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Good morning. Good to see you guys. We're going to be doing something different today. I hope you don't uh. I hope you don't get too upset with me. We are not going to be continuing our study in James.
I'm doing what I know well. You can find you can feel free to you can fire me if you if you feel the absolute necessity. I Actually actually called mark late last night. Yesterday was an important day and not just because it was Halloween.
Yesterday was Reformation Day, and I know. Even though I didn't get to come I know that he preached on The solas on Tuesday night. How many of you guys were there when he preached on that Tuesday night, okay cool.
The Reformation and the in the history of the church is one of the most profound. Oh. Okay, it's just one of the most profound revivals in Church history. And I spent all day yesterday Posting and talking to people and sharing things we gave away over 400 gospel tracts last night.
Trying to just remind people of the significance of October 31st 1517 this Sunday at church our church Celebrates the Reformation every year we have one day a year. It's the Sunday after the 31st one day a year we celebrate the Reformation.
We have a bookstore that we bring in and we we preach special sermons, and we in this year. We have a movie night Saturday or Sunday night where we're going to be showing the film about the Reformation so so it's a big deal to us.
And I think honestly it should be a big deal to the entire church. Unfortunately the vast majority of people who call themselves Christians know very little at all about church history and There are two subjects that I have committed myself outside of just understanding the Bible there are two subjects that I've committed myself to understanding as a teacher.
One is systematic theology. Understanding the systematic teaching of the Word of God understanding the the the the what I call the Scientific understanding of the Word of God breaking it into its categories and understanding what it says.
About God about Jesus about the Holy Spirit about the church about salvation about sanctification all these things are categories. And you understand what the Bible says about them. That's the scientific approach to understanding the Bible.
It's called systematic theology, but the other thing that I've committed myself to learning and Continuing to learn is church history. You've probably all heard the Saying those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
Well, I want to add to that. Because those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. But I also have learned this those who do know history are doomed to watch everyone else Repeat it and that's what happens when you learn history.
You start to look around you and you're watching history repeat itself. You're watching history happen again and again and again as people make the same mistakes as their predecessors. As people make the same mistakes as their forefathers.
Refusing to learn from the wisdom of the past thinking that we are the smartest generation to ever live. We refuse to study history and instead focus on Ourselves, how many of you guys remember Charlie Brown?
Cartoon Charlie Brown, right? So peanuts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What what what the teacher? Well, there was a cartoon in Charlie Brown. Where Lucy and her brother Linus are talking and Lucy says to her brother I'm gonna write a paper on church history and Linus says that's great.
What how are you going to start the paper? And she said well, my pastor was born in 1950. Yeah, well, that's what but that's the idea that most people a lot of people think church history began with the Gaithers or You know began in the 1950s right or it began when I became a Christian, right?
But we sit upon 2 ,000 years of church history we are the we're the end of a line of 2 ,000 years of events and and and and movements and and people being Saved and people being killed for their salvation.
We sit on the latter end of a long line of faithful people and Most of us if I mentioned just a few people from history don't even know who those people are people like Chrysostom or people like Augustine or people like Polycarp or or or moving further into history people like Zwingli and Luther and Calvin.
If I mentioned Martin Luther in a modern setting, what do most people think of? Martin Luther King jr. And he did great things, but that ain't the one I'm talking about. When I say Martin Luther a lot of people just immediately assume the 1960s civil rights leader.
They don't think of the 16th century Protestant reformer and so this morning I just want to take you through a whirlwind history of the church. Can I do that just take you from beginning to end but focusing primarily on the life of one man.
We're going to focus on the life of one man and that is the man Martin Luther. But I want to before we get to Luther I want to read a verse of Scripture and pray and then I want to. I'm going to draw a line on the board.
I know it's kind of hard for you guys to see because of my post here. But I'll get it as best as you can to see what we're going to do today. But let's let's read in your Bibles turn to Romans 1 verse 16.
And we're going to read verses 16 and 17 and then I'm going to offer a word of prayer. Ask God to bless our study and then we're going to. We're going to rock and roll and I don't know how I mean 2 ,000 years is a lot to do in 45 minutes.
But I'll do my best Romans 1 16 and 17 and just in case I forget because I Have a tendency to the reason why we're reading these verses. This was the verse that changed Martin Luther's life. This was the passage.
Yeah, the passage that changed Martin Luther's life is Romans 1 now at the time that it changed Martin Luther's life. There was no verse numbers. Verse numbers didn't come in until later. Chapter divisions was a was a Later concept wasn't written in the original scriptures.
