The Christian, the Church & the Reformation | 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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So before I begin I've got a public service announcement.

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So when the catechism question in the back of your bulletins it says, what do you understand by the word suffered? This question always kind of had me wondering why they put it this way but it says that Christ sustained in body and soul the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race and that's not at face value what we would believe or teach.

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Christ only died for his people the elect, the chosen ones of God that he chose to save. So that's an important distinction there that we want to be careful with.

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I don't know if that's a translation issue, probably not because this was taken from the Heidelberg Catechism even though that was written in Dutch but so they're just a clarification there.

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So last week I preached about the importance, necessity and obligation of knowing and understanding church history and historical theology and the life and doctrine of all

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Christians. All, not just some. Today we're also celebrating one of the most important and most significant days in the history of not just the church but the entire world and that is what

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Reformation Day is all about. Sadly many churches who are spiritual heirs of the

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Protestant Reformation still have no idea what Reformation Day is. What it's about, its meaning, its significance and tend to disregard church history in general and we don't want to be like that.

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We want to know. So I'm going to continue preaching on the ongoing and enduring importance of church history and the

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Reformation. I've also got plenty of maxims and public sermons, announcements for the road that lies ahead.

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So stay tuned. Now to build on last Sunday's message, it is critical to remember the

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Reformation not just this day or this once a year but throughout the year by engaging in continuous study of church history especially of the doctrinal conflicts that clarified what the

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Bible does and does not teach including the primary issues of the gospel and what our ultimate authority is.

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These were the two primary issues of the Reformation which are summed up in the five solas of the

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Reformation which is faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, on the authority of the

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Word of God alone, based on the authority of God's Word alone. So before I dive in,

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I did want to make another public service announcement about holiday celebrations and Halloween specifically.

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As Christians we are commanded to meditate on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.

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If there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think on these things.

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This is Philippians 4 .8. Halloween, however, is none of these things.

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Not one of these adjectives describes Halloween. In fact, not only is it nothing, does it have nothing good going for it, it is a wicked celebration of horror, pagan superstition,

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Satanism, death, and the devil. The exact opposite of all the adjectives listed in Philippians 4 .8.

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Enough said there, I hope. So as Christians who are called to be salt and light, we must expose the darkness and instead remember, think on these things such as the

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Reformation as a church. Good things, though always with discernment, sound judgment, and without adopting ungodly practices of any kind.

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If you want more information on this subject, you can listen to the sermon I preached last October of 2022 called

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Forsaking Darkness on Halloween. We also did a two -and -a -half -hour podcast discussion,

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Tim and I, on our Semper Reformanda radio episode 18 about Halloween and harvest festivals, children,

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Satanism, paganism, all that stuff. So now to the meat of the issue here,

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I hope we're beginning to understand church history better and that we're grasping its significance and that it focuses on how the doctrinal convictions of believers throughout the ages became manifested in the world, in the world, in society.

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The reason, this is an important reason that you'll want to hold on to later on, is because doctrine always precedes practice.

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That's why the Reformation was so important, because it was a reformation not just of morals but of theology, of doctrine, and why it was so impactful.

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That being said, I would be completely remiss if I failed to quote a titan of church history to cement the importance of it in our minds.

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Meet the renowned church historian Philip Schaaf or Philip Schaaf. I highly recommend reading these quotes in their fuller context, which are highly instructive and edifying, as well as all eight volumes and 7 ,000 pages of his history of the

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Christian Church for your bedside reading there. Here now is

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Philip Schaaf on the importance and indispensable necessity of church history for all

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Christians. Church history is the most extensive and, including the sacred history of the

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Old and New Testaments, the most important branch of theology. It is the backbone of theology on which it rests and the storehouse from which it derives its supplies.

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It is the best commentary of Christianity itself under all its aspects and all its bearings.

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The fullness of the stream is the glory of the fountain from which it flows.

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It has special value for the theologian and minister of the gospel as the key to the present condition of Christendom and the guide to successful labor in her cause.

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The present is the fruit of the past and the germ of the future.

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No work can stand unless it grow out of the real wants of the age and strike firm root in the soil of history.

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No one who tramples on the rights of a past generation can claim the regard of its posterity.

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Kind of like Dave Hunt said, remember that guy? We don't really need it. He who studies church history studies

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Christianity itself in all its phases and human nature under the influence of Christianity as it is now and will be to the end of time.

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Finally, the history of the church has practical value for every Christian as a storehouse of warning and encouragement, of consolation and counsel, of consolation and counsel.

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I think I skipped a part here. Next to the

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Holy Scriptures, which are themselves a history and depository of divine revelation, there is no stronger proof of the continual presence of Christ with his people, no more thorough vindication of Christianity, no richer source of spiritual wisdom and experience, no deeper incentive to virtue and piety than the history of Christ's kingdom.

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Hearty amen to that. For those of you who have not yet dived into church history, this is what you're missing out on and much more.

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This is a vital part of what we need as believers. We need this stuff. One small however, however,

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Schaff claims that church history is the most important branch of theology. Now there's a sense in which that's true because the

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Bible contains history. The Bible has history, like he said himself.

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It has the Old and New Testament sacred history. However, similar to what

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I said earlier about doctrine being more fundamental than practice, history is not more fundamental than theology and doctrine because doctrine is always the most foundational, always.

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More specifically, systematic theology is the most important branch of theology because your system of doctrine or a lack thereof determines how you interpret the

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Bible as a whole, as a whole and everything else including how you put it into practice.

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Nevertheless, systematic theology out of necessity must incorporate church history and all the other theological disciplines as well in order to be tested, refined, and found faithful to the testimony and commands of Scripture.

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If we're going to understand the present at all, we must seek to understand the past through the lens of Scripture and the historic church, a pillar and foundation of the truth, which is what

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God's Word says the church is. The past gives rise and form to the present in every aspect of our lives, not just church history, because God who declares the end from the beginning has predestined all of history for an ultimate purpose and that is to glorify

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Himself. So public service announcement again.

