Well, good morning. It's good to be with you again as we continue in our series through the five solas. And of course, our kind of main focus here is how the five solas relate to the local church. We are now in our fourth week through Sola Fide. I was laughing with Cody. As I was preparing for the business meeting last week, I noted that I initially said that we would be done with this series in mid-October of last year. We're just a little bit, you know, longer than that, but it's been good. We're now at Sola Fide, fourth week on that. Hopefully we will conclude that this morning, and next week we will move on to the fifth and final sola of our consideration, Sola Dei Gloria. So just to recap where we've come from so far in Sola Fide, made the argument that Sola Fide essentially is that faith and faith alone is the means by which what Christ earned in his life and death, those benefits, those salvific benefits become ours. And we consider this specifically, at least the first week, in relation to justification. What did the Reformers mean when they taught justification by faith alone? And how is that supported from Scripture? And we contrasted this with the alternative views of justification in Roman Catholicism, Arminianism, Lutheranism, Federal Vision, New Perspective on Paul, and we compared the doctrine of justification, forensic legal declaration based upon Christ, These other views that faith and works are mixed and that there's other ways of getting right with God or other means I should say. Then we moved on from there to define faith. What do we mean by faith? You know, so often in our culture, faith is, for example, contrasted with reason. Right? Faith is irrational. It's a blind leap. But also, in the church, there's different definitions of faith. We consider how Roman Catholicism kind of mixes faith and works. Their definition of faith is different than the Reformers' view of faith. Or, I should say, the Reformers' definition of faith. We look at Arminianism as well that defines faith as simply a mere decision. We contrasted this and defined faith as knowledge, assent, and trust. Knowing the gospel, assenting to the gospel, and placing personal trust. Turning one's life over to Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel. And we supported this definition of faith from the scriptures. And then we looked at how do we come to possess faith? I argued last week that it's not a decision of the will. It's not a work that we can perform. It's not something that is really just a synonym with repentance. That faith and repentance are the same thing. I argue that faith is a sovereign gift from God. It is produced in us by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts. It is a gift from God. It is still our faith. It's not that God believes for us. He creates faith in our hearts through the declaration of powerful working of His Word. So that's where we've come from. It's everything we've covered in these last three weeks. There's the blue zombie. When I put this up, people just freeze for some reason and will not interact. Any questions on what we've covered so far? Sophie? Do you think that faith, like obedience, can't be counted as one of the elements of true faith? Or is that something that's completely, you guys said it right, does work count as a true element of faith? Or is that completely? Obedience works flow from true faith, but are not to be equated to it. Sometimes in the epistles you'll hear a phrase like, the obedience of the faith. And I argue that that is the obedience that flows from faith. So, we've said it before that salvation is by faith alone, but that faith is never alone. That good works, repentance, a life of repentance, flow from it. But particularly, or most specifically, faith is not a work, it is a tool, a means by which we lay hold of Christ. And it must be distinguished from good works that flow from it. Does that help? Kind of? Did I get at your question? Yeah, I learned this one thing and it said that the elements of faith were knowledge, belief, and obedience. Yes, Roman Catholic, faith is mixed with hope and love in the very definition of faith, and it sounds a little bit like it's pulling off that definition. Faith must be distinguished from hope and love. It must be distinguished from our obedience. Cody? Yeah, I would agree with that. In an attempt to not be antinomians, faith is maybe implicitly, maybe not explicitly defined that way, but it is mixed with repentance and good works. Yes, yes, so faithfulness as a virtue. Remember I argued, showed that New Perspective on Paul and Federal Vision define faith as faithfulness. And in a sense, they mix repentance and faith and make it the same thing. And those things must be distinguished, or at least the Reformers certainly distinguished them based upon Scripture, that faith is a laying hold of Christ, that works must or seem to flow out of that, but are not to be equated with that. We good? All right, that's a serious question, so if we need to spend more time on it, we can. We're good. All right, today I want to look at two things. I want to look at faith and apostasy briefly because, thank you Josh for your question last week, right as we were running out of time. kind of stuck with me this week, so I just want to briefly address that question. You don't even remember what you asked. I remember, okay, so we'll leave it at that. And then, of course, the why it matters. What does it matter What does sola fide have to do in relation to the local church? Why does it matter for us? Is this something just abstract, you know, theology that theologians argue about or does it matter? I want to