It's a great pleasure to be invited to speak to you on this most precious subject. And it's a precious time that we come to address this subject because of course this is the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and therefore a very appropriate time to address that period of history and especially the blessings that it has brought to us. Now the subject of my lecture tonight is Luther for today, lessons from the Protestant Reformation. Tonight we mark the 500th anniversary of an extraordinary event. On the 31st of October 1517, that's 500 years ago next Tuesday, An obscure German monk named Martin Luther went to the castle church door of Wittenberg in Germany, and there he nailed his 95 theses to that door. Written in Latin, These theses were an invitation to scholarly debate. So they were written in the language of scholars. They were addressed to other academics. They were not the kind of thing that you would imagine would cause any public stir or outcry. The public display of this document was a very unlikely beginning for a continent wide resurgence of religious reform. It was one of these small moments that changed history forever. Think, for example, of King Charles I entering the British House of Commons in the year 1642 to arrest five members. A little event. It changed history forever. Lenin arriving at the Petrograd train station in 1917. A small moment, but one that changed the history of the world for the whole of the 20th century. The crucifixion of the Galilean carpenter 2000 years ago, a small event we might say, but one that changed the world forever. Because Luther's actions 500 years ago set in motion this extraordinary period of social change, of economic change, of political change, but above all of spiritual transformation. And that is what we call the Protestant Reformation. We rejoice to remember the Reformation. We remember that event with joy and with thanksgiving because we stand for the same principles that Luther stood for in 1517. We share his convictions and we rejoice to stand where he stood on that fateful day as he issued that challenge to the Church of Rome in its false teaching. We remember it with gratitude to our God, for as Protestants, we rejoice in the recovery of the truth and in the free propagation of the true gospel that resulted from Luther's stand in 1517. It was a recovery of the truth, and we need to emphasize that clearly. Luther was not bringing forth something new. He was bringing forth something old. He was returning to the scriptures. He was coming back to the New Testament and teaching once more the gospel that the apostles had proclaimed, the gospel of the apostolic church, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Protestantism is simply biblical religion and what Luther proclaimed was the religion of the Bible. So Luther's 95 theses were displayed on that day and they were entitled, A Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of the Indulgences. So they were highly specific. They were not a broad, wide-ranging document. They were very specific to the one particular issue of indulgences issued by the Pope. Indulgences are documents proclaiming the forgiveness of sins on the authority of the Pope of Rome. Now no longer today are people indulgences trafficked for money. No longer are most of the points of the 95 theses live issues of debate. Is there for Luther's action now irrelevant? Far from it. Because you see, the vital question at issue is much, much bigger than specifically the sale of indulgences. It really comes down to this. Who has the authority to pardon sins? How is that pardon to be obtained? And that's not a little or trivial question. These are the greatest questions in the world. These are the most vital, pressing issues that any of us have to address, both in terms of our own spiritual life, in terms of our own walk with God, and also in terms of the message that we proclaim as the Church of Christ. The answers to these questions still to this day separate the Roman Catholic from the true Protestant. And we have no track with those who would apologize for the Reformation, for those who would suggest that Luther's action was somehow unimportant or unnecessary or needlessly divisive. Rather, we stand four square with Luther in his protest against Rome. We share that protest as Protestants. To this day, we continue to protest against the false gospel of the Church of Rome. This lecture is entitled Luther for Today. And so I'm not interested simply in giving you an academic lecture on Martin Luther and on the history. You can read the books if you want that. What I want to do today is bring forth the lessons of this. What can we as Christian believers learn from this period of history? What can we draw from this to apply to ourselves? Our burden tonight is to rediscover the value and the preciousness of the doctrine proclaimed by Martin Luther. So I'm going to bring to you a series of eight lessons which we can draw from the history of the Protestant Reformation. And the first of these is the importance of true spiritual experience. The importance of true spiritual experience. You see, the Reformation began in the soul of one man. Isn't that incredible? The Reformation started in Martin Luther's soul and yet that is true. We can demonstrate, we can prove that from history. The Reformation, the whole