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You might have heard this quote before by George Santayana, those who don't understand the past are doomed to repeat it and not in a good way.

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We have to understand our roots, our past. Another one of the reasons why we must study church history and the historical theology is because it helps us to understand the

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Bible better itself, the Bible, because God commands us to use the

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Bible. It means He has given the church to build us up in the truth which sanctifies us, because God uses the church, the pillar and foundation of the truth, both her ordained officers and her members, that is you all, not just the ones who are alive today either.

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It's those who have passed to glory as well, to support, maintain, ground and preserve the truth in this evil world from the

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Old Testament remnant to its formal establishment in the New Testament. We must congregate in a true church, a local gathering of believers to receive the means of grace or the means of the

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Spirit. The primary means of grace according to Christ and our

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Protestant Reformed tradition is the Word of God, especially the

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Word of God taught and preached, because Christ prayed that the

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Father would sanctify us in the truth. Your word is truth, John 17, 17.

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And by the way, this is also something that was recovered during the Reformation, the centrality of preaching, of doctrine and of preaching and teaching, which dethroned and replaced the

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Romanist emphasis on the sacrificial altar of the mass. So there are other important scriptures that I wanted to drive us by, which stress how

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God commands us to remember, know, study and apply church history. It is neither optional nor mere suggestion, like Dave Hunt and others would say, but a repeated emphatic command.

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After all, the Bible itself contains a good deal of church history, like I've said. The Old Testament itself is an infallible history of the typological church, which includes members of Christ's church, the

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Old Testament saints. This does not mean that Israel was the church, because it wasn't.

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It was not. It was a type of the church. It was typified. It typified the church and it contained members of the true church, although the

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Church of Christ was not formally established until the New Testament. Very important distinction to make there.

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The entire New Testament also is a collection of infallible church history and historical theology.

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Obviously, it is not merely history, because it also contains God's perfect revelation of theology and doctrine and application.

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And by historical, I don't mean that it is no longer relevant for us today, obviously. God's truth is always true and always binding, but as Christians and pastors especially, we have a responsibility to rightly apply the scriptures to our context and within their proper historical and covenantal context, in light of what

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God has progressively revealed throughout time. So 1st

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Thessalonians 1 6 through 8 says, But your faith has gone forth everywhere, everywhere, so that we need not say anything.

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So the saints who came before us serve as examples for all of us to imitate, including those who are not apostles or ordained ministers, us, you all, as well.

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Because every member of the body has a part to play in the church.

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We ourselves should also strive to become examples of sound doctrine and godliness to everyone, to be salt and light to the world and to the church.

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So Philippians 3 17, similar to Hebrews 13 7, which I preached on last week, says,

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Brothers, this is brothers, all of us, all of you, join in imitating me,

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Paul, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

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Keep your eyes on those. So we are commanded to keep our eyes on not only faithful Christians that are alive, but also on those through the ages who walked according to the examples modeled in the

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New Testament. The Apostle Paul, the faithful brothers and sisters that we have recorded history of, that we can glean from.

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Now this time I do want to, I would like you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 6, starting in verse 9.

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This is going to help us to capstone the point here. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 9, where we read,

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For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the

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Saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

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Now this is a beautiful passage. Look at what it's saying. God himself does not overlook any of our work and our love shown for his name in serving the

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Saints, in serving each other, and commands us to likewise remember and imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

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Those who through faith and patience inherit the promises is every one of us who calls upon the name of the

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Lord to be saved. That's all of us. Case closed.

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The Bible is full of passages like these. So we all need, all of us need pastors and teachers and ministers of God to help us to understand

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God's Word. Because God has ordained from his Word other necessary means for us to grow in holiness and in our understanding of his

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Word. I just realized I don't have my mic on. Can you all,

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I might start yelling too loud. I'll see how that goes.

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Okay, so we pastors have a biblical obligation to emphasize and promote and implement the study of church history and historical theology in the local church.

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To encourage it and promote it. And every Christian, no matter how immature or simple, is commanded to study it as well.

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As this is what helps us to become discerning and doctrinally mature.

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Ironically, churches that don't explicitly promote and teach church history still end up using it regularly.

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But fail to realize just how indebted they are to the past. All the doctrinal formulations, the creeds, the language,

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Trinity, homoousios, all of these terms and vocabulary and doctrines comes from the church historic.

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Just like Shaf said. Now, to clarify here, while it is necessary for Christians to study church history and historical theology, this is a complementary study to our study of the scriptures.

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But they are both necessary complements that help us to grasp the scriptures themselves.

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Which is why we need both. Okay, that's public service announcement again.

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Do not view church history, do not view church history as independent of understanding scripture.

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This is extremely important. They are not independent of each other.

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Church history is the mean, is one of the means we use to learn and grasp the scriptures better.

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These sentiments come from unbiblical movements, such as pietism and shallow fundamentalism, which decries studying anything but the

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Bible. And that contradicts the scriptures as we've seen already.

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Again, God commands us to know his history, church history, and it's one of the necessary means that God has given us to grasp the word and to apply it correctly.

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Christianity is not about you going solo with you and your

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Bible, or even you and your little local church. It's not about that.

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We have a connection to the past that we need to tap into, that we are obligated to tap into.

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God designed the church for Christians to rely on and sharpen each other.

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He designed it that way. It's not just God showed me and he told me, and I saw in the word, and no, no.

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There's checks and balances. God designed it that way for us to check each other and sharpen each other.

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We need to renounce these claims, that claim you need to read, that reading other doctrinal and historical books written by mere men, quote -unquote, that these are distractions or interferences from reading and studying scripture.

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This is false, okay? This is just false, and it must be renounced and repented of.

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Of course, we should read and study the Bible. I'm not saying we shouldn't. Obviously, we should because that is our ultimate authority and source of truth and builds up our ability to discern everything else we read.

