Reformation Sunday

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This is Reformation 499. So here's what we're going to do tonight.
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I'm going to give you a little bit of the life of Luther, Martin Luther. Not Martin Luther King, but Martin Luther.
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And then we'll get into the five solas of the Reformation. And so it's not going to be necessarily a verse -by -verse study.
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Early on, I'm going to encapsulate what was going on with Luther up into the point where he nailed the 95
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Thesis to the castle church door on October 31st, 1517. Another time, maybe
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I'll tell you what went on with Luther after 1517. But we'll lead up to 1517, and then we'll look at the five solas of the
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Reformation. The best book that you can read by Roland Banton is called
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Martin Luther. Very simple. If you want to read something about the Reformation, I'd say it's one of my top ten books of all time.
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That I've read. Maybe my favorite biography, Roland Banton. He has a great book.
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There's another one by Jim Cromartie. And I'm basing my Luther introduction tonight on his book called
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A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. That would be another one if you'd like to read it. Jim Cromartie's book on Luther.
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So we're going to pray. We're going to talk a little bit about Martin Luther and how God used him. I am always encouraged when it comes to biographies and men and women that God has used because I think, you know what?
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They're just like me. Sinful people, but God can use those kind of people.
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And they also spur me on. Because if God could use them, could he use me as well and you?
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And so tonight, Luther and then the five solas of the Reformation. Sound good? Alright, let's pray.
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Thank you, Father, for tonight. Thank you that we can celebrate gospel truth.
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Sola Scriptura and the other solas where you would have our eyes see by your
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Holy Spirit's illuminating work that in fact, your word is true.
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And your word is God -breathed. And we don't have to be dependent on people that can teach us things in Latin or anything else.
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We can see with our own eyes. And we even heard it tonight in Galatians. The just shall live by faith.
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We thank you for that great truth. And thank you for using a man even like Martin Luther and his wife,
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Katerina for these kind of truths that you would recover. You have said you will build your church and nothing can stop it.
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We're thankful for that. So bless our time tonight. In Jesus' name. Amen. It was 1483 when
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Luther was born in Germany. And I wanted to give you a little background on his upbringing.
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Very religious, very strict upbringing with the Roman Catholic Church.
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If you were a student in those days you would have a dread of God.
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You would have a fear of God. God was ferocious. God was wrathful. God was kind of a mean father, if you will.
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And you knew that he hated sin. You knew that God would punish every sin.
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And that's kind of the environment of Martin Luther when he grew up. People would be so afraid of Jesus, this righteous, zealous, trustworthy
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God that they would look for a softer side. If you'd like to have access to God Jesus was so righteous.
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He was so just. He was so holy. You needed to have a softer side of God.
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And so many people would say no to Jesus after all he was too righteous. And so they wanted a feminine side of God.
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And so they would go to the Virgin Mary. The Roman Catholic Church at that time was similar to the days of Haiti now.
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Haiti has a mixture of the Roman Catholic Church and paganism. And the same thing was happening back in the late 1400s and early 1500s.
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You would have Roman Catholicism mixed with local paganism. And you can just imagine what does paganism bring?
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It brings all kinds of evil spirits, all kinds of demons and curses and just things that aren't true.
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Martin's mother, Marguerite, she thought that there was a woman who lived in the village who was a witch.
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And she, that woman, the witch woman, which woman? The witch woman, had cursed their family.
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Cursed other families. One of the children died. For sure that has to be a curse.
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She sometimes, Marguerite, Luther's mother, thought when there was some milk missing or eggs missing, it was the spirits, it was the demons that would come and steal the eggs or steal the milk.
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Luther's father, Hans, he thought sometimes accidents in the mines. He was a miner.
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If he was in the mine and something bad happened, it had to be some wicked demon doing something.
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His parents were firm and hard and they did not spare the rod and they did not spoil the child.
