Church History - Part 3

You are listening to David Paulson podcasts. This is a series of 11 talks covering church history, part three, the Reformation, Martin Luther and the Reformers. Paul's letter to the Galatians chapter 2 verse 15, letter to the Galatians chapter 2 and verse 15. This letter was one of the favourite epistles of Martin Luther and he wrote a very fine commentary on it, which I have found most helpful. Galatians chapter 2 verse 15. We ourselves who are Jews by birth, of course this is Paul writing, who are Jews by birth and not Gentiles sinners, yet who know that a man is justified, not by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law shall know and be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin certainly not. But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so many things in vain, if it really is in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you? Do so by works of the law or by hearing of faith? Thus Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham, and the Scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the Gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, "In thee shall all the nations be blessed." So then those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written. Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law. For he who through faith is righteous shall live, but the Lord is not rest on faith. For he who does then shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And those words meant a great deal, 450 years ago at the time of the Reformation. They just pray. Father we are in your hands very much at a time like this. And we pray that your Holy Spirit may direct my words, and the way I say them, that the truth may not be offensive. And we pray that every mind here may be ready to be challenged, to rethink, to come to that truth, and then to go and speak it in love. And this we ask in Jesus name, Amen. It was of course on the 31st of October 1517, that Martin Luther nailed his 95 propositions or theses for discussion on the church door in Vittenberg, a church door which was used as a notice board to challenge public debate. That's usually considered the date of the beginning of the Reformation, and that's been celebrated this last Tuesday. Some people apparently now think it was November the 1st. Well it was either that hallowed evening of Halloween the day before all Saints day, or it was all Saints day itself. But somewhere during this week 450 years ago that happened. But the date which I think is even more important is a date nearly three years later, June the 15th, 1520, when Martin Luther had a bonfire, which seems appropriate for this evening. And on that bonfire he put three things. He put a parchment on which was the Pope's signature, X communicating him from the church. He put a book entitled Canon Law, which was the book by which he was supposed to live as a monk and as a priest. And he also put a document which he now knew to be forged, a document expressing the claims of the papacy to represent Christ on earth. Now that bonfire was even more significant than the nailing of the paper on the church door for this reason. In those three years Martin Luther had come to ask the right question which he had not asked when he nailed the paper up. When he nailed that paper up he was attacking not the system but its abuse. But by 1520 he was having a bonfire of the system. Let me put it this way. I gather from the bio-elections this week that at least some people in the country are getting a little dissatisfied with the government of this country. Now they must ask is that due to the personalities running the government or is it due to the system of government? Is it due to George Brown and his behaviour or is it due to the socialist policy which lies behind it? Which is wrong is it the whole system itself or is it simply the people who are running it at the moment? That's the big question. And Mr Wilson's action in relation to the House of Law is I think an indication that he thinks it's the system. But nevertheless this is the big question and it's a question that has to be asked in religion and in the church as well as in politics. Is this the system that is wrong or is it a good system that's being run badly by the wrong people? Now when Martin Luther nailed up his thesis he assumed that the system was alright and one of his thesis said this. If the Pope knew how the sellers of indulgence has flayed his flock he would rather some Peter's church were burnt to ashes than that it should be built up out of the skin and bones of his sheep. The poor man was rapidly disillusioned by the Pope himself who when he learned that the money coming in from Germany had dropped to about a third of its former amount, excommunicated this man for causing such a drop in the finance, the Pope would rather have some Peters built on the skin and bones and Luther was wrong and this made him ask is it the system that's wrong? And he came to the conclusion that it was and so Luther had a bonfire in 1520 which really was the break. Before that he was trying to spring clean the church three years later he began to demolish it. Before that he thought all that was needed was reform. Now he saw that very much more was needed than that. Now I want to ask tonight is the reformation a dead issue? Is it out of date and I pray God for holy bodeness in tackling this question fairly and frankly? Let me begin by being frank I attended a meeting which I think has been mentioned here last Sunday with a member of this congregation meeting of local Protestant ministers and members about a fortnight ago. And Muggins who's always opening his mouth and putting his foot in it mentioned