Reading our passage is Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Civilization as we know it began a few minutes before noon on October 31, 1517. Now that assertion is made by Dr. John Robbins in his work Civilization and the Protestant Reformation, and it is true. On that day, an obscure Catholic priest, that's all they had were Catholics, as you know, an obscure Catholic priest in the small town of Wittenberg, Germany, by the name of Dr. Martin Luther, posted 95 theological issues on the church door for debate. He wanted debate on these issues. These 95 issues are called, they're 95 theses, accused the Roman Catholic Church basically of a variety of heresies. Although that was not Luther's intention to attack the church, he wanted to make the church more biblical. That action turned the world upside down. Or I would contend it turned it right side up. It's no exaggeration to say that individual liberty, political freedom, constitutional representative government, free elections, the free market, protection of private property, and many, many more things spring from what Martin Luther did on October 31, 1517. Now what caused this priest, Luther, to do what he did was the way particularly the Vatican was raising money, especially to complete St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Pope and his representatives were telling people that the more money they gave, the more their sins would be forgiven, both for themselves and for their dead loved ones who are suffering in purgatory. As you know, Romanism teaches that when you die, as if you would die outside the Roman Catholic Church, you will go to hell. And they recently reaffirmed that in very nice language, but they reaffirmed that. And they say that if you die as a communicant in the Roman church, you will not go to heaven immediately, you will go to a place called purgatory. Now don't try to look in your concordance under purgatory, you won't find that word. The doctrine of purgatory, in fact, comes from a book that is outside the Bible, an apocryphal book. And that's what they quote Maccabees. But in any event, they believe that you have to go to this place called purgatory to get your sins burned off of you. And despite what they say today, their writers have said for centuries that purgatory and hell are the same. The only difference is the extent of time that you spend there. But the flames, it's a famous quote, the flame by a Roman theologian, the flames of hell are no hotter than the flames of purgatory. So what the church was doing is saying, if you gave money, you can get your sins, many of your sins forgiven. You'll spend less time in purgatory. And if you give more money and say, well, I want my grandmother to get out of purgatory earlier, we'll give some more money and the Pope will make sure that happens. Those are called, and still called by the Vatican, indulgences. And when I was going to the Roman Catholic Church growing up, you were told that if you say so many prayers, you'll get so many indulgences. Or if you do so many good works, you'll get 500 days of indulgences, or 200 days of indulgences, or seven years of indulgences, whatever the amount may be for particular things. The most infamous of the Pope's fundraisers at the time of Martin Luther was a man named Friar John Tetzel. John Tetzel. His constant refrain was, quote, as soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs. He would shout to people, indulgences are the most precious and the most noble of God's gifts. Come and I will give you letters all properly sealed by which even the sins that you intend to commit may be pardoned. But more than this, indulgence is availed not only for the living but for the dead. Priest, noble, merchant, wife, youth, maiden, do you not hear your parents and your other friends who are dead and who cry from the bottom of the abyss? We are suffering horrible torments. A trifling alms will deliver us. You can give it and you will not. Tetzel said that forgiveness for witchcraft would cost two ducats. For polygamy, that would cost six ducats. For murder, eight ducats, et cetera. And the pope and his representatives, and other people too, some members of the civil government, the emperors and such, raised untold sums by telling people that God's mercy could be bought. And Martin Luther knew better. He knew that salvation is a free gift from God. You can't buy it with money, and you can't buy it with good works. And his 95 propositions, his 95 theses, you ought to read them sometime, questioned all this practice of indulgences, of selling God's favor for forgiveness of sins for money. Well, the controversy that broke loose with the publication of his 95 theses placed even more pressure on Luther to study the Bible, because the people in the Roman church were attacking him. The pope was attacking him, and the cardinals and bishops and other priests and theologians were all attacking him. So he said, well, I better study the Bible more so I know how to answer their attacks, because some of them are making very clever arguments. So he studied the Bible. And that convinced him that the Roman faith had lost sight of several central truths, not just indulgences. So to Luther, the most important of these truths that he discovered in the Bible was the doctrine that brought him peace with God. It wasn't just about indulgences after the 95 Theses. Luther came to this understanding that eventually brought him peace, through tremendous agony of soul. He had been an obedient monk. He was faithful to Rome. He did good works to earn God's favor. He helped other people. Yet peace with God had escaped him. He devoted himself to long fastings. He spent long hours in prayer. He went on these long, difficult pilgrimages to holy places. He beat himself. He whipped himself, trying to be more Christ-like. Christ suffered, so I will suffer like Christ. And he was in constant confession of sins, both privately and going to a confessor, another priest, and confessing sins, and receiving absolution, receiving penances that he had to do to be absolved of his sins. But the more he tried to do for God, he thought to himself, the more aware he became of his sinfulness. Isn't that true? Always. The more we study the Bible and realize how we're to live, the more we're aware of our sinfulness. See, Luther was trying to answer for himself the question that people have struggled with since time began. How can I be right with God? I can see that I don't live perfectly. How can I be right with God? I'm a sinner. See, Luther was tormented by realizing he sinned all the time, that he could never live as he should, that is, perfectly as Christ commanded. Please look at Matthew chapter 5. In Matthew 5, Begin in verse 43, Christ said, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? And the verse I want to concentrate on here is, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. See, Luther would read that and say, well, how can I be perfect? And that's what we all do, of course. How can you be perfect? And yet we're commanded by Christ to be perfect. He doesn't say, just do the best you can, and that'll be fine with God. As long as you say to God when you die, well, I tried my best. God will let you in to heaven. He doesn't say that. That's not the Bible. It's be perfect. Be perfect. And that's what we're commanded to be. We're commanded to be perfect. And when Luther went to confession and received forgiveness from the priest, because that's what they believed, that a priest can forgive you of your sins, Luther would be back in a few minutes into the confessional chamber. And he'd tell the priest, well, I had an impure thought when I left the church, so I came back to confess that. He was going crazy. He was in perpetual torment. until he read in Romans 1.17, the just shall live by faith. And that became his life verse, the just shall live by faith. And in Romans 3.28, a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. You're justified by faith apart from good works and apart from how much money you give to the church, etc. See, Rome denied this, but Luther realized it was plain in the Bible. Remember I told you how Luther discovered the Bible. He discovered the Bible in the library of his monastery, chained to the wall. There was one Bible, and it was written in Latin. So unless you studied Latin, and very few, certainly no commoners ever studied Latin, nobody could read the Bible except a few people that might be interested that had been trained in Latin and were members of the church. And there were very few of those, and very few that were interested in reading the Bible. So there it was, chained to the wall. But Luther read it and realized it was plain in the Bible that a man is justified by faith, not by works, as Rome claimed. Of course, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for it is by grace you are saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. See, Luther knew that the Bible teaches that salvation comes through the righteousness of Christ alone, through faith in him alone. And if theologians said otherwise, if church councils said otherwise, if popes said otherwise, Luther said, well, they're in error. They're wrong. Well, you didn't say that. You just didn't say that. See, Luther knew that Rome, by teaching salvation could be bought by money and by good works, was sending people to hell. They weren't preaching faith in Christ alone. So Rome knew that if people believed Luther, their source of great wealth would dry up, wouldn't it? So Luther was condemned. Luther was a Roman priest, yet he was condemned. Luther began to write books to translate the Bible into the common language, German, for his country. And what happened? Rome and the civil government, which was in the pocket of Rome, put him on trial and ordered him to retract his teachings. Now Luther knew that refusing to retract, he went to the trial, but he knew refusing to retract his teaching could mean his banishment. It could mean he would go to jail. And it could possibly mean he'd be executed. He knew that. But when they insisted he recant, what did he say? Famous words. Unless I am convinced by proofs from scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract. For it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen. And he was let go, but still condemned. And there's a long story about how he was protected by the elector and protected. And that's when he had the opportunity to do a lot of writing after that. But they could never get him after that. But by translating the Bible so anyone could read it, Luther freed the German people from the tyranny of Rome. They could now compare what priests said to what God said in the Bible and see how far Rome was from the truth of the Bible. Now this idea that the Bible was the written constitution of the church, limiting the power and authority of the leaders, that idea carried over into the idea that a nation could have a written constitution. They didn't have one before. limiting the power and authority of the nation's leaders. See, there's a direct connection of the Reformation principle of sola scriptura, the scripture alone, and the American idea of the written constitution as the supreme law of the nation. Just as the Bible is the supreme law of the church, the national constitution is the supreme law under God, of course, of the nation. So Luther argued that Christians were free from the arbitrary control of either the church or the state when they acted against God's word. When the state or the church acts against God's word, Christians were free from that control. He wrote, quote, it is with the word that we must fight. By the word must