Reformation Day Celebration 2022

Good evening, everyone. It's good to be with you today and thanks again to Pastor Shishko for having me here tonight.

In my pastor's absence, please keep him in prayer. Obviously the family's hurting, but we have the hope of the resurrection.

We have the hope of Jesus Christ. So it was about 500 years ago tomorrow that Luther nailed it.

You all know what I mean. You all know what I mean. Luther literally nailed 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

And his goal was not to divide the church, but to reform it from within. He saw several things, many things that the church was doing wrong and wanted to bring it back in line with the scriptures.

So he posted 95 points of dispute that he had with Rome. Some of them being indulgences, purgatory, simony, which is buying offices, the treasury of merit and the

Pope's wealth. The event literally became the shot heard around the world as people's eyes were open to the blatant errors and corruption of Rome and the beautiful truths of the scriptures.

If it were not for Luther's bold stand, his courage, the church would have fallen deeper into sin and idolatry.

His boldness would end up being the spark that ignited a movement back to biblical

Christianity. However, we still have a long way to go. So put your Luther on and let's get to work.

The Reformation was characterized by two major issues. First, being scripture alone, and second, being faith alone.

The formal cause of the Reformation was scripture alone, meaning that the authority of the scripture, being infallible and inerrant, would be the final authority in deciding doctrinal matters.

Now Rome saw that as an attack on her authority, and it was. Because it would mean that the church was subservient to the scriptures and not the other way around.

In the final court of appeal, only the scriptures were infallible. Only the scriptures were theopneustos,

God breathe, and they contained everything needed to make the man of God complete.

The second cause of the Reformation, better known as the material cause of the Reformation, was justification by faith alone.

This issue dealt with how a guilty sinner would be made right with God. The question was, is justification a singular act in time, graciously based upon the atoning work of Christ, or is justification a process based partly on the work of Christ and partly on our own works of righteousness?

The answer to this question was, and still is, the crux of the issue.

Now, while Luther was a monk, he would later become a priest, but while he was a monk, he was required to confess his sins daily.

So he would go into the confessional for 30 minutes, an hour, sometimes two hours, three hours at a time, every day.

He was acutely aware of his sin and knew that it was an offense to God. It plagued him to know if he was in right standing with God or if there was some outstanding sin that he committed that separated him from God.

However, one day while he was studying the scriptures in the book of Romans, he got to verse 16 and 17 of the first chapter.

Romans 1, 16 and 17, By faith.

It was there that Luther finally saw the gospel, that man was not righteous in and of himself.

Man cannot achieve perfect righteousness, but in the gospel, you receive a perfect righteousness, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, all by faith in him alone.

And because of that righteousness, you could be declared innocent before God and secure in your salvation.

So Luther reasoned that the righteousness by which he was saved was not his.

It was what he called an alien righteousness, a righteousness that properly belongs to someone else but was given to him by faith.

It's a righteousness that is outside of us, extra nos in Latin, and it is received by simple faith alone and not because of any good works we have done, all by the grace of God.

It was at that time that he famously said, when I discovered that I was born again of the

Holy Spirit, the doors of paradise swung open and I walked through. The doctrine of justification by faith alone was rediscovered by Luther from examining the scriptures and he was eager to share that news.

We too can see this precious doctrine so clearly in the scriptures. Paul starts off in Romans 4,

What shall we say then, that Abraham was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness.

Now to the one who works, his wages are not accounted as a gift, but as his due.

And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

David also speaks of the blessing to one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Beautiful.

We see that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness apart from works, apart from anything he did.

And his sin would never be counted against him because of Christ. Then in Romans 10, we see

Paul saying brothers, speaking to the Israelites, his brothers according to the flesh. My heart's desire and prayer for them is that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, the righteousness from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

So this is a righteousness that they receive. They're not establishing their own righteousness.

Paul goes on to say in Philippians, for Jesus' sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain

Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Now if that wasn't enough, Paul then becomes a little bit more emphatic when he writes to the Galatians.

