Reformation 500 Celebration (Live Rebroadcast)

[Music] good evening to everyone watching on Facebook YouTube and at Reformation 500 calm I'm Nathan W Bingham and tonight's live Reformation 500 celebration will be starting in a few minutes tonight I'm gonna be guiding you through the event and I'd love to hear where are you watching from so please leave a comment and let me know and as an Aussie especially if you're watching from Australia in addition to music and special resource offers throughout the night you'll see animated clips highlighting the life and ministry of Martin Luther and you'll hear from doctors RC sprawl Sinclair Ferguson Stephen Nichols Burke Parsons and Derrick Thomas some of them will also be joining me right here to answer your theological questions from the web so if you've got questions about the Reformation or Martin Luther leave a comment and we might get to them later while you're waiting for the celebration to start head on over if you're not already there to Reformation 500 calm and be sure to enter our Reformation 500 resource giveaway over 1,000 people will win but entries close tomorrow will be starting shortly there's still time to invite your family and friends to watch live share this video and use the hashtag Reformation 500 you won't want to miss this see you soon [Music] [Music] [Music] tonight we're here to celebrate the grace of God to be able to bring the light of the gospel out of darkness 500 years ago we're here to mark a moment in which a German monk nailed 95 points of disputation to a door in a church in Vinton burg Germany little did he know that he was setting off a fire that would really engulf the entirety of Europe we're here to remember not a man but the grace of God we are here to celebrate the Protestant Reformation because Ligonier ministries celebrates the gospel of Jesus Christ we welcome you all here we welcome you here for this special moment in time 500 years later and for those who are joining us on livestream welcome we're expecting a sizable audience from around the world tonight for this broadcast as well so over the next few hours we're going to hear testimonies from the Word of God about what happened 500 years ago as well as as well as its ongoing relevance in our life and its importance for us today and the 21st century we're gonna see some animated videos that tell us the story of Luther's life that catch us up on what happened in Luther's life we'll have opportunities to sing about the grace of God we'll have opportunities to fellowship as well and we hope that this would be something that would serve as a lasting testimony 500 years after that seminal moment in Vinton burg Germany our first speaker tonight will be dr. Steven Nichols and he's the president of Reformation Bible College he also serves as the chief academic officer for Ligonier ministries many of you may have heard him on his podcast that comes out each week five minutes in church history dot-com and he's the author of numerous books as well dr. Nichols will come up after our first video segment by the time Luther came of age organized Christianity bore little resemblance to its earliest days the church had abandoned its prophetic voice and become a political force trusting not in God's wisdom power and strength but in its own the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary had been replaced with the ritual of the mass sacrificing the Lord a new whenever the congregation gathered the people's hope was not in the righteousness of Christ alone but instead in their ability to meet the commands of God deceivers and swindlers wandered the streets peddling their false promise that as soon as the gold and the casket rings the rescued soul to heaven Springs the Bible written by and to the common man had been snatched from his grasp its contents known only to an elite few the Reformation motto was post tenebrous looks out of the darkness light what we need to remember for a moment is the darkness in fact I've been given the title for this talk as what's the big deal about the Reformation and the big deal has everything to do with the darkness the darkness that had descended upon the church the darkness that reigned even in culture perhaps to put a little texture on this moment in history of darkness let's take a visit to a little town of Halle in Germany we're standing in the marketplace in the shadow of the steeple and the cathedral tower of st. Mary's Church and we hear the cathedral bells chime it's time to enter the sanctuary for the mass now this Sunday in October of 1517 was not a normal Sunday we were told that there would be a homily this Sunday and this Cathedral in October of 1517 that's unusual you see because usually homilies were only given at Advent and at Lent and as far as the parishioners could tell there was no special feast day on this Sunday but sure enough they walked into that Cathedral and they heard a homily it was a sermon that had been prepared and sent ahead to the minister of that church it was written by a monk named Tetzel and Tetzel worked for the archbishop of that region and his name was Albert Albert already had an archbishopric he wanted a second the normal fee for an archbishopric was twenty four thousand ducats I don't know exactly how much money that is but that was a lot of money and was also against canon law to have two bishop breaks so to get an accept exemption and to be able to have a second bishopric the Pope Leo the tenth and this archbishop Albert's of Mainz struck a deal for an extra ten thousand ducats he could have the bishopric if twenty four thousand ducats was a lot of money thirty four thousand ducats was really a lot of money and enters Tetzel into the story the enterprising monk and he had the advantage of the Pope handing over what was it I'm called the Peters indulgence named ostensibly for the Apostle Peter but it was really named that because it would be used to finance the building of st. Peter's Basilica in Rome and so Tetzel the marketer that he was crafted homilies and sent them ahead for parish priests to preach and so here we are Sunday morning and Saint Marian Kirk and Halle and it's quite a dramatic sermon the priest was told to use drama to tell of the the suffering can you bend your ear to the ground and you will hear your dead relatives crying out in pain and purgatory how shameful that you sit there hoarding your guilders your German coins when all you need to do is give over a few of them and your relatives will be freed from their suffering in purgatory our Father Leo the tenth has made it possible for your relatives to be freed people cried out people fainted they were ready to turn over their entire checkbook to make it happen well on Monday tehsils carriage would roll into the marketplace you couldn't miss it it was preceded by the blowing of trumpets and fanfare an entire detachment of the Emperor's guards surrounded the carriage banners unfurled a table was laid out on one end was a chest and on the other end a pile of indulgences and in the middle sat Tetzel and he had a jingle every time a coin the coffer rings and in German the word was sprint a soul or clinked rather a soul from purgatory Springs sprint in the German and you would drop your Gilder in the chest and Tesla would pull an indulgence off the pile and he would stamp it and he would hand it to you and you could get your relatives out of purgatory and what's better you could get yourself out of purgatory with that indulgence all of your sins past present and future would be paid for that little slip of paper that you would preciously fold up and set inside your pocket would be your assurance of salvation in my mind my mind wanders to a particular member of that congregation a particularly astute member a member who from time to time would latch on to a few words that were said on the rare occasions that the church would recite the Nicene Creed that member would hear these words propter nose at proctor Nostromo salute 'm for us and for our salvation for us and for our salvation why did the priest never preached on that why was that never explained to us this one who came for us and this one who offers us salvation instead we listen to this clod selling indulgences my mind I have this person asking almost out loud is there anyone is there anyone who will come and help us who will explain these words Proctor knows that Proctor no strong salute oh well at the end of this month on October 31st 1517 there was an Augustinian monk who came to the aid of those people in Halle those people who were caught in the snare of Tet Souls false gospel when he posted his 95 theses on the church door he also sent a copy in the mail to Albert of Mines and when he sent the copy of the 95 theses he included a letter and in the letter he said this these poor souls even these Souls in Halle these poor souls believed that if they were to purchase these letters and indulgences they would then be assured of their salvation likewise that Souls immediately leap from purgatory when they've thrown a coin into the chest o Great God Luther exclaims in this way excellent father addressing Albert souls committed to your care are being directed to death a most severe reckoning has fallen on you above all others is indeed growing for this reason I could no longer keep silent about these things human being does not attain security about salvation through indulgences preachers Christ no we're commanded indulgences to be preached but he strongly commanded the gospel to be preached therefore what a horror what a danger to a bishop if while the gospel is being silenced he only permits the clamoring of indulgences among his people and is more concerned with the sales of his indulgences than he is with the gospel of Jesus Christ do you know what Luther actually writes at the bottom of this letter he says but what can I do Luther did it by the grace of God and the mercy of God Luther did exactly what he needed to do the answer was right there and there was 95 theses don't have time to read all 95 to you I'll just mention to number 56 the true treasures of the church are not sufficiently preached or known among the people of God what an indictment that Luther lays at the feet of his church these people who were living in darkness and the church was to be the light of salvation and yet the true treasure of the gospel was not even talked about and little known among the people oh how they longed to have someone and come and tell them about this god man who for us and for our salvation came and lived a sinless life and kept the law and atone for our sin and satisfied God's wrath how they longed to hear that message from the pulpits of the church across Europe and the pulpits were silent to the message of the true gospel and number 62 Luther simply says the true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory in grace of God and that's what Luther could do and that's what Luther did into the darkness Luther preached the light of the gospel the gospel of the grace and the gospel of the glory of God we need to return to Halle we've left a few things unreason resolved there so let's go back for some reason Albert of mites like Halle and it was his one of his bishops seats but he liked being there but the people did not like him and they heard what was happening over in Saxon Germany over in Luther's region and they heard about the freedom and the truth and the beauty of the gospel and they complained against the preaching that they were hearing it took some years but finally by 1541 by 1541 albert simply vacated the pulpit at this time it was known as the market church of our dear lady in Halle its towering twin steeples are still there to this day casting their shadow over the market square well we need to back the story up to 1519 there was a young scholar very much like Martin Luther he had been trained at the University of effort and at Vinton Berg and had taught at both back and forth just like Luther in the 1510 in a 1519 he was it Erfurt and he was detached as an official delegation from Erfurt to be present at the leipzig disputation this was the debate that luther wanted the debate with Eck the debate in which Eck forced Luther into the corner to declare Sola scriptura how do you proclaim these things Luther these things that are contrary to our church by what authority do you stand on and Luther would say my authority is the Word of God and we cannot declare any doctrine that is not found within its pages Eck is responsible for Sola scriptura he helped Luther articulate it in 1519 and Luther was so compelling and so persuasive that Eustace Jonas this scholar from Erfurt was immediately convicted and immediately with Luther he resigned his post in Erfurt and went to Vinton burg and was by Luther side and when Luther published his first hymnal not really a hymnal a songbook it had eight hymns in it was it you had more hymns in your first hymnal dr. Sproul and at eight and four of them were by Martin Luther and two of them were by yes to see Onis you can see why Luther liked this guy and when Luther heard that the pulpit at Halle was vacated this made his day this is a beachhead in the region that was dominated by Tetzel and by Albert this is the region that started at all and so immediately Luther dispatches tetsu or dispatches rather yes diss yonas to this place where Tetsuo used to reign and in 1541 yonis stepped into the pulpit at Halle and preach the gospel the gospel of this god man who came propter knows at Proctor Nostrum salute oh what's the big deal about the Reformation I can't believe it Ligonier were even asking that question the big deal is this there is only one thing there is only one thing that can chase away the darkness and it's the light of the gospel and it was needed in the sixteenth century because no doubt darkness reigned in the sixteenth century it's as if the truth were right there present but hidden and God was pleased to use the Reformers even a monk like Martin Luther to bring the light of the gospel into the darkness of the 16th century and way we simply have a prayer before God