You're here to study Calvin's Institutes and grateful to have you join the class. Great to have you here. And I know most of you, so I'm grateful for that and love to get to know you better. The cards that I've handed out are for two purposes. If you would answer two questions on the cards and make sure I get a copy or make sure I get the card after the class. Number one is answer the question, what do you hope to get out of this class? And two, answer the question how I can pray for you specifically and Then you can you can sign the card or you can just hand it in anonymously, but please do that That'll be helpful to allow me the privilege to pray. Yes Yes Sure Yep Yep, sure good. That's good All right, yep, good, thank you. All right, so let's start with scripture. We're gonna look at Romans 11. I'm gonna read verses 33 to 36. This is God's word. Listen to Romans 11, verses 33 through 36. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever and ever. Amen. All right, we're going to open today our Calvin's Institute's class by praying a prayer with Calvin, and this was a prayer that he gave to young students, or any students can pray it, of course, but they were particularly to young students to ask for God's help to learn. And there's much that you can see in this prayer. You can see it's a mini theological handbook, it's a guide for parents, and it's a goal-oriented for covenant children. So let's pray this prayer from Calvin. with one of our fathers and I'll lead us. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, you who are the fountain of all wisdom and learning, because you've pleased to give us the means of instruction as students, so we may know how to rule ourselves in holiness and honorable behavior throughout the course of our lives. Please also illumine our understanding, which of itself is blind. so that it may grasp the teaching that will be given to us. Please strengthen our memories to be able to remember well and dispose our hearts to receive what is taught willingly and with due eagerness so that the opportunity you present to us may not be lost because of our ingratitude. To do this, please pour your Holy Spirit on us, the spirit of all intelligence, truth, judgment, prudence and teaching who will make us able to profit well so that our teachers efforts to teach us may not be lost. Whatever the studies to which we apply ourselves, grant that we may direct them to the true purpose, which is to know you in our Lord Jesus Christ, to have full confidence of salvation and life in your grace alone, and to serve you rightly and purely according to your pleasure, so that everything we learn may be an instrument to aid us in that. And because you promise to give us wisdom also to the small and humble and to confound the proud in the vanity of their minds, and likewise to manifest yourself to those of right heart, and on the contrary, to blind the wicked and perverse, grant, dear Father, that we may be brought under the rule of true humility, by which we may be made teachable and obedient. First to you. Secondly, to those in authority over us whom you have appointed to rule and teach us. Moreover, please dispose our hearts to seek you without pretense, renouncing every carnal and evil affection. And in such a way, we now are preparing ourselves to serve you one day in the estate and calling to which you may be pleased to appoint us when we've come of age. Hear us, merciful father, by our Lord Jesus Christ. And all the church said, Amen. All right. You know, the wonderful thing about Calvin as a pastor and theologian is that in his prayers, you learn a lot by praying along with him. So let's get started. Today, we're going to look at Calvin the man. So we're going to look at Calvin's life, an overview of his life, the man who wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion. And then next week, we're going to look at an overview of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. And then we'll jump right in with looking at the Institutes of the Christian Religion itself. I hope you've made some progress in your reading. Online are available the outlines up to about chapter four, I believe, pages up to about 181. And so that will get us through about November, the beginning of November, maybe the mid-November. And so we're looking forward to this study. I'm glad you're here. We've been praying for this, so let's have great expectations about what we're going to learn. As I'm going through, I don't want to just give you a biography of Calvin. I do want to do that, but I also want to draw lessons from his life and try now and then to show places in his life where you see an experiential knowledge of what he taught. I'll try to bring to note certain things that he taught in the institutes that perhaps he learned very experientially throughout his life. So Calvin the man, it's important to say I think today, and this is speaking a bit anachronistically, but it's important is that Calvin wanted to make godly Christians, not Calvinists. And you get that from the very beginning of his life, throughout his life, and to the end of his life. Calvin's motto was that God give the glory, that God get the glory alone. Calvin would have enjoyed quoting Psalm 115, "'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name be the glory.'" Calvin would have said, "'From him and through him and to him are all things. To God be the glory.'" And so his work was to serve God as a teacher and steward to give glory to God alone. And that is important, isn't it? That was the main aim and goal of his life, as we'll see. and that, by God's grace, should be the main aim and goal of our lives. There's three quotations. If you look at your outline, I want you to be familiar with, perhaps memorize, because it really summarizes Calvin as the man. The first is, I offer my heart promptly and sincerely. Calvin had a seal that you can see here that had JC and he, The the seal what he wanted to be remembered for ultimately was that I offer up to you Oh Lord promptly and sincerely my heart and there's the picture of the hand his hand with his heart and We have the two adverbs promptly and sincerely especially helpful for thinking about our own lives that He wanted to set this example that before God, that we live before God, we're not our own, we're not our own possession. And we want to be willing at all times, no matter what God calls us to, to offer up to him by his grace, our hearts promptly, that is immediately, right? Without hesitation and sincerely. Well, you'll see through the institutes, it's a very important thing for Calvin is sincerity, is authentic Christianity. Not to just talk about it, but to have a Christianity of the heart and thus the reason why in Calvin's theology from the very beginning you can see a lot about the man from the seal because he's holding up his heart, not his head. And he speaks to our mind, he teaches our minds, but what is most important is that information, that truth, get into our hearts so that it would be transformative. Very important to note about Calvin right from the beginning. The second is all the wisdom, second quote you can look at is all the wisdom we possess that is of the true and sound wisdom is a knowledge of God and a knowledge of ourselves. And literally we could do the whole year on unpacking that. That's his opening thesis statement for the Institutes and he stays focused on that. That first and foremost it's to