Heed the Reformation

Amen. Please turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We're continuing today in our series on the implications of the

Antichrist. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's word. I will read verses one through 12, but our sermon today is primarily on verse eight.

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the

Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first.

And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called

God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be

God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.

And when the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the

Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, today we continue going to your word, the bread of life, in what is one of the more difficult passages of Scripture.

We pray that you would give us open minds to receive your truth. I ask for your blessing upon my words that they would be in accord with your truth and for all of our hearts that they would be in accord with your truth.

In Jesus' name, amen. So just as a reminder, two weeks ago, we addressed the need to discern who the

Antichrist is. I believe, through a thoroughly biblical exposition, we ought to discern that the

Pope is the Antichrist. The office of the Pope that has continued on, grown up in Rome, is that Antichrist.

If you were not here two weeks ago, this might be a surprising claim, there are sheets reviewing that sermon out on the table in the foyer.

I would encourage you to grab one on your way out so that you can review that. But just in short, who the

Antichrist is here, who this man of lawlessness is, this one who leads the great rebellion, the great apostasy, is one who sets himself up in the temple of God, who is being restrained at the time of Paul, so he's one who exists then, but he's one who will not be revealed until later.

He is restrained at the time of Paul. As many people believed in the early church, this is the emperor of Rome, and as they anticipated, as the

Roman emperor declined in power, one in Rome would set himself up as head of the church, and that is precisely what has happened.

There are a number of implications that come from this. Last week, we looked at the importance of not fraternizing with Rome.

Next week, we will talk about the importance of anticipating the return of Jesus Christ, given that that's

Paul's whole point here, is that he cannot return until the man of lawlessness has been revealed. Well, now that the man of lawlessness has been revealed, how much more should we anticipate the return of Christ?

But today, the implication for us is that we should heed the

Reformation. We should heed the Reformation. In 1

Corinthians, in describing all the different tribes, excuse me, 1 Chronicles, in describing all the different tribes and the peoples of Israel, in describing all the warriors, at one point, the chronicler comes to the people of Issachar and he gives this interesting phrase.

He talks about the warriors of Issachar as being men who understood the times to know what

Israel ought to do. Men who understood the times to know what Israel ought to do.

I would like you to be people who understand the times to know what the people of God ought to do.

If you do not understand the times that you live in, if you are not aware there's a substantial difference between this moment right now and the time immediately after the apostles, you will not be able to know what it is that Israel, the people of God, ought to do.

But if we go to God's word and we see what he has told us and we discern these truths about the mystery of lawlessness being revealed, in 1

Timothy 3, there's a mystery of godliness revealed in Jesus Christ immediately after that in 1 Timothy 4, mystery of lawlessness to be revealed, specifically in the

Antichrist. If we discern these things and we know what times we live in, we are able to operate with a greater wisdom that will honor

God and be much more rewarding even for ourselves. Just to look at this passage here.

In verse seven, 2 Thessalonians 7, it says, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.

So once again, this is referring to the Roman emperor. There is one who restrains the

Antichrist. Why would someone who desires to be head of the church not call himself the head of the church?

Well, it's because there's one with a lot of power who that would offend. That is the emperor of Rome.

Paul speaks euphemistically because he's not trying to insult the emperor of Rome, but there's clearly one who's restraining someone from setting himself up as head of the church, and that is the emperor.

Now, when that one is removed out of the way, then there will be the coming, the revelation of the lawless one.

Then the lawless one will be revealed. Okay, so then he's revealed. He rises in power and is revealed.

Then what happens next? Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth. What comes from the breath of Christ's mouth?

What is the sword that proceeds from his mouth in other passages of scripture? It is none other than the gospel. By the gospel, the power of the

Antichrist in its fullest measure is taken away, and then subsequent that, what does it say?

And bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. Okay, so we have Antichrist who will set himself up as head of the church being restrained.

We have then the revelation of him, and as I mentioned last week, over half of those people who call themselves

Christians belong to the Church of Rome, okay? So he has, in the most substantial way, called himself the head of the church.

There are many, many who will call themselves the head of the church, but the Pope of Rome has done so in the most substantial way.

And then he will be, after his revelation, his power will be taken away by the breath of Christ.

Has that happened? It has. That is the Reformation, and it is important for us to heed that breath of Christ that has taken away the power of Rome in its fullest measure.

It is not just this passage that speaks of this. There is another. There are several in Revelation, but I would like us to look at just one.

If you turn to Revelation chapter 13, I will not cover this in detail.

There's a lot here. But if you remember from two weeks ago, we talked about Romans 17, which interprets this vision in Romans 13, explaining what the dragon is with the seven heads, them representing seven mountains.

What is the city of seven hills? It is Rome. And so he's speaking of Roman power.