Protestant Reformation began with one man wrestling with his consciousness of guilt and not accepting the easy answers and the cheap grace which his church offered him. one man who was confronting the reality of his standing before God. Luther's conviction of sin was real and therefore his hurt was not lightly healed. Luther had been born in the year 1483 Born to a relatively humble background, his father was a miner and Luther had the opportunities that his parents were able to offer him, which were limited. They enabled him to go through schooling, to go through his education, but alongside that to experience much poverty. Yet despite that poverty, he eventually succeeded in becoming a law student at the University of Erfurt, and there his academic progress was very promising. To anyone looking on from the outside world, he was a man who had come from these humble beginnings, but who looked like he had a promising future before him as a lawyer, as a successful man in the society of his day. Something much more interestingly in store for Luther. Luther was promising, but Luther was wrestling with his guilt. And it came to a head on one memorable day in 1505. Luther was walking home to Eilebon to visit his parents there. And as he walked, a terrible thunderstorm broke. The lightning was lashing down, the thunder was rumbling overhead, and Luther was terrified. We're told that he cried out in the midst of the storm, Saint Anne, save me. and I will become a monk. As Luther later observed, if he had died in that storm, he would have died trusting in Saint Anne to save him. The storm passed, but Luther did not abandon his vow. He entered a monastery, he abandoned his promising academic career, and he subjected himself to the rigors of a monastic life. He had been one of the stars of the University of Erfurt, one of the outstanding students. Now he was sent to go from door to door, begging for money on behalf of the Augustinian monastery in that town. In his cell, he wore sackcloth. He whipped himself. He arose at midnight and at the crack of dawn to observe the prayers required of the monks, the disciplines of the cloister, He confessed his sins, he received the mass, and yet despite the teaching of his church that these things lead to the forgiveness of sins, he drew no comfort from them. Rather, his problem became worse. His consciousness of guilt became more pressing and intense. Luther trembled for the guilt of his sins. In the year 1510, he was sent to visit Rome. And he went with great excitement, thinking that this would be the holy city. This was the seat of the pope, the head of the church on earth, the vicar of Christ among men. Surely in Rome, it would be like a kind of heaven upon earth. And yet he found in that city a corruption so odious that he longed to return to Germany. He saw marriages annulled, children, illegitimate children declared legitimate. ecclesiastical promotions granted, all in return for money. The base trafficking in the promotions of the church. The Italian priests used to mock Luther, seeing him conducting mass slowly. and reverently as one who was earnestly seeking to believe in the teachings of the Church of Rome. They just rattled through them. They had said seven masses on the next altar while Luther said but one. We're told at one point he had tried to climb the so-called holy steps in Rome, these steps which, according to legend, were supposed to be the very steps that our Lord Jesus had climbed in the city of Jerusalem, which supposedly had then been magically transported from Jerusalem to Rome. And Luther climbed them upon his knees, repeating the Lord's prayer on each step, believing as he did so that he would earn an indulgence for this penance, and yet as he did so, he became increasingly ashamed of his own superstition in believing such things. Who knoweth whether such things be so? And at last he left the steps behind. So Luther went home from Rome disillusioned with the state of the Catholic Church and still without answers. Luther needed true saving faith in Jesus Christ. So see then the importance of true spiritual experience. You know, we may call ourselves Protestants. We may believe Protestant doctrine and be able to explain it with great clarity. But if we think that our denominational allegiance, if we think that our family heritage, if we think that any outward ceremony, whether it be baptism or whether it be the Lord's Supper or anything else, If we think that that will secure our salvation, then we are falling into the same error of the medieval Roman church. We are departing from the Protestantism of Luther and embracing, rather, the teachings of Rome. Biblical religion begins with true spiritual experience. So that's in our first lesson. Secondly, the importance of scripture as the final authority in religion. As Luther went on in the Augustinian order, he made an important friend there, the general of the order, John Stulpitz, who seems, although he died within the Church of Rome, he seems to have been a true man of God for all his false doctrine. Stulpitz saw Luther's distress and wisely directed him to the study of scripture to address the word of God itself and there to seek comfort for the anxiety he felt over his sins. In the year 1512, Luther had obtained his doctorate in theology and had been appointed as professor of divinity at the university in