Alright, I'm going to go ahead and get us started in prayer, and then we'll launch out into the life of John Calvin. Our Father, we want to thank You again that You've given us the privilege to be together. Thank You for this family of faith that You've brought to be one in You. And thank You for all the heritage that we share, rich heritage of all the Old Testament saints, of the apostles, prophets, Jesus Christ Himself having come before us. Thank you that He sits at the right hand of your throne even tonight. And we thank you for how you are working out history and what you are doing. And I thank you that we can marvel tonight at one of the people you've used in a significant way. I pray that you would help us to appreciate where you have brought us, where we are, and even the hope that we have for where we're gonna be. We as a family of God, we as the kingdom of God. So as we are in this season of thinking Again, real intently about the birth of Christ, we pray that you would help us take advantage of every opportunity that comes along the way to share and to be reminded and just to glory in all you've done for us. And please help us tonight as we look at the life of John Calvin. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Well, to me, and I think most people would probably agree, that John Calvin is the preeminent theologian of the Reformation. In many ways, you can see he's, outside of Scripture and the Apostle Paul, perhaps the preeminent theologian of church history, as any one person could be. He produced mounds of written resources. I have more books in my library from John Calvin than just about anybody else. John MacArthur's got tons, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, and John Calvin is right up there with all of them. The impact that he made through his commentaries and sermons has been felt and is even felt today, and his ability to explain is clear, and he grasped correctly, I think, the preeminent concern of the Bible, which is the glory of God. It's the preeminent concern of all of history, the glory of God. To exemplify this, I've put down just a statement from the teacher and the student from the Geneva Catechism of 1541, which Calvin wrote, And this is a method of teaching, this catechetical teaching. The teacher says, what is the principal end of human life? The student is to answer, it is to know God. The teacher asks, why do you say that? And the student is to answer, because He created us and put us on earth to be glorified in us. And it is surely right that we dedicate our lives to His glory since He is the beginning of it. So that's where Calvin got it right. And I think so many things make sense when you understand that the Bible is preeminently concerned with the glory of God and shows that the main reason why human beings are here on earth is because of the glory of God. And this is something that theologians have seized upon in understanding. The more that we've understood this, the better we are able to understand the whole of the message of the Bible and keep things in right perspective. So let's begin just to ease our way, and we're gonna move through Calvin's life almost year by year tonight. Born in 1509 on the 10th of July, he was the second of six children. Born in Nyon, France, which is north of Paris, in this area right where that red dot is, somewhere right up in there is where he was born. His mother dies in 1513, when he's about four years old, and his father remarries. 1521, on May the 19th, John Calvin receives a benefice from the altar of Gesine in the Cathedral of Noyon, which is, what is a benefice? It's kind of like a scholarship or kind of like a, not a scholarship, It's a provision for him to do works of ministry in that cathedral. And then it also pays for his education and helps support him in that. In 1523, this would be at the age of 14, he sent by his father in August of that year to study at the University of Paris. He studied Latin. He came to dislike the scholastic method that he encountered there of doing theology. Scholastic method is something we've talked about before. It really enters reality through the eyes of the philosophers. And so he began to think, you know, this is not the way to study God, first and foremost, through philosophy. He wrote of the course of study that it was, quote, mere sophistry, and sophistry so twisted, involved, tortuous, and puzzling that scholastic theology might well be described as a kind of esoteric magic. The denser the darkness in which anyone shrouded a subject, the more puzzled himself and others with the preposterous riddles, the greater his fame for acumen and learning. That description reminds me of the kind of thing I think was coming out of the bowels of those people in Corinth who had come in to usurp and take over the work that Paul had started there. They could talk real cleverly and make people think they were real smart. And that's what I think Calvin is saying is like these people, the more confusing they become, the smarter they think they are and the smarter everyone else thinks they are. And if you've ever been in some kinds of these elite scholastic environments, that's almost the way sometimes I feel. It seems like the more difficult something is to understand, the more amazed everyone is with how smart someone can become to become so confusing. That's what Calvin said about this scholastic approach that he encountered there in the university for doing theology. Five years later, he finishes his Bachelor of Arts from the College of Montague there in Paris. In 1528, that year, his father sends him to the University of Orléans to study law. And Orléans is right about where the A is in France, there. South of France there, he sent him there to to study law, thought he could have a better chance to have a good livelihood if he studied that. So Calvin did not really want to do that. That was not his desire, but he went anyway because his father wanted him to, which is a striking contrast between Luther and Calvin because it's like when Luther encountered the thunderstorm and almost got struck by the lightning, he said, I'm going into the monastery and he left his legal pursuits and just didn't really concern himself too much with what his father thought. Calvin seems to be more of a person who is more prone to submit himself to the rule of authority. And so he went. He went to law school and studied. And then in continuing to pursue that, he went to the University of Bourges, a little further down in France, about there where that red light is. And this is getting awfully close. When I was a kid, Fifth grade year, my family lived in France for half the year. We lived in Clermont-Ferrand, which was about right there. And I wish so badly I could go back and relive those years, because there was a lot of stuff that I, well, I couldn't appreciate it at the time. Now I wish I could go back and be where I was, because there was so much around me that pertains to so much of the Reformation that I, I did go to Geneva. So that's one thing that was pretty cool. I just had, when I walked up to this wall and saw these big stone figures, one of which is Calvin, I thought, who are these people? Now I'm going, oh, I wish I could go back and appreciate what was being celebrated there. So Calvin went to Bourges to further study law. He was a star student. He excelled. He excelled so much that he became, as a student, a guest lecturer in the classes. So if a