The Spiritual Issues of

Introduction: The Occasion of Reformation Week and the Purpose of this Sermon

0:01 As I'm sure many of you are aware, each year in October, many segments of Professing Christendom set apart a time which they call Reformation Week, and in particular, Reformation Sunday. As most of you also know, these church calendar days and the rest mean very little to me personally and to us as a church, basically for the reason that no one has a right to impose such things upon the church and say, today you remember thus and thus, when the Holy Ghost may have something completely different to say to the church in that hour. However, the whole matter of the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation, has fallen into such disabuse and abuse and such thinking in our day that I feel it wise that we, as those who proclaim to be sons and daughters of the Reformation, understand that we are not the only ones who are in the church. We are the only ones who are in the church. We understand our father and mother a little bit better. And so I am taking the occasion of this Sunday during Reformation Week to speak to you on the subject of the Protestant Reformation.

1:13 For those of you who were at the Reformation rally in Morristown last year, some of this material will be repetitious, but I trust it will not be tedious. I've expanded and reworked the material which I brought at that rally last year, and I shall be breaking down that one hour into two hours. In the light of the psalm which I read this morning, I believe there is clear scriptural warrant for doing this sort of thing, for recounting and bringing into focus some of the mighty works of God in the midst of his people in bygone days. For that psalm begins with a historical perspective.

1:52 Our fathers have told us, our ears have heard what mighty works you did in their day. But then the psalmist's concern is not that of a historian, but that of a saint who longs to see the name and cause of God advanced in his own generation, so he cannot contemplate for long God's past dealings without this prayer bursting from his heart, saying, But thou art our God, our King, my God, my King, command deliverances for Jacob. And as he views the situation in his own day, comparing it with the glory of a pastor, then he repeats his prayer, and he grows actually almost impotent, and he says, God, why are you sleeping? Wake up, rise up for our help, and bear your arm in our own generation. And so because of that framework of the 44th psalm, again of the 80th psalm, the 85th psalm, this same general framework is seen, I believe there is clear warrant for us doing what we're going to attempt to do today. And weaving together something of a historical account of what God did, then the biblical and spiritual significance and its application for us in our own day.

The Birth of the Reformation: Martin Luther and the 95 Theses

3:11 As we consider this whole subject of the Protestant Reformation, we cannot do so without bringing into mind that scene, that very unique scene, which finds its setting in the year 1517. The date is October 31st, or November 1st. The place is...

3:30 This is Wittenberg, if you're speaking English, or Wittenberg, if you're speaking German. Wittenberg, Germany. A young Augustinian monk in his mid-thirties, 34 years of age to be precise, moves with resolute step to the door of the castle church. With a look of holy anger and settled conviction, he nails some written propositions to the church door.

3:56 What's his purpose? According to the introduction of his proposition, or his theses, his purpose was this, quote, Out of love and zeal for truth, and the desire to bring it to light, the following theses will be publicly discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and regularly appointed lecturer on these subjects at that place. He requests that those who cannot be present to debate, orally with us, will do so by letter, end of quote. And so, what was intended to be an announcement on some issues for debate, became the very womb out of which came the greatest movement of God's spirit since the days of the apostles. The hammer which nailed those written propositions to the castle church, in reality, became the hammer which sounded the dawn of a new day for the church. The day of the nailing of the theses to the castle church, which has been traditionally set apart as Reformation Day. Now, when we focus upon a day and call it Reformation Day, thinking of that time when

5:21 this young Augustinian monk pounded his theses to the door, we must not do so as though the whole thing began at that moment. For any movement of God in history is like a hammer. It is preceded by physical birth. It's preceded by conception, gestation, the period of development within the womb, the point of birth, but then it's founded or bounded on the other side with development, growth, and with maturation, maturity.

