Remembering the Reformation: The Conflict with Rome | Galatians 3:11

Okay, we're going to begin today's message in Galatians chapter 3 verse 11, all right?

Galatians chapter 3 verse 11, God's Word speaks to us and says,

Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the just shall live by faith, the righteous shall live by faith.

This is the Word of God. Amen. So this is one of the key verses in the

Reformation that Luther discovered, which led to many of the doctrines of the

Reformation. So that's what I'm going to preach on today, on the enduring importance of the

Reformation and why it's important to remember the Reformation. My thesis for today, pun intended, will be to focus on the sermon texts like Galatians 3 .11,

Romans 3 .28, which says that we are justified by faith apart from works of the law and on the material and formal principles of the

Reformation. The material principle being that we are justified, made right with God by faith alone, by faith alone, apart from works.

And the formal principle of the Reformation is sola scriptura, on what authority do we base our truth and doctrine on?

And that is scripture alone. Today is a day that we remember and celebrate as one of the most important and most significant days in the history of the church and the history of the entire world.

And that is Reformation Sunday. That is

Reformation Sunday. And in light of today,

I wanted to encourage everyone to also sign the Reformation Day statements from the

Trinity Foundation. I think there's two of them that you can sign. I encourage everybody to go to their website, read the statements.

They are excellent statements summarizing the importance of the Reformation and why we are

Protestants. And I've already signed them. Some of you have already signed them.

That's great, and that's very encouraging. We can also put our church name up there, too, and encourage others to see where we stand as a church.

Sadly, however, many churches who are supposedly heirs of the

Protestant Reformation have no idea what Reformation Day is, what it means, or its ongoing significance, and tend to disregard church history in general.

And worse, many churches instead celebrate Halloween or harvest festivals or cheap substitutes for Halloween.

We do not celebrate Halloween. Amen? Halloween is a combination of pagan, satanic, and Roman Catholic superstition, a celebration of death, evil, and wickedness.

And I encourage you to listen to our series and topical sermons on Halloween on our website.

You can check that out. I'm not going to go in depth on that subject today. But it is vitally important for us as individuals and families and as a church to remember the

Reformation, what happened, why it happened, why it is important both then and now to us, what were the main issues, and not just once a year but throughout the year by engaging in continual studies of church history, especially of the doctrinal conflicts that clarified what the

Bible does and does not teach, including the primary issues of the gospel.

In this case, in the Reformation, it was a doctrine of justification by faith alone and what our ultimate authority is, or scripture alone, sola scriptura, which are also summed up in the five solas of the

Reformation, namely that salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, and based on the ultimate authority of scripture alone.

And this is very important for us to understand, very important, even now, especially now.

An important lesson from this, as I was reflecting on today's message, the sermon prep, it kind of hit me that the main issues of the

Protestant Reformation are the very issues and doctrines that summarize and explain our very faith, our own faith, our core doctrines, and separate us from everyone else, from everyone else, not just other religions, other faiths, but other

Christian traditions as well, from Roman Catholicism, from Eastern Orthodoxy, and so on.

The Reformation issues are what define us as believers and as Christians, because they deal with the principal doctrines of the

Bible, of Christianity. We should also meditate deeply on what

God's church has passed down to us with respect to why church history and the

Reformation are so important to us, even now. So, the church is a pillar and buttress of the truth, like God's word says, and we understand that the church preserves truth and passes on the truth in society, in the church.

That's why we are called that. That's why God calls us that. And that's why the word of God calls us that.

And that's why it's important for us to take heed to the church historic, not just the church today, but the church historic as well, and learn from them, both from their contributions and their mistakes and their errors and their shortcomings, because those who do not take heed to the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat it, and not in a good way.

Not in a good way. This is in part why many in our day, who were raised in allegedly

Protestant and Evangelical environments, are now falling away to Romanism and Eastern Orthodoxy, because they were not well grounded in these doctrines and clashed during the

Reformation. They clashed during the Reformation. These doctrines were at the forefront of the controversy.

