Martin Luther - the Scourge of Papacy in the 16th Century — Ian Paisley

Elisha Warns Israel of Syria’s Attacks

The 8th verse of the 6th chapter of 2 Kings,. Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, And took counsel with his servant, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thy path is not such a place, For thither the Syrians are come down.

And the king of Israel sent to the place Which a man of God told him, and warned him of, And saved himself there, not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria Was so troubled for this thing, That he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?

Elisha Reveals the King’s Secret Counsel

And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, But Elisha the prophet that is in Israel, Telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in my bedchamber. And he said, Go and spy where he is, That I might send and fetch him.

And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses, chariots, and a great host. And they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, And gone forth, behold, and host, Compassed the city both with horses and chariots, The servant said unto him, Alas, master, how shall we do?

The Heavenly Army Surrounding Elisha

And he answered, Fear not, For that which be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, Open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, And he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots, Of fire round about Elisha.

And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, And said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, Neither is this the city, follow me, And I will bring you to the man whom ye seek.

But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, That Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, And behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, When he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? And he answered, I shall not smite them. Wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with a sword and with thy bow?

Mercy Toward the Defeated Syrians

Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them. And when they were eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master.

So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. And God will stamp with his own divine seal of approval and blessing this reading from his precious inspired word. I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost.

I take, by God, he undertakes for me. And the people of God say, Amen. You may be seated. This is what is known in the church calendar as Reformation Sunday. For it marks that immortal day when the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century in Europe was set on fire by the act of Martin Luther, the monk of Rome, who kneeled his thesis to the church door at Wittenberg in Germany.

Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation

And the Reformation took off with unstoppable power, and with the conversion of whole countries of Europe. It was the day when one solitary man, heavily despised, ridiculed, and attacked, stood with a hammer and nail manuscript with 95 reasons why the indulgences for sin offered by Rome must be rejected.

And why God only forgives sins through the precious blood of Christ. Of his pardon alone can men and women be saved. Luther had a battle with Rome, and it became a personal conflict, the power of the Pope, and the power of this one man standing for God and righteousness.

As the battle continued, it changed, and it wasn't the battle of Martin Luther, it wasn't the personal battle of the Pope to kill Luther, but it became a battle throughout the whole world in Europe, a battle for truth against the lie.

For the powers of darkness against the powers of light, and for the infallible word of the living God. One start of the engagement, a battle to destroy the life of Luther. Developing into a worldwide struggle of Rome to kill the truth.

Elisha as a Pattern for Luther’s Conflict

Now if you study carefully the chapter that I read with you tonight, and when you go home you turn to the next chapter, you will find that the Martin Luther of Israel, a man called Elisha, had the same conflict.

Elisha's personal life was attacked first of all by the king of Syria, and then the whole nation was attacked by the king of Syria attacking Samaria, which was the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Historical events have a habit of repeating themselves, and there is a special unparalleled wonder about all the historical happenings that are recorded for us in the word of God. Martin Luther was one of the greatest giants of history.

He not only casts a shadow over the age in which he lived, but that shadow is cast forward to all ages since the day that he witnessed so faithfully for God on earth. This is a great example of the majesty and the miracle of God.

How God takes an agent, baptizes his agent with the spirit of God, and a man comes forth, God's man, to tackle the enemy. His attack miraculously escapes all his enemies, and the battle ceases to be a personal conflict.

It becomes a conflict of the whole world. In 2 Kings chapter 6, you have the first siege at Dothan, and at Dothan, the prophet of God lived. But he was able to tell the king of Israel, the very place where the king of Syria mounted his attacks upon Israel.

Rome’s Attempt to Silence Luther

And through using that most useful information, the king of Israel could not be conquered, for he knew the very words that the king of Syria passed in his bedchamber. So, the king of Syria decided to kill, oh God, that's exactly what Rome decided to do with Luther, to kill him, to wipe him from the earth, so that there would be no protest, no more 95 theses against Rome's false gospel.

No more attacks upon the mass and upon the foundational lies upon which Romanism is established and built. In the first siege, in chapter 6 of 2 Kings, Elisha won the victory, because Elisha was in touch with God.

His servant, a young man of eagerness, a young man who didn't lie in bed in the morning but got up early, that young man was weeping and saying to Elisha, What shall we do? All is blocked with our enemies.

Elisha, you haven't even a chariot. You haven't even one chariot. How are we going to get away from this? And Elisha looks at the young man and he says to him, Greet her, are they that are with us and are with men?