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Cro -Marty said, they seriously thought that they were doing right, but they could not distinguish character, which, however, is very necessary to know or how chastisement should be inflicted.
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It is necessary to punish, but the apple should be placed beside the rod. In other words, they were all firm and no fun.
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I like the little slogan that Marguerite trained her children to know. And this is one of the little songs that Luther would have been taught by his mother.
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And maybe we should teach this to our kids too. If folk don't like you and me, the fault with us is likely to be.
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It's your fault. People don't like you. It's your fault. Now, his mother and father,
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Martin Luther's mother and father, really liked education. It was almost like today. The savior happens to be education.
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The problem is back in those days, everything was in Latin. So you had to go to school to learn
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Latin. And Luther not only got whacked at home, spanked at home, given the rod at home, he got it at school as well.
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One time Luther said he remembered getting caned, not spanked, not with a rod, but with a cane.
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He got caned 15 times in one morning at school because he failed his
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Latin grammar. Amo, amas, amat. Here's what they would do back in the schools in those days.
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If you ever spoke German, remember we're in what we'd call Germany now, if you ever spoke German you would get caned and in trouble you had to speak
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Latin. Then they devised this thing where they would call a boy the lupus. And lupus means wolf.
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And you would find someone who was speaking German and then you would tattle on them and they would be known as the wolf.
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And they would have to wear a donkey mask until that particular wolf donkey mask person could find someone else not speaking
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Latin and speaking German and then they would pass it on. Luther was not taught geography, history or mathematics, but he was taught
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Latin. He leaves his studies at about 17 years old and he goes to Erfurt to study at the university.
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And he's thinking to himself there is a God and he had a little slogan and that slogan was to pray well is the better half of study.
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He knew there was a God, he knew he was sinful and he knew he had to be forgiven. But as he would even watch other people wash their hands with soap he had a little slogan the more we wash the less clean we become.
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How can we cleanse our own sins? Remember the song we sang tonight? If God were to count our sins in Psalm 130 who could stand?
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And he realized that he had sin and how could he cleanse his own self?
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He thought you know what maybe I should go to the monastery. And about this time it's 1503
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Luther was on a journey and he would carry a sword and some people carry guns these days he had a sword on his side and the sword fell out it cut his leg it went deep into his leg severed an artery and he thought he was going to die he's now bleeding out he didn't know what to do so he looked up to heaven and he cried out
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Oh Mary help me someone came a doctor and fixed him that night the wound was opened again and he cried out again for Mary and I find it fascinating that later
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Luther would recollect and think if I died then ever thought about that? You know if I would have died before I was born again where would
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I have gone? and we know the answer he said at that time if I should have died
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I would have been relying upon Mary to save me so if you don't know how to get rid of your sins and you know
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God is a wrathful God a holy God a just God then where should you go? so for Luther it was the monastery and off he went he hated it because he had to beg for food on the street he would rather study books he said to Duke George of Saxony I was indeed a pious monk and followed the rules of my order more strictly than I could express if ever a monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works
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I should certainly have been entitled to it of this all the friars who have known me can testify if I had carried on much longer
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I should have carried my self -denials even to death by means of my watchings prayers readings and other labors thankfully there was a man who was introduced to Luther and his name was
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Johann von Stoppitz S -T -A -U -P -I -T -Z and he was helping
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Luther understand that you can't get to heaven by works there's just no way to earn your earn
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God's favor Luther would go to Stoppitz and say you know what I'm horrified by my sins