5:50 And so as we focus upon that day when the monk pounded his theses to the door, probably though with his right hand and not his left, for I don't read in the record that Luther was a left-handed individual. Which peculiarity? probably have been noted in so august a figure had he had that peculiarity you must not look upon that as the beginning of it all there were seeds of conception things which in the plan and purpose of god had already been transpiring there was also development and maturation following there was the influence of wickliffe and huss and erasmus the printing press many strands of god's dealings which to pick them up one by one is a very fascinating study but we don't have time to get into that today we're thinking of that particular event which marks the beginning as far as the actual birthday of the reformation is concerned now why do this i've already hinted certainly it's not that we might look back with an irresponsible nostalgia and say oh for the good old days no no why do we look back upon this time and seek to bring into focus these events why should you kids sitting here this morning why should you trouble yourself with remembering the date 1517 why should you be concerned to know anything about martin luther people in our day say you ought to know a lot

Why Study the Reformation? Countering Modern Indifference

7:17 about martin luther king you better know what he stood for and you better be involved in what he gave his life for or you dare not even take the name of a christian many are saying that in our day but martin luther period that's out of the dusty yard why should you kids be concerned why should you be concerned about martin luther period why should you know the date 1517 what about you adults you've been out of school for 40 years why in the world learn a little history i thought that was all over with that's a good question isn't it well many in our day would say the less you know the better because the whole protestant reformation was nothing but an unnecessary tempest in a theological and ecclesiastical teapot and the sooner we forget it the better off we'll be you know what a lot of people are doing during reformation week this year they're not having reformation rallies or reformation rallies they're not having reformation rallies or reformation rallies sermons they're having ecumenical services where protestant and catholic and jewish clergymen are getting together for services of reconciliation yes they are last year at this time there was a series of study groups right here in caldwell conducted by a presbyterian minister and the catholic parish priests to bring about understanding and reconciliation amongst quote separated bread for you and i are no longer looked upon by the church but by the most romanist as those damnable protestant heretics they won't use such vigorous language

8:45 in our day we're just quote separated brethren i'd rather be a damnable protestant heretic in the lips of a roman catholic than a separated brother you see so the whole mood in our day is such that many would say don't consider anything about the reformation well then what is our purpose well let me say first of all on the negative side and then the positive side what my purpose is in spending two hours of time and this is a god-given responsibility this privilege of standing behind this pulpit and having this time to consider god's truth with you let me say very clearly that my purpose and i trust our purpose together is not first of all to deify any human instruments connected with the reformation those human instruments were mighty men and there's nothing wrong with acknowledging men of greatness the bible does it and it does it and it does it and it does it and it does it and it does it and it does it in hebrews chapter 11 and there's a false kind of piety that says we must not study great men and consider them as great men that obscures the glory of christ no god uses great men men who are men like passions but whom he makes great by his grace and there were great men whose names will be forever identified with the protestant reformation whether we go back to wickliffe and huss or come on to luther and calvin and zwingli and others they were men

Negative Purposes: What This Study Is Not

10:11 but our purpose is not to deify those human instruments for that would be the last thing they would want and it would be contrary to holy scripture for we read in first corinthians 3 21 let no man glory in men and that's in the very context of a group of people who said we're of paul we're of polis we're of cephas whatever it was further or earlier in that chapter he says first corinthians 3 7 neither is he that planteth or he that watereth anything but god who gives the increase no our purpose is not to deify human instruments nor is it secondly to vilify roman catholics oh some people say good we're going to get a good broadside that'll make us all good catholic haters that's a wicked thing i've been around people who are catholic haters who said the very name catholic and it just dripped of hatred and certainly i would not feed that attitude that would simply vilify roman catholics or roman catholicism as such no good will come by promoting a hate catholic mentality we see the fruit of that over in northern ireland don't let anyone kid you that this is a spiritual movement at its core i was doing some reading yesterday of a minister whose judgment and discernment is known by many of god's people in that area and he's ministering right in the midst of it and he

11:37 said for the most part there's an inflaming of personal and national pride and issues that have nothing to do with the gospel and you've got cursing protestants out defending their rights against cursing roman catholics both of whom stand under the judgment of almighty god and so i want to feed that in no way whatsoever from such may god deliver all of us and whatever is said about roman catholics or roman catholicisms catholicism is isolating personalities and people from principles principles that claim to be true must be insulated from people who hold them and we must as it were pronounced true or false upon those principles and yet for christ's sake and for the sake of those who hold them we must be willing to lay down our lives if we might be god's instruments to show them a better way nor thirdly this is under the negative is it my purpose to merely increase our knowledge of the past for knowledge sake alone my purpose is not to deify the human instruments to vilify roman catholics or merely to pad our minds with some facts and so we go away saying isn't that lovely and that nice i can sport my knowledge now the next time they talk about the reformation i can say do you know the year and i can show them my learning and say it was 1517 and it was the cashel church where the

