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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Reformation Day 2026
Father we thank you for this evening Lord. We thank you that this is an evening that we can celebrate the great truth we have just sung that you are our mighty fortress. Father it was not Martin Luther, it was not John Calvin, nor John Knox, it was not any of the men that we might celebrate this evening.
It was you who reformed the church. It was your spirit Lord convicting men and women of the truth of your word and so we pray Lord that even this evening as we celebrate we would can be convicted by the truth of your word and carry on the spirit of the Reformation which is to respond in repentance and faith to what you have made known in fullness of the gospel truth that we might glorify you our God and our Savior unto eternity.
Father may you be glorified this evening as we lift up the work of your son who is known by your spirit our triune God as you have undertaken this great task to meet our great need to be our great hope.
And father that hope burns bright as we see the darkness in our land we see corruption all around us. Lord we see the need for a further awakening a further reformation. And so spirit come we pray Lord that as your people we would be encouraged the warmth of a celebration Lord would would steal our nerve and give us vigor to fight this good fight of faith.
May there be a camaraderie that's established this evening Lord a warmth of spirit a kindred heart and mind. Lord what a glory it is to stand in the heritage of those who love and fear your name. So father we feed upon this.
May it nourish us. Lord as we've enjoyed a physical feast Lord may we now feast spiritually on the truth of your word. We ask that you would bless it to your people in Jesus name. Amen. All right be seated.
Well we are we are here gather this evening to celebrate the Reformation and we have to start with the question what is the Reformation. What are we celebrating tonight. Well the Reformation is the beginning of a protest movement in the Western Church and so we're going back now 500 years ago and this protest movement is where we get the word protestantism.
Protest is what it means to be Protestant. We're protesting for the sake of the truth of God's Word. Now in order to understand the Reformation we need to turn to the five solace. I want to make sure we have everyone's attention as we're rehearsing God's Word this evening.
Everyone's attention. Little children maybe you need to turn around and face me. Little children let's remember we're hearing God's Word. God's Word is the start of this protest movement the spark of this Reformation.
The first Sola which means only can you kids repeat after me Sola. The first Sola we're gonna learn about is Sola Scriptura. Can you say that Sola Scriptura. Listen to 2nd Timothy 3 16 and 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness.
And the man of God will be equipped and complete for every good work. So all of scripture is given to us by God. It's inspired by him and it carries forth his desire in our lives. That's Sola Scriptura.
Now leading up to the Reformation Luther was a monk and as we know he was bound up with the traditions of the church and a lot of those traditions were like smoke and fog. He he could not really understand the God that he was devoted to as a monk because he had not understood the truth of God's Word.
God's Word had not become profitable for doctrine for reproof for instruction and righteousness. And he though a man of God was not complete nor thoroughly equipped for every good work. And what he learned through the encounter of God's holy and inspired word was the truth of the gospel.
And this transformed his understanding of authority. It was no longer the authority of the Pope or the authority of tradition of the thought the authority of church councils. It was the authority of the Word of God.
And as we know famously from Luther that is what held his conscience captive. And so little little children you're gonna have a point in your life where you'll have to decide what's the authority in your life.
Is it. Is it the culture around you. Is it the way that you grew up. Is it some hero or influence in your life. Is it your self your own desires. Is that going to be your authority. Is that going to be why you live the way you live.
Is that going to be the direction you go in life. Or is it going to be the Word of God. What's gonna hold your mind and your heart captive. Luther said this the truth of Scripture comes first. After that we can determine whether words of men are true.
So God's Word is true. It doesn't matter what anyone even the Pope himself would say. God's Word alone is truth. So that's sola scriptura. And Luther was so convicted by this. Some of you are dressed as medieval peasants.
It's a wonderful thing to see you're eating pretty well for peasants. I have to say peasants eating pizza. What a gift. But Luther said this. The simple peasant armed with one verse of Scripture has more authority than the Pope without it.
