It was 492 years ago today that a seemingly insignificant event occurred which was destined before long and in time to shape the very foundations of Europe, indeed of the world, to shape the very foundations of the church and indeed of the world in which we live. It was on that day, namely the 31st of October 1517, that An obscure German monk by the name of Martin Luther, it was the eve of All Saints Day, an obscure German monk by the name of Martin Luther, who at that point was aged 34 years, nailed to the church door of the castle church in Wittenberg 95 theses in Latin. An event, one might think, that was relatively trivial and insignificant. But this was the event which under God in his providence was to trigger and initiate that great revolt, that mighty struggle, that tremendous revolution that we describe as the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. A struggle and a revolt and a revolution that was to scatter the darkness, scatter the superstition, overthrow the traditions, overthrow the abuses of the Church of Rome in a most remarkable manner. Who was this man, Martin Luther? Well, he was born on the 10th of November 1483. And the two main characteristics of his life, of young Martin's life, were apparently poverty, his family was very poor, his father was a miner, poverty and religion, but we need to understand what kind of religion it was because Martin Luther in these early years belongs distinctly to the medieval world, he belongs distinctly to the world of the Middle Ages, he belongs distinctly and unquestionably to the Church of Rome at that point. He says this, and he's describing Germany at the tail end of the 15th century Each town in which Luther went to school was full of churches and monasteries. Everywhere it was the same, steeples, spires, cloisters, priests, monks of the various orders, collections of relics, ringing of bells, proclaiming of indulgences, religious processions, cures at shrines, daily at Mansfield the sick were stationed beside a convent in the hope of cure at the tolling of the Vesper bell. This then was the medieval world into which Martin Luther was born and to which he belongs. And let me say this, he had no intention initially of overthrowing it. How then did this great revolt, this mighty titanic revolution occur? Well, it occurred in stages. It did not occur overnight. It's important to remember that. Martin Luther himself says with regard to his own situation, God led me on like a horse whose eyes had been blindfolded that he may not see those who are rushing towards him. God led me on. It didn't occur overnight, I say. It occurred by a series of crises. It occurred by degrees. And I want to list for you, I want to analyze here this morning, the five major crises that belong to the very essence of this great struggle, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The first one has to do with a remarkable thunderstorm in the providence of God. The second has to do with the first mass that he celebrated. The third one has to do with his visit to Rome, the Eternal City, and how that disillusioned him, but also enlightened him. The fourth was his own personal study of the scriptures. And then fifthly, the issue of indulgences, which is of course why we gather today. It was on this day, 492 years ago, that Martin Luther nailed those 95 theses to the church door. Professor James Atkinson has said this with regard to Martin Luther and the Reformation. He says, the Reformation is Luther, and Luther is the Reformation. In other words, you simply cannot disentangle these two elements. Luther and the Reformation are inextricably connected, and there's a sense in which the Reformation gathers momentum as the work of God occurs through these crises in his heart and life. What we're going to do this morning is go back in time somewhat. I've mentioned October 31st, 1517. We're going to go back in time, see how these various crises occurred, how these steps and stages took place, how God worked in the hearts and the life. of this good and great man, Martin Luther. And I would maintain that there is nothing more interesting, nothing more fascinating to do than just that, precisely because we see the hand of God upon this man and his work in his life. Firstly, then, this remarkable thunderstorm that played such a remarkable part, played such a fascinating role in these developments. It was July 1505, Martin Luther was at this stage just 21 years of age, when he was overcome by a thunderstorm. His situation at that point was this, he had already obtained his Master of Arts from Air Force University, having entered the university in 1501, and in January 1505 he graduated with a Master of Arts degree. It was his intention, and certainly his father's intention, that he should be a lawyer. He was clearly a man of considerable ability, a man of genius one might say, even in that realm prior to his remarkable spiritual discoveries. Philip Melanchthon says this concerning that period of his life, the whole university admired his genius. So we come then to this crisis, 1505, July of that year. Martin Luther comes to the village of Stottenheim, and he's overcome by a thunderstorm. He's travelling, no doubt, by foot, overcome by a thunderstorm. You don't need me to tell you how frightening they can be, how dangerous they can be. And in his fear and alarm, he cried out, and this is what he cried, and I will become a monk. Notice he didn't appeal to Christ, he didn't appeal to God, he appealed to Saint Anne who was the patron saint of minors, his father was a minor and that was his instinctive cry to cry out to Saint Anne, Saint Anne help me and I will become a monk. He was true to his words, he did become a monk, God did help him, God spared him, delivered him out of the immediate danger of that thunderstorm and he enters the convent, he enters the monastery. It wasn't just knowledge that he was seeking. He clearly did have a distinguished intellect which God used, but it wasn't just knowledge that he was seeking. He wanted to save his soul. He wanted to be right with God. He wanted to know how a man could be just or right or righteous in the sight of God. So on the 17th of July, notice it's the same month as the thunderstorm, on the 17th of July 1505, Luther entered the Augustinian monastery at airports. He was given the name Augustine. That's a very interesting fact because Augustine is of course a great theologian, not infallible, but nevertheless is a kind of precursor of Calvin, a precursor of Calvinism. And Martin Luther interestingly in the province of God was given that name in the monastery, the name of Augustine. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones makes this observation. He says, in a sense, the Protestant Reformation starts with a thunderstorm. In other words, in the providence of God, it was this event that triggered the series of steps and stages, the series of crises that led to this mighty revolt against the Church of Rome and all that it stood for. Let me read to you this description of monastic life. This is the kind of life that Martin Luther was living, and into which he would enter. The prior describes to Luther the rigours of the life to be undertaken, the renunciation of self-will, the scant diet, rough clothing, vigils by night and labours by day, mortification of the flesh, the reproach of poverty, the shame of begging, and the disgracefulness of cloistered existence. Was he ready to take upon himself these burdens? Yes, with God's help was the answer. And insofar as human frailty allows, then he was admitted to a year of probation. We don't realise this today, but he would have been awakened regularly, each day at one o'clock or two o'clock in the morning. prayers seven times a day, a life of austerity and self-denial in the ascetic Catholic sense of the term, a monastic life. Listen to this description of his austerities. He fasted sometimes three days on end without a crumb. I had to go a number of hours yesterday without much food and I was starving by the time, three days on end without a crumb. If the seasons of fasting were more consoling to him than those of feasting, Lent was more consoling than Easter, he laid upon himself vigils and prayers in excess of those stipulated by the rule. He cast off the blankets permitted him, and well nigh froze himself to death. At times he was proud of his sanctity and would say, I've done nothing wrong today. Then misgivings would arise. Have you fasted enough? Are you poor enough? he would then strip himself of all save that which decency requires. And then this further description of the ascetic, the austere ascetic, self-denying, self-mortifying life in the Catholic sense of the word that he had undertaken. Luther gave way to all the rigour of an ascetic life. He endeavoured to crucify the flesh by fastings, mortifications and watchings. Shut up in his cell as in a prison, he struggled unceasingly against the deceitful thoughts and the evil inclinations of his heart. A little bread and a small herring were often his only food. Never, this is now Daubigny in his superb description of Luther and the Reformation, never did the Romish church possess a more pious monk. Never did Cloister witness more severe or indefatigable exertions to purchase eternal happiness. Now Luther was very much devoted to study. Certainly his quest was not only for knowledge, but he certainly hung on thirst after knowledge. He had a fine intellect, an intellect which God used throughout his life and in the Protestant Reformation itself. He was devoted to study, unlike the other monks, let it be said, so that they would come to him with their mean and meaning of tasks and say, come, come, it's not by studying but by begging bread, corn, eggs, fish, meat and money that a monk renders himself useful to the cloister. You can see the kind of religion that was prevalent then in the convents, the kind of religion fostered and promoted by the Church of Rome, the kind of lives that these monks and priests led. But soon he was set free from having to undertake these more menial tasks. He was able to study the Fathers, in particular he studied Augustine, a very salutary influence upon him, and he even found a Bible. Now we need to remember this. Today, Bibles are to a penny. You and I don't have any difficulty in finding a Bible, but 500 years ago it was a very rare thing to find a Bible. He found a Bible. a Bible in Latin, a Bible that was chained, and he would go to this Bible, this chained Bible in Latin, there in the convent, and read it. So there he is, this is the end of the first crisis, triggered by this thunderstorm, the crisis was in the thunderstorm, and the thunderstorm, under the hand of God, propels him into monastic life. Secondly, we come then to his first Mass, We are now dealing with May 1507 and he is now age 23. Let me give you an account by Roland Bainton who's written a very fine and sympathetic description of an account of Martin Luther's life. This is the way in which Roland Bainton of Yale University describes this first mass. Luther took his place before the altar and began to recite the introductory portion of the Mass until he came to the words, We offer unto thee the living, the true, the eternal God. He related afterwards. At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, with what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles, and shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say, I want this, I ask for that? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin, and am speaking to the living eternal and the true gods." These were his emotions, very salutary emotions, as he celebrated his first Mass, one of the central tenets, one of the central practices of the Church of Rome. And Roland Bainton goes on to say this, the terror of the holy, the horrors of infinitude, smoked him like a new lightning bolt and only through a fearful restraint could he hold himself to the altar to the end. Now what kind of monk was he? Remember he's still in the monastery, he's undergoing these various crises, he's seeking to be a good monk, the best monk he possibly could be, what kind of monk was he? Well, he himself tells us what kind of monk he was. I was a good monk, he says, and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out. If I kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work. You see, the remarkable fact is this, and this of course is endemic in the Roman Catholic system, which is essentially a system of justification by works. The central problem was this, that in spite of all his efforts, in spite of all his works, in spite of all his fastings, and his studies, and his toiling, and his self-denial, and his mortification of the flesh, he had no assurance of salvation whatsoever. This was why he'd entered into the monastery. He wanted to get right with God. He wasn't simply seeking no assurance of salvation. He was, of course, at this stage, not surprisingly, looking to works, looking to what he could do to earn or merit or to attain salvation. It was a works righteousness. And Martin Luther at this stage is a classic example of man's vain attempt to reach God and find God and find approval with God through his works and through his scribings. So we see here then something of the travail and the struggles