Sola Fide (Faith Alone)

Transcript

Morning, y’all. How we doing? All right. Well, as Thomas just mentioned, this is my last month with you all before I ship out to DC. And I want to just start by thanking you all. I’ve been at this church for the last five years, and I cannot tell you the numerous amounts of ways that you all have loved me, and cared for me, and served me, and challenged me. And I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the last five years that have been an incredible help to my soul. And to be fully transparent, when Thomas first asked me to do this, my initial thought was, nah. I’m going to have a lot going on. I’m about to be moving across the country. But I heard him out. And then when he sent me the scripture text for this morning in the Lord’s Providence, it was quite staggering,

because this happened to be the text that I have referred back to more than any other text this year. And he did not know that. And I texted him right away and said, yo, Providence, I guess this is the Lord’s confirmation for me opening up his word to you. And I’ll say this about this text. And not only has it been a great aid to my own soul devotionally, but I think in many ways it sums up the many ways in which you all have served me and how I’ve benefited from you. And so I hope it serves as a great encouragement. So I love you all dearly. And yeah, let’s get into his word. Would you stand with me and turn to Luke 22, 31 through 34? And that’s going to be Luke 22, 31 through 34. It says 37, but you know, we’re going to stop at 34.

Cool? All right. Text says,

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me

— Luke 22

(ESV)

. Family, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. And as you take your seats, would you go ahead and pray with me?

Faith Alone

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the great privilege that it is to open up your word. Would you incline our hearts to your testimonies? And would you open up our eyes to see wondrous things out of your law for the good of your people and for the glory of your name? In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. All right, five solas. Over the last few weeks, we are in the middle of our sermon series, Light After Darkness. And this is obviously also tied into the season that we’re in, which is Advent. Now, I’m not nice with the Latin like some of our brothers here, so I’m going to just give you the English translations of what we’ve already reviewed. Thus far, we’ve explored grace alone. We’ve gone through God’s glory alone with Josh. And last week, Andre, we looked at scriptures alone, which brings us now to faith alone.

Now, to be frank, our text for this morning is not one of the usual suspects that you would go to for the doctrine of justification by faith alone. But I actually think it’s actually to our benefit that this is not a usual suspect, because it allows us to then see how these doctrines are interwoven into all portions of scripture, not just the popular verses. So instead of flipping over to maybe Paul’s letter of Romans, for an example, we’re going to actually go to the Passover scene that we find in Matthew, specifically Jesus’s last supper with his disciples in the upper room. So family, would you gather around the table, if you will, with the disciples, with me, to hear what the Lord has to teach us? So to give a little bit of context this morning, our verse begins at verse 31. But I actually want to do a quick summary of events

of the things that are happening just before that, beginning at verse 14. We find Jesus instituting the very first Lord’s Supper, the very thing that we practice to this day with these elements. And after the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the dialogue among Jesus and his disciples opens up. And this is where we find ourselves. Now to paint the picture a little bit for you and to bring you into the space and the headspace of both Jesus and the disciples, I want us to just quickly consider where they might be at, potentially. And again, the text doesn’t give us this, but I think there’s some clues that we can tap into that give us a little bit of where their headspace might have been, beginning first with the disciples. Now coming off of Passover, which is a somber but also celebratory moment in the Jewish tradition, I would guess

the disciples are in a bit of a celebratory mood. Although they knew that the Jewish elites were after Jesus, they certainly didn’t perceive any immediate danger, right? Jesus is as popular as he’s ever been. The ministry is working. People are healed. And they’re, quite frankly, starting to feel themselves a little bit. And we know this because we’ll read in a little bit that they were actually arguing about who’s the greatest. So for the disciples, I’d say the vibes are high. They’re feeling themselves. And quite frankly, they’ve ignored every indication that Jesus has given them about the impending danger. They’ve washed over it. Now we turn over to Jesus. It’s a little bit different with him. He is quite aware of what’s coming, standing face to face with the impending tribulation coming from all sides, the religious elite, Rome, Judas, Peter, and everyone, and the countless others