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So we need the word, but at the same time, we also need to study solid resources on church history, the confessions, theology, all of these things which help us to grow in the knowledge of scripture.

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As I said before, it's meant to work this way as sort of a double feedback loop. Each study builds on the other and contributes to the other.

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Our study of scripture also affirms and deepens our appreciation for the sound doctrine of the historic confessions and Christian witnesses of the past.

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It helps us to identify it and to identify with it. And our study of the confessions and church history and historical theology also deepens and systematizes our knowledge of the scriptures.

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So remember, very important, everyone holds to some creed or statement of faith, everyone, whether they admit it or not, whether they express it or not, whether it's written or not, whether it's consistent or not.

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It is inevitable. Unless you are insane, it is inevitable.

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In the exact same way that we cannot avoid judging, we cannot avoid judging and interpreting history through our own biases and assumptions, it is just as inescapable to not have a creed or statement of faith.

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You can claim to believe the Bible all you want. We can claim to believe it all we want, just like Romanists do and Mormons do and Jehovah's Witnesses do and cults do.

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The issue is, what does the Bible actually teach? What do you believe the

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Bible actually teaches? We are responsible for making proper sense of the Bible, for understanding and believing what it teaches, and for putting it together as a system of doctrine that it contains faithfully.

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That is why the New Testament repeatedly admonishes to judge for ourselves.

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We have to think through this process. That's how God designed us, with a mind that we use and exercise in discernment and sound judgment.

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This is how a great part of how we reflect God's very image. Now, wait a minute.

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I sense an objection coming. So some of you might be getting like the sense, it sounds like you're denying the sufficiency of Scripture.

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I keep talking about how we need church history. Isn't the Bible enough? Isn't the Bible all we need?

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Isn't the Bible sufficient? Doesn't the very first sentence of our confession state that the Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience?

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So what about that? Did I veer us off a cliff somewhere?

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Now, to that, of course, I would say amen. The Bible is our only infallible rule of all saving knowledge, but didn't the

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Apostle Peter also state that there are some things in Paul's letters that are hard to understand, in which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the rest of the

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Scriptures? You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In other words, Peter says, and God therefore says, that some things in Scripture are hard for us to understand.

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Not everybody has the same level of understanding and ability, because some of these things require the ministry and labor of pastors to teach, to expound, to explain them to us, so that we don't ignorantly twist them to our demise.

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And the word destruction in that passage, by the way, is the word Apollyon. The same root word used to describe the destroyer angel,

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Apollyon, in the book of Revelation. The destroyer. And what about the

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Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8, verse 28 and forward? Let's turn there.

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If you could turn with me there, it'll help us to really bring the point home. In Acts chapter 8, verse 28, here we see a very important encounter that Philip has with this

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Ethiopian eunuch. And in Acts chapter 8, verse 28, we're gonna read the context a little bit more.

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So the eunuch was reading the prophet Isaiah, and the

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Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading

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Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can

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I unless someone guides me? And he invited

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Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture that he was reading was this, like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

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In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.

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And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else?

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Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news of Jesus Christ.

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Amen. So the Scriptures, of course, are absolutely the sole ultimate standard, sufficient standard for us.

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But we cannot ignore it because they are ultimate standard, we have to obey what they say.

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And in the Scriptures themselves exemplify and command us to seek the guidance of men that God has ordained as means, as pastors, prophets, teachers, evangelists, to build up and edify

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God's people. We disobey God when we believe things like no creed but Christ, no book but the

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Bible. It is because we believe the Bible is, the reason we believe this is because we believe that the

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Bible is, according to our confession, the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined.

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All decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits are to be examined.

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And in whose sentence we are to rest. It can be no other but the Holy Scripture delivered by the

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Spirit into which Scripture so delivered our faith is finally resolved. Now this does not mean that the

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Bible is the only authority that we should take heed to. This is very important to understand.

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A lot of people mess this up and get it wrong. The Bible is not our only authority, it is our only infallible authority, our only ultimate authority, our final authority.

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But the Bible commands us to submit to our church leaders and to seek guidance from sound men who has faithfully expounded and systematized

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God's Word as well. These are lesser authorities, creeds, confessions, historical theology, church history.

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These are lesser authorities that we use as guides, that gives,

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God to the church to help us understand His Word.

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He gave them to us for that reason. Case in point, as I was reflecting on my previous message,

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I realized that there is a blatant contradiction with these men like Dave Hunt.

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Because he claims that he only needs to read his Bible and pretty much pretend that all of history, you know, up until the

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New Testament is just irrelevant and unnecessary. And yet Dave Hunt had an entire ministry called the

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Berean Call which was and still is dedicated to refuting non -christian cults.

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But this required him to study large amounts of church history and historical theology.

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In order for you to refute the Roman Catholic Church, you have to study what they believe and what they teach and what they claim, which are historical claims.

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Just like the Mormons, just like the Jehovah's Witnesses, everybody makes historical claims. And so do we as a

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Christian Church. So ironically, though he denied it, he actually did reap some benefit from having to study church history in order to refute these false

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Christian movements. And yet he still hypocritically denounced it as irrelevant.

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And I call this unsuspecting hypocrisy.

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And you really don't want to go there. It's a dangerous state to be in. But here's the worst of it.

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The worst of all, even though Dave Hunt discouraged people from learning church history and historical theology, yet Dave Hunt himself wrote many books and produced many videos that he marketed and promoted and encouraged everyone to read.

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Because he considered himself to be a lesser authority. What about the Bible alone?

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Why are you telling people to read your books? You see, this kind of contradictory arrogance is so hard to self -correct because of its own biblical convictions, which causes massive blind spots.

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People don't see how blatantly contradictory it is. So again, this unsuspecting hypocrisy is just chronological snobbery at its finest.