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I know judgment is coming and who can forgive me Luther said quote we fled from Christ as from the devil and ran to the
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Virgin Mary and Saint Barbara for we were taught that everyone must appear before the judgment seat of Christ with his works often
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I was horrified at the name of Jesus and when I thought about him on the cross it was as if I had been struck by lightning when
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I heard his name mentioned I would rather have heard the name of the devil for I believe that I must by my good works make
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Christ my gracious friend and therefore reconcile an angry
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God and Stoppitz would say Martin why are you torturing yourself look to Christ stop torturing yourself look at the blood of Christ shed for you it is there the grace of God will appear to you
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Luther replies I cannot and dare not come to God until I'm a better man I have not yet repented sufficiently
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Stoppitz a better man Christ came to save not good men but sinners love
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God and you have repented there is no real repentance that does not begin in the love of God well
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Luther is learning and if you were a good Catholic back in those days and even today you will make the pilgrimage to a special city and what's that city's name
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Rome and he wants to go 800 miles south to Rome everyone would want to go there and you could go get some indulgences and get some friends and family members out of purgatory he's on his way to Rome and he stops in Bologna and he got so sick on his bed it was almost like he was sweating and feverish and didn't know what to think about and through his mind kept going through this little slogan the just shall live by faith the just shall live by faith the just shall live by faith he finally gets better makes it to Rome and as he saw
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Rome he stopped and he said holy Rome I salute you and he knew he had family members that were in purgatory and he needed to get some indulgences for them he even said quote how
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I regret that my mother and father are still alive what pleasure I should have in delivering them from the fire of purgatory by masses prayers and other admirable works
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I'm going to go to Rome to get indulgences to get my loved ones out of purgatory and too bad my mom and dad are still alive because I could probably get them out if I just did these things
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I don't know if you've been to Rome or not but they have the Scala Sancta who's been to the Scala Sancta anybody here
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Scala Sancta are the sacred steps these sacred steps are the steps that supposedly
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Christ stumbled upon and one of the popes then had them dug up in Israel and then moved to Rome and if you went up the steps on your knees praying the
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Lord's prayer on each step kissing each step as you went up you would release souls from purgatory and Luther thought
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I should do that by the way when I went there last year to Rome Kim and I went to the Scala Sancta and I thought you know what
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I'm gonna just go up might as well you have to go up on your knees and so I'll just do it
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I'm not trying to mock anybody I just wanted to go up those 28 steps that Luther did because I'm thinking might get some family members out of purgatory no
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I just wanted to go through the experience well I have bad knees I'm 56 years old and it was so crowded and people were taking so long
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I couldn't go very fast and I thought you know what 28 steps I'm gonna be here for a lot longer than 30 minutes 60 minutes
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I could not find a fast lane to kind of go through that's what I was thinking if I only had an easy pass
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I could have made it so I just stopped and walked back down when he was going up those steps saying the paternoster that our father he kept thinking the just shall live by faith the just shall live by faith he was shocked by how many people in Rome were in it just for the money including the clergy including the priest now remember the people don't speak
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Latin the priest do the services in Latin and did you know sometimes the priest when they were doing communion the
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Lord's broken for you here's what the priest would say
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I'm going to give it to you in English but they would say it in Latin and afterwards the priest would laugh thinking it's so funny to deceive the people they would say this instead of pronouncing the words that would somehow change the bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Christ some of the priest would say bread you are and bread you shall remain wine you are and wine you shall remain but it's in Latin and so no one knows the difference they think that the priest are saying this is the blood of Christ you know the wine change into blood