And that beast, another one rising up, speaking like a lamb.

It has two horns like a lamb, speaking like a dragon, exercising all the authority of the first beast in verse, this is in verse 11 and 12 of chapter 13.

What is this? This is the power of the Antichrist. And so he marks his people.

We're not supposed to be anticipating all the things that a lot of people are anticipating. You remember when barcodes came out, people were thinking that it was barcodes, this is gonna be the mark of the beast, et cetera.

No, it is when you have a system that is saying that you must bow to Rome in order to have any kind of economic standing, that is what it is.

It is complying with Roman authority in order to have standing in a secular sphere.

But then John looks around in chapter 14, and what does he see? 144 ,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads.

Okay, so there are some marked by this one who looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon.

But then there's God's true people who are marked with the name of the son. What happens after this in verse six?

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.

And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

Another angel, a second followed saying, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of our sexual immorality.

So after this picture of Roman authority and Antichrist power and the picture of some of God's people being preserved, what happens?

The gospel is proclaimed in great measure, the angel flying mid heaven.

Fear God and give him glory. And then another angel saying, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.

What is Babylon the great? That is a phrase that alludes to Daniel four, where Nebuchadnezzar at the height of his power speaks about great

Babylon before he is taken down and made to fall in power and to eat the grass of the earth.

Babylon being the empire that ruled over Israel at that time, who is the empire that rules over Israel at the time of revelation?

Well, it is Rome. And so this image of Babylon is being used to speak of Roman authority.

So there's this beast that will come up in the place of Rome and have this authority, who will make the nations drink the wine of the passion of our sexual immorality.

Sexual immorality throughout the Bible is used as a picture of idolatry, a picture of bowing to images and to turning away from the living

God. So what is this describing? This is describing the idolatry of Roman Catholicism and the fall of its power as the gospel is proclaimed in some substantial way to the future of John, but yet I would argue to the past of us.

There are four different interpretations of any of these passages in Revelation or in 2

Thessalonians 2. A lot of people think of them as frameworks. They're not really frameworks because you could come to different conclusions on each different passage, but they are a futurist interpretation.

That's where you believe all of this is future of now. Okay, there are some passages that are not to be fulfilled until the future.

You can come to a preterist understanding. That is something that's happened either at the time of the authors or very close to the time within a generation.

There is a, so I said, yeah, futurist, preterist.

There is an idealist interpretation which says that these are things that are just happening all the time, just from the time of Christ, from the time of Pentecost going on, and many passages that is what's happening.

It's describing a situation that's continuing on, but there's also a historicist interpretation which is this is something that happened generations after the apostles, but it is something that has been fulfilled either in or before our own time.

And this was the frequent interpretation of the Reformation and those during the Reformation that this had been fulfilled in their own time.

Babylon the Great has fallen. That Roman power that causes people to come and bow to her idols, the majority of her power has been stripped away so that the gospel can go forward in fuller measure.

This is a wonderful, incredible truth for us.

This means that the Reformation is not just a special providence of God.

God has all kinds of special providences for us. He has had many special providences for this very church of ours, our own local church.

But beyond that special providence, he has prophesied of an extra special providence, one that is spoken of in Scripture that has come to pass, and that is the

Reformation. It is something of substantial benefit that it warrants you to understand what that benefit is.

Just like those saints who lived in the Old Testament time do not enjoy many of the benefits of the saints who live in the

New Testament time, being able to look back on Jesus, understand his purposes in the gospel, et cetera, being a great benefit to us, and it would be foolish to not heed these things, so it is the case that we live in a time after more prophecies have taken place, and we have special benefits that even those before the 1500s received.

There is a light that exists today that is greater than the light that existed immediately after the apostles.

We have a special light today, and that comes with special obligations that we'll be covering here.

Many people speak about how we need a new Reformation, and I love that sentiment, but one of the implications of what

I'm telling you is this is not something that can be duplicable in the same kind of magnitude.

What Scripture speaks of here is something that is so great an event that it marks human history in a special way, and note that it does not just mark human history in a way that narrowly the church understands or just reformed eggheads.

It is something that everyone across the globe even recognizes. How is history itself measured?

History itself is measured B .C. or A .D., right? Before Christ or Anno Domini in the year of our

Lord. Why? Because the most important event that has taken place is the incarnation. Now, some people will change that to B .C

.E. and C .E., right? Before Common Era and Common Era, but what is the thing that marked the beginning of the Common Era? Is it not the incarnation?

Okay, that is the greatest event that has happened in the history of the world, but then that history that is

A .D. has been subdivided in two categories. There is pre -modern and there is modern.

Who knows when the modern era began? The 1500s. If you look at history textbooks, a lot of times they'll be broken up into two volumes if they're too big.

