Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Galatians chapter 1. We'll
read for our text verses 6, 7 and 8. Galatians 1 from verse 6. I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. which is not another. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Galatians 1 verse 6 through to
verse 8. The Apostle Paul is writing to
the Galatians here because, though they first had received the gospel
from him and been taught the truth of the grace of God, yet
there had been those coming to them and preaching to them another
gospel. Paul says it is not another.
It is not a substitute. It seems to be good news, but
it is not, and it will not save. And in effect, what they were
doing, they were going back to the works of the law. They were
saying that one needed to be circumcised to be saved, they
were adding to the gospel that which God had never put within. They were like the Jews in our
Lord's time that taught for commandments the doctrines of men. They laid
burdens on men that were grievous to be born, and yet they did
not lift them or help them at all. And it is still the same
today, and especially what is upon my spirit this evening is
because of the death of the Pope and the funeral yesterday, and
realizing how many world leaders, including Prince William, including
our Prime Minister, and many other leaders have all gone over
and made such a thing of his passing. And we realize what
a hold still the Roman Catholic doctrines have. And when we think
of this word of our text, pervert, it means distort or corrupt the
original meaning and teaching. And that is what the Roman Catholic
Church does. For many, many years, the Word
of God was kept locked up in the Latin language. The Roman
Catholic Church has taught they are the one and only church,
and she has the only ability, the sole ability, to interpret
Scripture and none other. Nevertheless, there are many
things that are common with the Protestant faith and with the
Roman Catholic, and that is where the danger lies. And especially
with this Pope, if one didn't listen carefully to some of the
things that he says, has said, then they would think, well,
he is a Pope that seems to unite and seems to draw people together
and draw different denominations together, different than other
popes, and there's always a danger to actually forget the teaching,
forget the doctrines. And so when we think the Roman
Catholic Church, they still believe in the Trinity, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. They still believe in the nature
of God, his self-existence, unchangeableness, His eternity that is everywhere
present, they hold to all of that the same. Also the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the saving work upon Calvary's tree,
His life, His sacrificial death, His rising again and ascension
into heaven, and the work of the Holy Spirit, they will still
hold to that. And the Man himself, the glory
of man, were made in God's image, but also the fall of man and
the depravity of man, they hold to that as well. You can look
at the catechisms of the Roman Catholic Church, and with a brief
quick looking you think, well, there's a lot of very similarities. And yet, that was not how the
reformers saw it. That is not how the Protestant
church was brought to see it. And so the Reformation started
in 1517. It was when Luther nailed his
thesis upon the door and ended in 1648, or some will vary that
end date. But, in that Reformation, there
was brought forth the original truths of the Word of God, unlocked
from Latin, and clearly stated and set forth. Today, and it flows from what
was brought together in the last century, the 20th century, The
Protestant Church has given the five solas of the Reformation,
as that which distinguishes the Protestant from the Roman Catholic,
is those five points. Now, they weren't all grouped
together and known as those five during the Reformation, but all
individually were taught, were found, were brought forth. And
so they were gathered together as what most concisely sets before
us what the Reformation was. Now it's good for us to also
remember what the Confessions state. The Baptist Confession
of 1689, Article 26 and Point 4, I'll read it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Head of the Church. In Him, by the appointment of
the Father, is vested in a supreme and sovereign manner all power
for the calling, institution, order or government of the Church. The Pope of Rome cannot in any
sense be Head of the Church. But he is that Antichrist, that
man of sin and son of perdition, who exalts himself in the church
against Christ and all that is called God, who the Lord shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming." And we believe also,
in the portion that we've read in Revelation 17, that Rome is
identified very clearly as the seat where the Roman Catholic
Church, or Mystery Babylon the Great, the Great Whore, sits,
where Rome and the Vatican is, in verse 9. The seven heads are
seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. And the Protestant
Church has always viewed the Roman Catholic doctrine as being
anti-Christ. It has been against the Lord
Jesus Christ. So I want to, with the Lord's
help this evening, more in a positive way to look at those five solas
of the Reformation, those statements that the Roman Catholic Church
go out of their way to contradict and go against every one of them,
And notice that what is set forth is not just the doctrines, but
it's this word alone. So, in sola gratia, that is by
grace alone, sola fide, which is through faith alone, and sola
christis, which is in Christ alone. and sola scriptura, which
is according to scripture alone, and sola de gloria, which is
for God's glory alone. And it is this word alone that
makes the difference in every case. If we were to take the
Galatian church here, where our text is, and say, well, haven't
they embraced Paul's doctrine? Don't they agree with that? Are they still following Paul?