Wittenberg. Here it was his duty to lecture on the books of the Bible. And so he was directed both by his monastic order and by his professional calling. He was directed to the study of the scriptures. To do this properly, he acquired fluency in both Greek and Hebrew, the original biblical languages. We're told that between 1512 and 1517, He lectured on Genesis, on the Psalms, on Romans, and on Galatians. And here really we find Luther's solid foundation for his opposition to the false teaching of Rome. Luther's theology did not come from his own reasoning or speculation. It came from the Bible. It came from his conviction that the word of God was the final authority by which all human teachings must be measured. The truth of the word of God. One vital experience, what's sometimes known as Luther's tower experience, came when he studied Romans 1.17. The text reads in our AV, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written that just shall live by faith. Luther wrote, I greatly longed to understand Paul's epistle to the Romans. And nothing stood in the way but that one expression, the righteousness of God. Because I took it to mean that, that righteousness whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. 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. Therefore I did not love a just, angry God, but rather hated and murmured against Him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement that the just shall live by faith. Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Thereupon, I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of scripture took on a new meaning. And whereas before the righteousness 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 to heaven. You see, measuring by scripture alone, Luther had found that there is one means of the forgiveness of sins and only one faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Here was the true gospel. Dear friends, if we are Protestants in truth, then let us stand on the same foundation that Luther stood upon, the authority of Scripture. Let us take our stand on scripture alone as our final authority in all matters of religion. Let that commitment be real and let it be put into practice. True biblical religion is founded upon the reading of scripture and the study of its meaning, the scripture as our final authority in religion. So that's then our second lesson, but thirdly, the importance of sound doctrine. You see, Luther was anxious to communicate the truths that he had discovered. Not only did he lecture to his students at the university, but he also took every opportunity that was granted to him to go out and to preach the word. He desired others to experience the same assurance of the forgiveness of sins that he had found. And equally, he was appalled when he saw error taught and promoted, and especially error coming into the true Church of Christ. This came to a head in 1517, when an indulgence seller from Rome came to Saxony. The Pope needed funds to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica, the great cathedral at the center of Rome. And the Pope had the perfect agent to raise money for him. John Tetzel was a German, although he was one of the Pope's creatures, and so was able to come, was able to preach to the German people in their own language, as a skilled communicator, as a persuasive speaker. He was able to press urgently upon the people their need of forgiveness of sins, warning them that even though they were baptized and had taken the mass, yet still they were going to go to purgatory when they died and to suffer unspeakable anguish in purgatory. He offered to the people forgiveness in the form of a written document with all the authority of the Pope of Rome behind it called an indulgence. And he taught that this indulgence would grant freedom from purgatory. He even went further and taught that if the people had recently deceased relatives, then they could free these relatives from the fires of purgatory by buying a further indulgence for their deceased relative. So by giving them money, they would obtain freedom from agony for their loved ones. He was not shy about preaching very graphically about the supposed horrors of purgatory and about the powerful effect his indulgences. You see the teaching of Rome was that excess merit had been accumulated, the meritorious works of Christ and of the Virgin Mary and of all of the saints had been accumulated, that merit which they didn't need to get into heaven, that merit had accumulated. It was under the authority of the Pope of Rome and therefore it could be freely dispensed to anyone whom the Pope chose. So in return for money, you would receive that little portion of merit, of excess merit, and would have freedom from purgatory. This teaching continues to this very day. They no longer sell indulgences for money, but Pope Francis in the last couple of years has offered indulgences, for example, to those who attended World Youth Day. or for those who were not able to attend, for those who followed it on social media, an indulgence offering freedom from purgatory. There is relevance to this controversy right to the present. So Tetzel was a controversial preacher. Tetzel pressed his doctrine very far. He used the expression, as soon as the gold in the casket rings, the rescued soul to heaven springs. And by using this kind of manipulative