that he spent years investing in, serving, and teaching. All of them are about to abandon him. I wonder how much of an appetite you and I would have in that situation. Would we be celebratory? And although his emotional state, again, isn’t clearly articulated here, one can only assume the internal agony and turmoil he was feeling while his disciples carried on in complete naivety. And to further add insult to injury, listening to the conversation that’s being had around the table, it becomes very, very evident that after the years of observing, listening, witnessing, practicing, fellowshipping with Jesus, the disciples just still weren’t quite getting it. In verse 23, Jesus gives them a heads up that, yo, one of y’all is about to betray me. And instead of giving honest reflection as to, could it be me, Lord, they start a quarrel amongst themselves, arguing back and forth and bickering

over who’s going to be the one who betrays Jesus. In verse 24, they begin then arguing over who’s going to be the greatest. Says in verse 24, a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And then again in verse 33, you find Peter making promises that he won’t be able to keep through the night. And again, I just wonder how excruciating this must have been for him. Humanly speaking, one might be tempted to question if all their investment was worth it, if at the end of the road, this is where your people are at. But it’s quite interesting that Jesus responds each time with patience, with kindness, and with grace. In response to their arguments over betrayal and who’s going to be the greatest, he comes back with instructions and a promise. Reading in verse 25, Jesus responds to them

by saying the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as the one who serves. For who is greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. You are those who stayed with me in my trials. And I assign to you, here it is, as my father assigns to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. He responds to their foolishness with love. And not only love, but a promise of the kingdom to come.

And then when dealing with Peter, he gives him a word of encouragement that he’s prayed for him, and an exhortation namely to strengthen his brothers after he turns in repentance. And as an aside, isn’t this just like a beautiful display of the Lord’s patience and kindness? Considering where his headspace was and what he was about to encounter, this is his response. But unlike the beautiful displays we find in museums or shows, Jesus’s displays are meant to be mimicked and imitated. How would you have responded? Or better yet, how do you respond in the face of those around you who don’t get it? Those who say things that are blatantly not true. Those who make comments that are ignorant, downright arrogant. How do you deal with betrayal? All of these valid questions, especially in the time of year when we spend a lot of time with these kind of folks.

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Peter’s Adversary

But praise God, our Savior is not like us. But we ought to pray that the Holy Spirit might make us more like him. And now in the midst of all the squabblings and the vain disputes of the disciples, we’ll now turn our attention to the little focus text that we have for our time this morning. Now I want to look at three things. I want to explore Peter’s adversary. I want to look at Peter’s pride. And then I want to look at Peter’s hope. So beginning with Peter’s adversary, and I’ll call out one thing. Obviously in our text here, Jesus refers to Peter as Simon. But Simon was Peter’s previous name before Jesus renamed him, just for some clarification there. So when you see Simon and Peter, same person. So verse 31 reads, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.

And so here we have Jesus now directing his attention specifically to Simon Peter with the phrase Simon. Now while many of us aren’t necessarily familiar with Jewish literary devices, like me, the usage of name repetition is quite significant. It actually speaks to the deep affection one has for the person that they’re addressing. So I would say Thomas, for example, if we weren’t briefing. Love you, brother. This kind of double usage of a name only occurs 15 times in all of scripture. Which again, causes me to just point out, like the patience of our Lord in the midst of all of this is still dealing with people with deep affection and kindness.

So it’s out of this affection that Jesus warns Peter about the adversary saying, Satan demanded to have you. Now this isn’t the only instance in scripture where we find Satan interacting or communicating with the Lord about his people. If you’re familiar with the book of Job, we find a similar type of interaction happening in Job 1. And I’ll go ahead and run there really quickly. Job 1, 6 says, now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves to the Lord. And Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, from where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro the earth, and from walking up and down on it. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went from the presence of the Lord. Now, we don’t get the same level of detail and insight into the interaction around Satan’s requests for Peter. But there is one distinction that can be made. And I think the word demand is quite significant here, and also different from what we see in Job. In that account, it was the Lord who offered up Job.