Chapter divisions came in later and then verse divisions came in later than that so when Martin Luther Read this he wasn't reading it broken up by verses like we do because they didn't have that. But the passage that he that he writes in his in his teachings this is what changed me.
This is what helped me understand would have been what we call verses 16 and 17 and it says this. For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and Also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the Righteous shall live by faith.
Let's pray Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for these men. Thank you for allowing me to be here and Giving me an opportunity to minister to them and sharing with them so much of what you have shown me both in Scripture and in history, I Thank you for their attentiveness and their desire to want to know these things.
I pray that you would keep me from error because Lord. I am a fallible man and I'm capable of preaching that which is wrong, and I don't want to first for my sake in the sake of my conscience. Second for their sake in the sake of their their spirits which are valuable to you and Father.
Thirdly for the sake of your great name Lord your name is Worthy to be praised and never worthy to be mocked so Lord Keep us from error. Keep us in the truth by your hand. Keep us steadfast in Christ's name.
Amen. All right, guys, we're gonna just very quickly overview church history in a glance because from a historical perspective if we start with the early church following the cross. To the very first major historical event after the cross.
Well at the death, burial and resurrection of Christ happened around the year 30 AD. After that you have the rise of the early church and you have the establishment of the church in the world. Going out into the area Surrounding Jerusalem and out into the world you have the church going down into Africa.
You have the church going east and you have the church going up into the west north into the west. Paul is bringing the gospel through What was then called Asia Minor which is now called Turkey up through into Macedonia into Greece and those places.
That's happening but within 40 years of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The first major event in world history that we could look back to and say this is something that changed the world happened in 8070 does anyone know what that event was?
That's right. That's right. The Romans went in and destroyed the temple. Absolutely. Jesus had prophesied that not one stone will be left upon another and that's exactly what happened. Emperor Titus went in and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.
So that's 8070. That's a major historic event because since then there has been no temple in Jerusalem. There has been no proper worship among the Jewish people as we would call proper worship based on their Old Testament principles of going to the temple and Offering sacrifices and all those things that was done.
So in 8070 that Stops the the essentially the end of the Old Testament the end of the Old Covenant the end of that Position that the Jewish people had with God Ended with the fall of Jerusalem in 8070.
The church was established in 8030 and it begins to grow and out of that. We have the first three to four centuries of the church is what we call the early church. The early church period goes up until 325 what happens in 325.
No, no you Constantine is right, what would you say brother? Well council of Nicaea is 325 the council of Nicaea Is in 325. Not yet. Yeah, it's actually what happened according to historians prior to this Christianity what was known as religio elicita, which is Latin for illegal religion it was not legal to be a Christian at least not according to the Standards and laws and practices you you had to worship the Emperor you had to worship That that way and if you were not worshiping that way you were religio elicita.
You were a legal religion. Constantine during a battle Believed that he was saved by Jesus Christ. He had a vision. He believed he saw Jesus and on the and he saw a cross and he believed that he was saved by Jesus.
And so he comes back after that battle. Proclaiming to now be a follower of Jesus and so he takes and makes the the Christian religion no longer illegal. So the first thing that he didn't force it on people.
But the first thing he did was was lift the band as it were because in this time period. Even though you have a growth of great men like in this time period you've got all of the early church fathers.
You also have a great amount of persecution that's happening. This is when people were being literally fed to the Lions. You've heard those stories. That's not exaggeration. They were being fed to the Lions as a as a as a as an entertainment Emperor Nero would would light people on fire for fun.
But that was actually in the first century the neurotic oppression of the church. The neurotic persecution of the church was a very real and horrible thing and Nero was out of his mind. He blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome and he had a tremendous hatred and antipathy for the church.
But out of that first 300 years. Many great people arose, but there was a lot of persecution and 325 the first. And the term is ecumenical or meaning worldwide the first worldwide Council of the church gathered in a place called Nicaea it actually gathered.
Was gathered by Constantine and the whole purpose of that first council was to settle a dispute that had arisen in the church based on the teachings of a man named Arius. Arius believed that Jesus Christ was not God in the flesh.
He believed that Jesus Christ was created by God, but was not himself God. He believed Jesus was a Special being but was not the eternal God. He didn't believe in the Trinity he believed the Trinity was false.
Well the entire church Council went against him. In fact, if I remember correctly out of 325 Bishops that were there. No, there's year 325 out of the 300 bishops that were there only two Were on Arius aside.