He addresses the Judaizers. He says this, Galatians 2 .16, we know that a person is not justified by works of law, but through faith in Christ Jesus.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified.

He says the same thing three times in one sentence. Unfortunately, this is still the issue with Rome today.

Their system of salvation holds that grace is necessary to save you, but not sufficient to save you.

You must do works of penance in line with God's grace in order to be saved. This is a deadly and pernicious error.

Didn't Paul just say emphatically, to the one who works, his wages are not accounted as a gift, but as his due.

He would tell us in Ephesians, eternal life is the free gift of God. You cannot buy a gift.

If you offer money for the gift, it's no longer a gift. To think that there is something you can add and need to add to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and his payment on the cross is blasphemy.

And because their system is based on human effort, you can never be sure of your salvation and where you stand with God.

That was Luther's dilemma all along. And that's because the verdict for your trial on Roman Catholicism comes at the end of your life.

You are on a performance -based system and will be tried based on that.

But with the gospel, with the good news, the verdict comes before the trial because of the perfect and finished work of Jesus Christ.

Waiting until the end of your life to see if you did enough good works is not good news.

In fact, it's no different than any other man -centered works, righteousness, religions.

Bottom line, there's only two religions in the world, divine accomplishment or human achievement. Okay? All the cults, every other works, righteousness system tells you what you must do to attain heaven.

Christianity is the only faith that tells you you cannot do anything to attain heaven.

Your situation is so dire that I will have to send my son out of heaven down to earth to rescue you.

That's how bad a condition you're in. And he's willing to do it. In contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news,

Christ -centered and all of grace. So much, so much so, that on the cross when

Jesus was crucified, he would say, it is finished. To tell us I paid in full, hallelujah.

This coupled with the fact that the scriptures actually say that these things were written so that you may know that you have eternal life.

You can know now. Imagine having to work for your heavenly father's love and never know if it was enough for him or know if you're in right standing with him.

Even imperfect human fathers don't do this to their children. How much more, how much more would our gracious and merciful heavenly father not do that to us?

You want surety for your salvation? And you think looking at the record of your life and what you're doing is going to comfort you?

No, that's cause for despair. Look at Jesus on the cross.

That's the certified check that your sins are paid for in full. You need the perfect righteousness of and from God alone that's received by faith alone.

This is still a gospel issue, and we must stand firm against anyone and anything that would seek to add something to the perfect finished work of God on our behalf.

This is why we are still reforming. This is why we celebrate Reformation Day, where the gospel truth of being justified by faith alone through grace alone to the glory of God alone was rediscovered.

If you don't know the Lord, or if you're still relying on something you've done or any effort you've put forth to be made right with God, repent.

Turn to the cross of Christ, where the record of your debt with God was canceled, nailed to the cross, and forgiven forever.

Luther may have nailed the Reformation, but Jesus nailed your sin to the cross, canceling all your debt with God.

Turn to Christ and be saved. This is the good news of the gospel. And as I close,

I need to tell you that Long Island is Christ's island. Our job is to leave it better than we found it.

I love Pastor Bill. Every time I talk to him, he ends our conversation, press on. Yes, oh, press on.

I think of Acts 4 .13. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, ignorant men, they were astonished and recognized that they had been with Jesus.

That's my only qualification. I'm an ignorant, ordinary man, but that I have been with Jesus.

If Christ is in you, you have been with Jesus. The crowd didn't see Peter and John's degree.

They saw their courage. To build the kingdom, you don't need college. You need courage.

You don't need a degree. You need a desire. You don't depend on a paper. You depend on a promise that Jesus will be with you even to the end of the age.

The Reformation is not over. Semper Reformation. It's why we're here celebrating today.

In God's providence, he has protected his church and brought the Reformation and brought about the

Reformation and the men who contributed to it. Like Pastor Shishko always says, press on.

Long Island is Christ's Island. Let's leave it better than we found it. We're going to leave the gospel seeds everywhere we go and let that germinate for generation after generation after generation.