Yes, but not alone. They are adding things to it.
They're adding works to it. They're laying on the need to
be circumcised to it. And so this is the danger, the
error with the Roman Catholic Church, and we may see it in
many other different forms. If we add or subtract anything,
from the doctrine or teaching of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, then it undermines it. And we need that discernment,
the mind of the Spirit, the teaching of the Spirit, to discern between
what really is vital teaching, what is secondary teaching, and
what is an added that makes the word of none effect. Remember,
that is what our Lord said to the Jews ye make the word of
God of none effect by your traditions. And we'll see that in a moment
in these solas. So first, I want to look at by
grace alone. The apostle Paul in Ephesians,
he says, by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. not of works, lest any man
should boast." So he's not adding anything. Grace is the free and
merited favour of God. It is the gifts at Christ's expense. And nothing is to be added to
it. No rights, no penances, no works
of man are to be added to it at all. The Roman Catholic Church,
they believe that it is God that instigates salvation, or the
plan of salvation, but then they hold that they have the ability
to bless water, turn it into holy water, and that water then,
when used in baptism, confers the forgiveness of sins, and
confirmed spiritual life, and instead of it being the grace
of God alone, then it is the works of men, and many other
things that they add to it that adds unto salvation. Now we must
be very clear that the grace of God, it does bring forth works
made for repentance, the fruit of grace is good works. The apostle writing to the Roman
church in Romans chapter 6, after setting forth that we are saved
by grace alone, then he says, shall we sin that grace might
abound? And he says, God forbid, how
can we that saved from sin live any longer therein. And that
grace of God then that saves also brings about a hatred to
sin, not a license to sin, not sinning like the Roman Catholic
Church used to sell indulgences where one could buy these indulgences
and then be able to sin without any repercussions. It gave them
a license to do evil and to do sin. And the priest able to just,
on their own accord, forgive sins, not according to the word
of God, but the grace of God. It brings with it a new creature,
a new birth, a new life from heaven, It is the Lord that begins
it and carries it on with no respect to any foreseen good
works in us, for anything that we can add to it, but its fruit
is that which is to the honour and glory of God and shows the
true work of God. And we must always hold fast
to this. May it be a real encouragement
to us because the only people that really know what sin is,
that are burdened by it and labour under it, are those that are
taught by the Holy Ghost. And they see and know that, as
the hymn writer says, if ever my poor soul be saved, His Christ
must be the way. They know it must be by grace.
And we are told, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Really, if we grow in grace,
we grow less and less looking to works, looking to something
that we are able to do or put our hand unto. And so it is a
great comforting doctrine to the people of God. Those that
truly know their sin, if it wasn't for God's grace, we wouldn't
be saved. The Apostle Paul says, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. Then he says, I laboured more
abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which
was with me. And he puts all of the crown
upon God's grace, upon the gifts that the Lord gives. We think
of the thorn in the flesh that he had, the messenger of Satan. The Lord didn't take it away,
but he said, my grace is sufficient. For there's saving grace, there's
grace to help in time of need, and we read, he giveth more grace.
Every time the people of God have need, there is that free
store in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Paul, when he writes
to the Philippians, you know the grace of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet he became poor.
that ye through his poverty might be made rich. So may we realise
this is one of these distinguishing differences between the Roman
Catholic teaching and the Protestant faith, and it is that which we
should not forget. May we remember in these things
that those of our Forefathers, we read in Revelation of the
effect of those that shall be put to death and the martyrs,
and certainly in this land and in other lands, knew very much
of that. The persecution and those that
would not observe the Mass and participate in that, because
that Mass that was setting forth not only as a memorial, the Roman
Catholic Church do say it's a memorial, but they do say that they, as
the true church, if they think they're the true church, have
the God-given ability to physically turn the bread into the real
body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. They believe they have that ability
to do these things. And so then it makes it as a
sacrifice. That's why they have an altar.