the reformation and was informed and know in no uncertain terms that this was more than a gap in such a situation. And that Protestants do not care now for the reformation and that it's a bit of dead history and it's not the dumb thing to bring up the reformation in Protestant circles. That was one meeting I attended I could say much stronger things about it than that for stronger things were said about it than that. But I came away with a flee in my ear for having dead to mention the reformation among Protestants. But last weekend as I told you this morning it was my privilege to go and visit a Roman Catholic seminary for training. priests in Arclough in the southeast corner of Ireland and speak to the tutors and lecturers of that college among other things about the reformation. And they wanted to hear what I thought about it. They wanted to discuss it and they wanted to have an open forum about it. And they asked me, "What do you think?" I said, "Well, I'll tell you what I think. I think the issues that were raised then are still alive and that they have not been settled yet." And they said, "That's exactly what we think too." And we had a most friendly discussion, finished with a nice tea and I came home. But we had three hours talking together. It's an extraordinary position when I can talk about the reformation to Roman Catholics, but I can't talk about it to Protestants. And that's a hint as to the ultimate answer I want to give to this question, "Is the reformation a dead bit of history? Is it out of date? My answer in a nutshell it is not out of date. But since we are not fighting people but principles, we must identify where the battle line is and the front line is now very differently drawn to the days in which Martin Luther lived." Now, let me say that during those three years, Martin Luther was a man who had come to get his priorities right. And there are seven priorities, don't worry, I'm getting through them very quickly tonight, but there are seven priorities that he got right. And things that were in second place that he got in first place. And I want to say that I believe every Christian today needs to get these priorities right, just as much as he did. Now here's the first. Luther got this first priority right. He put conscience before authority. And the world has always been changed and led by men who put conscience before authority. The world is not led by jellyfish who have no backbone and drift with the tide. The world is ever led by men who have the courage of their convictions and who when a thing is wrong, dare to say so, and to say so clearly and firmly and lovingly. And Martin Luther was such a man. Now it's difficult for us who live in a society in which freedom of conscience is taken for granted to realize what it's like to live in a country where it is not, where you're not able to believe what your conscience tells you. Here's a cutting-handed tummage just before this service. A document made public here in Geneva today alleges that more than 200 dissidents, Soviet Baptists are in jail or awaiting trial for infringing Russia's strict laws on religion. The document was smuggled from Russia to Sweden. It said that one person had died after torture and that children had been questioned for hours about their parents' religious activity. That's from this week's papers. You don't know what it is to live in a country where you're not allowed to believe and to hold the religion that your conscience tells you, yet perhaps half the world is living under those conditions in what we call a totalitarian state in which the state claims a total or a totalitarian control of men over their minds as well as their bodies. The right of free speech we take for granted and we're rather amused at Hyde Park Corner. But what we need to remember is this, Martin Luther was brought up in a world in which people were not allowed to think as freely as their conscience would dictate. It was beginning to crack open, but if you want to know the kind of world in which he was brought up, study the tragic story of Galileo. And Galileo, through his telescope, discovered things about the universe which the church said you must not believe that. And you must not teach that. We will tell you what is true about the universe. It was not a world in which a state said this, it was a world in which the church said this, this is what you believe, this is how you behave. And Martin Luther stands as a giant of a man because he was one of those who said, "My conscience, I put above all the authority that is brought to bear upon me." You remember the words that came out in the film if you were here last Sunday? Here I stand. I can do no other, so help me God our men. But what precedes those words? Do you remember what he said? He said, "It is not a safe, nor honest to go against one's conscience." Here was a man who put his conscience first. And the world still needs men who will put their conscience before every kind of social pressure. His little tract on Christian liberty reveals more than anything else, his belief in the freedom of a man to follow his own conscience in matters of religion and belief, a freedom that you take for granted and which I presume to enjoy, but a freedom which the majority of the human race still do not enjoy. Even non-conformist today seem to conform. This so easily led, we're so easily put under pressure, young people who are against the establishment watched and they conform to each other so easily. What we want are true non-conformists who say, "Here I stand, I don't care what pressure is brought to bear upon me, this is right." And I will do it whatever anybody else thinks or says or does to me. Here I stand, Martin