I want to invite you to take out your Bible and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. And hold your place at verse 13. It is our normal practice here at Sovereign Grace to preach verse by verse through books of the Bible. And as many of you know, we began preaching through the Gospel of John back in December of last year. And it is seldom that we will step away from our time of exposition. But over the last several weeks, we have been doing a mini series on worship from John 4, where Jesus says, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. So we did a short series on what it means to worship, how to worship and why we do what we do on Lord's day, in Lord's day worship. But I felt like a good, It was a good opportunity, since I finished that series last week, before we go back to our verse-by-verse exposition of John, which will be next week, that we would stop in between and have this time of reminding ourselves of what God has done in the history of His people, particularly in the history of His church. And so, again, this is a This is not the norm. And I do wanna say, many sermons are expositional, and expositional preaching is what we practice, but there are other types of sermons. There are sermons that are topical, subject-based, things like that. Today would be known as a biographical sermon. a biographical sermon. And we are going to be looking at the life of Martin Luther and learning from that event in church history some of the things that we can apply even today. The title of my message is The Need for Modern Day Luthers. The Need for Modern Day Luthers. And we are going to begin in the 16th chapter of 1 Corinthians. This is the final words of the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth. And if you're unfamiliar with the letter of Paul to the Corinthian church, the first letter of Paul to the Corinthian church is very corrective. He was correcting them on many errors that had crept into the church. And this is one thing I like to remind people. That error in the church didn't take 500 years to begin to develop. It didn't take 300 years to begin to develop. It didn't take 20 years to begin to develop. It began at the very beginning. Paul would go in and he would plant a church, and as soon as he would step his foot out the door, there would be those who would rise up in opposition to what he taught, and there would be those who would seek to pull men after themselves, to lead them astray, and it was from the beginning that Paul would have to write letters back to those churches and say, I fear for you, you are going in the wrong direction, turn, repent, and seek the Lord. I mean, if you've never read Galatians, Galatians begins with that admonition. Who has bewitched you? Who has come in and they've preached another gospel to you? And if anyone comes and preaches a gospel other than the gospel that I gave to you, what? Let him be accursed. See, error arising in the church didn't take long. And therefore godly men had to, in times of error, stand against the error. And sometimes even to the peril of their own lives, stand against what it seemed to be the world. During the time of the Arian controversy, which would have been in the fourth century, Athanasius seemed like he was all alone in the defense of the Trinity. And there became a phrase out of that, Athanasius contra mundum, Athanasius against the world. And sometimes it does seem that way. It does seem when we stand against falsehood that it seems like it's us and us alone. And yet we know that even from the testimony of Scripture that when God spoke to the prophet, he said, I have thousands who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And so Paul is addressing error in the Corinthian church And then, hundreds of years later, we will see, as we go through our study today, Luther addressed error in his own day. But let us begin with the Word of God. We are going to stand and read these two passages. This is from the 16th chapter of Paul's letter to the Corinthians. And he gives five admonitions to the Corinthian church. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let everything that you do be done in love. Father, Your Word alone is solid ground. And Lord, I pray today that as we proclaim Your truth and are reminded of what You have done through history, that we would not stray from Your Word, but stand upon it. And I pray, O God, that as your word is proclaimed today, and that as I give the message, Lord, that you would keep me from error. For, Lord, you know that I am a fallible man. I am capable of preaching error. And for the sake of your name, for the sake of your people, for the sake of my conscience, O God, keep me from that. And, Lord, as we examine the study today, I pray that you would use it in one of two ways. Lord, for the believer, may this be a time of genuine conviction that we need to act like men, be strong, stand firm, and be watchful, and to do these things in love. But Lord, for the unbelievers, and there are always unbelievers, whether they be our young children who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ, whether it be those who maybe are visiting with us, or maybe even those who have been visiting with us for a while and have yet to bow the knee to Christ, or maybe