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Luther hated that Luther would walk through the city that everybody called holy and he said you know what after this whole deal quote if there is a hell
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Rome is built over it later he said the nearer we get to Rome the greater number of bad
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Christians we met and he said you know what Rome stinks to high heaven quote
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I went to Rome with onion and returned with garlic now
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Luther's trying to figure out how do I have peace with God I know I know I'm sinful I know God's angry with sinners how can
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I have peace with God quote it is not against all natural reason that God out of his mere whim deserts men hardens them damns men as if he delighted in sins and in such torments of the wretched for eternity he who is said to be of such mercy and goodness this appears cruel and intolerable in God by which we have offended in all ages and who would not be
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I myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished
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I had never been created loved God I hated him he didn't know about the mediator
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Christ Jesus he's in his monastery he's in the tower it's 1515 he reads my
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God my God why have you forsaken me he wasn't saved then but he began to understand how
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God of the Son was the sin bearer for all those who would forever believe and believe forever well about this time the church needed to build
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Saint Peter's and so Tetzel a man named Tetzel was dispatched and he would sell indulgences simultaneously other ways to get indulgences were looking at relics as I talked about this morning some of the relics that you would look at even in the castle church at Wittenberg where Luther would nail the 95 theses had all kinds of crazy things there you could find there the teeth from Jerome hair from Christ's beard all these things if you just look at it you get time out of purgatory four hairs from Mary's head three scraps of material from her clothing a straw from the crib in which
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Christ was laying that probably would be pretty interesting one of the nails that had torn through Christ's hands a piece of bread from the last supper as I mentioned this morning a twig from Moses' burning bush and all you have to do is go there and look at those and the
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Pope said you can have time out of purgatory indulgences for the remission of time in purgatory now
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Luther's thinking how can this be he's questioning this how can you look at something and have souls early release from purgatory and on a side note why live a holy life why live a life that says no to sin and yes to righteousness when all you have to do is look at Mary's fingernails
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Luther begins to say to himself that can't be sales of indulgences following the death of Pope Julius the second in 1513 he was succeeded by Leo the tenth like his predecessor he was a lover of the arts and the papacy he at this period became a patron of all that was considered valuable to culture
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Europe in other words he needed money how do you get money from people well
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Tetzel goes throughout German states and he says things like this quote press in now come and buy while the market lasts get the indulgences while they're hot in other words should that cross be taken down the market will close heaven will depart and then you will begin to knock and do we because of your foolishness how sad how awful why does not the pope once and for all deliver all souls from purgatory by a holy act of Christian love if you can get everybody out by papal decree why are you keeping people in purgatory when you can just decree them to be out and he said it's all for money it's for the cathedral of St.
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Peter so this all leads us to the time where Luther says
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I want the church to go back to the Bible he wasn't trying to start a new denomination he's trying to reform the church from within the church reform the church from within and when he thought about Tetzel he said by the help of God I will make a hole in his drum so he puts together 95 propositions and they would do this for discussion in the university, a very public thing
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Luther went on to say by the way if I would have known how often they would have been read I would have taken more time as I crafted them but that was better by the way than for instance
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Zwingli when Zwingli would write things he wouldn't even read through it one extra time for editing he just sent things off to the presses but on my part
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Luther said as I have often done before so now I implore all men by the faith of Christ either to point out to me a better way if such a way has been divinely revealed to any or at least submit their opinion to the judgment of God in the church in other words
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I want proof Luther nails the 95 thesis to the Wittenberg door and the intellectual contagion spreads it wasn't that long ago there was no internet
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I know that's kind of hard for some of you young people to believe think about the internet and its effect on people today the only thing that comes close to it is if you go back to the late 1400s you had the