that if he did it before may he do it again for there are many in darkness there are many and our own day and darkness a new darkness has descended it seems like and it will only be chased away by the light of the gospel you know what happens when the gospel comes we sing and that's what we're going to do now let's stand to sing no more the grave written by dr. RC sprawl and Jeff Lippincott which voices Doc's logical expression of Christ's resurrection and all the benefits for those who are united to him the stone road Rachel [Music] don't say [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] please be seated during the Reformation 500 season Ligonier ministries is giving away a lot of equipping resources we are in equipping ministry come alongside the church to be able to produce resources to be able to help disciple God's people as they grow in Christ's likeness we do that through many published resources and broadcasted resources and educational events but we have a special giveaway we're gonna have over a thousand winners during this Reformation 500 celebration you just go to Reformation 500 calm and you can enter into those drawings in fact one of those is going to be a grand prize of all of our backless titles Reformation Study Bible and selected teaching series as well and so that contest is sweepstakes is going to end tomorrow night 10:31 at midnight Reformation 500 dot-com also a little bit later we're going to tell you about a wonderful outreach that we've partnered with another organization on to get the Reformation Study Bible to Africa the Reformation was about the authority of God's Word and it was about the people of God discovering God's Word and the power of it for themselves and so we're taking the Reformation Study Bible across the sea and distributing it to many people over there we'll tell you a little bit more about that in just a moment I'm thankful to introduce to you our next speaker he's dr. Burke Parsons and he serves here where we're broadcasting from as co pastor at st. andrew's chapel here in sanford florida many of you also know him through his work at tabletalk magazine where for many years now he has served as the editor for that publication he's the chief publishing officer at Ligonier ministries as well as one of our newest teaching fellows we're thankful that he has partnered with us to be able to continue to teach and to take the Ministry of dr. RC stroll around the world and we're thankful to hear from him tonight dr. Parsons it is very good to be with all of you this evening even among many in our own congregation here tonight it is appropriate that we would come together to celebrate and remember the Reformation it is right and good to do so and as soon as we draw our gaze to Luther and to calvin and to the other Magisterial reformers of the sixteenth century as soon as we begin talking about them and praising them and they would be the first to say you're praising the wrong one Luther and Calvin and the other reformers would draw our attentions and our gazes to Christ alone they would tell us to fix our attentions on the gospel of Jesus Christ they would say it is right to see what God has done it is appropriate to celebrate what the Spirit has done but they would be the first to say that they themselves were not by any means the heroes of the Reformation but that God was the hero of the Reformation that the Word of God was the hero of the Reformation that the Spirit of God was the hero of the Reformation that it was God who by His sovereignty and by His grace and by his power who led these humble sinners to serve Him giving them the stewardship and the message of the gospel to expound it and the whole counsel of God for the people of God that God's people from every tribe tongue and nation from all around the world might hear that gospel that had been hidden and bound and chained for so long and so it's to the gospel of Jesus Christ that we turn this evening to that passage which the Lord used by his spirit to awaken Luther and ignite Luther to invade Luther's heart by his spirit and so he turn this evening together to Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 and 17 turn there with me if you would we read in Romans 1 in verse 1 that this is the gospel of God Paul says this is God's gospel it's not fundamentally Paul's gospel it didn't belong to him it was the gospel that Paul preached but this was the gospel of God that Paul expounds throughout the Epistle to the Romans and it is one sense is that which is expounded by God himself throughout all of Sacred Scripture and so in verse 16 we read these two verses that ignited Luther and set the world on fire for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith and 15:05 Luther after completing his master's degree was caught in a lightning storm terrified Luther and he impulsively swore and vowed to the Lord and vow to st. and the patron saint of miners and he vowed to st. Anne that he would become a monk if the Lord would save him and immediately just two weeks later went back to Erfurt and knocked on the door of that Augustinian Priory and became a monk and not just any monk he became one of the most devout monks they had ever seen as Luther was devout in his own studies previously he became devout as a monk he was the one most in prayer most in fastings the one most in his giving and the one most in his learning of the Ancients Luther became a devout man who was so seeking to end the torments of his soul that he might gain some measure of assurance that he might know God and that he might be able to rest in God and have true peace in God but he didn't find it in all his duties and all his obediences he didn't find that peace he didn't attain that peace and that hope and that freedom that he so desperately wanted that tormented his soul night and day and so his mentor his father confessor the head of the Augustinian order yan Vaughn stopped its sent him to Rome on business and in 1510 Luther went to Rome and what Luther saw brought him to a point of total despair but what he saw were the abuses of the church he saw the abuses of the doctrine and he saw how Rome was laying upon the shoulders and the backs of its people great burdens the weight that no man could carry that men had to work their way to God that they had to climb a ladder of works righteousness that they had to do whatever they could not only to earn their way to God but to earn their way out of the man-made tradition of purgatory that they had to buy indulgences not only for their own souls but for the souls of those who had already passed on that they loved and Luther was brought to the end of himself and coming back from Rome and there in Erfurt he was unsettled so she'd outfits sent him to Vinton burg and there in 1511 after Luther completed his doctoral studies he became a professor at Vinton Burke and it was in 1513 in the fall when Luther was lecturing on the Psalms and it was there when he first came in contact with another verse that was equally as significant for Luther as was Romans chapter 1 in verses 16 and 17 he came upon Psalm verse 1 of chapter 31 where we read this psalm of david in you Oh Lord do I take refuge let me never be put to shame in your righteousness deliver me in your righteousness Luther read deliver me Luther realized that the only way he could be delivered the only way he could be rescued in his sin the only way that he could be redeemed from this torment of his soul the only way he can really find assurance was to be rescued and he had to be rescued by none other than the righteousness of God so I'm coming to Romans 1 in reading about the gospel of God and hearing the gospel of God explained as Luther not only read through ins but studied Romans and studied Romans in the original language not just the Latin and as he came face-to-face with verses 16 and 17 he read that it wasn't just any righteousness but it was righteousness and the righteousness that God gives to his people that gives people the gift of faith that enables his people to live by faith and that all of this comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ on verse 16 a verse that I'm sure most of us are familiar with the Apostle Paul writes for I am not ashamed of the gospel have you ever wondered about that why would Paul say that why would he say I'm not ashamed of the gospel well because it's easy to be ashamed of the gospel the world thinks the gospel is absolutely foolish and what is the gospel well the gospel is very simple it's so simple that even little children can understand it beware of those men I don't care if they're in pulpits or robes and all the regalia that the world can offer if they complicate and confuse the gospel if they make the gospel incomprehensible they're not preaching the very simple gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel is that victorious message of all that our triune God has done in and through the life the ministry the perfect law keeping and fulfilling all the righteous demands of the law of God in the atoning and sacrificial and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ his resurrection in all his life and ministry even now it's what God has accomplished through Christ and all by the power of the Spirit this story is news and it's good news but you see preaching that good news we also have to preach the bad news and that's what Paul does in Romans one and two and three just after he talks about the gospel and how we're not to be ashamed of the gospel and what the gospel does Paul starts to talk about the wrath of God well it's not easy to talk about the wrath of God you know when we're growing up what is one of the things that our mothers teach us they teach us if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all well it's not very nice is it to tell people that they're going to hell it's impolite to tell people that they're dead and sin and rebels against God and hate God and are running from God and if God came and showed up we'd kill God it's not very nice to tell people that they're sinners and deserving of the wrath and the condemnation of God that'll send them to hell forever it's hard to do that and you know what it's also embarrassing but we need to be more concerned about our neighbors soul in hell than we are our own embarrassment and telling them about it and so we we become timid and afraid and we're scared to talk about the gospel because in talking about the gospel we have to talk not only about the good news but the bad news of sin and wrath and condemnation we have to tell people about their own wretched sin we have to tell them that we're sinners just as they are and that we need this good news that we need the righteousness of Christ so we're afraid and we grow timid because we want to be liked we want people to think that we're nice and that we're polite we need to be kind people and we need to be the most loving people in all the world so loving that we're willing to tell people the truth and that we would speak the truth and love from God's Word about sin about God's wrath about the condemnation that is upon our sin so that we might tell him about the gospel that we might tell him about the true hope and the true peace and the true joy that they can have in Christ forever Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel though the world thinks it's foolish though they ridiculed him and laughed at him on Mars Hill Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes to ever everyone who calls on the name of the Lord to whosoever believes it's to everyone to the Jew first and also to the Greek but Paul said that the gospel is the power of God and we can't miss that notice what Paul didn't say he didn't say the gospel simply contains information about the power of God or that the gospel tells us where to find the power of God or how we might access the power of God through other means but that the gospel is the power of God it is that story that good news that God has ordained be the vehicle through which the Holy Spirit might invade and conquer and regenerate hearts and make those stone rebellious wretched hearts his own it's through the proclamation of good news of all that God has done that our God reigns that he gets all the glory that he is sovereign that he is gracious and that he is not only the creation of our own Souls he is the author of that which saves our souls not ashamed of the gospel Paul says for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes and then Paul quotes a portion of Habakkuk 2:4 he says for in the gospel in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed how we get the righteousness of God that's what Romans is all about that's what the Bible is all about how that we a bunch of wretched rebellious sinners at enmity with God how we can obtain the righteousness of God and Paul pulling from a back at two fours says the righteousness the righteous live by faith the just shall live by faith from beginning to end from first to last from faith to faith we don't start by faith and then end up trying to earn heaven or earn the righteousness of God by works it's God who begins a good work in us and it is he who is faithful to fulfill it in us and so as God leads us to faith as he leads us to repentance as Paul points out in Romans 2:4 even as Luther understood that it's repentance from beginning to end as he stated in his first thesis of his ninety-five when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ called us to repentance He willed that the entire life of a believer be one of repentance we don't just look back upon a time when we were first justified when we first got saved and say I repented then know that we would live an entire life of repentance that we would live an entire life at the foot of the cross trusting Christ throwing ourselves upon the righteousness of Christ resting in his righteousness and not our own they're understood this and as he read this and he had this first tower experience there in 1513 and 1514 as he came face to face with the grace of God and how it is this righteousness from which we are delivered is