Arius was one of them and the other man who agreed with him. How many of you've ever heard of st. Nicholas? Who is st. Nicholas? It's Santa Claus, that's right. Yeah, if you know it yell it out. Yeah, Santa Claus.
Do you know who he really was though? St. Nicholas of Myra was his name. He was an early church leader. He was at the Council of Nicaea and when Arius was proclaiming that Jesus was not divine St. Nicholas punched Arius in the face.
And Thereby becoming my favorite early church father. He did he hit him he hit him and was then Scorned by the church and he actually became he went under sanction because of it. But he was so angry and I always joke every Christmas at our church.
We celebrate Santa Claus punching heretics. That's. But he did he punched him because he was so angry that that somebody would rob Christ of his deity. So After the Council of Nicaea, there were other church councils that convened but that one was the first.
To have leaders from the churches of all the different areas coming together legally and formally. To speak to the issue of doctrine, right? So that has an important influence in the church. After that you have other the Council of Constantinople.
You have other councils that come up but there's none that is is as as Celebrated and as important as the Council of Nicaea and in some of you may have gone to churches before where you recite something called the Nicene Creed.
The Nicene Creed was written at the Council of Nicaea to formalize the teachings of the church. It wasn't meant to take the place of the scripture. But it was to give a simple overview of what the scripture taught about God about Jesus about the Holy Spirit about the church.
About salvation and it was like a statement of faith that to this day. I can still recite it to this day. I believe I held I hold to what is called the Nicene faith. The faith of all Christians of all times can hold to the Nicene faith.
After the Council of Nicaea several as I mentioned other councils arose and there are many other things that arose. There was the Aryan uprising that happened after that and there was the son of Constantine who was an Aryan himself who became a Central figure and a figure of debate.
There was a man by the name of Athanasius who came against that and he fought for it and there was a Latin phrase Athanasius contra mundum. Which means Athanasius against the world because there was a time where it seemed as if he was the only one standing for truth.
But he stood for truth. And so one of the heroes of the early church was Athanasius. He stood for truth in the midst of a lot of error. Few hundred years later. I'm jumping ahead quite a lot in the sixth.
Well the 600s which would have been the 7th century what happens in the 7th century that changes the world drastically. What's that. Not the plague. That's that's later. That's in the 1300s that that will change and we're gonna Rise of Islam.
I like you. Give me a high-five right there. All right. Yeah, so In the 600s you have the rise of a new established religion under a man named Muhammad out of the rise of Islam and the argument of Islam and by the way Islam started.
Because Muhammad said that he was visited visited by the angel Jabril, which is their way of saying Gabriel and he believed that he met an angel and the angel gave him the word of God. Which is called the Quran in Arabic.
And so he began to to create a following behind him in the beginning. His following was very tolerant and their desire was to tolerate. Because they wanted to grow after they grew to a point of dominance.
It was no longer about toleration, but it was about Domination that happens with a lot of groups not just Islam and it happened even you could say within the church. When the Roman Catholic Church began to grow to a point of domination and then corruption, right?
So it's not just that we say that only happened in Islam, but it happens anytime a group becomes so powerful they say power corrupts and absolute power Corrupts absolutely, right? So that's so that's what happens, right?
So in Islam, there's a rise the the Islamic Battle begins to make its way toward the West as a result. What does the church respond with? The Crusades. Yeah, it's it's okay. Yeah, the Crusades become a defensive effort.
Against the overtaking of Islam by the way during the time of the Crusades. How many of you know the seven churches in Revelation? There's the Church of Samarra the church at Philadelphia all those different churches right by the time of the Crusades all of the churches Had been overrun by Muslims.
Every one of the seven churches was no longer there. They had all been overtaken and that's how fast Islam was rising and coming toward the West and so the church at that point there had been the rise of the Holy Roman Empire which was a dovetailing of church and state together with the rise of the monarchy and the rise of the papacy.
Coming together and by the way, when you got a king and a Pope together, who's more powerful? The Pope because the Pope can send the king to hell. Right when you got the power of heaven and hell you can send the king to hell.
So if there's ever a question of who has more power, it's always going to be the Pope right, so the Crusades were a response to the aggression of Islam now, I simply want to say this a lot of Christianity a lot of people spend a lot of time Apologizing for the Crusades because a lot of what the Crusaders did with some pretty horrible stuff.
So I am NOT an Apologist for the Crusades. I don't go around saying they were great. But I will say this if it had not been for the Crusades, we'd all be speaking Arabic right now. Yep. So there is a reason why God had this be the way it was and not another way.