Now, speaking of all of this, this brings us to the next section of the sermon, of fasts and feast days.

Of fasts and feast days. This is from the Second Helvetic Confession, which was written in 1562 by Heinrich Bollinger.

He was another one of the Reformers. I'm going to read from chapter 24 of this confession, which is of holy days, fasts, and the choice of foods, the festivals of Christ and the saints.

Moreover, if in Christian liberty, the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the

Lord's nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and of his ascension into heaven, and the sending of the

Holy Spirit upon his disciples, which is Pentecost, we approve of it highly, but we do not approve of feasts instituted for men and for saints.

These are what the Roman Catholic Church, and I believe Eastern Orthodox as well, celebrate as feast days.

Feast days are not meals. It's not about food. It's about festivals. It's about festivals and processions for saints.

Holy days have to do with the first table of the law and belong to God alone.

To God alone. Finally, holy days, which have been instituted for the saints and which we have abolished, have much that is absurd and useless and are not to be tolerated.

In the meantime, however, we confess that the remembrance of saints at a suitable time and place is to be profited, be commended to the people in sermons, and the holy examples of the saints set forth to be imitated by all.

Amen. Right? Amen. This is why we celebrate Reformation Day, for times such as this, and to celebrate, to commemorate what the men of God, men and women of God of old, have done as set forth as good and godly examples for us to imitate.

And this also brings me to what's becoming a church tradition of ours now in evangelizing on a

Roman Catholic feast day at my local Roman Catholic church that we live next to, because their feast day, their festival day to celebrate

St. Jude, Judas Thaddeus, is on October 28th.

And how fitting that it's right around the corner from Reformation Day. So we went out once again, and I did some open air preaching, and some of you all came and joined us for the evangelism, and that was a blessing to have people from our church come and have really good conversations with some of the

Roman Catholics that were there. It was a blessing. I preached for about an hour and a half, and many people, the church was packed, it was full.

And they had a big procession and parade and marched out in the middle of the street with Native Americans called

Matachines, and they were playing their instruments, basically worshiping this big idol statue of Judas Thaddeus and a picture of Mary.

And so our view of this is exactly what's described and explained in the

Second Helvetic Confession. We don't have festival days for men. That belongs to God alone.

But we do, however, commemorate and remember the saints of old, and seek to imitate their example, and learn from their errors as well.

So one of the reasons why this is so important is because I cannot tell you how many encounters that I myself have had with false religions when

I was younger in the faith, with cult -like groups claiming to be the only legitimate way, and all of them abused church history to prove their claims to the truth and to their own authority.

And some of them actually deceived me for a time. Groups like the

Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and King James -only -ism, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, they all have their claims to authority, and even their claims to apostolic succession.

So we need to know these things to be firmly grounded in the truth, because many are being led astray today.

Many. And I wish I had this knowledge and this grounding as a foundation when

I was a younger believer. So I encourage you all, beloved, to take advantage of what

I'm going to preach about today, and learn from the importance of the doctrines that came out of the

Reformation. So this brings me to my next section now, which is

Martin Luther's 95 Insights. Martin Luther's 95

Insights. And so this brings us back to the time of Luther, where in 1517,

Martin Luther did not begin the Reformation, but rather kindled the

Protestant Reformation. He fomented it, what was already there, because many who came before him had, in a sense, paved the way for Luther.

There were many forerunners to the Reformation, some of which were men like the

Czech theologian John Hus. And John Hus was a reformer, and he was burned at the stake by the

Roman Catholic Church, burned alive. But he prophesied and said that you may cook my goose, which in his last name

Hus means goose, and he said, you may cook my goose, but in 100 years,

God will raise a swan whom you will not be able to silence. And almost exactly 100 years later,

Martin Luther came to the forefront of the Reformation, and the world and the

Church of Rome was not able to silence him. That is a very powerful... This is why, again, church history is amazing.