consider that. So first let's ask this question and this is a very deep and difficult issue to address. Very difficult. We're not going to deal with it in detail, but I want to give just a brief answer from our confession to this question. What about those who profess faith and later fall away? I want to point you to what our confession says in chapter 14, paragraph 1. Actually, that's paragraph 3, I believe. I think that's a typo. This faith, this saving faith it is describing, although it be different in degrees, and may be weak or strong, yet it is in the least degree of it, different in the kind of nature of it, as is all other saving grace, from the faith and common grace of temporary believers." Stop right there. It is a different type of saving faith. It is a different type of faith than is the faith and common grace of temporary believers. So there's a qualitative difference there. And a quantitative difference in degrees, right? But most specifically, it's qualitative. It's a different kind of faith than temporary faith. Therefore, though it may be many times assailed and weakened, yet it gets to victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith." This is an important paragraph. It's important because it It details how faith may be weak. True faith may be weak. True faith may be assailed and weakened. Many times in this life. To us, we look and we see our faith or someone else's faith, and it may be very weak. But it gets the victory, eventually. Because Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. Another statement, chapter 17, paragraph three. Although they may, talking about believers, Through the temptation of Satan in the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins." So true believers may fall into grievous sins. And for a time, continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit, They come to have their graces and their comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded. They may hurt and scandalize others and bring temporal judgments upon themselves. So all is true, can be true of genuine believers. Yet shall they renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Jesus Christ to the end. genuine faith, genuine believers, eventually, though all this may happen, renew their repentance and persevere until the end. So, saving faith is that though it may be at times be weakened and appear to be failing, it will be renewed to repentance. And the ultimate mark of saving faith is that it finishes well. It perseveres till the end. I talked to a pastor this week who lost his father. back in September. And he was very close with his father, and I was asking how the family was doing. And of course, the family is still grieving from the loss, the unexpected loss of this father and grandfather and husband. But he said to me, I have joy because I know he finished well. He finished well. He professed faith clinged to Christ even the last day of His death. And it's interesting hearing that. You don't often think of it that way. We often think of it as, oh yeah, this person made a profession of faith way back when. But he was comforted not that his father made a profession of faith 40 years ago, or had been going to church, or had been baptized, but the last day he persevered until the end. And that is the truest mark of saving faith. It's not necessarily that we sin, or even how long we remain in sin, as if we can put a time frame on it, but rather, this is pastoral here, a pastoral kind of exhortation that I often give, how do we respond when our sin is confronted? Is repentance pursued? Not perfected, but is it pursued? Do we finish well? Any questions on that? Faith and apostasy? A very brief treatment of it? Please don't bring up the book of Hebrews. Questions or comments on that before we move on? I mean, I could see where they could come up with apostasy, like what Sophie had mentioned with the other phrase of knowledge, belief, and obedience. There can be the obedience without the faith, and just trying to do that which is moral, trying to keep the law, and without the spirit. Yeah, I think as well. The flip side of that is that we can equate faith with knowledge. This person knew so much. They knew the Gospel. They knew the doctrines of grace. They read Calvin. And yet, they turned away. Again, equate true faith is just something of the requirement of knowledge. Mark? So would you say the difference between saving faith and temporary faith is the trust? Yes. Yes. Turning one's life over. I heard an interview recently with Derrick Webb. You guys familiar with Derrick Webb? I think he used to sing for Cayman's Call, and he went on a single, a solo artist, and a Christian Calvinist musician, and now he's an agnostic. And he basically, I heard an interview with him, and basically he says, you know, there's just no evidence for God. There's just no evidence. It just came to the point where there's just no evidence for God in this world. and it's just one man's opinion against another and it just struck me how you know what is kind of faith 101 right in scripture is lean not on your own understanding right that that trust faith in itself is realizing that I don't have I'm not asking the right questions I'm not capable of right asking the right questions I'm not capable even of myself of weighing the evidence If what the Bible says about my sinfulness is true, then I am blind, I am ignorant, I am biased, I am perverted by sin in every respect. And true faith is acknowledging that even if the right evidence was there, I don't have the capacity to understand it and grasp it apart from the grace of God. So that trust, Mark, is perhaps equated