Positive Purposes: Appreciation, Confirmation, Aspiration, Direction

13:03 95 theses were nailed on october 31st or no no no that's not the purpose at all well then what is our purpose i submit that the principles of psalm 44 embody what my purpose It's my recount for and these for principles applied not only do the study of the reformation but for the study of any of God's mighty works in history as recorded in the scriptures and as recorded in other materials that have come down to us since the closing of the canon of holy scripture first of all it should lead us to what i'm calling appreciation U. Gregg are benefactories and translated of the past, whether we know it or not. And the great river that flows by our feet this morning of Christian truth and life and experience, that river has been enriched by all of the streams of the past. And a man who will dip his cup into that river and drink to the satisfaction and quenching of his own thirst and never ask who made this river, what things have gone into the river, that man is a selfish, self-centered, ungrateful, irresponsible individual. And dear ones, you and I can't appreciate the very fact that without any fear, without any kind of political manipulation,

14:27 you knew that at 9.30 this morning this building would be open and you could come without bringing a gun in your pocket and you knew that the word of God would be open, this word in your own vernacular and language, and would be taught and you'd be instructed. That's the river. That's the river flowing at your feet, but some streams up yonder made that river, streams into which some men put their very blood.

14:53 And it's irresponsible indifference to the past that causes people to drink of that river and never ask, how did it get so rich? How did it get this way? And so I trust that our study will cause us to come to a new level of appreciation for one of the characteristics of our day, a day in which people view all of life as nothing but the expression of brute chance. There's no plan, there's no order, there's no beginning, middle, and end.

15:20 We're just in the now. We're just in the thing that's happening. All the emphasis upon the so-called now generation. Do your own thing.

15:28 Be where the thing is happening. That's not an accident that all these terminologies are expressive of our day. That's not just an accident. That's an expression of the whole philosophy that undergirds our day.

15:39 There's no God who's ordering and directing history. Everything is...

15:43 It's just chance. And as these things come to light, you do your thing at this point in time because it has no relationship to the past and you don't know where it's going. Bleed all you can out of it right now.

15:58 And so what's going out of our disciplines right up at the college level, right down through high school and grade school? History.

16:07 History's going out. Why? Because the very study of history is an attempt to correlate events of nations and men and movements. But if it's...

16:16 If it's all chance, why study it and try to correlate it? It just happened.

16:22 And so there's what I call an irresponsible contemporaneity. Two big words. Simply means it's a shame to be only concerned with the now and not look back. Sinful ingratitude and then an abysmal ignorance which leaves us in a situation where people are following the very trends which led the church into captivity in the past.

16:43 And they're walking down that path as though they found some new thing that's going to bring us all blessing. So this great togetherness orgy and everybody flirting with Rome as though this is the great thing that's going to help us to confront our generation with a united Christian front. It'll bring back the dark ages upon us if only we'd learn and listen to the voice of history. So I hope we come to a new appreciation of the past as the psalmist did here.

17:09 Secondly, I trust it will be a study of confirmation. The scripture says at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. We hold truths of scripture dear to us. We call ourselves reformed.

17:25 What do we mean by that? We hold to that expression of God's truth as understood by those who came out of the reformation when every principle and practice and dogma was tested by the authority of Holy Scripture. Well, some of the things to which we hold put us out of joint with our present generation. With the contemporary situation in Christendom we don't fit.

17:48 What's the benefit of studying the reformation? That of confirmation. We're not oddballs. We stand in the mainstream of that which God brought out of that great movement in history.

18:01 And there's that wonderful sense that we stand in the continuum of God's working. That we're not out here trying to create a different river and a different stream. We're just putting in our little bit to that stream which we trust will be enriched so that another generation can be blessed and helped. The second purpose is appreciation, confirmation.