Luther was a man who put conscience before authority and every other kind of pressure brought to bear upon him. Now the second priority that he got right, conscience is a fickle thing and conscience could lead you astray unless you got the second priority right. Here is the second priority. Martin Luther was a man who put truth before unity. His conscience wasn't free to follow any whim or desire or capricious affection of his own heart. His conscience was captive, he said. My conscience is captive to the word of God and when he said that he was putting truth before unity. Now do you realize that in Western Europe for nine or a thousand years they had only been one major denomination, one church and one of the charges made against Martin Luther and made frequently in the last ten years has been this. Martin Luther was guilty of the crime of splitting the church. He was a systematic and it was the worst thing he ever did that he divided the church of Jesus Christ and people are saying this today more than they've ever done. I want to praise Martin Luther tonight for putting truth before unity and for saying there is one thing even more important than holding a church together and it's truth. And he realized this that what saves men and women is not the unity of the church but the truth of the gospel. That's what he was realizing. And that even if you unite all the churches tomorrow that will not increase. The number of people who get saved, what is really neat is the truth of the gospel being preached in those churches. In other words, truth comes before unity. Now may I say that we are desperately needing this today, desperately. For the one catch word is unity, the bandwagon on which if you don't climb you will be extremely unpopular is unity. And this is the cry of a world which is shrinking because of its transport and expanding in population. We know now that we've got to learn to live together. Politically, commercially and in other ways unity is the cry of our era and the church seems to have picked up the echo of this cry and is crying unity, unity, unity. And I want to say very forcefully that I think the day our day is crying out for men and women who will put truth before unity and say we will have unity on one basis and that is the truth of the gospel. Even that we want as much unity as possible, but not given that we are not interested in unity. That was Martin Luther's position. And they said, look, you're going to split a church that's been won for a thousand years, don't you feel this? They said, "Requend and leave the church intact if you go on like this, you'll break it." And Martin Luther said that he was captive to the word of God and that truth came first. The truth of the gospel was even more important than the unity of the church. So my mind that is what is needed today, five hundred years later, when there is a tremendous cry for unity. I believe at the expense of truth. What is truth? Well, that comes to our third priority. Where do you find the truth? How do you know that he has it or you have it or the other person has it? Where is this truth on which we can build our unity? Martin Luther's third priority was this. He puts Scripture before tradition. It may surprise you to know that Martin Luther was twenty years old before he got a Bible to read. He was brought up a devout church member and he was prepared for a holy life and yet he was twenty years of age before he ever saw that book and read it for himself. And when he read it, he discovered to his astonishment that much of what he had been told was a vital part of Christian belief and behavior was not to be found in that book. He searched it through and through and he thought there is nothing here about praying to Mary. There is nothing here about praying to saints. There is nothing here about relics and images. There is nothing here about pergatory. There is nothing here about penance and so he went on. And so he began to ask where did all these other things come from? And he was told the official answer. all the best. tradition of the Church, which is as much the word of God as that book. Now he was faced with a dilemma here. He was faced with two words of God, one written and the other spoken, one called Scripture, the other called tradition, and Martin Luther faced those two and he was told, "Both are the truth and you must accept both." But Martin Luther came through to the position where he said, "That is the truth and every tradition of every church there has ever been must be brought to the touchstone of this truth and tested by it." And when he did that, he began to throw out tradition. Now we are all creatures of tradition. This church has its traditions. If you want to know what they are, ask me afterwards. We have unscriptural traditions in this church. Every church develops its tradition, which is faithfully passed on to the new members, assuming that it's got the same sanction as everything else we do in this church. But it's not. And even the tradition of this church, should I say even even? No, I shouldn't say that at all. The traditions of this church must always be put under the word of God, scripture before tradition. We desperately need this today because I do believe we do need changes in our churches in every other church and the changes are to be governed by this. What does the word of God say about it? That is the constitution of this church and every church that there's to name itself after Christ. And it is by that scripture that we test all our tradition. I met a man recently known to some of you here, his name, Eduardo Lobenki. He's a man who until recently was the lecturer in new testament theology in a college in Rome, which trained