If they're broken up into two volumes, where do they split? I was just looking at kids' history books yesterday to verify some of these things and some of these takes.

A .D. all the way up to 1500, or far

B .C. all the way up to 1500, and then the modern era. Everything from 1500 onward.

Why is it marked there? Because even the secular world recognizes that the greatest event that has happened in history since the incarnation is the

Reformation. It is something prophesied in scripture and it has taken place and it is, ah, it has had a massive, massive impact on the world.

It is something prophesied by scripture and it is something that you should heed in all the senses that you should heed it.

What are those senses? First of all, you should heed the history of the

Reformation. You should heed the history of the Reformation. There are several passages in scripture that command us to take our blessings from the

Lord seriously, such that we would recall them and recount them. If you'll turn to Psalm 145, we'll look at two different psalms here.

Psalm 145, and I believe one of the frameworks that we can think about this under is how it produces the fruit of the

Spirit. Two fruit of the Spirit, in particular, two aspects of that one fruit of the

Spirit. One is joy and the other is faithfulness. Psalm 145 speaks of joy.

Beginning in verse four. Now this whole psalm is kind of about the same theme, but just consider these verses, verses four through 13.

One generation shall commend your works to another and declare your mighty acts. Okay, generations are supposed to declare

God's works to the next, pass them on what he has done for them. On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works,

I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds and I will declare your greatness.

They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power.

To make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. Okay, so what are we to do?

To make known to the children of man your mighty deeds. Now this is not just talking about the mighty deeds that are recorded in Scripture.

All of God's mighty deeds, now we can't remember all of God's mighty deeds, but the greatest of them, we are to be passing down to our children.

We are to be recalling to ourself, we are to be recounting them and speaking of them in order that we have the joy that is described here.

All your saints shall bless you. They shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Singing most frequently is not of sorrow.

Fraying most frequently is of joy. This is something that produces real joy, to recount the mightiest acts of God as you recount what he has done throughout the

Bible, most especially at the cross, you are to be filled with joy. But then as you recount what he has done in your own life, of course you are to be filled with joy about that too.

And then recounting the deeds that he has done even outside the pages of Scripture and even outside your own life, recount those deeds and they will lead you to a greater joy.

You are to prioritize the greatest of those deeds and it is not the Reformation, some of the greatest outside of those that are written about in Scripture.

Psalm 78 also speaks of this duty of passing on truths to children and recounting truths.

Once again, this continues throughout the whole Psalm, but I'll just read verses one through eight. Give ear,

O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the

Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and to rise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Okay, so before, when we were looking at Psalm 145, the primary fruit of the spirit that is stirred up by recounting

God's deeds is joy. Here, what is it? Faithfulness. If you do not recount

God's mighty works, the children will stray away from you. If we do not recount what

God has done, we will be like the people of Israel who forgot all the mighty acts of the Lord and rebelled against him time after time after time, which is what the rest of this fairly long psalm speaks of, repeatedly turning against the

Lord. And is that not the case today? Have not so many people forgotten the

Reformation? Is not the version of Protestantism, the version of the

Christian faith that exists in many churches now more akin to Rome in all kinds of various ways, maybe not with the extreme of their idolatries, but sacrificing right worship to promote all sorts of sensory experiences?

Are they not frequently teaching a gospel of man's ability to draw himself toward God rather than of the necessity of God to bring man towards him?

Is that not precisely what is happening, that faithfulness has been sacrificed as churches that have descended from the

Reformation have failed to recount the mighty acts of the Lord? That's exactly what has happened.

Why is it that you should heed the history of the Reformation? Why is it you should recall and recount it?

It is, if you're going to, if we are commanded to recall the mighty deeds of the Lord, we should recount the greatest of his deeds, and this is one of the greatest of his deeds.

Moreover, you are to recount those things which he himself highlights.

He has the freedom to highlight specific things that we would recount. Not all the mighty things that God did throughout the

Old Testament are recorded in Scripture, but he has recorded some of them for us to remember and come back to on a regular basis repeatedly.

The same is true of the New Testament, all the mighty acts that he did during the New Testament era, during the time of the apostles, he has not recorded all of those for us, but he has recorded specific ones that we should come back to and bring our minds to.

So this one is one that he has especially highlighted in Scripture as something for us to meditate on.

It is worth contemplating God's mighty acts in the Reformation. I'd like to give you further proof of this as well.

I know I'm going to many passages, but if you'll bear with that, if you go to Daniel chapter 11,

Daniel chapter 11, two weeks ago, I explained how this is very similar to the passage in 2

Thessalonians in a number of ways, but one of them being that 2 Thessalonians speaks of a man of lawlessness, so most people think it has to be a single individual, yet it actually has to be a line of individuals since Paul says he exists in his own time and we're told by Paul elsewhere that it's not something that's going to happen until later.