Even though a lot of what those men did was evil and I won't stand with evil I will say that there was a purpose in it because had it not happened. We'd be speaking Arabic right now. God put up a wall of defense there and it was a defense so We move on now to what is typically called the Middle Ages.
Middle Ages will go to I'm going to mention 1054 and they know what happened in 1054. That would have been the direct middle right because we're in 2018 so 1054 would have been you know about a thousand years ago.
Well, they're Charlemagne but in the history of the church 1054 had an important Moment. How many of you have ever heard of the Eastern Orthodox Church? The Great Schism is in 1054 because you have the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
They divided over the issue of authority, but who was the authority? What was the issue of authority? Whether or not we're going to obey the Pope as the head of the church. No Constantine was in the 300 so he was long.
Yeah long long dead by then yeah, well, yeah, yeah, and. So you have the the Eastern Church and you have the Western Church and there's this great schism. Which means a tearing apart and so there's this great divide between the church and now there is the Roman Catholic Church the Holy Roman Church and then you have the Eastern Orthodox Church both of them claiming to be the true church the Church of Jesus Christ.
If you've ever met an Eastern Orthodox person. One of their bumper stickers that they have and I've seen it on their cars the Eastern Orthodox. It says it says proclaiming the truth since a d33. Meaning they believe that they are the true church that goes back to the Apostles.
You. Yeah. Because they proclaim they are the Orthodox ones. Orthodox means Straight with their teaching but you have been to an orthodontist was orthodontist do. Strange your teeth right or thoughts means to straighten Orthodontist straighten your teeth.
Orthodox means to be straight with your doxology or straight with your with your glory straight with your teaching. It's they're the ones they're the straight ones and everybody else is deviated. So they consider themselves to be Orthodox.
I would argue they are not because they do not believe What the scripture says about so many things but that's a that's another issue. The point is though this is a major division in the church that happens right here in 1054 the entire face of Christendom is split in half and the Western Church becomes under at that point under the absolute rule and authority of the Roman Catholic Empire in the 1300s.
Major historical event which you already mentioned or was it you the black? Plague the black plague Happens in the 1300s as a result of that more than a third more than one third of Europe falls to their death and As a result of the black plague, can you imagine?
The amount of people who die I mean, I sometimes sit around and think about it we we we. We don't experience death like like at one point in history at one point in history in America. If a woman had eight to ten children, which was not uncommon because they didn't have birth control.
But if a woman had eight to ten children It was not uncommon that she would lose a few of them either in childbirth or in the process of their growth having children die. Was not uncommon today very uncommon, right?
We hear somebody losing a child. We say that's so unnatural. That's so unreal. I can't imagine having a child die, right and it is it's horrible to think about but in history wasn't that uncommon that they would have children who would die, but imagine having entire generations die a third of Everyone, you know is Dying to a plague.
Yeah. Imagine. Yeah. So as a result of this plague that has hit as a result of this this disease that's spreading among the people. There is a moment in time where the people become very broken they begin to look to the church for answers and They begin to look for the answer that the church begins to consider to be a commodity and that is the commodity of Salvation.
If people want because it let me ask you the question if you knew you were going to die tomorrow. Would you have more concern about your salvation today? So if you knew that death was imminent and that a third of the people in your life are dying and maybe you're next Salvation might become more valuable to you.
Well, that's what's happening here. People are dying everywhere. And so the church presents itself as the dispenser of God's grace. But we're not going to dispense anything for free. So there's a rise in something called What's that?
Indulgences, that's right. But you understand now why the indulgence in the in the in the in the in the abuse of indulgences begin to rise. Because people need hope. People are dying and we need hope.
The church is willing to sell it $99 .95, right? We will put it on sale two for one sale, right? But wait, there's more. Yeah free shipping. We'll bring it to you. Salvation becomes a commodity in the church and it becomes something that the church is willing to sell at the right price and.
So we have the rise in Indulgences now I have skipped over so much because in the midst of all this there are great men who rose men like John Wycliffe in the 1300s. And Jan hus who came shortly after him.
These are great men who I I I feel bad. Just jumping over them. But these are men who were early lights of the Reformation because these men Even as early as the 1300s were seeing the corruption and they're seeing the false Teachings and these are men of renown who are proclaiming this and they're hated.
Yes. That's yes, but that's it. That's. That becomes a huge deal later at this at the early point in 30 and you have the I'll mention Wycliffe because he's a very important person in the in the 1100s and I know I'm stepping back for a second in the 1100s.
