I wanted to speak about Luther this morning because we've just passed the 500th anniversary of Luther when he nailed the 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg in Germany. And as we go through, we'll actually see some wonderful words that came from Worms. Wonderful words of Luther that I think are an encouragement and a challenge to each of us today. Now Luther, as you might know, was an Augustinian monk. And Luther had no idea that he'd be thrust into the spotlight or that he'd become famous. But what had happened in Luther's day in the 1500s was that the Roman Catholic officials were going around and they were selling indulgences. An indulgence was a ticket you could buy or a piece of paper that you could buy that was authorised by the Roman Catholic Church that gave one time off in purgatory. The Roman Catholics taught that there were basically four places that people go to after If you died as a baby, you would go to limbo. If you died as a really bad person, you would go to hell. If you died as a mediocre sinner, you would go to a place called purgatory, where there you would have to be purged for your sins, you'd suffer some sort of punishment for your sins, until it was right for you to go to heaven. And they taught about the last place I mentioned, heaven. Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church today still teaches that there is a purgatory? I got online last week and I looked up a Catholic website and this is what they said about purgatory. Purgatory is a final purification which is afforded to all who die in God's grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified so that they might achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. So purgatory is still taught as a sort of halfway house for you to undergo purification before you reach heaven. Now what Luther objected to in the 1500s was that the church was making money out of this doctrine of purgatory and as I mentioned it was selling It was selling relief from purgatory for the dead and also for the living, so they could get time off, as far as purgatory was concerned, if they paid money to the church. There was a man called Tetzel that was going around in Luther's time selling these indulgences. The Pope at the time, Pope Leo X, wanted to finish St Peter's Basilica in Rome. He needed money for that. And so indulgences provided a great way of him to get money to rebuild St. Peter's. Well, if you study the scriptures, you'll find that purgatory is a false doctrine. The Apostle Paul said, absent from the body, present with the Lord. And in Luke chapter 23, the thief on the cross, Jesus didn't say, today you'll be in purgatory. The Lord Jesus said to him today, you'll be in paradise with me. The Lord Jesus gave him the full assurance that he was going to be with God's people on that very day, even though he was a dying thief on the cross. The hymn writer wrote this, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin has left its crimson stain, but he has washed it white as snow. When Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 1.18, he said, come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Though our sins are like scarlet, though they be red like crimson, if you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they're white, they're taken away. They shall be as wool, the colour of beautiful, clear, white wool, because of the justification that the Lord Jesus provides for each of us. Well, if you know the story of Luther, his dad was a miner, and Luther himself decided that he would become a lawyer. He studied law, he was quite an intelligent young man. But if you read his history, you'll find that he was a tremendous storm and a lightning bolt and he was put to the ground and he actually made a promise there and then that he would become a monk if his life was spared. His life was spared and he decided that he'd become an Augustinian monk. And becoming a monk, he tried the best he could. He wanted to get to heaven and he tried to be the best, in Aussie kid language, the bestest monk that he could be. He did everything he could to try and be an exceptional monk. He wrote this, my situation was that although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience. and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that the just shall live by faith. Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Therefore I felt myself to be reborn. and who have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of scripture took on a new meaning, whereas before the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate of heaven. Luther came to understand justification by faith. He came to understand when he put his faith in the saving work of the Lord Jesus, what Jesus did on Calvary for him, he came to understand that his sins could be forgiven. It wasn't his merit that made him right before God. It was Christ's merit that was credited to his account. Albert Barnes, the Bible commentator, says, Justification is the declared purpose of God to regard and treat those sinners who believe in Jesus Christ as if they had not sinned on the grounds of the merits of the Saviour. We can thank Martin Luther that he recovered and publicised the doctrine of justification. Martin Luther was a person that contended for the faith. Jude 3 says this, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jews right into the early church there. And he's telling the Christians that they are in a battle and that they are to take up the battle for the faith. All of us are in a battle today for the faith. Luther was in a battle back then. We're in a battle today in 2017 for the truths of the gospel and the truths of the Bible. Actually, we've got a number of battles going on. The Christian battles against the world, 1 John 2.15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever. We battle against the world. Well, there's another battle. There's a battle against our own flesh, our own sinful desires. Galatians 5.16, of this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. We battle against the world, but we battle against our own flesh. And every Christian should be conscious of the battle, that the Spirit wars against the flesh. Well, there's another battle. We battle against satanic forces. Ephesians chapter six. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities against powers, against the rules of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. When Luther battled against the government of his day, he was not only battling against earthly powers, but he was battling against spiritual powers. Another battle we have. You know, we battle for the faith within the church. 2 Timothy 4 verse 2, preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season. Reprove, this is talking about Christians. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. So we battle against the world. We battle against our own flesh. We battle against satanic forces and we battle for truth within the church. It's very important to understand that. I've found in pastoral ministry over the last 20 years, The biggest battles that I've fought haven't been against unbelievers. The biggest battles have been within the churches that I've served in. But we've got to contend for the faith in our own church. We've got to contend for the faith in our own lives. We've got to contend for our faith against spiritual wickedness in high places, and we've got to contend for the faith in the world. We're not just called to come here on a Sunday and take in God's word. We're called to do that, but we're called to battle as well. Am I a soldier of the cross, Isaac Watts wrote. Now, if you go right through the Bible and you'll find that God's people have battled through the ages for the faith. Think about Noah. Here's Noah. He's a minority in his day. He goes into the ark as a minority and he comes out as a majority, doesn't he? He's a guy that stands for truth in his day, preaching for over a hundred years. He lived at a time where people's minds were consumed by evil continuously, but he stood. What about Joshua? You think about Joshua. Joshua and Caleb were a minority. And Joshua comes to the people one day and he says this, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve you the Lord. And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites. in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' He made a stand amongst his own people. He told them to make a choice, to either serve God or the gods of the enemies. In Martin Luther, we have a brave man that was willing to battle for truth in his day. Martin Luther is called a reformer. Why is he called a reformer? He's called a reformer because he wanted to reform the church he loved. He loved the Catholic church, but he could see that there were major errors in the Catholic church, so he stood against them. And you know, the church needs reformers. It needs reformers in every age. because we as God's people are prone to wonder. There's a hymn written by Robert Robertson in the 1700s, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. And within that hymn, Robertson writes this, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Robertson knew that he was prone to wander and he had to keep close to the Lord. As we're thinking about Martin Luther, Luther was not the first reformer. If you go through the history of the church, there were individuals and groups of people that called upon the church of their day to reform. I haven't got time to tell you about all the reformers. I just want to fill you in on a couple of them that preceded Martin Luther. There were some groups or some movements. There was the Waldeseans, there was the Lollards and there was the Czech Brethren. Christianity today states this. These movements differed in various ways, but they had significant similarities. Each of them reacted against a church which, through wealth, privilege and power, had moved far from the teaching of Jesus and the dynamic simplicity of the early Christians. Each of them emphasised preaching from a Bible in the language of the people. Each of them owed its strength to the dedicated involvement of laymen and laywomen. And despite the fact that in every case the church responded by inquisition and burning, each of these movements survived into the 16th century to encounter the Reformation. Well, who were the Waldenseans? Well, they began in France in the 1170s. And the Waldenseans translated the Bible and they wanted to put it in the hands of the common people. The Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe. Wycliffe died in 1384. John Wycliffe was a Roman Catholic priest that wanted to reform the Catholic Church. Wycliffe is named as the morning star of the Reformation. He too wanted to get the Bible into the hands of the English people. And what he did was he got his followers and his followers would get together and they would make copies of the Bible so that the common people could understand the scriptures. Do you know it took one of John Wycliffe's followers 10 months, no printing press back then, it took them 10 months to write down a single copy of the Bible. through John Wycliffe and his followers, they made hundreds of copies available to the people of England. Well, there's another guy called John Hus, and he lived in the 1400s. He was a Catholic priest, and he had followers that were called the Czech Brethren. And Hus, who was a Roman Catholic priest, like Luther, spoke against indulgences, and he spoke about justification. Now, hus in his language means goose. And hus said something very interesting. You see, hus was going to be condemned. He was condemned. He was martyred. But hus said this, you can kill this goose, but in a hundred years, a swan shall arise. Hus is put to the stake. He dies in 1415, and in 102 years after 1415, in 1517, someone comes upon the scene called Martin Luther. And in 1517, he nails his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg. I wonder, was that the swan that Huss had prophesied about? When Luther comes on the scene in the 1500s, we know that he wasn't the first reformer. But when he comes on the scene, he has a great invention that's in his favour. I've spoken about this. It was Gutenberg's printing press. Wycliffe didn't have that. Wycliffe had to write the Bible down. But when he comes along the scene, the printing press had been invented in 1452. He begins to print Bibles so that the people could read the Bible in the common language of German. He was also helped because a man called Erasmus had published his Greek New Testament in 1516. Copies were made of Luther's theses. It was originally written in Latin. But copies were made, it was translated into German, and those copies went throughout Europe, and they caused a really big stir. And I'd encourage you today, if you've got the internet, to go on the internet and read the 95 Theses. 