Lord, it is those who have made a profession of faith, but have yet to possess the spirit of Christ through faith. I pray, Lord, that today would be the day of reckoning for their soul. They would recognize that there is only one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That they would see him as beautiful and lovely and that they would turn from their unbelief and trust in him. Not in me, not in Martin Luther, not in any other man, but the man Jesus Christ. And we pray this in his name. Amen. My sermon today may feel like an extended sermon illustration with a charge at the end. And that's really what it is. Because as we look at these words in 1 Corinthians 16, we are going to consider how these words played out in the life of a single individual. But I want you to remember that as we consider the life of Luther, we are going to be having these words ring in our ears. And these words are simply three words. Act like men. This sermon is not really about the life of Luther. This sermon is a call to biblical masculinity. A call to be God's men in God's time. Because that's what every generation of man is called to be. And ladies, in case you feel like you're left out, you can act like men too. This is not gender specific in that regard, even though we do believe there are things that are gender specific. But in regard to standing for the faith and being watchful and discerning and doing these things in love, that applies to all of us. And I want to say this from the outset. I am not a Lutheran, but I love Martin Luther. Not because he was a great theologian, even though he was. And not because he was infallible, because he certainly was not. He erred in many areas and some of which were very sad. But I love Martin Luther because Martin Luther stood against the tyranny of Rome and he fought for the truth of scripture in some of the most fierce times in history and he did so with great courage. Many of you have heard me talk about the life of Luther. If you've been a member of this church for years, you know back in 2017, We celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation because the Reformation began officially. The day we celebrate is October 31st, 1517. And so in 2017, that was the 500th anniversary. And we did about a six-week sermon series in that year where I taught on the lives of Hus and Wycliffe and Luther and Calvin and Zwingli. And I think I even preached on the Anabaptists. We did an entire series on Reformation history just a few years ago. And while I don't have time to do that today, I do have a desire in my heart to at least remind you why we celebrate this day. And I want to, from the outset, remind you of something that Martin Luther said. Martin Luther said, I did nothing The Word did everything. And so as you hear me giving the biography of Luther, I don't want you to think that what I'm saying is we all need to be like Luther in every regard. No, what I'm saying is we need to consider what Luther stood upon, which was the Word of God. And that's the model that I pray we would see in his life. I love this quote, though I do have to read the quote. He said, I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's Word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, he wasn't a Baptist. The Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing. The Word did everything. Keep that in mind as we walk through the life of Luther together. Luther was born in 1483, which was just a little under a decade before Columbus would discover the New World, to put that in perspective of history. Luther was the son of Hans and Margarita Luder, and that is how his name would have been pronounced, and He was born in Eiselben, Saxony, which we now call Germany. And Hans was a prosperous businessman. This was Luther's father. And he desired his son to become a lawyer. His son was adept at languages. He was adept at law. And so he sent his son to school to become a lawyer. And Luther was on track to be a man of great notoriety and great wealth. But as it was, when he was returning home from school, He was caught in a lightning storm. And as the lightning was crashing around him and he felt fear for his life, he fell to the ground and he cried out, Saint Anne, save me and I will become a monk. Saint Anne was the patron saint of miners. Luther's father was in the business of mining. and so he called out to the patron saint of his family. Well Luther survived his lightning storm and as a result he felt compelled to enter the monastery much to the disappointment of his father who looked forward to having a wealthy son who would take care of him in his old age. A man who was on track for wealth and notoriety would now be taking a vow of obscurity and poverty. to live as a monk in a monastery of the Augustinian order. And Luther went and he was given to monkery with all of his heart. He once said, if anyone was ever saved through monkery, it would have been me. Because he lived a dedicated monk. And yet, He could not find peace for his soul. Because as he did all of the things associated with the life of a monk, which was living a chaste life, living a poor life, living a life of obscurity and work and service, nothing quelled the aching of his conscience, which was the aching of his sin. And as much as he would