In other words it's not just what's the authority of my life but what's the authority for anyone. A Pope has no authority unless he has the Word of God as his authority. And so this is why Luther was not afraid.
Though though Pope and and Cardinal sought to assassinate and kill him he knew that he could sleep at night peacefully because he had devoted himself to the truth of God's Word. Whatever happened to him.
That's what we saying in this song. Listen though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us. We will not fear. God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. And then he says listen let goods and kindred go this mortal life also the body they may kill.
These are words we just sing. This was a reality for Luther facing down the diet of worms. They're probably going to kill me. That's why he took an extra night wrestling with whether he needed to recant for the truth that he had published in pamphlets.
The body they may kill. But his mind was held captive to what the Word of God sola scriptura. Secondly sola gratia. Can you say that sola gratia the grace of God alone. Listen to Ephesians 2 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not of work so that no one can boast. Luther as I said was a monk. If anyone could boast it was Luther. He was an Augustinian monk. He was of a very rigorous order and in fact he might have been the most monkish monk in his monastery.
He woke up at the crack of dawn to scrub floors and he confessed multiple times a day. He did what he could do to try to earn his way to God earn his way to heaven. He wanted to have some standing some credit some way of earning some level of peace and assurance that he would have salvation at the end.
And this terrified him. He had this guilt and all the scrubbing and all the praying and all the confessing in the world could not take that guilt away. He realized later in life after he came to the truth of the gospel.
I was serving God so rigorously. But in my heart I hated him. I feared him I dreaded him. I felt his just judgment hovering over me like the executioner's axe. And he could never work his way out of that pit of despair.
But it was the truth of the gospel. It was the truth we see in Ephesians 2. By grace you have been saved and not of works. So that no monk and no reformer can boast. It is the gift of God and not of works lest anyone should boast.
And so this transformed Luther's understanding of God. He realized rather than a God who was vengeful and bound to get him for his failures and sins. In the end he saw that God was gracious full of grace and full of mercy giving freely as a gift salvation to all who will trust and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior.
And so no longer would he earn his way earn his keep beg for a standing before God. He realized God had first loved him and saved his soul. Jesus gave his very life for Luther as Jesus has given his very life for all those who repent and believe in him.
And so that is grace alone. And then the third sola sola fide. Can you say that sola fide. Any children know what sola fide means. Shout it out. What a sola fide. Sola fide. What is that. Say it louder faith alone.
Amen. Someone took out more into the spot. She was usually pretty good on those sola fide. Listen to what Paul says to the church at Galatia. This is Galatians 311. No one is justified by the law. In the sight of God is evident because the just shall live by faith.
This is really the heart of the Reformation. Justification by faith alone. This was the lightning strike for Luther. The just shall live by faith. This is what makes Protestants protest. The Roman Catholic Church wanted to respond to this Reformation that was exploding in continental Europe.
And so they formed this council called the Council of Trent. And they said you are a heretic if you believe that you are justified by faith alone. It was their way of trying to stand against and resist the truth that had liberated Luther.
And that Council of Trent is still in effect today. And thus we are still in protest. We are Protestants still today because we believe sola fide we are justified that is made right with God by faith alone.
And so this perfect righteousness that comes to us as a gift from God in the finished work of Jesus Christ is received by faith. Faith is not a work. Faith is not some act that we meet God with halfway.
Faith is an open hand that clings to and freely receives what God gives. That is faith. It's a beggar saying please Lord provide please Lord save. And that one as Jesus says in the parable goes home justified.
The scriptures teach that this righteousness that is received by faith is not infused. Who here likes to make tea. A hot cup of tea on a cold fall night. Anyone. What do you do with a teabag. What do you do with the teabag.
You infuse it right. You drop that little teabag in the hot water and the flavor begins to spiral out. And you get these little tendrils of mango blueberry. And that's infusion. You add something to something.
