I had a great 2 hours immersed in Hard Doctrines this morning. Up early to drop my wife and our friend off at the Airport at 5:30am, I, for the next hours learned about the Doctrines of Election and Sola Fide.

This first Audio is perhaps the best sermons I’ve ever heard on the subject of election as outlined in:

Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book-of-ephesians/chosen-in-him/

One further note…this is the seventh of his 232 sermons on Ephesians. I actually started to listen in Chapter 6 with his sermons on the Armor of God, and plan to continue that series. But I went back to the beginning because our Zoom Bible Study group is doing Ephesians with Pastor Ganger.

I have to say listening to now seven of these earlier sermons from the 1950’s they are immensely relevant today, and have very much increased my appreciation of paying attention to the detail and actual words of Scripture. Hopefully you will agree.

This 2nd one isn’t quite up the level of Dr. MLJ’s 70 year old sermon but is a useful contemporary commentary on just how important the word Sola is in Luther’s translation. I agree with Dr. Clark who observed it’s not in the Greek Text but is in the proper definitional understanding (AKA translation) of the Bible in all its context.

Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Note, just as the word Trinity is not in the Bible, the word Sola or Alone is not in the text but is understood to be there from “without the deeds of the law.”

I like his last words…”The question is how empty is the tomb?”

Something to reflect on as we approach Easter….Resurrection Sunday!

Btw….If you think about it when Jesus spoke these words he really was teaching the same….

Luke 15:24

24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

John 3:16

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Which ties us right back the Dr. MLJ’s sermon…

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Download or listen to the file at:

Video: “Our Hermit Broke Through”—The Reformation’s Defense Of Sola Fide

by HEIDELBLOG on March 21, 2025| Comment

Last January, Dr Clark joined Dr Mike Horton, Dr Jonathan Linebaugh, Dr Andreas Stegmann, and Dr Ashley Null to celebrate the Reformation solas in a conference put on by the Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies. Here is Dr Clark’s talk on the Reformation defense of sola fide (justification through faith alone).