God's own righteousness that he gives to us a righteousness that is outside of ourselves a righteousness that comes from someone else a foreign and alien righteousness that God takes all those righteous deeds and righteous works of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and places them upon us imputes them to us taking our sin and placing them upon Christ that's why the wrath of God was poured out on Christ not because of his sin but because of our sin he died and that's why his death is a perfect substitutionary sacrifice for our sin Luther saw this and he was at that moment by his own testimony by his own account that he believed he was born again by the Holy Spirit the Spirit came rushing in and regenerated his dead stony heart and Luther said it's as if the gates of heaven were flung open wide to me he realized it couldn't be his own righteousness it had to be the righteousness of Christ as we celebrate the Reformation rightly as we remember what God did through Luther as we remember what God did through Calvin and the other reformers it is absolutely fundamental that in living in light of the Reformation we live in light of the gospel that we live in light of the good news of Jesus Christ for our souls and that means dearly beloved that we would be a people who are proclaiming the gospel living the gospel in our own hearts as we are repenting of our sins and trusting Jesus Christ as we live in light of the gospel that means we're gonna live a life a freedom a life of grace a life of love that we as God's people would be known by a people of love and that doesn't mean putting aside the truth it means contending for the truth and in contending for the truth we would also be a people that would be always striving eagerly for the bond of peace in the Church of Jesus Christ that we would be a people who are defined and known by the world of as loving people speaking the truth in love and speaking the gospel of grace of the Lord Jesus Christ until Christ returns that we would be a people when they see us they don't see us pointing at ourselves they don't see us as a people trying to gain glory for ourselves they see us as a people who are pointing to our triune God saying to God alone be the glory thank you dr. Parsons next we're gonna hear from a Welshman a Welshman who served as in a church in Belfast Northern Ireland and he continues today to be a preacher of the gospel that gospel of which he is not ashamed where he serves as senior minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Columbia South Carolina he's come alongside of us at Ligonier ministries as a teaching fellow he teaches that Reformation Bible College some of the students there he also serves as Chancellor's professor at Reformed Theological Seminary and teaching students and training seminarians to be preachers of the gospel he's taught with us for many years at conferences we've published books from him and teaching series dr. Thomas so why remember Martin Luther this extraordinary man an Augustinian monk of relative obscurity this man brilliant a lawyer a scholar with a massive ego course hugely industrious but why remember him 500 years later well Calvin who was a generation ahead of Luther there would have been a father figure to John Calvin one of the curious things of the Reformation is that Luther did not speak French and Calvin did not speak German and Calvin never really left Switzerland once he had vacated France and Luther never really left Germany and so the two had very little correspondence but Calvin writes that we ought to be thankful for Luther because he gave us back the gospel he rediscovered it and rediscovered it in such a dramatic and personal way almost reflecting the very way the Apostle Paul had discovered the gospel in that so-called breakthrough experience the so-called tower experience the cloister experience discovering that the righteousness of God that God of us and that he had tried so very hard to discover in himself that righteousness of God which was a thoroughly intimidating doctrine was a righteousness that God provides through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone a passive righteousness as he first called it a righteousness that is all together outside of ourselves extra nurse and they're just in that insight alone he had rediscovered the gospel and brought it back to us again why remember Luther and let me try and answer this question along two lines of thought first the message and secondly the method the message and the method the message first of all what did Luther say that is important for us 500 years later and will be equally important if the Lord tarries a thousand years later well the five soleus they don't specifically come from Luther but the roots of all five lie in Luther's rediscovery of the gospel Sola fiday by faith alone apart from the works of the law apart from any obedience or contribution on our part apart from the sacramental treadmill of medieval religion through as an instrument empty hands grasping hold of the grace of God offered to us in the gospel all of God therefore and none of us Sola gratia by grace alone for as Luther discovered the more he tried to acquire the righteousness of God to perform the righteousness of God the more sinful he became in his own estimation so that the good that he would do he did not and the evil that he would not do he did and wretched man that he was and discovered himself to be God is a God of grace and mercy offered to us in Christ and in Jesus Christ alone apart from the contributions of the Virgin Mary apart from the contributions of saints past and present apart from the contribution of the prayers of those who have gone into purgatory or wherever solace Christus in Christ and in Christ alone and all of it on the bedrock of Scripture as Luther as we heard earlier forced by ik to pronounce that declaration here I stand I can do no other so help me God because our conscience is not safe unless it is rooted and founded upon that which God says and where does God say it in Scripture in the Bible alone and nowhere else and to the glory of God alone Sally dear Gloria we remember Luther for the five solar's we remember Luther four little latin phrases that open up a world of theology extra notes outside of us and how that simple phrase helps us on a day-to-day basis that the grace of God the forgiveness of God the life of God is to be found outside of ourselves casting ourselves upon his mercy and embrace theologia cruces a term that Luther used because he saw a tendency in the human being in the human frame to exalt himself and true theology lies in being well crucified in being brought low in making ourselves nothing and God becoming everything simul yester set Picatta at the same time justified and a sinner but at the same time we are justified but we sin still and the method how did Luther promulgate the gospel and he did it in two ways two principal ways one publishing Luther published over 600 titles some of them were just pamphlets and some of them were lectures that he gave but there are excellent some 600 pieces from Martin Luther some of them are definitive as a very young Christian I had only been a Christian for about a year or so in 1972 I picked up on a book table a copy of the bondage of the will a fairly sizable tome and not terribly easy to read and written in a sort of dialogue and discursive fashion an argument that he was having with Erasmus the Dutchman the humanitarian humanist of his day Erasmus said after reading only a few pages of the bondage of the will that he hated this book because luther saw that at the heart of the gospel was the absolute necessity to take no glory for ourselves and if i wills are free if there is one residual free molecule in our will then we get the glory he understood that our salvation is not entirely of the Lord it is also partly cooperative with grace on our part and we therefore take some of the glory and if God is to get all the glory we must recognize that our wills are in bondage bondage to sin it was vital for Luther to understand that in terms of the very gospel itself think of the German Bible why I remember Luther perhaps the German Bible the importance of a Bible in our hands we forget we're Bibles everywhere I have dozens of Bibles Bibles in the office bottles in the car truck Bibles on my phone on my iPad but in the sixteenth century it was still a relatively new idea at the thought of a Bible translated into your native language and that you could read it apart from priests and the church interpreting that scripture for you that you could read it for your people have died to give us the Bible they burnt in flames bodies drawn and quartered and thrown into the river in ashes for giving us the Bible Luther's Bible the freedom of the Christian man a book that Luther wrote in the 1520's in which he said every believer every Christian is free from all law and subject to none and every Christian is bound to all of God's law and obliged to keep it and it's the beginning of a discussion that Paul has in Galatians and enrollments and that Luther had in the Reformation and that we have today between law and gospel how the gospel justifies us and sets us free from obedience to law and yet brings us into union with Christ that obligates us to keep that law he wrote in response to his barber his barber asked him one day for help on prayer teach me to pray so he wrote a little book a simple way to pray to help his barber pray Galatians an epistle on which Paul had written and and Luther had lectured on in the 15 tens and then returned to it later he called it my little letter he said about it I am married to it it it's my Katie Vaughn Bora his wife he loved this epistle because at the very heart of Galatians is the gospel the gospel of free and sovereign grace that had saved him and that Luther believed we need to preach to ourselves every single day the method publishing writing books tracts and preaching he preached over 4,000 sermons that we know about although he was never technically a pastor 2300 of those sermons still survived he was once asked about his method in preaching who did he preached to he said I preached your hands see and Betsy little children so the diction that he chose was simple the concepts that he tried to elucidate though absolutely profound he endeavored to simplify he expounded the text and although Luther is not perhaps on a par with John Calvin as an exigent yet there are times especially in his exegesis and sermons on John's gospel for example where he has the profoundest thoughts when Luther died he died in the place he was born he was a man of some sixty or so years he had lived an incredibly full life and turned Europe around brought the gospel back his wife had told him not to go but he went he preached that Sunday and then on Monday he became ill and over the next few days became sicker the day before he died he wrote his confession of faith his assurance of faith made a statement that he was fully assured of forgiveness of sins and a peace with God and that he would go to heaven when he died it was important that he do that in the medieval world you needed the absolution of a priest and Roman Catholicism and criticized Protestantism for the doctrine of assurance surgery is important for him to do that before he died to tell the world that this gospel had given him assurance when he died they had to send his body back to Wittenberg in a metal coffin of some kind the the story goes that they couldn't straighten his hand it kept it kept going into this position as though as though he was holding a pen or a quill as though he had more to say than he had already said that had turned the world upside down though dead Luther still speaks to you and to me and he points us to the gospel and he points us to scripture and he points us to Jesus and he points us to the possibility of true and full assurance of sins forgiven by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone apart from the works of the law for that reason and that reason alone perhaps he is worth remembering 500 years later because it is still the same gospel for you and me today as it was for Luther in the 16th century why I remember Luther because as Calvin said he brought the gospel back to us born in ice-laden on November the 10th 1483 Martin Luther grew up in a devout Roman Catholic home where he was raised under the strict disciplines of his parents faith his father a stern and hard-working miner called hunts wanted for his son a life outside the mines he wanted him to become a lawyer so Martin pursued his education in eisenach and the University of Erfurt earning his bachelor's and master's degrees by 1505 Luther was an exceptional student with a formidable mind that thrived on study and analysis but in July 1505 his studies were cut short when he was caught in a severe thunderstorm lightning struck nearby throwing him to the ground fearing for his life and for his eternal salvation he cried out to saint anne the patroness of miners help me and I will become a monk Luther was spared and so the trajectory of his life was altered within weeks and much to his father's dismay Luther joined the strictest of monastic orders the Augustinians Luther said if you picture the Bible to be a mighty tree and every word a little branch I have shaken every one of those branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant hopefully all of us here tonight share Luther's passion for studying God's Word those dr. Thomas just mentioned most of us can do that because we have more Bibles at our disposal than we can count but there are millions of people on the continent of Africa who cannot do that because they don't have a Bible and that includes many pastors church leaders seminary professors and their students that's why Ligonier ministries has partnered with the rosemary Jensen Bible Foundation to distribute literally thousands of Reformation study Bibles across the continent of Africa recently I had the privilege of sitting down with dr. RC sprawl and mrs. rosemary Jensen to talk about this important