18:23 The third one, aspiration. Aspiration. I trust that our study will cause us to react as the study of the history of God's people caused the Psalmist to react. As he hears what God did, as he reports God's past dealings, his heart is kindled with longing and desire until it breaks forth in intercession and he cries out awake, wise, sleeping, sleepest thou, O Lord?

18:51 Arise, castest not off forever, wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression. Rise up for our help and redeem us for thy loving kindness sake. Someone has said there's nothing which kindles desire for the movement of God's spirit so much as reading and considering the reports of the past movements of his spirit. You think things are bad today?

19:19 They reverse her then. In many ways. Ignorance, immorality, indifference to God's truth, every form of social ill, every form of religious corruption, the darkness of that day. And God broke forth and he rose up on behalf of his own name and on behalf of his own truth. You can't read that if you're a child of God. You can't listen to such reports without there being this aspiration born with within your own heart. Oh God, do it again. Oh God, do it again. And then the fourth reason for this kind of a study is that which I'm calling direction. Though the ways of God are diverse and the ways of the spirit are like the wind, there are principles that undergird all of the mighty works of God's spirit. And those principles are the same. The structure built upon those foundation stones of principle may be different.

20:20 In every situation, God is a different man. Luther is not Zwingli, and Zwingli is not Luther. Luther is not Calvin. Calvin is not Wycliffe. Paul is not Peter. Peter is not John. The ways, the instruments are different, but the principles that undergird God's dealings are basically the same. And so I trust as we study, we shall receive direction for the reformation of that time.

20:51 It was far from complete. And the principles that were grasped then need to be grasped now and applied to our own contemporary situation. You see, we go back into history, not to reproduce the 16th century into 20th century, but we go back to see the principles. How did God work? What were the basic principles of his dealings? Then we take those principles as we see them expressed in the word of God and apply it to that real life situation. And we say, Lord give us grace to apply them in this situation in our day that to your glory we may see you turn back the powers of darkness and do it again. Not in 16th century detail, but with 20th century expression, but the same eternal God doing that same mighty work.

The Spiritual Issues: The 'Solas' of the Reformation

21:41 So if at the end of our second study tonight, those of you who will be with us morning and evening, you've come to some new appreciation of the reformation, some deep confirmation of your own understanding of the truth, some holy aspirations for a visitation of God's spirit, and then some clear direction as to how we should move, I will feel that our time has not been spent in vain. So much then for those introductory thoughts. The second thing to which we address ourselves this morning, and this is as far as we shall go, what were the great spiritual issues that were the lifeblood of the reformation? Now no one but a person wholly blinded by undisciplined enthusiasm would say that everything in the reformation was spiritual. No, there was some political maneuvering, there were some grinding of personalities. No movement of the spirit of God ever burns with a smokeless flame. As long as the spirit of God is moving in the midst of imperfectly sanctified men, human flesh will always put some smoke in the flame.

22:50 Always. Even in the book of Acts. The flame of the spirit comes, touching people's heart with a desire to give everything to the cause of Christ. Here comes an Ananias and Sapphira.

23:04 And they want the reputation for giving all without paying the price of giving all. So right in the midst of that mighty movement of the spirit of God, God's got to strike two people dead. There's a mighty movement of the spirit of God down there in Samaria, up in Samaria. But there's Simon the sorcerer.

23:21 And in the midst of this movement of the spirit of God, here comes a man that's seen to have everything, but it was the flesh there. So the flame was not burning with a smoke. The fire was not burning with a smokeless flame. It never does.

23:33 But when people who rule out the supernatural, who have no sympathy for the biblical doctrine of regeneration and the work of the Holy Spirit transforming men from the inside out, try to look at the reformation simply as a movement of personalities and as an expression of political pressures, they're absolutely blind. For only a man blind not by undisciplined enthusiasm, but by sheer ignorance or prejudice can fail to see that the reformation was essentially a spiritual movement in its roots, its substance, and its fruits. Now, if you had to summarize the whole spiritual principle that came out of the reformation or the spiritual principles, how best could you do it? Well, at this point I'm going to hide behind others who have found it most helpful to express the three great principles of the reformation in these three Latin terms, and every one of you young people ought to know them. Not just to sport your learning, but to understand your heritage. Understand your heritage. Here they are.