95 objections to what the church was doing in his day, specifically, mostly around indulgences. It's thought that in the time of Luther, his writings and other writings began to circulate, and there were some six to seven million pamphlets that were printed in Luther's day. There was around about a third of those pamphlets, or a quarter of them I should say, came from Luther, so from his writings. What happened to Luther to get him to Worms? What happened was Those that were in government of the day decided that Luther was not doing the right thing. So in 1521, the Pope of the day excommunicated Luther from the Catholic Church and Luther was called to appear before the Diet of Worms. So you might say it's like a court or an assembly of German officials, an assembly of the Roman empire in Luther's day. And so he gets called to that court. And the Pope wanted Luther dead. It was at the time of Charles V. And Charles V had been elected as the Holy Roman Emperor. And so Luther goes to the City of Worms expecting that he's going to die. And Luther was asked to do two things. He was asked to either confirm his writing or renounce his writings. And so Luther gets to the Diet of Worms. He's given 24 hours to make up his mind. He takes time and Luther prays this prayer. I can't read out the whole prayer, but I'll read out some of it. Luther prays this, the work is not mine, but thine. I have no business here. I have nothing to contend for with these great men of the world. I would gladly pass my days in happiness and peace, but the cause is thine, and it is righteous and everlasting. O Lord, help me. O faithful and unchangeable God, I lean not upon man. It were vain. Whatever is of man is tottering. Whatever proceeds from him must fail. Behold me, prepared to lay down my life for thy truth, suffering like a lamb. For the cause is holy, it is thine own. I will not let thee go, no, nor yet for all eternity. And though the world should be thronged with devils, and this body which is the work of thine hands should be cast forth, trodden underfoot, cut in pieces, consumed to ashes, my soul is thine. Yes, I have thine own word to assure me of it. My soul belongs to thee. and will abide with thee forever. Amen. O God, send help. Amen. Luther knew that he could die if he went back to the Diet of Worms and if he said that he would not recant what he had written. Well, he goes back, and this is what is reported that Luther said. He said, unless I am convinced By scripture and plain reason, my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience would be neither right nor safe. God help me, here I stand. I can do no other." Now we've got to think about this. Here is a man that was a dedicated monk, that didn't seek to be a lead reformer whatsoever, but saw the injustices in his church and wrote about them, and then he's called to court, he's called to recant, and at the risk of his life, this simple monk says, no. My conscience is captive to the word of God. and Luther stood. I think the world would be a different place if Luther didn't take that stand on that day. We need to be thankful for the Luthers of the world. You know, when he said his conscience is captive to the word of God, we need to think about that ourselves. Is our consciences captive to the word of God? Is our church captive to the word of God? Is our stand in society today captive to the word of God? Where is society going to learn about the truths of marriage? It's from the church. We've got to take a stand. We've got to take a stand for the truth of marriage. We've got to take a stand against abortion. We've got to take a stand against euthanasia. We as a church are the only ones that have the truth, the Jews have the Old Testament, but we have the whole truth, the whole counsel of the word of God, and we need to stand. And the question to ask is, as believers today, are our consciences captive to the word of God? We need to examine our hearts. If we're doing things that are wrong and our conscience is saying no, our conscience must be captive to God's word. I'm thankful Luther's conscience was. But in that council, there was one voice, and that was the voice of Martin Luther standing for the Lord Jesus Christ. Reminds me of the book of Hebrews. In the book of Hebrews, we have the great chapter 11 of the people of faith. And as the writer writes, he says this, What shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. So women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. God's people have the story of standing for truth, even if it costs them their lives. You know who won at Worms? God won at Worms. God had the victory. Unless I am convinced, by scripture and plain reason, my conscience is captive to the word of God, I cannot and will not recant anything. To go against conscience would be neither right nor safe. Wonderful words from words that have echoed down throughout history. One solitary monk before the powers of the Roman Empire and the powers of the Catholic Church stood for truth in his day and he made a difference. Would you stand? I believe as we go on in our lives from 2017 and we keep going, The Christian is going to have to stand more and more against evil. We've got great promises in the scriptures as we do stand. The Bible says, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. We need to be reminded that Jude said that we should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. The writer of Hebrews says, seeing then that we have a high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. He writes a little bit later on in chapter 10, he says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And of course, Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. Now I've talked a lot about Martin Luther, and Martin Luther was not a perfect person. Martin Luther, like all of us, had deep faults. But what was the legacy that he left behind? Let me just give you a brief list of the legacies that Luther left behind. Luther wanted the German people, as I mentioned, to have the Bible in the common language. Luther got printing organised for that. Luther and other reformers broke the yoke of the medieval church, the yoke that they had upon their people. The Catholic Church had taught that the Mass was necessary for salvation, and the Catholic Church at times would hold the Mass back from the people. which was a threat to the people's salvation as far as they understood Roman Catholicism. Luther taught that faith, not the mass, was necessary for salvation. Luther and the other reformers taught people that it was possible to have a relationship with God apart from the Roman Catholic Church. Luther and other reformers broke the monopoly that the Catholic Church had over people's lives. He broke the power of traditions of the Church, and Luther planted the seeds of religious freedom in Germany. He taught that the Bible had authority over the Church, not the Church having authority over the Bible. And Luther also used music to teach the faith. As I was reading about Luther, I found that he composed at least 37 hymns. His most famous hymn is what? A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. That's his most famous hymn. Now let's not forget Luther's stance and let us, in this age, Be willing to contend for the faith as Jude has told us. And let us remember his words, that my conscience is captive to the word of God.