Martin Luther & The Protestant Reformation

So this is lesson number 10, which is titled after darkness light and This is an expression that came From the Protestant Reformation and that's really what we're going to be looking at last week. We looked at the pre reformers so John Huss and men like that.

Here we're looking at Luther and Calvin. These are the two major figures As well as other Protestant reformers. The key passage is Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 Which if you want to open up to it you can but it's gonna read that quick.

It says for the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword Piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents Of the heart.

So why is this verse about the scripture? How does that tie into the Reformation? Well out of the Reformation came the phrase sola scriptura. Scripture alone is the authority so instead of the Pope and the Catholic Church having the power and the traditions of Men being the authority now, this is a shift back to Following the Bible so that's what the Reformation really was all about.

So the timeline that I think this is in your book 1505 is when Martin Luther and it's not Martin Luther King jr. Okay, right, you know that right? Two totally different people in many ways, but 1505 that's when Martin Luther enters the monastery becomes a monk 1517 is when he tacked his 95 theses to the door the church door 1521 was the diet of worms and I know what that sounds like has nothing to do with eating worms or worms or however.

You pronounce it in German as a town and that's where they held basically a council or something like a trial For Luther because now he's opposing the Catholic Church. He's opposing the.

Greatest.

Authority in all of Europe. So the diet of Augsburg another type of council was in 1530. Then you've shift from Martin Luther to the other great Protestant reformer as people regard him. This is John Calvin.

He writes his institutes or releases them in 1536. Calvin returns to Geneva Switzerland 1541. Martin Luther dies in 1546. John Knox goes to Geneva in 1556. What do we know about John Knox? There's one real Takeaway from John Knox.

He's basically the founder of Presbyterianism. Okay, and then John Calvin dies in 1564 so that's the timeline that we're looking at for this study. So number one Introducing the Reformation and if you have a hand up, you know.

Just if you have a question comment as we go just shoot it up high. So I see it Introducing the Reformation from the human perspective. The 16th century Protestant Reformation was possible due to several factors.

The first is what? The printing press. Johan Gutenberg's invention of the movable type printing press around 1450 meant that printed materials could be published quickly and in great quantities rather than having to be copied by hand.

Information in books and pamphlets could now be mass-produced. Alright, so that that is a major factor. Most people agree the Reformation Couldn't have happened or at least not the way it did without the printing press number two the authority and reputation of the papacy.

Declined in the 14th and 15th centuries due to issues like the papal schism. Do you remember it was last week? I think we talked about how at one point there were three popes and they were all Excommunicating each other.

So I mean that would be a huge Glaring issue saying that The the Catholic Church the whole system in Europe is broken if you have three popes. Imagine for a moment if we had three presidents in this country.

We have three people claiming to be president. Of course, we've sort of had that in the past few years. I remember when Donald Trump won the election in 2016. There were those people who said what not my president Hillary is the real president and then of course in 2020 it just got reversed.

Joe Biden won and people say no he didn't interest so We sort of have it in this country where people are starting to not recognize the authorities, right? And that's a that's a bad thing. You see that the system's starting to break down once you have that but with the Catholic Church, it was much much worse.

Because they had three popes and. So that's the second part that led to the Reformation number three the rise of humanism or the study of the humanities. This motivated European scholars to study ancient works of literature.

Including early manuscripts of the Bible and this led to the recovery of biblical Hebrew and Greek. Okay, so people were now starting to look at the Bible in the original languages at what Scripture actually Said as opposed to what the Catholic Church said that it said.

So these are three major factors that led to the Reformation. Any comments or questions so far.

Mark.

Right.

Right.

Yeah, I think we talked about that last week. I'm surprised it's not mentioned here. So I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, the sale of indulgences was a totally corrupt system. Basically you are buying Salvation that was the thought that many people had or the salesmen would come to town.

You know and they had their sales pitch and you could. What they would say is hey your loved one is in purgatory. Suffering won't you donate so much money? For this indulgence to get your loved one out of purgatory.

And of course every good Catholic who believed in that stuff said yes, of course. And they donated all this money and Luther saw that for the corruption that it was and that that was definitely a major factor.