24:40 I'm going to teach you a little Latin this morning, and I hope I say it right. I checked with a preacher friend of mine who reads Latin as fluently as I read the newspaper. And he said this is the way it should be pronounced. So if you take exception to my Latin, I'll sic you on my Latin scholar who has helped me. The three Latin terms, sola scriptura, the scriptures alone, sola gratia, grace alone, and sola fide, faith alone. You got them? Sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide. Those three terms embody the great spiritual issues which were the lifeblood of the reformation.

Sola Scriptura: The Regulating Principle

25:26 Let's consider them in that order as time permits. Sola scriptura. This is often called the regulating principle of the reformation. Let me illustrate it this way.

25:38 This is the foundation. And out of that grew the other two. Sola gratia, sola fide. Got them? This one undergirds the other two. Sola scriptura, the scriptures alone. And when a man takes the scriptures seriously, it won't be long before he comes to this. Sola gratia, the only way a sinner gets accepted with God is by grace through faith alone.

26:00 sola fide. These are the formal principles. That's the regulative principle. Foundation and the two great blocks on top of it.

26:13 Sola scriptura. How did this ever come to pass? Let's go back to that monk again. Why is he a monk?

26:21 Well, a number of factors, but one of the key factors was that one night there was a terrible thunderstorm. And he thought he was going to be struck dead. And the thought of death coming and seizing him so quickly torments the conscience of this young man because he knows he's a sinner and God is holy and God must judge sin. And so he makes a vow that he will become a monk.

26:47 And in taking upon himself monastic vows and giving himself to a life of religion, he hopes to have peace with God so that the next thunderstorm he won't be terrified at the thoughts of death, but that he'll have some peace that all is well. So into the monastery the young man goes whose parents had great aspirations for him to be a lawyer. Brilliant young man. And in the monastery there's no one more disciplined and diligent and obedient to his monastic vows than Martin Luther.

27:18 A man who fasts, who does all that a good Roman Catholic monk must do to come into the way of peace and forgiveness. But the more he fasts, the more he prays, the more he strives to somehow salve the gnawing of his conscience, the deeper becomes his involvement in his guilt, his sense of frustration and hopelessness. And so one of his spiritual advisors feels, well, the way to get him out of this is to give him more work to do. And so he becomes a lecturer in the scriptures.

27:53 And he becomes a lecturer in the Psalms and in the New Testament. And as he studies the Psalms, as he begins to study the word of God, this question how can I have peace with God, how can I have rest, is burning within his heart and everywhere he reads he's looking for the answer. Until, to make the story short, although it wasn't short for him, by degrees the Lord brought him to see that the answer of that imposing religious system called Roman Catholicism as to how a man may have peace with God was diametrically opposed to the answer of Holy Scripture to the question how can a man have peace with God. And so here is a man who's been taught all his life to question that imposing structure is to run the risk of damning your soul. To question the pronouncement of Pope and Bishops and Councils and the Church Fathers is as it were to clench one's fist in the face of God and to experience double damnation. On the one hand, here's that great dread, I dare not turn my head and hand and eye away from that structure and yet the gnawing question of his soul, how can a man be right with God, and as he studies the Scriptures to prepare for his lectures here's another answer until to Luther, here was the pivotal issue shall I listen to the voice of Popes and Councils and Bishops and Fathers or shall I listen to the answer

29:21 of Holy Scripture. And he made his choice. In those beautiful words that all of us ought to memorize starting with the preacher I've memorized a few of them he is called before the diet of worms and you remember the first time they spread all his books before him and said these yours and he said yes and more that you don't have there will you recant and he said I need time to think and he comes back the next day and very cleverly Martin Luther instead of just giving a pronouncement yes or no says that the works are of a different nature and in explaining the different nature he's preaching to his hearers and then when they in essence tell him be silent yes or no do you recant here's his answer since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply I will answer without horns and without teeth unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason I do not accept the authority of Popes and Councils for they have contradicted each other my conscience is captive to the word of God I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe God help me Amen there was the issue you see this issue sola scriptura was not something that Luther somewhere found on his shelf and said oh isn't that nice this is the age of rebels