professor had to be out or something, he would ask Calvin to take over and teach the class for him. Happened on a fairly regular basis, according to what I read. On 1531, May the 26th, Calvin's father dies. It means his authority figure telling him to go to law school has died. Ah, he can leave law school. But what's interesting is he went to law school reluctantly, because his father wanted him to, but instead of being the kind of student that just lasted and endured, he excelled. You know, he didn't take having to go to law school as a bad thing, he took it as a good thing. And he became this student that he was, a very accomplished student. His father died, so Calvin feels free then to return to Paris and study classical literature and theology, his real passions. So he's returned to Paris. His theological turning point occurs during this time. 1531, he's a student at the College de France in Greek, Hebrew, and theology. And in 1532, he publishes, now how old is he now? 23, he publishes his first book. And this book is a book of analysis and commentary on a Latin work by Seneca, an ancient Latin work on Seneca called On Clemency. It was written to the Roman Roman ruler to instruct him on how he could exercise this important quality in rule. And so it's a historical, well-known historical book. Calvin wrote an analysis of it, and it's been recognized by many people as an outstanding work. But are you surprised that this didn't fly off the bookshelves? in that day and time. It was a flop from the perspective of sales. And Calvin himself is the one who paid for the production or the printing of the work. Oh, and by the way, in the preface of the book that he wrote here, he was basically apologetic that it took him so long to write a book. It's like, I feel like I'm wasting God's time. I'm 23 and this is my first book. 1532, he returns briefly to Orleans, graduates with his law degree as a doctor, doctor of law. So he left, but he went back and finished it. Exactly what was working on him in his mind, I don't know, but this certainly is another impressive accomplishment in his life. The year 1532 is cited, but it's really not certain about this next event. He experiences a sudden conversion. No one really knows when that happened. He just talks about the fact that it happened. Some of the reasons that may explain why no one knows exactly when is because Calvin never seems to make much about his own experience. He never seems to draw a lot of attention to himself. He doesn't want people, his testimony in precision is not put out there. More in general sorts of terms to demonstrate where he was. So Timothy George writes in his book, The Theology of the Reformers, the guesses range from 1527 to 1534 regarding Calvin's sudden conversion. Oh, and I've already given these reasons. One of the reasons for this difficulty is Calvin was reticent about himself, in part because this was because of his natural bent towards shyness and introversion, and in part because he took seriously Paul's admonition, for we preach not ourselves. but Christ Jesus the Lord. The glory for Calvin's salvation belongs to God and not to Calvin. So how did Calvin become, how did he move into a reformed, well we'll say a reformed direction, a direction that wanted to reject the problems in Catholicism and understanding what the Bible was teaching, embrace embrace it, especially the important teachings that had been uncovered and were being put out afresh and anew, the teaching and the understanding of justification by faith, the importance of Scripture alone, Christ alone, the substitutionary of death of Christ, and that His death alone is sufficient, His death alone is efficient to take care of the sins. Calvin began to move in this direction. So some ask the question, did Calvin read the works of Luther? Well, it's not clear that he did, but they certainly were published in French by 1525. But just the circles that he was moving in, he was exposed to people, other people who were moving in this direction. There was a number of, they called them French evangelicals. who were moving in a reformed direction. One particular person, Robert Olivetan, was his cousin, and he translated the New Testament in French in 1535, and Calvin wrote the preface to that work. in which Calvin titled the preface that he wrote, To All Lovers of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, which is an outward exhibit of a testimony just by the fact that he wrote that, that his thinking was pretty clear in that direction. Calvin considered himself slow to believe the gospel. Although he says a sudden conversion, he would point to a very sluggishness on his part to actually turn from what he was brought up in. He wrote this, offended by the novelty, I lent an unwilling ear and at first I confess strenuously and passionately resisted. For such is the firmness or effrontery with which it is natural to men to persist in the course of which they have once undertaken. It was with the greatest difficulty that I was induced to confess that I had all my life long been in ignorance and error." So he's saying, you know, I just didn't want to even admit that I was on the wrong path. But there came a point in which I couldn't help it. I just had to admit that was wrong. And now I'm heading down the right path of Scripture alone and what does it teach. In 1555, then Calvin wrote of his conversion in the preface to his commentary on the Psalms. And by the way, I got more than one shelf that's filled with Calvin's commentaries. He wrote commentaries on most of the books of the Bible. He just studied them all, taught them all. So in his commentary on the Psalms, this is what he said, which kind of brings out some of his testimony. He says, My mind, which, despite my youth, had been too hardened in such matters, now was readied for serious attention. By a sudden conversion, God turned and brought it to docility. Okay, what does docility mean? Docile. It's a teachable spirit. So he humbled me and made me teachable. Having therefore received some taste and knowledge of true piety, I was suddenly fired with such a great desire to advance that even though I had not forsaken the other studies entirely, I nonetheless worked at them more slackly." In other words, what is he saying there? Man, I'm going hard after theology. He didn't give everything else up, but he just slacked off because of this impassioned burning of his heart to know God more. But I was utterly amazed that before a year had passed, so he's talking about this conversion, and within the time of his conversion, before a year had passed, all those who yearned for pure doctrine were coming again and again to me to learn it, even though I had scarcely commenced to study it myself. So everybody's flocking to Calvin, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? And he's going like, man, I just got into this. but it seems like more people are just drawn to him to ask these questions and to discuss these things. Continuing, he says, for my part, being of a nature somewhat unpolished and retiring, I always long, it should be an I, not an O, I always long for repose and quiet. Hence, I began to seek some hiding place and way to withdraw from people. But far from attaining my heart's desire, all retreats and places of escape became for me like public schools. In other words, I wanted to get away from all of it. I wanted to go away and to be by myself where I could study and get away