know God. But in light of God, in our knowledge of God, we're to know ourselves. And that's true and sound wisdom. A third quote is that true piety consists in a feeling sense of love for God as father. You may be surprised that Calvin, John Calvin, begins with a feeling sense that he's talking about emotion. But again, the importance of the heart loving God or having affection toward God because of who God is and what he's done. So he says, True piety consists in that sincere feeling of love for God as father. All right. While at the same time, reverencing and fearing him as Lord. So seeing him as father, seeing him also as Lord and embracing his righteousness, not our own and to dread offending him worse than death, to dread offending God worse than death. May that be our prayer. So let me give you an overview of the things I want to highlight about Calvin, particularly his character. If you look at your outline, it begins with Christian, simul ustus et peccator. Somebody tell me what that phrase means, simul ustus et peccator. Somebody know that phrase in Latin? Yes, sir? At the same time justified and sinful. This class will focus on Calvin the man, but he wasn't a perfect man. He was a faithful man. And those two things are very important to distinguish in the Christian. He made mistakes like we do. He had the same struggles that the Apostle Paul mentions in Romans 7, that what I want to do, I do not do. What I don't want to do, I keep on doing. You'll see that even as we listen to Calvin in his quotation at his deathbed. You'll see that he's a sinner who's in need of a savior, who has lived a life of repentance. And that's important. Pastor, secondly. After Christian, who was at the same time justified and sinful, he's also very important a pastor. First and foremost, Calvin would think of himself in the stewardship as God's teacher or pastor to Christ's flock. And he always saw himself in that offering his heart promptly and sincerely as being under the shepherd, the kingship, the lordship of Jesus Christ at all times, that when his Lord called, he would say, what is your bidding, my master? And he would do it. I sounded a bit like Darth Vader. I realized that. But I had those influences in me. So but that was the point was, what is your bidding, my master? And, you know, there is something to learn from Star Wars. They're an absolute submission. to authority. That's the way he thought, especially to the Lord Jesus Christ. A pilgrim. He's a pilgrim. What we'll see is he's a pilgrim. That is, a pilgrim is one who hasn't made it home yet. A pilgrim's on a journey. As we, some of you, many of you will study Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. It's that Christians are pilgrims. They're exiles in this age. David speaks of himself as a pilgrim, along with the fathers. that nothing about this world should be considered our ultimate home, though God is gracious to give it to us, and it's good. So Calvin was a pilgrim. We'll see that in a moment. Calvin's apostolic. Calvin's apostolic. And if you were going to define apostolic, what comes to mind? But what comes to mind? What do you think about? First of all, that's what I should ask. What do you think about when you hear the word apostolic? Okay, early church, good. You think of, well, apostles, right? Those particularly sent by God. Ephesians 2.20, Calvin's commentary on that, he shows that the apostles are the foundation of the church and their writings. their writings that make up the Scriptures are to be received as the very mouth of God. For Calvin, when he opened his Bible, he would see that, metaphorically speaking, but very helpfully, spiritually speaking, when he opened his Bible, he knew God's mouth was opening to him. And so he was living expectantly, especially during preaching, that when God opened his mouth, when God opened his Bible, that God's mouth was speaking. So ultimately, for Calvin, apostolic means being faithful to Scripture. be faithful to the 66 books of the Bible, and finding useful some of the Deuteronomical books as history, perhaps, but not as inspired. Reformed. He was a man who was always seeking to reform according to Scripture. The whole project that he had throughout his life was reforming the church and constantly going back to reform. So the saying was to be reformed, but not as a past tense, to be reformed and continually reforming. He was always seeking to reform the church to be more and more scriptural. And that's really what reformed means, first and foremost. It means that the church might be faithful to Holy Scripture. Catholics. Some of you might be surprised by that, but there's important distinctions to make between Catholic and Catholicity and Roman Catholic or medieval Roman Catholic. Calvin was saved out of medieval Roman Catholicism. That went nowhere for him, and we'll see that a little bit today. We'll see it more as we study the institutes that medieval Roman Catholicism was not biblical. Medieval and medieval Roman Catholicism are two different things. Medieval as a worldview is God-centeredness. It's a wonderful thing to embrace, wonderful thing to be medieval people. But you need to make a distinction always in your mind that you're thinking of medieval versus medieval Roman Catholic, and the same goes with Catholic and Roman Catholic. Catholic is what we confess in the Apostles' Creed, right? It's that we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. It means that we believe ultimately there's only one church of God made up of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And further, very practically, he was a student of the church fathers. He knew his Church Fathers very well. People were amazed by how much of the knowledge he had of the Church Fathers. And if you've ever seen the Church Fathers, there's multiple volumes of the Church Fathers. Now it's available in digital form. But at one time, in order to get the before-Nicaea church fathers and the after-Nicaea church fathers, it cost an arm and a leg. It was very expensive, and it took a lot of room in your house. And maybe some of you have those, and you're trying to get rid of them today, or you use them as a doorstop. But you realize it looked good, but you never used it. Well, maybe. All right. The point is, he memorized much of those writings, had those in him. And so he is an expert with regard to what Catholicism truly means. He is an expert on the Church Fathers. It would be hard to find a greater expert on the early Church than John Calvin. You'll see this as we go through the Institutes how many times he quotes the Church Fathers because he's so familiar with them. And so the Reformation was not a sectarian movement away from the Catholic Church. It was a realization of the true Catholic Church, not the medieval Roman Catholic Church. Now, for time, I need to move on, but let me just say one thing about humanist scholar. God gave him. God didn't just call him to his post as a great theologian. He became the theological, the theological theologian who was the architect of the Reformation because God used the means of a great deal of learning. Calvin applied himself to hard learning. His memory was amazing. He depended on the Spirit to help him with his memory. That's an important point, first and foremost. But secondly, every morning he would wake up and try to review the things in his mind as he's getting ready for the day that he learned the day before. So he was