we overthrow and destroy what has been set up by violence. I will not make use of force against the superstitious and unbelieving. No one must be constrained. Liberty is the very essence of faith. I will preach, discuss, and write, but I will constrain none for faith is a voluntary act. I have stood up against the Pope, indulgences, and papists, but without violence or tumult, I put forward God's word. I preached and wrote. This was all I did. The word alone did all. If I had wished to appeal to force, the whole of Germany would perhaps have been deluged with blood." See, democracy, not democracy, representative government, constitutionalism, A republican government with a small r. We're a republic. A republic, not a democracy. Religious liberty. They were some of the social consequences I mentioned at the beginning. Political liberty, freedoms, private property, et cetera. They were not the only social consequences of the Protestant Reformation. They were the beginning of a revolution that has implications for us 500 years later. Harold Berman of Emory University has said, quote, or written, quote, the key to the renewal of law in the West from the 16th century on was the Protestant concept of the power of the individual by God's grace to change nature and to create new social relations through the exercise of his will. The Protestant concept of the individual became central to the development of the modern law of property and contract. What he's saying is that it's the Protestant idea from the Bible that the culture can be changed. Whereas before, people just were drones, believing whatever, they didn't have God's word, they believed whatever the priests told them, they believed whatever the government said they had to do, and that all changed after the Reformation. So this idea, along with Luther's idea, that all callings, all labor, not just the labor of monks and of nuns and priests, could be done to the glory of God. All callings, all vocations, all occupations could be done to the glory of God. Luther made that very clear. That led to the development of the free market economy. A free society and a free market were the political and the economic expressions of the religious idea of the Reformation. Capitalism was the economic practice, the outgrowth of which Christianity, biblical Christianity, was the theory. So John Calvin was younger than Luther, born later. Not too much later, but a little bit later. And Calvin took Luther's concepts and he systematized them. He wrote them up in a systematic way and compared them to scripture and brought in scripture to make the whole idea understandable. Luther was not as focused as Calvin was. The 17th century Calvinists. laid the foundations for both English and American civil rights and liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, privilege against self-incrimination, our principles of jurisprudence, the independence of juries, habeas corpus, all of these liberties. The 19th century German historian Leopold von Reinke referred to Calvin as, quote, the virtual founder of America. He says, if I were to be asked who is the founder of America, many people say George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. He says, I think John Calvin is the virtual founder of America. Max Weber, the famous German sociologist, wrote a book in 1905 called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Very, very famous book. I studied it in college. In which he argued that capitalism historically emerged in Protestant countries. If you look at that, look at the map of the world. If you know anything about their economies, which are the countries that have the most vigorous economy? What was their religion historically? It's Protestantism. The Catholic countries have moribund economies as a rule. Well, Max Weber said, capitalism historically emerged in Protestant countries because Protestantism, if you call it for short term, biblicalism, inculcated those virtues that led to the development of capitalism. Hard work, honesty, frugality, thrift, punctuality, And these virtues, coupled with the idea that a calling is done to God's glory, let us work heartily for God rather than for men, provided the impetus which ended serfdom, ended the feudal system, and established a free political and economic order. So the theology and values of the Bible, rediscovered by the Protestant reformers in the 16th century, have been the principal ideas creating what we know as Western civilization. Now, Luther did not go out and say, I'm going to start a new civilization. What he wanted to do was to proclaim the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. So his life was dedicated to a far more important activity than building an earthly city. Western civilization was an unintended consequence, a byproduct, of his faithfulness to the Bible. The Reformation put the kingdom of God first. not the kingdom of man or the kingdom of the church. The results were just as Christ said they would be. Would you turn to Matthew 25, please? Beginning in verse 6. These are the results of the Protestant Reformation. Matthew 25. I'm sorry, Matthew 6. Well, I'm going to read it to you. I don't have the bright sight. But, OK, just listen and don't pay attention to that. These are the results of the Protestant Reformation. When Jesus said, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? For after all these things the Gentiles say, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things shall be added unto you." And that's what Luther did. He sought first the kingdom of God. Oh, there you go. Thank you. But, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. And that's what Luther did. He sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and what happened to our world. All these things were added unto it. All this economic, political