from all these people. But it seems like everywhere I went, there's people all around me. In short, although I cherished the goal of living in private incognito, God so led me and caused me to turn by various changes that he never left me at peace in any place, until in spite of my natural disposition he brought me into the limelight. Leaving my native France, I departed into Germany with the express purpose of being able to live at peace in some unknown corner as I had always hoped. So, in other words, you know, he was a recluse, and he wanted to be away from everybody. But he's saying, you know, God wouldn't let me. It seems like wherever I went, there were people all around me, and there was this flurry of questioning and inquiry going on in terms of the Scripture and in terms of seeking God. And so it's kind of like Calvin is saying, I did not want to be a famous guy. I didn't want all this attention. God just put me there. And I didn't like it. especially. So one of the things brought out here is a recognition that even in what he says here, we could say that Calvin understands one thing that's brought clear here. It wasn't that Calvin found the truth. It wasn't that Calvin found Christ. It was that God came and changed Calvin. And his own understanding of that is expressed here. God turned me by a sudden conversion to be a teachable person, to hear and learn from Him. So Calvin credits God with the work of transformation in his life. Even as he tells his own story, he wrote these words, so obstinately addicted to the superstitions of the papacy, did I remain... That should be did, not S-I-S. the id did i remain that it would have been hard indeed to have pulled me out of so deep a quagmire like luther calvin attested i did nothing the word did it all so he understands this conversion this change is the work of god by his word the change brought about by god involves submitting to His revelation of Himself as to who He is. In other words, this changes, I want to know God. How do I know God? Not through philosophy, not through some contriving in my mind, what must God be like, but by going to the Word of God and seeing what God Himself has revealed Himself to be. And I have got to exercise the utmost care and caution that I do not develop some understanding of God that in any way originates with myself or my thinking. I've got to let God tell me who He is, and then I've got to accept and believe what He shows me Himself, what He shows of Himself to me to be. So Calvin said the person with true piety, and that word true piety is kind of a reference to this Well, the true piety would be what the Christian possesses, is a true relationship with God, genuine connection, genuine relationship. You know, if somebody would use the word religion, whatever, it's not in the way we currently use it so much, but just the idea of being rightly related to God, this true piety. The person with true piety from God dare not fashion out of their own rashness any God for themselves. Rather, they seek from him the knowledge of the true God and conceive him just as he shows and declares himself to be." So there's some words on the conversion of Calvin. In 1533, on November the 1st, Nicholas Coppe preaches an inaugural address in Paris as a rector, that is a leader of a college there, and because of the sermon he preached, he had to flee from Paris. And what was the significance of his sermon? Well, the sermon was preached on November the 1st, All Saints Day, and he's a friend of Calvin's. And what's problematic about his sermon is that of all days, on All Saints Day, this friend had the gall, rather than to praise the saints, to instead proclaim Christ as the only mediator with God. Such was the response that literally he had to flee. I mean, there's rumblings of Reformation going on, and there's hostility brewing in all of the corners of Catholicism against anyone who would do this, and so it pops up. And, you know, preaching that sermon, I think he knew he was sticking his neck out. But he's preaching the truth, an uprising, something like you could just see the book of Acts come into life here. Paul goes in, preaches in the synagogue. People hear what they're saying, and they want to run him out of town. And so they ran Cop out of town and Calvin is associated with Cop as a friend. They go in and sees a bunch of Calvin's writings and Calvin's papers and Calvin's life himself then becomes in danger. And the story goes that then while the police were knocking on the front door of his house, his friends were lowering Calvin out a window on the side, sort of like the Apostle Paul was lowered out of the city when they were coming after him as well. And he ran to Germany. So he's in flight. 1534, on May 4th, he comes back into France. He comes to Noyon, the town of his birth, where he had this benefice, and he formally resigned his benefice, his appointment that gave him an income, and he officially, therefore, broke with Roman Catholicism there. That was 1534. Now, in that same year, there was, an event that took place in Paris that a number of these French evangelicals were behind. It's called the Affair of the Placards. What they did is kind of like the 95 Theses, only they didn't just hang one poster on the wall. But they went through town putting these placards everywhere. And word is, one even made it to the door of the king himself. Somebody put it on the door. And these placards, it was kind of like handing out a track, right? So they handed them out, just kind of just engulfed the city of Paris with these things. October 17th and 18th. And it was considered a fiery attack on the mass. And here's what it said about the mass. All the things involved in the mass, the bell ringing, anointings, chantings, ceremonies, candle lightings, censings, disguises, and other sorts of buffooneries. were criticized vehemently with these placards. And so that event led to a new and fresh upheaval of persecution against the French evangelicals. So they were unwanted in France. And so Calvin again fled, this time to Basel, Switzerland. And in Basel, he began writing his work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. In 1535, he is safely there. In 1536, just a side note, is that something was going on in the city of Geneva, Switzerland, in the meantime. Led by Guillaume Ferrel, on May the 25th, Geneva as a city votes to be a reformed city. They vote to reject Catholicism and have the true gospel from the scriptures preached in their city. Kind of like, as we talked about last time, Ulrich Zwingli was in Zurich, and Zurich became one of these cities that was, you know, we as a city decide, we are, we are informed. We're gonna believe and call for the preaching of the true gospel and the Bible. So they're magistrates, they're government. is what is behind all this. So that was going on in Geneva, Switzerland. It's kind of the spread of the Reformation to these other cities. No, no, it's not. That kind of government is not in existence now. But that's the way it was then. It was still, you know, a bigger country. Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire prior to that, and then as it kind of fell apart, you have, you did have Switzerland as they are today. They're their own, their country, and they don't, I don't think they, They still have cantons, so they still have like states, but I'm not sure exactly how their government functions, but it's not, you don't have a city religious state. Then it was a religion and government hand in hand, which leads to some of these excesses that Calvin is involved in. We consider them excesses. The citizens of Geneva voted unanimously, here's what they voted to do, unanimously to live henceforth according to the law of the gospel and the word of God and to abolish all papal abuses. Can you imagine a city voting to do that? Oh, well, in 1536, then, in March of that year, Calvin publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion in Basel. So he's not in Geneva yet. He's out there. He's doing what he does, studies and writes. He studies and writes. And so the original title of his work was as follows. Here's the title. The Basic Teaching of the Christian Religion Comprising Almost the Whole Sum of Godliness and Whatever It Is Necessary to Know on the Doctrine of Salvation. A newly published work very well worth reading by all who are students of godliness. A Preface to the Most Christian King of France. Offering to him this book as a confession of faith by the author John Calvin of Noyons. So, a completely different kind of reception among people with this book than his first book. Whereas he already sold any copies of this analysis of Seneca's book on clemency, the Institutes became a bestseller almost overnight. Relatively a small booklet at the beginning, and he revised and expanded it numerous times moving forward. So what it was when he first wrote it, well, it was a little book that people carried around in their pockets and a common person read it and just everywhere they went. This is the, This is the ultimate finale, translated into English, of Calvin's Institutes. So that was like first draft, and he spent his life just building on it and going further, adding to it and expanding upon it. So I want to talk a little bit about, this is the major work of Calvin's life. in terms of being one work. And I just want to talk about some of the aspects of this work that he did. One of the first things is to note that Calvin did appeal to the King of France himself when he was writing the book. So he writes this preface and it's of, oh goodness, is it 30 something pages by which at the front of the thing, he's writing to the King of France and he is making an appeal to him. And here's, I just, I have some exact words out of what he said. He writes, and this is printed in this very edition here. It's still, it's, it's, it's, The works contain this preface to King Francis. He says to him, when I first set my hand to this work, nothing was farther from my mind, most glorious King, than to write something that might afterward be offered to your majesty. My purpose was solely to transmit certain rudiments by which those who are touched with any zeal for religion might be shaped into true godliness. And I undertook this labor especially for our French countrymen, very many of whom I knew to be hungering and thirsting for Christ. but I saw very few who had been duly imbued with even a slight knowledge of him. The book itself witnesses that this was my intention, adapted as it is to a simple end, you may say, an elementary form of teaching." But I perceived that the fury of certain wicked persons has prevailed so far in your realm that there is no place in it for sound doctrine. Consequently, it seemed to me that I should be doing something worthwhile if I gave instruction to them and made confession before you with the same work. From this you may learn the nature of this doctrine against which these madmen burn with rage who today disturb your realm of fire and sword. And indeed I shall not fear to confess that here is contained almost the sum of that very doctrine which they shout must be punished by prison, exile, prescription, and fire, and be exterminated on land and sea. Indeed I know with what terrible reports they have filled your ears and mind to render our cause as hateful as possible to you. But as fits your clemency, you ought to weigh the fact that if it is sufficient merely to make accusation, then no innocence will remain either in words or deeds." So you can see that what Calvin is saying to the king is, you know, I didn't start out to write this for you, but as I was writing it for the common people of France to help them, I decided, well, this would be a great thing for me to do at the same time to show you, basically, that we're not big We're not just troublemakers, we're concerned about the truth. And we think, so Calvin's saying, if you can just see this, maybe this would have an impact with you and you can call off the dogs who are out there attacking the French evangelicals. Skipping down further into his appeal, he says, for this reason, most invincible king, I not unjustly ask you to undertake a full inquiry into this case, which until now has been handled, we may even say tossed about, with no order of law. Doesn't he sound like a lawyer? with no order of law and with violent heat rather than judicial gravity. And do not think that I am preparing my own personal defense, thereby to return safely to my native land. Even though I regard my country with as much natural affection as becomes me, as things now stand, I do not much regret being excluded." Rather, I embrace the common cause of all believers, that of Christ himself, a cause completely torn and trampled in your realm today, lying, as it were, utterly forlorn, more through the tyranny of certain Pharisees than with your approval." So you get him saying, you know what? I'm not just trying to weave my way back into France because God has done good in my life by separating me here, and I'm suffering for Jesus. And I'm willing to do that if that's what he calls me to do. So then he says, it will then be for you, most serene king, not to close your ears or your mind to such defense, especially when a very great question is at stake. Here's the very great question, he says. how God's glory may be kept safe on earth, how God's truth may retain its place of honor, how Christ's kingdom may be kept in good repair among us. Then skipping to the very end of the letter, he says in a pretty strong language, now it's as though Calvin takes the posture and the wording of a prophet warning the king. If the king remains turned against the evangelicals, then they will have to endure and wait the strong hand of the Lord. which will surely appear in due season, coming forth armed to deliver the poor from their affliction, and also to punish their despisers, who now exult with such great assurance." So it's as though, you know, Calvin's saying, you know, if you don't help us, God will. And when he's coming, he's not just gonna come deliver his people, he is going to come to deal with those who have despised his people. Hint, hint, King. So, I mean, Calvin is pretty straightforward. He's a lawyer. He's under control in many ways, but he's not holding back from speaking truthfully or soberly about these things. Calvin's desire was that the king understand that the French who were seeking reform were not seeking to overthrow order. They simply wanted to restore the purity of the gospel, the central concern of which was to preserve the glory of God and protect Christ's kingdom. But the main purpose of the institutes was to teach, especially those who were hungering and thirsting for Christ, but knew little of him. And as Timothy George puts it, Calvin presented more clearly and more masterfully than anyone before him the essential elements of Protestant theology. So, here's