the cream of the priests of Rome, the Jesuits. And that man had been a Roman missionary in Salon, where he'd slipped into a Pentecostal church, which had made him begin to think. And he came back to Rome, taught the New Testament, but they came at time when just as Martin Luther, 450 years ago, as Martin Luther was also a professor of theology. When that man studying the scriptures came to the conclusion that he could no longer teach students, the things were the word of God and the very truth that were not in this book. And that man taught himself out of that job. He's now training evangelists or should be very soon in Rome to go out all over Italy. And I met that man and it was this book that had done it. And he'd come to the same position, scripture before tradition. And every tradition we have must be tested by the truth of God's holy word. We need men who get that priority right. The British Council of Church is in notting a meyer or two ago, said that we can sort this question out from within a united church. And I was thrilled when the Baptist union alone among the denominations of England wrote back and said, "No, we must sort it out first." And then unite. And that is putting truth before unity and that is putting scripture before tradition. We'll never get anywhere if we're trying to unite traditions. They're too different, they're too mixed, but when we say scripture first, and our traditions very much second, then I think we shall get somewhere. Now the fourth priority that Martin Luther rescued for us was this. He put faith before works. Faith before works. Now the biggest question you can ever ask is this, how do I get right with God? How do I get forgiveness of my sins? If you've never been troubled about the question of how you get forgiveness, however do you hope to face God? Now Martin Luther nearly lost his life in a thunderstorm. And it made him afraid to die. It made him afraid to face God because he hadn't got his sins forgiven. And he tried desperately to find his way through to that. It was a real issue to Martin Luther. And it's a real issue to everyone here, for we've all got to die. And after that the judgment. Now how do you get forgiveness? When John Tetzel came round selling it in indulgence as Martin Luther was quite sure that was not the way. And he said, "You cannot buy forgiveness. You cannot buy forgiveness." But then he went on and took another step and realized this. If you can't buy forgiveness, you cannot earn it either. Now I don't think there's a person in this church would ever dream of saying that you can buy with money the forgiveness of God. I honestly don't think there is. But I wonder if there's someone who still thinks they can earn it. I know there are hundreds of people in this community who think they can. They told me. They say, "Well, I never done anybody any harm and I've tried to do some good." And if you ask why do you say that? It's because they hope they've earned their way to heaven. Now if you ask the world how you get saved and get to heaven, they'll say, "You do good deeds." If you ask the church of Martin Luther's day, they would say, "No, that's not enough. You need two things. You need to believe and you need to do good deeds." And if you ask Martin Luther the question, he would say, "No, only one thing. You need to believe." Now there are the three answers. And all religion comes under one of those three heads. And Christianity comes under the third. Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. Now Martin Luther got that priority right. Faith. You're not saved by a mixture of faith and good deeds and you're certainly not saved by good deeds because frankly there is not a person in the world who can ever do enough good deeds. But the manifesto of the Reformation which came out of the Old Testament into the New and from there into Martin Luther was this, "The just shall live by faith." That's the manifesto. Not by good deeds, not by faith and good deeds but by faith. Full stop. And this Latin text, "Solar Fiddi," which means faith alone, became the great banner of the Reformation. Faith alone. A man believes and goes to heaven. Now at this point someone will say, "Well surely good deeds have something to do with the Christian life." Yes, they have. And Martin Luther realized that. And this is how he put it. And I don't think it can be put better. We are saved not by good deeds but for good deeds. There it is in a nutshell. You don't do good deeds in order to get to heaven. You do good deeds because you are going to heaven. And that's a completely different world and a completely different way of thinking. So Martin Luther had his place for good deeds but it was not to earn forgiveness. It was not to get to heaven. It was to express the faith that had opened the kingdom of heaven as it does to all believers. Now he got his priority right, faith before works. Has that issue become dead far from it? You stop anybody in the street and say, "You hope to get to heaven if there is a heaven." And how do you hope to get there? And you'll find that this is as live an issue as it was then. And you'll find that the world's answer is do good deeds. Be kind to your neighbor. Help those of suffer. Now our Lord told us to do that but He didn't say that's how you earn your forgiveness. He didn't say that's how you get to heaven. But the tragedy is that in our day as in Luther's day there are preachers in churches who are saying that it's a mixture of faith plus works. And one of the last publications from our now defunct Baptist press was a Theologians book saying just that that if we could agree with that we could reunite with Rome that we are saved by faith plus works. I think