Okay, so these factors set the stage for the Protestant Reformation the 16th century revival and reform movement that dramatically impacted church history. But the true catalyst behind the Reformation was what?

The power of the Word of God. As Scripture was studied in the original languages and preached in the vernacular that is the language of the common people the Holy Spirit used the truth of his word to open blind eyes and awaken dead hearts.

The Reformers were also committed to translating the Bible into the common languages of Europe. Thanks to the printing press. Copies of Scripture were now available to people like never before and I think I have to mention this just because I know.

These people exist and I've at times been a little sympathetic to this idea that there are people. Typically, this would be the Baptists who say, you know the Reformation we can see that good things happen.

But I don't necessarily view myself in this line of.

Reformation.

Churches basically one. One reason people Might quibble over some of these statements here is they would look at Luther and Calvin and what they believed and taught.

And.

Your average Evangelical Christian today your average Baptist does not believe like Martin Luther. They do not believe like John Calvin. So I'm just throwing that out there that if you've spent any time in a Baptist Church The pastor probably I mean, there's a pretty good chance.

He's made comments like He's not a fan of Luther and Calvin and what they believed and taught so you'll find all that to say this. You'll find that there are churches in particular, you know in particular Baptist churches that They don't really consider this their heritage.

Okay, so Take that for what it's worth, but I I do think that Something happened and it's significant and we need to know about it. So we're gonna study it. Okay. Hopefully I didn't confuse anyone with that.

You understand what I'm saying. Any points of clarification, okay.

All right.

So here's where you had to fill in the blanks. The Reformers themselves recognized what? Yeah, God's Word as the power behind their movement. Consider the following quotes from Martin Luther. So again Luther lived from 1483 to 1546.

Here's what he said. All I have done is put forth preach and write the Word of God and apart from this I have done nothing. It is the Word that have has done great things. I have done nothing. The Word has done and achieved.

Everything.

Now there might be a lot of things Martin Luther said and wrote that People don't like but it's hard to disagree with this statement, right? Martin and this is this is the thing we're focusing on not Luther and Calvin and because let's face it whether it's them or leaders today every human being every teacher every pastor has some flaws or some blind spots or maybe even is wrong about certain things, but We can appreciate this Martin Luther said by the word The earth has been subdued and by the word the church has been saved and by the word also it shall be re-established.

Okay.

Martin Luther also said the Pope Luther Augustine or even an angel from heaven. These should not be masters judges arbiters. But only witnesses disciples and confessors of Scripture. Nor should any doctrine be taught or heard in the church except the pure Word of God.

Otherwise, let the teachers and the hearers be accursed along with their doctrine. Okay, so so far so good. You agree with these statements.

Yeah.

When a pastor on Sunday morning stands up and preaches the word this is Should be ingrained by now that we were called to be good Bereans as they say and test everything Against the Word of God. So so much as a pastor is preaching the truth He's preaching the Word of God and it's authoritative not because of him but because it's it's God's Word.

As soon as he starts going off into left field and preaching his opinion and all this nonsense that opposes the Word of God. He should be yeah. Well, there's a process for this but as Luther said Let the teachers and the hearers be accursed along with their doctrine if it's false.

So it all has to be tested over and against the scripture itself. Larry. Yeah, and as we don't know if we're gonna get to it this morning. But we're gonna see that Luther and another reformer named Zwingli.

They had two Totally different views of the Lord's Supper. Martin Luther believed that Christ was present in the elements. Zwingli believed like us that it's you know symbolic. It's a memorial. Now both men preached what they believed was true and it's true.

One of them has to be wrong. Like so everybody has something that's wrong. I'm sure there's something that I believe and I'm sure there's something that you believe that's wrong. But when we're talking about the the main issues of who Christ is his person his work those primary issues.

That's that's what matters. But at the same time these other doctrines matter too. But like I said, there's there's there's no one man who is infallible. It all has to go back to the word. Constantly going back to the word examining everything in light of that.

All right, the reformers commitment. I don't think this is in your book. So I'm just gonna read this the reformers commitment to scripture Flowed from their conviction that Christ alone is the head of the church.