and the sufferings and the turmoil of Luther's soul. Listen to this stanza, written by Martin Luther himself, and he's describing himself here. In devil's dungeon chained I lay, the pangs of death swept o'er me. My sin devoured me, night and day, in which my mother bore me. My anguish ever grew more rife. I took no pleasure in my life, and sin had made me crazy. How was Luther delivered from this terrible predicament in which he found himself? A religious man striving to live religiously, as religiously as he possibly could, yet all the while increasingly finding that there's no assurance, finding the very thing that he's striving after eludes his grasp. How then did he actually find deliverance? Well, it was through the help of a man by the name of John Staupitz. John Staupitz was the Vicar General of the Augustinian Order. And we need to remember that though he too was part of the Roman Catholic Church, different men down through the ages have had different degrees of enlightenment and understanding. We must never preclude the possibility Luther himself didn't, John Calvin didn't. We must never, ever preclude the possibility that a man might be a Christian in the Church of Rome. I always add this, it's in spite of the system, not because of it, but nevertheless it's possible. Listen to the way in which John Staupitz helped him. He observed Martin Luther's struggles, his desperate strivings to attain salvation. And this is what Staupitz said, look to the wounds of Jesus Christ. look to the blood that he hath shed. And then there was the help provided by an aged monk, an aged monk who clearly had some contact with the apostles' creed, and this aged monk said this to Luther, he cited part of the creed, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. So that then is the second great crisis, his first mass, the celebration of the mass and the way in which he was terrified in a sense to be handling such holy things representing this holy God. The third crisis was his visit to Rome. This occurred in November 1510. We're still seven years away from the incident which we commemorate today. That was in 1517. It's now only November 1510, he was aged 27 at this time, and he had this longing to visit Rome, the eternal city. Nothing could be more wonderful, he thought, than to go to Rome. Remember that by now he was lecturing at the University of Wittenberg. The University of Wittenberg, who under the protection and sponsorship of the elector, Frederick the Wise, has been described as the cradle of the Reformation. It is a sad reflection that Germany no longer can be described in this way. Germany since has become, of course, the epicentre of liberal theology from the 19th century onwards. But we need to remember that it was in Germany, and in particular in Wittenberg, that the Reformation began. It's the cradle of the Reformation, because Luther's there and God is working in Martin Luther's heart and soul and life. So by now he was lecturing at the University of Wittenberg. He was also preaching at the Church of the Augustines. In 1510, as I've indicated, he had the opportunity to visit the Eternal City. He was there for one month. Nel Dobigny, incidentally I warmly commend his treatment of the Reformation, said this. He had always imagined it, that is Rome, to be an abode of sanctity. He'd never been there. He idealized it, he longed to go there, and in a sense he could look forward to nothing greater than to visit Rome. He was, of course, profoundly disillusioned, utterly shocked and horrified by what he found in Rome. What were the different elements? Well, here's one of them. He was profoundly shocked by the luxury of the Italian priests. He himself in his northern German convent had not experienced anything like this luxury, but there in Italy the priest lived in luxury. He stayed in the Benedictine convent and was horrified at the luxury and the propagacy that he saw there in that particular convent. Not only that, but he was horrified by the profanity of the Roman monks. Indeed, he overheard monks saying this in Rome. Remember they were celebrating the Mass, remember that Roman monks believe in transubstantiation, remember that they believe that the bread literally becomes the body of Christ, the wine literally becomes the blood of Christ. It's a piece of nonsense, but that's what they are supposed to believe. That's the official doctrine of the Church of Rome. But he was horrified at hearing this from the lips of Roman monks as they celebrated the Mass. Bread thou art, and bread thou wilt remain. Wine thou art, and wine thou wilt remain." It's a fine Protestant note there from the lips of Roman monks, but of course it demonstrates their profanity and their non-commitment to the very system that they supposedly have espoused. Not only that, but the wickedness of the popes. the wickedness of, for instance, Caesar Borgia, who was guilty of murder. You only have to read the lives of the popes. You only need a history book in one hand and a Bible in the other to see how corrupt the Church of Rome is, both in its life and practices on the one hand, and in its doctrine on the other. Now, Daubigny comments in this way. All his dreams had been of holiness as he went to Rome. All his dreams had been of holiness and of sanctity he had discovered nothing but proclamation. And Luther himself commented in this way concerning this visit to Rome. No one can imagine what sins and infamous actions are committed in Rome. They must be seen and heard to be believed. Thus they are in the habit of saying, if there is a hell, Rome is built on it. So Luther's journey to Rome played a very significant part in his pilgrimage. On the one hand it was profoundly disillusioning, disillusioning in a good, right and salutary way, but because it was disillusioning it was also enlightening. He came to see the practical abuses of the Church of Rome. Before long he was going to attack their doctrine, but here he is observing their practical abuses, the terrible abuse of holy things found in Rome itself, in Italy and in the Church. There's one event in particular that stands out while he was in Rome. He climbed Pilate's staircase. Now this was of course something that Roman Catholics did, something that pilgrims did. They climbed Pilate's staircase, but this is what he experienced. And the reason why he climbed it was that, like others, he wanted to obtain an indulgence. We'll come to indulgences shortly. It's germane to the very day that we are commemorating today. One day, wishing to obtain an indulgence promised by the Pope to all who should ascend on their knees what is called Pilate's staircase, the poor Saxon