Hi, this is Josh Montez and welcome back to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. In this special six-part series, we're revisiting the foundational gospel truths that turned the world upside down 500 years ago and still shape the Christian life today. We're talking about the five solas of the Reformation.
Sola scriptura, scripture alone, it's our vital authority.
Sola gratia, grace alone saves us, not merit.
Sola fide, faith alone, not works, justifies.
Solus Christus, Christ alone, is our only mediator. and sole deo gloria to God alone be the glory. But these aren't just historical slogans, they're fuel for the Christian life. Pastor John unpacks how each one connects directly to our daily battles with sin. our assurance in Christ and our joy in the Gospel.
You'll come away not only understanding what these solas mean, but how they free you to live with confidence, conviction, and clarity. Here's Rediscovering and Proclaiming the Five Solas, Part 3. God has spoken. And he's not silent. Isn't that great?
God has spoken and he is not silent therefore each week we say as we last week what we say Thanks be to God. Why? Why? Why are we so thankful? Because if God was silent, listen, sola scriptura.
is the only place we're told that we're saved by grace. Scripture Just the scriptures reveal this to us. The scriptures written in Elton was grace. Christ, the gospel. And that's how God speaks to us, and He's not remained silent.
We can be so grateful and thankful for that. What if he had chosen to keep silence? and just to leave us our sin. not to reveal to us grace. Christ this gospel, this good news of salvation.
Could you imagine what life would be like? No hope. No future. Nothing. Accept judgment.
And so God has spoken and he's not been silent and he has spoken to us through his son, the author of Hebrews says, in these last days, he has spoken to us through his son. And we have to insist upon sola scriptura. Why? Scriptural alone. Because.
This is the message that is revealed to us just through Scripture, nowhere else.
So this brings us to this third sola, sola gratia. Grace alone, grace, the only cause of my salvation. is great grace. This is what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 5. He says, For by grace.
Grace, you have been Saved. By grace. Grace. This is the only cause of my separation. This is what the scriptures teach us, and the scriptures teach us that grace isn't separably connected to scripture.
And because of that, this is why we say scripture. is the chief means of grace. What what is that? Mean? It's the sole place where the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to me.
I have shared this before, but the beach, right? The Jackson was a beach community. The beach isn't beautiful. We have these great sunrises. West Coast, you have these great sunsets.
But it's beautiful. Wonderful as that is. They don't reveal Sunsets, sunrises, don't reveal to me grace. You have to get that. You have to understand that.
You don't get the gospel by looking at sunsets. And listen, this is why. Scripture. It is the chief means of grace because it is. It's the instrument that the Holy Spirit Uses.
To reveal Christ Took me. Grace to me. And so scripture is how we know whom God's Son is. Scripture is how we know what grace is. Scripture is how we know what the gospel means.
Scripture. and grace are inseparable.
Now. If we can go back to the book of Genesis. And we can look at Abraham. See that the story of grace. vividly portrayed for us in Life of Abraham.
Okay. your scriptures. Go to the fourth chapter. The fourth chapter. on the book Romans.
Look what the Apostle Paul says. Romans chapter four. Look at verse seventeen. And the Apostle Paul is taking us back to Genesis. And he's given to us the Holy Spirit-inspired account.
of what this story about Abraham was. Look at verse 17. He says, As it is written, A father of many nations have made you. And he s has it. in the presence of him whom he believed.
Even God who Listen, who gives life to the dead? And calls into being that which does not. exist. That is remarkable. Because when you go back to this story of Abraham in Genesis.
The central theme that runs throughout uh narrative of Abraham. is this. It is God's promise to Abraham. But the way that he makes it to Abraham. Which shows us Grace.
Okay, the context here that Paul's talking about. Is this God comes to Abraham and Sarah and he promises them a son? And his promise is made. Against a background of events that seems to threaten it and make its fulfillment impossible. In fact, listen to this, the Genesis narrative shows us that the Lord's promise to Abraham and Sarah was impossible.
Humanly speaking, They could not bring about this promise. of a son. Why? Why couldn't they do it? Because Paul tells us, verse 18 and following.