teaching, he persuaded the people to part with money that they could ill afford for these worthless scraps of paper. Luther was horrified and revolted, and especially he was concerned about the effect upon the souls of the people. Yes, he was concerned about their money being wasted, but he was also worried that they would be purchasing such an indulgence, and then that they would be found trusting in that indulgence, that that indulgence would secure them automatic entry to heaven. rather than trusting in Christ and looking to the Savior. He recognized that here was not simply error, here was heresy. Here was soul-destroying error. Here was teaching that if followed consistently, could end up leading not to heaven, but to hell. The seriousness of the issue could hardly be overstated. It was this concern for sound doctrine that led Luther to challenge the indulgences on that fateful day in 1517. He took his 95 theses, 95 points of argument on which he showed and proved and demonstrated repeatedly that the indulgences were false and were nonsense and were powerless to save. He took these 95 theses and exhibited them publicly. In Thesis 52, he wrote, the assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the commissary, nay, even though the Pope himself were to stake his soul upon it. Strong words, but certainly correct and accurate. The importance of sound doctrine. The importance of sound doctrine is not simply a pedantic concern. Sound doctrine is the difference between heaven and hell. Sound doctrine is the difference between a true gospel that leads to salvation and a false gospel that leads to destruction. Between a true hope that rests upon Christ the Savior and a false hope. that rests upon the empty promises of men. If we are Protestants, then we love true biblical doctrine, and we take our stand on justification by faith alone, just as Luther was teaching to his students, just as Luther proclaimed in the 95 Theses. So the importance of sound doctrine. Fourthly, the importance of boldness before men. The importance of boldness before men. The theses created an immediate sensation. As we would say in modern speech, they went viral. They immediately began to circulate. Someone translated them into German, not Luther, and organized their publication. They were printed. They were rapidly circulated. throughout Germany. Shortly afterwards Luther preached a sermon against the indulgences and that too was printed and was circulated. They created a popular sensation. The response was telling. A Dominican monk named Praerius was appointed to answer Luther on behalf of the Roman church. And he wrote his response with a crucial title, Dialogue Concerning the Power of the Pope. You see that? He was moving the subject of the discussion from indulgences to the power of the Pope. And of course, he's perfectly right. That is the real question at issue. The issue is not indulgences. The issue is, does the Pope exercise this kingly, indeed this Christ-like authority over the church on earth? Has he the power to forgive sin? So this was the real issue, the authority of the papacy to grant pardon. Furthermore, Luther was summoned to Rome to be examined on charges of heresy. Now this was grave indeed. Heresy was a capital crime. Those who had faced accusations of heresy, those who had been convicted of heresy, were executed. John Hus, Jerome of Prague, a hundred years before, they had been burnt at the stake. by the Church of Rome. Savonarola preaching Reform Wycliffe. He died before they could convict him, but his bones were dug up and were burnt. The Church of Rome was ruthless in its punishment of supposed heresy. If Luther went to Rome unwilling to recant, he would very likely be going to his death. But by means of powerful friends, and especially Frederick the Elector of Saxony, that is to say the prince who governed the region in which Luther lived, Luther managed to have the venue of the hearing moved from Rome into his own native Germany, into friendlier territory, to the city of Augsburg. And there he was appointed to meet Thomas Cajetan, a cardinal of the Church of Rome, a powerful and a very brilliant man. Before this cardinal, Luther was expected to recant his teaching. Serious. If Luther had done so, the Protestant Reformation as we know it would have been strangled at birth. We believe of course it would have come, but it would have come through another. But Luther did not recant. Though he knew he faced the imminent prospect of death, he continued to argue boldly from the scriptures, even before this powerful and brilliant cardinal, that the Pope had no power to grant forgiveness of sins. Cajetan and Luther were at an impasse, but the cardinal had no authority to arrest the reformer. He was still under the protection of Frederick of Saxony. And so Luther was able to return to Wittenberg. Luther was protected by the authority of the elector, but this could not shield him forever. In the year 1519 that followed, Luther continued to maintain his teaching in an acrimonious debate with a German Romanist called John Eck. Following this debate, the Pope, Leo X, issued two papal bulls, that is, papal proclamations. The first commanded the burning of Luther's books. and the second formally excommunicated him from the Church of Rome. Luther typically gathered his students in the city of Wittenberg, took the