It is amazing stuff like this that's very encouraging as well. There were also men like the

Roman Catholic professor and priest John Wycliffe, another brilliant man of God that spoke out against many of the corruptions of the

Roman Catholic Church, much like John Hus did. And he also was the founder of the

Law Lords, and he even translated the Bible from Latin into English. So much of this was already there, in a sense.

John Wycliffe was also, I believe his body was also exhumed and burned after he had died.

And there was also another monk, like Luther was a monk, he was an Augustinian monk, but there was another monk, an earlier monk, who was an

Italian Dominican friar named Girolamo Savonarola. Girolamo Savonarola.

And he was a fiery preacher who denounced many of the corruptions of the

Roman Catholic Church. And he, too, met an untimely end and was burned and executed as well by the

Church of Rome. But I want us to focus on one specific aspect, primarily, of Luther's development and personality that I think that will be a blessing to us as a church and a good example for us to imitate.

October 31st was the day when Luther supposedly nailed his 95

Theses to the Wittenberg church door. And that probably didn't actually happen, that's just kind of the lore that has developed out of the

Reformation. The 95 Theses centered around sharply criticizing the theology and practice and abuse of indulgences.

An indulgence is a papal document that you pay money for so that you can have time reduced in purgatory on your behalf and on other people's behalf that you wish to pay for.

Like family members that have already passed on and so on. Because the

Catholic Church teaches that when you die, you don't get to go to heaven. You end up in purgatory.

Most people end up in purgatory to have their sins purged in order to go to heaven. And for most people, it can take years and thousands of years and millennia before you ever even get to heaven.

Because again, Christ's sacrifice on the cross is not enough. It's not enough for us to get to heaven.

But the church would require these other things like indulgences in order to be purged from our sins.

This is one of the glaring examples of how Rome denies the Gospel. And this is what provoked

Luther to protest these indulgences and the abuses of them. I encourage all of you to read them.

They are a very fascinating document to read and study. And take note of what

Luther says in these theses. Because they are not merely points of academic debate as some, even on our side, tend to claim.

It wasn't just a mere matter of debate. This was serious stuff. They are increasingly scathing, fierce rebukes of indulgence preachers and those who support them.

And they are indirect rebukes of the Pope himself, but spoken through the voice of the people.

Because the people were also waking up to these things and realizing how the church of Rome was taking their money.

Was taking their money through all of these means and indulgences. Because the Pope wanted to build St. Peter's Church, St.

Peter's Basilica on the bones and backs of his sheep.

Like Luther had said in one of his theses. Which is what the people were also supposedly saying.

The 95 Theses progress from doctrinal explanation and clarification to a critique of the practices of indulgence.

To theological and moral condemnation and finally to a call to reform.

And I appreciate how Luther starts out the very first thesis by saying.

Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when he said, Poenitentiam agitate, will that the whole life of believers should be repentance.

That's a very important principle in the Christian life. We as believers should be marked by repentance.

Should be marked by the humility to humble ourselves and repent when we sin. Because we do still sin, we still sin in the flesh.

We have not been fully delivered from our flesh, from our fleshly bodies, our mortal bodies.

And so we need to have a lifestyle of repentance.

And that phrase, Poenitentiam agitate, was a mistranslation of the

New Testament. When Jesus said to repent and believe the gospel. The word, the

Greek word is metanoia. It means to repent, which is a change of mind. But the Roman Catholic Church perverted that to mean do penance.

Do penance, do the sacraments, do good works in order to restore your state of justification.

And that was a corruption of the biblical teaching of repentance. Thesis 18 says this.

Furthermore, it does not seem proved either by reason or by scripture.

That souls in purgatory are outside of the state of merit. That is unable to grow in love.

Here we see a very important principle that came out of the Reformation. And which

Luther, very early on, had developed as a conviction.