I don't know what that young man thought of. When I get to heaven, I'll have a conversation with him and say, How did you feel when Elisha said to you that there's more with him than with the enemy? And yet the hills and the valleys and the mountains around this city are packed with Syrian soldiers and chariots that we cannot count them.

What is going to happen? What did Elisha do? He did what every man of God and woman does when they're in trouble. He doesn't ring the phone to talk to his friends. He gets on the phone to Almighty God.

He prayed and he said, Lord, servant. He can't see. He's blind to open the young man and God opened the eyes of the young man and he saw round about Elisha the chariots of the Lord and the horsemen of the enemy.

So the plan to kill the man of God failed and failed utterly. And then the prophet prayed again and he said, As you have opened the eyes of my young man, I want you to stop the eyes of all my enemies, strike them with blindness.

And then Elisha opened the city gates. He went out and he says, you've come to the wrong address. I can take you to where you need to go. Follow me. So he marched them all to Samaria and brought them into the streets of Samaria.

My, what a day that was. Went into the streets of Samaria, marked the whole of the army of the king of Sharia. And then he prayed, Lord, open their eyes. God opened their eyes and they saw they were in the camp, surrounded, overcome, no way of escape.

And the old king of Israel, he was a nasty character. He always was, because his mother was a wicked jettable. So he was no good. He came from a royal house that had a curse on it. And he said, well, I kill them.

And I just said, you'll do nothing of the kind. You'll give them the best food they ever had. You'll feed them and give them water to drink. And you'll send them back to their own country and to their own master.

The Siege of Samaria and Elisha’s Prophecy

And so he made a great feast for the defeated folk. But when you turn over to the next chapter, you will find a different story. You will find the story of the whole of Israel held in the grip of the Syrian.

And there was nothing but famine and desolation. And men and women crying for a morsel of bread, crying for something to drink, tragedy. And the king got so angry, he now turned, he now turned upon Elisha.

And he said, I'm going to take his head off. So he went down to see Elisha. He was sitting with the elders of the city. And Elisha said to him, tomorrow morning, there will not be one left of your enemies.

He said, I don't know about that. Well, he says, you'll soon see about it. And there was a leading man, one of the king's high men with him. And he laughed and said it couldn't be. But the night drew on.

God Uses the Four Lepers

There was four lepers outside the city. They were not going to be much good in a battle with the great hosts of Syria. But God made a choice. And he would take four lepers. And he would use those four lepers to destroy Syria forever.

And so he did. And those men decided to go and ask for bread from the tents of the Syrians. But when they got there, there was no one there. So they must have come from Balaamina. So they decided that they would go and take everything they could grasp and hide it.

So they took the golden cups and the silver plates. They took everything they could get and they gathered it up and hid it. And one of them said, this is not good. Evil will befall us before sunlight.

Let's go and tell the city. And they went and told the city and the king laughed. Oh, he says, Syria has withdrawn to get us out from the walls. If we leave this place, they'll come and wipe us out. This is a master plan of Syria.

But some men said, no, get the horses we've left. Let's go and find out what's happening. And they went and they saw the army of the Syrians in absolute confusion. Throwing off their clothes and running as if wolves and lions were pursuing.

And they went back and told the story was plenty in the city. The prices came down to the lowest in their history. And the man that mocked Elisha, he was trampled underfoot. By the crowds that came to get the cheap, cheap food in the city.

Luther’s Conversion and Discovery of Justification by Faith

Martin Luther's life was one of an individual battle at the beginning. Going home once from his school, he was struck by lightning as a young student. He was so terrified. He said, I'm going to become a monk.

I'm going in to the monastery. And he gave up his studies and he went in to the monastery. And in that monastery, God dealt with Luther's soul. He discovered that the righteousness that Rome offered brought no peace to his heart.

Rest to his conscience or joy to his soul. And one day reading in an old Bible that was tamed in the library of his monastery. He read that great chapter in Romans. And he said, oh God, I need that. He was asked to go to Rome for the monastery, which he did.

And he thought when he was there, he would go up the holy stairs. The stairs that are supposed to have been in Jerusalem. Up which the Lord trod the night of his betrayal. Of course, nobody believes that but Rome deceiving her people.

And he went up the stairs when he was halfway up. The scripture came back to him that just shall live by faith. That just shall live by faith. And he stopped. He turned and walked down the stairs. And he went home to Germany to preach that gospel.

That just shall live by faith. And a great revival broke out. And in the midst of that revival, the Pope sent a man called Tetzel. Indulgences is a doctrine peculiar to Rome. Which says that the saints of God have far too much righteousness.

To get into heaven, they have too much. So God has taken all the righteousness from the saints that they didn't need. And put into a great bank. And Rome says that she can sell you the righteousness of the saints at her bank.