a humanist scholar. That is, he was one who took original texts seriously. He wanted to read the Bible in original language and read the text and draw out of the text and be familiar with that. And he had good learning in that way. So it doesn't mean humanism or that he's focused on man. It just means that he was a humanist scholar with the best education, the best kind of memory, and with a desire to read texts well, particularly scriptural texts, to get to the author's meaning, as we'll see. All right, that brings us to his death. Well, that was a lot. The reason I start with his death, and I think I gave you the wrong date, I gave you 1546, sometimes I, well, mess up the numbers there, but it's 1564 is his death. I start with his death to show, first of all, the faithfulness of God through this man's life to his death at the age of 55, the age of 55. And I wanna read to you some of his last words. We learn a lot about a man from his last words, right? I want you to hear what he had to say about himself. So what do you think about him? I love the fact that Calvin can give us, in his final words, what he thinks about himself. And remember, when he's saying these things, it's easy to read it through a kind of self-centered, 20th century, psychological, psychobabble kind of grid, you know, because we're those kind of people, we're influenced by that kind of stuff. But hear him as one who sits, he's speaking before the face of God. not through all the other stuff that we've been exposed to over the last few years that are very self-centered. He says, he's speaking to the Geneva authorities as he dies. And he says, I've had many infirmities which you've been obliged to bear with. And what is more, all I've done has been worth nothing. The ungodly will greedily seize upon this word, but I say it again, that all I've done has been worth nothing and that I'm a miserable creature. But certainly I can say this, that I have willed what is good, that my vices have always displeased me and that the root of the fear of God has been in my heart. And you may say that the disposition was good. And I pray you that the evil be forgiven me. And if there was any good, that you conform yourselves to it and make it an example. As my as to my doctrine, I have taught faithfully and God has given me grace to write what I've written as faithfully as was in my power. I've always faithfully propounded what I esteem to be for the glory of God." And this is what he gives them. Are you ready? In the last words he gives them, and I didn't put all the quotation in your packet, but what he says at the end is he says, beware, Genevan authorities, who are God's instruments to help look over the church, beware of novelties, beware of unnecessary changes. Back to Roman Catholicism is in his mind, but people often ask for novelties, and he says, Remember carefully that all changes can be dangerous and sometimes hurtful. So what he's saying is continue the reformation, guys. Continue the reformation. C.C., he had infirmities. He was aware of them. Let's just say up front what some of them were. The two frailties that he had, as faithful as he was, is that he was irritable and was easily angered and would often go off on books when they disagreed with him. And I'm just saying this up front, because if we're honest, we all do that to some degree ourselves. But he was a perfectionist, and perfectionists tend to do that a little bit more than others. They feel the pressure, sometimes feel the frown of God, and so they take it out on others. He was easily angered, and he would ask forgiveness for that, by the way. He would always go and ask forgiveness. So it's just to emphasize that at the same time, he was justified and sinful. The second thing is that sometimes if people disagreed with him, he took it personally. more than he should. And so he wouldn't write them off formally, but he would sometimes not speak to them as he should have. He wouldn't pursue peace. He would leave it alone. And we see that with his relationship with his good friend, William Farrell. But thanks be to God, there was reconciliation on his deathbed. So those are two things that he himself admits and that should be known, that Calvin had a hard time with his temper. And he had, he struggled against it. And he also had a hard time with pursuing peace when someone disagreed with him. Aren't we a lot like him? So he's buried in a wooden box in an unmarked grave because he knew enough about the human nature that he wanted to be consistent. He said, don't mark my grave because they'll make me a celebrity. He didn't say this, again, speaking anachronistically, but he was pretty sure that all the people who came to him would eventually make themselves Calvinist and be referred by that name. And so it's important to remember he lived to make godly Christians, not Calvinists. I understand Calvinist and Calvinian is a shorthand. It's very helpful at times. I realize that. That's a good thing. But first and foremost, we're Christians. And that's what he wanted to make clear. He's born on July 10th, 1509. Does anyone know how old Luther would have been at this time? Give me a guesstimate. What decade would Luther have been in? 30s. Luther was born in 1483, unless my math is wrong. Help me. Yes, you're right. You know, I am no one to, I need to ask mathematicians about these things. He was in his 20s, yes. Thank you. I didn't do my subtraction right. Girls, see, I'm not the, you're not the only one who messes up here. Yes, Luther was in his twenties. Calvin's considered a second generation reformer. Just to kind of put it into context, when Luther was nailing his 95 theses on the castle church at Wittenberg in October 1517, Calvin would have been an eight-year-old boy. That puts it into perspective. So let's look at his youth and early education. Very early in his life, Calvin lost his mother I don't remember the date I put, but I changed my date. So I think it's right around 1511, 1512, actually, when he lost his mother, if you want to look at. But I just want to point out that from the very beginning of Calvin's life, he had to let go of the one person that God put in his life to care for him. He had to let go of that. He had to realize that as a young man, that he was being formed for something great in God's church. but he had to learn the grief of loss. So he felt heartache and grief very early in his life. He didn't have the love of a mother. And it's interesting to note that he uses mother as a metaphor for the church in his institutes. And I think that's rather sweet. And we could probably draw a helpful conclusion there that we'll look at later. But think about that, that he saw the church as his mother. to a large degree. In 1521, he goes to Paris to study. He gets the best theological education in the world. And he doesn't mess around with it either. As I've pointed out, he was a humanist scholar. That is, he was a scholar who sought very much to learn everything he could. He was with some of the greatest scholars of the day. And he made use of that. In 1528, he goes to Orleans and then Bourges ... Forgive me, my French, I have never studied French. I'm going to say these in a lisping tongue. I'm going to say this in Georgia Southern, or Southern Georgia tongue. You're going to have to correct me later, but you can see that he goes to Orleans and Bourges to study law. This is important to note because it's because of obedience to his father. Calvin was very thankful for his father's guidance and from an early age apparently saw that his father was placed over him as a guide. And so young men, young women, remember that God has given you godly fathers to guide and to teach you as well as godly mothers by God's grace. 