Notice the phrase there. That it does not seem proved either by reason or by scripture.

Now, does that sound familiar, beloved? Does that ring any bells? Let's fast forward to the

Diet of Worms in 1521. When Luther was called by the

Pope and Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire to a hearing to retract his teachings.

When Martin Luther appeared before Charles V at the Imperial Hearing in Worms. This is the

Diet of Worms, and it's not worms like the bugs, but worms. It was a place in Germany.

He was asked if he would recant his writings. He was commanded to revoco, to recant.

And Luther asked for time to consider these things and get his thoughts together.

And so, after a fitful night of careful deliberation and prayer, he appeared on April 18, 1521.

And responded with a resounding speech that reverberated around all of Germany and the entire world.

Since your most serene majesty and your lordships require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer,

I will give one. And it is this. Unless I am convinced by scripture, by the testimony of the scriptures, and by clear reason.

For I do not trust in the Pope or councils alone. Since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves,

I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the word of God.

I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither right nor safe to go against conscience.

Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me.

Amen. And to that we can give and shout a hearty amen.

Beloved, even this early on, back in 1517,

Luther already had developed a conviction in the principle of, a very early conviction of the principle of, the formal principle of the

Reformation, the doctrine of scripture alone. Sola Scriptura. That we must base all our doctrine, all our knowledge, ultimately on scripture.

On scripture and clear reason. Clear, logical, consistent arguments and reason that accords with and agrees with scripture.

But take note of something very important as well. When Luther had written the 95

Theses, he had already been a monk for 12 years. For 12 years.

This is a significant amount of time. It didn't just happen overnight when he just became a monk and all of a sudden he understood these things.

This took time. That also is important to bear in mind and to understand in the history of Luther's life and of the

Reformation. And this brings us to another important lesson.

In order to be grounded in the truth and in sound doctrine, we need two basic things.

Two fundamental basic things at the very least. All other means, all other resources serve these two things, these two ends.

And that is scripture and clear reason. Logical consistency.

Those are the two basic things that we need in order to have the truth and sound doctrine.

That is it. It is the very things that Luther stated in his

Thesis 18. Thesis 18.

And later on in his speech. When he answered the Pope and the Emperor himself.

It is based on, it is an expression of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, of scripture alone.

The 95 Theses were in fact Luther's initial attempts to test the

Roman Catholic teachings of purgatory and indulgences for internal consistency and biblical fidelity.

Using scripture and plain reason. But you can see that even

Luther himself joked later on that when he had written the Thesis he was still a raging papist.

He still believed in purgatory and had not fully solidified and matured his understanding of certain doctrines until later on.

So that brings us now to Thesis 62.

Thesis 62 says, The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.

Amen. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.

Thesis 63 says, But this treasure is naturally most odious, most hateful, for it makes the first to be last.

Matthew 20, 16. And this is the concept of the upside down kingdom that Jesus also preached.

But this gives us a sneak peek into one of Martin Luther's major, major breakthroughs.

One of his major breakthroughs. Because until he understood this breakthrough, this distinction, he continued to struggle with his sin guilt and to have true peace with God.

True assurance with God. And this is one of the most important distinctions in the entire

Bible. It is the law and gospel distinction. The law and gospel distinction.

This is the breakthrough that finally gave Luther, that finally gave

Luther peace with God. Because according to Luther, Christ did not command the preaching of indulgences, but of the gospel.

Amen. But of the gospel. Not of legalism.

Not of man -made devices. Not of sacraments to earn or regain your justification or your salvation.

But the gospel. To repent and believe the gospel. Apart from works of the law.

This was one of the main things that Luther had also discovered.

And what a horror it is, Luther also said. What a peril to a bishop.

If he never gives the gospel to his people, except along with a racket of indulgences.