So it actually has to be a line of people through multiple generations. And what you have in Daniel is these statements about the king of the north, the

Seleucid kings culminating in Antiochus Epiphanes who sacrifices a pig on the altar and desecrates the temple, that this being a picture of an

Old Testament Antichrist sort of figure that 2 Thessalonians is alluding to, both of them being a line of people denominated as though they are a single man.

Okay, there are a few other parallels I'd like you to notice. Just looking at verse 31 here and reading onward all the way to 37,

I'll stop and make a few comments. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress and shall take away the regular burnt offering and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.

You know, Jesus also alludes to this in the destruction of the temple because the temple, the physical temple becomes useless after it's destroyed.

Likewise, the physical temple became useless after Antiochus Epiphanes, in between the pages of the

New Testament and the Old Testament, sacrificed a pig on the altar and it had to be restored. So he sets himself up over the temple and desecrates it so that it is no longer useful for worship.

He shall seduce with flattery and, sorry, just a comment that I've made before. What I'm telling you now, though I know not everybody here is going to be familiar with this passage, if you could just,

I know you should all be good Bereans who want to investigate this more. The things that I'm telling you right now about this passage are not things that are debated by different groups.

It doesn't matter which eschatological camp you fall in. It doesn't matter if you're Amal, Premal, et cetera.

It doesn't matter if you're an unbeliever. Even unbelievers understand this passage here to be talking about Antiochus Epiphanes and sacrificing the pig on the altar.

This is not a generally debated passage. Maybe small little details but not the main narrative that it's speaking of.

He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant but the people who know their

God shall stand firm and take action and the wise among the people shall make many understand though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder.

When they stumble, they shall receive a little help and many shall join themselves to them with flattery and some to the wise shall stumble so that they may be refined, purified and made white until the time of the end for it still awaits the appointed time.

And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God and shall speak astonishing things against the

God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished for what is decreed shall be done.

Is this not speaking very much like 2 Thessalonians 2 to set himself above all gods, setting himself up over the temple, et cetera?

He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other

God for he shall magnify himself above all. This is very similar kind of statement.

This is this Old Testament precursor to the Antichrist. Now, skipping ahead to Daniel 12, it says, at that time shall arise

Michael, the great prince who has charge over your people. All right, so what we've seen before in Daniel is that Michael is this angel who is protecting

Israel and he's going and he's fighting against others like the prince of Persia, the prince of Persia being an angelic power that's behind Persia.

So he's saying there's a spiritual battle that's taking place and Michael's going to rise up to help the people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been seen since there was a nation till that time.

But at that time, your people shall be delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And as many of you, as many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above. And those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars, forever and ever.

Okay, so what he's prophesying here and language that is grand enough in order to be reused by prophets later about even greater things in Revelation, et cetera.

What he's speaking of is that though Antiochus Epiphanes is going to come and persecute the people, desecrate the temple, there will be a time of reformation.

There'll be a time of reformation. The temple will be restored. Right worship will be restored. And this is something that wise people being led by God, people whose names are written in the book will gather around and will be accomplished.

This is recorded, not in the pages of Scripture, but in the pages of history. If you're familiar with the book of 1 and 2

Maccabees, these are not scriptural books, but they are historical texts that record all these truths.

And what do you see going into the New Testament? Do they recall, okay, they've been prophesied in Daniel.

They've been told there will be one who comes, ruins right worship, sets himself over the people, oppresses the people, keeps them from gathering and oppresses all those who are truly serving the

Lord. There are some who are serving the Lord, but it's very hard for them. And then God's people will rise up and that King of the

North, that man who sets himself up as God will lose his power. Do the people in the

New Testament take time to remember this truth, or is it just something, well, that happened outside the pages of Scripture?

Let's not worry about that. John 11, verse 22. At the time of the

Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem, it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.

Do you know what the Feast of Dedication is? Feast of Dedication is not one of the seven feasts described in the

Old Testament. Feast of Dedication is what is now known as Hanukkah. Okay, this is that restoration, this is that reformation that happened between the pages of the two

Testaments, between the Old and the New Testament. Somewhere in between there, the

Maccabean revolt happened and the temple was secured. It was re -sanctified for, it was consecrated for holy use once again so that right worship was restored to the temple.

And now even Jesus himself has chosen to remember that time of reformation that happened between the two

Testaments that was prophesied at the end of the Old Testament. So if Jesus thinks that it's right to remember the mighty deeds of the

Lord, even the ones that are happening outside the pages of Scripture, but especially those ones that are prophesied in the pages of Scripture, even if they're happening outside, should we not also, if Jesus is at the temple, the time of the

Feast of Dedication, should we not spend time contemplating God's wondrous works over the

Reformation? Now let me explain some things that I am saying and that I am not saying. First of all,

I am not trying to set any particular rules about how one might heed the Reformation or remember the

Reformation. I am not telling you that you need to observe

October 31st, the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis to the wall at the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

You don't need to observe that as some kind of holy day. In fact, I would say it would be wrong to observe that as a kind of holy day because only

God can make days holy. Now Jesus, at this Feast of Dedication, taking this time to remember what has taken place, that's not necessarily treating it as a holy day.