go before his superiors and he would confess his sin, sometimes to the tune of hours at a time, he could never find peace for his troubled soul. Modern psychologists have read some of the writings of Luther from this time and come to the conclusion that he was desperately mentally ill. because he was a man that had to have been given to depression and anxiety with all of the fears that he lived with. But I want to submit to you that Luther was not mentally ill, but rather that Luther understood something that many people today fail to understand, and that is a very simple truth. Your sin separates you from God. And if you have no atonement for your sin, if you have no forgiveness for your sin, it will continue to separate you from your God. And Luther did all the things he was told to do, and yet he never felt the forgiveness and peace that came from God. In fact, he was told at one point, you are to love the Lord your God, and he said, I cannot love Him. I hate Him. because all he does is condemn me. Luther could not find his peace with God. So his superiors thought, well, let us send our educated brother Martin to Rome, where maybe on the pilgrimage he will find the peace he wants. And so Luther took a 700 mile journey by foot to Rome. And while in Rome, what was supposed to be the city of God, the new Jerusalem, he went and found nothing that would bring him peace. He tried. He went to the masses that were being conducted by priests that he said knew not what they were doing. He watched as holy men went in and out of brothels. He was told of the Pope, who at the time was Pope Julius, who was on horseback with armor, riding troops into battle to fight for the power of the papacy. He even visited the Scala Sancta, which was supposed to be the stairs that Jesus walked up when he went to see Pontius Pilate. And you say, well, how are those stairs in Rome, didn't that happen in Jerusalem? Yes, but if you remember during the time of the Crusades, many of the soldiers who went to battle in the Holy Land would bring pieces of the Holy Land back with them and those would become relics in the church. Those would become things that people would visit and seek to receive graces from visiting. In fact, they would bring back pieces of wood and they would declare, this is a piece of wood from the cross of Jesus. You remember I mentioned this a few weeks ago, John Calvin said, if all of those pieces of wood that claim to be from the cross of Jesus were all put together, they would build a ship because there are so many. But the Scala Sancta was a set of steps that was deconstructed in Jerusalem, brought back to Rome and reconstructed in Rome and where they were supposed to be the steps that you walk up to, that Jesus walked up to to see And so Luther got on his knees, and he took each step, and this is how it is done. You get on your knees, you kiss the step, you pray, and then you go to the next step, and you kiss the step, and you pray all the way up to the top. And when Luther reached the top, he looked around and he said, How do we know any of this is true? How do we know any of this is true? So he went back just as disillusioned as he came. And now he was sent to Wittenberg, where he was going to be the professor of theology. And there in the castle church in Wittenberg, he began in 1511 to study through the gospel, excuse me, I'm sorry, the Psalms and the letter of Paul to the Romans and the letter of Paul to the Galatians. It was those three works, the Psalms and Romans and Galatians that he poured over day after day and night after night and study and teaching. And he finally came to a point where he realized what he was missing. He attributes Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 as the passage that God used to cause the scales to fall from his eyes. Romans 1.16, Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And Luther saw that and he said, this was as if God had thrown the doors of heaven open and he by the Spirit had been reborn. because he recognized that we are not saved through visiting relics or the purchase of indulgences or by the endless going to masses but rather it is from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith and Luther said alone the just shall live by faith and faith alone now During this time period, another very serious issue had arisen, and that was the selling of indulgences. And to understand the selling of indulgences, one must understand Roman Catholic theology of salvation. And if you understand Roman Catholic theology of salvation, then indulgences make perfect sense. I want you to understand, indulgences have not gone away, they still exist today. They are not being sold the way they were in the 16th century, praise God, because in the 16th century you had men like Johann Tutsal who would go out into the fields and he would gather a crowd and he would sell them and he would sell them like a marketer. In fact, he had a great marketing scheme. As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs. That was his famous sales line. But what do Catholics believe about salvation? This is important because it is always important to understand if you disagree with someone, it is wrong if you misrepresent what they believe. At least we should try to represent them correctly