That is, of course, to pervert law and gospel. And this is what happens with many other religious traditions like Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Rather than distinguishing the law and the gospel, they conflate faith and works. They confuse the two.

They pervert the two and corrupt the two. By not properly distinguishing them.

That does not mean that we separate them altogether. They are both gods.

They come from God. They are both good. But they must be properly distinguished.

And that one is gospel grace and promise. And the other one is law and demand.

And do. Do this and live. Versus it is done already for us.

Through the gospel. This breakthrough helped

Luther to cement his understanding of how we are justified in the eyes and the tribunal of God.

By faith alone. Apart from any works whatsoever. That is what passages like Galatians 311, which is the sermon text for today, says.

Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, is manifest, is obvious.

For the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith.

Amen. So that is what sparked and led to the material principle of the

Reformation. That our justification before God is by faith alone.

That is not to say that we do not have works or that works do not follow. But our works do not justify us.

Our works follow our faith. Because it is not a dead faith. Now, another major takeaway from this.

An important lesson. When Luther wrote his 95 Theses in Latin.

Someone else, we do not even know who it was. But someone else translated them and published them.

And like a powder keg tossed into a kindling fire. It caused a massive eruption.

So enormous that it is still affecting and impacting society today. To this very day.

And not only that. But it forced the Church of Rome and really the entire world to react and respond to it.

This is such an important lesson to understand. Because some responded well to the

Reformation. Some took heed to the Reformation. Like we do today as children and heirs of the

Reformation. As Protestants. As Reformed Baptists. But others did not respond so well.

The Church of Rome responded with a counter -Reformation vengeance.

They came out with the Council of Trent. Years later. And denounced and condemned everything about the

Reformation. Just about. They condemned every major doctrine of the Reformation. And declared it anathema.

Condemned. So that anybody who holds to the doctrines of the Reformation is to be condemned.

By the Church and by God, according to them. And sadly, in doing so, the

Church of Rome condemned herself. Because she condemns the Biblical Gospel. That we are justified, made right before God, by faith alone.

Just like the Bible says. And like Luther and the Reformers and the Forerunners had also discovered.

And the early Church as well. This is not a new doctrine. By any means. And that's what the

Jesuits also came up with. They were birthed as a result of a response to the

Reformation. They were one of the primary responses of the Church of Rome to the

Reformation. And the entire mission of the Jesuits was to undo and to reverse the

Reformation. All of it. And its impact. And in some ways, you can say that they succeeded in certain parts of the world.

And God's providence. So the

Church of Rome, note this carefully. This is so important to understand. The Church of Rome defined herself.

And showed her true colors. As a result of Luther's prophetic protests.

And of the doctrines that were elaborated in the

Reformation. The Church of Rome defined herself. And showed her true colors as a result of Luther's protests.

And the Reformers' protests. During the Reformation.

That, beloved, is a powerful lesson. That is exactly what

Jesus did when he confronted his opponents in his day. The Pharisees. He forced them to draw the line.

He drew the line and he forced them to take a side. That is what the prophetic ministry is all about.

And that in many ways is what the Reformers did. There is very much a prophetic element to that role.

As a Reformer. We still need Reformers in our time, beloved.

We still need Reformation and Reformers today. We need men and women of God who are faithful to the word of God.

And live according to its precepts. According to the law and gospel distinction. And of the pillars of the

Reformation. Because it is what God's word teaches. The Church of Rome, by the way.

Also forced moderate Catholics. Like Erasmus of Rotterdam to take a side.

This is very interesting because Erasmus never wanted to take sides. He was sympathetic to Luther.

Some of Luther's criticisms. But he didn't fully agree with him on everything either. He also was sympathetic to the

Church of Rome in certain regards. And yet the pressure from Rome and from many prominent leaders at the time.

Forced Erasmus to ultimately side with Rome. And he even wrote a little...

He wrote a tract against Luther on the freedom of the will.

And Luther responded, thunderously responded. And refuted, shut down Erasmus with the bondage of the will.