Consequently his word is the ultimate authority over the church the Reformation principle of sola scriptura. Scripture alone is intended to summarize their commitment to the authority and sufficiency of scripture.

God's Word alone is the authority that Establishes what to believe and how to live the city of Geneva was an important center during the 16th century.

Reformation.

Here is how the reformers explained their commitment to the authority of God's Word. So it should be noted the book says that the Reformation or the reformers did not dismiss the value of historical councils and creeds or the writings of the church fathers but they rightly understood that all of those things are subject to the authority of scripture and that References act 1711.

Can someone look that up get a volunteer to look up act 1711 and then read it. Larry okay, we'll do that. Okay, so they're not throwing out creeds or councils. I know. I Won't mention the church because I'm not saying I have a problem with this.

It's just something I've noticed. There's the church in the area when you walk through the front door. There's a big sign right next to the door. It says no creed, but Christ who's seen what I'm talking about.

Nobody. Okay, maybe it's not there anymore, but it used to be. So this church and this used to be a popular statement no creed, but Christ typically would be found in Baptist churches. They basically were not concerned with the creeds at all.

So Maybe they wouldn't be completely against them. But yeah, don't talk to me about the creeds. No creed, but Christ. The price, you know, the one problem with that is as soon as you say, okay, who's Christ then you're kind of going back to What the creeds tell you but again the creeds have to be in line with scripture, right?

I Think the creeds are valuable. But they're not put ahead of the Bible as long as they're not put ahead of scripture. I think there's some value to them.

Yeah.

And I like the verse that that does tell us that there is one person that we can trust and that person is the Holy Spirit. John 14 26 is the verse I'm talking about. But the helper the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in my name He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

So just another Another evidence of how important it is that we learn to hear his voice. Okay, and his voice. If if it's if it's a Bible verse that is his voice.

That is all right act 1711.

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica. That they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Okay, and these who are the these? The Bereans. Okay, so even the Bereans when they have the Apostle Paul in front of them. They still were testing what he said over and against what they knew. Was scripture.

And of course, what was the scripture at the time? The Old Testament. Right, so. Yeah, some people will say well, you know. The Bible didn't come around until the fourth century. The early church didn't have a Bible.

I mean, that's totally not true. They had they had the Old Testament. That was their Bible. Yeah, okay. It wasn't bound leather bound in one edition. So that's irrelevant, but they had a Bible. Okay. So armed with a commitment to God and his word the Reformers boldly Proclaimed the scripture in the language of the people.

Reformation was the inevitable result as biblical truth confronted the unbiblical traditions of men. That that's. That's what the Reformation did. And references mark 7 6 through 13. I'll look that up but For the discussion question.

It says look at the key passage listed in the beginning of this lesson Hebrews 4 12. What does that verse teach about the power of Scripture? Okay, so we read it Hebrews 4 12 the Word of God is powerful living, right?

What does that teach us about the power of Scripture? What do you say? It's very powerful, yep. It's for all time good. Anyone else.

It gets down to the heart of matter and by the soul and spirit that's. That's like comparing a knife that can cut a single hair. Yeah, it's very sharp. Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe you could put it this way. The scripture can do what nothing else can do. Okay, mark 7 just with this statement about the traditions of men. Mark 7 6 through 13. I'll just read that Jesus answered and said to them.

Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you? Hypocrites, and of course he's speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees, right as it is written. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me and in vain.

They worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God you hold the tradition of men. The washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things you do.

And he said to them all too well. You reject the commandment of God that you keep.

Your.

Tradition, of course. We talked about the last week this last week in the sermon about the commandments of men versus the Word of God remember what was happening they had the core ban rule and The the commandment the fifth commandment was honor your father and mother.

But the Jews had this thing this tradition that developed where they could dedicate so much of their money to God which meant the Scribes and Pharisees got some of it and They could say well because I vowed this money to God I no longer have to take care of my parents because I don't have the money to do it because I gave it to God.

So this tradition of men that developed Really nullified the fifth commit. So they were breaking the commandments Just to Keep this tradition. Okay. Next we're going on to section number two a dramatic conversion, of course, this is speaking of Luther's Conversion in July of 1505 a 21 year old law student was walking through the German countryside.

