Sermon Theme
A Special Anniversary
It’s a BIG number…it relates to anniversary of one of the greatest movements in human history
500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church door
What he laid out directly challenged the Church’s teaching of salvation by works
Indulgences sold by Johann Tetzel were sold for the forgiveness of sins
Doctrine of Purgatory led to a trade in relics and specially paid for masses for the dead.. both of which were supposed to lead to less time spent there before release into Heaven
The Reformation returned the Church to the Bible as the sole authority for faith and life
Reformers believed the Bible sufficiently clear for it to be understood by those who read it
The Bible kept out of the hands of the ordinary person now translated into common language
Luther and Tyndale persecuted for translating it into the common language of the people which points to the 1st of 5 SOLAS: ‘By Scripture alone’
The Reformation returned the Church to the great doctrines of grace:
Next 3 SOLAS: By GRACE alone, through FAITH alone in CHRIST alone
With the doctrines of grace in their proper place, the final SOLA= To the GLORY OF GOD ALONE
From Scripture alone, today we look at these doctrines of grace and see how they lead to God alone being glorified.
- THE UTTER NECESSITY OF ‘BY GRACE ALONE’
- GOD’S UNDESERVED GIFT OF FAITH IN CHRIST ALONE
- TO GOD ALONE BELONGS THE GLORY!
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Sermon Outline
Readings
Romans 1:16–17 (NIV84)
16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Romans 7:14–8:4 (NIV84)
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Text
Ephesians 2:1–10 (NIV84)
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9not by works, so that no one can boast.
10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