You have the rise in something called the mass. Do you know what the masses and Roman Catholicism the mass is the participation in the Lord's Supper? But the reason why I say it didn't happen until 1100s.
The church has always celebrated the Lord's Supper, but it was in the 1100s that the that the Roman Catholic Church Declared that the mass was a propitiatory sacrifice. That what happens when you eat the bread that the bread literally becomes Jesus's body.
The that's transubstantiation the cup literally becomes his blood and what's happening is he's being Resacrificed for your sins. There's a representation of the sacrifice of Christ that is why they call the communion table an altar and The priest is called altar Christus another Christ because he's performing the sacrifice of Christ again by reaching up into heaven pulling Christ down and making him a Sacrifice again for the sins of the people so to have your sins forgiven you've sinned this week to have your sins forgiven you have to come back to the altar every week and receive that sacrifice and If you die impure which you inevitably will Unless you die the minute you take that bread into your mouth and you do it with a perfectly pure heart when you do it.
Yeah. If you die impure which you will you're going to go to purgatory. Purgatory is a place the word purgatory means to purge. Meaning it's a place of cleansing because everybody who dies dies Essentially impure because the sacrifice of Christ is not enough.
You have to go be purged after death sometimes for thousands of years. But if you act now It's not. But here's what the church did they said we will sell an indulgence which essentially was a letter from the Pope with his signature and The Pope's signature allowed for you to purchase your way out of purgatory it would provide for you a Atonement.
Yeah. There was a man by the name of Johann Tetzel. You ever heard of him? Johann Tetzel went out to sell these indulgences from town to town and his His his his his phrase was this when a coin in the coffer rings a Soul from purgatory Springs and it rhymes in German as well as in English.
Yeah, that was his statement. He was going through the German countryside and he happened upon Luther and Luther was absolutely Scandalized by hearing somebody selling Indulgence selling the forgiveness of God bilking the people of God.
Out of their money and the money was used to build st. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Yes. No, this is after this is after that where we've gotten through now, and I'm sorry I didn't go back to my board right now.
We are looking at the 1500s. Yeah, this is like I said, the Black Plague is is creating what I believe historically a need. People are people want something to hope in so the church provides them hope but not at a not at a cheap price, right?
They're going to what we will sell hope to you. No, no, no questions asked, right? So you have the 1500s and you have Martin Luther's introduction to the world. Martin Luther well Luther I say Martin Luther's introduction.
Yeah, Martin Luther. He posted 95 theses in 1517 October 31st 1517 why that day? What's the day before a holiday? November 1st All Saints Day. That's why we call it Hallows Eve because it's the night before the Hallows Day or the Day of the Saints.
All Saints Day is November 1st. So you have the night before Hallows Eve and you have that's the day he posts his theses 95 statements of doctrine and almost every one of them is an accusation against the church regarding indulgences and I didn't bring them with me if you're welcome to look them up or you know.
You can maybe ask for a printout or something, but you can read the 95 theses and it's interesting because at that point Luther is attacking the church, but he's still a part of it. Luther's not looking to divide the church.
He's not looking to be the he's not he's not looking to lead a movement. He's looking to see reform. He's not one did he's not one to break the church apart. He's wanting to reform it. You were gonna say Historically it says he nailed them to the door of the church at the castle of Wittenberg which is where he was the he was the pastor the teacher there, but We think of that as like a like a major thing, right?
I'm gonna nail these to the door. I'm gonna let people know what the business is. But that was actually the way debate was started in the ancient world. You would post something publicly and then others would see it and they would and it would it was it was like a challenge.
Right. It wasn't an unknown thing to nail. Yeah, yeah, it was a it was a public posting of his statement. His historians argue that he might not even have done this historians say this might be Anachronistic and what actually he did was he wrote his theses and he mailed them to all the leaders of local Assembly so that he could begin the debate whether they were and I've always said this whether they were mailed or nailed they got out.
Yeah, they got out. Hey brothers. How y 'all doing? Hey. So we All that was introduction to get us a Martin Luther and I'm about I'm close to being out of time. I know but let me just let me jump quickly because this is very important.
Luther his whole life is. It's an amazing story. His father wanted him to be a lawyer. So he sent him to school to be a lawyer. Luther was a good student. He could have been a lawyer one day while traveling in the countryside.
He was yeah, there was a lightning storm. He was caught in the storm and he thought he was going to die and he shouts Saint and because he's Roman Catholic. They pray to Saints and he said Saint and if you save me I will become a monk.