Paul tells us at this point in Abraham's life, Abraham could not generate. And he says that Sarah was incapable of conceiving. He says Sarah's womb was dead, and Abraham was impotent. He could not produce children.
So you have a man who cannot generate children with a wife who has a dead womb and God comes to them and says to them, you're going to have a son.
Now, how does that make it? Oh, if you say, all right, no. You're going, oh, that's ridiculous. That's absolutely impossible, exactly. That is the exact Point That Paul is getting across.
He says, in hope, verse 18, in hope against hope. He believed, Abraham believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken.
So shall your descendants be. Abraham, your descendants, you will bless the world through this son. And Abraham believed God's promise. Verse 19, without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead. Since he was about a hundred years old.
And he contemplated the deadness of Sarah's Whoa. Wow. Yet, with respect to the promise of God.
Okay, that's Grace. The promise of God, that is grace. He did not waver in unbelief. But he grew strong in faith. Giving glory to God, being fully assured that what God had promised.
He was able, he had the power. to perform. Grace and power go together. We're going to come back to that. But just remember this: grace and power.
are inseparable. God was able to Perform what he had promised. Therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness. He was justified by grace. Through faith.
and the promise of God. Nothing else. And so Abraham and Sarah, a son, as though, listen, he promised it to them as though they had vigor and strength. But Paul says they were both as good as dead in terms of the ability to have children. Listen again.
Abraham contemplated his own body as good as dead since he was now about a hundred years old and he contemplated the deadness of Sarah's womb. The promise of God, the grace of God, the power of God against that which is impossible. And so it was necessary for Abraham to raise up his thoughts to the power. and grace of God. Why?
Because The grace And power of God is how the dead are brought to life. His body was dead, was dead, and it would be by the grace and power of God that both of them would come to life to have a son. And so Calvin says this about that. Remarkable story in Genesis. He says, like Abraham, who is an example for us.
When we are called by the Lord, we emerge from nothing. What a beautiful statement. When God, by his promise, by his grace, by his power, calls us in our sin, we emerge from Nothing. Just like Abraham and just like Sarah's bodies, they had nothing, no capability to have a child. Nothing was there.
And God called by His power and grace. And he gave a promise. And he created life. And Calvin says, For whatever we might seem to be righteous before God, we have nothing. Not a spark of anything good.
Which can render us fit for the kingdom of God. Listen to how the Apostle Paul But Pr uh print now says God's normal. verdict upon us In the third chapter Listen to what he says in verse 10. He says, There's none righteous, not even one. There's no one who understands.
There's no one who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become useless. There's none who does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave with their tongues.
They keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, in the path of peace.
They do not know. Their eyes are not full of the fear of God. What a statement. There's no fear of God. in their eyes.
And Paul says, that is our condition apart from grace. All of us, Jew, Gentile, the whole of mankind, that is our standing before God. And just like Abraham and Sarah, who were physically dead and needed the Lord's power and grace. We too are like that spiritually. We are spiritually dead.
And desperately in need of his power and grace. And here is the good news that in His power and grace, God. calls us from death to life. We emerge from nothing. This is what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2.
He says, You More dead. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Listen to this. But God. Look at that contrast.
Listen to the power. Listen to the grace. You Mm-hmm. dead in your trespasses and sins here. But God, but God being rich in mercy.
Rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. That's when he loved us. You see that? He loved a dead spiritual corpse. who was bound up in sin.
He loved that. Because he's rich in mercy. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he says it again. Made us alive. From death to life by mercy.
By his great love for us. Made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. The first chapter of Ephesians, verses 18 through 20, I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened so that you can know what is the hope of his calling. What are the riches, the glory of his inheritance in the saints?
Do you know what God's inheritance is? You, you, the church. And Paul says, I want you to know that. Listen, he says, I want you to know this. What is the surpassing greatness of his power?
Power toward us who believe. Then in this one verse, he takes Every Greek word that has power, and he exhausts the Greek language to talk about how the power of God is in work towards us and in us as believers. What is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. That's a lot of power.