Have you considered my servant Job? Which as a quick aside, Job must be like, yo, why is my name coming up? What’s up with me? Why me? But again, here we see a little bit of a different tone. Satan isn’t going to and fro the earth. He knows exactly who he’s after. And the demand to have you is not singular. It’s actually plural, referring to Peter and all of the disciples. And it’s as if you can almost hear Satan saying in the most sinister and fiending tone, let me at him. I want them. I want him. I want him. And family, I only suspect he feels the same way about you. But it’s also important to call out that in both accounts, Satan is on a very tight leash. He’s not free to do as he wishes without sovereign oversight. The amount of slack he receives is

determined by the Lord and the Lord alone. And this should be a great encouragement for us when all feels lost. Amen? And so what exactly does Satan want to do? The text says he wants to sift you like wheat. Now, I don’t know if you can tell, but I don’t farm. And I suspect many of you don’t farm either. And so some of this language might not be as clear for you as it was for me, or as it also wasn’t for me. So I did a little bit of research. And by research, I mean Google. And what I found was actually quite interesting in terms of what exactly sifting is. Sifting is a process used after harvesting grain that separates chaff, which is essentially like debris or scraps that get caught up in the harvesting process. So what the sifter will do is the sifter

will take all of the harvest and place it in these seeds. And in the process, the sifter will then start to shake the harvest in the sieve. As the sifter shakes it, everything rises. And the wind is actually what blows the chaff away. And so you’ll recall in Psalm 1 where the psalmist talks about how the wicked are like chaff, that the wind, again, blows away. Chaff is unsubstantial. It lacks depth and substance. It’s here and it’s gone, which is why, again, the wicked are like chaff. And so when the enemy is saying, I want to sift, he’s looking to stir and shake things up to see who might blow away in the wind. So in the same way, Satan wanted to shake Job so that he would prove to be like chaff and blow away, just like he wanted to shake the disciples,

that they would prove to be like chaff and blow away a la Judas. And in the same way, he wants to shake and sift you, that you too might prove to be like chaff, saying to the Lord almost, if I can just get my hands on them, they’ll turn and blow away, just like chaff. And so how does Simon respond? Unfortunately, the same way we often respond to the Lord’s warnings, with a self-righteous and kind of prideful proclamation. That’ll make it all better. And he says, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Essentially saying, who? Me? I’m going to turn on you? Trust me, Lord. I got this. Prison or death for me.

I want to pause here to quickly highlight and summarize three of the major errors, or quote unquote, not getting it right moments that we’ve seen thus far around the table. Between Judas’s predicted betrayal and the surrounding argument in verse 23, and the foolish debate about who’s the greatest in verse 24, and Peter’s prideful proclamation in verse 33, I believe can be distilled down into kind of one central problem that we can learn from. Among the disciples, I think there is a severe misplacement of faith. In other words, the disciples are showing us all the things we should not place our faith in for the salvation of our souls. Looking at Judas, for example, we learn that we should not place our faith in associations. He was one of the 12. He lived near to Jesus, but he also lived near to those who would go on to revolutionize the world.

What’s that saying? You are the sum of the people that you hang out with, something like that? Not so applicable here. And family, as much as we value meaningful membership here at Trinity Church, membership, church attendance, small group involvement will not save you. It wasn’t enough for Judas, and it won’t be sufficient for you. Then looking at this greatness debate, and to be frank, out of all of us, they probably got some claim on some greatness stuff because, you know, apostles. Nevertheless, we also learn that we should not place our faith in our own self-worth, or greatness, or even our own accomplishments. For Jesus quickly responds to them by flipping the paradigm on its head, saying, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the one who serves. And this is the same idea Paul would articulate in 1 Corinthians 1, where he writes,

but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God chose what was weak in the world to shame the strong. Essentially saying, if you think of yourself as great, you’re not it. Family, do you think of yourself as great? Do you think of yourself as wise?