people bull and burnt it before their eyes, symbolically declaring his absolute rejection. of the power and authority of the Pope within the Church of Christ. He saw the truth that the Pope was the decided enemy of reform within the Church. That the followers of reform could not appeal to the Pope as their friend. for him to purify the church and its teaching, but rather he was the leader of their enemies. In his blasphemous claims, Luther taught the Pope reveals his true identity as the man of sin and son of perdition, prophesied in scripture the Antichrist who claims the place of God within his own church, claiming to himself an authority that is reserved to God alone. Who can forgive sins but God alone? The breach between Luther and Rome was now open and permanent. Finally, in the year 1521, Luther was summoned to appear before the emperor, Charles V, the emperor of what was called the Holy Roman Empire, which covers most of the country we would now call Germany, along with other countries like Switzerland. Charles V summoned Luther to appear before a diet or meeting. in the German city of Worms. And Luther traveled there wondering whether he was to be arrested and handed over to the inquisitors of Rome. Now there were two questions that Luther had to face before the Diet of Worms. Firstly, are these your books? And there were the assembled publications of Martin Luther. That's easily answered. Secondly, would he recant from the doctrines taught within them? It's said that Luther hesitated, that he paused. He knew the danger. Here he was standing before the most powerful man in Europe, the emperor himself. Here were arrayed the cardinals of the Church of Rome. Here were the great princes of Germany. Here was all power, both civil and ecclesiastical, before him. United in this demand, recant. And he hesitated and he said, give me a day to consider it. So they agreed and they gave him his day. The following day, they reconvened. Luther was again brought before that solemn gathering. And it was then that Luther brought forth that famous answer. These words that ring down the generations in their courage, in their boldness, in standing for the truth regardless. Luther said, unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either in the Pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted. and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. May God help me. Amen. The Deidivormes condemned Luther. They called him a heretic. But still they did not arrest him. And Luther was able to flee from that city. He had a holy boldness. He was like the apostle Peter testifying before the Sanhedrin, like Paul standing before Festus and King Agrippa, like the Lord Jesus himself before Pilate and before Herod. a holy boldness, the boldness of one that feared God and not man. You see, this courage gave moral weight to the Protestant Reformation in the eyes of the people and confirmed the solemn conviction of those who upheld it. If we are Protestants, then let us have this holy boldness to confess our faith before men. So that's then our fourth lesson, the holy boldness. Let's come fifthly, to see the importance of the scriptures in the common tongue. Leaving the city of Worms, Luther was set upon and seized by a group of armed men. But this was not an arrest by the agents of Rome, rather these men were his friends. And this attack was staged. The idea was that Luther himself had become too inflammatory, too controversial a figure. He needed to be removed from the scene for a time so that the other leaders of the Protestant church in Wittenberg could continue in his absence. So they staged this kidnap and they took Luther to the remote fortress known as the Wartburg. And there Luther remained for some months. Now, this was not wasted time because Luther knew that there was a great and oppressing need. If the people were to be persuaded that the Protestant gospel was true, then they needed to have the means to ascertain that. They needed to have the scriptures in their own language. And so Luther, a scholar of Hebrew and of Greek, set himself to the task of translating the Bible into German. This was now essential. If scripture was the sole authority, people would have to themselves weigh up the teachings of Luther and of Rome in the light of the Bible. Luther worked hard at the translation. We're told that in three months he'd already completed a first draft of the entire New Testament, which is extraordinarily fast work. He worked hard at the translation. He wanted to convey the full and accurate sense of the original texts and in the most clear and memorable language. He said, I endeavored to make Moses so German that no one would suspect he was a Jew. He continued to work at revising and improving the translation right up until his death more than 20 years later. His practice was interesting. He would first make a literal translation in the word order of the original, which those of you who know about moving from one language to another, you know that that can differ greatly from a language like Greek. or Hebrew and English. So a literal translation, very literal, very wooden, into his own language. And then for each of the major terms, he would then make a list, a kind of thesaurus of words in the German language that might fit, so that he could find the best combination possible, both to express the