strategic initiative I'd like to share portion of that interview with you now Bibles are so needed in Africa they're not available the greatest need is a flood the truths of the gospel even the faculty they want these Reformation study models they are just thrilled with this kind of Apple they have nothing like this out there even faculty of the seminary they see of course that it is a whole course in theology if you were to read the whole thing it would be like you had been to seminary then they're just totally thrilled with them I want to give out you know thousands thousands of them that's best ago we shouldn't be sitting there talking about sending thousands of Bibles we should be talking about tens of thousands of Bibles and I do believe that the next Great Awakening and this world is just waiting for us you know from the kingdom of God's perspective God's people provide the leverage to deliver on these products not to make money for us you know but to be able to make the resource available to all these people and it's multiplying ministry it just keeps multiplying and multiplying and multiplying I wish everybody would contribute for this project of reaching the people of Africa with the pure version of the Word of God [Music] and that's where it's been really encouraging seeing the enthusiasm and support for the Study Bible for Africa campaign and we've already raised over $70,000 but there is a long way to go as we seek to strategically distribute 40,000 Bibles over the next 10 years if you'd like to donate and support this initiative you can learn more at Ligonier org slash Africa that's Ligonier dot org slash Africa well I promised you that we'd be answering your questions about the Reformation and I've managed to smuggle in here dr. Stephen Eccles Burk Parsons and Derrick Thomas to do just that so thank you men for giving us about 10 minutes to have a little lightning round of qat but the first question I will ask and answer if you have been having any difficulties with the live stream list this evening we do apologize but rest assured that the entire evening will be available tomorrow at Reformation 500 calm so that's the first question out of the way next question to you Burke we've been talking a lot about Luther tonight is this a celebration of a man well it certainly is in one sense Nathan as you know we're celebrating and remembering Luther but as soon as we begin to celebrate Luther and remember Luther and praise Luther Luther I think would be the first one to say you're praising the wrong one we need to be celebrating and remembering what God did through Luther Luther is not ultimately the hero other Reformation God is the Word of God is the Spirit of God is and that's really what Luther would want for us what Calvin and the other Reformers would want for us to draw our gaze to Christ to the gospel of Christ and to the glory of God alone well dr. Nichols we have a question here if you could read only one thing written by Martin Luther what would that be oh can I have two so the first one these are both Luther's choices he'd say I've hit all of his books these are the two that he hopes to remain the first is the bondage of the will so if you want a little heavy lifting let's go bondage of the well the other one for maybe a more general audience and maybe a starter is his kinder catechist --mess or the child's catechism those two books would either of you gentlemen have anything else you'd recommend from Luthor to read the freedom of the Christian man is a very important book I think because it talks about law and gospel issues and how justification sets us free from the law and how once we are justified we are bound to keep the law and that issue is well it's a Galician issue it's a Reformation issue and it's certainly a 21st century issue I'd also recommend his Shorter Catechism the cleric at a Christmas and also the Babylonian captivity of the church so well dr. Thomas we have a question here did did Luther leave the church and in the 21st century when is it right for us to leave a church oh that is a really difficult question I don't think Luther ever set out to leave the church the Church of the medieval period left him and I think that the Reformers were very strong about arguing that they were actually continuing the true Church and Calvin makes it very clear for example in the Institute's that one of the reasons he writes the Institute's is to is to say to King Francis that the charge that the Protestant faith was schismatic was entirely incorrect and that they were continuing the Church of the Apostolic fathers and I think Luther would be saying the same thing he was reclaiming the gospel for the true church and that's important the same part of the question I'm gonna hand over to Steve isn't that nice of him you know it's a difficult issue what we do learn from the Reformers is the the marks of a true church and and they all came to this agreement of the preaching of the gospel and if a church is preaching the gospel that is the mark of a true church and when it's not then that's an that's not a true church and I know dr. Sproul has said you know a lot of Christians leave churches today of you know what color we're gonna paint the the basement of the church not gospel reasons yeah we have a question here dr. Parsons how does Sola scriptura affect how we study the Bible well Sola scriptura affects not only how we study the Bible affects of course how we understand everything in life and how we understand God and believing in the Sola scriptura believing that the Bible is our only infallible rule for faith and life is one of the most foundational beliefs one of the most foundational doctrines in all of life and in understanding that it means that in coming to Scripture were not simply reading Scripture but we are studying Scripture and devouring Scripture meditating upon Scripture there were hiding Scripture in our hearts that we might not sin against God that in in looking to scripture as that only infallible rule for faith in life we would look to her look to it for all of life not merely for doctrine but in gaining doctrine and understanding doctrine that we would also understand all of what God has revealed to us and is where the whole counsel of God for all of life and that will affect every aspect of every minute of all of life in in everything we do and so it affects everything and so it does change the way we look at God and changed the way we look at the world when we look to scripture as the authority that God has given it to us as thank you that's helpful a question for you dr. Thomas and I think pertinent in the 21st century what is the difference between a Z believe ISM and the doctrine of Sola fidei well the doctor saw the fidei is a doctrine that says that we are saved apart from works apart from any obligation on our part to obey because we cannot obey any any thought that we can contribute to salvation but once we are saved that the test of a genuine faith is without works that faith is dead and therefore to say that you believe but don't demonstrate it by a changed life by acts of obedience in gratitude for the grace that you have received in the gospel that is that is cheap grace that is grace that is in name only but is not a genuine thing so it's very important to keep works out of justification but it's very important to put works in to sanctification dr. Parsons as a as a pastor how do you deal with those issues as you're counseling people struggling with sin and trying to think about justification by faith alone and their own progress and sanctification well that's a good question Nathan and as you know that that question really does require a very significant answer but I think I can simply say as you well know that it's one of the most regular questions and things we deal with when people struggling they don't always know why they're struggling with what they're struggling with but at the end of the day when you really press in and really examine what what's going on in people's hearts and what's going on and with the questions that they have often they really come down to matters of assurance matters of knowing if if they really are redeemed if the Lord really does love them if they really are a Christian questioning whether or not they really are in Christ and and sometimes the Lord allows us to to question these things that we might be reminded the gospel and and find ourselves of trusting in Christ alone but but but in reality I think a lot of people in the church they not only lack assurance but there are many people who come into churches who say the right things who give lip service to all the right doctrines and they and they profess faith in Christ but they don't really possess faith in Christ and so they have a false assurance they have a presumptious assurance they're not really trusting in the grace of God they're more like presuming on the grace of God and so we have both these problems in the church and what we need to do is exactly what dr. Thomas said is we need to we need to look to see if men and women and children have real faith that is demonstrated or evinced by their fruit and by their good works and if they love the Lord at all and if they're following the Lord and Jesus said if if you love me and obey me if we have the gospel then we'll walk worthy of the gospel if we have the spirit then we'll walk in the spirit then we need to see that fruit demonstrated in people's lives so that they can have the assurance and true assurance and not false assurance that we all really want dr. niccole's as president of Reformation Bible College is this an issue that the young people studying there are wrestling with you know they're moving away from home they're kind of experiencing independent life possibly experiencing temptations trials or whatever that they may not have experienced in the home are they wrestling with these questions of what a sanctification look like yeah absolutely and and and one of your answers dr. Thomas he references the the need for us to recover Luther's Christian Liberty and hopeful thinking about Liberty in light of what is very much a rampant thing it seems to be in every age but it's in our moment of libertarianism and this belief that because I'm in Christ there really are no structures on me and I don't have those that need to strive for holiness in fact I've even heard some say if you're striving for holiness you're not grasping what it means to be in Christ so of course we need to not confuse our categories of justification and sanctification we don't we don't put back into justification what is part of sanctification living the Christian life but we certainly need to talk about living the Christian life this was very crucial to Paul Paul made it very clear that in Christ we are new creatures and we are now able to do these things because we have the Holy Spirit because our eyes have been opened up to scripture and not only are we able to but we should be on guard of these things it's it's really Christians who are spending time in God's Word who are sensitive to that remaining sin that is in their lives and they're they're pleading and they're praying and they're seeking fellowship with other Christians and they're spending time in the word so that that remaining sin this is a great word from the Puritans can be mortified and be put to death that mortification of sin so it's certainly something that I think students wrestle with it's something we wrestle with it's something every Christian wrestles with but what we find in Scripture and what we find in the Reformers is the exhortation that those who are in Christ are indeed to live holy lives and to pursue and to seek holiness no Luther didn't just preach the word and teach he wrote hymns as well why did why - Luther write hymns I think because the Reformation is about worship and it's about corporate worship and not just individual worship and and the fact is that for a thousand years Christians hadn't hadn't sung that they had listened to professionals singing in a different language and tunes that were very complicated and would require great deal of rehearsal and skill in order to perform but the gospel puts a song in our mouth I mean it really does and I think for Luther Luther was the kind of person I think who would who would really want to sing and sing I was gonna say lustily but it's a sing with gusto and and therefore the very very tunes of the Reformation itself demonstrates something of the sense of Liberty that the gospel had produced and but the importance of of formal corporate worship and the singing of of the congregation was part of the Reformation you know Nathan at one point Luther says if I could find a way for God not to be angry at me I would stand on my head for joy that's what he says and I think Luther who who wrote hymns as early as 1523 is publishing a songbook by the end of his life he's got 38 hymns he's writing tunes introducing the new liturgy in 1525 - the church I think Luther would be the first to say that this is such an expression of the joy that we have because we are now at peace with God that once you have that joy of the gospel it just naturally leads you to want to sing and so Luther did he's saying and we're seeing that even today in the ministry of dr. Sproul his partnership with jeff Lippincott producing new hymns for the church and saints of zion and glory to the holy one we've performed them here and had concerts we seen him on Sunday morning as st. Andrews we've heard some of them this evening I do want to let those that are watching live know that you can get a special symphonic celebration of the Protestant Reformation that was commissioned by Ligonier and written composed by Jeff Lippincott by visiting Reformation 500 calm / PTL that's Reformation 500 calm / PTL that's a free download of that it is in honor of the year 1517 15 minutes long and 7 to 15 minutes and 17 seconds long so over those three movements it is it is incredible so encourage you to download it at Reformation 500 Daum / PTL dr. Parsons when we think about creating new music for the church