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You need to listen to me, but you don't listen to anybody else but the Bible. It's just me and the Bible. It's just snobbery.

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Now, I had a section here about recommended resources and approaches to studying church history.

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I'm not going to cover all of it for the sake of time, but I will make a public service announcement here and say that not all church history books and perspectives are equally valid or useful and some are downright deceptive and misleading.

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As I said, all histories have a bias. The question is whether the bias is good or bad.

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Is it biblically consistent or biblically contrary? This means that the best church histories we make, sorry, the best church histories to read are the ones that make balanced, competent interpretations and judgments about people, events, churches, and doctrines from an explicitly

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Protestant bias that is informed by Scripture and because they define the church according to Scripture as opposed to the mushy ecumenical mess and bias that many historians like Justo Gonzalez suffer from.

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You don't want to read those guys. I mean, you can read them for, you know, what do you call that? Opposition research?

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It's an exercise in discernment, but you have to be careful because you have to know a good perspective of what the events are that they're talking about.

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So we got to be careful. So drawing from what I've studied already, I think the best way to study church history individually and as a church is through a five -fold approach.

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It's a five -fold approach. One is to read basic overviews of church history.

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The second is biographies, Christian biographies. The third is visiting historical sites like historical religious sites, things like that.

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And four is doctrinal works and treatises written by theologians of the past such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.

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And number five is very important as well. One of the most important is taking advantage of audio and video resources.

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Audio and video resources. A lot of stuff that I've seen completely overlooks that.

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So in light of Reformation Sunday, and I brought some books as well that we can talk about more after the service.

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I got some of the recommendations that I have here that y 'all can take a look at as well. But in light of Reformation Sunday, I'd also be completely remiss if I fail to mention older Protestant titans of the past on the history of the church.

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These guys are solid gold and nobody reads them anymore. Now one such

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Titan was Jean -Henri Merle d 'Albigny. He was a French guy, probably butchered his name, but whom

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I'll refer to as Merle. Now Merle was a

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Swiss Protestant minister and historian of the Reformation, born in 1794 to distinguished

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Huguenot family in Geneva. You know, Huguenot, he was a Huguenot, which is fascinating because speaking of church history and the

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Reformation, the Huguenots were French Reformed Protestants who were heavily persecuted by Catholic authorities, including the notorious

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St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 that was instigated by Queen Catherine de'

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Medici and which left a bloody trail of tens of thousands of brutally murdered

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Huguenots. The Huguenots were later persecuted by another

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Romanist King, Louis XIV, who instituted the Dragon Aids, which sounds cool but it's really a horrendous event in history, to forcibly convert, assault and drive the

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Huguenots out of France. It's important to know our family history because you will hear expressions, you know, these pious sayings that people say, like the blood of the martyrs is the seat of the church, which in this case is completely false, because the blood of the martyrs drove the

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French Protestants completely out of France, almost entirely, and France to this day is predominantly Roman Catholic.

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So that saying doesn't always hold true. But during his own day,

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Merle noticed that the spiritual significance of Martin Luther appeared to have been forgotten. Sound familiar?

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Sound like what's going on today? It was for this reason that at the age of 23,

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Merle resolved to write a history of the Reformation that emphasized the truly religious significance of Martin Luther and the

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Reformation. And he said, I want this history to be truly Christian and to give a proper impulse to the religious spirit.

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Merle is the author of two extremely influential but now forgotten Reformation histories. These volumes, he wrote, lay down in the chief and foremost place this simple and pregnant principle.

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These are his words. God in history. That is how he wrote his history.

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God, he says, ought to be proclaimed in history. The history of the world ought to be distinctively the annals of the government of the sovereign king.

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Amen. Sound familiar? Does that not sound like the very definition of history and church history that I preached on last week?

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It's exactly the frame of mind that we're looking for. That we need to look for when we read church history.

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This is the kind of historian we need. Because not only is he Protestant by conviction, he is also writing from an unabashedly

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Biblical and Protestant view of history. And I would once again be absolutely remiss if I did not heartily commend to you all five volumes and over 2 ,700 pages of Merle's history of the

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Reformation in the 16th century. And all eight volumes and over 4 ,400 pages of the history of the

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Reformation in Europe in the time of Calvin, to add to your bedside reading as well.

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Now, another titan of history, church history, is

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James Aitken Wiley. We kind of got a European blend here. We got a French guy.

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This was the, yeah, this is a Scottish guy.

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So Wiley was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who wrote several excellent histories and critiques of Romanism as well.

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Including the history of Protestantism. And last but not least, we also have

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Henry Groton Guinness, who was an Irish preacher and evangelist.

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And the author of numerous works including Romanism and the Reformation from the standpoint of prophecy.

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These are fascinating works of history that were written from an unabashed biblical

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Protestant perspective. This is what we need. This is what will most benefit us. What will most make the best use of our time.

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As opposed to all this shallow ecumenical garbage you tend to read that is popular today.

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Now, the point of these recommendations is not to overwhelm you, but to whet your appetite and to encourage you to start and continue this journey if you haven't already.

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Because we need to. We need to. And I haven't, I myself haven't read all this stuff either, obviously.

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I haven't read thousands of pages of these guys, but I've read some. And the more I read, the more

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I learn and benefit from. And it makes me want to read and study more. I guarantee you this stuff will fascinate you.

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If you just dive in, just jump in and read a section that catches your attention or that you're curious about.

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You don't have to read all the thousands of pages of every good church historian, but at least be aware of them and sample them.

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Get familiar with them. Get your feet wet. Read parts and pieces, especially when you want to know about a specific topic, event, or controversy, and so on.

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Most of the older resources are free online or dirt cheap as well, even on audio. Most of the books

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I read, and most of the stuff that I've read also, like I mentioned, neglects audio and video resources, which in our day and age are incredibly useful ways to study not just church history, but Scripture and all theology as well.

