Well, the topic that has been
assigned to me is standing for the truth. Martin Luther was
a man who stood for the truth. It's one thing to believe the
truth. It's something else to stand for it publicly at the
cost of your own life. The date was April 17, 1521. And Martin Luther had been summoned
by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, to appear at the imperial
Diet of Worms. And despite the warning of friends
not to come, Luther nevertheless appeared at the Diet of Worms
thinking it would be an open debate for him to present his
beliefs in the Scripture, having no idea that in reality it was
a heresy trial. Martin Luther preached his way
from here in Wittenberg all the way to Worms. It's one of the
greatest preaching journeys that has ever taken place. And when
Luther appeared at the Diet of Worms, there were the ecclesiastical
hierarchy of the day. There was a table in the middle
of the room, and Luther's books and works were there. And the prosecuting attorney
for the Roman Empire, for the Roman Catholic Church, asked
Luther two questions. Martin Luther, are these your
books? And number two, will you recant? Luther now sensing that this
is not an open debate. but that he is standing at his
own heresy trial, asked for the night to give careful thought
for the answer that he would give. Luther appeared the next
day and said, yes, these are my books, and I cannot recant
these books, because my books are filled with the Word of God.
And to recant my books would be to recant the Scripture itself. And then he gave that famous
statement that's already been quoted, but let us hear it again. Unless I am convinced by the
testimony of Scripture, or by clear reason. For I do not trust
either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known
that they have often erred and contradicted themselves. I am
bound by the Scriptures," then I have quoted, and my conscience
is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant
anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against
conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I
stand. God help me." And by this bold
declaration, Luther declared the Bible to be the sole authority
upon which he stood. And he saw it to be a higher
authority than the Pope, than church tradition or ecclesiastical
councils. To this point, the Roman Catholic
Church had espoused Scripture and church tradition, Scripture
and ecclesiastical council, Scripture and the Pope. But Luther took
his stand and said, Scripture alone. Martin Luther defied the
Pope in Rome. He stood against Cardinal Cajetan
at Augsburg. He was resilient before Martin
Eck at Leipzig. He burned the papal bull here
in Wittenberg. He was immovable at the Diet
of Worms before Johann Eck, and he confronted publicly Erasmus
in his magnum opus, Bondage of the Will. If Martin Luther did
anything, he stood for the truth of the Word of God. He was an
evangelical atlas. He was a German Hercules. He was a modern-day Athanasius
who said contramundum against the world. He was one man against
one thousand years of dead tradition. Martin Luther asserted the Scripture
alone. He said, should hold us solely
to His Word, that we may learn to despise the great cry, Church! Church! Fathers! Fathers! And the cry, the church cannot
err, the church cannot err. Luther said, we should learn
to put out of sight the church, fathers, temple, priesthood,
Jerusalem, God's people, everything and anything, and listen only
to what God says in His written Word." And so, in this session, as we
think about standing for the truth. I have two main headings
that I want to set before you. Number one, where Luther stood. And then second, why Luther stood. This will be very easy to follow.