you good friends with dr. Sproul you co pastor with him what's what's driving dr. Sproul - to write new music well I think fundamentally it's that he understands that if we are going to help people know the Word of God and know the theology of the word of God that for many people and for most of us we learn best by by singing and by remembering his truths in song that's why God gave us a song book in the Bible the Psalms and as we put these truths to music we can better remember them but more than that in not only remembering them we're able to come together and sing and proclaim these truths to one another and to the world and to our children and to the Lord and and these songs as we see them throughout the Bible even the song of Moses and in Exodus these these are songs where we as the God's people come together to sing to sing and to glorify God with the truths about who our God is and the truth of the matter is is that there are a lot of writers of all sorts of music out there and many good Christian writers who are writing good and good music but there aren't as many as we need and I hope the Lord will continue to raise up men and women to continue writing not only not only songs of the faith but songs that can be sung corporately songs not just for us to listen to and there's a place for that but songs that we can sing well corporately dr. Thomas we've got people asking online what is a Protestant someone who protests and I mean basically and and protests against the errors of a religion that says you're saved by your work so you're saved by your contributions to grace in some form or fashion and for the Reformation it was it was a very definite narrative of a sacramental treadmill and and therefore the the 95 theses are protests their protestations against a corruption of religion what to be a Protestant today what would we say we must believe if we go back to the Reformation we see the solace and we see the the necessity of affirming Scripture alone is our authority we see the necessity of stressing that salvation is by grace through faith and by Christ alone and then I think it's also helpful to go back and pick up some of the early creeds of the church father so the Apostles Creed in the Nicene Creed and give us wonderful understandings of who Christ is definitions of the Trinity so you put those great riches from our past together and you have a pretty good center of what it means to be a Protestant you know if the Reformation came today it would look a little different the clothes that era wears are often different and and the particular issues that we need to deal with today are different from the 16th century but the skeleton behind those clothes is exactly the same there's nothing new Under the Sun but but the shape and contour of a Reformation today would probably look different than it did in the 16th century but but the issues underlying the mark is actually the same I think it's also important to point out as dr. Thomas mentioned earlier that the Reformation was not only a Reformation and doctrine as a Reformation everything was a Reformation and worship Reformation in church polity the way the way in which the church is governed biblically according to Scripture it's a reformation of the home Reformation one sense of all of society and so in one sense to be Protestant is not just a simply attending a church with the name Protestant in it or with that heritage of being Protestant but that we would be participating members of the community of a congregation confessing members of a congregation that is not just not just giving lip service to these ancient doctrines and these Creed's of Scripture but that a church that is living them out and speaking them and affirming them and confessing them and that that that doctrine of those truths the Scriptures are ancient Creed's that that these would bleed from us into our families into our homes into our workplaces and into all society well thank you for your time this evening I know those watching online are grateful for you answering their questions tonight's going to continue we're going to hear from more teachers and I just want to say a big thank you from the online audience and we're gonna return now to a special presentation of hear me Lord from dr. RC sprawl and mr. Jeff lepak arts album saints of Zion [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] throughout the early-to-mid 15 tens luther's conflict grew he saw God as a tyrant demanding something which is unrighteous people simply could not give righteousness perfection Luther did not love this God he did not fear him he hated him but I blameless monk that I was felt that before God I was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience I couldn't be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction I did not love no rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners in silence if I did not blaspheme then certainly I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God I said isn't it enough that we miserable sinners lost for all eternity because of original sin are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the ten commandments why does God heaps sorrow upon sorrow through the gospel and through the gospel threateners with his justice and his wrath this was how I was raging with wild and disturbed conscience this inner turmoil went on for years until finally in an instant Luther was overcome he began to see the words of Romans chapter 1 verse 17 clearly as Paul meant them to be understood that we are justified by faith alone not by our works and the gospel hidden for so long began suddenly to burn within him at last by the mercy of God meditating day and night I gave heed to the context of the words there I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God namely by faith and this is the meaning the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel namely the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith as it is written he who through faith is righteous shall live here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates let's stand to sing grace of God by dr. RC sprawl and Jeff Lippincott which reiterates the great truths of Ephesians 2 of the exceeding riches of God's grace in Christ [Music] while you're hearing now is grace of God another hymn from Saints of Zion before we return to our next message I want to let you know about two opportunities first is our way of saying thank you for joining us tonight we're making doctoral scrolls teaching series Luther and the Reformation free for you to download at Reformation 500 comm slash Luther its Reformation 500 comm slash Luther also tomorrow is the final day to enter our Reformation 500 resource giveaway more than one thousand people will win a resource with a grand prize valued at almost three and a half thousand dollars it includes a Reformation trust book library a Ligonier teaching series collection and so much more so enter at Reformation 500 comm let's return now for the remainder of the hymn race of God [Music] [Applause] [Music] please be seated we continue this evening with dr. Sinclair Ferguson bringing us a message dr. Ferguson now resides in his native Scotland but for many years ministered in these United States he's known the world over though as a faithful preacher of the gospel and a teacher of God's people he's labored for many years at the seminary level and even today serves as Chancellor's professor at Reformed Theological Seminary he comes alongside of Ligonier ministries as Teaching Fellow and we are so thankful to have him here with us tonight dr. Ferguson Paul writes in Romans chapter 5 and verse 1 therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ there are I think two kinds of evangelical ministers as there were two kinds of reformers there were those who fairly calmly consistently carefully expounded the scriptures and disclosed very little about their personal lives and you would immediately think I'm sure of John Calvin and there were others who dragged their friends and their congregations through their spiritual discoveries until eventually they and their congregations ultimately realized and experienced the power of the gospel and I think it's fairly clear when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg's door 500 years ago October the 31st that he was a man who was still struggling to understand the gospel I'd like to go to all the Lutheran churches in the world and say hands up all of you who have read the 95 theses and understood them because well-known as they are most Christians probably lack the patience to read through them all as you know they were intended as points of academic discussion written in Latin probably for only scholars and priests to read but there are occasions especially as Luther makes his way towards the end of the 95 theses that you feel he is really on the edge of understanding the gospel and perhaps even more in his agony of heart over the falsehood of indulgences longing that he and the people to whom he was already preaching knew what it was to have real peace with God and so he writes in thesis 92 our way then with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ peace peace and there is no peace and it was of course only when he discovered the real significance of the saving righteousness of God that he discovered true peace in Jesus Christ and was able to say that he felt himself to be born again and the very doors of heaven opened to him and he entered into paradise not only for the future but paradise here on earth in the assurance of faith and genuine peace with God and he discovered as many people have discovered since who know relatively little about the Reformation but the ways of salvation that were being offered to him afforded to him in the traditions of the church could never bring his guilty conscience peace one of those ways as you know was expressed in a little Latin forum but a man should do what was in him fakira quad in say s and as he cooperated with God's grace then eventually our righteousness would be produced he would stumble and fall but there was a way of contrition and penance and if necessary indulgence and perhaps if he proved to be an extraordinary saint he might become so righteous that God could actually justify him and Luther very early on understood there was no salvation and no peace to be found in such a way he began to learn that our basic problem is we are in curve a - since a turned in upon ourselves and there is no good in us there is no power to cooperate with the grace of God and there is no man or woman who has ever lived apart from Jesus Christ who has ever done enough to be justified but there was another way and it was Luther's own way it is the way of many men and women which is why Luther's message resonates still with us today and it was this way if I can just be sorry enough for my sins then I may at the end find justification and so Luther confessed his sins was sorry for his sins did penance for his sins and found that there was no peace there was no hope in this false gospel he might have been able to sing earlier on in his life not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands he could sing could my zeal no respite no and he could also sing could my tears forever flow all for sin could not atone vow must save and vow alone and then in the grace of God in Jesus Christ he discovered the righteousness of God the saving righteousness of God that covers us cloaks us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ enables us to stand before God as righteous as Jesus Christ because clothed in his righteousness and immediately this happened to him as Paul says here in Romans chapter 5 he found true peace with God being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that little expression at the end is so significant as Luther discovered he discovered us been said that we are certainly not justified by our works we cannot be justified by our sorrow we are not even justified by our faith we are justified by Jesus Christ through faith and when he came thus to trust in Jesus Christ the peace of God broke over his life just as it broke into the life of the Apostle Paul and a marvelous way as Paul goes on to say in Luther's life of tribulations you cannot read or sing his mighty fortress or his safe stronghold our God is still without understanding this was a man whose peace was threatened by tribulations and he understood the guarantee that has given to us in the gospel of which Paul goes on to speak but rather than destroy our peace with God tribulations work patience and patience but endurance that produces character and character produces hope hope of the glory of God that is to say certainty of the glory of God because it does not depend on my righteousness but on Jesus Christ's righteousness and I can no more be seized from the glory of God through my tribulations than heaven can be emptied of Jesus Christ unlike Paul more and more contrary to all that had been wrought in his instincts from his earliest childhood when he had seen that portrayal of Jesus Christ seated on the rainbow throne as the judge of sinners and the condemned ER of sinners he now discovered in the depth of the gospel and was poured out into the depths of his heart but Jesus Christ came into the world because he loved suno's and so he began to grasp not least because now he was able to read him an Erasmus New Testament but all of his salvation was to be found not in his doing but in Christ's dying Christ's dying and because of Christ's dying he said the love of God is actually poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit and you can hardly read Luther and think about all that dr. Thomas has told us about what he did without really feeling this was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit and constrained by the love of Christ and he understood where to look for that love to look to that same Jesus Christ not enthroned upon any rainbow of this world but enthroned upon the cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of our sin and so as he himself studied