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Gutenberg press so instead of Luther walking around telling everybody Luther could now print the 95 thesis and hand them out to 500 people who had 50 copies and off it went it was a literal intellectual contagion so what we're going to do tonight that leads us up to Luther nailing the 95 thesis on the castle church door we're going to talk a little bit about then what happened because of all this and some of the truths that were rescued
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I'm going to hate to do this but I'm going to just do it right now. Any questions so far? I'm afraid you asked me a question
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I might not give you the answer so today we celebrate
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Reformation Sunday where God had prepared providentially orchestrating even
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Luther's life as an unbeliever to be ready for this particular moment to say to the world we have to question what the
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Roman Catholic Church is doing October 31st he nails the 95 thesis to the church door at Wittenberg alright so here's what we're going to do we're going to look at the five solas of the
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Reformation not on this civic holiday like it would be in Germany but what churches in the
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United States call Reformation Sunday All Saints Day we didn't know that it was on October 31st until Melanchthon wrote back in 1546 that this was the day who can name the five solas of the
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Reformation what we're doing is here's Luther up to this point and then kind of what was the product what was the summary of what
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God did through Luther at the Reformation that's what we're going to look at now so there's a big gap in between but Luther up to 1517 and then the product of what
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God did through Luther and through Melanchthon through other people Calvin Zwingli who can name the five solas of the
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Reformation what's sola mean by the way alone okay good and every one of the solas is teaching truth but it's also teaching something it's going against the opposition so for instance sola scriptura is what scripture alone that means and therefore no traditions no magisterium no other authority sola
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Christus Christ alone the church doesn't save you can't save Jesus alone saves sola gratia what's that mean grace alone it is not you and God synergistically s -y -n it is
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God alone monergistically by His grace saving sola fide faith alone it is an instrument it is it receives it doesn't cause it doesn't affect anything it receives what
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God has done and then finally sola deo gloria to God alone be the glory so let's quickly look at those and then we will in Martin Luther style have some ice cream oh it is
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Martin Luther style yesterday the elders and their families we went out to have ice cream and I think it was all burnt off boiled off but I had some chocolate oatmeal stout ice cream with the elders so I don't know if I need an indulgent for having that I think the stout was boiled off but that would be like a
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Luther kind of ice cream stout ice cream with oatmeal it was good by the way pretty what kind did you get hot chocolate the tea totaler
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Pradeep he got the hot chocolate so Luther is used of God up to 1517 everything starts at 1517 all kinds of stuff happened we don't have time to talk about that tonight but what was the result what was kind of the end as we look backward now at the
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Reformation and say if we had to summarize the Reformation with 5 points what would those 5 points be and they would be the 5 solos so that is what we are going to do right now first one sola scriptura scripture alone why don't you turn to 2nd
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Timothy chapter 3 please we are going to just look at a passage briefly for each one of these the sole source for truth is scripture divine revelation the
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Bible contains everything you need pertaining to life and godliness to quote 2nd Peter no creed, no counsel, no individual can bind your conscience not a pastor, not an elder not a friend, the only thing that can bind your conscience is scripture and scripture alone not the pope, not the councils not the bishops, no one the
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Holy Spirit speaks through the word by the way this easily can be discussed too today when it comes to psychology and how it does not sanctify and mystical experiences sola scriptura verse 15 of 2nd
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Timothy chapter 3 the Bible alone is the standard and teaches everything necessary for salvation
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Christian behavior and from that childhood here's Paul writing to Timothy you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all scripture
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God breathed breathed out is much better than breathed in it's breathed out by God profitable for teaching reproof, correction, training in righteousness that the man of God that's a technical term for the preacher may be adequate, equipped for every good work
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God has His word breathed out and it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness what is our standard?