And I want to begin with where Luther stood. He took a firm
stand, as you well know, on the Word of God. He was the poster
child for sola Scriptura. And there are six truths about
where Luther stood that I want to set before you today. And I want us to be very clear
about where Luther stood. Number one, he stood on the divine
inspiration of Scripture. This is always the high ground
for any Reformation or any Great Awakening or any spiritual revival. It is beginning with the fundamental
truth that the Bible is the very Word of the living God. In 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16,
the Bible asserts, all Scripture is inspired by God. It is one
word in the Greek, theonoustos. All Scripture is God-breathed. And it's really not so much the
doctrine of inspiration as it is the doctrine of expiration. that God has breathed out His
Word, that the Word of God has literally proceeded out of the
mouth of God. It's not that there was a text,
and then God breathed into a text and caused a dead book to come
alive. No, it is that the Bible itself
has been breathed out of the mouth of God. This is to say
that God is the author of Scripture. God is the source of all Scripture. Now, we could say this, that
with every text of Scripture, There is a primary author, and
there is a secondary author. The secondary author is the human
instrument that God has chosen to record this text. but above
the secondary author is the primary author, capital A. And though
there were forty-plus human authors that God used for the sixty-six
books in the Bible, over and above it all, there is but one
primary author, and that is God Himself. In Matthew 4 and verse
4, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, quoting
Deuteronomy 8 verse 3, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. And the Bible is crystal clear
in the claim that it makes for itself that the Bible has come
down out of this world. It is a message that has come
down from the very throne of grace. And Martin Luther held
strongly to the doctrine of divine inspiration. Martin Luther said,
quote, the Holy Spirit is the author of this book, close quote. And Luther said, we attribute
to the Holy Spirit all of the Holy Scripture. In other words,
Martin Luther held that every jot, every tittle, every verb
tense, every word, every phrase, every sentence, every literary
unit, and every book of Holy Scripture has come down to us
by the Holy Spirit of God. Luther said, the Scriptures,
although they were written by men, are neither of men nor from
men, but from God." In other words, Luther asserted that when
the Bible speaks, God speaks, that God speaks through the pages
of written Scripture. And Luther said, we must make
a great difference between God's Word and the Word of man. A man's Word is a little sound
that flies into the air and soon vanishes. But the Word of God
is greater than heaven and earth, yes, greater than death and hell,
for it forms part of the power of God." In other words, man
speaks and his words just evaporate in the air. They have no power. They cannot save. They cannot
sanctify. They cannot give a God-centered
worldview. But when God speaks, the power
of God is released, and there is power to save and power to
sanctify through the written Word of God. So, this is where
Luther stood. He understood that the Bible
is divinely inspired. It is breathed out of the mouth
of God. Second, Luther held to the inerrancy
of Scripture, that what God has spoken is without any error. Luther maintained what the Bible
asserts of itself, that the Bible contains the pure, unadulterated,
and as R.C. Sproul would say, unvarnished
truth of God. Titus 1 verse 2 says, God cannot
lie. God is the never-lying God. God speaks pure truth. God always tells it like it is. And whatever God says in His
Word is truth. The word truth very simply means
reality. It's the way things really are.
Man is what God says man is in His Word. Sin is what God says
it is in His Word. Salvation is what God says it
is in His Word. Heaven and hell is what God says
it is in His Word. Whatever God speaks in His Word
is absolutely true. Hebrews 6 and verse 18 says,
it is impossible for God to lie. You see, there are things God
cannot do, and God cannot act contrary to His own holiness. God cannot act or speak contrary
to His own nature. God can only speak that which
is infallibly true because God is the God of truth. Jesus said,
I am the way and the truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of truth. The Scripture is the Word of
truth. Everything about God is perfectly
true. And Psalm 12 and verse 6, the
Bible says, for the words of the Lord are pure words. That is to say, there is no contamination
of human opinion or worldly philosophy or secular ideologies that are
mingled into the pure truth of God's Word. And the imagery here
is that of an ancient smeltering practice where a precious metal
would be put into a furnace, and the heat would be greatly
increased such that it would become so hot that there would
be a separation, and the impurities would rise to the surface. and
the smelter would skim off of the top the impurities that would
rise to the surface and leave behind a pure, precious metal. That is the picture that the
psalmist David is giving us here when he says, the words of the
Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth,
refined seven times. It's the idea of perfection,
that the Word of God is absolutely inerrant and infallible. Psalm 119 verse 160. The psalmist writes, the sum
of your word. In other words, the alpha and
the omega, the sum and the substance, every individual part, the macro,
the micro, the sum of your word is truth. And every one of your righteous
testimonies is everlasting. And Proverbs 30 verse 5 says,
every word of God is tested. And again, it's the imagery of
the refining process of an ancient metal and the separation and
the removal of anything that has impurities in it. The Word of God has been spoken
by God, and as though tested by God, it is an absolutely pure
book. And Jesus said in John 17, 17,
sanctify them by Your Word. Your Word is truth. Martin Luther believed that.