Lutheran still needed Luther where are you? Will you come and preach the just shall live by faith alone? We are justified by faith and have peace with God. Martin Luther God is priorities right. We're not saved by good deeds, we're saved for good deeds. The next priority that he got right was this. He got grace before the sacraments. He put grace before sacraments. Now let me go back to his day. He was brought up to believe that there were seven sacraments. Mind you there had been 14 but they were coming down in number by his day and there were now seven. And he was told that everybody needs the grace of God and that if you want that the grace of God has been passled up in the sacraments and if you take the sacraments you get the grace and the view had come to be held that a sacrament works automatically regardless of who administers it or who receives it because the grace of God is in it. And so there was a magic view of baptism that baptism performed on a baby who didn't know a thing about it by a priest of mixed characters saved that baby from damnation. Furthermore it was believed that bread and wine when used in Christian worship magically changed at a certain point in the service and became the body and actual blood of Jesus which were then offered as a sacrifice not on a table but on an altar by a priest to God and the body and blood of Christ was being offered as a sacrifice and you take that or at least you weren't allowed to take the cup if you got the wafer then magically, automatically the grace of God came into your life. Now Martin Luther thought that through and he said I can't believe it. I know that I need the grace of God but there is nothing in this book to tell me that that grace is wrapped up in sacraments which operate automatically. And he began to realize that without faith the sacraments are no use. That without faith there is no grace. That by grace I you say it through faith, not through sacraments, but through faith. Is that emphasis and priority needed today? May I say this? I believe that one thing that keeps thousands of our fellow countrymen away from Christ is that they honestly believe that their Christians save them and made them a Christian. Such superstitious and magical views as were held of the sacraments in the Middle Ages are not yet dead. I have still met women who wouldn't go out shopping until they'd had their baby done. Such superstition is not yet dead, even now 450 years after the Reformation. You will still find magical notions. May I say this, if you do not come with faith to this table tonight, there's no grace for you in this, no grace at all. Indeed, there could be worse than no grace at all. There could be judgment for you. Grace isn't parceled up in sacraments. Grace is flowing like a river. It flows free. And the simplest believer who has never been baptized and doesn't have the Lord's supper yet knows the grace of God. Otherwise, I would have to believe that hundreds of my friends in the Salvation Army knew nothing of the grace of God, because they have no sacraments. But I know that they have grace. They're always singing about it and they threw to know that they have the grace of God. Grace is not parceled up in the sacraments, but to those who've been leave in God, then the sacraments come in. Only two of them said Martin Luther that the Lord Jesus gave you baptism and the Lord's supper. Mind you to be quite fair, Martin Luther never thought this right through to its logical conclusion. And he got a little mix-stap over both baptism and the Lord's supper, as his closest friends would have to admit. But what he did was this. He got the priority right, grace before sacraments. Find the grace of God and the sacraments mean something. Now the next priority number six is that he put the people before the priests. Now he was born into a church of a particular character. I'm going to use this little blackboard for a little diagram. He was born into a church that was a pyramid and away at the bottom here were the people. And the top part and they were divided very rigidly was composed of priests. But then there was a hierarchy, a pyramid of power within that. A way up here was the pope. At the top of the pyramid, then you had the cardinals. Write down through the various orders of monks. Write down to the parish priest. But the point is this, he came to a church that was divided into two sorts of people, quite rigidly. Even the churches in which they worship were divided and everybody one end was a priest and everybody the other end was a people. And everybody one end wore Roman togas now called sepulses but everybody one end wore special dress and everybody the other end wore ordinary dress. And there was this clear division right through the church, clergy, laity, priests, people. And then as he looked at the priest, he saw this pyramid of power heading up like that higher and higher. And he looked at it all. And this is what he said, he said, I'm going to begin at the top. What justification is there for one man at the top like that? None. He came down a bit. He said, what justification is there for bishops? And he said none. And he came down further and he said, priests, what justification is there for priests in the scripture? And if you were here this morning for the Bible study, you'll know what his answer was. None. And he finally came to the most incredible but wonderful rediscovery of what he called the priesthood of all believers. And he made all the people priests and all the priests people. And he saw that in fact there was absolutely no division between them whatsoever. He saw that there were differences of function in the church, but he saw these differences of function as