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that's teaching how have we failed to measure up? that's rebuke correcting, stand you back up again and point you in the right direction and then total training in righteousness is the end training in righteousness as a way of life the scriptures are sufficient for all that I just looked at an old, this is kind of a funny thing the picture was even funnier
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I found the telegram, not the telegram in the Gazette, what's the West Boylston paper? the banner,
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I found the banner and on the front of the banner was this guy in 1997 who looked kind of odd to me and it was actually me, it said the
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Reverend Mike Avendroth, that now calls West Boylston home, and I was interviewed, Fred Maxine, by Linda Roshalow who used to attend the church, and I was in the banner and you know, what did
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I expect to do here in West Boylston? where am
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I going with this? can somebody tell me? see, this is why Steve and I do the radio show together, because I just look at Steve and say, what was
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I going to say again? and he goes oh, you were going to say this I don't really know what
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I was saying oh, I know what I was going to say God, as it were parachutes me in behind enemy lines into Massachusetts I have nothing besides a
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Bible and the Spirit of God and everything I need in the Bible can help us for ministry, there was nothing lacking when
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God says, here, go to Germany, go to West Boylston whatever, the Bible has no deficiencies the best way to think about it is sufficiency of Scripture, and that means there are no deficiencies, everything pertaining to your life, godliness, marriage finances, it's all contained in the
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Bible and it makes people, what does the text say? adequate, this preacher is adequate he's proficient, he can meet all the demands for gospel ministry
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Psalm 19 talks about the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul Rome thought it's teachings were infallible, it thought it's teachings were final it thought it's teachings were absolute by the way, we don't talk about it very often, but during the
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Reformation there were some other crazy people besides the Roman Catholics, and they were called the what? the
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Anabaptists and Anabaptists who are running around, thought that the Spirit of God spoke directly to them outside of the
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Bible God told me, they were like pre -Jesus calling people and instead of having a pope they would say they had infallible messages given to them by God directly, and the
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Reformation went against both of those against the popes, and traditions and magisterium, and against direct communication with the
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Holy Spirit apart from God and His Word Calvin, when the fanatics boast extravagantly of the
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Spirit, the tendency is always to bury the Word of God so that they make room for their own falsehoods that is
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Sola Scriptura Scripture alone, Christian, is your highest and only authority your final authority and don't you know that the world says anti -authority, and what does it attack?
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along with everything else, it attacks the Bible the only thing that can bind your conscience and this church is the
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Word of God it is sufficient therefore, I have a few exhortations, therefore you should read your
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Bible, you should study your Bible, you should say that Scripture alone is the only rule for this church, you should not settle for anything less than the
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Bible you should remember the power of the Bible, I love it when Luther said, how did you start the
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Reformation, quote, I simply taught preached and wrote God's Word, otherwise I did nothing and then while I slept, the
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Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it,
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I did nothing the Word did it all number two Sola Christus, Christ alone
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Scriptures alone are sufficient, now secondly Solus Christus, Christ alone the historical
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Christ His sinless life His substitutionary death, His resurrection alone not through sacraments
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I sometimes think that pluralism is only for our day but back in those days of the Reformation pluralism was alive and well because of the
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Renaissance Petrarch was calling for the spirit of the age back in those days where all religions would be united the
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Reformation would teach that since man is so bad and sinful, Christ alone has to be the
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Savior why don't we turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2 to see this flesh itself out the right view of God leads to the right view of man and you have to have
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Christ who saved, it is not Christ plus sacraments and today it's not
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Christ plus anything else as well, we need this doctrine today because most people when surveyed would say that there is judgment but they don't think they're going to be in hell most people today would say, you know what if a person is good, does enough good things in life, they will earn heaven for themselves that denies sola
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Christus what we have is Christ alone so 1 Timothy chapter 2 is going to help us there's one mediator between God and man, the woman
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Mary of course it's not going to say that, but that's what Rome is teaching if you go to Rome today and you ask them to whom do you pray guess who's going to be at the top of the list
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I just heard the survey, I can't remember who's 2 and 3 it's kind of the Saint Ann's of the world but Mary's number 1,
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Jesus is number 4 saints aren't the way to get to God sacrifices like the mass aren't the way to get to God Mary's not the way to get to God only, alone sola