Martin Luther did not believe that the Bible was just a collection
of human perspectives and different insights from inspired men. No, Martin Luther understood
the authors were not inspired, it is the Bible that is inspired. And Luther said, if God has said
it, it must come to pass. For no one should ask whether
it is impossible, but only determine whether God has said it." In
other words, all that matters is, what does God say? Let God be found true. Let every
man be found a liar, Paul says in Romans 3. Luther contended
that the Bible is free from all contradictions. He said, the
Holy Spirit cannot contradict Himself, close quote. In other
words, the entire Bible, Luther believed, speaks with one voice. It presents one one dilemma for
mankind, but one solution of salvation, one pattern for holy
living, one plan for the end of the age, one plan for the
family, that the Bible never speaks out of both sides of its
mouth, but that the Bible speaks with perfect unity and harmony. Luther said, Scripture will not
contradict itself on even one article of faith. And Luther went on to declare
at another time, the apostles show that one should not trust
the Holy Fathers and the church unless it is certain that they
have the Word of God. Only Scripture is to be considered
inerrant, close quote. So in other words, Augustine
is right only to the extent that Augustine is in alignment with
the Word of God. And down through the centuries,
those who have been teachers in the church are correct only
to the extent that they speak with perfect unity with the Word
of God itself. That's where Luther stood. He
stood on the divine inspiration of Scripture. He stood on the
inerrancy of Scripture. Third, Luther stood on the authority
of Scripture. Luther believed that the Word
of God is the highest arbitrator in the church, and that when
the Bible speaks, everything and everyone in the church must
yield to the Word of God. Luther believed that God rules
and reigns in His church through the mediation of His Word. In Psalm 19, verse 7, the Bible
is referred to as the law of the Lord, meaning the law that
has come from the Lord. And in the next verse, in Psalm
19, verse 8, the Bible is referred to as the commandment of the
Lord. In other words, the Scripture
is not a collection of suggestions for us to consider. It's not
a collection of opinions for us to ponder. They are not laying
out…it is not laying out options for us to muse. No, the Scripture
is speaking with divine authority and contains commandments that
we must obey. Luther was convinced of this,
and Luther insisted that preachers must, quote, prove their claims
with the Word. When they extol the authority
of the fathers, or they extol the authority of Augustine, or
of Gregory, and likewise extol the authority of the councils,"
referring to the church councils, our answer is, those things have
no claim on us. We demand the Word, close quote. Now, this is what Spurgeon would
go on to say in his lifetime, I will not believe a matter until
I can put finger on chapter and verse. And that is exactly what
Luther is claiming. And this put him at odds with
the papal authority in Rome, as if addressing the Pope directly. Luther declared, quote, "'My
dear Pope, you must not lord it over Scripture.'" nor must
I or anybody else according to our own ideas. The devil has
that attitude." In other words, it is the epitome of arrogance,
and it is the epitome of rotten pride to elevate any man above
holy Scripture. Scripture rules and reigns in
the church. And by contrast, Luther forcefully
declared, Scripture alone is the true Lord and Master of all
writings and doctrine on the earth. That is the early foreshadowing
of sola Scriptura. Listen to it again, Scripture
alone. In other words, sola Scriptura.
is the true Lord and Master of all writings." Luther went on
to say, God's Word wants to be supreme or it is nothing. And Luther also said, God forbid,
that there should be one jot or one tittle in all of Paul
which the whole church universal is not bound to follow and keep."
In other words, Luther understood that the Scripture reigns supreme
over every church and over every believer's life, in every generation,
on every continent, that it is the Word of God that is the Lord
and the Master over the life of the church. He held to the
authority of Scripture. And that was the test to which
Luther was put at the Diet of Worms, what would be the defining
and ultimate authority in the church. Will it be the Pope? Will it be church tradition?