So it might be good for you to observe and remember things that God has done. We take time as a country to remember several different national holidays that are commanded, and this is basically what's happening here, is that at a civil level, this had been commanded to remember the great thing that had happened here.

Now it can't be commanded in a religious manner as though God has made the day holy because he has not made the day holy, but it would be reasonable to take time, especially certain times of the year, to recall such things.

I also understand that it's not on everybody to do the same kind of reading.

Not everybody has the same kind of capacity to learn about the

Reformation or to take the time for it, but in as much as you do, it would be reasonable of you to take time to remember the mighty acts of God that took place in the

Reformation. If you don't know where to begin, on the back of the bulletin,

I have put a QR code for a 15 -page biography of Martin Luther. That's short. These are 15

EGD pages written by Joel Beeky. That's a good place for you to start if you don't know where to begin, if all of this is very new to you.

Maybe you've seen man -on -the -street interviews where people are asked at various events and things like that if they know when the

Declaration of Independence was signed or they know when the first Fourth of July was, the first Independence Day, and they will say all kinds of crazy things.

They'll say, I think that was in the 1900s, et cetera, and you always look at that.

If you see this sort of thing, you go, that is so foolish. These are people who are benefiting from the wonderful things that the nation has given them, and they have no idea.

They've not recalled any of these truths. If someone wants to become a citizen of this country, we require them to learn the history of this country in order to become a citizen because it's important to be a citizen of a country to understand its history.

You are a citizen of the kingdom of God. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ, you are a citizen of the kingdom of God.

If you have not, I call you to repent and turn, be part of this kingdom because there is a great darkness outside of it.

But if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are part of the kingdom. Do not be a fool who does not know the history of the kingdom.

This is part of the history of the kingdom. Secondly, not only should you heed the history of the

Reformation, you should heed the doctrine of the Reformation. You should heed the doctrine of the

Reformation. Now, the word tradition, a lot of times, will be used to talk about completely man -made things.

If I use the word tradition, a lot of times what I'm talking about is man -made summaries or experiences of God's truth, okay?

Tradition is not a dirty word. If you look at 2 Thessalonians 2, our passage at verse 15, it says,

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by a letter.

Now, as these are coming from the apostles, they have the authority of God. So I'm not saying that these are tradition in the same sense.

But things that are passed down from the fathers to the children, like we hear about in Psalm 145, these are ways that God has instructed teaching to take place.

Okay, God has not instructed us all to just sit down with our Bibles and have no other form of teaching.

God has given us the gift of different kinds of teachers. It says in Ephesians 4 that he's given us prophets and apostles and teachers and shepherds, et cetera.

So that's why, for example, right now you are listening to a sermon instead of just sitting alone in a room reading your

Bible because God has given us different modes that we would learn things. One of those modes is the passing down of truth and of trying to synthesize it for the sake of future generations.

This is a good thing, this kind of tradition, when it is according to the word of God.

Now, everybody, absolutely everybody has tradition. They might think that they don't, but they do.

There is a set of priorities that they have that have been embedded in them by their experience of the things that were told them before.

Even if they are new to Christianity, there is a set of priorities and experiences that are dictating the way they would think about the pages of Scripture.

No one is completely neutral. Do not believe the lie that you are just a tabula rasa, you know, a blank slate that if you just come to the pages of Scripture you would not bring anything of yourself to it.

That's impossible to do perfectly. You should go to the pages of Scripture and be transformed by them, but know that everyone is going to come with some kind of bias.

The person who is the most free from tradition is the person who is most aware of it. The person who is the most enslaved to their tradition is the one who is least aware of it.

Okay, if you deny that you have any kind of tradition, you do, you are just very enslaved to it and aren't aware of it to be able to see it, to be able to break from it when you need to break from it.

Let me give you a framework for how to think of tradition. If you turn to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 20.

I recently preached on this passage. If you go to the YouTube channel, you can see that there was a sermon called

Glory in the Church not too long ago. If you'd like to hear more about understanding how we should think about tradition, that might be a valuable passage for you to consider.

Ephesians 3, 20 to 21. This is the very end of the first half of Ephesians, which is doctrinal, and then it goes from there into practical.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, amen.

All right, God is bringing himself glory in the church in every generation. That means that he is carrying the church through all difficulties, that the church exists in every generation.

