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1 Timothy 6:12, Fight the good fight of faith.
Tomorrow, October 31, is not only Hallow Eve, but more importantly the 505th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg chapel door. He was simply inviting other scholars to debate his concerns about the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church, especially because John Tetzel was selling indulgences promising the German peasants, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” Little did he know that these theses would spark the greatest history-changing movement of all time: the great Protestant Reformation. Around the same time while he was diligently studying Paul’s words “the just shall live by faith” in Romans 1:16-17, God opened his eyes to understand the liberating truth of justification by faith alone. That word “alone,” as seen on the banner in the entrance to our church, is the one word that stirred up the trouble between Luther and the church. Rome believed in justification by faith, but not faith alone. They added works to faith. But Luther preached justification by faith alone and that changed everything.
OUR CONNECTION TO THE REFORMATION
But how is EBC connected to the Reformation? Apart from God’s sovereign plan, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the Reformation. Martyn Lloyd Jones insisted, “It is no exaggeration to say that the Protestant Reformation changed and turned the entire course of history.” Then he adds, “How did the United States of America ever come into being? It would never have come into being were it not for the Protestant Reformation.” As you well know, the United States began as a Republic, not as a Monarchy. Some of the blessings stemming from the Reformation include political liberty, economic liberty known as capitalism, intellectual liberty where everyone learns to read, and spiritual liberty. Instead of being enslaved to the church, we have been justified by faith alone and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, today the enemy and the forces of evil are overturning and destroying these principles of political and moral freedom on which our great nation was founded.
But what about EBC as a church? It all started in the first century with Christ, His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and then the apostles as they preached the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. This was the great fountain that poured out as a flood into those early centuries bringing the message of salvation to the world. But within several hundred years that mighty stream went underground as the church was devoured by the world and Rome came to dominate western Christianity. Though the gospel nearly disappeared, throughout the middle ages God had His people such as the Waldensians in the 1100 and 1200s who drank from the grace of God in the gospel. But those poor Waldensians dwelling along the southern slopes of the Alps on the border of France and Italy were horribly persecuted and martyred as heretics by the church of Rome.
Greatly simplifying history here, toward the end of the Middle Ages came the Renaissance, which brought the rebirth of learning, but also the unspeakable moral corruption of the Papacy. God began stirring things up through men like John Wycliffe in England, John Hus in Bohemia, and Savonarola in Florence. They are called the “Pre-Reformers.” The Catholic Church considered them as heretics. Wycliffe died in 1385, but in 1428 they dug up his bones and burned them and threw his ashes into the River Swift. In 1415 they burned Hus in Constance, Germany, and in 1498 they hanged and burned Savonarola in Florence, Italy.
In the early 1500s this gospel stream gushed forth in the recovery of the true gospel with Martin Luther leading the way. First, he attacked the corruption in the church in his 95 theses in 1517. Then when he discovered and began preaching justification by faith alone, the gushing gospel stream coursed throughout Europe, over to France and Switzerland with Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, up to the Netherlands, over into England, up to Scotland with John Knox, lighting up the Puritans in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and then across that vast ocean into the new world in New England. Through many difficulties and setbacks, the gospel of justification by faith alone gripped preachers and missionaries. The great early universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were founded reflecting Reformation teaching. The gushing stream of the gospel was made known through the flaming evangelist George Whitefield, known as the spiritual father of America (80% of the colonists heard him at least once), and down to our own time right here at Weinbach and Bayard Park Drive in Evansville as we drink from the same stream of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, based on the Bible alone, to the glory of God alone.
THE REFORMATION’S FOUR RADICAL CHANGES
Luther and the Reformers held to four radical changes that completely opposed the Roman Catholic teaching, changes we hold dear today.
AUTHORITY – The Reformers believed in the exclusive authority of the Old and New Testaments. The Roman Catholics believed the Bible and church traditions had equal authority. Luther forcefully rejected the authority of popes and councils. Standing before both church and state at the Diet of Worms in 1521 he declared, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God…. Here I stand. May God help me. Amen.”
SALVATION – The Reformers held justification by faith alone and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the sinner’s account as precious truths. Rome taught justification was by faith plus keeping the sacraments of the church and good deeds. Rome taught that the church dispensed the grace of God. No, God’s grace is given by Him alone; we go directly to God through Jesus Christ. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)
FREEDOM – The Reformers taught the universal priesthood of the believer with direct access to God as opposed to Rome’s special priesthood ordained by the church with the power to dispense the sacraments necessary for salvation. This is called “sacerdotalism.” Rome taught that the priest mediates between God and man and has the authority to dispense the grace of the sacraments – infant baptism, confirmation, penance, the mass, holy orders, marriage, and last rites. First Peter 2:9 says believers in Christ are a royal priesthood; no longer were people dependent on the church. These radical changes cut the chains that bound everyone to the church for salvation, from baptism to last rites.
VOCATION – Luther strongly insisted that every vocation was a sacred calling. No longer did you have to be a priest or monk to be used by God. He said God milks cows and uses the milkmaid to do it. God fixes cars and uses the Christian mechanic to do so. Every believer is called by God to serve Him in any legitimate calling. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for man.”
These radical changes of the Reformation brought about great upheaval, turmoil, persecution, and martyrdom in the 1500s. These were the hills on which godly men and women died. Richard Hannula’s book Heralds of the Reformation covers thirty Reformation figures from all over Europe, England, and Scotland, as well as a chapter on the Waldensians. The amazing thing is how many believers in every area were tortured, hung and/or burned. On the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of August 24, 1572, thousands of French Protestants called Huguenots were slaughtered in Paris and throughout France. They murdered the leader, Gaspard de Coligny, cut off his head and sent it to the pope, and then dragged his body through the streets of Paris for three days.
