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 you 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 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. 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 have
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
of study and consideration. 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. 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 past day,
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, the
same general framework is seen, I believe there is clear warrant
for us doing what we're going to attempt to do today in 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. 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 Wittenberg, if you're
speaking English, or Wittenberg, if you're speaking German. Wittenberg,
Germany. A young Augustinian monk in his
mid-thirties—thirty-four 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. What's his purpose? According
to the introduction of his propositions, 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 Rev. Fr. 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." 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 of
Jesus Christ. And it's that 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 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 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. And so, as we focus upon that
day when the monk pounded his thesis 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 would 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 Wycliffe
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 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 art. Why should you kids be concerned?
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 sermons. They're having ecumenical
services where Protestants 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, For you and I are no longer looked
upon by most Romanists as those damnable Protestant heretics.
They won't use such vigorous language 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, 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 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 Wycliffe and Huss, or come on to Luther
and Calvin and Zwingli and others, they were men. 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 1 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 Paulus,
we're of Cephas, whatever it was. Further, or earlier in that
chapter, he says, 1 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
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 said, for the most part,
there's an inflaming of personal and national pride and issues
that have nothing to do with the gospel. 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, pronounce 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's 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? Isn't 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 Chastened
Church where the 95 theses were nailed on October 31st or November. 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 is. May I suggest four, and these
four principles apply not only to the study of the Reformation,
but to 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. You and I are benefactors 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, 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
flowing at your feet, but some streams up yonder. made that
river, streams into which some men put their very blood, and
its 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.
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. Be where the
thing is happening. That's not 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. There's no God who's ordering
and directing history. Everything is 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. And so what's going out of our
disciplines, right up at the college level, right down through
high school and grade school? History. 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 all chance, why study
it and try to correlate it? It just happened. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. So
the second purpose is appreciation, confirmation. 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, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise,
cast us not off forever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? Rise up for
our health, and redeem us for thy lovingkindness' 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?
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 for her. 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 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. 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. 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 in the 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. 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. Always. Even in the book of Acts. The
flame of the Spirit comes, touching people's heart with the desire
to give everything to the cause of Christ. Here comes an Ananias
and Sapphira. 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. And in the midst of this movement
of the Spirit of God, here comes a man that seems to have everything,
but it was the flesh there, so the flame was not burning with
a smokeless—fire was not burning with a smokeless flame. It never
does. But when people who rule out the supernatural who have
no sympathy for the difficult 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 blinded 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. 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 stick 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 Those three terms embody the
great spiritual issues which were the lifeblood of the Reformation. 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. 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, sola fide. These are the formal principles
That's the regulative principle—foundation and the two great blocks on top
of it. Sola Scriptura. How did this
ever come to pass? Let's go back to that monk again.
Why is he a monk? 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. 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, 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. 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 annoying 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 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, Are 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? And this is the age of rebels,
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 wrung 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 will be very willing
to relinquish the authority of Holy Scripture. The first smart-alecky
professor you meet in college who pooh-poohs 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. 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 and you and your sinfulness and your need
of his salvation. And so, as that became the great
principle upon 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? It was his decision. Popes, councils, bishops, fathers. The word of the living God. Sola
Scriptura. Not just the Scriptures, but
the Scriptures alone. 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 of piety. And then Luther, while he shut
up in that castle at Wartburg, he said just to be a little 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 ten
or twelve books? Why? Sola Scriptura. He writes a little catechism
that summarizes the teaching of Scripture, and then the average
German plowboy, armed with his Bible and his catechism, can
put to flight archbishops and priests and prelates. Why? Scripture alone. That's the principle. 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? As 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, 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, sola scriptura, scriptures alone. 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? Why
wasn't the central thing some kind of a hocus pocus where the
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? Because
this great regulative principle came into the forefront of 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. Period. 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. Sola
Scriptura. out with 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, 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, 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 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. 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. 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. sola gratia precedes
sola fide. 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. 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, 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, and let's not be distracted
with little issues. 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. 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. For that I hardly thank you,
for it is 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. 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 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. But he says, I
acknowledge my fault, if it is a fault, but no, I have wondrous
joy 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. Luther saw the issue. Some people
haven't seen it. And because of it, we've come
back to degrees to a kind of sacramentalism and a kind of
work salvation that is in many ways more subtle than that of
Rome. No, no, you ask Luther, do you believe? Yes. From whence
is your faith? From yourself or from God? And
he would answer without reservation, by grace I have been saved through
faith and that not of myself. It was the gift of God. May I say that issue is just
as alive today? Just as alive. 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, 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 in... 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, 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. We
say with Luther, it's the core of the gospel of grace. Sola
gratia. Not just grace, but you see,
sola, grace alone. See, not just Scriptures, but
the Scriptures alone, grace alone. And it's that alone, you see,
that adjective that separates us. Not grace plus, but grace
alone. Do you remember what the Apostle
Paul did when somebody said grace plus? You read Galatians 1. 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 a mathematician.
Well, I wanted 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, 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. We 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
6 and 7, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has an excellent
summary of the concept of indulgences, but basically it was a way by
which you tapped the treasury of grace that was in Christ Jesus. 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 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. Not faith plus, but faith,
period. Certainly not faith from an impenitent
heart, no. 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. There they are, the three Latin
words that embody the three great spiritual principles, sola scriptura,
sola gratia, sola fide. You don't know what it is, most
of you. 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. 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. So because it has come easy to
us, it is awfully easy for us to relinquish it. 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 days 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. O 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 men and women. Let us pray.