the institutes. This is all before Calvin came to Geneva, which there's roughly the location of Geneva. So I'd already mentioned that things were going on in Geneva to make it a place that was desiring to have strong, solid biblical teaching in their city. How did Calvin get to Geneva? Well, Calvin was, you know, out in the outskirts in the German area here, you know, trying to stay away from the persecution. But he would occasionally go back. And one time he had gone back to Paris, and at this point he was deciding to locate himself permanently in the city of Strasbourg, here. And so there was one problem, though, getting from Paris to Strasbourg, and that is the French and Germans were fighting in this area. There were some battles going on. Calvin made a detour to try to get around it, and that took him south before he could turn north. And he knew a little bit about the city of Geneva, and he didn't much like it. He didn't think much of the city. And so going that far, they hoped to just spend the night there. and then go up, go behind the lines of war, and go up and back into Germany. And so traveling from Paris to Strasbourg, he detours to Geneva, and he plans to stay just one night, but he is, when Guillaume Ferrel, who was the one that helped get Geneva to adopt a reformed legal position as a city, when he found out that Calvin was there, he went and beat his door down and said, you've got to stay here. We need you here. This is where you need to be. And so there was quite a lengthy interchange between the two. and Guillaume Farrell urging him to remain as his co-worker there in Geneva. Well, Calvin wanted nothing more, as we've said, than to sit at a desk in a library to study and write. He felt like he never learned as well as he did when he was actually writing, and writing was a way for him, as he studied, to get out the truth. And so, that was what he wanted to do, just study and write. And so, but Farrell thundered down the curse of God on Calvin if he didn't stay. And it's like, all of a sudden, this man, you see kind of this pattern almost. His father wanted him to go to law school. He didn't want to, but his father must have exerted himself. Calvin says, okay. So here's Farrell. Calvin, you've got to stay. I don't want to study. I want to go sit in the library. I've got to study. I'm not a people person, and I'm not called a pastor, and I'm not called to do all that. This is just not..." And Pharaoh says, may God curse you if you don't do this. And he says, okay, I give in. And so he stays. So he stays at Calvin. He never makes it any further. And so on September the 5th of 1536, Calvin is hired as a reader in Holy Scripture by the city council. So you see, it's not a church hiring, but the city hires him to be like their lecturer in the Bible, in the Holy Scripture. So in November 10th, then, the Geneva Confession is adopted by the city council. That's significant because what Calvin is doing is he's come, and as soon as he starts doing his work, he's saying, we have got to have a confession of faith that says what we believe. And so he gets the city, he leads the city to adopt this confession of which he is the author, and it reflects some of the things he was writing in the Institutes of the Christian Religion. And so, and then as time goes on in January, there is a Protestant statement of faith that is presented to the city council. And after much then, must say then some time passed, a year, year, year and a half. And as you have in a lot of churches, you know, around from time to time have conflict. And there was conflict in Geneva. He has only been here a short time, but there's dissension over the proper, over proper discipline in the church. They're squabbling not over doctrine so much or the straightforward doctrine, but, well, it would be doctrine of how does discipline work? Because, I mean, they're trying to have purity and biblical fidelity in this city and obey God's law as a city. So what do they do in terms of discipline in the church? And there's a squabble over this. And Calvin and Pharaoh and Koralt, who are the leaders there, then are banished. Please stay, come and... Okay, then the whole city throws them all out because of a disagreement and a squabble on that matter. So Calvin goes to Strasbourg. In the spring, he flees through Bern, Zurich, and finally settles in Strasbourg, where he had been headed when he first was wound up in Geneva anyway. And so this is kind of a formative period because he does spend three years there. For three years, he is a pastor and a teacher and... kind of a bivocational pastor teacher. As a pastor, what he did during that time is he translated a number of Psalms into French. He led the congregation there to start singing these hymns. There is people that visited and wrote sort of in their memoirs about what they encountered when they were in Strasbourg under the leadership of Calvin was how they remarked what joy seemed to fill the hearts of the Christians there as they sang the Psalms together. And they just loved the, you know, they would talk about how they had songbooks and they joined in singing together and they just were filled with such joy as they sang. And it just impressed them greatly. This is a reflection of the pastoral leadership that Calvin had while he was there in Strasburg. And as a teacher, he lectured three days a week, offering courses on the gospel of John and on Paul's epistles. He preached four sermons per week. His pay was so great that he couldn't live on it. He was so meager that he had to supplement what he got by giving private lessons, taking boarders in his house, working as a lawyer, and he sold some of his library. And he complained that Strasbourg was such an expensive place to live, you don't have a coin one second before it's gone. During the time, though, as a writer, he published a commentary on Romans, and he thoroughly revised his institutes. It's like this is about the sixth revision that we have, fifth or sixth. The French edition was first published from there in 1541. What language did he write in at first? Latin. So, as a church statesman, Calvin took part in talks between Protestants themselves. The Lutherans and the Swiss Reformed, they were seeking, like Luther and Zwingli had done, they were kind of trying to seek to bridge the gap and be unified together. And so there was these ongoing talks, and Calvin participated in those. And there were also talks ongoing between the Roman Catholics and the Reformed thinkers, trying somehow, can we get back together? And that was before the Council of Trent where the Roman Catholic dogma was just like driven in the ground. Here we are, we stand, we will move, nowhere. So naturally the reformers like, we're not gonna, you change and come with us or we don't come together. But Calvin participated in these things while he was in Strasburg. In 1539, The Catholic Bishop Jacopo Sattolato wrote a letter to Geneva asking Geneva to rethink its position on reformed, moving in a reformed direction and come back to Roman Catholicism. And somehow that letter got to Calvin and Calvin wrote a response. That's one of the major works that he did that really clarified reformed theology, that letter. Then on August 6th, Calvin was married. He married the widow, Idelette de Beur. Now, I wanted to give you a little juicy stuff in this area. Calvin had described his desire for a wife in a letter that he wrote to Farrell in this way. He said, I'm not of the wild race of lovers who, at the first sight of a fine figure, embrace all the faults of their beloved. In other words, when I see her and I think she's attractive, it's not gonna make me I'm not gonna be able to overlook her other faults. So I'm not, attraction alone is not gonna get me. He said, this is the only beauty which allures me. If she is chaste, if not too nice or fastidious, if economical, if patient, and if there is hope that she will be interested about my health. He was a little bit of a sickly person. So Etelet, that he married, was the widow of a French-speaking Anabaptist. Now, Anabaptists, these were independent people who rejected the Trinity and believed in, but they did, they believed in re-baptism. They rejected infant baptism as being correct. And so, but this Anabaptist who had died, whose wife, Idalette was, was a guy who was converted to the Reformed faith by Calvin. And then he died. Calvin married his wife, and she brought two children into the marriage, and Calvin cared for them as his own. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Geneva in this way. 1541, after many overtures, Calvin returns to Geneva on September the 13th. See, the situation in Geneva had just gone from bad to worse, spiraling out of control, and the people realized they needed Calvin back. They'd cast out the wrong person, and so the city, begged Calvin, please come back, we need you. And he resisted at first. And his circumstances in Strasbourg were happy ones, may not have made a lot of money, but he liked what was going on there. He could write, he was preaching, he liked all that stuff. But guess what? Calvin's friends were convinced that Calvin needed to go back to Geneva. And this time it was another friend who had a similar impact as before, but Boothsir invoked the judgment of God, telling Calvin that he would be just like Jonah if he refused to return to Deneva. And with that, Calvin became fully convinced that he needed to go back to Geneva, and he returned on September 13th. Now, on November the 20th, then, they passed some ecclesiastical ordinances in Geneva, which this was what the squabble had been about, ordinances that had to do with the governance of the church and church discipline. And so these ecclesiastical ordinances that Calvin wanted them to pass called for pastors, instructors, elders, and deacons as offices. among the people that reflected doctrine, pastor's doctrine, instructor's education, elder's discipline, and deacon's social welfare. So this was going to be the plan for the city. And they passed that, they didn't fully institute it for some time, but at least they got on that path. And guess what happened on the first Sunday after Calvin came back to Geneva? He preached in St. Pierre Cathedral. There was a packed house. Everybody wanted to hear, what is Calvin gonna say after we rejected him? He's been away for a year and a half or so, and now he's back after we've begged him. Is he just gonna let us have it and let those people have it who were instrumental in getting him thrown out? Well, no, what Calvin did was he opened the Bible at the exact place he had been preaching the day he left. And he started right there and he preached the Bible. It's just verse by verse through the Word. And that made an impact on the people. They saw that he loved them. He wasn't just after himself. He wasn't living for himself. He didn't want notoriety. He was just truth, driven by truth. So his life and ministry were not a device of his own making, but a responsible witness to the word of God. At this point, let me take you to some pictures. I don't have a few pictures. There's not a whole lot. Here is an old depiction of Geneva. And you see it's the city and here's the church there. Saint Pierre, Saint Peter's. There's what it looks like today. It's not all as old as Calvin. I think this part here was added in the 18th century. But it still gives you an idea of things as they were. In 1542, John and Idelet had their first child together, their only child together, and that child died in that same year. Calvin wrote to a friend, certainly the Lord has afflicted us with a deep and painful wound in the death of our beloved son. But he is our father. He knows what is best for his children. There was a plague in Geneva in 1543. As we've seen, there was these plagues that moved their way through Europe. And when this plague came into Geneva, the city voted to keep Calvin away from all the sickness. They didn't want him to die. They felt like the well-being of the city depended upon him. Then in December, there was a conflict. I'm not going to go into the details of all these things because I've got more than I can possibly cover. But in December, there was a conflict with Sebastian Costello over qualifications for ministry in Geneva. So you can see the kinds of things that came up and that caused squabbles. This was ongoing, 1544, May the 30th. This guy, Sebastian Castillo, returns and interrupts the congregation, the weekly pastor's Bible study over the question of ministerial qualifications on 1545. Then Pierre Amaux is sentenced to public repentance for libeling Calvin. On January 24th, Calvin publishes a commentary on the epistle of 1 Corinthians. February, Michael Servaitis begins correspondence with John Calvin on a multitude of theological subjects, later printed in a heretical book. He also gave to, at some point he gave to Calvin, an annotated version of the Institutes all marked up with everything that Calvin said that was wrong in it. So basically, he was on the opposite page. He was trying to pick a fight with Calvin and trying to bring and wage his heresies upon Geneva. And so he was basically asking for trouble. And it wound up being quite troublesome for Michael Servaitis because he did come to Geneva and was at, ultimately he was killed, burned, as a matter of fact. Because see what happened is not Calvin was not a, Calvin's not a ruler in the city, but he's a pastor in the city. And here's this connection here. He didn't think what the city did was wrong in burning Cervetus because of his false theology, his heresies. Just to let you know, there's some of the things that went on. So a lot of people think, oh, I'm not, Calvin, he was awful. He doesn't burn. Well, he wasn't the only one. This is part of sort of the culture, and I'm not trying to say, oh, it was okay. All this is good. Surely it wouldn't happen today in here, in America. I mean, people that believe heresies are welcome. But, okay. Just let me move forward. 