Steven Lawson | Why Preaching Requires Boldness | Truth in Love 2024

[Applause] well what a joy it is uh to be with everyone and I feel like I'm at a basketball game right now I'm open so uh just feed me the ball all night and that's all I need well I I love this conference um I love the spiritual focus of this conference and it really starts with our host uh Richard calwell and I'm so grateful for his friendship and I'm grateful for his supporting staff Josh Phil Philpot and and the others here at Founders Baptist Church so and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and it is is a privilege I I'm also so thankful to be with so many of my heroes in the faith uh other preachers who are strong in the word of God and who have been a great edification to my own heart and soul so it's a joy for me to be with you uh here tonight men the theme of our conference is Truth worth dying for and we have stepped into the deep end of the pool with with this subject and I don't know that any of us here tonight are really fully aware of what this might mean for us if this was to come true this Focus reminds us that there is always a cost involved in being a follower of Jesus Christ he paid it all and there is a sense in which it is now incumbent upon us to reciprocate and to pay the break great price of discipleship sometimes this price means loss of friends loss of family loss of position loss of popularity loss of possessions it can even mean persecution and being run out of town but the price one pays can also mean the loss of your life and are we really ready for this this was certainly true the prophets of the Old Testament they believed that the truth was worth dying for and they had to back it up with their life tradition tells us that Isaiah was s in two after being put in a log and the writer of Hebrews looking back upon the Old Testament Saints said they were stoned meaning stoned to death they were swn in Two they were put to death death with the sword and they proved to be men of whom this world was unworthy the same high price remained true in the New Testament especially in the first century John the Baptist had his head severed and served on a platter Steven was stoned to death after addressing the Sanhedrin and James the brother of John was put to death with a sword 11 of the 12 disciples are told suffered a martyr's death in fact Peter was crucified upside down considering himself unworthy to be put to death in the same manner of his of his Lord Andrew was crucified sideways and Paul was taken out of the mamertine prison and taken to the outskirts of Rome and and had his head severed and when we come to the Book of Revelation we we read that in In Heaven There is a a special group in heaven who are who are under the Altar and under the throne and they are the martyrs out of the Great Tribulation who gave their life because of their witness for the gospel but it didn't stop at the end of the first century a walk through church history reveals more the saying Ignatius was fed to the lions in Rome iarp was burned to death in a public Marketplace Justin Martyr was well-named he was severely beaten and had his head removed John hus was burned at the stake Martin Luther ministered with a death sentence upon his life and William Tindale was strangled to death then his corpse burned and gunpowder put around his torso and he was blown up into so many pieces there was nothing left to even bury John Rogers was burned at the stake in Smithfield London and Ridley and laimer were burned at the same stake backto back in Oxford Thomas cranmer was met with the same violent death and the French hugos were slaughtered in the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre as thousands of them were put to death no the price has always been high for followers of Jesus Christ terellian wrote quote the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and what that means is is one Christian's willingness to literally die for the truth becomes that which leads to the conversion of others we have become a soft generation who lack a spiritual backbone I'm not certain what we're really willing to die for Adrien Rogers has rightly observed the trouble with preachers today is no one wants to kill them anymore we're just a bunch of nice guys seeking Common Ground the preachers have lost their will to fight the good fight for the truth and the words of Jude seemed to be foreign and forgotten to earnestly contend for the faith we need Believers today we need preachers today who are as bold as a lion and willing to die for the truth it has been said a man is not willing he's not ready to live until he's ready to die the same could be said of preachers they're not ready to preach until the they're ready to die as Richard Baxter once said to always preach as a dying man to dying men has never to preach again in this opening address I want to set the tone for this conference in a slightly different way rather than taking a text of scripture which I have done each year that I've been here I want us to turn to church history and I want to begin the conference not with an exposition but with an illustration of what it looks like to be so sold out to the lordship of Jesus Christ that you are willing to die for the truth I want to draw our attention to one of the bravest band of preachers and Believers to ever walk this planet those who are burned at the stake by Bloody Mary in the English Reformation they are known as the Maran Martyrs and they stand out like bright stars on a dark night and