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Jesus there's one God, verse 5 of 1 Timothy chapter 2, one mediator also between God and man, the man
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Christ Jesus, and what did this Jesus do, he gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony born at the proper time, one mediator, we live in a world like they lived, that there was exclusivism taught by the
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Bible, Jesus alone and they wanted to have inclusivism where everybody gets in their own way, or pluralism you just tolerate everybody else's religion, when you read 1
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Timothy chapter 2 you realize you can't do that, Jesus is the one God for all peoples, every kind of people, not just Jews and he gives himself a ransom he dies on behalf of all kinds of people that is sola
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Christus, Jesus is the only mediator if you want a mediator between God and man it has to be
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Jesus it's not an emperor, it's not a saint, it's not Mary, time is going by so fast we've got to finish number 3, sola gratia grace alone, scriptures alone,
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Christ alone by grace alone, the supernatural work of God, God's favor alone why don't you turn to Ephesians chapter 2 please,
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I'm trying to give you at least one verse, one set of verses for each of the solas and you can study them on your own, you are saved by the accepting work of a gracious God, there's no other way to save, to be saved
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God doesn't say you do your part, I do my part we think it's interesting when
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Franklin, wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said God helps those who help themselves isn't he the one who said it here's the medieval phrase that was popular in Luther's day listen,
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God will not deny his grace to those who do what they can, that's basically
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Mormonism, I remember when I picked up the book of Mormon, I was in a Salt Lake City hotel and I was in seminary and I needed to get the book of Mormon and I didn't want to steal it but if anything should be stolen, maybe that should be but I still didn't want to steal it and so I called the hotel and said, could
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I please have the book of Mormon that's here in my hotel room, and they said no, but we'll send someone up and then they'll give you one,
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I said no thank you don't want the people, finally they called back and said you could have it, and I was just reading through it and Steve, is it
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Nephi or Nephi, Nephi well, thank you for that, I appreciate it and in the second book of that, it says you have to help me
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Steve you are saved by grace after all you can do you're saved by grace after all you can do, that's not grace right,
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Romans chapter 11, you mix one part of works with 99 parts of grace and what do you get the medieval slogan,
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God will not deny the grace to those who can do what they can is full of error and sola gratia teaches against that Ephesians chapter 2, let's just read the verses and we'll move on, by grace you've been saved, it's even front loaded there by Paul in Ephesians 2 by grace, he didn't even say you've been saved through faith by grace he says up front, by grace it's by grace alone, we just sang this song tonight, you've been saved through faith and that not of yourself the grace isn't from you, the faith isn't from you salvation isn't from you, nothing is from you, it's all the gift of God not a result of works, if it could be more clear, it's made even clearer that no one should boast to quote
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Pat Abendroth, my brother, you will not get to heaven and high five God or fist bump him and say, we did it it's by grace alone your part was sin, my part was sin,
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God's part was grace there's no cooperation between the two he saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to his what?
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mercy, that's Titus chapter 3 it is by grace and by grace alone no sacraments, no scala sancta no anything when it comes to indulgences when looking at relics rescued from God's wrath by grace alone number 4, sola fide faith alone let's see, where should we go for that?
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what would be a good verse to look at faith alone? well, right there in Ephesians chapter 2 isn't that right?
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saved through faith the instrument, the non -meritorious instrument is faith a commitment, a trust a confidence in, a persuasion of trusting
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Christ alone, it is through faith, not faith plus anything else if you go back to verse 4, you see the cause of your salvation faith is not the cause of your salvation it has nothing that's meritorious the cause of your salvation, verse 4 of Ephesians 2 is
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God's great love with which he loved us the just shall live by faith we've been taught this at this church many times, the cause of your salvation is
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God himself, not faith faith is a result, faith is a response because we could never save ourselves and then finally, because we have to wrap things up I got probably ahead of myself with all the
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Luther stuff, but his life is so fascinating when it comes to all the solas it ends in a certain way and it ends with praise and we have that finally with soli deo gloria to God alone be the glory, if salvation was all of God, all of grace faith isn't even meritorious, then we say
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God you're the one that gets the glory we don't get the glory ourselves the
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Pope doesn't get part of the glory and we get some of the glory we don't share in that, it is God alone getting the glory you could study sometime
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Martin Luther, he had something called the theology of glory and the theology of the cross and the theology of glory was, you know what you could try to do things on your own,
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Mary could kind of help you, you try to earn glory on your own, it could never happen, so you have to have the only glory through the theology of the cross.
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Why don't you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, as we'll now land the plane when it comes to a verse to think about to God alone be the glory.
