earned it.

This boy hadn’t earned anything except a slam door, which would probably be the instinct for some of us. You know, at some point you love your child, but you can’t treat me this way. You know, we all have that within us, that flesh that says, you can’t treat me this way, there’s going to be some temptation to say, no, you sort this out yourself.

Tough love. The son hadn’t earned a welcome like this. The father didn’t show compassion because he’d earned it.

The father didn’t show compassion because of the offer that the son had rehearsed. If you remember back to the last few verses we looked at, the son says, I’m going to go to my father. He had this whole deal worked out.

He was going to try to negotiate a deal with his father. Could I come back as a servant? He had this whole plan.

worked out. You notice he doesn’t get any of the words out of his mouth. The father just comes running to him.

It wasn’t because he made some kind of deal with him. Folks, and God doesn’t have compassion on us because we earned it. He doesn’t have compassion on us because we can make a deal with him.

Hey, God, if you’ll forgive me, I’ll serve you. I’ll do this or that. It doesn’t work that way.

He didn’t have compassion on him just because his sin was no big deal. The sin was a big deal. And that’s why even the son, when he finally came to his senses, was so broken up about it because he realized how grievous his sin was. And any sin is grievous. Any sin is a big deal. Well, it’s just a little thing.

It’s still a big deal to God. When you’re perfectly holy, a little bit of sin renders you no longer perfectly holy. And God’s standard for us is his absolute perfect holiness.

And even a little sin on our part falls short. We’ve fallen short all the way of that standard of absolute perfect holiness. It’s a big deal. And he didn’t have compassion simply.

. . Folks, the Father had compassion on his son simply because it was in his nature to show compassion.

Because he felt compassion. Because he was compassionate. And the same thing is true of God.

He doesn’t have compassion on us because we’ve earned it. He doesn’t show us grace because our sin is no big deal. If our sin was no big deal, we wouldn’t need grace. No, God shows us his kindness and his grace because he is kind.

And because he is gracious. and so the father ran to his son and received him with compassion. Verse 21 says, And the son said unto him, Father, now he gets the offer out.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called by son. He’s going through the speech. He’s rehearsed here.

But the father, he interrupts him. The father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry.

He’s trying to spit out this speech he’s rehearsed, and the father’s not even listening. He’s planning a celebration, and why is he planning that celebration? Because he has welcomed the son back.

It’s already done. It’s already settled, and the son was shocked by this, still thinking he’s got to make a deal or offer something to his father in return, because he’d not forgotten. He had not forgotten how unworthy he was.

He realized his sin, knew how unworthy he was to even be there, but the father didn’t care. He didn’t need to hear it. The father welcomed him back again.

I’ve said this repeatedly through this message, not because of anything that he’d done, not because of what he’d earned, not because of the offer that he made, not because of any actions on his part, really in spite of everything that he had done, simply because the father had compassion, Because he was compassionate, he showed compassion on the Son. We can substitute that word compassion for the word grace, or vice versa. Grace is the kindness that God shows us.

And this story illustrates the reality of the grace that our Father shows to us. Now, Paul described it. Well, Paul explained it in theological terms all throughout his letters.

Jesus in the Gospels showed us what it looks like. That’s why I love this story. The son didn’t have anything to offer the father.

And even what he tried to get together to offer and make a deal, the father didn’t even wait to hear it. You know what made the difference in this story? The difference between forgiveness and unforgiveness, the difference between grace and judgment in this story, it’s the nature of the father.

Completely the nature of the father. That’s the only thing that makes any difference in here, is the nature of the father, that the father’s gracious. So here’s what we need to know about grace this morning.

Grace is kindness we do not deserve. And if you’re following along with the notes in the bulletin, that’s your first set of blanks. Grace is kindness that we do not deserve.

Go back and think about the son and the sin and the story. He said himself, I don’t have the right to go back to my father. I haven’t done anything to deserve my father’s kindness.

I don’t have any, I have no right to be there. You know what? God doesn’t care about that.

The whole point of grace is that we don’t deserve it. If we could deserve it, we wouldn’t need it. And if we need it, we can’t deserve it.

There’s kind of a catch-22 there, except for the fact that it’s the nature of the Father, that He is gracious and shows us kindness that we don’t deserve. Paul explained this in the book of Titus, chapter 3, For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. He describes human nature, and that lurks inside each of us.

You might be sitting there thinking, oh, no, I’m perfect. No, you’re not. I don’t tell you that to be hateful.

I just know human nature. No, you’re not. Even those of us who are kind and, you know, we still have mean moments.

Even those of us who’ve been believers for years. I think at this point I’ve been a believer for 25 or 26 years. Yeah, I haven’t gotten the sin nature totally straightened out yet.

Drive around town with me sometime and you’ll figure out who I really am. Hateful and hating one another, he says here. Living in malice and envy.

That was my spot. It’s in all of us. Paul says that’s who we are.

But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Why? We’re so awful.

We do this. We act this way. We are this way.

Why would he do this? He says this in the next part. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done.

but according to his mercy he saved us. God looks at us and shows grace not because we’re good, we’re not. He looks at us and he shows grace because it’s his nature.

It’s his grace. It’s his mercy. It’s his kindness.

It’s because it’s who he is. It’s in his nature. According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Grace is God’s kindness that we do not deserve. Now what that means for us is salvation. That God offers us forgiveness of sins.

That God offers to look at our sin and this list of sins, this account that we’ve got that’s so long with him of all the sins that we’ve committed and that we should be punished for and we should remain separated from him for and he looks at it and he agrees to forgive us not because we deserve it, but because he’s willing, because he’s gracious and desires to forgive it. And he does so and is able to do so because Jesus Christ died to pay for it. Did we deserve Jesus coming to die for us?

No. Again, if we deserved for him to die for us, if we deserve for him to die in our place, we wouldn’t have needed him to die in our place. But God shows grace that we do not deserve in offering to forgive our sins.

But God shows grace beyond that. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, James says. Every blessing you have is a gift from God.

To the believer and the non-believer, it’s God’s grace. Your heart’s beating this morning, presumably. Unless somebody’s kicked off in the middle of the service.

Your heart is beating this morning. That is God’s grace. I don’t deserve the next heartbeat.

I don’t deserve the next breath. I don’t deserve my beautiful wife or my three awesome children. I don’t deserve you all.

Some days I think I don’t deserve them. I don’t deserve y’all. You’re a wonderful church.

I don’t deserve to be here. I don’t deserve anything from God but death and hell. And look at what he’s blessed with.

When you realize what you deserve from God is death and hell, and you look at all that you have instead, God’s grace is pretty incredible. And then throw salvation on top of it, which is the greatest thing of all, that he would be willing to forgive our sins. Grace is kindness we do not deserve.

Second of all, we cannot earn it. You cannot earn it. The son again knew he had nothing to offer his father.

There was no way to earn that grace. Romans chapter 4 tells us, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If we tried to earn it, whatever we got from God wouldn’t be because it was grace.

It would be because we worked for it, and God owed it to us, which is impossible. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. God looks at us and says, it’s not about your good works.

It’s not about you trying to do the good works to get to heaven. It’s you believing on him that justifies the ungodly. I’m ungodly.

I believe that Jesus justifies the ungodly. And so when I believe on him, that faith is counted for righteousness. And the Bible says here that God gives that not to those who work for it, but to those who believe, those who receive thi