1531, he loses his father. So here's another grief and loss and heartache. And I want to emphasize this because he was, as a pastor, so able to sympathize with others when they lost, when they were grieving, and especially when, in God's good providence, they were suffering persecution and death of loved ones. I'll talk in a moment about Calvin's only son, but that would become a loss as well. So very early in life, he experiences that grief, that loss, that heartache. God has a reason for it. God's going to make him a pastor. God's going to make him a nurturer of souls. God's going to teach him to use all that education in the service of Jesus Christ and for his glory. And that's to be noted here at this point. In 1533, Calvin leaves Paris. as an exile and a pilgrim. This is to really extenuate that he was a pilgrim. He was a Frenchman born in Noyon. And Noyon, France, is in the region of Picardy, which is northeast of France. And it's in the northeast. And it's a region called Picardy. He was born literally in the shadow of a tremendous cathedral there in Noyon, France. And so he leaves his home. So here's a man who's lost his parents and now has lost his home. And for the rest of his life, he would remain an exile and pilgrim. And it's important to note, Calvin did not even become a citizen of Geneva until 1559. So he had no real homeland until he was 50. And that's to emphasize again that he could identify with those who were being persecuted. We'll look at this further, but the primary reason he left France was because of the persecution of Protestants, and it was quite horrible. I'll read to you some of that detail at the beginning of next class, Lord willing, when we talk about the Institutes, because I want to situate the Institutes in that context of horrifying, just horrific persecution by the Roman Catholics in France. 1534, Calvin leaves completely France. He's left Paris, he leaves France, and he's an exiled pilgrim. Now during those years of about 33 to 34, and scholars are unsure exactly when it happened, Calvin's converted. So between the years, somewhere between 1533 and 34, Calvin is converted. He was a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church as a young man. His father, was an important man who worked for the bishop at the cathedral in Noyon. And so Calvin was a bit different from Luther. In contrast, Calvin was not nobility, but he ate and drank with nobility. His father's job allowed him to have the best tutors in the world because the noble sons and daughters who were being tutored, they would allow Calvin to be tutored with them. So he was raised in that. He wasn't raised as a working class person. So he's raised as a man of the church, really, in many ways. His father wanted him to study law because his father had a falling out with the church, unfortunately. Actually, his father was excommunicated from the church and not even buried in holy ground. And that was a big deal back then with regard to somebody's reputation. But his dad had a falling out, wanted Calvin to do law for a while, thought, well, Calvin, I don't want you to have to deal with this. the church things that I've had to deal with, you know, law, you can make a lot of money. And Calvin did that as the dutiful son until he was converted. And you see how God in his perfect providence has this timed after his father's death. So the conversion happens after his father's death. And listen to what he says. This is this gives you from Calvin's own words a little bit of his testimony. OK, so Calvin's given his testimony now. Listen to what he says. When I was yet a very little boy, my father had destined me for the study of theology. But afterwards, when he considered that the legal profession commonly raised those who followed it to wealth, this prospect induced him suddenly to change his purpose. Thus it came to pass that I was withdrawn from the study of philosophy, which he's using in a general term for philosophy, theology, humanities. I was withdrawn from the study of philosophy, was put to the study of the law. To this pursuit, I endeavored faithfully to apply myself in obedience to the will of my father. But God is beautiful. Sounds like Ephesians 2, 4, doesn't it? But God, by the sweet guidance of his providence, at length gave a different direction to my course. And first, since I was obstinately devoted to the superstitions of potpourri, potpourri, Romish, Those words mean Roman Catholicism, medieval Roman Catholicism, not Catholicism, but medieval Roman Catholicism. The superstitions, he was obstinately devoted to them, you see. To be easily extricated from so profound an abyss of mire, God, by a sudden conversion, subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame. I love that. Sudden conversion. It wasn't progressive like we think of Luther's conversion. Now, I'm distinguishing between regeneration at the moment of being made alive and a conversion experience where someone's slowly, gradually sitting under the truth, okay? But in this conversion experience, this was immediately. He experienced regeneration right away, you know, in a sudden way that surprised him, that made him a Calvinist in many ways. That's what I want to note, is in many ways, this was his experience that he was not pursuing God. He was obstinately in the mire of potpourri, superstitious potpourri. That is, he didn't even have the biblical religion. He was a medieval Roman Catholic. That's the way Calvin would have thought. That's how he thinks. He says, so God made me a teachable frame. And this is what he says. Listen, from the earliest age, he's aware of his heart. Beloved, be aware of your own heart. Pay attention to no one more than you do your own self. Pay attention to no one more than you do your own heart. He says. My heart was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life. Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to have these affections, to make progress in the Christian faith. And although I didn't altogether leave my humanities studies, my philosophy studies, I pursued them with less fervor and ardor. I was quite surprised to find that before a year had elapsed, all who had any desire after pure doctrine were coming to me to learn. And he says that I was just a beginner. So you see this call of God and you see really very importantly how others determine someone's call of God on their life is how God uses them to teach how useful and effective in the church they can be. He understood that. Being of a disposition somewhat unpolished and bashful. He'll use that about himself a lot. He describes himself as a bashful young man. He didn't want the public place. He said, I wanted, I loved shade and retirement to do my studies. He wanted to do his book learning. He wanted to commune with God all the time, right? He wanted to write books so everybody can read. But I began to seek some secluded corner where I might be withdraw from the public view, but instead of accomplishing the object of his desire, my retreats were like public schools. Everybody started coming to him to learn. In short, while my one great object was to live in seclusion without being bothered, God so