Well, he survives the storm. As a result of surviving the storm he goes against his father's Desires of him being a lawyer and he becomes a monk in a monastery. He lives his life In the seclusion of the cloister.
He's lives his life away from the world. Secluded and yet he still lives in the constant agony of his sinful condition. He can never find any peace. He goes to confession sometimes for hours at a time.
To the point that he's wearing out as his superiors in the monastery. It'd be like one of you guys who said, you know, brother mark I need to talk and every day you're talking for two or three hours and you're sharing with them all your deepest darkest secrets and All the things that are broken and eventually it's like come back when you have something serious.
You know you coveted brother George's bread in the in the lunch line. Okay, we understand that was a sin. But let it let it go Martin. Yeah, you know, you're you're you're living in Constant guilt and the issue was Luther was saying to his superiors one sin Is worthy of condemnation.
One sin is worthy of my soul and nothing you've given me Can satisfy God's wrath. So they sent him to Rome So that he can see all the relics and then he can do all the penances. There was there's a there's a stairway in Rome where you take a step and you pray and you kiss the step and you take another step and you pray and that's supposed to be like a statement or symbol of of of penance and there are tiaras that were worn by by Popes and there's bones that were supposed to be from the body of the apostles and and milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary and you go and you see all these things and you and you and you Celebrate them and because of that you have indulgences.
Well while he was there Luther saw the Pope coming through town on a horse in armor and He knew right then something was wrong the man of God in armor. Why. So he comes back and he's questioning everything and He begins to study the Scriptures and I will say this for the first time in many generations.
He was studying the Scriptures straight from the Scriptures. Rather than simply being told what they say. He was reading them for himself. By the way at this point the Bible was only in Latin. The Bible was in Latin was written in and I could go back to another time history of the Bible.
The Bible is translated in Latin in the fourth century by Jerome. After that, it was primarily in Latin in the Western Church. The Eastern Church still used the Greek but the Western Church used the Latin Bible and up until the time of Martin Luther.
That was the common thing was that people were using the Latin Bible. Even though there were a few men before that who had translated. John Wycliffe I mentioned earlier was the first to translate in English in the 1300s.
But it was translated from Latin because he didn't use the Greek. It was from Latin to English. The first Bible translation from Greek into English was by William Tyndale after the life of Martin Luther and Martin Luther was the first to translate the Bible into German from Greek and Hebrew into German and he did it while he was hiding Away at in the in a in a castle because people were trying to kill him.
So he was hidden away and he spent that time translating the Bible which Germans still use to this day the the Lutheran translation. No, actually I'll get to that in a second because he he's he's broke he's studying the scripture.
We're having got some time about these yet. He's he's he's studying the scripture. He's realizing these things are wrong. He begins to teach justification is not by works. It's not purchased through indulgences, but it's by grace through faith.
It's a gift and he's teaching these things. Then comes the 95 theses because he sees this Tetzel selling and he starts to insult the leadership. So the church that Pope puts him under what's called an interdict or a sanction.
No more you're in trouble. He tears up the interdict lights it on fire burns it in front of everybody. Yeah, he yeah, he burns it in the city square. They call for him to come to the Imperial Diet of Worms.
The Imperial Diet of Worms is Essentially a council that's headed by the Emperor. Intending to have him recant his whole purpose brought forward to recant everything you've taught. They had his book set on on table.
They had him. It was like a courtroom the Emperor was there the leaders the archbishops were there and there's one man who's shouting to him Martin Luther will you recant. And his response was? Wait. Can I have a day to think it over.
And we say really yeah, no his first response was I Need some time. Because you realize that he knows what's about to happen. No, he didn't run that have been smart, but he didn't know. He went and prayed he asked for a day to pray.
And he prayed and I got a thing. I want you to think for a minute if you knew right now. That somebody was telling you if you don't recant what you believe about Jesus Christ tomorrow. We are going to kill you you got a day to think it over.
You don't think you're going to be having some serious praying that night. You're going to be having some serious thinking that night. That's where Luther is and he said yes, yes I want to know that I'm right so he prays and he asked for God's strength, and he he goes before him the next day.
Martin Luther we've given you time will you recant? And I I don't have it written down and I'll do as best I can from memory. He said I've been asked to recant of my teachings. But they're of a different there there are different kinds and many of them Agree with known Christian truths and to recant of them I would be recanting of the faith of the faithful there, and they said no do you recant what you taught?