How much power? The same power by which He brought about in Christ when He raised Christ from the dead. And seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Paul says, I want you to know, believer. The grace of God in your life.
is powerful. You see, God's grace and power work together on our behalf. They're inseparable. Just like Scripture and grace, scripture and power, God's power are inseparable. What is Paul teaching us through this Genesis narrative?
What is he teaching us here in the book of Ephesians? He's teaching us this. Grace has the power to accomplish what we ourselves cannot accomplish. And Sarah couldn't. Go to an IVF doctor.
IVF would not have worked. They couldn't have gotten stem cells, it wouldn't have worked. Because you can't do any kind of medical medicine procedure, humanly speaking, to make their situation come about humanly speaking, you see. When you're dead, you're dead. You can pump a corpse full of medicine, nothing is going to change that state.
Nothing. But God. Being rich in mercy. With the great love with which He loved us, He has exercised the same power in us that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him far above all powers in heavenly places. You see, God's grace and power work together.
God's grace has the power to accomplish what Abraham and Sarah could not accomplish. God's grace and power has the ability to accomplish in our life to call us from death to life. And to fill us with grace. This past week I was reading this researcher, this world-renowned scientist researcher about blood sugar. And she wrote this great article about what happens.
the cells with human thoughts. And she said this. She said, and our thoughts have the power Right negative thoughts have the power to enter into ourselves. and change them for the worse. if our thoughts are constantly negative.
And I thought about the book of Proverbs, and what the book of Proverbs says: it says, laughter. It's like medicine. to the soul. Laughter. A joyful heart is like Medicine.
A joyful heart is like Medicine. Let me ask you a question. What makes a joyful heart? I'm going to tell you: grace. Grace, when it gets into us, it goes down to our physical bodies itself, down to the cells themselves, and changes our physical bodies.
It changes all of us. My point is, it brings life. It touches our entire being. Our thoughts are emotions, our physical bodies, it grabs hold of everything and it changes us. And all of that comes through Scripture alone.
Because only in Scripture do we have the Holy Spirit taking this chief means of grace and revealing to me that God has the grace and the power and the mercy and the love to. Bring me from death to life and give me life. God's grace has the power to accomplish what we ourselves. Cannot. We cannot.
And so, when God, whenever He acts for our good, He's acting against what we deserve, which is what? Judgment Because that's what we have merited. Because we're rebellious sinners, and that action, when God works for our good, that action is grace. And so this objective means the scripture. The scripture is the means by which God reveals His grace.
And I've told you that His grace is a person. and his work on our behalf for us and for our salvation. We have to also remember this and listen carefully. I don't think you've ever heard this before. God's grace in Christ comes to us by the Holy Spirit.
It's not just knowledge that we're after. It's a true living, life-changing encounter with the living God. The gospel is this instrument by which the Holy Spirit takes and unites me to Christ in all of his saving benefits, and it changes me. It brings me to life. And the scriptures say that the work of the Holy Spirit itself is called, listen.
Grace. The work of the Holy Spirit Himself in my life. is grace. Don't you think being, if you're dead and you're brought to life, that's grace. Who does that?
Who accomplishes that? The Holy Spirit. He's here today working very powerfully amongst us. He is speaking to us through his word. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10, he says, I worked harder than all of them.
Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. What is Paul saying? He sees his own ministry. in which he tirelessly worked and labored. As a work done in and by the grace of God.
Paul says that his work was not. really his work after all. He says that his work is the grace of God and work. in him and through him. You see, all the good works that we do as believers, it's not our work.
It is the grace of God producing that in us. It's his work. It's grace. Our salvation is not our work at all. It is the work of God's free grace for us and In us.
Grace is a person to whom the Holy Spirit says sovereignly, graciously. Powerfully unites us. But the Holy Spirit to Christ. And so it's only God through Christ and the Spirit that orchestrates this union. We're incapable of making this miraculous feat occur.
Just like Abraham and Sarah, we're incapable of bearing a son. We cannot do that. And so I repeat, and here's the point today: grace has the power to accomplish what we ourselves cannot do. Salvation is only by God's grace to us. In contrast, The context, the historical context of Salagrati is this.