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This is a great way. So I think this is really helpful for our day and age, because it's hard to find the time to read sometimes, and we can really supplement that by listening to audio.

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Now there's plenty of excellent audio material. One place I would highly recommend is

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James White's lectures on church history. They are excellent, very thoroughly edifying, that are free.

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Now, buyer beware. None of these resources are perfect. They all contain quirks and statements that we may disagree with, but these are nevertheless among the best

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I know of, and are widely recommended, even though some are widely ignored now.

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Okay, so now I want to transition to another public service announcement.

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Do not make the mistake of judging with unrighteous judgment when it comes to historical events in general, and the history of the church in particular.

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This is extremely important. We need to think like a Christian historian would, when we read history.

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And to come to our aid is another excellent consummate historian by the name of William Prescott.

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William Prescott. And they just don't make these guys like they used to.

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I mean, this stuff will blow you away. He was the author of the history of the conquest of Mexico, of Cortes and the

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Conquistadors. He said it perfectly in his discussion of whether the

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Spanish Conquistadors or the Pope could possibly be justified in light of their apparent barbarity and tyranny.

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Here's what he says. This passage in their history, and he's referring specifically to the

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Conquistadors attacking the natives at the massacre of Cholula, is one of those that have left a dark stain on the memory of the

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Conquistadors, the conquerors. Nor can we contemplate at this day without a shudder the condition of this fair and flourishing capital, thus invaded in its privacy and delivered over to the excesses of a rude and ruthless soldiery.

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But, listen, listen to this, but to judge the action fairly, we must transport ourselves to the age to when it happened.

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We must transport ourselves back to the time to when it happened.

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This is the key to understanding, to having a sound understanding, to not just church history but all history.

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It is key. After all, Christ himself commands us not to judge by mere superficial appearances or arrogantly, but to judge fairly with righteous judgment.

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This requires us then to transport ourselves back to the historical context and truly seek to understand it.

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And this is so important, beloved, that we need to make this our conviction whenever we read and assess any history, including,

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I'll raise you one, biblical history, even for biblical history. Now, does this mean that our judgments of history, the objection, right?

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I object. Does this mean that our judgments of history have to be completely relative to their own era?

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The answer is no, absolutely not, because God's Word is forever and is always the ultimate standard, regardless of the historical period, while keeping in mind, however, that God's Word took thousands of years to be completely revealed.

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So we have to take that into consideration as well. For example, when

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God commanded the Israelites to wipe out entire nations, man, woman, child, cattle, everything.

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When he commanded this, and at one point he wiped out the entire planet, saving only

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Noah and the eight, his family, we need to understand both the historical and covenantal context in which these events took place, and how much of God's Word was progressively revealed at that time.

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For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, if he did not spare the entire ancient world, but preserved

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Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemn them to extinction, by making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, in other words, make them an historical example for us to learn from today, and to take heed to.

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And if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard, then the

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Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

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That's 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 4. A warning for us.

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This is a warning. Shallow, simplistic views of history and the

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Bible that dismiss the historical and covenantal context lead to falsehoods, liberalism, unbelief, and unrighteousness.

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As Jesus said, because we must judge righteously. And if you don't judge with this in mind, you are judging unrighteously and therefore sinfully.

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And unbelievers will frequently cite these kinds of passages to mock the

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God who made them. But God is a just judge who was punishing the wicked.

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Everything he does is just because he does it.

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Not because he follows some righteous standard, quote -unquote, that is above him or outside of him.

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He is righteousness. He is the standard because he alone is good.

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As Christ himself told the rich young ruler. Remember that? No one is good except God alone.

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No matter what the context is. Past, present, future.

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So we need to judge men fairly in light of their context. But God is always right and just in every context.

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Which is why we always look to him and to his word for the ultimate guidance in any and every context and age.

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Historical or otherwise. This is precisely what the Reformation principle of sola scriptura, scripture alone, affirms.

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But those who reject God and his word for these reasons are evil and unrighteous. And are still in their sins because they pervert truth and righteousness.

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They are denying the only one who is good at all. So I'm really excited to talk about this stuff here next.

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One of my, you know, Prescott continues a discussion about the papacy. And it's a little bit verbose so I want to actually read from one of my favorite novels written by G .A.

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Henty who further elaborates the historical context behind the papacy's megalomaniacal claim of owning all undiscovered territories that were uninhabited by Catholics.

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He claimed they belong to the Pope. To him. And in the novel this is what it says,

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I do not see why Spain and Portugal should claim all the Indies east and west and keep all the others from going there.

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But the Pope has given the Indies to them, Dorothy said.

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I don't see that they were the Popes to give, Roger replied. That might do for the

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King and his minister Cardinal Wolsey and the Catholic bishops. But when in time all the people have read, as we do,

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Master John Wycliffe's Bible, they will come to see that there is no warrant for the authority the

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Pope claims. Hush Roger, you should not speak so loud about the

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Bible. You know that though there are many who read it, it is not a thing to be spoken of openly and that it would bring us all into sore trouble were anyone to hear us speak so freely as you have done.

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There has been burning of Lollards who were followers of Wycliffe and they say that Wolsey is determined to root out all the followers of Wycliffe.

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Now this, beloved, is the historical context that led to the

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Reformation. This was what the papacy was claiming and doing on top of a bunch of other wicked nonsense.

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This now takes us back to Luther, to the time when, as my revised version of the classical conversation song goes, in 1517

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Martin Luther kindled, not began, kindled the

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Protestant Reformation, especially with what we've seen and learned about church history thus far, of those who paved the way for Luther that came before, like Wycliffe.

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I want us to focus on one specific aspect of Luther's development of personality that I think will bless us as a church.

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Thesis 18 of his 95 thesis says this, furthermore, it does not seem proved either by reason or by Scripture that souls in purgatory are outside the state of merit, that is, unable to grow in love.

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Now does this sound familiar? By reason or Scripture?