30:51 and I want to throw over the power structure so I'll get a little slogan sola scriptura no no no here's a man who as it were knows only two people on earth God and himself two issues he's holy I'm sinful and he only knows two sources of answers to that dilemma the church or the Bible and he comes to the place where he says the Bible alone and then that principle became the very regulative principle of the reformation not as a theory that some young monk worked out in an ivory tower but it was rung out of the agonies of a convicted heart why do I emphasize that for this simple reason listen to me young people unless this thing is burnt into your heart in some kind of crucible of vital wrestling with the great issues you'll be very willing to relinquish the authority of holy scripture the first smart-alecky professor you meet in college who poo-poos the Bible and discounts creation and laughs at the blood of Christ for the sake of being respectable you'll throw out the authority of holy scripture unless your conviction that this is the word of God is something more that you've heard from the preacher's lips and from mom and dad it's been burnt into your heart in the crucible of your own wrestlings with God you mark my word down the road some of you are going to throw off

32:17 sola scriptura it won't be because you find valid contradictions in the Bible it won't be because you find problems with the Bible the problem will be that you've bypassed and skirted the great issues of God and his claims and his holiness into you and your sinfulness and your need of his salvation and so as that became the great principle of which Luther would stake life itself when he entered into debates with these men they'd quote the fathers and he could quote them just as well he was a great what they called a scholastic theologian he knew what the great fathers had said he refused to quote them he quoted scripture scripture why there was his decision pope's councils bishops fathers the word of the living God sola scriptura not just the scriptures but the scriptures alone so every aspect of the life of the church every aspect of human relationships must be brought under the judgment of scripture so all the priests and monks begin to get married why not because as the church says they were immoral and wanted to throw off their monastic vows they saw in scripture that spiritual leaders were to be married men who ruled well their own households and who reflected in their domestic lives the reality

33:42 of piety and then Luther while he shut up in that castle at Wartburg he said just to be a little a diversion to him he felt he was getting distracted and depressed because he didn't do anything and you read what he did that first year and you say he was distracted because he overworked himself He translates the Bible into the German he writes something like 10 or 12 books why sola scriptura he writes a little catechism that summarizes the teaching of scripture and then the average German plow boy with his Bible and his catechism can put to flight archbishops and priests and prelates.

34:26 Why? Scripture alone. That's the principle. Sola scriptura.

34:32 And then, you see, that gave birth to the great exegetes of the 17th and 18th century whom we love. I'm talking about our Puritan forefathers. What makes their reading, their writing so rich is I often point out to my wife, I'll say, look at that, honey. I don't understand how they could know so much Bible.

34:49 Any page, open at random. 10, 15, 20 scripture references. Why? They were convinced that the totality of life could only be understood through the eyes of scripture.

34:59 Sola scriptura. Scriptures alone.

35:04 Scriptures alone. And so you and I come this morning and what is central in our worship hour? The opening up of the scriptures. How did that happen to be?

35:16 Why wasn't the central thing some kind of a hocus pocus where the weighing, waving of my hands and some gibberish in Latin was supposed to make something on the table into the very body and blood of Christ and you sat there holding your breath at this awesome magical ceremony where Jesus was actually present physically. That was true for centuries. What changed it all? Why do we come and open up the scriptures and expound the scriptures?

35:47 Because this great regulative principle came into the forefront to the reformation and you and I are sons and daughters of the reformation and we ought to be filled with gratitude to God that a young Augustinian monk was by the grace of God strengthened to stand and say my conscience is held captive to the word of God. Sola scriptura. Tonight I want to show how relevant that is for our day. In fact, I'm just having to put the screws on my own heart not to launch into it because not just with Rome, not just with liberalism, but in the evangelical church today this principle needs to be enunciated.

36:28 Sola scriptura. All the psychology. Out with all the worldly philosophy. Out with all the Madison Avenue promotionalism and techniques and all these worldly isms and philosophies that are seeking to imbibe themselves in the evangelical church.

36:47 Back to biblical principles so that we judge every activity, every dogma, every practice of worship and service and ministry under the light of the word of God. Sola scriptura. Right now, this hour. But that's for tonight.