they have so moved me in my Ministry and really have provided fellowship with me over the C CES that in my preaching Bible I carry the picture of the first man they burned at the stake John Rogers February the 4th 1555 as a constant reminder in the back of my preaching Bible I carry a a wood carving of Rogers being burned at the stake and when I go to London the first place I go to is to catch a taxi take me to Smithfield and there I go to where the plaque is on the back of the St Bartholomew Hospital interestingly enough where Martin Lloyd Jones practiced medicine to Mark the spot where they burned the man of God and I want to just stand there those separated by half of half of a millennium just in my own heart in my own mind just to identify myself with this man who paid the ultimate price to give his life for the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is to say but that this day may be fast approaching on the horizon for us and if so we need to decide tonight what am I willing to Die For What truth am I willing to die for I don't think every every truth Rises to the highest level of that for which I would die but there are truths that when put to the test by the grace of God there must be no reverse gear in me there must only be a fifth gear forward to lay down my life for him who laid down his life for me so I want to introduce you to the mar and martyrs tonight and I want to ask a series of eight questions I don't know that I have time to go to all these eight questions and for HB to still preach tonight so we'll see how far we we go question number one who who was Bloody Mary I was in a store today and man was asking me why I'm in town and what I was doing tonight and I said have you ever heard of Bloody Mary he said I just had one I said I'm not talking about the drink I'm talking about the person I said do you realize there's a real person named Bloody Mary after which this drink has has been named She's Mary the first so who was Bloody Mary she was the daughter of Henry VII the man who had all of those those wives and she became Queen of England and when you are the the monarch of England that means two things number one you are the head of the Church of England and number two your title is defend defender of the faith and it is that to this very day and Bloody Mary became head of the Church of England by virtue of becoming the Monarch and she was a Catholic through and through she was a staunch Catholic to the nth degree and she installed the Catholic faith over the nation of of England she followed her half brother Edward Edward II who was the teenage King he died he followed Henry VII and he died at age 15 and he was a strong Protestant believer he had Protestant tutors he was strong in the word of God for a young man but he died at age 15 he did everything he could to protect his Half Sister Mary the first become Queen after him and so he put his cousin on the throne Lady Jane gray that only lasted for nine days and Mary came storming into London and with public support she overthrew Lady Jane gray and assumed the Throne of England JC riy comments that Mary was a rigid adherent of Roman of the Roman Church he was a papist of papist zealous bigoted and narrow-minded in the extreme and under Mary's reign of terror she immediately made sweeping changes from her Protestant half brother and she restored Mass she removed Protestant worship she denounced the reformers she banished foreign Protestants she removed Protestant leaders from any position of leadership in England and many Protestants were forced to escape not the least of which was John Knox and she reinstated the old statutes that had been put in place by Parliament some 200 years earlier to try to thwart John Wickliffe and his Lawler preachers th this was a nightmare for True Bible Believers to have Mary on the throne compared to what we have with with Biden he does even know where he is this was a real threat her advisors wanted even more drastic measures to be taken and so so it was legislated that all Protestant Heretics would be put to death at the stake and a special commission was appointed to examine and prosecute the Protestants and their only choice was to recant or be strapped to the stake and Bloody Mary reigned for four horrific years so that's number one who was Bloody Mary she was a Devil with a Blue Dress on second who who were the Maran Martyrs well they are among the strongest Protestant Believers alive in England there were 288 Martyrs and some historians would give even higher numbers and of these Martyrs 26 were ministers one was the Archbishop of Canterbury that means he's over every min minister in the entire nation and he reports only to the queen there were five there there were four Bishops which means they were over many many many churches and ministers 21 were clergy but the rest were people just like you and me Layman women children 54 were women who were burned at the state four were children who were burned at the state and 204 were businessmen and common laborers four were blind some were professionals lawyers surgeons School Masters others were common workers they were fishermen and Barbers and butlers and butchers and iron makers and upholsterers and shoe makers and and and glove makers it was her intent to strike such fear into the true Christians in England that none would dare to raise a voice against her and that they would step in line and they would become Catholic to the inth degree just like she was these who were put to death 288 they were the godliest