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This is the same thing he told the Emperor before the Diet of Worms, unless I am convinced by Scripture and reason,

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I will not and cannot recant. Even this early on in 1517,

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Luther was solidifying his conviction in the formal principle of the Reformation, which is sola scriptura.

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I want to lay down a maxim now. In order to be grounded in truth and in sound doctrine, we need these two things.

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We need Scripture and clear reason, logical consistency, because this is how we develop sound doctrine.

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Like I said, you can claim to believe the Bible alone all you want, but if you don't put it together logically and consistently, you do not have the truth.

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You do not have an understanding of what the Scripture teaches. Now, these 95 theses were

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Luther's initial attempts to test the Roman Catholic teachings of purgatory and indulgences for internal consistency and biblical fidelity, using the tools of logic and Scripture.

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Now, another major takeaway is that when

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Luther wrote the theses, someone translated and published them, and like a powder keg tossed into a kindling fire, caused an enormous eruption that is still impacting society today.

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It forced the world to react and respond to it.

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Some have responded well, others not so much. Rome came back with a counter -reformation vengeance to try to undo the

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Reformation. We, however, must, both as individuals and as a church, understand church history properly in order to discern and respond appropriately to it and to the situations that we ourselves face, because we got here because of the past that led us here.

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Our goal as a church is to celebrate the Reformation for its many triumphs and to apply the many lessons that came out of it, but we must also be honest about the shortcomings and sins of the men that God has used in times like these.

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A question for you now, was it Luther's intention to turn the entire

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Western world on its head, the entire world on its head? The answer to that is no.

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He was not even expecting this. He was a loyal son of the Roman Church in 1517 who wanted certain abuses corrected and reformed.

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Who could have seen this coming and manifesting the way it did? It erupted like a firestorm, but there's always a precedent.

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There's always something that leads to it. This was not at all a completely accidental and unintended result of some monk who was just messing around and just happened to pinch a nerve.

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He just stumbled on it. That's not the case at all. We can't be, that's not right.

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We have to remember that God 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

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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2 .10.

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There is something that Luther was meticulously deliberate and intentional about when he wrote the theses and he was very good at it.

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Very good at it. Something he developed in part when he first studied to become a lawyer. Prior to becoming a monk, he was an excellent student of the law and I have some familiarity with this because when

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I took an intellectual property class, it's a legal class, I appreciated the intellectual rigor involved in it and which is required in the sound methods of legal inquiry and conflict resolution, dispute resolution.

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The most important, most fundamental question that must be answered at the outset in any legal conflict and by extension most other conflicts is, what is the main issue?

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What is the main problem? That is the first question that must be answered, the most fundamental question that we have to answer and this is what

01:00:26

Luther became very good at. He knew how to ask the right questions, probing questions, questions that would get to the bottom of the issue.

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He knew how to put his finger, in this case his nail, on the main issue and with time he saw the issues more clearly and developed better answers from the

01:00:51

Word of God. He learned to discern truth from error. It reminds me of the young David whom

01:00:57

God had predestined and prepared his whole life for that momentous issue that needed to be answered.

01:01:04

That issue was that Israel was being mocked, defiled, threatened and challenged by the

01:01:11

Philistines. The question that David needed to answer was how do

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I slay the giant Goliath in order to rid Israel of the stain, this mockery, this reproach for who is this uncircumcised

01:01:27

Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? The answer was to trust

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God and execute a lifetime of God's preparation with five smooth stones.

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You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin but I come to you in the name of the

01:01:51

Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. So just like the young David, Luther was executing a lifetime of God's preparation like we all are.

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Here I stand, he said, I can do no other. The main issue as Luther began to see and would later see more clearly was a different giant.

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It was ultimately the Goliath of Rome, the Pope, the

01:02:27

Vicar of Christ, the so -called Vicar of Christ. Initially, Luther thought the problem was the abuse of indulgences by preachers like Johann Tetzel who were the early prosperity preachers.

01:02:39

See, there's history for everything. That's not new either. Luther apparently didn't realize that the

01:02:45

Pope was the one promoting these abuses but his nail was already on the main problem nonetheless.

01:02:52

He assumed the Pope would be on his side and give him the benefit of the doubt but Luther later clarified his views in a debate against Johann Eck because Eck accused

01:03:01

Luther of agreeing with John Huss, a heretic according to Rome, a good guy according to us, and Luther realized that he rejected papal authority just like Huss did, which again illustrates the importance of church history and of healthy debate and discussion of opposing views.

01:03:21

This stuff is necessary. It helps us to get to the main issue but Luther did what many others failed to do.

01:03:29

He discerned the main issues with Rome and to this day many fail to see the main issues affecting the church today.

01:03:41

I've become very alarmed by most of the churches that I have visited. They promote the very opposite of what

01:03:49

Luther did, of what the Reformation is all about, and what Scripture commands and teaches all throughout the

01:03:56

Bible. They don't think. They don't challenge.

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They don't ask probing questions. They don't teach discernment. They don't challenge the status quo even when it should be challenged, even when the pastor or teacher says something that is completely off the wall, that is unbiblical or contradictory or both.

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And worse, many churches are plagued by the emotional, experience -driven pietism which thinks that conflict is sinful.

01:04:30

All of this false piety creates an atmosphere and uncritical herd mentality.

01:04:36

You just go along with the flow and you become wrapped in a bubble and you don't see the problem.

01:04:43

I've often wondered this. Why is it so hard for Christians to discern the main issues in the church?

01:04:51

Why is this so hard? I've come to think it's because many refuse to count and accept the cost of what is actually required to become a mature, discerning

01:05:07

Christian. It requires an intimate knowledge of Scripture, first and foremost, to be able to test the that you hear and what you see being done.

01:05:19

It requires a comprehensive, systematic, balanced understanding of the doctrines of Scripture, especially primary ones.

01:05:28

It requires a solid grasp of church history and historical theology due to the many false claims that are made about the past, both within and without the church.