led me about through different turnings and changes, he never permitted me to rest in any place until, in spite of my natural disposition, he brought me forth to public notice." See, you really get a sense of Calvin there, don't you? You know, the bashful guy. He wanted to do his studies privately. As a reformer, I wanna talk to you about his association, his relationships with other reformers of the time. Notice, for practical, I want to bring this to your attention. Notice how he's so aware of his heart at the moment of his regeneration, his moment of his conversion, where he comes to know the truth of God. Notice how he's aware of his heart. And let that be an example for all of us to always be aware of our hearts. Calvin would have loved Psalm 19, verse 14, that, Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight. It wasn't just the words of the mouth. It was what was meditating in the heart. It was about the thoughts. It was about the desires. Where are your desires? Do you know? That's how you know you're a maturing Christian, is that you know where your desires are. Even if they're not in the right place, you know that's a maturing Christian. So be encouraged. Looking at the reformers, there's first of all Martin Luther, right? So I'm comparing how Calvin would have viewed each of these since he was a second generation reformer and because he was associated with a lot of these reformers and we want to know them. And Martin Luther was like a hero to Calvin. He would have been kind of like an R.C. Sproul of that time period. Martin Luther would have been kind of an R.C. Sproul to many people, but Calvin. Calvin could see similarities and weaknesses between him and Luther, but Calvin didn't have that kind of how do you say, personal touch as much as Martin Luther did. And Calvin would come to Martin Luther's defense, not always theologically. He would take Martin Luther to task about theological matters, but with great respect, as he would R.C. Sproul, as we would today with R.C. Sproul, if we disagreed with him. That is how he saw Luther as a hero. Philip Melancthon was like a good school friend. If you remember, Philip Melancthon was the man who was Luther's lieutenant. He basically articulated what we know today as the theology of Lutheranism. Martin Luther didn't produce that kind of systematic theology. Melancthon was his systematician. So in that sense, he was like a Calvin. Calvin, as we'll look at Melancthon more when we get to the Institute. How about that? Ulrich Zwingli, he was An exemplary and faithful minister and martyr, Ulrich Zwingli had lost his life to the Roman Catholic armies and was beheaded, burned, and then his ashes were thrown to the wind by the Roman Catholics. And so to Calvin Zwingli, who was a pastor, Zwingli was one who was an example of a martyr and a faithful minister who would be faithful to the end. Einrich Bullinger, he's kind of like the forgotten man of the Reformation for some reason, but he's a close cousin to Calvin. He's like a close cousin. Theodore Besa was like a son to Calvin. Actually, when Calvin died, Theodore Besa became the pastor at Geneva, the primary pastor at Geneva. And so that brings us to the Institutes of Christian Religion on your outline. I want to wait on that till next time, just because of time, and we can always look at this more fully when we do the overview of the Institutes. But let me just say that there is an early edition that he writes in 1536 that was a theological handbook that again reveals his pastoral heart, because he knew that all of these people who are coming to become Reformed Protestants had never really been taught the Bible. And so his aim is to teach the Bible so that others can learn true piety or godliness. All right. So that's his main aim in writing the Institutes of the Christian Religion. So that brings us to Geneva. Geneva has two parts, the time that Calvin's there. When Calvin gets to Geneva, he recalls later on in his life that Geneva had experienced somewhat of a reformation through preaching. And Geneva had formally joined what was known as a kind of Swiss confederation of Protestant churches. They had decided that they were no longer, because of biblical reasons, no longer under the rule of the bishop. And so they withdrew to this kind of Swiss confederation. Geneva was, and I won't go into all these details, you can study this on your own, but Geneva was like an annex of Bern, Switzerland. They politically had a lot in common, and Bern had a huge army, a Protestant Reformed army, and that was very practically useful in those times. to protect Geneva, and so Geneva would oftentimes, there's something very much you have to take into consideration when you're thinking of Geneva. They go with the Reformation, many on the council, many in the government for theological reasons, but some because it was politically expedient, because they're out from under the bishop, and they're out from under the pope, and so they have more freedom perhaps to see through their political thoughts, and that's going to be the great tension for the rest of Calvin's life with Geneva, is saying, this is what the Bible says, and they think, well, I hear you, but that's not necessarily politically expedient for us. Or who do you think you are, being a Frenchman, telling us Genevans what to do? Remember, Calvin's always going to be a Frenchman. He's always an exile. He's always a man who's not really one of the older families of Geneva. And so there's a prejudice against him all the time. And when he stands up for the truth, it's sometimes listened to and sometimes it's not. But there's that constant tension between Geneva wanting to be reformed and wanting Calvin to guide them as their shepherd and wanting as a government to be to do what's best for Geneva and what's best for them politically. And so that tension will go on through the rest of Calvin's life. And we don't have the time to go into it now. but his first pastorate was in Geneva. And that's where he met a man named William Farrell. William Farrell was a fiery and bold man, very prophetic, like, very prophet-like, I should say. And much like what we think of when we think of John Knox, okay? And in your face, thus says the Lord, and I'll not budge, okay? Fiery, firebrand, very impatient with regards to change. And this is what Calvin says about how he ended up in Geneva. This is his own testimony. He says, wherever else I'd gone, I had taken care to conceal that I was the author of the Institutes, because he's getting famous now. People are realizing, wow, this guy's got some gifts. So he's keeping that quiet. He said, I resolved to continue in the same privacy and obscurity until at length, William Farrell detained me at Geneva. Now this is God's good providence. Calvin was actually traveling to somewhere else. in the north of Switzerland. And because there were armies blocking the way in God's good providence, he just happened to go to Geneva. And he just so happened to meet Pharaoh. And Pharaoh doesn't take no for an answer, as you'll see. So Pharaoh detained me, not so much by counsel and exhortation, but by a dreadful curse. You should be your great pastor. You'd be really good here. I mean, the people would love you. It was no, it was you do this or you will be judged by God. which I felt to be as if God had from heaven laid his mighty hand on me to arrest me. As the most direct road to Strasbourg, to which I then intended