1549, March the 29th. Meanwhile, you see that Calvin is just going on and on publishing commentaries on the Bible. And then on 1549, March 29th, Idelet, Calvin's wife, dies after a brief illness. So how long were they married? They got married in 1541? Eight years, she died. He wrote to a friend, you know the tenderness or rather the softness of my soul. The reason for my sorrow is not an ordinary one. I am deprived of my excellent life companion, who, if misfortune had come, would have been my willing companion, not only in exile and sorrow, but even in death. She would have been with me to the end, and she's died. You know, I could say he loved her deeply, and she must have been not too nice and fastidious. He was nevertheless surrounded by family. So it's not as though he was left completely alone because his brother, Antoine, and his wife and eight children lived in their house, as did other friends and relatives, and the two children that Idalette had left with him, had brought to the marriage with him. So he was a busy man, and his house was busy, and yet he did all this writing. It's just amazing he didn't have this library carol to go off and be quiet in. He was such, he produced so much. So he published in the fourth edition of the Institutes in 1550. Then Servetus comes back on the scene, 1553. He prints this heretical work. He attends worship then in Geneva on August 13th, and people know who he is. He is arrested on September 3rd. Then there was a crisis regarding the Lord's Supper. And then 1553, Michael Servetus is executed by burning at Geneva on October 27th. January 24th, the City Council adopts these ecclesiastical ordinances. Then there's a public riot led by the Libertines, which fails and the key leaders are arrested and flee the city. Well, maybe they calmed down just a little bit in his final years, 1555 to 1564. 1555, August 1st, Calvin publishes a commentary on the Synoptic Gospels. 1557, July 22nd, commentary on the Psalms. 1559, so what is he doing? Studying, preaching, pastoring, writing. Why does he publish? Get it out. Let the whole world know. 1559, they started an academy in Geneva. He even brought a Latin teacher that had taught him in France and Paris to come and help and get that thing established. He was like-minded. 1559, August 1st, Calvin publishes, again, the fifth edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. 1560, the Geneva Bible with notes written in it, like a study Bible. written under Calvin's supervision. Think about the study Bibles that have been written in the last hundred years. What, Ryrie, Schofield, some of these aren't so good. Then you got MacArthur, and ESV study Bible, open Bible, but you know, Calvin, Geneva Bible, cool. February 6th, 1564, Calvin's last appearance in the pulpit of St. Pierre's Cathedral. This is the preaching post at St. Pierre's Cathedral. And a chair that Calvin sat in still exists. I should have a picture for that, but I don't. There is a picture chairing one of these committee-type rooms where they're working through things. And there's outside. And here's the wall that I saw when I was a kid. Calvin Beza was kind of like his disciple there in Geneva. This is Ferrell, the guy that got Calvin to come to Geneva. And this is John Knox, who came to Geneva for part of the time in these later years with Calvin He was from Scotland, then he was thrown out of England because of his reformation, captured by the French, and then he came over to Geneva for a time and studied under Calvin, and then he went back to Scotland. Where does all that Presbyterian stuff come from, from Scotland? Right there, that's how John Knox, that's the road that was paved to get such a strong, reformed, in that case, Presbyterian, Bent in Scotland. 1564, the death of John Calvin at Geneva, May 27th. Calvin knew a great deal of suffering. Part of the, you can see through this, through the The conflicts that he went through, you know, it's hard when a church or a city says, they don't want you. I don't care if you want to be there or not. And they throw you out and you leave. And then they say, come back. And then you come back and you've got to fight all these battles with the city. But this is what's, this is really, you know, if you're, if you believe the truth, preach the truth, teach the truth, sooner or later, you're going to face conflict. The world is set up in opposition to the truth. I've got a couple of things I want to read you just to give you a little more sense of Calvin the person and what he felt like he'd been through. He wrote this about the struggles Satan, a thousand times a day, draws us away from the right course. I say nothing of fire and sword and exiles and all the furious attacks of our enemies. I say nothing of slanders and other such vexations. How many things there are within that are far worse. Ambitious men openly attack us. Epicureans and Lucianists mock at us. Impudent men insult us. Hypocrites rage against us. Those who are wise after the flesh do us harm. And we are harassed in many different ways on every side. The only remedy for all these difficulties is to look forward to Christ's appearing and always to put our trust in it. Then, in his last days, when he knew he was facing death, he was sitting probably in his bed, his last sermon, he had to be carried from the preaching post to his house, and soon thereafter, as they expected him to die, he's gathered around by the city fathers and people in Geneva, and he kind of had a final word for them, and this is what he said. When I first came here, there was almost no organization. The gospel was preached and that was all. Everything was in upheaval. I have lived through many marvelous conflicts. I have been greeted in mockery in the evening before my own door with 50 or 60 shots. You may imagine how this affected a poor, timid scholar such as I am and confess always have been. Then I was hunted out of the town and on my return from Strasbourg I had as great difficulty as before in performing my office. People set their dogs on me. which caught at my robe and my legs. When I went to the council of 200 to appease a tumult, I was greeted with cries to withdraw. I shall do nothing of the sort, I replied. Kill me, you rascals, if you will. My blood will witness against you, and these benches will require it of you. So it will be with you, my brethren, for you are in the midst of a perverse and unhappy people. However many persons of good will there be, it is a wicked and perverse folk, and you will have experience of its perversity when I am gone. But take courage and fortify yourselves, for God will make use of this church and maintain and preserve it. I have had many failings with you which you have had to put up with. and all I have done is worthy of nothing. The wicked will lay hold of this saying, but I repeat that all I have done is of no worth, and that I am a miserable creature. This, however, I can say, I have wished to do good, and my failings have always displeased me, and the fear of God has been rooted in my heart, so that you can say that my intention has been good, and I pray that the evil may be pardoned me, and if there has been anything good, you will conform to it and follow it. Concerning my doctrine, I have taught faithfully and God has given me the grace to write. I have done this as faithfully as possible and have not corrupted a single passage of scripture, nor knowingly twisted it. When I have been tempted to subtlety, I have withstood the temptation and always studied simplicity. I have never written anything from hatred of anyone, but have always faithfully set before me what I deem to be the glory of God. On May 2nd, he wrote his last letter, a final farewell to his old friend Farrell, writing, since it is the will of God that you should survive me in this world, live mindful of our intimacy, which as it was useful to the church of God, so the fruits of it await us in heaven. It is enough that I live and die for Christ, who is to all his followers a gain, both in life and death. That's cool. I just, I hope, I just love to immerse myself in this and get, I wish you could have, we could, wouldn't it be cool if Calvin, come, come and stand before us and tell us your story. Well, he has in a way, you know. He has in a way, by the things that we can read that he said. Just learning from the life of Calvin, here's the