01:05:42

It requires the ability to think, to think clearly, logically, consistently, to meditate for longer than 15 minutes at a time.

01:05:57

Scripture teaches that discernment is a lifestyle that requires constant practice.

01:06:03

This is how Luther was able to discern the issues and kindle the Reformation. This is the same thing that the

01:06:10

Bible teaches us we need. In fact, here's a maxim. The mark of a solid, balanced, mature

01:06:17

Christian is the mark of discernment. It is discernment that marks a mature

01:06:24

Christian. Scripture is repeatedly emphatic about this. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

01:06:36

You need milk and not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

01:06:45

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice, constant non -stop practice to distinguish good from evil.

01:07:01

Hebrews 5 12 through 14. God tells us that discernment is in fact the distinguishing mark of a mature believer.

01:07:12

This is what God commands us to do and rebukes us for not doing it. And because ignorance is sin, no matter how humble it claims to be.

01:07:24

Like good Bereans, we must also not become complacent in church.

01:07:29

This is so important. We must be active listeners, discerners, and appliers of the word and search it thoroughly.

01:07:37

And this is exactly why we also need church history and historical theology to grow in the sanctifying truth of God's Word and mature in discernment, balance, and sound doctrine.

01:07:50

Now let's not tip over the scales too much in one direction. Does this mean you shouldn't trust us as pastors at all?

01:07:59

Is that what I'm saying? That you should regard everything we say with suspicion? And no, that's not what

01:08:05

I'm saying. Obviously scripture commands us to respect the leaders and elders of the church and be submissive to them.

01:08:14

However, and also, we cannot be schismatic or divisive or so discord either.

01:08:23

That's extremely sinful and warrants excommunication. But we all must be and are commanded to be discerning

01:08:31

Bereans. So while you don't need to regard us with suspicion, neither should you be too trusting and become complacent and assume that everything we say is right without confirming it.

01:08:47

We all must constantly compare and confirm the teaching and preaching we hear against scripture.

01:08:56

We must always ask ourselves, is it biblical? Is it consistent with what

01:09:02

I've read and studied in scripture and the doctrines of scripture? You must think and digest everything that we teach and preach because that's exactly what it takes to have an active, discerning, mature faith.

01:09:17

An active faith requires you to think through everything and connect the dots back to scripture.

01:09:22

Like Hebrews says, constant practice. It is a lifestyle, not just the thing you turn on and off.

01:09:30

You never turn that off. This is one of my overarching concerns for the church.

01:09:37

I've noticed some of these problems even in our own church because it is far too easy to become complacent.

01:09:47

It's sort of human nature. It naturally tends to happen. But if you have a disagreement with what we teach, don't just stay quiet about it and make sure that you are actively listening always.

01:10:02

Please speak up and let us know. I have seen this happen too many times in other churches where someone has a disagreement with something

01:10:09

I said or they thought I said or they thought I taught and they don't even tell me.

01:10:16

It can lead to sinful conflicts and situations that could have been easily resolved by simply reasoning together.

01:10:23

Just clarifying sometimes is all it takes. When we don't discuss disagreements, we deprive each other of the opportunity to learn from our potential mistakes and to correct them because iron sharpens iron.

01:10:37

You could also deprive yourselves of clarifying a potential misunderstanding of what we said or simply of having a wrong view that needs to be corrected.

01:10:47

It goes both ways. For our mutual up -building, our edification, this is the mark of a healthy church.

01:10:57

A discerning church is a healthy church. Just like the Ephesian church which judged the Apostles to be false.

01:11:05

We need this now more than ever. So to wrap up here, as Christians we cannot afford to be shallow or ignorant of the

01:11:17

Bible, of history, and of systematic and historical theology. A Christian who is ignorant of church history and these disciplines is also ignorant of the

01:11:27

Bible. You will see that pattern played out over and over again and they will have a very shallow, truncated, and inconsistent misunderstanding of it.

01:11:40

Ignorance and neglect of church history is dangerous to your soul. It exposes you to error and you will be deceived.

01:11:47

You will be deceived by some wind of doctrine. It's just a matter of when and how much and how often.

01:11:56

If you are not firmly grounded in a Protestant understanding of history and historical theology,

01:12:01

I repeat, you will be deceived. You will be. The study of church history and historical theology is necessary for Christians and for the church because it connects us to our family history all the way back to Scripture.

01:12:16

And because the Bible commands it, as I've already repeated before. And because we are still in the biblical timeline awaiting the return of Christ.

01:12:24

We are still in the Bible history. And because the church is still unfolding and is still being saved and preserved by God.

01:12:34

We need these historical dots to understand how we got here and where things are going.

01:12:40

We need them to learn from the contributions and errors of those who came before us to strengthen us and to build up our understanding of the

01:12:52

Word of God. Now, I know I've run a little long here, but I really want to share this with you. This is a crazy providential story that I have to tell.

01:13:02

Just amazing how God moves in history. This is a perfect example of why it is so vital to know your church history as well as the

01:13:14

Reformation conflict with Rome herself. Yesterday on October 28th, the local

01:13:23

Roman Catholic Church that I live next to and grew up in, which is a St.

01:13:28

Jude Catholic Church, was celebrating and venerating the liturgical day of the man himself,

01:13:35

St. Jude the Apostle. Not Judas Iscariot the traitor. This is

01:13:40

Judas Thaddeus, the son of James, or in Spanish, St. Judas Thaddeus, whom the

01:13:47

Romanist Church idolizes as the patron saint of lost and impossible causes.

01:13:55

These liturgical days are also known as feast days, but they're not about food. They're about venerating and idolizing a saint.

01:14:03

In this case, it's Jude. So here's the takeaway. Actually, what happened was that they started a parade outside of the church and they had this big monument, like a monument of a picture of Jude, and they were marching out in the middle of the street.