meaning of the original text, but also to bring it with richness, with flavour, with rhythm, with character into the German language. Luther became a collector of words. When he came to the precious stones of Revelation, he was found consulting the court jeweler in Wittenberg to gather the names of jewels. When it came to the terms describing the dismemberment of the sacrifices in the Pentateuch, he was visiting the butcher and the abattoir of his home city. to gather from them the terms and the words in the German language. The Germans to this day pay Luther's translation the highest compliment that they can. They continue to use it. It remains the principal biblical translation in the German language. It has proved to be hugely influential on the development of modern written German, and it may be compared in these respects to our own beloved A.V. How important to have the Bible in the common tongue. Was this not the greatest, the richest and the most precious gift that Luther could give to his native people, to give them the Bible in their own language? Are we thankful for the scriptures in translation, for a rich and resonant rendering of the word of God in our own language? How thankful we should be for our English Bible. Seventh lesson, the importance of the ministry of the word. The following year, 1522, Luther was summoned back to Wittenberg. The Reformation had continued without him under the leadership of his two main lieutenants. There was Melanchthon, a younger man, a brilliant scholar, especially in the Greek language. Brilliant, but cautious and careful. But then there was Luther's older colleague, Karlstadt, a brilliant Hebrew scholar, fiery, impetuous, intemperate. These two men, Karlstadt and Melanchthon, had taken the lead. But under them, excesses were developing. Some of the early Protestants were claiming to have experienced immediate revelations from God, dreams and visions. which they were attempting to pass off as equivalent in authority to the word itself. While others were demanding the re-baptism of all believers as adults. Luther knew that if Protestantism was to retain its moral authority in the eyes of the people, then practices would have to be restrained and governed by the authority of the word. Luther, therefore, returned to his work as Professor of Divinity at the University in Wittenberg, which now became the first seminary of the Protestant Church. Many men came to study at Wittenberg who were to take the Lutheran gospel throughout the continent. Patrick Hamilton, from our own land of Scotland, travelled there from St. Andrews. He sat in Wittenberg at the feet of Melanchthon. He studied the scriptures. He imbibed that Lutheran theology that was taught there. Later on, another Scot, Alexander Alleyne, nicknamed Allegius, went to the same seminary and himself studied there. They would bring back the truth of the word, whether by their writings or indeed in the case of Hamilton, by his own presence and eventual martyrdom in his native land, a testimony to the true gospel that was spreading out from that epicenter at Wittenberg. As a preacher of the word, Luther himself continued to proclaim the truth with boldness. His capacity for work was extraordinary. At Wittenberg, there were three services every Sabbath and another service every single day of the week. And the preaching of the word was central and at the heart of every service. Although there was a staff of ministers to share the burden, Luther himself took an abundant share. We have manuscripts of 2,000 300 sermons which he preached. Think of that, more than 2,000 sermons. For one year alone, 1528, he preached 195 sermons over 145 days of the year. His preaching was vigorous, personal, direct, and challenging. Luther's sermons do not make for easy reading. We find our sins exposed, and they must have been very challenging indeed for the people sitting before him. He is a gripping, he is a popular preacher, but one who cuts deep into the conscience, who strikes at the heart of spiritual concern. Similarly, Luther was writing books which were going far afield. Alongside his sermons, he wrote books like The Bondage of the Will, which taught the reality of the total depravity of fallen man. He wrote commentaries, most famously the commentary on the Galatians, which remains one of the classic works upon that book of the Bible. He also had other writings that were more popular. In 1529 he published the Large and Small Catechisms which form a sort of template on which our own Westminster Assembly would later build the larger and the shorter catechisms along with many other reformed catechisms that have been written since. Luther preached on the importance of Christian upbringing and promoted schools and public education for all boys. He also wrote songs. Luther had a great gift for music, and he recognized that for people who had no ability to read, of course, there were many in that situation in these days, they could be instructed in the basics of religion through song, and song would be easily remembered, easily memorized, easily committed to heart, and there are many hymns by Luther which are still sung in the German language and some in translation in English as well. 7. The importance of Christian living In 1525, Luther took an important step. He had condemned the monastic vows of celibacy as wrong and invalid. He had