to retire, was shut up by wars, I resolved to pass quickly by Geneva without staying longer than a single night. A little before this, potpourri had driven from it by the exertions of the excellent man whom I've named, Anne-Pierre Barret. Very important three men, the triumvirate in Geneva. Pierre Barret is often overlooked. You who want to do Reformation studies, PhD studies, Pierre Bourret, get all over him. Get on Heinrich Bollinger, too, because there's lots to be done on those guys, all right? You've got to learn your German there. You've got to learn some French, but Pierre Bourret, Calvin, and William Farrell, those are the three. When Calvin's talking about his friends in Geneva, he's talking about Farrell, he's talking about Bourret, and he's talking about, well, Yep, those two. Pharaoh was like, if you give a taste of it, he's been described as a lovable but frustrating uncle to Calvin. Calvin was a young man, still full of pride, he would admit, as a pastor, and so not as patient as he probably should have been with the council in Geneva, with the government in Geneva. I'm not going into all the details about the government in Geneva right now. I'm just trying to summarize those things to stay with the story of the man. Pharaoh had this kind of influence on Calvin, though he was an uncle and a very helpful man, he also had a negative influence on Calvin in many ways in the beginning of Calvin's ministry. In other words, You have to remember that Pharaoh could be very obnoxious about something, and the Reformation needed patience. The Reformation needed good dialogue and conversation with the authorities. They needed a pastor. They needed a good mediator. Pharaoh could do the preaching, and Pharaoh could call the people to repentance, and he'd been used mightily by God for that, but he couldn't do the persuasion. So this leaves a hole there, and Calvin's learning that from him in many ways. We're influenced by our example. So it says, Calvin reminds us, he says, Pharaoh burned with this extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, but he strained every nerve to detain me. And when he learned that my heart was set on devoting myself to private studies, he proceeded to utter the imprecation that God would curse my retirement and the tranquility of my studies, which I sought, if I should withdraw and refuse to help. And so I was terror struck and he gave in. And so here in Geneva, the years, particularly the first part of Geneva, 1536 to 1558, he's working with Farel and Baret to organize the church. In May 1536, Geneva becomes a reformed city and it's through Farel's influence. He's a great preacher, but he wasn't an architect. He wasn't an organizer. He wasn't a theologian. And so you see in God's good providence, God's raising up the right man. But there's an important lesson I'll try to bring to your attention in a moment. The first thing that they wrote together was the articles concerning the organization of the church. If you look on your outline, 1536 to 37, the regular celebration of the Lord's Supper, they said was important. That excommunication should be in the hands of the elders and pastors, not in the hands of the government. So he's beginning to make this important distinction biblically between the state and the church. There should be a catechism for instruction for the youth, which was a confession of faith of 1536. And that psalm singing and worship, particularly psalm singing and worship, they should sing the Psalms. And so this is the beginning of the Reformation. This was the beginning of the Reformation, particularly in Geneva. These are the things that Varay and Pharaoh and Calvin were bringing to the government. And you've got to remember, again, there are some in the government, in the council, who are listening and saying, OK, that's biblically right. We're going to follow that. But not all. And some were saying, well, this excommunication takes our power away. And that's going to be, if the church has the power then to do it, then what if you do it to us? And Calvin says, yes, we're all should be submissive to God's word. And this is what's going to get him in trouble over and over, really. So, actually, that's what became the reason for his exile. 1538 to 1541. His exile was due to the fact he was faithful to the word of God, no doubt, with regard to those things. Some of those things that the council agreed on, some of them, overall, I would say, they compromised at places, but they would not allow Calvin and Pharaoh to live out being church elders who practiced discipline in Geneva. In other words, they would not let the church be the church in this biblical reformed manner, just to put it briefly. And Calvin and Pharaoh were exiled because they refused to serve the Lord's Supper to those whom they had not met with, who they knew were involved in living sinful lives. And so from the very beginning of Calvin's ministry to the end, he's trying to get people to be more than just professing Christians in Geneva. but to be those who will be submissive from the heart to God's word and to be willing to honor the authorities that are over them, even if they are authorities themselves. All right. There's so much more to say about that. Right. But that's that's where we'll leave it for the moment. So they're exiled. Farrell and Calvin are given time and they're told to get out of Geneva. All right. But this is God's good providence, isn't it? Because here. If you're going to have a sinful reason why Calvin and Pharaoh were exiled, there's always sin on both sides, we say, right? And it's true. So let's be fair. Pharaoh's influence, again, Calvin was learning from this man not to be patient, not to accept any compromises. And there's a place for that. But there's also a place for patience and prayer and a willingness to wait on change. And Pharaoh was unwilling. Now, what he learns in Strasbourg is a beautiful time period because this is where Calvin learns to be the pastor he becomes. Do you know Martin Bucer? Does anyone know Martin Bucer or Martin Butcher? Martin Bucer? Does anyone know him? He's the pastor who taught Calvin how to have a pastor's heart. He set an example for Calvin. It shows that even though we're young and knowledgeable and gifted and we can be very heady and impatient, We do need a father figure, a pastor to teach us what it means to serve God graciously and gently and compassionately. And this was the time of Calvin's change from 1538 to 41. This is a time that's characterized by peace and mature spiritual growth for Calvin. Peace and mature spiritual growth. Martin Bucer is known for his patience and his courage. So he had the courage of Pharaoh, right? but he had that patience that Calvin needed to learn. Calvin at this point, and I want to say more about it, but I want to say more about his wife, Idelette de Boer, but I only have a few minutes, so let me go through this quickly. Idelette was a blessing to Calvin. She was the widow of an Anabaptist minister, and she had two children, Jacques and Judith, And Calvin married her. And it was a sweet marriage. And she died in 1549. So, one of the blessings of Strasburg was not only Martin Bucer, but it was meeting his bride, Idelette de Boer. He lost her, and it was one of the hardest things he ever experienced. Not only did he have to lose his mom, his dad, he had to lose his wife. And then on top of that, he lost his only son. His son died. I think maybe