01:14:27

They had these, they're called matachinas. They dance, they're dedicated to, they literally dedicate themselves to Mary or to a specific saint, and in this case, they were dedicating themselves to Jude.

01:14:41

And they started singing and dancing and marching, and I was looking at this.

01:14:48

They were passing right in front of me. They live right in front of our house. I'm looking at this, and I just got so provoked,

01:14:55

I couldn't stay quiet. So I think you know where this is going, right?

01:15:02

Speaking of nailing the theses. So I rushed into the house, and I have to,

01:15:12

I can't just watch this and not say anything. So I ran outside, and I started to protest, and I told these people, this is a lie.

01:15:23

You are committing idolatry. You need to repent and believe the gospel. We are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, not by saints or Mary or paying allegiance to them.

01:15:36

They can't hear you. Mary can't hear you. The saints can't hear you. Jude can't hear you.

01:15:41

He is not the saint of lost causes. Christ is the one who's lost, the Lord of lost causes.

01:15:47

He doesn't need a saint who is not even in mission, and who can't even hear you. So I was just following them along the sidewalk, protesting, and you know, some people got upset, and I just kept going, and telling folks, you can't, this is lies.

01:16:04

Wake up. And eventually, this lawyer, it's funny how lawyers are, you know, this guy claimed to be a lawyer.

01:16:13

He tried, he tried to threaten me that if he doesn't stop, if I don't stop, he's gonna call the police, and I needed to call him.

01:16:19

He's like, you can't do this. He's like, yes, I can. I'm on a public sidewalk. First Amendment right, free speech. I can, you guys are on the street, blocking traffic, and I can't sit on the sidewalk, protesting with the nonsense that y 'all are doing.

01:16:32

So they, he calls the cops, and I end up talking to one of these, one of these gentlemen, had a long conversation with him, a very good conversation about all of these things, and even the cops show up.

01:16:46

The cops showed up, and they talked to us, and they said, hey, you know, I'm glad everything is going well.

01:16:52

I explained, look, I'm not trying to start any fights. I'm not here to fight or cause riots. I'm just here to share with people the truth, because I am very provoked by what

01:17:01

I see here, and I even told them, I even told them, it's like when Paul went to Athens, and he was provoked by all the idols everywhere.

01:17:10

It's like, my God, this is horrible. So the cops were very friendly, very cordial.

01:17:19

They knew, they knew the law better than this lawyer did, man. I, we need to find out who that lawyer is, because I don't want to ever hire him.

01:17:26

He had no idea what he was talking about, but anyway, we had,

01:17:31

I had this long conversation with one of the gentlemen there, and we were talking about the

01:17:37

Reformation, and about Rome, and about what the Bible says, and he kept making these claims that the

01:17:44

Roman Catholic Church is the earliest church. It's the, it's Christ Church from the beginning, and that all this stuff comes from the early church, and that the

01:17:53

Catholic Church gave us the Bible, and you wouldn't even have a Bible if it wasn't for the Catholic Church, and all of these claims that are completely false abuses of church history, and everything that I've been learning about Protestantism, about the

01:18:09

Reformation, about the Bible, everything I was having to use and incorporate, and especially church history, because he kept saying one ridiculous thing after another, and this is the problem.

01:18:21

This is why it's difficult. This is partly why discernment is so difficult, because if you don't know ahead of time, you will be deceived.

01:18:30

You will likely be deceived. You have to know ahead of time, because they will say things to you. I told him, hey, we're saved by faith alone, and Christ alone.

01:18:37

He's like, I agree. It's like, but your church doesn't. Your church teaches the exact opposite.

01:18:43

Haven't you read the Catholic Catechism? Haven't you read the Anathemas in the Council of Trent? He doesn't even know his own history, and that is why we must be grounded in history, and understand what they teach, what they claim, and what the

01:18:56

Bible claims. It is vitally important to know these things, brothers and sisters. So, with that being said,

01:19:04

I hope you enjoyed this. Again, I apologize for running a little bit long. Let's go ahead and celebrate. Have a good party to celebrate all of this good stuff.

01:19:14

Oh, and one thing I learned is not to be unnecessarily antagonistic.

01:19:22

Do not be unnecessarily antagonistic, and I should have been more clear about this. We're not there to start a fight.

01:19:28

We're not there to fight people. We're there to share the truth in love. We're there to show them, look,

01:19:34

I want you to think. I want you to think about what you're doing. I want you to realize that the

01:19:39

Bible says the opposite of what you're doing, because he would say, yeah, we call and they're like, you call your priest fathers.

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You call your priest. Jesus said, call no man your spiritual father. All these things.

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So, but we shouldn't be unnecessarily antagonistic. Now, the other thing that I would recommend, whenever you have an encounter with these folks, whether it's

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Catholics or people that knock on your door, like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, record it.

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Get your phone and try to record it. That's very useful to record it, and I did manage to record it, so we can get a chance to listen to it and, you know, put it out there, whatever.

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It was a very, very interesting conversation. We ran through the whole Reformation in one hour.

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So, I can't tell you how many other encounters I've had like this, when I was younger in the faith, with Mormons and cults and so many cults that just completely knocked me off course and, for a while, deceived me.

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But that is why I'm being so adamant about this. That is why we need this stuff. We need church history to understand the

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Bible clearly and to discern it, to understand it systematically.

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Okay, now with that, let's go ahead and close with prayer. Our good, gracious, only wise and good

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God, we ask, Father, that you bless our time together in the preaching of your Word. We ask that you would help us to retain these truths in our minds,

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Lord. Every time we preach and teach, help us to retain these in our minds by meditating, by using our minds, by exercising our minds in constant discernment and practice and of sound judgment.

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Lord, we thank you for this. We thank you for the Reformation, for how you worked mightily in these men. Help us to learn from their mistakes and their errors and their contributions.

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And in Jesus' mighty name, we pray. Amen. If you have any questions or requests, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com,