monk was humbly creeping up those steps, which he was told to be miraculously transported from Jerusalem to Rome. While he was performing this meritorious act, he thought he heard a voice of thunder cry, crying from the bottom of his heart, as at Wittenberg and Bologna, the just shall live by faith. These words, that twice before had struck him like the voice of an angel from God, resounded increasingly and powerfully within him. He rises in amazement from the steps up which he was dragging his body, he shudders at himself, he is ashamed of seeing to what a depth superstition had plunged him, and he flies far from the scene of his folly. This, then, was the experience that he had in Rome, and it is very important to realise that Luther was moving slowly but inexorably towards the great doctrine of justification by faith alone, this doctrine that later he was to describe as the article of the standing or the falling of the Church. It wasn't overnight. There are these steps and stages, this series of crises. God was working in his heart. And Professor Roland Bainton again comments perceptively in this way. He says, the great revolts against the medieval church arose from the desperate efforts to follow the way by her prescribes. This is the wonderful irony of it all. This is the wonderful paradox. Martin Luther did not set out to overthrow the Church of Rome. Martin Luther was initially Roman Catholic to the core. And he entered the convent and undertook all these various acts and works and actions in order, as Professor Bainton puts it, to follow the way by her prescribed. But as he followed the way, so he was increasingly disillusioned. by it and also increasingly enlightened by the word of God. There is this wonderful irony, this wonderful paradox about these facts and the way in which God enlightened the mind of this man and his heart in the processes of the Protestant Reformation. The fourth crisis has to do with his study of the scriptures. We've now reached October 1512, still five years away from the act of nailing the 95 theses on the church door of Wittenberg. In October 1512, Luther was appointed to be Doctor of Divinity at the University of Wittenberg. So you can see that he's been given increasingly an academic role, an academic position. He's operating not just in terms of a convent, but in terms of the university. He's teaching, he's studying, and we find this. In 1513 he began to lecture on the Psalms, that's very important. In 1515 he began to lecture on Rolands. In 1516 he began to lecture on Galatians. Two great epistles, the Psalms also, which unfold the Gospel of Christ. and which were crucial, of course, in this pilgrimage of his in which he's been increasingly enlightened about the gospel, about Christ and the way of salvation. Someone has said that these studies and these lectures were in fact Luther's Damascus Roads. In other words, it was here that he saw the light. It was here that the light of the gospel shone into his heart. We notice then the crucial centrality of the scriptures, the crucial centrality of the word of God in the reformation of the 16th century, the crucial centrality of this sola scriptura principle. Now the sola scriptura principle, the phrase means by scripture alone, is a principle which rejects explicitly and implicitly, anything outside of the scriptures. In other words, the Church of Rome's elevation of tradition, the Church of Rome's elevation of that which men have handed down, that which the Church itself has taught, that Luther came to see increasingly whilst to be jettisoned. So does scripture. The scriptures alone are our only rule of faith and practice. What then were the doctrines that were impressed upon Martin Luther as he studied the scriptures, as he lectured upon the Psalms and Romans and Galatians? Well, here's one of them and it's of crucial significance. Man's utter impotence, man's utter inability, man's total inability to find the light, man's total inability to save himself. And this utter impotence, this total inability was emphasised by, I think, three strands that are interconnected. The first strand, of course, was Augustine's theology. I mentioned earlier that Augustine is a precursor of the Reformation, writing many centuries before the Reformation. His own experience, of course, which disillusioned him, his own experience of his own heart, and also, of course, the Word of God. So you have here a threefold court. His study of Augustine, his study of his own experience of his own heart and life, and his study of the Word of God as well. These were the things that were emphasised. Man's utter impotence and inability to save himself. And there was one passage in particular that he wrestled with. Romans chapter 1 verse 17 for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith or as it could perhaps be translated for therein is a righteousness from God revealed as it is written the just shall live by faith. Now that passage in particular was a problem to him, but he came to see eventually what it meant, and this is also part of the series of crises. Listen to what he says with regard to that verse. 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 righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals justly in punishing the unrighteous. My situation was that although an impeccable monk, notice how he describes himself, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner, a sinner troubled in conscience. 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. And I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. In other words, it's a righteousness from God. It wasn't emphasizing the essential unapproachability of the great God with whom we have to do. It was emphasizing a righteousness from God, a God-righteousness, a faith-righteousness, as Professor John Murray was later to put it. Thereupon, he says, I felt myself to be reborn. and to have gone through open doors into paradise the whole 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 the passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven he understood it and it opened his eyes and this then was the fourth great crisis his study of the scriptures and his understanding in particular of that verse Fifthly, we come back to the issue of indulgences with which we began. When Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the church door, he was protesting against indulgences in particular. There were other things, and they were all interconnected, but the actual occasion, the actual context of his nailing those 95 theses was this deplorable practice of indulgences. I'll explain what that means. What exactly were these