Another group called the Anabaptists came along and based on the New Testament said the Reformers like Zwingli didn’t go far enough in breaking from Rome. They said the Bible clearly teaches believer’s baptism (so do we). So, when they became believers, they were rebaptized, which is what “Anabaptist” means. They also believed in the separation of church and state. Sadly, many of the Protestants at that time thought the Anabaptists were heretical and tortured, burned, and drowned many of them.
EVANSVILLE BIBLE CHURCH IN THE STREAM OF REFORMATION TRUTH
Nothing begins in a vacuum. Evansville Bible Church didn’t either. This gospel stream that began with Christ and the apostles flowed strongly, sometimes underground, revived through the Reformation, and coursed down through the centuries to our times. We can summarize the six centuries since Martin Luther like this:
1500s – The Reformation and rediscovery of the gospel.
1600s – The Puritans and the influence of Reformation truth all the way to the New World.
1700s – Awakeners like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards.
1800s – Preachers and missionaries like Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, William Carey and John Patton.
1900s – Fighters for the Bible and Reformed theology: John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
2000s – The Builders by expository preaching and exposing false teaching for the purity of the gospel. Rejecting Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, and Gender Lies gaining a foothold in churches.
IDENTIFYING WITH THE REFORMATION MEANS FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
1 Timothy 6:12, Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Luther made war on the corruption of the Roman church, beginning with the sale of indulgences and then against the whole Roman system. In 1529 at Speyer, Germany, the Emperor Charles V demanded German princes to submit to the papal yoke of Rome. They “protested” and hence we have the title “Protestants.” We fight the good fight of faith against all liberalism, all attacks on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, all weakening of the gospel message, all rejections of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, based on the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone. We expose false teachings and practices.
The Reformers also fought against Arminianism that denied the sovereignty of God and made salvation depend on the free will of man. We fight the good fight of faith that exalts the sovereignty of God in every step of salvation, giving Him all the glory and humbling man in his sin, who totally dependent on God for salvation. At the Synod of Dordt in 1618-19, Reformed theologians met to refute the five points of the Arminians, known as the Remonstrance. This is the origin of the famous TULIP acrostic, which was an effort to capture the essence of Reformed teaching on salvation. As a church we hold to these five points of salvation doctrine.
TOTAL DEPRAVITY – We clearly teach the total depravity of man. There is nothing in man to earn or even move his will toward God. Sin has affected every area of our being and we are dead in our sins.
Ephesians 2:1, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION – We clearly teach that God graciously chose a vast number of sinners in eternity past to be His people based purely on His sovereign love and will.
Ephesians 1:4, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
LIMITED ATONEMENT – We clearly teach that God sent His Son, our Lord Jesus, to earth to redeem and pay for the sins, take the curse, endure the wrath of God specifically, definitely, actually for all those whom God chose in eternity past to be saved.
Matthew 1:21, She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.
Ephesians 5:25, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
IRRESISTIBLE GRACE – We clearly teach that God calls and draws every one of the sinners He chose to be His through the proclamation of the gospel. Since no man knows who the elect or chosen ones are, the gospel is freely preached to all people and all people are called to repent and believe the gospel. We fully believe and teach that God will irresistibly draw and regenerate His elect through the preaching of the gospel and the regenerating power of the Spirit. We teach and believe that no man has the capacity to believe in Christ on His own, that when Christ died on that cross for sinners, He purchased with his blood the gift of faith as well as the forgiveness of their sins.
1 Corinthians 1:9, God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
PERSEVERANCE – We clearly teach that every person God chose and for whom Christ died and whom God regenerates of His own sovereign and free grace will persevere to the end. We will persevere because we are kept by the power of God.
John 6:37, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
1 Peter 1:5, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
REFORMATION PREACHING
One of the great developments in the Reformation that impacts who we are is the place of preaching in our church. When Luther and the Reformers began preaching justification by faith alone and preaching through books of the Bible, the people were ecstatic, electrified, and galvanized by the truth. When they heard they were justified by faith alone and not by doing penance, buying indulgences, going to mass and then living in the dread of thousands or more years suffering the fires of purgatory…that God Almighty accepts believing sinners through faith in Christ alone, they were thrilled.
One fellow named Thomas Platter was so thrilled by Zwingli’s preaching he “felt like he was lifted by his hair and suspended in space.” Before the Reformation, people went to church only to watch a priest perform the mass and speak in Latin, a language most of them did not understand.
Here’s what Calvin said about preaching and preachers: “Let them edify the body of Christ. Let them devastate Satan’s reign. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose, thunder and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the word of God.” Calvin’s first commentary was on the book of Romans.
SO WHAT?
Thank God for His faithful, sovereign work on behalf of His church. Today we celebrate the 505th anniversary of that day of October 31,1517, when Luther posted his 95 theses and then stood on the authority of God’s Word before the greatest powers on earth declaring, “Here I stand!” Today we too must fight the good fight of faith. Today we are in the middle of a great battle for Truth. As Satan and these enemies of God and His truth press hard with their immoral and ungodly agenda, we too must stand on the authority of God’s Word. Thank God for our freedoms, for the privilege of living in this nation, and for being a church so blessed by Reformation teachings.
1 Timothy 6:12, Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.