Turn The World Right Side Up

Acts 17:6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.”

The late Pastor D. James Kennedy stated that the Apostles came into one of the bastions of paganism in the ancient world, and the cry went up that “these that have turned the world upside down are come hither”. Now that is an amazing compliment, though it wasn’t intended to be such, but in such a brief period of time the Apostles already were seen as those who had transformed the world. Now what they didn’t know is that long since—since the fall of man—the world had been upside down, and what they were doing was turning it right side up. But from their perspective, as always from the perspective of paganism, up is down and down is up; right is wrong and wrong is right.

Did you ever in your life believe, even as recently as ten years ago, that we would live to see the biblical values condemned and that which the Bible calls sin applauded by the law in this county. Yes, the world is very definitely in need of being turned right side up again. We have lived in the midst of a paganism redivivus (brought back to life) and we need to come forth with the same kind of power that they had in the early centuries that so changed the world. 

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

I believe that the Christian church is unique. That is quite a statement. It is not unusual. It is not very unique or slightly unique because there are no adjectives that define unique. It is either unique or it isn’t, and I believe that it is. The church equips the saints (those who have been sanctified) for “good works” in Christian ministry and the Great Commission. Pastor Kennedy would like to outline the major aspects of that for you. 

Of course, Church members are taught the historic orthodox Gospel of Jesus Christ. For those of you that may not know, “orthodox” comes from the word orthos, which means “straight” and dokein which means “thinking.” It is straight thinking. It means the truth of the Christian faith—the historic truth. At church members will be learning the historic orthodoxy of the faith. Some of those are called the fundamentals of the faith: the verbal plenary full inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures; the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ; the divine Trinity; the atonement of Christ; the Resurrection of the body of Christ; His Second Coming. Those, of course, and many other great truths 

will be taught. In addition to those, church members will learn the great truths of the Protestant Reformation—the five solas, as they are called.

They begin with sola fide, which means that salvation is only by faith. It is not by faith plus works, by faith plus anything. It is sola fide, faith alone. By the way, did you ever wonder why God decided that He was going to make salvation by faith and not by works? Did you ever ask yourself that question? Well, let me answer it for you. God determined that salvation should be by faith in order that salvation could be by grace—totally unmerited, totally unearned, totally unworked for. Salvation is by faith in order that it might be by grace.

The second of the five solas, sola gratia—solely by grace. But why should salvation be by grace? Salvation is by faith in order that it my be of grace, and salvation is of grace in order that it may be of God. Salvation is of God, from alpha to omega, from infinity past to infinity future, beginning and end—it is all of God.

The third sola is sola Scriptura. We believe that all things necessary for our salvation have been revealed to us in the Word of God. Therefore, we believe that this is an infallible revelation from God. We do not believe in the Word “plus” tradition, the Word plus some writings of some church or church council, but sola Scriptura, only the Scripture. 

Fourthly, we believe in sola Christos—that we are saved by Christ alone—not by Christ plus ourselves and not by Christ plus anyone else. We believe, as Protestants, in sola Christos—salvation is solely of Christ. 

Finally, we believe that salvation is solely deo gloria—that salvation is for the purpose of the glory of God, and all that we are or do is to be to that same end: Solely deo gloria. Those are the five great solas that define Protestantism from all other views and turn the world right side up. 

Prayer: Gracious heavenly Father, bless our hearts. Bless all of these who have come to give their lives to Christ. May they day by day surrender themselves anew, seek Thy guidance and filling, and be used by Thee in changing lives and changing the society in which we live, that “In God We trust” be lived out by all daily. For we ask this in the glorious name of Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and honor forevermore. Amen.