things I want to bring, you know, just kind of sifting through this. What can we learn? How can we respond to what we see of Calvin's life? Because we haven't even explored his theology, right? I'm leaving that for another, at least one or maybe even two other sessions. One thing is the proper path or the path God would have us take is not usually the one we would like to take. Oftentimes, it's not. We should submit to authority and trust God. I mean, Calvin, look, see what his dad, you know, reluctantly he followed what his dad wanted and go into legal school and think, well, if God wanted him to be, to study theology, and why didn't he just say no to his father? But he said, yes, and God worked it all out so that he was equipped through all of that. Even I think some of his writing, his study of the ancient literature of Latin and then his study of law. I can't think that it impacts the way that he communicates. He's even-minded, fair-handed, and he explains with astuteness and articulation God's sovereignty over the path that Calvin took is apparent to me. And I think that that should be helpful for us as we think about the path that God leads us down. I mean, think about Calvin didn't want to be in Geneva. In fact, I read, he didn't ever really feel at home there. He didn't even become an official citizen of Geneva until like 1555, five, what, five, six years before he died. But he was there. He was there because God wanted him, because God was going to judge him if he wasn't. But he never really felt comfortable, but it was clear to him that that's where God was leading, and so he went, and he served joyfully and faithfully. I think about that's exemplified the way he went to law school, and he didn't just say, I don't want to be here, I hate this, what am I doing here, and I'm a rotten student. No, he flourished. He made the most of it. This is the way Paul says that we should be as, even slaves should be towards their masters. Serve, do everything you do for the glory of Christ. And so you're not trying to please men, you're trying to please God. And it seems to me that that is the way Calvin went after this. Well, instead of complaining and being all down and out about where he was. He just put his nose to the grindstone and God used him in an enormous way. And so, that's something for us to take from that. We can do that too. I mean, are you complaining? Are you down in the heart? You're not where you want to be? Or you wish life could take you down a different path? Stop worrying about that and just do what God wants you to do where you are. and no telling what he will accomplish through you. Number two, well, that's what, do your best wherever you are. Wherever he was engaged, I just did number two. I just went through that. So it fits with number one. Number three, don't seek fame. See, that rings out of Calvin, right? He did not become this renowned man because he wanted to become renowned. He just wanted to sit in a library and study. And he didn't want to be around. All these people just kept coming to him, and he taught them. He sought to glorify Christ, and he sought to lift high the glory of God. So it should be for our lives. Don't seek fame. Seek to glorify Jesus Christ. When Calvin was buried, he instructed that there not be a tombstone. He's buried in a cemetery right there, right outside the St. Pierre's Cathedral. and there's no headstone. There is a little piece of stone somewhere in the corner of the cemetery that has the initials JC, but nobody knows for sure if that's really where John Calvin is buried. Think it might be, but that's exactly what he wanted. He didn't want people. I mean, this right here would alarm him greatly. I mean, this is, there's no, you know, I stood in front of this thing. When you're standing, human beings stand about that tall. This is like, what's that thing out in South Dakota? Mount Rushmore. But it's a city wall. It's a wall in the city. Calvin would not like that. He wanted the gospel of Christ to be preached and the glory to go to Christ. He must increase and I must decrease, seems to be the mentality of John Calvin. Number four, and that's what we should do too, right? We don't seek fame. We just seek to be faithful. It doesn't matter where we are, who we are, whether we're, you know, we could be in any kind of position or non-position, but just do it for Christ. Fourth, accept the affliction dealt you by God's providence and do not allow it to stop a life of determination to live for His glory until He takes you home. That just comes out of those closing statements that I just read. It's like God is in control and if your baby dies, God knows what's good for you. When your wife dies, you hold on to Christ. And when you're dying, to live is Christ, to die is gain. That's Calvin. And then finally, I just say preach the word. Read the word, study the word. That's what he did. He studied the word constantly. He preached it. He preached the word. He didn't preach philosophy. The academy that he was a part of establishing was an academy whereby to educate people for the purposes of better interpreting and understanding the scriptures. So preach the Word, read the Word, study the Word. And why do you do that? To know God and to make Him known. This is what Calvin did in Geneva and beyond. I mean, you think about why he wrote all these things that he wrote, that today I got 20 books of his or more in my library. And sometimes when I run up against places in the scriptures that I don't understand and I read some current commentators and I'm thinking to myself, you know what, let's go back to Calvin and see what he says. And think about this. He didn't have all the commentaries we have. Here's a pioneer, so to speak. And he didn't have the light bulb, you know? And he didn't have a computer. But he produced. He didn't have a TV either, so he didn't sit down and watch football, I guess. What impresses me about Calvin is just, he's just constantly, even when he was in Strasburg, here he is preaching four times a week, lecturing three times a week, doing the work of a lawyer, having people live in his house, giving private lessons, and selling his library. And just going on about life, because that's where God has him. But all that he did there the writing was to publish it, to get it in the hands of people, so it wasn't just for him or this church. And so he was reaching far beyond where he was, even to us today. And so that's who he is and a lot of his experience. Next time, which will be the second week in January, we will take up with an attempt to try to put his theology in a helpful capsule that will continue helping us answer this question, what is the reformed faith? Hopefully you're gaining a real appreciation for what God has given to us. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you tonight for for this man, his life, the way you molded and shaped him, and the ways in which we've seen both, all three, his life, Zwingli's life, Luther's life, all the things that you used in the context of their life to mold them, shape them, point them in this direction or that direction, and just for the light that you gave to them, and we are the beneficiaries of it, and he'll just help us not to be lazy with what you've given us, but to just see how much And even as short a life as they lived, how much was produced. And Lord, just please ring us out for the glory of God. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.