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God is sovereign over everything, our lives are to be lived in the response to God's gracious salvation that we might give
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Him glory that's what God centered salvation yields
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Robert Schuller, do you remember Robert Schuller didn't he die recently Robert Schuller said the
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Reformation erred because it was God centered rather than man centered the
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Reformation erred quote, because it was God centered rather than man centered, well
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I guess he is consistent. Columbia University professor
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Eugene Rice quote, all the more the Reformation's views of God and humanity measure the gulf between the secular imagination of the 20th century and the 16th century's intoxication with the majesty of God.
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We can exercise only historical sympathy to try to understand how it was that the most brilliant intelligences of an entire epic found a total, a supreme liberty in abandoning human weakness to the omnipotence of God.
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Whether verse 31 of 1 Corinthians 10, whether then you eat or you drink pretty mundane things, pretty regular things all in the context of Christian liberty.
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Do all to the glory of God. Now of course Paul is saying seek
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God's glory more than your own individual liberties but that is a good watch word chapter 10 verse 31, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do everything to the glory of God.
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That is a great way to live your life. Should I do this or shouldn't I? Could this give God glory or will it not?
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Everything leads to the glory of God. Living in the face of God. I guess it would not be proper if I asked you the question do you believe in scola scriptura?
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Do you believe in Christ alone? Do you believe in grace alone, through faith alone to the glory of God alone?
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Can you imagine when Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the church door he wasn't even born again yet.
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It would take him more years to work through everything. How can I be reconciled to God?
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We fast forward through that part of Luther's life. Maybe we'll do that on another Sunday night. But the end result is and Luther would affirm
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I know the word of God contains every truth that I need and the Roman Catholic tradition can't help me.
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Neither can the Anabaptists with their crazy wild thinking. When it comes to Christ alone there's no mediator.
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Mary can't save me. I keep in my office some rosary beads and they're in my top drawer just so I can remember.
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Do you know what? I have a mediator and I don't need to say hail Mary full of grace, blessed art thou among women.
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Mary needed a savior. She needed to believe in Christ alone through grace alone, through faith alone through the glory of God alone.
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What the Reformation basically did is this. When you have a man -centered religion like Rome everything's based on what you do.
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And when you have a God -centered religion based on the word of God it's what God does. And we just take him at his word.
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And aren't you glad? I mean I regularly ride past the Roman Catholic churches on Saturday and I see people lined up.
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I was in the churches in Rome. People lined up there trying to go get their sacraments, to go get the favor with God.
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And I'm thinking, you know what? It's all a farce. It's all a lie.
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But it's a perfect man -made religion that has just enough of the truth but tainted with works.
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And Luther said, I've had enough. And so we are recipients of what the men and women in the past have done because of God opening their eyes.
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Why don't we pray and we'll have one final song. That final song is A Mighty Fortress is
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Our God. It is traditionally sung on Reformation Day. Lutherans would stand during the hymn,
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A Mighty Fortress is Our God. But since we always stand for the last hymn and we're not Lutherans I just threw that out.
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For the Lutherans the liturgical color of the Reformation Day is red, by the way. So let's see who's got red on.
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Cindy? At least you made up for it with the chocolate syrup.
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Fudge. Thank you. Alright, let's pray and let's sing our final song.
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Father, I thank you for the truth. I thank you for Martin Luther. We do have good news.
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It was recovered. Gospel. Good news. Not what you did and what we do along with you but what we received.
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Grace means we just received everything and we're just trusting in you. I pray that you would give us good fellowship tonight and a thankful heart that we are justified, declared righteous by the work of your son and his life, death, burial alone.
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We don't do anything except receive this goodness from you and this pleasure and this eternal fellowship with God.
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You're not just angry. You're angry, God, with sin, yes, but you love sinners.
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You justify the ungodly. You love sinners. That's why it's so wonderful.
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You're so attractive because who would love a sinner like us? It draws us in to say thank you.