only that and no more as the different functions of people of organs within the body. And so he called the ministers, those who minister to the body. But he said they're not priests. Every believer is a priest. Now that was revolutionary. To say that there is no priesthood within the Christian church, but only people who are priests was revolution. And this is why though at the beginning of his life as a Roman Catholic professor of theology, he taught the Bible in Latin to priests. Three years later he was translating that book into common vulgar German to give it to the people. Luther was a man of the people by heredity, by environment. He was born of a poor minor, but Luther was a man of the people above all by Christian conviction. And he said it's the people who should have the Bible, not the priests. And so he said, I'm going to give this Bible in the German language to the people in such a way that are made sweeping a room with a broom. Knows more of this than the priest. And he did that. And he gave them the Bible in their own language. He was seeking to help the people to be priests. And that's a discovery, a rediscovery of a new testament position in which there are no priests except every believer, which we were talking about this morning. Is that protest out of date? May I say this that two thirds of the professing Christians of the world still live under priesthood and hierarchical control. And the protest is still desperately needed. Let's break down this division between clergy and laity, priest and people. It is not a scriptural one. We are all ministers, we are all members, we are all priests, we are all the people. And the word laity means people of God. And we are all the laity and we're all the priesthood and we're all in Christ. And so he thought in terms of a church that's composed entirely of people, entirely of priests with no division and no pyramid of power. And I would say again that that is desperately needed today. My final point is this number seven. Martin Luther got this seventh priority right in his thinking. He brought Christ before the church, the head before the body. And this was the big crunch. This was the big question. And these tutors, I remember last Saturday afternoon, the tutor in church history said, "What do you think was the biggest issue in the reformation?" And I told him this, near Greek. I said it was that Martin Luther challenged the idea that Christ and the church were one. He challenged the idea that the church could do for people what Christ can do for them. He challenged the very notion that the church is Christ and that the body now fulfills the functions of the head. Now let me explain what I mean, though I've explained before in a previous Sunday evening. I need a prophet to tell me infallibly the word and the truth of God. Who is my prophet? The head or the body? Martin Luther said the head is my infallible teacher. And the Romans said no, the body is the infallible teacher. And it is this more than anything which still divides us, the belief in the infallible church. I need a priest to come to God. Who is my priest? The reformer said Jesus Christ the head is my priest and I need no other to come to God. And we still believe that and you can come to God at any time through Jesus Christ. If you've got sins to confess, go to your priest in heaven and confess them. But the Romans said the church which is his body is my priest and I must confess my sins to the body. I need a king to reign over me and tell me what to do and control my behavior. Who is my king? The answer of the Protestant is the king is my head in heaven. The answer of the Roman is the body of Christ on earth is king and must reign. Now this is the big difference. And Martin Luther saw straight through it and he dared to call the papacy anti Christ. Now let's just realize what he meant by that because what he said was absolutely true. He didn't mean that the pope was against Jesus. He wasn't. The world anti doesn't mean against. It does in modern English but it didn't then and it doesn't in the New Testament. It means instead of anyone who puts himself instead of Christ is anti Christ and Martin Luther accused the Roman church of being anti Christ on this ground. He said it's to Christ that we must go and you've said you must come through us. You are putting yourself in the place of Christ. The body is replacing the head. Now at this point they came back on him with a very important statement. They said are but when the head is in heaven and somebody on earth wants to come haven't they got to come through the body and therefore is not the head of the body on earth listen carefully Christ's Vicar. Vicar and the word Vicar means someone who is in the place of another. Vicarious means to be a replacement for someone else. Surely they said Christ has got to convey from heaven to earth his teaching. How does he do it? Through his vicar who is the papal successor in Rome. And Martin Luther thought that one through and he came to this scriptural conclusion. Yes, Christ must have a vicar on earth to speak for him and that vicar is the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost speaks to people on Christ behalf. May I sum up this point by saying this. Martin Luther was virtually saying and anybody who accepts the New Testament must say, "I will have no priest but Christ and no vicar but the Holy Ghost." That's what he was saying. No priest but Christ and no vicar but the Holy Ghost. And that's the Reformation priority. Christ the head is the one who saves. I can't save you. Go till Baptist Church can't save you. If you want forgiveness of sins, I can't give it to you. Neither can this church. That's why you won't