two months, two weeks old. Very young. We don't even remember his name. But he was a man of sorrows, Calvin, acquainted with grief like his savior. Geneva was being tempted while Calvin's in Strasbourg, learning from Butzer and living a happily married life. He's there was a Roman Catholic, very winsome and persuasive Roman Catholic, who was named Satellito, who was seeking to persuade Geneva to come back into Roman Catholicism. And the Geneva authorities realized, we can't answer this guy. We don't know enough. And so they got on the phone. Calvin? Yeah, it's us. Can you come help us? We need some help. So Calvin wrote this famous reply to Sataletto, still one of the finest treatises he wrote. It particularly gets to the central matter of justification by faith alone. Right away, He understands that the problem, the big thing that separates Roman Catholics and true Catholics is the issue of justification by faith alone in Christ alone, that the righteousness we have does not come from ourselves, but solely from the righteousness of Christ alone imputed to us and received by faith alone. That's the big issue. So that's what the reply to Settoledo was about. Geneva authorities were pleased, and he's invited back to Geneva, Geneva II. Calvin returns and remains until death. But there's constant tension and persecution. So for the rest of his life, there's nothing but constant tensions and persecutions for him in this city. Now, you can imagine, you know, when John Knox came to Geneva and said, I've never since the days of the apostles have I seen such a Christian city. How Calvin must have said, honey, please, you understand the things I deal with behind the scenes? You have no idea. But Geneva was exemplary. But again, Calvin was on the inside, serving not only the church and seeing the true hearts of people, but seeing the true hearts of those in the state, the government, who were ruling over. So he was invited to go back, and he writes to Pharaoh. And there's something you want to remember very, very importantly here. He describes Geneva as cross-bearing. He said, to go back and carry that cross again, I just can't imagine having to do that again. I can't imagine when I call to mind the wretchedness of my life there. He says, rather, would I submit to death a hundred times and to that cross on which I had to perish daily a thousand times over? Tell us what you really think, Calvin. But this is why I did offer to you, God, my heart promptly and sincerely and Pharaoh here was useful. As many times he was, because I'm showing as big a picture and honest a picture of both the men and their strengths and weaknesses, this is where Pharaoh came in handy again to say, you got to go to Geneva. And Calvin said, you know, I got to go to Geneva. It's where God has called me. So he says, so long was I bound hand and foot, I preferred to suffer to that extreme rather than for a moment to listen to the thoughts. that were apt to come into my mind of moving elsewhere from Strasbourg, because Strasbourg, again, was characterized by peace and study and a good wife. Thoughts which, but now by the favor of God, I'm delivered, who will excuse me if I'm unwilling to plunge again into the Gulf and whirlpool, which I know to be so dangerous and destructive. And here's what to note about his character. He did it. And when you read the part in his instance on the Christian life, about the Christian life being summarized daily denying oneself and picking up the cross and following Jesus. You remember that the man who wrote those lines put that into practice and he did against what he really wanted to do. Beloved, how many things do we have to make decisions on, you know, that we don't want to do? Our feelings are totally against it. And yet God calls us to it. This is a good reminder that we have a good example in John Calvin to do the right thing. Let me skip over Michael Servaitis for a moment. I'm gonna come back to him at the end. How much time do we have? I'm looking at the clock and I want to make sure that I cut off at just the right time. Could someone give me 10? All right. Would everyone bear for 10 more minutes? Okay, all right. So let's just close this part. He opened the academy, the Genevan Academy. So many people had come to him as students that Calvin became a worldwide theologian and very importantly, a worldwide missionary. He was the first Protestant to send missionaries to the new world. That's very important. When someone has this caricature of Calvin and says he wasn't into evangelism and missions, he was the father of missions in many ways. He was the father of Protestant missions. His life was nothing but missions-oriented because he was sending people forth from Geneva, from his academy, to go and preach the gospel in all parts of the Holy Roman Empire and even to the New World. So that's very important to note. The Genevan Academy is still open today, by God's grace. And this is the time period where he finalized his Institutes of the Christian Religion. We'll learn more about next week, the edition of 1559. The book went from being a little handbook or manual on theology to becoming 80 chapters. It went from six chapters to 17 chapters, which we're looking at, to 80 chapters. Smile, we're reading the 17 chapter one. It invites you to go and read the 80 chapter one one day, but those are four volumes. Never changed a thing. I'll talk more about the Institutes. I'm dying to talk about them now, but I've got to wait. but never changed a thing, but always learning, always expanding, always wanting to say something more clearly, always wanting to form it differently according to God's good grace. So let's just leave that and we'll do institutes next week. So Calvin dies in May of 1564. Now, the thing that he's often remembered by, first and foremost, I want to say two things. He's most of the time remembered by his teaching on predestination. Beloved, he did teach on predestination and did it very well. But if you want to judge a man by what he taught the most and what was most important, you judge him by the fact that he was a man of prayer first and foremost. Yes, predestination is very important. I'll say something about that. But his sections on prayer are much longer than his sections on predestination. It was the fact that people hated the God of the Bible and hated the Calvinist, I just used it, but the Calvinist idea of God who would be free to decree whatever comes to pass according to his will. And so it wasn't just the teaching that was hated about predestination, Calvin himself was hated. And this caused a lot of controversy in Calvin's time with the issue of predestination. But let me remind you that it wasn't just on that. Contrast his teaching on predestination in your one volume with the time he spends on prayer. And you'll see what's most and utmost important is teaching about God in every way. But it's just to remind you of something. See, for Calvin, predestination and providence fit together. And I'll summarize it like this. I think this is very helpful to remember about Calvin, that predestination wasn't something just, you know, theologically mental, something that was interesting to think about. It was that predestination showed that a man would never, a true Christian would never lose his faith. That was his pastoral reason for writing on predestination was that a Christian can know that he'll never lose his faith. A true Christian can know he'll