And she can give you an indulgence. An indulgence signed by the authority of Rome that your sins are forgiven. And of course, you can get special indulgences for what you want to do. In fact, Tetzel sold the right to kill your mother-in-law for a pound.

There must have been a queue up for that. There must have been a lot of bad mother-in-laws. Imagine selling people's souls. Martin Luther's soul caught fire. And he said, I'll break the drum of Tetzel.

Luther’s Proclamation of the Gospel

And he did. And he proclaimed the fact that no one but God can forgive sins. The only power that can cleanse a sinner's heart is the precious blood of the Lamb. And men should leave the folly of their sins and the folly of Rome's potpourri.

And turn to God and God in grace. The theses that he nailed to the church door. They were all printed. Translated into every language in Europe. And sewn in their tens of thousands around Europe. And Europe awakened out of the sleep of the dark ages.

Whole countries turned to the truth of the gospel. And the great reformation that reformed the whole church. And all its beliefs by a return to the word of God. And Martin Luther was then called to appear before the great.

He was called to appear before the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as it was called. He was called to answer. When he was called nobody wanted to take his part. So he went alone. Everyone said it was the road to death.

It was the road to the end of Luther. But Luther appeared in that great conclave. With the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the chair. The leading power of the pope and his cardinals all there in full vestures to terrify the common little priest from Wittenberg.

And he stood up in the midst of them. And when he was challenged about his teaching. He said here I stand. I can do none else. God help me God. It was a bombshell. And Luther walked out of that meeting.

The emperor issued an edict that anyone who found him they were to kill him immediately. And there would be nothing said about his death. He was to die as a dog. But as he was walking down the road. Horsemen appeared.

They seized him. They took him away to the Wittenberg castle. And for months they hid him there. And the empire he searched all over Europe. But he couldn't find Luther. And Luther wrote home and he said I don't want to waste my time in this castle.

Send me my bible. Send me my books. I'm going to translate the bible into the language of the people. So that they can read it for themselves. And during his captivity that came upon him because of the smartness of his friends to save him from the murdering knives of the emperor.

Scripture in the Language of the People

He translated the whole bible into the common language of the German people. The greatest thing he could have done. And people were able to read the scriptures for themselves. And the scriptures led them to Christ.

And Christ led them to his cross. And to the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And so the reformation went from strength to strength. Rome has never recovered from the blow that was struck.

When the bible could be read by all people. And they could read for themselves the way to Christ. The way to faith. The way to pardon. And the way God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform.

Francis' footsteps in the sea. In the meanwhile to stop the influence of Luther. And they couldn't find and they couldn't kill. Rome issued a statement. To say that Martin Luther was dead. And when the people went past his grave one day.

All that came out of the grave was smoke and flames. The flames of hell. And Martin Luther was sitting back in his own home that day. And he got this copy of what was supposed to have happened. And he said isn't it very interesting.

He says I had the best meal my wife ever cooked today. And if there was any fire it was on the chicken that I had. And not on me Martin Luther. He lived to die in peace. And today history records that Luther changed the picture.

Standing Firm for Jesus Christ

Why? Because he was a man of the gospel. A man of the book. A man of faith. A man himself saved by the grace of God. Zwingli the great Swiss performer said. He was the Hercules who defeated the tyranny of Rome.

Pope Leo X said he's a wild boar. He's ravaging my vineyard. And the emperor Charles of Vist said he's a demon in the habit. Well we know who was right and who was wrong. And today we are challenged in this day in which we live.

To stand up for Jesus as good soldiers of the cross. Lift high the royal banner. It must not suffer loss. And if you're here tonight and you're not saved. You have church membership. You have baptism.

You have everything the church can do for you. But you're a lost soul. But tonight you can come like Luther to the cross. You can find the cleansing of the savior's blood. You can turn from darkness to light.

And from the power of sin and Satan to the Lord. May it be so for Jesus' sake. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father we thank thee for thy word. Thy word is truth. Write it on all our hearts. And make us willing to bear reproach for Jesus' sake.

A Prayer for Salvation Through Christ Alone

And if there's one here without God, without Christ, without hope. They have the church. But it will not help them in the hour of death. They have their baptism. But it will not save them from hell fire.

They have everything that man can do religiously for them. But nothing but the blood can take away their sin. And no one but Christ can save their soul. I pray this night that they may come as they are.

Without one plea. But that the blood was shed for me. And that thy bits may come to thee. O Lamb of God, I come. And may the blessing of the triune God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Rest, remain, and abide with us all.

Now and forever more. And the people of God's sake. Amen.