The medieval church believed that God saved by grace. But they also said that it is salvation was also by their free will and cooperation with that grace, so that they had to do their part in salvation. God does. His part I do my part cooperating with God. God then gives me grace and He saves me.
Here's Michael Horton explains this. As the popular medieval phrase was, God will not deny his grace to those who do what they can. Today's version, of course, has been changed to this. God helps those who helps themselves. A survey was taken, and over half, 50% of evangelical surveyed said or thought that that God helps those who helps themselves, thought that.
That was a direct biblical quotation. God helps those who help themselves. Over 50% of evangelicals. Sad. Biblical.
Quotation. 84% of evangelicals said that is a biblical idea. The percentage rose with church attendance at evangelical churches. The results of this survey conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. Listen to this survey and what it found.
It found that a majority of people who describe themselves as Christian, 52%, accepts. a works-oriented means of salvation. They discovered that huge proportions of people who attend churches, whose official doctrine says salvation comes from embracing just Jesus Christ as Savior, nonetheless believes that a person can qualify for heaven by being or doing good. That includes close to half of adults associated with Pentecostal churches, forty-six percent. Mainline Protestant churches 44%, Evangelical churches 41%, Roman Catholic churches 70%.
This is why we're having our conference in January, and you've got to get out there and invite people. Because I'm telling you, the surveys and the research shows Evangelical churches and people sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday don't know the truth of the gospel. 80 million. Four percent. Who attend evangelical churches believe God helps those who help themselves.
They believe that. That is not sola gratia, that is not the Reformation, that is not Protestant, that is not evangelical. In contrast, that medieval thought, the medieval church is alive and well in our churches today. In contrast to that kind of thinking that dominates the church and landscape in which we find ourselves.
Sola gratia, grace means this: we do not, and we cannot deserve God's salvation by our good works. Period. The gospel announces that God the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to do for us. What we could not do, and through Jesus offers us undeserved salvation for free. Paul makes this crystal clear in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.
By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. The gift, the gift of God. That is why we come to church, is to receive God's good gifts. It is Christmas morning every Sunday.
Come to the Christmas tree, the visible church, and get your gifts. Be gifted by grace. Receive, receive, rest in Christ. It's not a result of works. Stop.
Working. Stop. Get off these performance treadmill to try to please God and to get His favor. Just throw it away and trash it and just sit down and be addressed outside of yourself by the gospel of grace. Christ is here for you.
Stop working. He worked for you. By grace, le gratia, we have been saved. Salvation is the gift of God. The whole thing.
The whole thing. Regeneration. Justification, sanctification, glorification, redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, on and on and on it goes. All of that is a gift. We do not deserve God's salvation by being or doing good.
God doesn't help those who help themselves. God helps dead corpses who can't do anything. That's grace. Carl Trumpman. Says this, that the archetypal New Testament prayer, the model prayer that we should pray.
Pattern after Lord's Prayer is the prayer that Christ places in the mouth of the tax collector in the temple in the parable of Luke 18:10 through 14. It's a great parable. The Pharisee presumes to stand before God and parade his own righteousness while the tax collector stands at a distance with his head hanging low, beating his chest. Calling out for the Lord to be merciful to him. The tax collector offers no basis.
In himself for such a plea, but simply looks to God's grace. He is the one who went home justified. I want to tell you something. We do that in this church every single Sunday. I stand up here and let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.
And I said, if you're able, kneel. If you're not able, it's okay. You don't have to. I can't because I've heard. I got a bad knee, so I have to sit.
But in my heart of hearts, I am kneeling. All right, maybe I should just lay prostrate on the floor. I actually had to do that for my ordination ceremony twice. prostrate before God. It's a very humbling thing to do.
And people say, well, I don't like to come to church and do all that kind of stuff. You know, and it just makes me so uncomfortable.
Well, listen to this. Philippians chapter 2 says, one day... Every knee will bow. Because we have a king. And it's better to get used to it now than when he forces you then.
Like this tax collector, we just drop to our knees and we say the we confess our sins. We say the burden of them is more than we can bear. Have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us. We cry out for mercy.