never lose his faith. And so predestination for Calvin had an eye toward assurance, comfort. And his idea of providence, which was tied to it, because you'll see when you get to his chapter on it, predestination and providence are tied together. Providence taught that a man will never lose his way, that everything's governed by the Lord. So predestination teaches that A true Christian will never lose his faith, and Providence teaches that a true Christian will never lose his way, his or her way. So, my point in saying that is not to undermine his theology of predestination. It's true, and it's very biblical, and I think we'll see that. But it's to say that that was one of the caricatures he's remembered for, as if that's all he taught. Well, that's not true. The second thing, if you don't remember him for that, you remember him for Savedus. Michael Servetus lived 1509 to 1553. Michael Servetus undermined the deity of Jesus Christ. He was the father of what we call Unitarians today. He denied the Holy Trinity. And he was an outlaw of the Holy Roman Empire. It wasn't just that he died in Geneva. It was that the Pope and the Emperor were looking for him because of his teachings. It's very important to note that, okay? So, he's an outlaw. He visited Geneva early in Calvin's life. And this kind of does a contrast with Calvin's character. Calvin spent time with him trying to persuade him biblically and from the fathers that Jesus was the eternal son of God. He tried to. But Servetus hated him. He hated his guts. And unfortunately, a lot of people hated Calvin for his being honest and truthful about scripture. It's true. And his personality didn't help, you know, that's another thing, you know, because he wasn't all that, I say, as personable as Luther. But Servetus is imprisoned somewhere in the 1540s, and he's imprisoned for his anti-Trinitarian ideas, and he escapes. And the first place he thinks to go is he goes to Geneva. And he shows up during Calvin's sermon and sits in the front row, basically to say, I dare you, And Calvin immediately tells the authorities that Servetus is in town. And the authorities who have the power of the state, remember Calvin is not a citizen of Geneva until 1559. He has no formal power in the government or the state. Let that caricature be gone. That is a historical inaccuracy. That's a lie about Calvin. He had no authority of the state, but he did have the right as a pastor. He should have said that, you know, the outlaw and the The escaped convict is here in our church. And the council was slow to act because everything they were doing, no, not everything, scratch, most everything, a lot of what they were doing was for political expediency. So what does this look like, that we're a reformed city with the villain everybody's looking for, the anti-Trinitarian heretic? Now, we're talking about a different world here, so just go back there. And the city sent letters to Byrne and Strasbourg and asked, what's your advice? Kill him. What's your advice? Kill him. Roman Catholic advice? Kill him. So here you have the council in a place where they need to act as Protestants and as a council that is being judged politically before their peers in other cities. And they determined that Michael Servetus must die. And Calvin went to Servetus privately before this. And he said, I beg of you, went to his prison where he was being imprisoned in Geneva and says, I beg of you, repent of this. This is horrifying. Not only will you be judged here, you'll be judged for all eternity. You have no hope. And he didn't listen. He refused to listen to Calvin. Calvin went back to the council, and he says, whatever authority I have, whatever help I can give, burn this man. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Use the sword on this man. Don't burn him. In other words, make his death as painless as possible, as quick as possible. Don't forget that important truth that's overlooked. Calvin went on his behalf as a kind, gentle mediator to ask that the council would see to it that he would just, if they were going to execute him, that they would do so in the least amount of pain. And when Servetus was burned at the stake, they didn't listen to his advice. When he was burned, he called out to Jesus and specifically, rather than saying the eternal Son of God, he said to the eternal God and distinguish Jesus from that, particularly. So to the moment, to his last words, Servetus is denying the Triune God, he's denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. So how did he get this bad reputation? It's very important that Beza was going to try to write the first biography of Calvin as Calvin's successor and pastor. But unfortunately, there was someone who hated Calvin who got to write the first biography. And it was someone who smeared his name and came up with most of the rumors we know today that live through often histories like the Durant's and continue to persecute the memory of the man, though they're not true. And so, Michael Servetus is oftentimes remembered, you know, he's one of two things Calvin's remembered for in a negative light, and it's that he is on this predestination that taught this God who took away from the will of man, a God who just did what he pleased without any love or kindness, and he was the man who killed Servetus. So Baza's biography is a better one to read. It's more faithful. And other biographies that you read that are faithful to this day will tell you, will help you with that distinction, with the importance of understanding Calvin, I think, even more fairly. But it is, as we close, it's important to remember that, you know, not only did Jesus promise that those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, you know, can rejoice and be glad, But the truth is that sometimes we're persecuted even in our memories afterwards. Someone defames us or harms our memory. And that's happened to Calvin throughout the years. So this is the man Calvin in an overview. It gives us hopefully a bit of a snapshot, gives us a bit of a picture of this man who wrote the Institutes and of the man who we want to remember as a Christian, a pastor, a pilgrim, apostolic, reformed, Catholic, humanist scholar. All right. Next week, we'll do the Institutes as an overview. So bring your book, the Institutes. We're going to look at that together, OK? I need to close, but I want you to have time to have questions. And the way we did it last time was that we would have a question and answer class once in a while. And you also are welcome to send me an email, or you're welcome to call or talk to me after class, OK? So let's pray. I'm praying with Calvin. We're going to pray with Calvin again. Grant almighty God that since it's the principal part of our happiness that in our pilgrimage through this world, there is open to us a familiar access to you by faith in Christ. Oh, grant that we may be able to come with a pure heart into your presence. And when our lips are polluted, oh, purify us by your spirit so that we may not only pray to you with the mouth, but also prove that we do this sincerely without any dissimulations, any hypocrisy. and that we earnestly seek to spend our whole life in glorifying your name. Until being at length gathered into your celestial kingdom, we may be truly and really united to you and be made partakers of that glory which has been brought forth for us by the blood of your only begotten son. And all the church said, Amen.