supported Karlstadt when he married. But now he himself took the radical step of actually breaking these obligations of Rome and took to himself a wife, Katerina von Bora. She was a nun who had fled from her convent. So again, she had taken to the Pope an oath of celibacy. But she fled along with eight other nuns under the influence of Lutheran teaching. And of course, these women without possessions, without family, were very vulnerable in that day. Luther took them under his care. For eight of them, he managed to find husbands. And at last, Katharina von Bora was left alone. When she was left, he himself was persuaded by his friends to offer his hand in marriage. Luther was 42, a good deal older than her. She was 26. He had been a lifelong bachelor, and so marriage was a big change. He used to jest that before marriage he made his bed but once a year. And now he had a wife whom he nicknamed Lord Katie, who kept him in line. Although the circumstances might make it look to our eyes like a marriage of convenience, yet it's clear from the sources that there was a genuine bond of affection that developed between Martin and Katie Luther. They were both big characters. They would tease one another and comfort one another as they needed. Luther was sometimes subject to severe fits of depression, but Katie would not let him brood. And at one stage, when he was locked away in his study in his depression, she actually physically removed the door from its hinges to get him out of the study. She was what he needed. She was the tonic that he required. Together they had six children and undoubtedly the reformer found support and consolation in this busy and happy home. More importantly, by this home life, Luther set an example, rejecting the monastic pietism of the Roman church, which set up the idea of the monk as the highest image of human piety, and instead setting forth a Protestant vision of healthy family life with the religion of Christ at its heart. He was setting an example for the church and for others to follow. Despite the circulation of his books all over the continent, Luther received no royalties. The concept of copyright was nonexistent in these days, and so money was tight. Their only income was Luther's modest salary as a professor. And so the Luthers took in lodgers, especially divinity students, to support the running of the household. These men recorded some of them what they heard and that document was later published as Luther's Table Talk. That is some of the comments and the remarks that Luther made around the table which give a wonderful insight into the thought and conversation of Luther. I can read you a couple of examples. At one occasion he said, no greater mischief can happen to a Christian people than to have God's word taken from them or falsified so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant we and our descendants be not witnesses of such a calamity. On another occasion, speaking about preaching, he said, I would not have preachers torment their hearers and detain them with long and tedious preaching, for the delight of hearing vanishes therewith, and the preachers hurt themselves. Then again, on another occasion, he said, he who will have for his master and king, Jesus Christ, the son of the Virgin, who took upon himself our flesh and our blood, will have the devil for his enemy. Wise, thoughtful remarks. Seven lessons then I've brought you, seven positive lessons I want to finish off by bringing you an eighth lesson which is a negative lesson We must never put these men from history upon such a pedestal that we imagine them to be faultless. Luther also teaches us, eighthly, the importance of restraint. Because Luther was a man subject to extremes. He was not good at listening to others. He was not good at being restrained by others. and some of his teaching therefore had an unrestrained and ungoverned aspect. Especially this became problematic on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Early on, the Reformation having spread into Switzerland, The Swiss reformers like Zwingli had to take a stand against Luther on his doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Luther was continuing to retain aspects of the old Roman doctrine of the mass, not claiming that there's an actual change in the bread and wine into the actual physical body and blood of Christ, but teaching a sort of halfway doctrine. that the body and blood of Christ are present in, with, and around these elements. It's sometimes hard even to understand what exactly he means by this doctrine. By the year 1540, Luther and Calvin themselves were directly having dialogue on this point. But there was no progress made. To the end, Luther was implacable. There seems to have been something of the doctrine of the mass that lodged within him. And although he was able to discard the other aspects of Romanism, This he held to his heart to the end. And sadly the Lutheran Church has continued this error ever since. It's hard not to conclude that through the stubbornness of this one man, through the stubbornness of Luther on this point, the Protestant church was disunited right from the beginning, separated into what became the reformed and Calvinistic churches, which took Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's Supper and Luther's teaching, which was known as consubstantiation, which marked