That was, as B .B. Warfield called it, the manifesto of the Reformation. Another very important doctrine that Luther himself wrote about.

And that is that our will is enslaved to our sinful nature.

And we therefore cannot do any good. Unless and until God's grace intervenes on our behalf.

Unless we are born again. And this is something that I've been preaching about in the letter of 1 John. 1

John repeatedly tells us that those who love God and the children of God.

Have been born of God already. That is what Luther responded to Erasmus with.

We need the grace of God, beloved. So that is another monumental contribution of the

Reformation. And from Luther. And here this brings us to yet another lesson.

We must, both as individuals and as a church. Understand church history properly from a biblical perspective.

In order to discern and respond appropriately to the situations and issues that we face today.

So we celebrate the Reformation for its many triumphs. And remember it and seek to apply it today.

In our lives and in our churches. And the lessons that came out of it.

But we must also be honest about the shortcomings and the sins of the men that God used in history.

Including the Reformation. Because the reality is that Luther was a very flawed man.

He was a man of many contrasts and dichotomies. Some of them were very good dichotomies like the law and gospel distinction.

But some of them were not always so good. Luther also had a vicious and nasty temper.

And some of the things that he wrote and said. Would make Mark Driscoll sound like a choir boy.

As detestable as Mark Driscoll was. And many people misrepresent

Luther. Because they make it seem like he was the only one doing this. But the reality was that was much of the religious rhetoric of the day.

It wasn't just Luther doing it. It was many of the other Roman Catholics were doing the same thing. Like Thomas More and others who were violent opponents of Luther.

They used very similar rhetoric as well. And they also used anti -Jewish rhetoric.

That's similar to Luther in that regard as well. So Luther had many flaws.

And those are just some of those examples. But Luther, like I said, he had many contrasts and dichotomies.

And this kind of reminds me of dispensationalism today. Which has many of these dichotomies.

But some of them oversimplify the Bible and confuse it. They contradict the

Bible. One example is like that of the... You have the spiritual Christians and then you have the carnal

Christians. You can be a worldly carnal Christian and still be a Christian. According to some branches of dispensationalism.

But this is a blatant contradiction to what the Bible teaches. Either you are a Christian or you are not.

And yes, Christians may sin. We may sin and we may struggle with sin. But we are called to repent.

And to renounce sin and crucify it. And to live a life of repentance.

Like Luther said in his first thesis. Amen? So we...

As brilliant as Luther was. And as good as his biblical dichotomies were.

He was sometimes guilty of also oversimplifying the doctrines of the

Bible with false dichotomies. And we have to take note of that. And this is where we would part ways with Luther.

One example was that he regarded external actions as pertaining to the civil sphere.

And the civil magistrate. While internal thoughts pertain to the church and to the pastor.

And... But this again... This kind of oversimplifies the reality of the situation.

Because external actions also pertain to the church. Because sin is also external.

Adultery pertains to the church. That can lead to excommunication. Lying. All of these things are external as well.

And so the church must account for these things with the authority that has been given to the leaders by God.

All of our life and thought and practice must be submitted to the scriptures.

All of it. Not just the internal. But all of it. So... As we get ready to close out today.

Beloved. I want to leave us with a very important question to meditate on.

Was it Luther's intention to turn the entire western world on its head?

Was it his intention to turn the entire church and the entire world upside down?

The reality is that... No. Luther did not anticipate the consequences of his actions.

When he first delivered the 95 Theses to be debated. He was a loyal son of the

Roman Church in 1517. Who initially wanted certain abuses to be corrected and reformed.

Who could have seen this coming and manifesting the way that it actually turned out?

Because remember. Luther wrote the Theses in Latin. He had no intention of making this a public document for public consumption.

It was somebody else who took it and translated it into German. Which sparked the reformation in that way.

But at the same time. This was not at all a completely accidental and unintended result of some drunken rambling monk.