Paul's letter to the Romans he remembered that it was true that at just the right time when we were still powerless in Erasmus Greek Testament for the ungodly Christ died very rarely will anyone for a righteous man die though for a good man someone might possibly die but God demonstrated his love for us in this that while we were still sinners for us Christ died the knowledge that he died bearing his sin under the judgment and wrath of God and the realization that therefore he was free from that wrath he was free from that judgment there could be no condemnation for him as long as he was in Christ Jesus his Lord so many people of gone Luther's way I remember a number of years ago a friend telling me that he was called to the bedside of a dying lady a lady brought up in the same church as Martin Luther who for all that she had done and she had done so much that she had been made a dame of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen renowned throughout the land for her good works and a non-christian nurse came to my friend and said will you visit her because she is no assurance of salvation well of course she had no assurance of salvation until she looked in faith to Jesus Christ and found as Martin Luther did that there is a righteousness in him that covers all my sins and prepares me for the Judgment Day and gives me baldness on that great day to stand before him Claude in a righteousness that is divine our evening began with the story of debts or selling his indulgences preaching in a criminally emotionally way into the broken hearts of men and women who feared their families were in purgatory and because he failed in his ministry Tetzel became a depressed disconsolate broken and rejected man and his dying days Martin Luther himself wrote to him to speak to him a word of counsel and peace and gospel Hall and you contrast that with Martin Luther and/or his last words of his found written out we are beggars this is true and discovering that although he was a beggar he was able to die in the unfailing love of the Lord Jesus Christ so that three times from the dying lips of Martin Luther came the words God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to us in the gospel of His grace is not a great reason to remember the Reformation not a great reason to thank God for Martin Luther but isn't it also the greatest reason to understand that we are still surrounded in our world they may not be churchgoers today as Luther was a churchgoer then and his companions church goers longing for salvation but they need salvation and they believe that there are two ways in which they will find salvation they will be able to do enough or they will be able to be sorry enough but they slowly discover by God's grace as we pray for them that they can neither do enough not be sorry enough but they have nowhere else to look and dear friends we need to remember as we think about the Reformation and as we glory in the theology and the doctrine of the Reformation and the discovery of these great biblical doctrines but the Reformation was not simply a recovery of doctrine it was a spiritual awakening of an extraordinary degree in which men and women were finding Jesus Christ and being found by him and we want to sound again that note that's already been sounded this evening that we need a new kind of Reformation that is to say we need a new awakening my own great-great predecessor in gospel preaching and Scotland John Knox you know when he was asked to explain how it was that the Reformation came about did not answer it was because of Martin Luther or because of John Calvin or because of John Knox but says Knox because God gave His Holy Spirit to ordinary man in great abundance that's the explanation for Luther that's the explanation for the Reformation when as we celebrated tonight and tomorrow and look forward to the future we need to cry to God that he will send the same spirit again we need to pray like Elijah and his companions not just where is the Lord God of Elijah but where is the Lord God of Martin Luther you did at once Lord in your infinite mercy do it again give your Holy Spirit with your word to ordinary man in great abundance that they may be filled with a peace of Christ and the love of God and bring the gospel to a needy lost broken and dying world this is our prayer for our Savior sake amen we are remembering the grace of God because the grace of God transforms lives and it has ever been doing it since the Reformation Ligonier ministries is not a museum ministry though we do not look backwards at some golden age of Christianity instead just as dr. Ferguson says we remember the grace of God and how it broke forth in that time and we teach our children that he did it then and he can do it again in our day and so we work and pray to that end and that is why we are engaged in creating all of the published and broadcast resources doing the events like this one and even others around the world so that you might be able to take these and share them with others your family your church your co-laborers the community such that God might bring a new awakening and awakening to the holiness of God our own sinfulness in our need for Jesus Christ as the only Savior while we're recording all that we're doing here tonight and we're gonna edit it down and put it out there in the digital world and it'll be available tomorrow and you'll be able to share with others what you heard and learned tonight and so we would like to be able to move this out there to serve the church and provide this as just another resource that provides an enduring testimony to the grace of God reminder don't forget to enter the Reformation 500 sweepstakes we have over a thousand winners who will receive some wonderful equipping resources for you you can enter that at Reformation 500 calm it's a privilege now to be able to introduce our final speaker for the evening and then we'll get into a question-and-answer time with all of our speakers he founded Ligonier ministries in western Pennsylvania in 1971 little did he know what would happen over the next 47 years it's remarkable to see how God used this small ministry in an obscure town to be able to bring about one of the great resurgence 'iz of reformed theology in the 20th and now 21st centuries it is something at which we all marvel and give thanks to God for he uses ordinary people and then blesses them with extraordinary gifts dr. RC sprawl he founded Ligonier ministries to awaken as many people as possible to the holiness of God and he has sought to proclaim teach and defend that truth his entire ministry he serves as co pastor here at st. Andrews chapel where we are tonight he also is the executive editor for Table Talk magazine and the primary teacher for renewing your mind he also Lee the college that he found it as Chancellor now at Reformation Bible College and we are so grateful to be able to close out this testimony with a message from dr. scroll thank you Chris we've heard already this evening an emphasis on the recovery of the gospel and so it's almost an unscientific PostScript for me to ask the real simple question what is the gospel what is this gospel that was so important so vital and so controversial in the 16th century let me begin by saying what the gospel is not the gospel is not our personal testimonies our personal testimonies may be of interest to people and may be used of God to introduce a conversation about the gospel we may have methods of evangelism that we've learned such as as the evangelism explosion diagnostic questions have you come to the place and you're thinking where you know for sure that when you die you're going to go to heaven and then it's followed by it if you are to die and stand before stood before God tonight and God said to you why should I let you enter my heaven what would you say those questions aren't the gospel they're a wonderful introduction to discussions and conversations about the gospel well you may have heard the idea that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life but it may or may not be true in the final analysis the reprobate won't find the plan so great but in any case that also is not the gospel what is the gospel is found on the pages of Sacred Scripture and there are two distinct aspects about the gospel and those aspects are what I would distinguish between the objective content of the gospel and then secondly the subjective appropriation of the gospel in very simple terms the controversy the sixteenth century did not focus on the first part on the objective gospel the objective gospel simply is this it's Jesus who he is and what he has done his life of perfect obedience sinlessness his substitutionary atonement his resurrection his ascension into heaven the promise of his return but when we get to the subjective aspect of the gospel that's where the controversy raged and that's this question how does the life of Christ how is the work of Christ and its benefits appropriated to us now the Roman Catholic Church at a very complex answer to that question and in trying to answer that question they went back in history to use the language that was first formulated by the philosopher Aristotle in antiquity era sulla was concerned about many questions of science many questions of physics and metaphysics and one of the questions that really puzzled the philosophers of that day was what is motion some even question whether motion was actually real there were skeptics who challenged the very notion but Aristotle applied his keen mind to the question of motion and what he was looking about was he noticed that everything in the world was subject to change mutation and so he tried to analyze the motion of change he realized that change itself was motion and so he in his analysis distinguished several different causes for motion and to simplify his analysis as he did himself used the illustration of a statue how is it that a statue comes into being a statue is something that results from tremendous change from the original matter out of which the statue is made and so he spoke about the material cause of statues and he defined the muriël material causes that out of which a thing is made but then he discerned several other aspects of the causality involved in the production of the statue he said what's the efficient cause of the statue the answer was simple the efficient cause of the statue is the sculptor who moves and changes and forms the matter and turns it into a beautiful piece of work and that efficient cause also required a sufficient cause that cause that was able to do the actual work and bring it to completion but in addition to that Aristotle notice even different causes you speak that he spoke of a formal cause and he described the formal cause as the plan or the blueprint that was either written on paper was or was simply in the mind of the sculptor later on Michelangelo perhaps the greatest sculptor of all time had a series of unfinished statues that he called the prisoners as he would look at a block of Carrara marble and and he would see before he wouldn't pick up his tools the finished product and he thought that his task was to chisel away at that block of stone and release the form that it was already contained within it and Aristotle also noted what he called the final cause the purpose for which these changes take place and in the case of sculpture he said that the purpose of the sculpture may be the sculptor might be to beautify the gardens of a wealthy merchant or to adorn the property of a pope but then in all that definition of different kinds of causality he focused on another kind of causality which he described as the instrument cause the tools or the instruments that the sculpture sculptor uses to form shape and change that block of wood into the finished product well you didn't come here to hear about us Aristotle but the language that was used by Aristotle in this regard was incorporated into the church and so the church used all these different definitions of causality and at the very heart of the dispute in the sixteenth century was this question what is the instrumental cause of our justification what is the means by which our salvation and our justification takes place and Rome was very clear in their definition of what the instrumental cause of justification it was they found the instrumental cause of justification in the sacraments to most importantly initially the sacrament of baptism this is why we speak of the Roman Catholic view as being sacramental and Sasser totaled something that is accomplished through the working of the priests who used the instruments necessary to bring people to a state of grace and the first instrumental cause of our justification they said was the sacrament of baptism which baptism worked ex offer operated by the sheer working of the works that the the person who was baptized in this sacrament receive the infusion of justifying and saving grace and that grace put them at least temporarily in a state of grace in the state of justification until or unless that person committed mortal sin and mortal sin was defined as sin so egregious so severe that it killed or destroyed the grace of justification in the center so that this person who was baptized if he died in mortal sin would go to hell but there was a recipe to recover justification for the person who committed mortal sin and that was called the second plank of justification karma for those who have made shipwreck of their souls and the second plank of justification according to Rome and I don't mean to use a pun that was the Cardinal issue of the doctrine of justification in the 16th century because the Sacrament of Penance included various parts confession absolution there can acts of a contrition absolution from the priest and then finally the controversial part works of satisfaction and one of the works of satisfaction could be the giving of alms for the poor or to the church which was the foundation for the whole process of indulgences and so the paying of indulgences was to make use of one of the ways in which one could achieve congruous merit