Will it be ecclesiastical councils? Or will it be, thus says the
Lord? And for Luther, he bowed the
knee to the authority of the Word of God itself. Fourth, and this is a major point,
not only did Luther stand with the inspiration, the inerrancy,
and the authority of Scripture. But fourth, Luther stood with
the perpiscuity of Scripture. And by that word, we mean the
clarity of Scripture. And by this word, we mean that
Scripture is lucid. It is the most lucid book that
has ever been written. And this was so critically important
because at the time of Luther, The Bible was being withheld
from the people. And the pope and the cardinals
and the hierarchy of Rome said, the people are too stupid to
read the Bible. And the people cannot interpret
the Bible for themselves. So, we will withhold the Bible
from them. We will not translate the Bible
into their vernacular language. We will keep the Bible in Latin,"
which was the language of the classroom, but it was not the
language of the farmer in the field, nor of the blacksmith
in his shop. They preached in Latin, they
conducted their worship service in Latin, and they kept the Bible
in Latin, and the people did not understand Latin. And in
essence, they said to the people, if we want your opinion, we'll
give it to you. Martin Luther said, no. The Bible
is the most lucid and clear book that has ever been written in
matters of salvation and Christian living. God knows how to communicate. The God of heaven and earth is
a speaking God, and He can speak in such a manner that He can
be clearly understood. And that is why Martin Luther,
after the died of Worms, was kidnapped by his friends, taken
to the Wartburg Castle, and there he translated the Bible into
the German language. It began in 1521. It was published
in September of 1522. It came to be known as the September
Bible. And Martin Luther gave the greatest
gift that he could give to the German-speaking people. He gave
them a Bible in their own language. Game over. From that point, A
common man could take a Bible and read for himself. There is
no mention of purgatory in the Bible. There is no mention of
a treasury of merit in the Bible. There is no mention of a pope
in the Bible. There is no mention of last rites
in the Bible. There is no mention of salvation
through baptism or through church membership. And in some places,
they were so outraged, they rose up and tore the church down because
they realized, we have been lied to all of these years. And then that spread to England,
and a man named William Tyndale followed suit, and he said that
he would translate the Bible into the English language such
that a plowboy in the field would know more of the Word of God
than the Pope in Rome. Calvin's cousin translates the
Bible into French, and the Reformation is on. It was the ultimate back-to-the-Bible
movement that there has ever been. At the heart, the Reformers
believed that the Bible is lucid, it is clear, that a father can
sit in his home and read it to his children. and the children
can understand the way of salvation, and that a mother can read for
herself and see how she is to live her life, this is based
upon the perpiscuity of Scripture. Let me give you some Bible verses
for this. Psalm 19 and verse 8. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. This word, pure, means clear. It means without ambiguity. In other words, it's like crystal
clear water that you can see into, and you can see what is
lying at the bottom. It's the opposite of a muddy
stream or a muddy lake that you cannot see into. Luther believed
that the Bible is not murky, that it is not muddy. Luther
believed that the Bible is crystal clear, that you can look into
the Bible and clearly see the way of salvation, that a blind
man can see it. And then in Matthew 12 and verse
5, Jesus said to the Pharisees, have you not read? Do you have two eyeballs? Do
you have brain cells that are touching between your ears? Do
you know how to read? Because if you can read, you
would know the truth. And the same is said in Matthew
19 in verse 4. Have you not read? This is Jesus addressing the
Pharisees. And when they try to catch Him
on the issue of divorce and remarriage, and Jesus appeals to the Scripture
and says, have you not read that He who created them from the
beginning made them male and female? If you could only read,
you would know the answer. It's right in front of your eyes. This is the total opposite position
of the Roman Catholic Church in those days previous to the
Reformation, because they understood that if a Bible is put into the
hands of people who can read for themselves, they will get
a different message than what they're being told. Psalm 20,
excuse me, Matthew 22 and verse 31 is yet another one of these
passages in which Jesus makes His appeal to the Scripture and
says, if you can read, you will know the answer. And Jesus said
in this text, but regarding the resurrection of the dead, have
you not read what was spoken to you by God? Luther took a strong stand on
the perspicuity of Scripture. Luther said, quote, "'No clear
book has been written on earth than the Holy Scripture.'" Some
people say, oh, it's just so hard to understand. not in matters
of salvation, not in matters of Christian pursuit of holiness. It's not hard to understand.