And so the Protestant Christians, they would
not go along with that. And just on that one issue, that
they wouldn't partake of the mass, many were put to death. Many were brought to the fires
and burned alive. And we need to remember how much
Those who have gone before us put on one doctrine. They wouldn't
bend one doctrine to save their lives, because they saw the need
of that. When the children of Israel are
going through the wilderness, in tithe, the rock was smitten. Now smitten rock was Christ. The waters flowed out. Later
on, the Lord also brought them water, but he told Moses to speak
unto the rock. Moses in anger smote it twice,
must I bring you water out of this rocky rebels? And for that
the Lord did not allow him to go into the promised land. The whole, the tight was ruined. God does not begrudgingly give
his blessings or give salvation or give the Those living waters
that flow forth from Calvary doesn't say to sinners, must
I bring you this living water? Must I save you? Must I be merciful? Must I be smitten for you? No. And also is only to be smitten
once. Christ hath once suffered the
just for the unjust. And so there is that which is
added in the administering of the Lord's Supper. It is to be
a remembrance alone. The second one I bring is through
faith alone. We said of Paul writing to the
Galatians, to the Ephesians, by grace you are saved through
faith. And Paul in this epistle is very
clear, the very next chapter he is setting forth that it is
the life that he lives is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 16, knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law, by the faith of Jesus
Christ or given by Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified or accounted without guilt, acquitted,
delivered from the condemnation of the law by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. For if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid! For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law. that I might live unto God. And so the Apostle and Luther,
this is what he saw very clearly that it was through faith. And what a light shone into his
heart when he saw and he read that which is of faith. In verse 17 of Romans chapter
one was what the rested Luther, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. And this to him was really a
light that shone upon the work. The verse that goes before, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek. Many of these truths were hidden
from the local people because they could not read the word
of God. It was locked up. It was told that it could only
be interpreted by the church, only allowed to be interpreted
by the church. But we have the promise that
all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and that the Holy
Spirit shall reveal to you these things and open these things
to you. It is not locked up in the priesthood
of a church, any church. It is the faith that is given
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And we read of those in the Old
Testament in Hebrews 11, that all lived and died by faith. Faith is good for them and is
good for us. It is vital. Without faith it
is impossible to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. But that faith is what is given
to believe. The third one is in Christ alone,
that is His work alone. We said one of the common things
with the Roman Catholic and Protestant is the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ upon Calvary. But the Roman Catholic Church
will then add to our Lord's work and add to that which man must
do and must perform. Penances, pilgrimages, baptisms,
various other things are added to it. It is this alone that
is so important. Himrider rightly says, if ever
my poor soul be saved, his Christ must be the way. And our Lord
declares in John 14 verse 6, I am the way, The truth and the
life, no man cometh unto me, unto the Father, but by me. And it is in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone that all of our fruit comes from. Our Lord tells us in John
15, from me is thy fruit found. If we are united to that living
vine, which is Christ from the root, all of our Fruit, all of
our life comes from Him alone, and no other source. There's
no other mixed source. It must be that which is pure,
unmixed. All of the gold of the temple
was that which was pure, and Christ is not to be joined at
all with others. We think of how the Ark of God
was taken in Eli's day, and they put the Ark next to Dakin, and
Dakin, he fell down, and then he's put up, and then he fell
down again, his stump was all broken. And our Lord is very
clear, you cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve Christ
or have salvation by Christ and then join something else with
it. And these things we need to really
know in our own faith, in our own seeking. You may be gathered
this evening and just see the thoughts of when we think that
the adversary is he, that at the root of all these false religions
and false teaching, he will come in to the people of God and tempt
them in the same way, but in a disguise, as if saying you
need something more than faith. You need to add to it. You need
to do some work. You need to be acceptable. You need something more than
just believing, to know that you're a child of God, or to
be baptized, or to be found as the Lord's true people. And this
is the error of the Roman Catholic Church. It is man wanting to
add something. How many of us have had someone
come to us and they've wanted to give us something, and there's
an automatic thing we want to give them something back. We
want to pay a little towards it, we want to earn it in some