even when we disagree. A lot of people say, well, they believe they're justified by works. That's not true. If you read the Council of Trent, it says no man is justified by his works. Make sure you understand that. Salvation in Roman Catholicism is different than as we would understand it because we would understand salvation that comes through an imputation of the righteousness of Christ which we call justification. We are declared righteous by the work of Christ alone. And then that begins a process we call sanctification where we grow in our conformity to Jesus Christ. But that does not add one ounce to our justification because our justification is only in the work of Christ. You understand? And one day we will be glorified, meaning we will shed the sin of this flesh, and we will be given a new body, and we will live forever. So in Protestant theology, understanding the distinction between justification, sanctification, and glorification is very important. And we distinguish those as we have been justified, we are being sanctified, and we will be glorified. Now can there be some overlap? Can there be some understanding that's a little different? Yes, but I'm trying to make things as practically understood as possible. But in Roman Catholic theology, one must be in a state of grace when they die to have the promise of entering into eternal life. You must die in a state of grace. Now, how does one enter into a state of grace? Well, you enter into a state of grace through baptism. Because Roman Catholic theology clearly teaches, and you can read this in the confessions and in the catechisms, that you are born again through baptism. So how do you enter into a state of grace? You're baptized, and therefore you enter into a state of grace. And when is a person baptized in Roman Catholicism? Well, when they're a baby. Unless they come to Catholic faith as an adult and then they are baptized. Don't think that they don't baptize adults. They do. But if your baby is born in a Catholic home, that baby is baptized and they believe it is at baptism that that sacrament produces a regenerated person. But, Just because you are in a state of grace, doesn't mean you will remain in a state of grace. Because if you commit a mortal sin, you will fall from that state of grace. And if you die outside of that state of grace, you will go to hell. So if you commit a mortal sin, what must you do? You must go through a form of confession, contrition, repentance, and penance, and be forgiven and be restored to a state of grace. Now that is what is known as mortal sin, but in Roman Catholic theology there's also something called venial sin. Venial sin is the sin that does not cause you to lose the grace of justification but what it does cause is it causes additional punishments for you because the belief is that while you will be forgiven of your sin you still have to incur the punishment that comes along with the sin and this is where we get the doctrine of purgatory. Because if you die with unconfessed sin and it's venial sin and it needs to be paid for in purgatory, or if the mortal sins that you have confessed of and repented of and been forgiven of still carry with them a punishment that needs to be dealt with, you must be purged of that in purgatory. And that's where the word, the name purgatory comes from the word to purge. Now again, this is a little bit of a deep dive, but I want you to understand. So you enter into a state of grace through baptism. You can lose that state of grace through mortal sin, or you can add to your time in purgatory through venial sin. It's sort of like this. Brother Gary. He shook his head no. If you commit a crime against another person, And you go to jail. And the person comes to you and says, I forgive you. Well, does that automatically mean you get out of jail? Not necessarily, right? Because there is a consequence that goes along with your crime. Right? And so even though Christ has forgiven you of your sin, there's still punishment that comes along with the crime. There's still punishment. And this is where the doctrine of purgatory comes from. This is the doctrine that even though you are forgiven, you still have the punishment that has to be dealt with. In fact, I can read for you from the, let me see what I have, I have it here, on the doctrine of indulgences. Even after a person's sins were absolved in the confession, they still had to undergo temporal punishment, either in this life or in purgatory. This is the belief. And so, the indulgence was an opportunity for the church, not to provide you forgiveness of sins, because that only comes through Christ, but to resolve the issue of your punishment that comes with your sins, and that's, the indulgence was to resolve you of that punishment that comes along with it. So an indulgence wouldn't keep you from hell, but an indulgence would lessen your time in purgatory. Again, it's a very intricate system of belief. You see, what is believed, it is believed in the Roman Catholic Church that Christ and the saints have what's known as a treasury of merit. That they had so much excess merit. It's called the thesaurus meritorum, or the treasury of merit. And they had so much excess merit, and that merit is stored up in a treasury, and the one who has the keys to that