merit that would make it Congress for God to restore the sinner who has lost the grace of justification to once again be in a state of justification it's a room stood firm on this principle that the instrumental cause of justification is found in the sacraments first in the sacrament of baptism and then in the Sacrament of Penance that was the clash because when Luther came to his understanding of justification by faith alone the affirmation of the reformers was this that the instrumental cause of justification is not found in the sacraments it's found in faith faith is the instrument indeed the sole instrument by which people are justified and that was the battle that was the fight and again the question justification of justification by faith has it's already been intimated to you to this evening was only shorthand for justification by Christ when we say that justification is by faith we are talking about the instrumental date of the means by which a person is justified and justification by faith simply means that the instrument of our justification is that with faith and by faith and through faith we are linked to Jesus so that all that he is and all that he has done it's given to us justification is by Christ alone you know again in terms of this language of causality the Reformers used another term that Aristotle never thought about in his day and that was the meritorious cause of our salvation and when the Reformers spoke of the meritorious cause of our salvation they spoke of the merit of Jesus Christ alone solace Christus justification the means is the instrument by which were linked to Jesus and His righteousness is given to us by faith that's what Paul was saying in Romans 1 that's what Luther was repeating in the Reformation that just shall live by faith the alone instrument by which we are justified in November 1518 Luthor was summoned to Augsburg to appear before an assembly and defend his thesis three days of debate proved fruitless Cardinal Thomas cotton continued to defend the practice of issuing and selling indulgences Luthor refused to recant and returned to Vidhan burg but the controversy he didn't end there Luthor continued to write publish and teach formulating and clarifying the doctrines which would become the foundation for the Reformation papal Commission's studied his works and declared them heretical obli o the tenth declared him a heretic and excommunicated him in early 1521 and then at the diet of verbs Luther was called to defend himself once again he was put under enormous pressure but Luther wouldn't be swayed unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason for I can believe neither Pope nor councils alone as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture which is my basis my conscience is captive to the Word of God this I cannot and will not recant because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound God helped me our men declared a heretic by Leo the tenth and vilified by Holy Roman Emperor Charles v Luther went into hiding in high Cenac and although he might not have said those famous words here I stand this much is clear in exile Luther never wavered in fact he became even more bold he wrote and and reformulated his doctrines with indefatigable zeal he began to translate the New Testament into German so that everyday folks could have the Bible in their own language for the very first time here in exile his desire for moral Reformation morphed into the desire for a complete transformation the establishment of a new church one which was modeled after the church visible in the New Testament we are here tonight and we've been celebrating the Reformation but some speak of it as more something to be mourned and that it's a schismatic movement so it would it be a more important response to the Reformation to mourn or is it right to celebrate find a world would anybody mourn it when the gospel that makes us alive we mourn death not at life and the gospel is life we often talk about recovering the gospel how was the gospel lost in the first place and how can we avoid losing it again probably shouldn't surprise us that in the 16th century the gospel was obscured we see this in the first century we see it in Paul's churches in his epistle to the Galatians he's he's astounded he's marveling that they were entertaining a different gospel than he quickly adds it's a false gospel so if we see it in the first century and the churches of the Apostles themselves really shouldn't surprise us that in every generation there's that temptation then to improve upon God's gospel as it were or to obscure the gospel and so when we found ourselves where we found ourselves in the 16th century was the need to recover the gospel and we find that is true of every generation of every age of the church there is a predisposition I think in the heart of every individual to self-justification to begin with the spirit and to be made perfect by the flesh as Paul says to the Galatians and so not just at the Reformation but today also there is that tendency to revert to self justification which is why the rediscovery of the gospel is something that is a continual and daily need and not just something that that occurred in the sixteenth century I think one might add to that that the Reformation is needed wherever the church hides the Bible Martin Luther had not actually seen a Bible until the first year of his novitiate when he was becoming a monk and he was lent a Bible for a year only and that's a real indication of how ordinary men and women knew nothing about the scriptures absolutely nothing about the scriptures there was a there was a martyr in Scotland who during the course of his trial his accusing priest fooled a New Testament out of his sleeve held it up to the court and said this is the book that is causing all the trouble he was right of course but it's a real indication of the need of Reformation and renewal wherever the church hides the Bible and sad to say there are many churches in the contemporary world where the Bible is being hidden either an ignorant are actually quite deliberately and perhaps there's never been such a time of need for Reformation and renewal as there is today in that respect I couldn't agree more with dr. Ferguson and I think that in many in many churches today churches pastors and the people in those churches would profess to know the gospel and they say well of course we believe the gospel the gospel is core to who we are as a people but when you listen to the sermons and the Sunday School lessons down to the teachers in the children's Sunday School classes you don't actually hear the gospel you hear talk about the gospel talk about Jesus talk even perhaps about sin but you don't really hear talk about the gospel it becomes not lost altogether but obscured it becomes sort of displaced by entertainment and so many other things in the church by stories and socio-cultural anecdotes and pop psychological anecdotes and the gospel sort of gets pushed to the side it's still there and people still say well we we believe it but you don't hear it it's not part of the warp and woof and the core being of the church what is the differences between sin and iniquity and trespasses among what are the differences between sins iniquities and trespasses well there are different words in the Old Testament most of us are familiar with the Greek town hamartia for sin which conveys the idea of falling short of Lamarque we are made for the glory of God but what sin does is it causes us to fall short of Lamarque transgression has the very basic idea of crossing the line that God has given us his law and we cross the line and iniquity has the sense for example in Psalm 51 of of twisted nurse there is a twisted nurse in us as a consequence of these and all of these words are different angles on one and the same reality of disobedience to God our against nurse hatred our devotion from him they say that the more important something is the more words you find in that culture for that something and there is an abundance of vocabulary in the Hebrew Old Testament for sin and the great thing is there was also an abundance of vocabulary for the idea of grace so there's bad news and there's very good we've heard tonight about the last written words of Luther we're beggars this is true well when we talk about debt and transgressions the scriptures say that we are debtors who cannot pay their debts we God and God alone has the absolute right to impose obligations to his creatures and he has done that he has said you must do this you must not do that and imposing those obligations we owe it to to perform those obligations if we don't we become debtors to the law and debtors to the god of the law and the problem that we face as we learn in the New Testament is it we're debtors I can't file for chapter 11 there's no way we can pay the debt it's a hopeless task it's a fool's errand to try to pay the debt that we owe but this is that what's basic to our human things as we can't stand that we want to be able somehow to pay the debt and meet the obligation rather than to say I'm helpless I'm a debtor who can't pay my debts the only way I can stand before a just and holy God is if somebody else pays the debt and the only one who has earned the right to pay somebody else's debt is the Son of God and that's why we talk about justification through Christ alone who alone has the merit to pay for us he is the Treasury of merit nothing could be added to or subtracted from that Treasury that is in him do preachers or pastors have a higher importance than normal Christians would God favor a pastor more than myself or someone else No next question going once twice well there is an important Reformation principle here behind this question I suspect and that is the priesthood of all believers and and that is a very very profound discovery or rediscovery at the time of the Reformation that that religion had been I'd been hidden in a language that people didn't understand by professional people to whom they had no real access to and discovering that we are all priests before God that but that the individual can approach God by himself herself through faith in Jesus Christ and not through the intermediary of of us acidotic system so that that is vitally important that that just the issue about the Bible being being given into the hands of an individual and that that individual could read and at least discover the rudiments of the gospel for themselves through the help of preachers and teachers for sure but those are those are vitally important Reformation principles the frame yes just one thing that's I think misunderstood is is that as as elders as pastors who Shepherd God's people we we have authority but our authority is not in and of ourselves our authority is not innate our authority is ministerial Authority it's declarative Authority its authority that is based in the Word of God and so our job our call is to serve God's people by serving them with the Word of God and so it is important that though we have Authority and though the Lord has called us as elders to exercise church discipline and to proclaim the Gospel rice to the whole Council of God that our Authority is not in and of ourselves our authority is in the Word of God as we declare it to the people of God the authority is in God's Word and in God himself and we serve him through that authority Chris I think it's also worth remembering that even in what Luther and Leo thought of us our rights Troy epistle James does say that teachers and preachers will be more severely judged for what they do and none of us should ever look at a preacher or teacher and simply think he is in a position where he is being favored because every word that comes out of our mouths is being assessed in heaven and so it's a tremendously sobering thing from it's a very joyful thing to be a minister of the gospel but you know it's a very sobering thing God is not especially favoring ministers in that respect he's giving them great responsibility to put the food into the mouths and hearts of the people and that's why we need to pray for our ministers we really need to pray for them in that respect the phrase simple referenda always reforming it's often used to describe a constantly changing an evolving church is that what it means that the church should always be in flux unfortunately every heretic appeals to that mantra semper Ramona always reforming whenever we want we mistake novelty with Reformation the point of that motto initially was that in the sixteenth century not all of the errors and the church were reformed not all of the dirty linen was cleansed there were still a lot of work left to do and there's always a lot of work left to do but when we're talking always reforming does not always mean always changing you know there are those today who who say is we've heard almost already that the Reformation was a tempest in a teapot or it was all a misunderstanding or it was a terrible division in the body of Christ an unnecessary split where people were fighting over unnecessary details the Apostle Paul tells us that we're supposed to try to live at peace with all people not be by nature quarrelsome and engaging in nitpicking theological arguments but as Paul himself when he wrote the Galatians no wonder Luther called it as Katie Vaughn Laura was it Luther I mean Paul just rose up in fury at the Galatian heresy why because it was a different gospel we're talking not about a tempest in a teapot we're talking about her Hurricane Irma we're talking about one that is devastating to life and limb whenever you negotiate or compromise the necessary saving truth of Jesus Christ now we always have to be involved in Reformation and like I said every heretic in modern church claims that as an excuse for departing from the truth of Scripture but that was not its original intent Chris you know I I was brought up in and you know the wilds of Scotland and where they were still speaking Latin and I was I was always taught from alle days a Christian that the Latin motto was ecclesia reform matter that is the church that