Unexpectedly, he found himself caught in a thunderstorm Fearing for his life. He cried out for help. Not to God. But to his paint patron saint a saint and he said st. Anne spare me and I will become a monk.

Okay, how many of you have been in a real pinch and you've cried out to God and said Lord if you Get me out of this. I promise I'll do whatever who's done that. Yeah, a lot a lot of people have done. We've probably all Done that but Luther yeah, he didn't cry out to God.

He cried out to st. Anne. Yeah, that was Catholic tradition. Like it's like when a Catholic loses something they pray to Saint. Who's the guy who helps you find things? St. Christopher. I don't know what it is.

There's some saint who has you know, all the Saints have different jobs and of course, that's what is that the Catholic Church sort of Absorbed the pagan tradition where there was a God for this a God for that and God for this and you would pray to all These different gods and paganism.

Well, the Catholic Church just kind of took that system and and replaced the gods with the Saints. So now you're praying to Saint so-and-so and so Luther didn't cry out to God which kind of shows you where he was.

He's calling out to st. Anne who obviously can't hear him. But he says if you spare me st. Anne, I will become a monk. The danger passed. But the pledge that Martin Luther made in that moment was a promise he intended to keep.

He left behind the study of law much to his father's dismay and entered an Augustinian monastery in the city of Erfurt. Located in modern Germany, though. He had escaped the threat of the thunderstorm.

He continued to live under the constant threat of God's holy wrath. He felt a heavy weight of guilt pressing down on his conscience despite his repeated efforts to assuage it in Keeping with the dominant Roman Catholic thinking of his day Luther worked Tirelessly to try and earn God's favor and pay the punishment for his sins.

He performed severe acts of self asceticism. Like sleeping without blankets and fasting for long periods which permanently damaged his health. He went to confession so often that his confessor had to tell him to stop.

Luther's own assessment of this period of his life was this if ever a monk got to heaven by monkery I would have been that monk. I Takes it to the extreme he's all in 100 and Yeah, that was the Catholic system.

Yeah, that is like Paul with Judaism, yeah, he said something similar. Of course, what's the problem with this? You know in some ways? It's right that he felt this because he's trying to atone for his own sin.

He's trying to work his way Into God's favor and this is impossible according to Scripture. This is impossible. There's nothing you can do. It's not enough good works enough prayers. Well, if I just pray 23 hours a day then God will accept that none of this is gonna work.

Why. Because it's only Christ who can Die on the cross for our sins to take God's wrath for us. It's only Christ who justifies the Luther was trying to do it himself and he just felt that he wasn't getting anywhere.

Which in a sense? It's true. He wasn't. Okay in the midst of this struggle Luther became fixated on the phrase quote the righteousness of God. All Luther could see in that statement was the perfect standard of God's Righteousness and he knew he fell fall.

He fell far short of it Romans 3 23 Which says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God for Luther the righteousness of God stood as a continual reminder of his own Condemnation because he rightly recognized that he was not righteous so Luther is like way off in one regard, but he's He's right on in the other.

Like he understands God's righteousness and his unrighteousness. Which I would argue a lot of people in you know churches today they don't understand like this is the problem. They don't understand that.

But Luther did so roughly a decade after entering the monastery Luther Luther's despair finally began to lift while teaching through the book of Psalms and Romans and later Galatians. This desperate monks eyes were open to the truth of the gospel of grace Through the study of Scripture specifically Romans 1 16 and 17.

Can I get a volunteer to look that up and read it? Okay, Aaron Luther Through his study of that passage came to see that the righteousness of God Revealed in the gospel is not merely the righteous standard of God but also the righteous provision of God in which God reckons believers as Righteous by clothing them in his perfect righteousness or in the perfect righteousness of his son Aaron go ahead.

Okay.

So Martin Luther, here's his quote. Here is his discovery how he put it at last. Meditating day and night and by the mercy of God. I gave heed to the context of the words. In it the righteousness of God is revealed as it is written He who through faith is righteous shall live.

Then I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous Live by a gift of God namely by faith. Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open.