and the holiest Believers in all of England they were among the best preachers and they were the humblest of God's servants third when were they martyred in 1555 71 were burned at the stake 1556 89 were burned 1557 88 were burned 15 those 1557 in 1558 40 were burned JC riy says the never ceased to blaze while Mary was alive on the throne there was always the smoke ascending up into the sky so fourth why why were they martyred they were not put to death for criminal offenses that violated God's law they were not Rebels against the queen they were not Anarchist against the monarchy they were not thieves they were not murderers they were not men and women of public rioting that disrupted the the social order they are put to death because they believed that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and Christ Alone just like you believe the very same they died for the gospel they they didn't die for secondary matters they didn't die for form of church government they they did not die for eschatology they did not die for mode of baptism they died for what was worth dying for the very Gospel of Jesus Christ they died for the sufficiency of the Cross they died for the exclusivity of the Cross they died for the finality of the Cross they died for the efficacy of the cross it was a gospel issue they did not suffer for vague charges of secondary matters they suffered because they refused to believe and refused to preach the blasphemy that the body and blood of Christ was literally in the elements on the altar in the mass after the words of consecration were pronounced and if they did not profess this they were burned you and I need to decide tonight not when the knock comes at the door not when the warning is given to us they're coming what is it that you're willing to die for if you're a true Christian there has to be something for which you would give your life unto death or I doubt you're a true Christian what is it that you're willing to Annie up and put on the altar fifth where where where were they martyred they were burned throughout all England from coast to coast from border to border most preachers were actually burned at the stake in front of their Church to try to strike fear and Terror into the hearts of their congregation they would be marched through the streets of the neighborhood surrounding their Church to make a public display of them and then be tied to a stake and put to death in front of their flock they they were they were they were burned alive everywhere in England in London in Oxford in Gloucester I I have the list here it's it's it's too long to read canbury Essex gloucestershire Norfolk Bristol p pimr Shire Yorkshire Cambridge Shire Willshire Somerset cornhill lestershire middle sex on and on and on and on it it was a national Massacre six who who was martyred first the first to be burned at the Stak as I have already indicated was John roggers you you need to know about John roggers he he's a man in church history who is a giant we know about Luther we know about Calvin we know about Knox we know about tendel and rightly so but standing in the shadows is John Rogers he was a brilliant scholar well educated graduating from Cambridge Penbrook College he he was so brilliant that he was recruited when Christ Church at Oxford was first started later over which John Owen would become the dean he was one of the first men recruited to be on faculty at at Christ Church if you've ever gone to Oxford and seen Christ Church almost fell in the back abry I've wondered about that at Grace Church they leave it open on Sunday nights um he was stunningly brilliant he was ordained a Catholic priest all the reformers started out in the Catholic church he pastored in London for two years and he left London and went to the continent of Europe to become a chaplain for a boarding House of of businessmen who did business in Europe who were from England and very sympathetic to Lutheran Doctrine solid and so Rogers is taken in in this boarding house known as the company of the merchant adventurers they become the chaplain but guess who is in the back room none other than William Tindale the father of the English Reformation the father of the English Bible and the father of the English modern language and William Tindale shares the gospel with John Rogers and Rogers is converted and comes to faith in Christ talk about a strange Providence Rogers had to leave England and seemingly just dropped into the lap of tendale and he's converted but he has This brilliant mind so he becomes an assistant to William Tindale you understand who William Tindale is please tell me you know who he is he he's the first man to translate the New Testament out of the original Greek language wickliff had done it out of the Latin Vulgate it was a crude and difficult translation but Tindale is the first man to do it and it is so good that 85% of the King James Bible was tindale's work that he had already done Tindale was proficient in eight languages that if you heard him speak your mother tongue you would assume that he grew up next door to you he was that brilliant taught himself Hebrew when there was not one Hebrew teacher in the entire nation of England at this time and so John Rogers now is converted to Christ he he embies the truths of the Reformation gospel truths and he comes shoulder toosh shoulder with Tindale to help him translate the Old Testament and to help look up things for him well in the strange Providence of God I wish I had time to tell you the story Tindale had been underground