treasury of merit is the church. And so the church has the power, the Roman Catholic Church has the power to dole out to you merit as you need it to alleviate your time in purgatory. And so, the Roman Catholic Church began to sell indulgences which were essentially selling this time off of purgatory. When the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs. Because guess what? Here's the best part. You can buy it for you, but you can also buy it for your loved ones who are also in purgatory. And so Johann Tetzel, one of his other lines, he was a wonderful preacher, not wonderful in the sense that he preached good things, but boy, he could sure belt it out. Maybe I should back up and say he was a terrible preacher, but a great orator. Let's say it that way. He was a good talker. And he would say things like, how could any of you, knowing that your mother is in the flames of purgatory, not with just a piece of silver set her free? I mean, if you believed in that system, would you not take all of the money from your account to get your dear mother out of purgatory? And when Luther saw the way the indulgences were being distributed through sale, and that the money was going to pay for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Luther was enraged. He said, this is nothing short of extortion of the people of God. And so Luther took to his pen and he wrote 95 arguments against the sale of indulgences. you call them the 95 what? the 95 theses. Luther took those 95 arguments and according to tradition he nailed them to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg and very quickly those 95 arguments through the power of the printing press began to be spread all throughout Germany and even further out into Europe And people began to talk about this upstart monk who dared challenge the authority of the Pope himself. By the way, here's just a few of these, and I love these. They kind of give you the heart of Luther's attitude. Number 27, he says, they preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks in the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory. That's a direct response to Johann Tetzel. He says, they preach only human doctrines when they say, as soon as the money clinks in the chest, the soul comes out of purgatory. Number 32, those who believe they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned along with their teachers. If you believe your salvation comes through the purchase of an indulgence letter, you will be damned along with the one who taught you that. That's what Luther's saying. Number 36, any truly repentant Christian has the right to full remission of penalty and guilt even without indulgence letters. You don't need them. If you have Christ, you don't need them. Number 37, any true Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ in the church and this is granted him by God even without indulgence letters. He's talking about the treasury of merit. He says there is merit in Christ and you have access to all of it through faith, not through an indulgence letter. By the way, isn't that what we say? We say we're saved by what? The righteousness of Christ. He is our righteousness. We don't just get His excess, we get His all. Clothed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Remember as we sing. But my favorite one. Why does not the Pope, whose wealth is greater than the wealth of the richest Croesus, build the Basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than the money of poor believers? That one cuts deep. Pope, you are one of the richest men in all of Europe, if not the richest. Why don't you build the Basilica of St. Peter's with your own money? and quit stealing it from poor beggars and peasants. So Luther writes his theses, they become spread out, and the Pope hears of this upstart monk in Wittenberg, and his response was simply this. Ah, he is but a drunken German, and when he sobers up, he'll be fine. But Luther never did sober up. He continued to write and teach and fight against the sale of indulgences and continued to teach the word of God. Until such time in 1521, as he was, I'm sorry, excuse me, 1520, the Pope issued a decree against Luther. It's called a papal bull. And he gave Luther 120 days to recant. 120 days to recant or you will be excommunicated. You will be put under the ban. And so Luther burned the papal bull in the town square. This was his act of defiance against the authority of the Pope. And at this time in history, he was already debating against the authority of the Pope. He was already saying the authority the Pope claims to have in the church is not from scripture, it is not from God, it is not from his Holy Spirit, but it is man's invention. In fact, in his debate with John Eck, Luther was compared to Jan Hus, who lived about a hundred years before Luther. And Luther said, I'm not a Hussite, but there are many things I agree with Iman. And one of the things he agreed with Iman was that when it comes to matters of faith, no man has the right to bind my conscience, but only the word of God. And you know what X said? That's the very thing Huss got burned for saying. You say you're not a Hussite, but that's the very thing Huss said. That in matters of faith, the only thing that can bind my conscience is God's Word. And not