has been reformed Semple reform and arrest always needs to be reformed and I think sometimes when people say well sample reform and you really need to stop them and say well what about the reform matter once the church has been reformed according to Scripture it needs to keep on being reformed according to Scripture but let's get a reformed first not changed verse but reformed according to Scripture so you know we just sometimes we need to be a bit uppity and ask people how good the Latin is I'm only kidding and that from our seat what should we say though to folks who think that these issues that caused the Reformation aren't really issues anymore today made that comment and in print that the issues of the sixteenth century aren't the issues anymore today and that all of a sudden they the division has been restored and and it's been healed and all the rest that Rome doesn't teach indulgences anymore it doesn't have a Treasury of Merit anymore what are they thinking what are they reading read the Catholic catechism of 1990s and see whether there's any Treasury of merit and see whether there's any indulgences and see rest know if anything the issues are greater today partly because of the impact of 19th century liberal Protestantism that if anything has moved the gospel back in the darkness it's that and that heresy came out of Protestantism not out of the Roman Catholic Church and yet we are being destroyed in the worldwide sense by the residual unbelief of the 19th century liberal destruction of the gospel you know when I when I hear these questions was the Reformation a mistake as the Reformation over they tend to be phrased and framed from those in the sort of anglo-american contexts it's very interesting if you go into Latin American contexts or you go into contexts like Brazil or other places they're not asking that question is the Reformation over it's a very clear distinction between what Roman Catholicism is teaching and Protestantism we are very much partners with a wonderful ministry in Brazil called editorial Pheo and when the founder of that ministry went to Brazil and began the ministry the local Catholic Church hung a banner outside of their church praying to Our Lady of Fatima meaning Mary deliver us from the heresies of these Protestants sometimes in our settings and I think because of generations of liberalism we become theologically numb and when we put ourselves out of our settings we just see how distinct in how clear and what a true difference there is between the Protestantism and the upholding of the gospel and the Catholicism which really is obscuring the gospel in your assessment what one personal quality or characteristic made Luther such an effective instrument in God's hands to reform the church who found where he could get bread and told everybody who would listen to him I think that the biggest thing that that I how can a guy stand against the whole world like he did and the only way to understand that is you have to get back into his personal struggle with his lack of assurance of salvation with his violent search for justification in the presence of a holy God and visit with him in his utter despair see Luther Luther understood who Luther was and that's our problem we don't understand who God is and we don't understand who we are it's like I say in chapter 6 when he saw the Lord I lift it up he's all of a sudden said whoa wait a minute woe is me I've got a dirty mouth and I'm not alone I live with a pole people of unclean lips so that was an awakening in his sin you didn't have to teach Luther that he was a sinner he was a brilliant student of jurisprudence of the law he read the law of God he examined himself in light of the law of God and he was helpless to save himself and when he tasted the gospel his soul was set on fire and he said I'm not going to give this up or anybody in the whole world I have tasted the fruit of the gospel and if all of the Devils in Hell opposed me I will say to them here I stand he was passionate and he was passionate about the gospel he was passionate about people he was passionate about life he was a passionate about enjoying life you know the question I want to ask is who do you like to go out and have lunch with Calvin or Luther and I really do want to go and have lunch with Calvin because I I studied Calvin at some level and and I owe him and when I see him in heaven and I'm gonna have to say you know I you occupied 10 years of my life and I really have a bunch of questions but I really want to have lunch with Luther because I think that way more fun healthy others of you what do you appreciate about Luther I think it's his courage and his boldness we've talking about this just before we came out here with Luther and his debate with Erasmus to be a real Christian you make assertions and Luther recognized that Christianity is about assertions and those assertions need to be made as boldness did not spring from his own intellect or from his own abilities it sprung from the idea that he was standing on what God had declared but there was a boldness and a courage to Luther and God used it doesn't take any courage to do what you're not afraid to do so the one necessary ingredient for courage is fear and in one sense Luther was a terrified man and that's why I love his courage like you do that in spite of his fears you know his rage we can endure for Louis do Monsieur Prince of Darkness grim we tremble not for him but he did tremble he was scared to death of the world the flesh and the devil but he held on to the gospel and found his courage there what about today what is the biggest threat to Christianity in this century as you see it right now probably Christianity in this century that's a greater threat than Islam christened a far greater threat to Christianity than Islam is Islam can never destroy the gospel but christened 'm can easily destroy the gospel and is destroying the gospel where it has the gospel in its hands destroying the church it's the greatest threat to real Christianity in the world god help us that's not my song I got a bit of Luther and what you and your pirates this morning I must sausage this morning I think I think for me it's it's the whole issue of you know whether you call it late modernity or post modernity or whatever but but the whole questioning of truth and what is truth and is there any such thing as truth and isn't it isn't it just your version of truth and your opinion versus mine and and that makes it very difficult to state objective facts about the gospel even even the spin that is now current and this is not a political comment but this the spin about about false news and false spins on news and there's a there's a sort of rejoinder to that that if if that is true and that and that is true and we all know that that is true that that there are versions of history out there that are completely falsified false news fake news whatever you want to call it but at the end of the day if you take that to its ultimate limit then then people don't think that there's any news at all that is true and it's and it's all fake and it's all personal but the gospel stands on facts of history that Jesus was born in Bethlehem that he died at Calvary that he rose again I mean those are facts of history and to be able to say that in the 21st century I mean that is a real challenge you know Calvin was asked this question why the Reformation and he made the point that the whole form of worship is corrupt and behind that as Calvin's understanding of who God is and I think every age of the church you brought it up when you're talking about Isaiah in chapter 6 that it's really our issue our view of God and you look around much especially the church in America we have far too casual of you of God and that might be right at the center of some of our theological malaise as the young restless and reformed movement built on or detracted from the historical message of the Reformation you asked him that to me anyone who wants to answer ok I won't say anything I was just looking at the clock well we'll have a follow-up question to this okay yeah I'll wait for that one that's a that's a big question and there's there's a great complexity to the answer I think but one thing we need to always keep in mind is that truth is never a fad and when God's truth goes out it never returns void it always goes forth and accomplishes precisely what God has intended and we need to be grateful for God's truth going forth to the young to the aged to all and we need to contend for that truth and continue to proclaim that truth and to be grateful for the truth of the Lord going forth and so what we need to do is to be faithful in cultivating that truth and de cycling the young not simply giving them the truth and then letting them run off on their own but rather mentoring them and coming alongside them and and an older man coming in mentoring younger men and older women in the church is coming and mentoring younger women and helping them grow as disciples of Jesus Christ so that they might not simply have a flash in the pan with reformed theology in the Bible but that they might come to learn to know how to love the Bible how to love the Lord Jesus Christ how to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ into maturity in the Church of Jesus Christ and that that we would not divorce young people or anyone for that matter from the church but that we as God's people in all the church would be examples to the young and that we would be examples in our faith and it would be examples in our worship and that we'd be coming to worship and attending worship attending to the means of grace and that will be the example to the younger generations as they see us living out the gospel in our own lives - well last question to you you got one for me where's your plan all right let's you know plan your work and work your plan go ahead Krish where should our confidence be as we leave here tonight as we assess the Reformation where should our confidence be placed well where was it for Luther where was it for Calvin where was it for Knox you know Luther certainly didn't find a whole lot of confidence in Luther Calvin didn't find a lot of confidence in Calvin Knox and find a lot of confidence in Knox that's not why we're here talking about these men because our confidence is not in those men we are profoundly grateful for what they did in their hour and at the time of such great crisis in the church for the recovery of the gospel what a glorious and wonderful thing that what happened that God used these people and for which we are profoundly grateful not only to God but we say how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring us good tidings and so we do celebrate and honor the Magisterial reformers for their boldness for their courage and for their commitment to the truth of the gospel and of the Word of God but they knew this as we know that our confidence can only be in Christ anywhere else we place is an exercise in vanity and again a fool's errand and so it was it was a after Luther died there were moments of discouragement after Luther died you know the movement went on it didn't end with his death or with Calvin's death but back at bitten Berg when Luther died and the message came back from Iceland and the message was delivered to the lengthen and Melanchthon was preaching teaching class and somebody beckoned him out and whispered in his ear that Luther had died and so he went and he said to his class the charioteer of Israel has fallen and after the funeral services are the different orations and all of that there were times that of discouragement that came to Wittenberg to the University and whenever the faculty would go through a blue period a down period Melanchthon would go and stand before the faculty and he would say gentlemen let's sing the 46th and everybody knew what he meant because his most famous in that Ruth Luther wrote was a mighty fortress of is our God based on Psalm 46 and so now I'd like us to sing the 46 [Music] [Applause] let's pray our Father what a great way to end this evening celebration we hope it has been an encouragement to you and we do pray that the Lord would bring Reformation and awakening again if you like to re-watch tonight's celebration perhaps with family friends or your church or with your church tomorrow on Reformation day it will be available early tomorrow at Reformation 500 calm now I've told you about several resource office tonight so as one final reminder here they are again for a limited time you can download mr. Jeff Lippincott's Symphonic celebration of the Protestant Reformation post tenebrous looks at Reformation 500 calm / PTL also for a limited time dr. RC Sproles teaching series Luther and the Reformation it's available free to download at Reformation 500 calm / Luther and lastly our Reformation 500 resource giveaway ends tomorrow so if you haven't already answered today at Reformation 500 calm we hope that for you tonight was an evening of celebration and Thanksgiving and that you see why dr. Sproul often reminds us that in every generation the gospel must be proclaimed with the same boldness the same clarity and the same urgency that it was in the 16th century Reformation from everyone at Ligonier ministries have a happy Reformation day as you give thanks for God's gracious work through His Church I'm Nathan W Bingham thank you for joining us

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

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Keywords: ligonier, ligonier ministries, ligonier conference, ligonier conference 2017, 1517, reformation, celebration, reformation 500 celebration, sinclair ferguson, stephen nichols, burk parsons, derek thomas, rc sproul, sproul, the reformation, understanding the reformation, what was the reformation, what was the reformation all about, evangelism, gospel, doctrines of the reformation, reformed theology, reformation theology, reformed, martin luther, german reformer, ligonier live, bible

Id: A-e0MCcuSp0

Length: 184min 9sec (11049 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 31 2017