It never disappeared and had to be restored. Remember, the Reformation is not a restoration, okay?

It's not like what Mormons claim where it ceased to exist and they had to restore it. Okay, it existed, it was just very oppressed.

And so God is glorifying himself. It's not just the church is existing, but he is glorifying himself through the church in every generation.

So there are things to see of his glory in every generation. Then Ephesians 4, next chapter, says in verse 11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we attain to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the

Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

All right, so God has given apostles, he's given prophets, he's given evangelists, shepherds and teachers. He has gifted the church with men, not just the raw word.

It's a wonderful thing that God has, in his providence, decided that it would not just be by his written word that we would learn, but through shepherds, through even the apostles and the prophets, through other kinds of means that we would learn of his truth.

So God has given us this guarantee that he's going to bring glory to himself in every generation. He tells us here that we will increase, the church will increase in maturity until the end.

So he's given us various promises about what we should expect the body to look like and the growth of the body, and that when it is oppressed, that it will ultimately prevail.

What that tells you is that in times of controversy, not every individual will get everything right, but the church as a whole will be purified like metal through fire in each of these cases,

God using his ministers in particular to ensure that the church is carried through with truth.

So what that means is when there are particular controversies that you see in history, there is a guarantee that the church will come out on the right side, okay?

It's not gonna come out on the wrong side and the whole thing be thrown into heresy. So for example, when you see in Acts chapter 15, when the church is asking, well, do the

Gentiles need to get circumcised? And they have this whole controversy about this, and they all deliberate about the matter and the

Holy Spirit leads them to understand, the answer is no, they do not have to. This seems good to the

Holy Spirit, as it says there. Now, I know that Acts chapter 15 is inspired words, but it is giving us a pattern of what we'll even see later.

So later in the 300s, 325, when there's a big controversy about whether or not Jesus Christ is

God, and the church comes out in majority and with clarity, doctrinal clarity in a creed, the

Nicene Creed, that Jesus Christ is light of light. He is true

God of true God. And the doctrine of the Trinity comes out in clarity.

While none of that is inspired by God as though it were scripture, we have every reason, given

Ephesians 3, given Ephesians 4, to understand that that has a particular weight.

As we see God work and building up, growing his church in maturity, that has a particular kind of weight that we should heed.

And this is the case, again, in the Reformation, when there's this great controversy about what is the gospel? Is it by works or by faith?

Is it man by his own wisdom and his own humility coming before the Lord? Or is it God transforming him by his unconditional election bringing him?

In all that controversy, should we think that the church erred? Or rather, is

God working mightily to restore his people so that we should not turn back on any of those hard -fought truths?

This is what God is doing. And so that gives us some implications about confessionalism.

Okay, our church has a confession, the 1609 Second Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith. Once again, it is not scripture.

A lot of people will accuse Reformed people of treating their confessions as scripture. It is possible that some of those things are wrong.

In fact, given that our confession is based on the Westminster Confession, the reason it is, is because some of the things in the

Westminster Confession are wrong, right? It teaches a different view of the world. It teaches a different view of the church. It teaches a different view of baptism. Those things are wrong.

Not everything written in a confession is necessarily right. But in as much as those truths which

God brought his church through in the trial of fire around the gospel, we have much reason to be very confident that he was working in a special way then and how much more when it is prophesied in scripture.

Unlike Nicaea even, right? Nicaea is not prophesied in scripture, the 300s, that's not prophesied.

But this is in 2 Thessalonians 2, in Revelation 14, prophesied that the breath of Christ would kill the man of lawlessness.

Should we not heed the breath of Christ? Should it not have some weight to us? Not the same kind of inspiration, breath of Christ, that we have with scripture, but a working in history that should cause us to discern his providence in such a way that those truths are especially important to us.

There's a way of thinking about authority, okay? When you think about the word authority, what that has to do is the weight that the author has.

These are the words of God. They have ultimate weight, okay? Absolutely ultimate weight. But other people also have their own authority, a different kind of weight.

In Hebrews 13, verse seven, let me read chapter 13, verse 17 first.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls. As those who will have to give an account, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Okay, so I, I'm a fallible man. Some of the things I say may not be true. Some of the applications

I make on your life may not be right. So you are not obliged to believe everything

I say or do everything I tell you to do. You are, on the other hand, obliged, if you are a member of this church and I'm your pastor, you are obliged to hear me out, okay?

That is the authority that I have. My words have a special weight in that you have to hear me out if you are to be obedient to the

Lord. And this is true in other forms of authority, that there's a special kind of obligation to hear different people out, your father, your husband, et cetera.

There's a different obligation to hear each one of these people out as spiritual leaders. Now this is true also for those ministers of generations who have gone past, especially as they have fought certain battles on behalf of the church.