way. And yet, with the things of God,
and this is what was such a light, such a wonderful thing to Luther,
that it was by faith alone, and it was in Christ alone, trusting
solely in Him, not in any other. And I know solemnly with the
Roman Catholic Church, they state that Mary was, her conception
was immaculate, that her life was sinless, and that she lived
and died a virgin. We know from the scriptures that
our Lord had brothers and sisters, And we know that she also was
a sinner with Simeon when he blessed her. He says, a sword
shall pierce thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts
might be revealed. When Mary had been told by the
angel that she should conceive and bear a son, she says, my
soul doth magnify. my saviour, God my saviour, and
she also was a sinner, she needed a saviour as well, and yet it
is not just Christ, but the Roman Catholic Church lift her up on
such a veneration and such a pinnacle, and make her also, as instead
of Christ being the only mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus, they say, no, Mary is a mediator. We had a Roman
Catholic, no, we had several of them, one particular one several
years ago, many years ago, I think now, and he said to me, you Protestants,
you misunderstand us Catholics. He says, we don't pray to Mary. He says, we pray to Christ through
Mary. I said, well, that's even worse,
because you're putting a sinful person between us and Christ. Instead of us being able to come
straight to Christ and present our petitions, we've got to present
them through Mary first. And he thought that that somehow
made it better, not so bad. And it is the most solemn thing
as to how not only Mary, but others of the saints have been
venerated, lifted up, and prayers for the dead, intercessions for
the dead, the introducing of the idea of a purgatory, a place
to refine those that have died, even of God's people, before
they go into heaven. As our Lord upon the cross, he
said to the dying thief, This day shalt thou be with me in
paradise. I think I've said sometimes just
by moving a comma, you can accommodate the Roman Catholic doctrine.
If our Lord was to say, verily, verily, I say unto thee today,
thou shalt be with me in paradise, it leaves to be that he's saying
that today at some future date. you will be with me in paradise.
But what our Lord said was, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And our Lord is backed up by
the inspired, infallible word of God through Paul, absent from
the body, present with the Lord. Nothing in between. Stephen,
when he was dying, the first Christian martyr, of which Paul
was a witness. They laid the clothes of those
who were stoning him at his feet. And he looked up, and he saw
the Lord standing in heaven, waiting to receive him. No purgatory,
straight to heaven. What does the Lord say in John
14? I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
way. He has gone to heaven. He makes
intercession for his people. He receives them when they yield
up their breath. He brings them to heaven. It
is Christ alone. No purgatory, no Mary, no saints. Christ alone. And this is where
we stand as a Protestant so opposed to the gospel, which is not a
gospel. which is not another gospel but
is not one that is taught by the Roman Catholic Church. Then we have, fourthly, according
to Scripture alone. We believe that the inspired,
infallible Word of God comprises of the 66 books, 39 in the Old
Testament, 27 in the New of our Bibles. The Roman Catholic Church
add the Apocrypha in with that, saying that that is inspired,
giving it equal value with the other scriptures. They do not
read in the same vein at all. as the scriptures that we have.
They also put on an exact equal level the traditions of the Church. And in fact, they say that the
Pope has the ability to make doctrinal statements and to actually
add to the Word of God through the traditions of the Church.
And right through the history of the Roman Catholic Church,
Many such things have been added, many teachings have been added,
which are not found in the scriptures at all, but they are given that
way because it is, they say, the Church, the Roman Catholic
Church, that is able to make these statements and revelations,
and it's given equal weight to the Word of God. Each of our
confessions, they always begin, our articles of faith, they always
begin stating as to what we believe is the Word of God and all the
truths that we hold, where they come from. Now, of course, we
can use commentaries, you can use works of men that may explain
and show light upon the Word of God, but none of those are
the Word of God. All is in subjection, to the
Word of God. We read at the end that if any
man takes away from the Word of God that his name shall be
taken away out of the Lamb's Book of Life and in any man adds
to it shall be added to him all the curses that are found in
in the book and this is quoted from Deuteronomy. We are not
to add or subtract from it. We do not need scripture. We
do not need anything else in scripture. Scripture is sufficient
for doctrine, for practice, that the man of God might be thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. And so in this, again, we have
where there cannot even be a proper debating of the truths of God
because they're going from another foundation and not basing solely
upon Scripture. Yes, the Roman Catholic Church
do say that they are able from the Scriptures to defend what
they teach, but in all of these things we think of Satan coming
to our Lord and when our Lord used Scripture to rebuff his
temptations, Satan used Scripture as well. And so our Lord said,
but it is written again. We're to compare Scripture with
