This past Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching for a special five-part series at our church. Each week a sermon has been devoted to one of the Five Solas of the Reformation. In English, the Five Solas are: Christ Alone, Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and to the Glory of God Alone. This is also the order we are using for the sermon series. Our pastor has opened the series and will finish it, and two other men and I are privileged to contribute one of the messages for the set.
My sermon from this Sunday was on Sola Gratia, or Grace Alone. I was especially burdened by this topic which is so all-encompassing. My sermon highlighted the role of Grace in salvation — we are saved not on account of our works (praise God!). And I also emphasized how grace opposes legalism, in both its doctrinal and practical forms. Finally I was able to touch on Sovereign Grace just a bit as well.
My text was Titus 3, and I was pleased to discover that Martin Luther preached a pair of sermons on Titus 2:11-4 and Titus 3:4-7 for Christmas of 1522. Those sermons were epsecially pertinent to my theme and I included some quotations. (You can find Luther’s sermons on Titus here and here).
I’m sharing my sermon notes and audio in this post and welcome any feedback. You can also find all my recent sermons from The Heights Church, St. Paul, here.
If you don’t have time to listen to the entire sermon (52 minutes), please do look over my notes.
This Fall marks 500 years since the start of the Protestant Reformation. October 31, 1517 is the date that Martin Luther nailed his “Ninety-five Theses” on the church door in Wittenberg. His Reformation ideas quickly spread over all of Europe by means of the movable-type printing press… and the rest, they say, is history.
In honor of this anniversary, I am re-posting my teaching series entitled, “A Survey of the Reformation: Its History and Doctrine.”
I developed this teaching series in 2012 and have taught through it for adult Sunday School classes in two different churches. The audio files are primarily from 2012, but one of the lessons had corrupted audio and so I made a replacement recording in 2014 the next time I taught the material.
My goal in this series is two-fold: to introduce people to the history and ideals of the Reformation, and to give an introduction to the doctrine known as the five points of Calvinism or the doctrines of Grace. I have found that understanding and appreciating the doctrines of Grace is easier when one is led to understand the history of the Reformation as a whole. Also stressed in this study, are the Five Solas, and the Reformation emphasis on God’s sovereignty.
The Reformation doesn’t stand or fall with the doctrines of Grace, but that understanding flows directly from the heart of the Reformation. And while Luther may not have agreed on all the particulars of how the five points came to be articulated, he is in fundamental agreement on God’s role in salvation — as were all the original reformers.
Feel free to use the .pdf and .mp3 audio files freely, I just ask to be credited as the source of this presentation. May God grant the spirit of the Reformation and its doctrine, to continue to occupy a warm place in the hearts and minds of God’s people.
Why the Reformation Matters Today • No audio (see note below) ∼ View the Slides.
Note: You may notice that the audio deviates from the slides more and more as the lessons progress. This is due to the fact that the slides match the 2014 audio, which is unavailable. The 2012 audio files line up closely with my older slides available here.
I used a variety of resources for this series, but the four I recommend to my SS class are listed here below:
This Fall, I’ve been teaching a 10 part Adult Sunday School series called “A Survey of the Reformation: Its History and Doctrine.” We finally have the audio up for the final four lessons in this series. I finish out the Five Points of Calvinism over the course of these lessons, and in the final session I make room for answering objections and wrap up the series looking at why all this matters.
The lesson plan for the entire series (which has changed some) is below, and you can download the audio or view the slides from the lessons as they are completed.
This Fall, I’ve been teaching a 10 part Adult Sunday School series called “A Survey of the Reformation: Its History and Doctrine.” The audio is now up for lessons 5 and 6, which move on from the historical introduction into an actual discussion of Reformation doctrine and the five points of Calvinism. Lesson 5 focused on the big picture of Reformation Doctrine with its emphasis on the “5 solas” and God’s sovereignty. Lesson 6 took us into the background of the 5 points of Calvinism. We also covered the total depravity and started explaining irresistible grace. Regarding the 5 points of Calvinism, I’m making use of my explanation of the five points that I keep here on my blog.
The lesson plan for my entire series (which has changed some) is below, and you can download the audio or view the slides from the lessons as they are completed.
The Other “Points” of Calvinism and Why the Reformation Matters Today
If you’re in the Minneapolis area, you can also see the schedule for these lessons at the SS page from our church website for this information as well.
Part 8 in a series of Sunday posts celebrating the glorious Truth we believe as Christians. The readings are quoted from the Elder Affirmation of Faith, of my church, Bethlehem Baptist (Pastor John Piper). I’m doing this because every few weeks our congregational reading is an excerpt from this document, and every time we all read aloud the truths we confess, my soul rejoices. I pray these posts will aid you in worshiping our Lord on His day.
The Saving Work of the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit has always been at work in the world, sharing in the work of creation, awakening faith in the remnant of God’s people, performing signs and wonders, giving triumphs in battle, empowering the preaching of prophets and inspiring the writing of Scripture. Yet, when Christ had made atonement for sin, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, He inaugurated a new era of the Spirit by pouring out the promise of the Father on His Church.
We believe that the newness of this era is marked by the unprecedented mission of the Spirit to glorify the crucified and risen Christ. This He does by giving the disciples of Jesus greater power to preach the gospel of the glory of Christ, by opening the hearts of hearers that they might see Christ and believe, by revealing the beauty of Christ in His Word and transforming His people from glory to glory, by manifesting Himself in spiritual gifts (being sovereignly free to dispense, as he wills, all the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10) for the upbuilding of the body of Christ and the confirmation of His Word, by calling all the nations into the sway of the gospel of Christ, and, in all this, thus fulfilling the New Covenant promise to create and preserve a purified people for the everlasting habitation of God.
We believe that, apart from the effectual work of the Spirit, no one would come to faith, because all are dead in trespasses and sins; that they are hostile to God, and morally unable to submit to God or please Him, because the pleasures of sin appear greater than the pleasures of God. Thus, for God’s elect, the Spirit triumphs over all resistance, wakens the dead, removes blindness, and manifests Christ in such a compellingly beautiful way through the Gospel that He becomes irresistibly attractive to the regenerate heart.
We believe the Holy Spirit does this saving work in connection with the presentation of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. Thus neither the work of the Father in election, nor the work of the Son in atonement, nor the work of the Spirit in regeneration is a hindrance or discouragement to the proclamation of the gospel to all peoples and persons everywhere. On the contrary, this divine saving work of the Trinity is the warrant and the ground of our hope that our evangelization is not in vain in the Lord. The Spirit binds His saving work to the gospel of Christ, because His aim is to glorify the Christ of the Gospel. Therefore we do not believe that there is salvation through any other means than through receiving the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, except that infants and severely retarded persons with minds physically incapable of comprehending the gospel may be saved.
*Taken from the Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith, paragraphs 8.1 – 8.4. You are free to download the entire affirmation [pdf] complete with Scriptural proofs for the above statements.
This past Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching for a special five-part series at our church. Each week a sermon has been devoted to one of the Five Solas of the Reformation. In English, the Five Solas are: Christ Alone, Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and to the Glory of God Alone. This is also the order we are using for the sermon series. Our pastor has opened the series and will finish it, and two other men and I are privileged to contribute one of the messages for the set.
Part 8 in a