with a form of humility in a sense, giving ourselves over. We may have been to the extreme example of somebody, a believer, went to a strip club and died instantly from a nuclear bomb. That's not finishing well, physically. Or is that, would you say, that's an evidence in their heart that they were not? I don't know. I would say that they could still have true faith, but die in an accident in his sleep. Yeah, well that sounds a lot like Roman Catholicism. For example, suicide in the Roman Catholic Church. You commit a moral sin, there is no penance after that. You're done. Right? As Cody says, you're done. Alright? You're finished. That's not a Protestant or Reform view of justification or of true faith. Believers may commit heinous sins and die in those heinous sins, and yet still... Die absolutely in the act, yes. Because true faith... Yeah, I don't want to give the impression that finishing well means that you're in that moment of repentance at the last day. No, that you're clinging to Christ to the very end, even though you may fall into grievous sins. Although from our perspective, at times, yes, that can raise questions. We are, you know, and that goes back to the issue of the fact that the church and individuals, we can never really know for certain if someone has true faith. In the sense we can't say 100% objectively before God this person is a Christian, but we are given criteria from the word of God to judge a credible profession, which is not holding to false doctrine, professing faith, not undermining that profession with false doctrine, or unrepentance. So there might be some question in our minds if somebody dies by suicide or something like that, but without a doubt, there have been, I believe, true believers, many who have died by suicide or in acts of heinous sin and yet still cling to Christ by faith. Yeah, yeah. Again, it goes back to what we looked at right here. It may be weak or strong. They were weak in that moment. Right? They fell into sin. But still, true faith is there. Mark? So, it's impossible to apostatize because either you have true faith in which case you can, Let's see if I understand your question. Say it again. I would say just to sum up what you said, there is no true apostasy because if you have faith, either it's the true faith, in which case you can't apostatize the saving faith, or you have the temporary faith, which doesn't have trust, and so it isn't true faith. Perhaps that would be one way of saying it. I'm reminded of 1 John when he talks about how they went out from us, 1 John 2, 19, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. So, they went out, he's talking about the false teachers, he's talking about the apostates, those who deny that Jesus is the Christ, in this case right here. Denies the Son and the Father, or the Father. They went out to make manifest that they were not true believers to begin with. And again, it goes back to that question, Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. It goes back to what Jude says when he talks about the one who keeps you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. Scriptures always go back to it is Christ himself who keeps his people. That's what it means to shepherd the flock of God. And so if someone is not kept, there's evidence to us that they were never his. Pastor Ron, you want to help me out here? You have anything to add? Perhaps it helps to think of apostasy as a word we use from a limited and human perspective. It's not an ultimate word. And so yes, people really do apostatize. In other words, they walked by faith, and they walked in truth, and now they're not. Derek Webb is an apostate. He was never a real Christian. If this is who he really is, and we can't actually know that, he may repent. But he was a believer from every appearance. and now he's not, so he is apostate. In that sense, it's real. From the ultimate terms of God's election and all of that, well, yeah, he was never one of God's people, and so maybe that's helpful. Yeah, and you think about the indwelling of the Spirit. The indwelling of the Spirit produces spiritual fruit, fruit of the Spirit. And one of the fruits of the Spirit is that faith that perseveres till the end. So there's counterfeit fruit, so from our perspective, this person's a Christian, but there is no fountain of life within them, ultimately. I was thinking of our reading of the law last week, 2 Peter 2. And the ones who talked about it's worse for them having heard the truth and then walked away. Well, what was the sin? You go, well, it sounded like the sin of apostasy. Hearing the truth, knowing the truth, and then still turning back to the desires of the flesh, desires of the world. So that's what they're held accountable for is their apostasy, hearing the truth and then rejecting it. Yep, absolutely. I see a hand back here. The way I would think about it, apostasy is an external word. It's a word that, kind of like what I was saying, it's our limited human understanding. It describes actions. I looked up the definition of it just on Google, and it was the abandonment or renunciation of that religious belief. So it says nothing about what your motives were or what was in your heart before or after. It's just the external, what we can see. You have now renounced your religion. Absolutely. That's good. That's good. From our perspective, that's what's going on. But from God's perspective, true faith does not apostatize. It's not capable of apostatizing because it's not ultimately depending upon us. God creates faith in us as the author and finisher of our faith. We've got to move on, otherwise we'll go five weeks. into Sola Fide and I don't