And he says I'll give us a simple answer. He says I'll give you a simple answer. He says unless I am convinced by Scripture. And not by popes and councils who have often contradicted each other. Unless I am convinced by Scripture my heart is captive to the Word of God.
And to go against conscience is neither right Nor safe. I cannot. I will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other God help me. Amen. And that was it. Now at that moment he fell under the sanction of the church and under the attack as A heretic as he was trying to make his way back home.
He was captured and kidnapped. But it was a it was a setup. It was his friend. His friend kidnapped him and took him to his castle to hold him safe. And God is good and kept him safe and That's when he translated the Bible into German.
I told you earlier he was in a castle where he was safely away people were looking for him. But he was safely tucked away in this castle and after that after the the things began to die down he went back to Germany or back to where he was in Germany and he began to teach and Preach and he led what became known as the Protestant Reformation know what the word Protestant is to protest the protesting movement and after him came men like John Calvin.
After him came men like Theodore Beza. After him came men like John Knox. Out of that movement sprang a New Church and Luther didn't want that. Luther didn't want a new church. He wanted the church that he loved to reform.
But they proved they didn't want to reform. The power that they had was too much. The strength and and might that they had was too much the the the Absolute authority that they shared even over the king as I mentioned earlier.
It was just too much. So Luther began Reformation in Germany and it spread through the countryside. Calvin and Zwingli had reforms in Switzerland and it's and it spread through Switzerland and the Reformation spread through all of the Western world and then history tells us it moved into Europe or into England with the Puritans and then the into the Americas.
With the pilgrims. Yes so we have all of this movement that happened as a result of one man with a hammer and a nail and the Word of God. So as I draw to a close, I want to share with you two things. From the life of Martin Luther that I want you to take away from today because all that was just the introduction.
This is the this is the heart of it. When you went the other night and you heard pastor Mark preach he preached on the five solas, right? The five solas are Sola Scriptura. The Bible is the sole infallible rule.
Hmm. Yeah, the Bible is the sole infallible rule for faith and practice. Sola gratia. Salvation is a gift of grace alone. That's what the word sola means right in Latin and Latin sola means alone and So we have sola scriptura.
Which means scripture alone. We have sola gratia Which means grace alone? Sola fide faith alone. We have solus and it's this one's usually said a little different because it's speaking of the individual solus.
Christus Is Christ alone and then finally soli? Deo Gloria, so we have soli deo Gloria. These five Statements these five Latin phrases were the battle cries of the Reformation. These were the things upon which the Reformation stood.
These were the flags. These were the penance. These were the statements of faith we what set what brings us together as Reformers are these five things, but I want to tell you there's two of them. There's two of them that you need to understand were the real issue.
Sola scriptura is called the formal.
Principle and sola fide.
It's called the material principle. If you asked a Roman Catholic, do you believe? That salvation is by grace. You might be surprised that their answer their answer would be yes. You say what? Yeah. They believe salvation is by grace, they don't believe anybody can be saved apart from grace.
It would honestly be how you define that. I agree with you. I agree with you, but they would say that everything we have merit and all is all a gift of grace so everything I. My point is if you are a Roman Catholic and I was a Protestant and we were talking we wouldn't argue over Solo gratia, at least we wouldn't argue over the necessity of grace.
See the difference hold on real quick. The difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism is not the necessity of grace. It is the sufficiency of grace. It's not whether grace is necessary. It's whether grace is enough.
That's the difference but you were gonna say brother. Go ahead. Ah. No, no. Well, well now they've had they've never quit indulgences have gone they still sell indulgences today. There was literally an indulgence that you could get by following the Pope on Twitter.
If I'm lying, I'm dying look it up. You could get an indulgence by following the Pope on Twitter. But to your to your point several years ago, there was a document called the ECT evangelicals and Catholics together where they tried to find a connection point between Roman Catholics and Protestants and what they said is justification is by faith and everybody says yes.
The argument has never been as justification by faith. The question is is justification by faith alone. RC Sproul Had a group of people come to his church one time actually to his office because he had an office.
People came to his office and they said RC we have we have done it. We have reached ecumenism we've reached a connection of Absolute unity even though we're all different. We are unified in Christ. The Spirit has done a mighty work among us and we are absolutely unified.
And it was a group of different type of people from different backgrounds and different different, you know. Movements and they came to him and said that and and RC said that's great. But let me ask you this is man justified by faith alone.
He said in five minutes, they were all arguing with each other in five minutes. They're battling each other. Because that's the point but go ahead. Yeah. Yes, but the question though is are you justified by those good works?