It's just hard to swallow sometimes, but it's not hard to understand.
Luther said, everything there is in the Scriptures has been
brought out by the Word into the most definite light and published
for all the world to see. Again, Luther said, quote, the
meaning of Scripture is in and of itself so certain and accessible
and clear that Scripture interprets itself and tests and judges and
illumines everything else, close quote. In other words, what's
in the Bible is clear. What's outside of the Bible is
murky. What's out in the world is hard
to understand, but what's in the Bible is clear. And when
you see into the lucid, pure Word of God, that opens up everything
else in the world. When you understand the Scripture,
you understand the world. You understand yourself. You
understand God. In fact, you can come to know
God, and you can know the way of salvation. Luther also said,
quote, there is not on earth a book more lucidly written than
the Holy Scriptures, close quote. This is where Luther took his
stand, and it was in total contradiction to the dogma of Rome at the time. Moreover, he maintained, quote,
Scripture is intended for all people. It is clear enough so
far as truths necessary for salvation are concerned." And what he is
alluding to and admitting here, yes, there are parts of Scripture
that are hard to understand. Of course there are, but they
have nothing to do with the way of salvation, and they have nothing
to do with essential matters of Christian living. The difficult
parts are peripheral issues. The crystal clear parts are what
are essential for heaven and hell and living one's life for
the glory of God. Luther certainly did not deny
that some parts are difficult to understand, as I just said,
but he did say, quote, if you cannot understand the obscure,
then stay with the clear. And he said, if the words are
obscure at one place, they will be made clear in another place."
This is exactly what John Knox said in the Scottish Reformation,
that what is unclear in one part of the Bible is made clear by
another part of the Bible. In other words, Scripture interprets
Scripture. Thomas Watson, the Puritan, would
say that just as only a diamond is sharp enough to cut another
diamond, only Scripture is sharp enough to interpret another text
of Scripture. And this is where Luther stood.
This is where Knox stood. This was a Reformation truth. but not only the perpiscuity
of Scripture, that it's clear, it's understandable, it's not
to be withheld from the people. There doesn't have to be an interpreter,
a middleman, a priest on the inside, but that a common man
can take the Bible and understand the way of salvation. But fifth,
the sufficiency of Scripture. This also is where Luther stood,
that the Bible is entirely sufficient to carry out all of God's saving
and sanctifying purposes. Nothing else needs to be added
to the Bible. The Bible is complete in and
of itself. in matters, again, that lead
to conversion and lead in sanctification. No other outside book of human
opinion or religious superstition needs to be added. In Psalm 19, verse 7, the law
of the Lord is perfect. And the word perfect here in
the Hebrew means complete, whole, comprehensive, lacking in nothing. Listen, you can put a child of
God in a dungeon with a Bible and he will know more of what's
going on in the world than all of the big shots in this world
who walk among the people. A Christian with a Bible has
a comprehensive presentation of truth that is made known to
them. Everything that God is doing
in the world is in direct alignment with His written Word. No one
will ever be saved apart from the written Word of God. No one
will be sanctified apart from the written Word of God. What
God is doing in the world, He is doing through the sufficiency
of Scripture. Isaiah 55 verse 11, "'My word,
which goes forth from My mouth, shall not return to Me empty,
without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the
manner for which I sent it." What God is saying is that His
Word is able to carry out all of His purposes here upon this
earth, and it never returns to God without accomplishing the
purpose for which God has sent His Word into this world. And 2 Timothy 3 verse 17 makes
this very clear. After God says all Scripture
is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for training in righteousness, He then says, so that the man
of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Now, let's just think about this
for a moment. If you have the Bible, you are adequate and equipped
for every good work. Not just some work in ministry,
not just a lot of work in ministry. But every good work that God
has ordained for you to walk in, it is the Bible, the written
Word of God that equips you and enables you to carry out that
task. We need to be more like what
Spurgeon said of John Bunyan, why the man is a walking Bible. Prick him anywhere and he bleeds
bibline. If we want to be more effective
in our own personal ministries, we need to become more and more
walking Bibles, and we need to bleed Bibline from our innermost
being. Adequate, so that the man of
God may be adequate, 2 Timothy 3.17. This word adequate refers
to persons who are made complete, made capable, and who are proficient
in everything that they are called to be or do. And the word equipped
in this text means to be enabled to meet all of the demands of
righteousness. Now, we need other books. but
only to the extent they help us understand the book and to
apply the book. We don't need any other insights.