indulgences? Well, let me allow the Church of Rome to define indulgences itself. This is what it says in the Baltimore Confession, I believe it is. An indulgence is the remission, in whole or in part, of the temporal punishment due to sin. There's a connection between the concept of indulgences, on the one hand, an utterly unbiblical concept, and the concept of purgatory, on the other hand, again an utterly unbiblical concept. According to the Church of Rome, before we attain heaven we have to pass through purgatory which purges us, supposedly, the term suggests purging, purgatory purges us of the temporal punishment due to sin. Now the Church of Rome had for a number of centuries, this began at the time of the Crusades, had peddled these indulgences, had sold these pardons, had offered them, had set them up for sale. So this is how the Church of Rome explained it. An indulgence is a remission in whole or in part of the temple punishment due to sin. Now we need to remember that Wittenberg, where Martin Luther lived, he was remember a professor now at the University of Wittenberg. Wittenberg is so significant precisely because it was a depository of relics. The repository of relics, I'll read to you about them in a moment, relics which were connected with these indulgences. In other words, if you visited the relics you could gain certain indulgences that would release you from purgatory, you could knock off a certain number of years in purgatory, not only for yourself but also for your loved ones who had already died. Now listen to this description of this depository of relics. You see here the terrible, terrible superstition of the Church of Rome. A superstition, incidentally, that still continues. We speak about the wonderful revolt against this, and indeed it was, but let's remember that the Church itself is not reformed. Those that have seen the light have departed out of the Church of Rome essentially. Yes, I believe a man can be a Christian within the Church, but it's in spite of the system and not because of it. Listen to this description of the collection of relics which are gathered under Frederick the Wise there in Wittenberg. The collection had as its nucleus a genuine thorn from the crown of Christ, certified to pierce the Saviour's brow. The collection included one tooth of Saint Jerome, of St. Chrysostom four pieces, of St. Bernard six, and of St. Augustine four, of Our Lady four hairs, three pieces of her cloak, four from her girdle, and seven from the veil sprinkled with the blood of Christ. The relics of Christ included one piece from his swaddling clothes, thirteen from his crib, one whispered straw, one piece of gold brought by the wise men and three of the myrrh, one strand of Jesus' beard, one of the nails driven into his hands, one piece of bread eaten at the Last Supper, one piece of the stone on which Jesus stood to ascend into heaven, and one twig of Moses' burning bush. By 1520 the collection had amounted to 19,013 holy bones Those who viewed these relics on the designated day and made the stipulated contribution notice the role of money here and made the stipulated contribution might receive from the Pope indulgences for the reduction of purgatory either for themselves or others to the extent of 1,902,202 years and 270 days These were the treasures made available on the Day of All Saints. It was on the Eve of All Saints that Martin Luther made of the 95 feces in protest against this deplorable practice on the church floor there in Wittenberg. Why had this issue of indulgences become such a burning issue at this particular time? Because of Tetzel, he was the Roman priest, the Roman monk who travelled around with his children. He was supposed to be celibate, but he had these children who travelled with him. He was age 63. He travelled around with his drum and he peddled these indulgences. So we come to Tetzel here. He'd done this for 15 years, peddling this traffic, peddling this merchandise. Listen to this account of Tetzel's preaching. because this also was one of the things against which Martin Luther was protesting. It's inextricably bound up, you see, with indulgences. That's inextricably bound up with purgatory. The whole thing is inextricably bound up with the Church of Rome's doctrine of justification by works. But this is the way in which Tetzel preached. Priest, noble, merchant, wild youth, maiden. Do you not hear your parents and your other friends who are dead, and do cry from the bottom of the abyss, we are suffering horrible torments, a trifling alms would deliver us, you can give it and you will not. At the very instant Tetzel preached. At the very instant that the money rattles at the bottom of the chests, the soul escapes from purgatory and flies liberated to heaven. So he went round peddling these indulgences, urging these poor peasants to give of their money so that their deceased relatives, who were of course either in heaven or in hell anyway, could supposedly be released for a million years from purgatory, such as the merchandise that the Church of Rome had instituted. Notice in particular this jingle, as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs. Now Dobigny's observation is just, he says the church had opened the vast markets on earth. Luther resolved to do something about this. Luther is now springing into action. He's had these other crises, it's now time to act. Tetzel was going to appear with his preaching and his children in his drum, and this is what Luther resolved to do. If God permits, I will make a hole in his drum. So, on the 31st of October 1517, 492 years ago today, he went to the church door there, of the Castle Church in Bitter, and nailed these 95 theses. Let me read some of those theses to you, just four, not the 95. The first one. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ says, repents, he means that the whole life of believers upon earth should be a constant and perpetual repentance. 