want to hear. If that happens I would not, I just don't want to hear it. So, I do have an audience poll here real quick. What is Sola Fide? Why is Sola Fide an important and central doctrine in the local church? Just shoot them out. Why? Effects of angelism. Unity around doctrine. Yes, around the gospel. It affects where you find your assurance. Jack? It affects how we see the truth of everybody else around us. It affects how we see... excellent. You guys are throwing out all my material. What was that, Cody? Means of grace. Wow, wait a minute here. Means of grace. Interesting, okay. Yes, yes. So, some obvious answers. It's the Gospel. It's the way of salvation. It must be preached, taught, declared in evangelism. This is the message we proclaim. If we want to see unbelievers come to the knowledge of God and true faith and salvation, it affects the message we declare. Or we'll all become legalists. This is what I expected to hear from you, Cody. And sectarians and heretics. Right? If we don't define what faith is, if we don't cling to the scriptural doctrine of faith alone. So, to expand on this just a little bit. Remember, faith alone secures Christ's benefits. So, in our evangelism, in our gospel, we don't call people to baptism, per se. As I pointed out from 1 Corinthians, Paul says, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach. That's why baptism and conversion are not to be confused. That's why conversion precedes baptism. The preaching of the Word is central. That's what creates faith. That's what we call people to. Faith. We don't call people to make a mere decision. You know, an altar's call, pray the sinner's prayer. We don't want to give them the impression that the mere act or the desire or the decision is equivalent with true faith. We call them to faith, not just to a ritualistic act. We don't call them to any other ritual, say seven Hail Marys, come to the Eucharist, come to the supper. We call them to faith. Faith. Because faith alone secures Christ's benefits, we relentlessly call people to faith, which is what? Goes back to knowing God, to agreeing with His Word. Lean not on your own understanding. Continually trust, place all their hope in Him. This is a living faith, a vibrant faith. You must never give the impression that there is something more to be added to faith in order to obtain a right standing with God. Well, faith plus homeschooling your children. You'd be surprised. Faith plus a perfect Sunday school record in attendance. Faith plus voting Republican. You see how often we can create these divisions and cliques within the church based upon things that don't strike at the heart of true faith? That's dangerous. When it comes to clear commandments of God's Word, yes. Right? Because true faith is expressed in submitting and obeying God's Word. So we don't welcome in the serial adulterer. We don't welcome in those who live in open rebellion against God. But ultimately faith is the ground of our right standing with God and the ground of our unity as well. that gets it something else you guys mentioned as well. A credible profession of faith, which again our confession defines as a profession not undermined by false doctrine or unrepentant living, is the basis upon which we receive others into the church in formal membership. I think Jack said it. This is how we relate to one another. on the basis of faith, on the basis of race or age, right? Any other demographic? We relate to others on the basis of political affiliation, right? Favorite college football team? Okay. Preaching to myself there, okay? God has given me Alabama fans in my congregation for my sanctification, I'm just convinced. Thanks, Brandon. You know, there is no do this, be this, strive for this, or reach this level of sanctification to be welcomed into the church. And again, sometimes, oftentimes, the church has done this. The most extreme examples, you know, how you dress, how you wear your hair, what kind of music you listen to, what is your political affiliation, whether you homeschool your children, whether your wife works outside the home or not. All of these things oftentimes, now maybe the church doesn't come up and say you're definitely an unbeliever if these things happen, but there's this distance, right? Cliques are formed. we ought to be careful. This is why it matters. We relate to each other based upon faith. We're all at different stages of sanctification, but the basis of our communion with one another is true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? This naturally leads to faith thrall and sanctification. Another gigantic subject that we're going to spend like two minutes on. How do we grow as Christians? Conjure up strength within and get serious with our spiritual disciplines. Grow by simply doing good works, gritting our teeth, going through the rituals, saying the magic words, Or do we grow when we fix our eyes on Jesus Christ? My professors in seminary, Dr. Baugh said this, I love it. Sanctification is not that complicated. Did you hear that, Cody? It's not that complicated. Fix your eyes on Jesus and He will sanctify you. It's a, you know, simplistic way of putting it, but it's true. Christ sanctifies us, we don't sanctify ourselves. and that comes through fixing our eyes upon Him. So faith alone teaches us that instead of striving in fear to please or appease God, the ground of our growth as Christians is how we are called to trust in His promises and in His Word. We then strive for obedience and holiness out of love and joy because we are freely forgiven by faith, Not to earn His favor, not simply just to avoid His wrath, not out of fear, not out of