We don't need any other opinions. We have divine insight, and we
have divine truth that is in the Word of God. What other books
serve, how they serve us is simply to help us more correctly bring
into focus the meaning, the message, and the application of the book. This is where Luther took his
stand, and he was willing not to die for what the church fathers
said, but for what Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John had to say. Luther said, this Word, referring
to the Scripture, this Word is the Word of life. It is the Word
of truth. It is the Word of light, of preaching,
of righteousness, of salvation, of joy, of liberty, of wisdom,
of power, of grace, of glory, and every blessing beyond our
power to estimate. It's all bound up in the ministry
of the Book in our lives. Luther said, What kind of God
would He be if His Word is insufficient and is in need of supplementing
by men? What kind of God would He be?
He would just have holes in His soul if His truth is not enough
for us, and that men now have to augment what God has to say
in order to fill in the gaps. Luther says that is, in essence,
an attack on the person of God Himself. He believed the Scripture
is sufficient to lead the sinner to a saving knowledge of Christ. Listen to Luther, we should know
that God has ordained that no one is to come to a knowledge
of Christ or to obtain the remission of sin without external and general
means. That external and general means
is a reference to the special revelation that is contained
in the Word of God. He says, God has deposited this
treasure in the Word. What a treasure we have in the
Word. And not only the perpiscuity
and not only the sufficiency, but finally, as we think of where
Luther stood, the invincibility of Scripture. Luther understood that the Bible
is a superior weapon, that it is an invincible weapon. in the
hands of a skilled and straightforward handler of its message. He understood that no human weapon
can match the weaponry of the Word of God. In Ephesians 6 and
verse 17, After Paul has said, put on the full armor of God,
gird yourself with the loins of truth, put on the helmet of
salvation and the breastplate of righteousness, and hold forth
the shield of faith, and shod your feet with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, then in the climactic position Paul
says, take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We need to unsheathe the sword
and wield it in the power of the Holy Spirit, what power there
is in the Word of God. You remember when Jesus was tempted
and tested for forty days in the wilderness? We have the three
climactic temptations that were thrown at Him by the evil one
as He came under the assault of spiritual warfare. And when
the evil ones said, command these stones to become bread, Jesus
didn't respond by quoting Josephus or quoting some intertestamental
source. Jesus responded, it is written,
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. And then He was taken up to the
highest mountain point. Worship Me, and all the kingdoms
of the world will be Yours." How did Jesus fend off the temptation
of Satan? By unsheathing the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God. And Jesus said, it is written,
you shall have no other gods. You shall not worship anyone
else but God. And then tempted to jump off
the the temple, you shall not put the Lord your God to a foolish
test. Jesus made His appeal to the
Word of God just like you and I must make our appeal to the
Word of God when we use it in the power of the Holy Spirit
and with faith. And this is exactly what Martin
Luther understood. He understood to stand alone
against the papistry, to stand against a thousand years of dead
religion, to stand against the ecclesiastical hierarchies of
the day, that He was no match for all of that influence, but
one man equipped with the sword of the Spirit is equipped with
superior weaponry if need be to take on the entire world."