Who was just messing around and just happened to pinch a nerve.

As some falsely claim. And one of those people who falsely accused

Luther of that. Would be none other than Pope Leo X himself. The Pope during Luther's day.

But we have to remember that God uses means.

God almost always uses means. He predestines them and prepares them to execute his will in history.

For we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for good works. Which God prepared when?

Beforehand. Beforehand. Why? So that we should walk in them.

So that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2 .10 I love how

Charles Hodge puts it. The Princeton theologian. He who purposes the end.

Purposes also the means. And he who brings about the end. He brings about the end.

By securing the use of the means. And when rational thinking agents are concerned.

He secures the use of the means. By rational considerations. Presented to their minds.

And rendered effectual by his grace. When the end contemplated is good.

Amen. Amen. So. And there is something about Luther.

That was highly meticulous. Deliberate. Intentional.

About him when he wrote the 95 Theses. He was very good at it.

It was something he developed in part. When he first studied to become a lawyer. Which he never finished.

He never finished his law studies. But prior to becoming a monk.

Luther was an excellent student of the law. And I took a legal intellectual property class.

In college. And it made me appreciate. And gave me some insight into this.

Because they explained to us. Sound methods of legal inquiry.

And conflict resolution. That lawyers are trained to use.

When they are disputing things in court. Debating things in court. Or settling them in court.

Sadly, however. In our present day. Much of this legal soundness.

Has been perverted. And replaced by perversions of justice. Thanks to the spirit of Antichrist.

And his godless agendas. Coming from those of social justice. And feminism.

And gender equality. And critical race theory. Which are utter denials of.

In many respects. The image of God and man. Of the roles. That God has ordained.

For God. Men and women. And for what true biblical justice is about.

But in this method of legal training. Of conflict resolution.

The most important. The most fundamental question. That must be answered.

At the outset. In any legal conflict. And by extension. Most other conflicts.

Including. And especially. Including religious ones. Theological ones.

Is. What is the main issue. What is the main issue.

That is being. Debated. What is it. What is it that is at stake.

That is what must be understood. And that is exactly what happened. During the reformation.

That is exactly why it erupted with such force. And that is exactly why. Many of the sides involved.

Began to define and react to it so strongly. Because the main issues. The main conflicts.

Began to emerge. And to be clarified. By virtue of. The debate that was taking place.

Beloved. So that I want to leave us to meditate. On that question. What are.

The main issues of the reformation. That we need to remember. And that we need to take hold of.

And instill. In our in our minds. And in the minds of our children.

And in our children's children. So that we may continue to fan the flame. Of godliness and of sound doctrine.

Now and until the return. Of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

And with that beloved let us bow our heads. In. A sanctifying word of thanksgiving and prayer.

Our precious Lord and Heavenly Father. We thank you. So much for. The blessing of your

Lord's Day. Of worship. And of being able to remember. Father. The reformation that you used.

In the history of your people. Of your church. Lord that you used to uncover. And to help to restore.

Many biblical doctrines that became. Confused and muddled. Through throughout the history.

Leading to the reformation. Lord we thank you for. The men that you used. And help us we ask that you help us to learn from their.

Examples. Both from their examples of godliness. And their contributions as well as from their errors.

And their sins and their shortcomings. Lord we ask that you help us to. Internalize these things.

To digest them. To meditate on them Father. As Protestants and as reformed. Baptists today.

Help us Lord to not lose sight of these things. And not to fall away from them. Like so many others have.

In our day sadly. Who are falling prey to. Roman Catholicism once again. Or to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Because they have not been well grounded. And well established in the truths. Of the reformation.

Which are the truths. That recovered the biblical teaching. Of you

Lord. Of salvation. Of man. And of your word.

Of the ultimate authority. Your words Father God. We thank you Lord and we ask these things. In Jesus precious almighty all powerful name.

Amen. Amen.