Verse seven of Hebrews 13 says, "'Remember your leaders, "'those who spoke to you the word of God, "'consider the outcome of their way of life "'and imitate their faith.'"

Now there are different takes on what the outcome of their way of life means, but I'm inclined to think that this is talking about death.

This is talking about the fruit that has come from their giving of their own lives for the sake of the gospel.

If this is the case, that we are supposed to remember our leaders, those who have gone before us and even died, contending for the faith, promoting the gospel, how much more is that the case in the

Reformation, this greatest point since the founding of the church?

It has an authority, not a divine authority in the sense of having absolute authority like the word of God does, but it has a kind of weight that it should be heeded.

Now I have seen people take certain distinctive reform doctrines and reject them without any consideration for why the reformers believe those things.

But there have been, I've seen this even recently, some pastors who claim to hold to the same confession that we do, who openly reject certain parts of the confession, but then upon further investigation, does not seem that they either are aware that they are in the confession or two, what the arguments were.

Okay, now it might be the case that they are wrong on some of these things. That is a perfectly acceptable conclusion.

They are not inspired authors, but you have an obligation. When that generation speaks with a voice of unity, you have an obligation to hear it out.

Same thing's true with Nicaea. Same thing's true with the 300s. There are some people today who have rejected the, you know, people within the scope of orthodoxy too, as far as churches go, people who you would recognize as brother and sisters, who have rejected some of the foundational truths of the

Nicene Creed. Now they wouldn't say that Father, Son, and Spirit are three beings. They'd still say that God is one

God and three persons, but some of the more details they've dismissed, not even really taking seriously or considering themselves obligated, goes to the arguments of why that generation thought certain specifics about the

Trinity. Do not dismiss doctrine that was hard fought that a generation spoke with unity about without considering it, and boy, one good illustration of that is just what we're talking about today.

The office of the Antichrist, it being the Pope, this is something that universal agreement on during the

Reformation, near universal agreement on. I'm sure you could find somebody who didn't, but near universal agreement on this, and people today assume, without even investigating what their arguments were, they just must have been products of their time.

They just didn't realize that the Pope wasn't gonna be the biggest bad guy forever, et cetera. No, they knew what they were talking about and they anticipated his decline just as we were talking about today through the breath of Christ coming in the

Reformation. Heed the doctrine of the

Reformation. There is a special weight that comes from the providence of the breath of Christ in that era of history.

And then lastly, you should heed the call of the Reformation. The call of the Reformation is to repentance.

That is what Reformation refers to. It refers to turning from error to truth.

So many people have embraced all kinds of things that are essentially returning to doctrines of Rome without all the trappings of Rome, right?

They're not actually swimming the Tiber. They're not actually going back to Roman Catholicism, but they're adopting a gospel that's more like Rome's gospel.

They're adopting some worship that's a little more like Rome's worship, not considering what was brought to them in the

Reformation. Revelation 14, seven that we already read. And he said with a loud voice, fear

God, give him glory, because the hour of judgment has come and worship him who made the heaven and the sea and the springs of water.

Now this is a time for fear. It is a time for turning to the Lord away from things.

This era of Reformation, people dwelt in darkness for a long time, then Christ came, and now he commands everyone everywhere to repent, as it says in Acts.

The same is true in a greater way even now. That light is further. People are called. This is true whether it's of you.

If you have not embraced good, reformed teaching, especially about the doctrine of salvation, consider it, take it seriously, take it weightily, turn from error to truth, especially the unconditional election of God in salvation.

And as you know others who have turned away from such things, do not see this as a small little difference.

We're all gonna have our different churches that have our different beliefs, et cetera, but call them to Reformation.

Heed the call of the Reformation by calling others to heed that call of Reformation. The call of Reformation is for many to turn in repentance.

Let me just go through several distinctives in the Reformation. There's many that could be listed, but sola scriptura.

Okay, sola scriptura is that scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice. There are many that you will talk to who say,

God spoke to me and he told me to do X, Y, and Z. Okay, what is this? But a denial of one of the hard fought things in the

Reformation. Instead of angels talking to you or all kinds of things that Roman Catholics will claim, this is one of the main truths and yet this has been thrown away.

Call people to repentance, to trust only the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm not saying there's not a place for recognizing the spirit calls to mind truths in sometimes even miraculous ways, but as far as words of God go, this is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

Secondly, there's covenant theology. Okay, covenant theology is our understanding of what was happening in the garden, what's happening through Jesus Christ.

There are different Reformed people who have different versions of covenant theology, but it keeps you from making all kinds of errors where you say things like, well, the only things that we have to obey in the

Old Testament are things that are repeated in the New Testament and then you end up throwing out most of the good book, okay?

Covenant theology is very important stuff. Once again, I know everybody in here has their own capacities and their own limitations.