the Lutheran churches of Germany and Scandinavia. It was a principal reason for disunity right from the beginning. There were other areas in which this lack of restraint was evident. When the peasants went to war against the nobles in Germany in the year 1525, Luther wrote a very aggressive tract calling for the rebellion to be put down. He was worried about the harm that would be done to the reputation of the Protestant church by this rebellion, which many people were associating with Protestantism. But sadly, this tract seemed to condone the horrific violence that the nobility were using. and ended up doing far more damage than if he had stayed quiet on the subject. But much worse was to follow late in life. In the year 1543, Luther wrote a notorious tract against the Jews, demanding that their synagogues would be burnt, demanding that their property should be seized, and that their rabbis should be banned from giving instruction in the Jewish faith. He poured out hatred and venom against the Jews in that pamphlet and sadly, some of his remarks would later be quoted by the Nazis in the 20th century to give some support and credence to their brutal anti-Semitism. Luther was not racist in his views. He was not writing from an anti-Semitic position. His objections to the Jews were religious rather than racial. But what he wrote was extremely improper and unrestrained. What he was demanding was actual persecution. In the year 1545, just before his death, he wrote against the papacy. He often had before, using reason and scripture to prove that the Pope was the Antichrist. But now he descended to coarse abuse, using vile and undignified insults rather than careful argument. It's hard not to conclude that by the end of his life, Luther was somewhat deteriorating in his output. We need restraint as individuals. Luther lacked restraint and that lack of restraint harmed and weakened the Protestant Reformation in its early years, especially in this permanent rupturing of its unity. We need a spirit that submits to the wisdom of the brethren and especially that is guided by the scripture in all things. So let's come then to a conclusion. Luther died in the year 1546 after suffering a severe heart attack while staying in the city of his birth in Isle of Man. As he lay dying, he was heard to murmur the words of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Luther was 62 years old. He was taken and his body was buried in the castle church at Wittenberg, exactly the same place where he had nailed his 95 theses to the door in 1517. Luther's achievements were extraordinary. By the time he died, although there was still war and there was still fighting going on, there would be no turning back. The Protestant Reformation had taken place. The Protestant Church was established. There was not the remotest hope. of Protestantism dying out or being destroyed by the brutalities of Rome. His achievements were extraordinary. He was a giant of his own day. In many ways, he must count as one of the greatest men who has ever lived. But we regard him especially as a trophy of divine grace. We see the wonder of what God did through Luther. And so at the end, we're not left admiring the man, but we're left admiring our God and the wonder of the work of our God by means of an inadequate human instrument. If you're interested in finding out more about Luther and about the history, I would recommend to you a little biography by Roland Bainton called Here I Stand. It's quite an old book now. It was published in 1950. It's very commonly circulated as a cheap paperback, but an excellent read, very solidly grounded in thorough academic research, and very sympathetic to Luther himself. If you want something shorter and more up to date, there's an excellent little book, Meet Martin Luther by Antony Salvaggio, which has been published by Reformation Heritage. And if you want a proper, meaty, lengthy read, then Merle d'Aubigné, The History of the Reformation in the 16th Century is a magnificent work. Volume after volume full of the rich fruits, the rich treasures of Reformation history brought out by that exceptional French Swiss Calvinist theologian of the 19th century. Merle d'Aubigné, The History of the Reformation. I want to close by making a final vital point. I was reading recently a lecture that Dr. Lloyd-Jones gave in the year 1960. He was speaking in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. And 1960, of course, marked the 400th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation. So a similar anniversary to that which we are commemorating today. And Dr. Lloyd-Jones remarked that those who commemorate the reformers show their true attitude in how they treat men today who stand for the same truths. If a man comes forth today proclaiming the Pope as the Antichrist, denouncing him as the enemy of the Church of Christ, and proclaiming the true gospel in opposition to Rome, What do the many Protestants who are at this time holding meetings and giving lectures commemorating Luther, what do they make of such a man? You see, there is a gulf between that Protestantism, which is merely an outward profession, and that which shares the same stance of the Protestant reformers of the 16th century. Let us be those who ground ourselves upon the reformed confessions and who stand today for the same precious truths as Martin Luther.