That's that's what we mean. That's the point. It's not that faith will ever be devoid of good works. If you have a faith that's devoid of good work James says it's not faith at all. It's dead but when you face God.
Will you face God with your faith plus your works or with Christ alone faith and see what? Justification by faith alone is actually this. Justification by Christ alone because it's faith in what he did if you trust in anything that you have done to merit you before God.
You will be damned. In Roman Catholicism, there is something called the thesaurus meritorium. The thesaurus meritorium is the treasury of merit. And what that means is you merit all you can and when you when you don't have enough.
There's a treasury of merit that that Christ and the other Saints Mary included have put their extra merit because they had extra merit. That they put into a treasury and when you don't have enough you can take some of theirs and that's how you merit heaven.
That is false. One that any man including Mary who I know was a woman, but I mean any person Could have any extra merit that they didn't need is asinine. But It's saying that you have any as well. You bring nothing to the table.
The only thing you bring is the sin that makes your salvation necessary. All your Righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Had nothing. And Every one of us is there even a person who served Christ their whole life still has nothing to bring before God.
When it comes to salvation We live and die and reside in the righteousness of Christ alone. You remember the parable where Jesus said there was a man who was having a dinner feast and Everybody got a outfit to wear.
But the one guy came in without the outfit and the the head of the meal. What did he say? Depart from me into outer darkness, right and people see people get upset about that parable. What in the world is that just because he didn't have the right outfit on here's the deal the king provided the outfit.
That's right the king provides the outfit the outfit is Jesus Christ. That's the righteousness. If you put on Christ you will be rectified before God. You'll be justified before God because of his righteousness if you do not have on the righteousness of Christ.
No matter how good you think you are. It will never be enough. That's right. So the two principles that I say you should always keep in mind is sola fide and sola scriptura here. Let me just run through this very quickly because of time.
Sola gratia. Roman Catholic would say well, we somewhat agree because we believe grace is necessary. Okay, sola Christus. Yes, we believe even though they don't because they believe that In the in the papacy and all these different things, but we could say they would at least agree that Christ is the only Savior.
They wouldn't disagree with that and soli Deo gloria. I would say they disagree because they give glory to the Pope and everything else. But at least in theory, they wouldn't argue this this and this if you have to have a conversation.
I know some of you come from Roman Catholic backgrounds. I'm not here to kick in the shins today, but I am saying this where the distinction lies is in the formal principle Sola scriptura, it's either this book alone or it's this book plus something else in Roman Catholicism, it's this book plus tradition and Mormonism, it's this book plus the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine of Covenants and Jehovah Witnesses, it's this book plus the awake magazine plus the Watchtower and any other system.
They have this book plus something else. The Protestants said no this is what God gave us the Word of God alone. Sola scriptura, it's not the only thing in This respect we still look at history. We still study tradition.
We still study these things, but it's the only infallible thing. It's the only thing that comes from God. It's the only God breathed thing. All scripture is God breathed and that's it. So that's one and the second one is Sola Fidea, which I just went over.
Justification is by faith alone. I had a guy I'm going to tell you this story and we'll close and we'll pray. Had a guy come to me. And he was hungry. He came to the church and he was hungry. Have I told this story?
Okay. All right I always forget because I teach like five or six Bible studies a week and I have to remember who I tell what? The guy came to the church he was homeless he was hungry and We had a little food in the pantry.
So I said well, come on in man I'll I'll fix you something to eat and we'll sit and talk as We're sitting there talking. I'm explaining to him the gospel and I said I am absolutely a sinful wretched man and when I face God I need a Savior because if I stood face God on my own I'm going to be lost and Jesus Christ is the only Savior of mankind and I've trusted in him and when I die I'm going to be clothed in his righteousness and that is what I have to hold on to and nothing else.
Nothing that I've done only what Christ has done and you know what this guy looked at me and said He said pastor you can't think like that. You got to pick yourself up by your own bootstraps my first thought was Dude, you came to me because you didn't have anything you litter and you needed food.
Bootstraps, I didn't respond that way in my mind. I'm thinking that I did respond with this though. I said sir. I said I don't even have any boots. When it comes to righteousness, I don't have any boots.
I don't have any straps. All I have is Christ and I implore you today if you are holding on to anything Other than Christ for your salvation. Let it go and trust in Christ alone. Let's pray. Father I thank you for your word.
I thank you for the truth of the word God may it never be that we try to pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We don't have any boots. We don't have any straps. All we have is Jesus Christ and he is enough and it's in his name.
We pray. Amen.