And that was Luther's confidence. Luther said, the Bible is alive. It speaks to me. The Bible has
feet. It runs after me. The Bible has
hands. It lays hold of me, close quote. He's playing off Hebrews 4 verse
12, for the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any
two-edged sword. Luther understood every other
book as a dead book. There is only one living book,
that is the inspired, the inerrant, the infallible, the all-sufficient
Word of God. He understood that this book
is alive. and it imparts life, and it is used by God to be the
seed that is planted in the soil of hearts that God uses to germinate
and bring forth the new birth. Luther understood this. And so,
Luther, where did he take his stand? He took his stand where
you and I must take our stand. on the Word of God, sola Scriptura. That was Luther through and through. And to take a stand anyplace
else is to have both feet firmly planted in midair. It is to have
no place to stand. But to stand on Scripture is
to stand on an immovable rock that will never be moved. Jesus
said, "'He who hears these words of Mine, he who hears these words
of Mine and acts upon them is like a very wise man who built
his house upon the rock. And when the rains came and the
winds blew and beat against the house, it did not fall because
it was built upon the rock. He who hears these words of Mine
and does not act upon them is like a very foolish man who built
his house upon the sand. And when the rains came and the
winds blew and beat against the house, great was its fall, because
it was built upon the sand." For us to build our lives upon
any human philosophy, Any religious ideology that is not rooted and
grounded in the Word of God is to build our house upon sand,
and no matter how attractive that house will be, it will come
tumbling down on the last day for sure, and it will come down
even before the last day. But if we build our lives upon
the words of Jesus and the words that are recorded in Scripture
itself, then no matter what storm may blow into our life and no
matter what the gathering storm on the last day will unleash,
we will not fall because we have built our life upon the solid
rock of divine revelation that is found in the Word of God.
So, this is where Luther stood. This is where you and I must
stand with both feet on this rock. Now, why Luther stood? This will be much shorter. Why
Luther stood? Four things. Number one, to abandon the Word of God is
to abandon God Himself. God and His Word are inseparably
bound together. When the Bible speaks, God speaks. 2 Timothy 3.16, which I've already
quoted, all Scripture is theonoustos, God breathed. It is the very breath of God. It is the very mouth of God to
depart in the slightest from the Word of God is to take steps
of apostasy, and it is to abandon God Himself who is the truth. This is always the first step
of the downfall of any denomination, of any church, of any so-called
professor or minister. It is to take one step off of
the high ground of the inspiration, the infallibility, the inerrancy,
the authority, the sufficiency, and the invincibility of Scripture.
It is to put one foot onto the slippery slope that will take
one down, down, down, down. is to abandon God Himself. You
cannot have God and abandon His Word. It's not like going through
a buffet. I'll take God, but no thank you
on His Word. No, it's all or nothing. To abandon
the Word of God is to turn your back on God Himself. why Luther stood, and Luther
understood this. He cannot abandon the Word of
God, for he would be abandoning God Himself. Second, to abandon
the Word of God is to abandon Jesus Christ. There is an inseparable
connection between the living Word and the written Word. In fact, the written Word is
referred to as the Word of Christ. Romans 10 verse 17, faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. In Colossians
3 verse 16, the Bible says, let the Word of Christ richly dwell
within you. Even the Word itself is referred
to at times as the Word of Christ, to abandon the written is to
abandon the living Word. Third, it's to abandon the truth. To walk away from the Scripture
is to walk away from the truth. 2 Timothy 2 verse 15 refers to
the Scripture as the Word of truth. That is to say, it is
the Word of God that contains the mind of God. It reveals the
character of God. It shows the way to God. It displays
the glory of God. The Scripture is the self-revelation
of God Himself to us. It is the self-disclosure of
God to us. And so, to abandon the Scripture
is to abandon the truth, and it is to enter into a world of
lies and error and darkness and self-deception and all the rest. And then fourth and finally,
why Luther stood on the Scripture. Because he knew otherwise it
would be to abandon God, abandon Christ, abandon the truth. And
fourth, it would be to abandon the gospel itself, which is the
only way of salvation. It is to take steps away from
the narrow path that leads to life. In Ephesians 1 and verse
13. Paul says, in him you also, after
listening to the message of truth, comma, the gospel of your salvation. Here Paul equates the message
of truth with the gospel of salvation. And you walk away from the word
of truth, you are walking away from the message of salvation. James 1 and verse 18, James writes,
in the exercise of His will, referring to the sovereign will
of God, He brought us forth by the word of truth. The only way
anyone anywhere is ever saved, ever brought into the kingdom,
the only place where God exercises His sovereign will in salvation,
is where the seed of His Word has been sown into the human
heart, and God germinates that seed and sovereignly brings forth
eternal life from that seed. And we must hear 1 Peter 1 verse
23, "'For you have been born again not a seed which is perishable."