for an entire decade hiding in anonymously in in this back room and moving around to different cities in in in Europe so that he could never be found he was an outlaw from Henry VII every line of the of the of the Bible that he translated was a a a capital crime against Henry VII and there were multiple attempts to to try to find tendale and apprehend him and they could never find him until they they they finally got him there was a young man who squandered his father 's entire estate and the church said we will repay every scent that you have have thrown away if you'll go to Europe and if you will find tendale we will restore your lost fortune and so he works his way through Europe until he finally makes contact with with tendale and Rogers and Miles Coverdale until one day Tindale is Led down a back alley and it was a setup and this young man comes in behind tendale and points from behind over his head indicating this is the one you are to apprehend and the officials were there around the corner they arrested tendale they put him in a castle prison for 500 days and when they brought him out after 500 days I've already told you they hung him by the neck they burned him at the steak and they blew up his body with gunpowder but when they arrested him John Rogers John Rogers ran back to the house gathered up tindale's work Tindale has done Matthew through Revelation he has done Genesis through 2 Chronicles and he has done Jonah because he wanted every preacher in England to preach 40 days and London will be destroyed 40 days and Yorkshire will be destroyed 40 days and and Oxford will be destroyed but there's still the rest of the Old Testament that needs to be translated well the other assistant miles Coverdale then went to England and translated um Ezra through Malachi the problem is he did not know Hebrew it was a horrible translation he he he had to play off of Luther's German Bible he had to play off of the Latin Vulgate he had to play off of French commentaries to try to figure out without ever actually translating the Hebrew became known as the Coverdale Bible Well Rogers remained undercover and ANP in what is today Belgium and he comes in with a copy of the Coverdale Bible This brilliant mind and he systematically edits and corrects and retrat the rest of the Old Testament the English Bible is in your lap right now in a major way is due to this dynamic duo of William tendale and John Rogers tendale started it Rogers completed it it became known as the Matthew Bible it was published under the pseudonym of Thomas Matthew to protect their anonymity now listen to this sentence this Matthew Bible was the first first complete Bible in English ever translated from the original Greek in Hebrew he even made some 300 plus edits to tindale's work in the penud he added Rogers did marginal notes to make a study Bible he puts in prefaces to each book and introductions to each book he he puts in things that he has written on the doctrines of the Bible and it actually becomes the first comprehensive English commentary on the Bible ever produced I mean John Rogers is probably the greatest Christian leader maybe you've never heard of his Bible was sent to about 1500 were produced it was sent to England and there Thomas cranmer the Archbishop saw it he got it licensed and it was spread throughout England well Henry VII died and his son Edward I 6 now comes to the throne and Rogers realizes it is safe for him to return to England so Rogers comes back to England after all this time in Europe translating the Bible and his reputation precedes him and the English reformers when they learned that that John Rogers has come back they they put him in strategic and key places one of which was to be the preacher at St Paul's Cathedral which is the church in London and he was a bold preacher and he spoke out against the false gospel traces of it that remained in the Church of England that were carryovers from the Roman Catholic church and everything was great until Edward I 6 died at age 15 and he has succeeded to the throne by Mary the first and she immediately begins to change the entire nation's worship and beliefs about God Rogers kept preaching at St Paul's cross which is outside of St Paul's Cathedral in the open area where more people can hear you preach and he was upholding quote the true Doctrine taught in King Edward's days and warned against popery and idolatry and and Superstition and Rogers would not stop preaching and he was arrested and summoned to come before Mary's counsil and he was interrogated and he says in his own words I was asked whether I believed in the sacrament to be the very body and blood of our savior Christ that was born of the Virgin Mary and hung on the cross really and substantially I answered no I think it to be false now listen to this next sentence corporally meaning bodily Christ is only in heaven and so Christ cannot be bodily in your sacrament he is now in a resurrected glorified body seated at the right hand of God the father and he will not be here until his second coming so they threw him into into prison Newgate Prison and while he's in prison the English Parliament reenacted these penal statutes that had been levied against John Wickliffe and and the laws putting them to death for having an English Bible and so only two days later after passing this they come after Rogers he he's number one on the Hit List it it it tells us how visible how powerful how gifted John Rogers was out of the whole nation this is who they come after number one this preacher at St