We humble ourselves before God. We teach ourselves how to live the Christian life. We have seen in the news in the past week and a half Steve Lawson. We have seen what this celebrity pastor who speaks to millions of people and has millions of followers. Spent five years of his life in complete and utter sin with a girl 46 years younger than him.
At age 73. We've got to get serious about our Christian life. We've got to get serious about church. We've got to come to church and receive Christ's service through us. Live in humility and confess our sins, be constantly confessing our sins and asking for mercy.
That's sola gratia. As we reflect on the Sottler Groti this morning, I want to share with you a story from Jerry Bridge's book, The Gospel or Real life. Which profoundly illustrates grace through the account of a judge and a convict. I've shared this story with you before. But it remains one of my favorites for illustrating grace.
And I believe it's worth repeating for us to hear. And from what he writes, he says, I believe that human Morality rather than flagrant sin is the greatest obstacle to the gospel today. If you ask the average law-abiding person why he expects to go to heaven, the answer will be some form of because I've been good. The rich unroller. The prodigal son's older brother, and the Pharisee praying in the temple, which we just heard.
They had all this in common. They were confident of their own goodness. Their attitude is replicated throughout our society. People are confident of their submission to the lordship of Christ. Submission to being surrendered to the lordship of Christ, making Jesus Lord.
All right.
So hardy.
So prideful. And he says, the more religious a person is, the more difficult it is for that person to realize his or her need for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Or you think you're sold out and surrendered to the Lordship of Christ and you're making Him Lord, and you're telling everybody else how to do that? It's more difficult for that person to realize their need for grace. Jeremy Bridge says, I once read a story about two men who happened to be kneeling side by side at the community.
Union realm. of English church. One was a former convict who had served time and was now out of prison. The other was the judge who had sentenced him to prison for years. After the service, the minister asked the judge, did you recognize the man kneeling beside you?
Yes, I did, replied the judge. That was a miracle of grace. You mean that a man you sentenced to prison should be kneeling beside you? No. No, not not at all, said the judge.
The miracle is that I should be kneeling beside him. You see, that man knew clearly he was a sinner in need of a Savior. But I was brought up in a religious home. Have lived a decent moral life. and have served my community.
It is much more difficult for someone such as I to recognize his need for a Savior. I am the miracle of grace. Abraham and Sarah's son Isaac was a miracle. of grace. And like Isaac, we too are a miracle.
of grace. And just a few minutes, if we can all together confess our sins, do you know what that is? That is a miracle. of grace. Grace has the power to make miracles happen.
Listen to this miracle that the Apostle Paul describes. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too formerly lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. What a wretched condition. But God.
But God Boom. Wretched mercy. Why is he rich in mercy? Because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved. And raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why? Why did he do this? Why sola gratia?
Why grace alone, Paul?
So that. in the ages to come. He might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us. Jesus Christ. That's amazing, isn't it?
Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful. We don't even know what to say. We say thank you.
We say thank you. And we thank you that You can make us a miracle of grace because we are so self-confident in thinking we are so good. and so righteous.
So holy and so perfect, and we're not. We emerge from nothing. It's grace. It's grace alone. And we thank you for that grace.
Give us grace as we come to your sacrament today. by the power of your Holy Spirit. Comfort our hearts, we pray, and assure us that the grace we have heard proclaimed to us. is true. for us today.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. John Fawnville sends his thanks for listening today. And before we wrap up, can I tell you about an encouraging book you might want to get soon? It's called Hope and Holiness: How the Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity.
You're not alone if you've tried to conquer sexual temptations and tried all the methods available. only to find yourself feeling defeated again. This book may be just what you're looking for. with his shepherding heart, John shows that the gospel, not practical steps or more self-discipline, is God's provision for the power to live a life of sexual purity. and it's available to every Christian.
What I like is the book is available in three convenient ways. paperback, audiobook, or Kindle. The links are in our podcast descriptions or check out. Just search for Hope and Holiness by John Fawnville on Amazon. to get a copy for you and it's a wonderful book to go through with a small group.
Him We Proclaim is a ministry of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can find us at Paramountchurch.com. We'll talk again soon.