27. They preach mere human follies who maintain that as soon as the money rattles in the scrum box, the soul flies out of purgatory. Those who fancy themselves sure of salvation by indulgences will go to perdition along with those who teach them so. 36. Every Christian who truly repents of his sins enjoys an entire remission both of the penalty and of the guilt without any need of indulgences. So then, notice the central issues in these 95 theses. We can list them like this. Firstly, Luther objected to the expenditure of German money. Bear in mind that St. Peter's, you see, was being built. This was a significant element in the situation. St. Peter's had been rebuilt, The Renaissance, of course, was underway. You needed architects, you needed artists, it cost a lot of money. How was the Pope going to raise the money? He raised it via indulgences. Again, you see the role of money in all of this. Luther objected to the expenditure of German money. He said, we Germans can't attend St. Peter's. And he spoke of this insatiable basilica there in Rome, which is devouring all this money. and they couldn't visit it anyway. Secondly, he rejected the idea that the Pope had power over purgatory. He denied that the Pope had any power over purgatory, rightly. He says the Pope has no jurisdiction over purgatory. Notice he himself still believed in purgatory at this point. God opened his eyes gradually and increasingly, not overnight. And thirdly, he believed that these indulgences fostered a false sense of security. Indeed they did. This idea that you could buy pardons. Give some money, buy indulgences for yourself or even for your deceased relatives. Well then, what was the effect of Luther's action on the 31st of October 1517? Well, these 95 feces, much to his astonishment, created a sensation. Within two weeks they were translated into German and disseminated throughout the German nation. Within four weeks they had been disseminated throughout Europe. Certainly, this action occurred at just the right time in the province of God. There were many grievances against the Church of Rome. There was growing nationalism. There was growing disillusionment with the Church of Rome. These were factors in the situation that they in and of themselves were quite insufficient to bring about a reformation. 95 B.C.' 's published now in other languages disseminated throughout Europe created a sensation. I want to emphasize that at this stage Luther had no intention of overthrowing the papacy. At this stage he was still a committed member of the Church of Rome, a devout monk, he described himself as an impeccable monk, committed to the welfare of the Church of Rome, and at this stage, 1517 and a year or so afterwards, the Church of Rome was rather dismissive of this German monk who was causing such trouble in the northern lands. They said it's just a monkish squabble and they dismissed him. But we need to realise that there was really something quite radical about what Martin Luther had done. He'd laid the axe at the root of the tree. and as a result before long the tree would come crashing down in a sense he hadn't just attacked the lives of the clergy you see other quasi reformers such as Erasmus etc they had attacked the lives of the clergy they had attacked some of the practical abuses of the Church of Rome and they needed to be attacked but it's one thing to attack the lives of the clergy and to attack the practical abuses it's quite a different thing it's far more radical to attack the actual doctrine to lay the axe at the roots of the tree and that's exactly what Martin Luther did. Before long he attacked the whole idea of penance. We need to understand that the idea of penance should be distinguished from the idea of repentance. The idea of repentance is a biblical concept. The idea of penance, doing certain things, set down, laid down by a priest because one has sinned, that's quite different, that's an unbiblical concept. And we should also realize the significance of Erasmus' translation, his publication in 1516, the year before these events, of his Greek New Testament, which demonstrated that the translation du penance was incorrect. No, it's be penitent or repent. In other words, a matter of the heart, a matter of the soul, not a matter of doing something outwardly in response to a mandate by a priest. Before long, he attacked the papacy itself. He said that the Pope, who is God's vicar upon earth, may, like any other man, notice this, the Pope may err, sin and lie. All you need is a history book in one hand, a Bible in the other, to see that the Church of Rome is desperately flawed and corrupt, not only in its practices, but in its doctrines. The church at home was soon forced to take this German monk seriously. Initially they dismissed him, just a mere monkey squabble they said, but before long they had to take this German monk seriously, and before long, as you could expect, they began to unleash their thunderbolts against him. They called him the Saxon Huss. Huss of course, John Huss, the early reformer who had preceded him. They described him as the son of iniquity. Listen to this description of Martin Luther. They described him as that child of Satan, son of perdition, scrofulous sheep. That's a sheep with tuberculosis by the way, I looked it up in the dictionary yesterday. That child of Satan, son of perdition, scrofulous sheep, and tear in the vineyard, Martin Luther. What then did the Church of Rome want from Martin Luther? They wanted him to retract, they wanted him to recant, they wanted him to withdraw his position. Revocar, that was the term in Latin, recant, retract your position. Luther's position though was this, he would only recant, he would only retract his teachings if they could be shown from the scriptures to be false, if they could be shown to be unbiblical. I want to emphasize the tremendous courage of this man. You and I owe a tremendous debt to him under God. His tremendous courage, his physical courage, his moral courage. Because there's a sense in which Martin Luther stood alone against the titanic edifice of the Church of Rome. It always amazes me that he died in his bed at the age of approximately 63. It always amazes me that he wasn't assassinated by the Church of Rome. You should remember this, the Church of Rome has never shrunk from murder. As Mel Daubigny says, it's never shrunk from poisoning people. It's a wonder he wasn't murdered on many different occasions, but he was protected. Under God he was protected by Frederick the Wise, the lector of Saxony. Above all he was protected by God himself. God led him on. God hedged him roundabouts. In June 1520 the Pope issued a papal bull. Now a papal bull is a document, a decree that is signed and sealed by the Pope. It enjoys the Pope's seal. So it is a document of very significant importance condemning Martin Luther and his writings and basically excommunicating him. But notice the support that he enjoyed. The support in Germany was remarkable and was very significant. The nation was reanimated. Luther's voice had shaken it. It was won over and rallied round the standard that he'd uplifted. In the palaces and castles, in the homes of the citizens and the cottages of the peasants, all were now prepared and defended as it were with a breastplate against the sentence of condemnation that was about to fall upon this prophet of the