Sola Gratia: Grace Alone, The Core of Salvation

37:05 Sola gratia.

37:08 All of grace. You see, you don't study your Bible long before you get Luther's problem. If you've never had Luther's problem, you don't know Luther's Savior. You take that Bible seriously and it talks about a God who's holy and about a man who's sinful.

37:24 And you see the great chasm between the holy God and man, the sinful creature. And you ask the question, how can I be right with this God? How can I find acceptance with this God? The teaching of Rome was, excuse me, that there must be some preparation on your part.

37:41 You must prepare yourself to receive his forgiveness. And Luther saw that the great issue was this. Now follow closely. The great issue was this.

37:52 Does man initiate and prepare himself to receive a provided forgiveness? Or does God not only provide the forgiveness but initiate and effect and complete the salvation which forgives a man so that it's of God from beginning to end? Now most people think that Luther's greatest thrust was salvation or justification by faith alone. No, no.

38:17 Sola gratia precedes sola fide.

38:22 It's by faith alone because it's by grace alone. And it's grace that undertakes the whole of man's salvation. Sovereignly, powerfully, and immutably. Let me read from Luther in his great treatise on the bondage of the will which was an answer to something called the diatribe by Erasmus.

38:44 Now Erasmus was a great scholar but he wasn't much of a saint. He was sort of a weak-kneed on issues. He hadn't wrestled like Luther in a monastery somewhere in a cell trembling at the thought of God's holiness and God's wrath and how to get out from underneath it. And so when Luther insisted that sin had so affected man that he not only was unable to provide a remedy but even with the remedy provided he couldn't take hold of it.

39:08 That even faith had to be the result of God's working. And Erasmus said in essence in his diatribe Luther, that's just a moot point. That's just something you ought to just forget. Let's not be distracted with little issues.

39:22 Free will or the bondage of the will. That's a little issue. Luther says, no, it's not a little issue. And in answering to Erasmus, this is what he said, and I quote now from Luther.

39:36 You alone, he tells Erasmus, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not worried me with these extraneous issues about papacy, purgatory, indulgences and the like, trifles rather than issues, in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood. You and you alone have seen the hinge on which all turns and aimed for the vital spot. This is Luther.

40:03 For that I hardly thank you for it's more gratifying to me to deal with this issue. End of quote. Free will was no academic question to Luther. The whole gospel of the grace of God he held was bound up with it and stood or fell according to the way one decided it.

40:21 In the bondage of the will, that is the book that Luther wrote, Luther believes himself to be fighting for the truth of God, the only hope of man, and his earnestness and energy in prosecuting the argument, bearing the truth, to bear witness to the strength of his conviction that the faith once delivered to the saints and in consequence the salvation of souls was here at stake. Quote, as to my having argued somewhat vigorously, he writes, I acknowledge my fault and if you read the bondage of the will, oh my does he argue vigorously. Some of the language they used in those days wouldn't be very much at home in an ecumenical council today.

40:57 But he says, I acknowledge my fault if it is a fault, but no, I have wondrous joy that this is the way that this witness is born in the world of my conduct in the cause of God. May God himself confirm this witness to the last day. You see, what Luther saw was this. If you say that God has simply provided salvation in grace, but he's left it up to sinful, dead, blind man to prepare himself to partake of that salvation by his own faith and repentance, you've made man the initiator of his salvation at this point, and it won't be long before by degrees you utterly rule God out of that salvation and end up right back with Romanism where man's salvation is involved in his penance, his fastings, his prayers. And Luther saw that the only way to shrivel up the whole system of indulgences was to cut at the root. And what was the root? Free grace as opposed to free will.

41:58 Luther saw the issue. Some people haven't seen it. And because of it, we've come back to degrees to a conclusion. A kind of sacramentalism and a kind of work salvation that is in many ways more subtle than that of Rome.

42:12 No, no, you ask Luther, do you believe? Yes. From whence is your faith? From yourself or from God?

42:19 And he would answer without reservation. By grace I have been saved through faith and that not of myself. Myself, it was the gift of God. And may I say that issue's just as alive today?