a man, no matter his position or authority. On April the 2nd, and I remember this date very clearly because it was my birthday, Well, it wasn't my, I was born many years later, but on April the 2nd, 1521, Luther made his trip, he began his trip to Worms. And I'm drawing the story to a close. I wish I could tell the whole life of Luther, but I'm going to, this would be where I draw to a close for Luther, because I do want to get on to our charge today. Luther is commanded to come to an imperial, it was called an imperial Diet. The Diet of Worms and if you ever see it written it looks like Diet of Worms. So in our house we like to buy gummy worms and hand those out on October 31st because we think of our Diet of Worms, Luther's Diet of Worms. A Diet was an imperial council where a man would be called to stand before the legal authorities and be subject potentially even to death. Luther was promised safe conduct. You come and you will safely leave. But he knew one thing. Jan Hus was promised safe conduct too and he was invited to come and speak at the Council of Constance just a hundred years earlier. And when Jan Hus came to the Council of Constance He was declared a heretic, he was told heretics do not deserve safe counsel, and they burned him at the stake. So Luther went to Worms knowing even though he had the promise of safe conduct, that promise could be easily rescinded by wicked men. But he went anyway. He stood before a table of his own books and his own writings, And the leader of the council, the imperial council said, Luther, here are all of your writings. You have been commanded by the church to recant. Do you recant? Luther said, I need 24 hours to think it over. You might think, why? Some people think it was a stall tactic. Some people think it was political posturing, maneuvering. Some people think he was planning an escape. But I tend to think he was thinking that he was standing in the shadow of Huss. And he knew, as soon as I take a stand, I will be an outlaw. So I believe he went and prayed for strength. And on the following day at four in the afternoon, the council reconvened. Martin Luther, do you recant of what you have written? Luther tried some maneuvering. He said, if I recant of all of this, some of it is accepted Christian truth and I would be recanting of my faith. And some of it I have written against Wicked men, and if I were to recant of that, I would be covering like a cloak covers evil. And finally, the leader of the council said, Stop it. We want a simple answer. Do you recant? And Luther said, You've asked for a simple answer. Unless I am convinced by Scripture, and not by popes and councils that have often contradicted one another, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. And to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Therefore, I cannot and I will not recant. Here I stand. God help me. Amen. Luther was quickly taken away, whisked away as it were. The council erupted and the emperor declared him outlaw. At that moment he was subject to death, but he had a friend Frederick the Wise, who took Luther in a staged kidnapping, and hid him at Wartburg Castle for 10 months, during which time he translated the Bible into German. After which, he returned to Wittenberg, and the story goes on that he led the Reformation, he led and changes that were needed in the church. He married a nun, of all things, Catherine Von Bora. They went on to have many children. And he lived as a teacher in his home, the Luder House, which still stands today. became a house of Reformation teaching where students would come, sometimes 20 or more at a time, to come stay in their home and be taught the Word of God and it changed the world. Why do we need Luther's today? Why do we need modern-day Luther's? I have five reasons. Number one, We need men who understand the battles before them. We need men who understand the battles before them. Luther recognized the issues that were facing the church. And it has been said and I agree with it. If you're willing to stand against all untruth except for the untruth which is right now the most dangerous to the church, you are a coward. It's easy to stand against untruths that no one is proclaiming. But are you willing to stand against the untruth that the church is now facing? Athanasius contramundum. He stood for the Trinity when it seemed as if the world were going after the Arians. Luther stood for justification by faith when it seemed as if he was the only one doing so. Do you recognize the time? Do you recognize the battle? This is where I say, men, especially, you need to be discerning, you need to learn history, and you need to know how to recognize the enemies of God. It saddens me how little history we actually know and study. Because it is so true that those who do not know, or those who know not history are doomed to repeat it, and those who do know history are doomed to watch others repeat it. I said this yesterday because I preached at a conference yesterday. I said the saddest part of this for me is normally when I preach on the life of Martin Luther, and I've done this in various times in various contexts, normally when I preach on Martin Luther, you know what one of the first things I have to do is? I have to say not the 20th century civil rights