Take heed, friend. And finally, we learn that we should not place our faith in our proclamations and promises. For in response to Peter’s words, Jesus essentially says in verse 34, prison and death. Really, dear Peter, your promise won’t even stand through the night. And if I’m being totally honest, I feel, Peter, I have made countless vows and oaths to the Lord about what I will do or what I won’t do anymore. Where I’ll go or this, that, or the other. And every time I find myself with pie on my face, like Peter. Which is why I think Jesus even says in Matthew 5, let what you say simply be yes or no. Anything more just comes from evil. He knows what’s in man, and he’s not into and impressed by our flattery or lip service. Hence why, again, I think the Lord says in Isaiah,

Peter’s Hope

these people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. It’s easy to make a statement or a proclamation, but oh, that our hearts would be in tune with his. It’s a far more challenging proposition. Lord, have mercy on us. So now getting into, what is the hope for Peter then? If placing our faith in any of the above that aren’t necessarily bad things is of no value at all, where should our faith be placed? For the answer to this question, let’s actually return to the Lord’s warning about Satan, our powerful, but again, limited adversary. Because I think the question could also maybe be asked like this, what exactly is the goal of Satan sifting? What’s he after? Is he there merely to cause God’s people to fall into sin? Is that the end? Is it to make the lives of God’s people

just a little bit more uncomfortable? Is the end to cloud our lives in shame and guilt over the things that we’ve done? I would argue no. These are but a means to a greater end, and that end being that our faith in Jesus fail. And in the words of Satan himself in Job 1, that we would, quote unquote, curse the Lord to his face. And if we need further proof of this, Jesus confirms Satan’s ultimate intent when he says, again, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. And here it is, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Out of all the things that Jesus could have said there, out of all the things that Jesus could have prayed, his choice to pray for Peter’s faith tells us everything that we need to know about what’s at stake in the spiritual war

that we all fight daily. It illuminates the aim of Satan sifting, but more importantly, it breaks the performative shackles and shows how we might be saved. But if you don’t want to take my word for it, let’s go ahead and flip on over to Hebrews 11, the so-called hall of faith, and one of my favorite chapters in all the Bible. Now, Hebrews 11, I’m going to be jumping around quite a bit here, beginning at verse 1. Verse 1 reads, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the people of old receive their commendation. Again, I’ll read that again, for by it the people of old receive their commendation. Continues on by saying, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. Jumping ahead to verse 6, where it reads, and without faith it is impossible to please him,

for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. And then skipping over, a long line of names which I would encourage each and every one of you to go home today and read, incredibly encouraging. Jumping ahead to verse 32, as we pass through the hall of faith, it reads, and what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, remained strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection, some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life.

And that is why Jesus prayed for Peter’s faith. For when you unlock the power of faith, all of the above comes with it. For the righteous are those who are not only saved by grace through faith, but are those who then continue to live by faith, and this is also why he sifts. This is why he goes after your health, marriage, family. This is why he tempts and assaults, because he understands the power of faith in Jesus, and that by it, we who were far off sinners are made righteous and clean, despite what we’ve done. And this is precisely what was rediscovered during the Protestant Reformation. And I’m gonna try some Latin here, forgive me if I get it wrong. When the term sola fide, which means faith alone, was penned, which at the time was actually a direct rebuttal to the mainstream line of thinking,

which said that you’re actually saved by your works and what you do, but as we saw in our texts this morning and all throughout the scriptures, there is only one way we can be made right with God, and if we think it’s based on our performance, we’ll just find ourselves looking and sounding just as foolish as the disciples around the table. Jocking for vain positions, betraying and arguing with one another, and continually making promises we cannot keep.

And so I wanna close with a few encouragements. First, to those who are with us, who may not consider themselves to be followers of Jesus, who have not placed their faith for the salvation of their souls in Jesus. I just wanna say this is why we celebrate, not only Christmas, but in the weeks leading up, we intentionally kind of fix our eyes and our hopes on the arrival and birth of Jesus. Because it wasn’t just a baby who arrived in the manger, but it was our very reconciliation with God. Because we as humans have a problem of sin and it’s in our bones, and in all of our best efforts, we still fall short and you don’t need a Bible to tell you that.