42:34 Just as alive today? And I want to read some quotes tonight that will indicate it. Just as alive today. You say, Pastor, do we have to be such sticklers about these things?

42:44 Really? I mean, people are lost and the world's in a mess and the church is so tiny anyway and we have so little input. Can't we just, why do we have to stand so dogmatically on a point like this? Why can't we just embrace all of those whom we believe are the Lord's people and evangelize together?

43:03 And so they seem to give the impression to the sinner that God's done all for his salvation. Now he's got to throw in his part into the pot. Well, that's really only a fine point. No, it isn't a fine point.

43:16 We say with Luther, it's the core of the gospel of grace.

43:21 Sola gratia. Not just grace, but you see, sola, grace alone. See, not just scriptures, but the scriptures alone. Grace alone.

43:35 And it's that alone, you see, that adjective, that separates us. Not grace plus, but grace alone. For you remember what the apostle Paul did when somebody said grace plus? You read Galatians 1.

43:50 The whole teaching of Galatianism was grace plus. Paul says, let the angels damn the man who has his chalk in his hand to put plus signs. If anyone changes that gospel that's grace period and puts grace plus, let him be anathema.

Sola Fide: Faith Alone, The Means of Acceptance

44:07 Well, we want to show the relevance of that tonight. The Lord willing, but this is the great principle. And then the third principle, and I can only touch it briefly. Sola fide.

44:17 By faith alone. In Luther's day, the church taught that God's treasury of grace was open to the sinner by various means. Prayers, fastings, pilgrimages, and particularly this matter of indulgences. I commend to you the little booklet by Martin Lloyd-Jones, Luther's message for today.

44:36 We gave a number of them, had a number of them available last year. We'll have to get some more, Ralph. I don't think we have but a couple left. But on pages six and seven, Martin Lloyd-Jones, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones has an excellent summary of the concept of indulgences. But basically, it was a way by which you tap the treasury of grace that was in Christ Jesus.

44:57 Now, Luther had these great torments of conscience and he did everything that a good Catholic was supposed to do to open up those channels of grace. But he found no opening up, just more darkness, more condemnation until he was able to open up until the Spirit of God made real to him that truth that just shall live by faith. And he came to see that it was the naked hand of faith taking hold of Christ as offered in the gospel and that alone which brought peace to the troubled soul and to the troubled conscience. And so the great issue then became sola fide, by faith alone.

45:36 Not faith plus, but faith period. Certainly not faith from any point of view. Certainly not faith from an impenitent heart. No.

45:42 Certainly not faith from a heart that had not been brought to subjection to the law of God. Luther in his commentaries abundantly makes clear that he recognizes no dead, inactive faith. But nonetheless, the scripture says the just shall live by faith. And so that third great principle of the Reformation came into the foreground, sola fide.

Conclusion: Preserving Our Heritage and Seeking Revival

46:08 There they are, the three Latin words that embody the three words. There are the three great spiritual principles. Sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide. You don't know what it is, most of you.

46:22 I know one or two of you who do. To struggle all your life hoping that the rigmarole of worship and mass and all the rest would at the last time put you in a place that at least you might miss hell and only have to burn a few years in purgatory and trust that your loved ones stuck enough money in the priest's pocket to say, enough prayers to get you out before too long.

46:46 Oh, how lightly we can treat our heritage. Those of us who've had the privilege from our youth up to be exposed to a concept of salvation that pointed us to Christ alone. A Christ to be received by faith alone and a Christ who was to be pleased as we walk in the light of scripture alone. And so because it's come easy to us, it's awfully easy for us to relinquish it.

47:13 May God help us not to betray our own and unborn generations but to appreciate this heritage, to understand and become articulate in that heritage and then by the grace of God as we shall attempt to show tonight, stand in the midst of the confusion of the mid-twentieth century and proclaim those great principles of truth by life and by conduct so that God might be pleased in our day to do something that at least in some way approximates that mighty movement of a past generation the blessing of which flows down to us even to this hour. Our fathers have told us what work you did in their days. Oh God, command deliverance for Jacob now. May the Lord give us that holy aspiration that these great truths of his word shall once again become the lifeblood of mankind. Men and women, let us pray.