Entirely new side of the scripture opened itself to me. That I extolled my sweetest word With a love as great as loathing from which before I had hated the term the righteousness of God. Thus That verse in Paul Romans 1 17 was for me truly the gate of paradise.

Luther's decade-long struggle was characterized by frustration and despair yet Ended with the good news of the gospel as a sinner. He could never earn a right standing before God but through faith. He could be forgiven and clothed in.

Christ.

Righteousness. So do you understand the difficulty the way he saw the phrase? Okay, the righteousness of God. God is perfect. He's holy and I'm not and Because of that I have no hope. I mean, that's how he viewed it before.

But when he saw that the righteousness of God was obtainable not by doing good works It was obtainable by faith. All I have to do is put all my trust in Jesus because as of this moment, who is Luther putting his trust in?

St. Anne. Ultimately though himself, right? He was trying to do it himself. So once he understood the gospel that Christ paid it all price does it all. It's like this weight was lifted off of his shoulders and of course now he's a.

Regenerate.

Christian now he is saved. And When when that happens to you, what's the next thing that you want to do? Yeah, you want to tell everybody this. You want them to see what you see. And he tried doing that and.

You know.

It led to the Pope wanting wanting him dead because as soon as people realize this then the Catholic the Stranglehold the Catholic Church has on people and it's it's it's like being in a cult. It's a it's a method of control.

We control salvation. You have to get it from us and you have to do everything we say and People are just enslaved to this system and if they find out that Christ Just gives salvation full and free. I mean, oh, we're gonna lose our hold on power now.

The rebuttal will be.

Yeah.

But if you preach that that Christ just offers salvation full and free the people will just say a prayer and say they believe in Jesus and then go out live. However, they want. I mean that's kind of the the opposite side and what the Catholic Church was is true people do that.

But I would argue it's people who don't really understand because if God saved you You want to worship him and if God saved you like that and you understand you want to serve him. So it's not done out of some Duty that I have to do it or else You do it because you want to because you have a new nature, right?

All right, any comments or questions on all this Stacey?

Who was shepherding him and What were the rest of them thinking and doing. Were they just doing it out of rote. Because he seems really extreme like he took everything to You know the topmost level so his self-deprecation Self-loathing really and what not trying to attain something out of his own work that he could never attain and in that he Really he hated actually you could say he hated the word because of What he was putting himself through thinking that that's what you had to do to attain this ultimate righteousness.

But what was everybody else around makes you wonder?

They must have just been just doing it out of rote or doing it out of somebody, you know dictating Actions or whatnot and was he the only one actually thinking I.

I'll call on you in one second, but I just think of. Maybe you've experienced this like you get involved. In a church you get baptized, you know, you're taking your faith seriously and your other Friends and family who say they're Christians.

They say well you're taking it a little too seriously, right? I think that's probably how they viewed Luther. Luther on one occasion Said something someone asked him about loving God and he said love God.

He said sometimes I hate God. Because that's all that's horrible. Well, but that's how he felt. Under that system where God was just this angry judge and you there's nothing you could do and that's how he felt.

And that's probably how some people feel today. I think we've swung in the other direction where there's no more wrath and God is just all Unicorns and rainbows and everyone's happy and not talking about that other stuff.

We've gone the other direction, but yeah, you can sort of understand why he would have felt that way. All right, let's finish you just have one paragraph left said. Luther would later identify this as The great exchange of the gospel of what happened in the righteousness of God was given to him by faith.

Jesus took all of the sins, right? Gave him his righteousness the penalty for the believer sin was imputed or reckoned to Christ who paid that penalty on the cross at the same time the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer who is declared righteous by God.

2nd Corinthians 521 no message is more important than The good news of God's grace. No sinner is good enough to earn God's favor. All of us stand in desperate need of Divine Mercy. The drama surrounding Luther's conversion may be unique to him but the recognition of personal unworthiness and the need for God's grace is something every true believer.

Has.

Experienced firsthand when we reflect on the story of Luther's conversion along with the larger Reformation that followed it we Simultaneously celebrate the wonder of our own testimony that we have been saved by grace Not by works so that no one can boast.

Amen. All right, you're dismissed. Thank you.