Paul's Cathedral and so he appears to be reexamined again and he's found guilty of heresy because he denied the Christian character of the church in Rome it's the of Babylon for heaven's sakes and for denying the real presence of Christ in the mass and so he is condemned as a heretic and sentenced to be burned at the stake would you be willing to die for that and so the great day came February the 4th 1555 he's brought back before the bishop of London please understand the bishop of London not even the government officials and the sheriff challenged him to revoke his evil opinion of the mass and a Parton was offered to Rogers if he would renounce his confession and Rogers answer answered that which I have preached I will seal with my blood the sheriff responded then you are a heretic Roger said that will be known on the last day the sheriff ched I will never pray for you Rogers answered but I will pray for you and so they lead Rogers out of his cell and marched him through the Streets of London marched him through Smithfield which is a an area in London right where he had pastured and the stake was set up within sight of his church the church of the St seler along the way was his wife and 11 children the youngest of which he has never seen delivered while he's in prison he's not allowed to stop and speak to them John Fox writes in Fox's book of Martyrs his wife and children being 11 in number and 10 able to go and one sucking on her breast met him on the way as he went towards Smithfield this sorrowful sight of his own flesh and blood meaning his own children could not move him I mean this is like bunan with a blind daughter Mary but he he won't leave the prison he is a man of convictions and the truth even having a blind daughter and fox writes that Rogers was constantly and cheerfully he took his death with wonderful patience in the defense and quarrel of Christ gospel as he marches to the stake he quotes Psalm 51 a Psalm which he had retranslated for the Matthew Bible he's marching forward quoting scripture an immense crowd lined both sides of the street to this point no one has been no one has been put to death by fire and everyone wants to know what's going to happen will these reformers actually hold to their convictions and will they be willing to go all the way to the stake or will they buckle and weaken and retract their confession at the execution site the enthusiasm of the swelling crowd grew stronger as Rogers approached JC RI comments the crowd rent the air with thunders of Applause and the French Ambassador was there that day and he writes as an eyewitness this day was performed the confirmation of the alliance between the Pope and this Kingdom meaning England by a public and solemn sacrifice of a preaching doctor named Rogers who has been burned alive for being a Lutheran which just means he believed in Sola but he died persisting in his opinion the Ambassador then said the greatest part of the people made many exclamations to strengthen his courage his own congregation is cheering him on go all the way Pastor fox says even his children assisted in comforting him in such a manner that it seemed as if listen to this Rogers was going to his own wedding or that's what the Ambassador said Fox writes a little before his burning at the stake his pardon was brought if he would have recaned he would have been released but he utterly refused Fox writes the fire was put on to him and when it had taken hold both of his legs and shoulders he as one feeling no smart meaning no pain washed his hands in the flame as though he was washing it in cold water and after LIF lifting up his hands unto Heaven the devouring fire consumed his hands his shoulders and his legs leaving him just a torso and fox writes this happy martyr as though though he is standing at the head of the church on his wedding day yielded up his Spirit into the hands of his Heavenly Father riy concludes he was the first martyr of all the Blessed company that suffered in Queen Mary's time he gave the first sacrifice upon the fire Mary thought she would defeat protestantism it only poured gas on the fire seventh who followed Rogers martyrdom I I obviously I don't have time there're 287 more I'll just have to fast forward through my notes preacher after preacher after preacher being marched mared to the stake each one giving their last words Roland Taylor I'm almost home I lack but just two styles to go and I'm at my father's house good people I have taught you nothing but God's holy word I am come here to seal it with my blood John Bradford was martyred with the same stake with another young man named John Leaf backto back torched together Bradford said oh England England repent of your sins beware of idolatry beware of antichrist and then Bradford said to the young man be of good Comfort brother for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night and I read this this afternoon it's so interesting a woman in his church prepared a shirt for him to wear as he strapped to the steak and it is a wedding shirt like one would wear at their wedding for this is his wedding day that he shall go to the great bridegroom and be United to him and finally you know the story of Hugh ladimer and Nicholas Ridley as they were joined together at the same stake Hugh laimer was the greatest preacher in all of England period paragraph he he was the trumpet voice for the English Reformation he's approaching his 70s he's an older man he's preaching and word comes to him they're coming for you right now laimer said I go as willing