Scripture and always to have a high view. Over the years,
there's been so many attacks upon the Scriptures, higher criticism,
lower criticism, debates upon translations, all the time undermining
the people of God's faith in Scripture. If God was good enough
to give his word, he will give it perfectly, without error,
inerrant. If God means it for every nation,
kindred and tongue, he will in his providence, sovereign providence,
make sure those nations have an accurate translation of the
word of God. And we can see in God's providence
with our Bible how through First several other versions were then
brought together by James, our king, and in 1611 we have the
first version, and later on revised slightly in the 1700s to the
version that we have now. And we can see God's providence
in that, and the blessing that has been upon it throughout the
years. And so we have recourse to the
Word of God solely, according to Scripture alone. To the law, to the testimony,
if they speak not according to these things, it is because there
is no life in them. The last one is for God's glory
alone. Not man's glory, not the Pope's
glory, You know the Apostle Paul, he did not seek that glory for
himself. In fact, very opposite. His desire was to lift up Christ
and that he be nothing. John the Baptist, I must decrease,
he must increase. His desire was for Christ only
to be exalted. The desire for every true minister
of Christ is that it be Christ that is lifted up, not himself,
not his skill, not his wisdom. Yes, we are all troubled and
buffeted by pride, but we would pray that that be kept down and
that nothing comes in between. It must be the glory of our Lord
and our Lord alone, that no flesh might glory in his presence. Apostle in writing to the Corinthians. He's very clear on this, the
first epistle and the first chapter. We read at the end of that first
chapter, You see your calling brethren, how that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God had chosen the foolish things
of the world. To confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which
are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God, is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth
let him glory in the Lord. And the reformers saw this as
a very important doctrine, important teaching for God's glory alone. May we remember these things. Let Satan come and he try and
teach otherwise. Try and tell us, well, we need
something to glory before God. No. We are but sinners and the
true grace of God will be like John Baptist. We must decrease. He must increase in all their
experience. That will be the effect of that.
Lower and lower in their own esteem. Higher and higher Christ
is in our esteem. The scriptures will be made very
precious to us. The word of God, I have given
them thy word, the Lord said, and the world hath hated them.
And the Lord Jesus Christ alone. I always remember when meeting
a lady outside this chapel, we seemed to get on well for a while,
talking, and then Something came up about those who had never
heard of Christ. Well, she said, I think they'll
still be saved. I said, no, they won't. Those that do not have
faith in Christ, Christ is the only way of salvation. And then
she was very, very upset. She hated that idea. The Pope
has been recorded as being told of a A young lad that was baptised
in Roman Catholic Church, his father was an atheist, an unbeliever. Would his father go to heaven?
Well, yes, he said, because if an atheistic father was so good
as to have his son baptised, then God would reward that good
work and bring him to heaven. Don't worry about faith. Don't
worry about being justified by faith or believing. If the pontiff
could say he could go to heaven, he would. And this is the type
of errors that are being brought forth and were brought forth
by the late poem. And we need then to be delivered,
lest Satan, also for us, though we sit under the sound of the
gospel, are Protestants by name, and yet Satan comes in. You need
some work. You need something more than
the faith God has given you. You need something more than
Christ. You need to understand things
a bit better. You need to have some worthiness
in yourself to be aware of all the imitations, all of the things. Yes, remember the apostle had
said with these Galatians at first that they had received
the gospel from him, but then these other things coming in.
And may then the word this evening brought about by, and I felt,
it needs is that which is so current in the news. Unless we
do forget our history, forget the Reformation, or think it
not necessary, or perhaps the Roman Catholic Church has changed.
It hasn't changed. And yet in bringing this, may
it be used of God to perhaps deliver one, or more than one,
from Satan's errors. and from his cheats and from
things that would hinder, hold back, and bring into bondage. May the blessing be like it was
with Luther, that the light shine upon that glorious truth that
justified by faith in Christ alone, and that set free, set
liberty, and realize this blessing is mine. The Lord has given me
this faith, He is the author of it. I didn't begin it, the
Lord began it, and I do believe. And may the Lord give that joy
and peace in believing. And in that way, we personally
taste the truth, love the truth, embrace the truth. Those that
lay down their lives for the truth, why they did so, they
tasted the graciousness of the Lord. They knew their whole salvation
depended upon their faith in Christ alone and in nothing else. Well may the Lord bless this
word to us and grant us of this faith and be kept from error,
every error, and not to forget the lessons of former years. Amen.