Everyone in this world knows something’s wrong. Something is off here, it shouldn’t be like this. And the greater problem is God is holy and without sin and he cannot stand to be around sin. And the penalty for our sin is in fact death. And this is what we all owe as people who can’t get it right. But oh, in that little manger arrived the one who would then go on to live without sin, who would die as the perfect sacrifice for our sin and rise again so that when God sees those who turn from their sins and put their faith in Jesus alone, not in their achievements, not in their associations, but Jesus alone, he sees Jesus. It is almost as if it were a failing student that were applying for the most prestigious university. But when the admissions counselor reviewed their application, somehow the name of the failing student

was miraculously placed on the application of the valedictorian. And family, we are all failing students. But in Jesus’s great mercy, he has offered all who believe in him by faith his application. We get to write our names on the top of his application. And you can have him today and be freed from a life of sin if you would like to know anything about what it means to follow Jesus, everyone in this room who is a Christian would love to talk to you more.

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Passover Contrasts

Now to my fellow saints. At the beginning of our time this morning, I mentioned that our text was taking place during Passover and I actually wanna thank my dear brother Andre for helping me to see this. But I wanted to juxtapose and compare this Passover with the disciples to the very first Passover in Egypt. And without diving into too much depth, if you may recall, the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt and the Lord used a series of plagues to force Pharaoh’s hand to release his people. The final plague was the death of every firstborn in Egypt. But the Lord gave Moses very specific instructions to follow for his people. And all the Israelites who followed those instructions would then be spared. And so what does the text say about the Israelites and their obedience? It says, quote, so all the people of Israel followed all the Lord’s commands to Moses and Aaron.

On that very day, the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt like an army. So on one hand, we have the first Passover where God’s people listened and humbly and fully put their faith in the Lord, doing stuff that they probably didn’t understand. Why am I putting blood on my doorpost?

And on the other hand, you have our Passover that we’re reading about today and they’re arguing about who’s the greatest. Family of God, may we never graduate from the simple and submissive faith displayed in the first Passover. May our knowledge and acumen and experience and associations never cause us to be anything more than humble saints who give ourselves fully to Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and for the cleansing of our hearts, remembering that in the Lord’s kingdom, the foolish are the ones that shamed wise and the last are actually first.

Encouragement for Peters

Lastly, I’d like to wrap up by giving a word of encouragement to the Peters in the room. And by Peter, what exactly do I mean? We don’t have any apostles in this room, trust me. Oftentimes when hearing the testimonies of others in the church, we hear all about the sinful and evil things that we used to do before knowing Jesus. But we’re miraculously and beautifully delivered from upon coming to know Christ and we praise God for those testimonies.

It’s a miraculous work of deliverance and we wanna hear more of them and we celebrate those testimonies. But for some, the path is just not as linear and it’s a bit more complicated because for many like Peter, your biggest mistakes didn’t come before you met Jesus. Your biggest failures and struggles came after. And I just wanna encourage you that you’ve got company. You’ve got Peter, you’ve certainly got myself and you’ve got a slew of other saints throughout the ages that have clung to this passage because it reminds us that we’re not saved by our associations, our greatness, our accomplishments or even the lack thereof. And we’re also not saved based on the timing of our sin.

We’re saved by faith alone. It’s the same gospel that got us in the door will be the same gospel that carries us ultimately home. Additionally, I wanna just say your failures also don’t disqualify you from being used by the Lord to encourage others, to help others and to strengthen others. And then even looking back on our passage, I would actually argue quite the contrary.

Jesus says in verse 32, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And then he says, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. The Lord is not in the business of canceling his people. He knew what you were gonna do before you did it. But with him is plentiful redemption. And not only is there redemption with him, the Lord in his kindness might even use your redemption story, your failure to strengthen the faith of others. And so to all my Peters, do not be discouraged by your failure, but turn and look to Jesus. And after you’ve turned, strengthen your brothers and sisters. Let’s pray.

Our father in heaven, we thank you for the plentiful redemption that is found in Jesus. By the power of your spirit, keep us loving, trusting and clinging to our king. And it’s in Christ’s name that we pray, amen.