presumption, but out of love and joy. Also, this relates to why are we here in the local church. Cody, why do we gather weekly? You said it. It means a grace. Why are we gathering? Simply to please God? Just to obey God so that He'll show us favor? Or do we gather because this is the place and arena, the means by which God has promised to descend, to meet with us, to bless us, and to grow and strengthen our faith. This changes the entire way you look at church. So often we tend to default and we go to church because that's the thing to do. That's what obedient Christians do. We're here to obey. Yes, we are here to obey in many respects. He has called us to observe the Lord's Day. It is a continuation, a fulfillment, an expression of the Fourth Commandment. Obedience to the Fourth Commandment, the Christian Sabbath, is gathering, not neglecting, to meet together as is the habit of some. But ultimately, it's easy to have the mindset, we're coming here to do things for God. Right? This is all about Him. This is all obedience. Rather than coming and sitting down and having Him call us to worship, having Him undress us through the righteousness revealed in His law, and then dress us with the beautiful robes of righteousness in the reading of the gospel, declaration of the gospel, and bathing us from our filth in baptism, and feeding us with the bread and wine of life needed for sustenance, and then instructing us through His Word and dismissing us with a benediction of blessing. This is God's action going on here. And so, that's why we gather and when we understand faith alone, we realize what is going on here. The means of grace the ways in which God strengthens our faith. Our faith is nourished. And even if we can't perceive it, even if we can't feel like we're going, even if we don't feel like we got anything out of the service or anything out of the sermon, approaching the means of grace and faith approaching knowing Lord you're using this for my good even when I'm not aware of it and I need it as much as I need bread and drink for sustenance in life for my physical body Heidelberg Catechism number 65 says it is by faith alone that we share in Christ and all his blessings where then does this faith come from We considered it last week, the first part. The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel. But look, and confirms it through our use of the Holy Sacraments. That's a profound statement. And it's something that in the church today, I think largely, broadly, the church has perhaps lost. that our faith is confirmed, our assurance is granted, our faith is strengthened when we come to the means of grace. Furthermore, and there will be time for questions in just a second, where is our assurance in times of sin and doubt? Roman Catholic Church, there is no real assurance, unless you're the Pope. The best assurance you can have is that you're probably going to purgatory for, I don't know, a couple hundred thousand years where you'll be in agony and torment. Then eventually all your sins will be burned off and you will then attain into the presence of God. There's no assurance of salvation in Roman Catholic theology. New perspective of Paul, federal vision, other forms where there's this final justification. There's no real assurance either because you could always fail to live up to your measure of covenantal faithfulness. Arminianism, assurance is found within you. You gotta look to your decision. You gotta look to that moment when you prayed the sinner's prayer. You gotta look to that experience you had in conversion. And that's where your assurance lies, which is no real assurance. Legalism, your assurance is in your good works. You have good days and bad days. But if you die on one of your bad days, woo! But our assurance, even in times of backsliding, when our assurance may come into doubt, is based upon Christ's work alone. Sanctification plays a role in our assurance. But ultimately, it's not the level of our sanctification or even the strength of our faith, it is our gaze and grasp of the object of our faith, Jesus Christ and His hold upon us. As I mentioned earlier, Hebrews 12, one and two, we're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter, or the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So, faith alone is incredibly comforting. Faith alone gives assurance in times of difficulty and doubt. Faith alone directs our gaze continually at Jesus Christ. And that's why it's important in the local church. So just to conclude here, and then we'll have questions. Is the means of true conversion? Keeps us from leading ourselves or others into false conversion? It's a basis of our unity and communion with one another. It informs our doctrine of sanctification and Christian growth, the means of grace, what's going on in the church, assurance, and perseverance. That's why it's important in the life of the church. I just want to close with this Heidelberg Catechism number 60. Again, how were you made right with God? Only by true faith in Jesus Christ, even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments and never having kept any of them." Wow. And even though I'm still inclined towards all evil, Nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept this gift with a believing heart." That's what true faith is. Two minutes for questions. Thank you for letting me blow through that really quickly so that we can move on next week. Any questions based upon unity, sanctification, means of grace, assurance in relation to the local church and Sola Fide? I shouldn't have put up the blue question mark. Well, I'm glad you're all convinced. All right, well, let's close and wrap.