And when he speaks of seed that's perishable, it is a metaphor
or an analogy for the passing wisdom of this age. It's the
temporal perceptions of fallible man. It's like a perishable seed
that when it is sown, it produces nothing. Peter says, "'For you
have been born again, not a seed which is perishable, but imperishable,
that is, through the living and enduring Word of God.'" And then
he quotes Isaiah 40 and verse 8, "'All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers,
the flower fades away. but the Word of our God abides
forever." Next verse, and this is the Word that was preached
to you. Salvation comes through the mediation
of the Word of God. And as the Puritan said, the
primary, ordinary means of grace is the preaching of the Word
of God. that seed, that imperishable
seed must be sown, because like produces like. And only an imperishable
seed can give way and produce eternal life. This is why Luther
took his stand on the Word of God. And this is why we are so
fixed and settled in our convictions And this is why we stand where
Luther stood, and we stand where Luther stood because of why Luther
stood where he stood. We are convinced. If we're to
see a great work of God's Spirit again in these days, it must
be a return to sola scriptura. Every Reformation, every Great
Awakening, every true revival has been preceded by and ushered
in by a return to the exclusive claims of Scripture. J. H. Merle Dubinet, the great historian
of the Reformation said, quote, every Reformation emanates from
the Word of God, close quote. If we're to see such a Reformation
in our day, then pastors and preachers and pulpits must be
fiercely committed to sola Scriptura. The preacher has nothing to say
apart from the Word of God. He is a mouthpiece for Scripture. And elders and pastors must govern
their churches by Scripture alone. Our worship services must be
regulated by Scripture alone. It matters to God how we worship
Him. And our witness to the world
must be impelled and governed by sola Scriptura. God will honor
the preacher who honors His Word. God will honor the church that
honors His Word. God will honor the denomination
that honors His Word. God will honor the believer who
honors His Word, but God will abandon the man, the ministry,
or the denomination that abandons the Word of God. As the Reformation began to break,
Luther was approached Explain what is taking place here in
Europe. Explain the Reformation. Luther
gave this famous answer. I simply talked, preached, wrote
God's Word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And then I slept. And the Word so greatly weakened
the papacy that never a prince and never an emperor inflicted
such damage upon it. I did nothing. The Word did it
all. We're not looking for gospel
gimmicks in these days. We're not looking for trendy
little techniques. We are looking for men and women
in churches and seminaries and ministries and denominations
who will stand up with the Word of God, teach it, preach it,
write it, sing it, counsel it, lift it up, let it out, and let
it fly, and let the Word do its work. Let us pray. Father in heaven, thank You that
You have entrusted to us this written record of Your truth. Lord, give us a greater devotion
to this book, a greater submission to the message that comes to
us from this book, a greater hunger and a desire to eat of
this book and drink of this book. Lord, make us walking Bibles
as we follow Christ in the Christian life. And Lord, these are desperate
and dark days, just as Martin Luther once lived in so long
ago. And Lord, I pray that You will
raise up such men in this hour who will lead the church and
who will rally Your people, and that we will see the light of
Your truth expel the darkness once again. So, Father, use the
example that has been set before us 500 years ago to bring us
back to old paths. In Jesus' name, amen.