And the infusion brings about the total in the Catholic mind. Our efforts and standing meet halfway with this grace that comes from God. And that infusion is our righteousness. Our good works infuse with what God provides.
So we have to meet God halfway. Our works our efforts as little teabags have to steep in the hot water of God's grace. But Luther came to realize no sola fide by faith alone. It can't be infusion that the the proper word is imputation.
Can you say that imputation. We are not teabags. We bring nothing. We do not meet God halfway. We do not flavor what God wants to provide. We bring nothing. God imputes. That is he declares he counts us righteous because we have put our faith in Jesus Christ.
That is sola fide. And and what is that faith in Jesus Christ. But the fourth sola solas Christus. Can you say that solas Christus. Now I think you kids are pretty sharp. You can probably get this. What a solas Christus.
Me what does it mean. So I'll tell you what solas means alone. What do you think Christus means. Let's just take the us off of Christus. What does Christ sound like. Close enough. Christ Christ. I think Rosie got it.
It's Christ alone. First Timothy 2 verse 5. There is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus. So this faith alone is in Christ alone. What does this mean. Well there was debates about the person of Christ.
There of course was no debate in the West. He's the eternally begotten Son of God sent from the Father through the incarnation for the salvation of sinners. This was all agreed. As a monk Luther would have perfectly amen to this.
The problem was how are sinners saved. So it wasn't over the person of Christ. That wasn't the debate. It was over the work of Christ the work of Christ. By the time of Luther there was this system that grace in Christ was mediated through the priests in the Roman Catholic Church and through sacramental works.
Luther would do works of penance if you remember Tetzel. And we'll have a game tied in with Tetzel. You could you could buy indulgences. So this would be a way of earning some merit. In fact if you were a saint that meant you did more than God required.
And now you have some extra merit. And that goes into the treasury of the church. And if you pray to a saint you'll get some of that merit added to your account. So there's this whole elaborate system through the priests through the sacraments through all of these works climb up the stairs invest in holy relics go to confession.
These are all ways you can you can actually receive that grace that comes from Christ through the priests through the sacraments through the church. And what Luther realized was no solus Christus. Grace comes directly from Christ alone.
There's no media no mediator in between the mediator who alone stands between God and men. There's no need for intermediation. Christ alone is the mediator solus Christus. And so this is the confession that scripture draws us to.
The Reformers realized that Christ shines forth glorious because he directly receives sinners and repentance and and bestows upon them this grace freely. He imputes his own righteousness to them. And that's what sola scriptura reveals to us.
It reveals to us sola gratia and sola fide and solus Christus. And what does that all respond to. That the fifth sola soli deo gloria. You say that soli deo gloria first Peter 411. If anyone speaks let him speak as the oracles of God.
If anyone ministers let him do it as with the ability which God supplies that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory in the Dominion forever and ever. Amen. The Reformers knew the glory of the gospel.
Indeed the whole world is full of God's glory. But this this gospel causes everything to glimmer and shine with with wonder and hope. It's one thing to realize that in him we live and move and have our being.
But it's a another thing to realize that he loved us and gave himself for us. And so the only natural response is that God would be glorified that what he's done for us in Christ would be magnified that the rest of our lives are lived in response to the grace alone that comes through faith alone in Christ alone all to the glory of God alone.
The five solos as Tim Chester says proclaim essentially this. We are more helpless than we realize amen. Christ is more sufficient than we realize amen. God is more gracious than we realize. Amen. And this is why all returns to God for the sake of his glory we already saw there's no place for human boasting.
There's no meteors that stand between us in Christ. There's no place for flesh to honor and boast and pomp itself before God's sight. All glory to Christ. And so it's all of grace from start to finish scripture.
Sola scriptura teaches that we are saved by grace sola gratia through faith sola fide in Christ solus Christus to the glory of God solely deo gloria. These are the central truths of the Reformation and they are as central today.
And so we celebrate Luther Palooza. Amen. All right. Let's now begin our festivities.