people. All Germany was on fire. Let the bull arrive, they couldn't care less, not by such means will the conflagration be extinguished. Notice then how God hedged him in and protected him and preserved him. Look at him at the Diet of Worms, Worms a place in Germany. It was there in April 1521 that Luther had to go and defend his position. He was told he must recant, he must retract. but this is what he said again the tremendous moral courage of this man as he stood for the truth he said my conscience is captive to the word of God I cannot and I will not recount anything here I stand I can do no other I think you'll agree with me that there is something quite titanic about this man God raised him up God prepared him He has this titanic quality, this tremendous moral courage. He was a man of steel. Interestingly, and this is a fascinating element in the story of Martin Luther, on his return from the Diet of Worms, as he returned after defending his position and defending the truth, there at that crucial meeting in Worms, as it is in German, he was kidnapped. By whom, you say? Kidnapped by his friends. Kidnapped by Frederick the Wise. Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony, had set this up. It was a very shrewd thing to do. He was kidnapped by his friends, put in the Wartburg Castle for his protection. He was there, he was lonely, he was isolated, he didn't exactly like it, but he was kidnapped by his friends, put there for several months, often at a loss as to what to do. He translated the entire New Testament into German. Remember that you and I have the Bible in our own tongue. This is one of the legacies of the Reformation. It did not exist at the time of the Reformation. The Church of Rome has always been obscurantist with regard to the Word of God. does not like the Word of God, does not proclaim the Word of God, keeps the Word of God from the people. A chained Bible here and there you might find in Latin. But you see as a result of the Reformation, the Bible is disseminated, it's in the hands of the people, it's in the common tongue of the people. Anyway, Martin Luther was kidnapped by his own people, his own friends, and wonderfully preserved in the Wartburg Castle from potential danger at a critical point in his life. And then of course to his great joy he was released, he was able to come out and resume his work. Martin Lloyd-Jones' assessment of this man is this, he says this of Luther, he was a volcano, he was a great mountain of a man, but he was a mountain on fire and he erupted and threw out the most precious things. And he goes on to say this and he compares Luther with Erasmus, Erasmus was a scholar, Erasmus belonged more perhaps to the Renaissance, the rebirth, the revival of learning, the revival of letters. That was a precursor to the Reformation, it was important, but it could not in and of itself produce the Reformation. So Dr. Lloyd-Jones goes on to compare Luther with Erasmus and Erasmus with Luther. This is what he says, you do not get reformations through an Erasmus, it is through a Luther. This is about the only man I've ever read of in history who could have done it. Any other man would have been crushed. Nothing could crush this man. This then was the man that God raised up. Raised up some 500 years ago, and 492 years ago today, he nailed those 95 theses to the church door. And he being dead, yet speaker. What are the lessons that we should learn from the Protestant Reformation? I want to emphasize two things in particular. Firstly, the massive significance of the Reformation of the 16th century, and secondly, the crucial importance of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. You see, this great revolt of the 16th century, this mighty struggle that we call the Protestant Reformation, was the result of God's work in the heart and the life of Martin Luther. And this great revolt, this mighty revolution was, historians are agreed upon, the beginning of modern times. When Martin Luther was born, the world into which he was born in 1483, and the world in which he lived for some 34 years or so, was essentially a medieval world. A world dominated by the Church of Rome, with its traditions, its superstitions, its corrupt practices and doctrines. It's the world of the Middle Ages, a medieval era. But Martin Luther's action, you find Roland Bainton saying this, you find Mel Daubigny saying this, Martin Luther's action initiated the beginning of modern times because the action itself had consequences that lay massively beyond the immediate action. In this sense it gave tremendous impulse, tremendous impetus to many many different spheres, learning, education, the study of the Bible, politics, justice. A tremendous diffusion of light came throughout Europe and elsewhere as a result of the reformation of the 16th century. Certainly God had prepared the stage, there was this dissatisfaction with the Church of Rome, There was the rising German nationalism, for instance. You have the invention of the printing press in 1457, some 60 years prior to this action undertaken by Martin Luther himself. The invention of the printing press was very significant. It's part of the Renaissance, the revival of learning and of letters. So these things are important. But we need to realize this, that for all of the role played by Erasmus in 1516, as I've indicated, he published his Greek New Testament, it was essentially Luther that brought this about under God. It's been said, Erasmus laid the egg and Luther hatched it. So then this is, I would say, after the birth of Christ, this is the great watershed of history. We need to realize this. We need to realize that we cannot understand Europe apart from the Reformation. You cannot understand the United States of America apart from the Reformation. This country would not be as it is today apart from the Reformation. It's one of the great recipients, as is Great Britain. Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and America. They are the countries which perhaps above all others have benefited most from the Protestant Reformation. This rediscovery of God's truth and the great doctrine of justification. And it led you see to the emancipation of the church and inevitably that led to the emancipation of the human mind. a liberation after the shackles of darkness and obscurantism and superstition had kept the human mind in shackles for centuries. Meldaubigny unashamedly says this, Roman Catholicism had retarded the nations. You look at the nations which have been dogged by Roman Catholicism on the one hand and then you look at the nations which have enjoyed the light of the gospel in Protestant countries on the other. And you will see that in general terms this is true. Roman Catholicism has retarded the nations. the Protestant Reformation has liberated the nations and has given an impetus and an impulse to discovery and learning and education and many other blessings which have not been enjoyed in the same way by nations under the darkness and superstition of Rome. So then we cannot understand the history of Europe and America itself apart from this man and apart from the Protestant Reformation but sadly People today, even within reformed churches, are now saying the Reformation was a mistake. This is a pathetic judgment, my good friends, and it tells you a great deal about those that say it. We have witnessed sadly in the last 50 years the rise of the so-called ecumenical movements In 1982, the Pope visited the shores of Great Britain, an event that would have been impossible but for the ecumenical movement which had paved the way. We now take these things for granted. He comes and goes. He goes to America, he goes throughout the world, but up until recently it would have been unthinkable that the Pope should visit the shores of Great Britain, one of the leading Protestant nations in Europe and in the world. The situation now sadly is that many evangelicals are no longer Protestants. There was a time when an evangelical, by definition, was a Protestant. He was an evangelical and he protested against the Church of Rome. But that, as Dr. Lloyd-Jones pointed out a number of years ago, is now dying away. Now you have the phenomenon of evangelicals and Catholics together. They find common ground against abortion. We don't deny that abortion is a great evil. but we do deny that Evangelicals and Catholics should get together on the basis of it. Their doctrine, their fundamental doctrine of the Gospel is so radically different, so radically in opposition to the position of the others that they cannot get together in the same way and therefore the very fact that you can have, this occurred in 1994, Evangelicals and Catholics together tells you a great deal about the spirit of the age and the times in which we live. you have leading evangelicals who are flirting and toying with Rome wondering how we can have some kind of rapport some kind of rapprochement with the Church of Rome so then we should study this great revolt we should study this great struggle on the part of Martin Luther and John Calvin and the other reformers we should read about these things and study them and love them they're part of our heritage and we should stand fast and make sure that we don't adopt this foolish foolish view that the Reformation was simply a mistake secondly and lastly we see here the crucial importance of the doctrine of justification by faith alone see that is the significance of that verse in Romans the verse over which Martin Luther struggled for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith I explain that Martin Luther misunderstood this verse at first At first it terrified him, then he came to see that the righteousness of God is in fact a righteousness from God, it's been translated now, a righteousness from God, it's a God-righteousness, it's a faith-righteousness, it's a Christ-righteousness, as Professor Murray puts it, a righteousness which God gives, a righteousness that he provides, a righteousness that he imputes, and which avails before him. Now this great doctrine was beaten out, beaten out on the anvil of suffering and of study and of toil and of struggle, beaten out in that cell, beaten out through his studies down through the years, beaten out in the midst of these tremendous crises that he had undergone. You see Martin Luther tried everything. He was fasting, he was sweating, he was toiling, he was struggling, he was denying himself. He was almost killing himself with his labours and his exertions, but it never ever resulted in peace. He was never conscious of peace with God, and therefore he couldn't enjoy the peace of God, which passes all understanding. And the reason is this, he was seeking to do it by works. When men seek to please God by their works, when men seek to be justified before God on account of their works, not only are they not justified, they're not assured either. And that's precisely what Martin Luther himself found. So the question is this, have you grasped this great doctrine of justification by faith alone? Have you realized that this is indeed, as Martin Luther puts it, the article of the standing and the falling of the church by which he meant that the church that holds to this and preaches it will stand and the church which does not hold to it and which does not preach it will fall my good friends we need to realize that this doctrine is under attack from the new perspective on Paul and from the federal vision under attack and being eroded by men who describe themselves as reformed the righteousness that avails before God is not a man righteousness It's not a works righteousness. It's not a self-righteousness. It is a God-righteousness. It is a Christ-righteousness. It is, as Professor Murray puts it, a faith-righteousness. That's the righteousness that he gives and which avails before him. So then you see there is a glory about this system. And this doctrine, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, is the great, fundamental, distinguishing article of the Protestant position. That's the way which William Cunningham, the great Scottish theologian of the 19th century, described it. The great, fundamental, distinguishing doctrine of the Protestant Reformation and of the Protestant position. It is indeed the article of the standing or the falling of the Church. My good friends, have you grasped this doctrine? Do you see how vital it is? Do you understand it? Have you yourself believed? Have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know that you are saved by Him through faith? Yes, Christ Himself is the ground, faith isn't the ground, faith is just the instrument by which we lay hold of Christ. But this is an article, the article of the standing or the falling of the Church. It is, I say, under attack at the present time. and under attack by those that would describe themselves as our friends and as the friends of the Reformation. Under attack, I say, from the new perspective on Paul, under attack from the federal vision. It's vital, therefore, that we have a good grasp of these things, that we understand this mighty movement of God's Spirit, and that we reassert the great principles we discovered there, sola scriptura, by scripture alone, sola gratia by grace alone, sola fide by faith alone, and solo Christo by Christ alone. Amen.