to London to render a reckoning of my Doctrine as I have ever gone to any place in the world he would not run he would not hide he continued in his pulpit and he continued to preach in his pulpit and he said I thank God that he has prolonged my life to this end that I may glorify God by this kind of death he he Praises God that he had not died earlier but that he could be all the way to the end testifying for Christ they take him to Oxford I wish I had the opportunity to walk you through the trials at Oxford I had a man give me it's about this thick an unedited version of Fox's book of Martyrs before the Catholic Church came and stripped out so much of it all of the trials at Oxford that Latimer and Ridley had to go through it it is cruelty on steroids they condemn ladimer they bring Nicholas Ridley who is the architect of the English Reformation he's the bishop of London and they decide they're going to they're going to burn Ridley and ladimer at the same stake so they marched him out I I I stood right there in the middle of the street where x marks the spot where these men these two stalwarts of the faith were tied to the same stake and set on fire and laimer the preacher said to Ridley the bishop as the fire was lit be of good Comfort Master Ridley and play the man we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England that I trust shall never be put out and it has never been put out we're talking about it tonight and then Thomas cranmer who was the Archbishop of England they brought him to Oxford as well and in his examination he weakened and he renounced the true gospel they made him write out a confession they put him in the Pulpit I think it's St Mary's Church in Oxford you're going to read this to everybody they had already reviewed what he was to read he got in the Pulpit started to read it and then he stopped reading it and he said as for the Pope I refuse him as Christ's enemy and the Antichrist with all his false Doctrine they were in shock they pulled him out of the pulpit lest he say anymore they rushed ped him to the steak and as they lit the fire cranmer said my right hand must go into the hot fire first because it is with this right hand I signed my recanting of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his hand was consumed with fire and the fire ran up his arm to the rest of his body while the fire was lit at his feet so what can we conclude really number eight what can we conclude and I'm finished what can we say about these men who were willing to die for the gospel that you and I believe they had no religious freedom well number one they were Bible men they were Bible men to the in degree whatever the Bible says that is what they believe not what Rome says not what the Pope says not what ecclesiastical councils say not what the church fathers say not what anyone says what does Matthew Mark Luke and John say what does Peter Paul and and the prophets said that's what they believ they were BBL men you and I must be Bible people second they were gospel men their martyrdom was all about the gospel they understood that the the mass was a frontal assault on the purity of the grace of God they they understood that it was a filthy Corruption of Christ and him crucified and they wouldn't stand for it they majored on Majors not on minors they understood the power of the Cross to save and the power of the Cross alone to save and finally they were courageous men they were Fearless in the face of persecution they did not flinch when put to the test of their convictions they chose death over life because they chose truth over heresy they were bold like Daniel and the Lion's Den they were Brave like Shadrach Meek and Abednego in the fiery furnace they would not bow and they would not budge but unlike the three Hebrew men they did burn as we start this conference tonight as it will extend into Sunday this a big topic Pastor Truth worth dying for I mean we need to pause and meditate sea are we willing to die for the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as our culture is becoming more and more Godless as even tonight our country is sinking into the abyss of depravity they may be coming for us they may be coming for these men on the first two rows here to try to intimidate you but they may be coming for you as well men women and children it was this way in the Old Testament it was this way in the New Testament it was this way down through the centuries of the church who is to say what the tribulation will be that lies immediately before us in the last hours of human history may God give you much Grace to stand for the truth of the Gospel father we thank you for this conference we are somewhat Jarred by the subject the topic it really separates the men from the boys it really separates the contenders from the pretend ERS and in a sense it separates the wheat from the tears and so father use the messages that will follow to point us to the example of Christ who went all the way to Calvary and laid down his life for us may that Grace be abundant in our lives may you give us wisdom to know upon which Hills to die we can't die on every Hill but there are certain truths for which we would give our life what are they embedded deeply in our soul we are so grateful that your son is the resurrection and life and even though we die we will live forever with him in Christ's name amen

Channel: Founders Baptist

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Length: 54min 42sec (3282 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 27 2024