freedom, Western civilization was added to it because one man sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Justification by faith, the righteousness of God imputed to sinners. Justification by faith is the only foundation of eternal salvation and the only foundation of biblical earthly civilization, of Western civilization. The reformers sought first the kingdom of God and all these things, the things that we call today Western civilization, were added to them and to us. Father, indeed, we thank Thee, Lord, for the blessings of what has come out of what Martin Luther did, and what our forefathers did, and the men before him, Father, John Wycliffe, Hus, Jerome of Prague, and the Waldensians, all of the proto-reformers, the pre-reformers, Father, and those who came during Luther's time, Calvin, and Zwingli, and Busser, and Father, and all the others who have come later through the Church. Father, Thou hast kept the remnant alive, Thou hast grown Thy Church, and we thank Thee today, Father, for we would not We know what to do, Father. We could be living in feudalism were it not for the fact that Thou brought these men and women to revive the teachings of the Scriptures. So we thank Thee, Father, for such great salvation. Our prayer requests, Father, are many this morning. Father, we continue to pray for Rodrigo's father, that that would continue to cure him, Father. For Maria Jose and Sophie, for Rachel and Keith, we thank Thee, Lord, for the joyous news. We thank Thee, Father, Joyous news of Cat and Seve as well, Father. We ask Thy blessings upon this joyous news. For Frank's job interview, Lord, Father, please give Frank that job. Father, we pray for a little grace that she would continue in good health, Father. Lord, we continue to pray for Bernice Curtis and her health problems, Father, and particularly her faith, Father, continue to strengthen it. For Benjamin and James, all of our troops, Father, in harm's way. For Julie's brothers, David, for his health problems. Father, with Nathan James, that he would have increased faith, Father. We continue to pray for Mrs. Brown and her cancer. We thank Thee for Susan's healing, Father, and we ask to continue abundance of healing upon her foot. Again, Father, give Crystal more faith, Lord. We ask that. We pray, Father, we continue to pray for Jack and Helena Einstein, that Helena's health problems would be lifted from her father, they could get to church on more of a regular basis, Father, even though they have been. going quite regularly, and we asked Father that that would sell their farm in Virginia. For Weldon Deering in Newfoundland and his recovery, and we thank Thee, Lord, and continued prayer for the liver condition of his sons, Tyson and Mason. For their church, for Liberty and Grace Reformed Church, for East Texas Reformed Fellowship, we continue to pray that they would be given courage to not be discouraged in the small size of their congregation, Father, but focus on the growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord that God has given them. We pray for Jim's cousin, Holly, for her kidney disease. We praise Thee for Lynn Bennett and her diagnosis that she is free from cancer, Father. For Su Nan and Day Gober in the East Texas Reform Fellowship, for their increase in service to the Lord and for her auto dealership business, Father, please prosper it that she may give even more glory to Thee, Father. again, for Maureen and Tom Duda, for Phil Webb Sr. and his cancer father. We continue to pray. And Lord, we continue to... We also pray for Cliff, who is the son of the woman who takes care of our meeting room here at the hotel, Father, that he would find a job that would be the right job for him, Father. Father, we thank Thee for rains that Thou has given us. Continue to bless us with moisture, Father. And as we get together, Father, for fellowship and for learning, we ask that Thou would continue to bless us in this fellowship, Father. Knit our hearts together, Father. Give us more of a sense of unity and a purpose. We thank Thee for bringing us together, Lord. Continue to bless us in our various callings because every one of our callings, whether it is inside the home or outside, is to be done to the glory of God. We are to work heartily as to the Lord rather than for men, Father. For it is in Jesus' name we pray. Psalm 31e. Psalm 31. Tune E, this is dealing with the first eight verses of the psalm. And a few comments from John Brown to the chief musician of Psalm of David. Observe here David's solemn professions of his dependence upon God and his prayers for support and deliverance. While I sing, let me be deeply affected with my sores, my maladies, and troubles, and cast all my burdens on the Lord. In the assured faith that he is God, even my God, let me admire his gracious thoughts, words, and deeds towards me, and commit myself wholly to his care and protection. Keith, may we have that tune? da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, Thank you. Please rise. Three stanzas to God's glory. In you, Lord, I take refuge. Ashamed, let me not be. Your righteousness eternal, express by saving me. Incline your ear to hear me. To me, O be a strong rock, a fort to rescue me. You are my rock and fortress, for your sake lead and guide. Free me from that safe haven, my stronghold you abide. I now commit my spirit into your outstretched hand. I know you have redeemed me, Lord God of truths that stand. I hate those serving idols. My trust is in the Lord. I'll triumph in your mercy. mercy for anguish you regard. You've known my soul's afflictions, kept me from hostile hands. My feet you have established where they have room to stand. And receive the benediction. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that called you who also will do it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. much.