leader. Because so many people are so ignorant of history that when you say Martin Luther, they can only think of Martin Luther King. Do you know the times? The men of Issachar, 1st Chronicles 12.32, they were commended for what? They understood the times. Do you understand the times? Do you know the battles? In fact, I would ask you this, and I would ask you not to respond verbally, but maybe pull out your pen and write this down. What is the greatest threat facing Christ's church today? What do you believe it is? We need men who understand the battle in front of them. Luther understood the battle. Number two, we need men who contend for the truth. Luther was not content to watch as the church was extorted by evil men. but he contended for the truth. Jude verse 3 tells us to what? Contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. I ask you this, what hills are you willing to die on? I will die on the hill that man is justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. and that our works are merely the fruit of our justification and never the cause, because the cause of our justification is the righteousness of Christ alone. And I will die on that hill. What hill have you chosen to die on? Number three, we need men who trust the Word. What did Luther say? I did nothing, the Word did everything. I taught, I wrote, and I preached, and I trusted the Lord. Oh, for a generation of men whose hearts are captive to the Word of God and who trust it to do what only it can do. So many churches and so many pastors are being led by men who are terrific CEOs, terrific businessmen, and terrific at drawing a crowd with their winsome behavior and their winsome words, but they know not and preach not the word of God. And they are entertainers of goats, not preachers of the sheep. We are not called to manage a goat farm. We are called to shepherd God's sheep with God's Word. And it must be God's Word. Number four, we need men who are courageous in battle. Not just men who are willing to contend, but men who are willing to be courageous. It's one thing to pull out the sword and charge. It's another thing to immediately run in fear the first time somebody leaves a bad review on your YouTube video. Or sends you an ugly word on Facebook. Beloved, we have become so weak. We fear the words of men rather than the Word of God. The Bible says the coward will have his place in the lake of fire. Cowardice is sin. Cowardice is sin. We are called to be courageous. By the way, this started with 1 Corinthians 16. Just hear it again. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men and be strong. And do everything in love. Finally, and number five, we need men who finish well. We need men who finish well. Now you may want to take me to task and say, well, Luther wrote and said some things in his later life that I don't agree with. Well, I don't agree with him either, but let me say this about that. He died in faith. He did not die estranged from Christ. And I will say this simply. I have watched over the last decade as men that I studied with, men that I looked up to, and men that I even shared conferences with, and I have watched as those men have walked away from the faith and run after all kinds of wickedness. But I've also seen men who have stood to the end, like Dr. John MacArthur and Dr. Bodhi Bakkam. We need men who stand to the end. We need men who finish well, whose dying breath is an ode to Christ. Act like men. Be strong. That's God's Word to us today, because that's what the church needs. Beloved, that cannot be if you are not in Christ. You may have all the world's masculinity, but if you do not have Christ, you do not have biblical masculinity. So my final word to you today is if you are in Christ, act like a man, be strong, be courageous, and do everything in love. But if you do not know Christ, turn from your unbelief and trust in the only one who can save you. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The just shall live by faith. Let us pray. Father, I thank you for your word. And I thank you for your church. I thank you for this opportunity to preach again. And I pray, O God, that everyone who is here, whether they be man or woman, would be encouraged to be watchful, to stand firm, to be courageous and strong, and do these things in love. Lord, for love for you and love for our neighbor should be our driving force. And Lord, now as we turn to your table and we remember the sacrifice that you have made on the cross, may it be, O God, that that sacrifice renews us yet again in our faith, and we are reminded yet again of what you have done And Lord, I pray for those who do not know Christ, that in this moment of solemnity, when we reach out and take of the bread and take of the cup, Lord, that they would see and not participating in the bread and the cup, that they are reminding themselves that they're outside of Christ. And I pray, oh God, Lord, that they would come to Christ. And Lord, if there are those who need to repent, I pray they would repent. If there are those who are abstaining for reasons of conscience, I pray, Lord, that you would bless them and strengthen them and bring them to repentance if needed. But Lord, let this be a time of renewal for us all. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.