I'm not calling everyone to investigate this in the fullest detail, but don't dismiss these things as being just products of some other time.

And then iconoclasm, okay? Iconoclasm is the destruction of images. The reason that Reformed churches don't have things like crucifixes, et cetera, is because these are not supposed to be part of our worship.

Our worship before God is in word, anticipating that vision of Christ that will come eventually.

We will see him eventually, and we are not supposed to give ourselves that vision now. And along with that, we are not to worship him in any way that he hasn't commanded, but a lot of worship today, even among evangelicals, is primarily appealing to the sensory experience, okay?

It has to do with dimming the lights. It has to do with the right kind of music and the right kind of repetition to pull people into a sensory experience, even if it's not images, even if it's not visual, even if it's auditory instead of visual.

It's the same kind of thing where it's appealing to something other than the word that God has made to be primary.

What's the center of Roman Catholic worship? It's the Eucharist. It's the sensual thing of the, and I don't say sensual bad because the

Lord's Supper is a good thing, that we would experience God's truth even with taste and smell.

But that is the center for them, beyond all the other idolatries that they have.

But then in evangelicalism, what is it often, and I say that I would include myself among evangelicals, but I mean broad evangelicalism, what is it frequently?

It's frequently the music that is the center of the worship because that's where they're getting a lot of sensory experience.

But what would God have the center of our worship to be? It is to be the word. This is what Christ went around in doing.

He was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. This is to be the primary focus of our worship.

You look at this order of service and you think how much time spent on this. What we're spending the most time on right now, the proclamation of the word of God, is the center of worship.

Okay, so after iconoclasm, even other kinds of things about worship, like family worship, worshiping

God daily in families together, this is something that is not so distinctive in that it didn't exist before, but it is something that they really tried to promote as being the means by which truth would carry on from generation to generation.

And once again, why have these truths been lost? Is it not because parents are not passing these things down to their children?

There are many different things that we could look at. One more, the

Sabbath, the Sabbath. That the first day is supposed to be set apart for the

Lord. Many people still believe that, but there are so many compromises that have taken place. We today, in God's providence, are worshiping on the greatest day of the desecration of the

Sabbath. If you know what I'm talking about, just two miles from here, it's taking place. It's the

Super Bowl, okay? This is, we live in an era where, you know,

Machen, who founded Westminster Seminary and other things, there were a lot of people who were skeptical that the

NFL could ever take off, because there's no way that people would watch football on a

Sunday. It took off right away. People in their idolatrous hearts turned right to it. The Reformation did not have hold on them.

There is a, one of the more prominent Reformed seminaries had a president who left to be an

NFL coach. He had played before, and then he left to be an NFL coach. And so, his life, after having been considered a president of a

Reformed seminary, is now, on a regular basis, violating the

Lord's Day, as it ought to be honored. These are just incredible, incredible things.

Heed the Reformation, heed the call of the Reformation. Semper Reformanda, continue reforming, continue going back to the truth.

We must heed that call. God has spoken with the breath of Christ in a special way during that time.

And this is most especially true of the Gospel itself. The Gospel itself is the primary thing of controversy during that time, that man is not made right with God by his works, by indulgences, by other men going to them, through them as mediators to be absolved of their sins, but rather, it is directly through Christ.

It is only by his grace. It is only by faith. It is through God's unconditional election that he has set us apart for his purposes.

These are core truths. These are the most important ones to hold onto, to spread to others, to call others, to heed and to reform if they have turned back to the errors of Rome.

Even if they aren't in a Roman Catholic church, if they have turned back to these errors, they must turn from these things.

James Durham, the 17th century Scottish Covenanter, in his commentary on Romans 14, talking about some of the things that are stated by the angels in that passage and about the great blessings on the people after you see this angel flying midheaven, calling out the gospel after the

Antichrist has done his work and Babylon has fallen, and he's explaining why they are so blessed after this era, why you are so blessed living in the era that you live in.

And part of the reason, he says, is that hell is hotter. He says, hell groweth hotter. It is a hotter place now.

There is more light. There is more responsibility to heed these truths, and the salvation that we experience is sweeter being spared from them.

Heed this call. Turn away from such things. None of this is a reason for pride. All of this is a reason for humility before the

Lord. Paul says that we should boast in the Lord, so I'm not giving you reason to, you know, you go to a church that has reformed in the name.

This is not an aesthetic or a label that's supposed to give you pride. This is a truth that is supposed to help you boast in the

Lord instead, not in yourself. Heed these things and promote these things, boasting in the goodness that the

Lord has done so that we might have the full fruit of the Spirit, all the joy that recounting such things is supposed to bring us, and then all the faithfulness that it's supposed to bring us as well, that we might not turn from these things, but rather let us pass them down to our children and our children's children.