see a confession box around the walls. You must go to the priest to whom we went. And you must go because the same vicar who has spoken to us spoke to you. And that vicar was the Holy Ghost and that priest is Jesus Christ. And men on earth, sinners on earth, guided by the vicar of the Holy Ghost can go to the priest in heaven and confess their sins and find forgiveness. Is that not needed today? Is that protest a bit of dead history? Or is it still needed? Is the battle over? No. Then where is the front line drawn? And I say with all honesty now and with pain in my heart, the front line is no longer between Protestants and Roman Catholics. That's why those who only fire in one direction are out of date. The tragedy is that scores and scores of Protestants have got their priorities wrong over the last 100 years. And the battle is now between evangelicals on the one hand and many Protestants and Roman Catholics and the other. And I'm giving you there the considered judgment of a French professor who has recently published a book, The Hears of the Reformation and in that book he says this, a book published by the student Christian movement in this country if you want it. And he says in that book this, who are the true heirs of Martin Luther? The Protestants of today know about the evangelicals who put Scripture above everything else and who put Jesus Christ above everyone else. That's where the battle is being fought and it's going to be a very difficult battle. And it calls for men and women who will still say, "Here I stand and I can do no other." But may I say two things in closing first, we are not fighting people. I'm not against Roman Catholics and I'm not against Protestants. I'm against Isms. I'm against systems. I want to love people whoever they are. And I found a love in my heart last weekend for those tutors I was talking to as people. As people one wanted for the Lord, as people you wanted to have the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. I found a love in my heart for them. But I hate the system that blinds men to the truth. And I pray for a righteous indignation that is as courageous in this day as Martin Luther was in his. And the other thing that I want to say is this because I'm sure many of you are asking it, "Why fight? Why fight in a day when people want to be together? Why argue about these things? Surely it's doctrinal quibbling. Why not all come together after all we worship the same God? Why fight in a day when people want tolerance more than truth? In a day when everybody is so friendly and comes together, why go on fighting? This is an anachronism, this is obscurantism, this is going back to the dark ages. Why fight? I'll answer that one. Why fight because the salvation of souls is at stake? That's why. Because if you tell a man that baptism saves him you dammit. Because if you tell a man that if he does good works, he'll get to heaven, you're sending him straight to hell. Because this is the truth of God and no other. That's why. And because even nice though it would be to get together on earth with people of any and every unknowable view of God, nice as it would be, it's the next world we've got to live in for eternity. And it's the God of Jesus Christ we've got to meet. And it's the God who sent Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sins to be the only priest we need. And to bring us at last to heaven saved by His precious blood, it's that Jesus that we preach. The salvation of immortal souls is at stake. Is that worth fighting for? Or would you rather have it on your conscience that for the sake of peace you allowed people to say and to do and to think things that caused hundreds to go the wrong way into eternity? That's the issue. Praise God for Martin Luther. Praise God for his honesty. Praise God for his courage to stand alone for what he knew was right and true. And pray God that he will yet raise up more men. Who in love will declare the truth and say, "Here I stand, I can do no other to go against conscience is neither safe nor honest. My conscience is captive to the word of God. And therefore I put conscience before authority." And what was my second? I put truth before unity. And I put Scripture before tradition. And I put faith before works. And I put grace before sacraments. And I put people before priests. And indeed make them priests. And I put Christ before the church and anything and everyone else. That is ultimately the issue. Martin Luther upheld Christ and got people's eyes away from everyone else because at the beginning of his experience he'd had his eyes on too many people. He'd prayed to saints three every day, 21 different saints a week. He'd prayed to Mary. He'd gone pilgrimages and looked at relics and images. He'd done all this, all this. And then he saw that none of it had brought him assurance of forgiveness of his sins. And when later he was talking to his saintly superior, Von Staubitz. And Von Staubitz said to Martin Luther, "If you take away all these things which you call crutches to a touching faith, if you take away, Mary, if you take away the saints, if you take away images, if you take away penance and pilgrimages, if you take away all this, what will you put in their place?" Do you remember the answer of Martin Luther in the film? Jesus Christ. Man only needs Jesus Christ. When we say that and say it clearly, then people will be saved for they look at him. Let us pray. Oh Lord Jesus Christ, you are our only prophet, bringing to us the truth. You are the only priest we have and the only one we need, the only one we want. You bring us to God. And you are our only king and we acknowledge now our allegiance and pray that you will reign over us. Lord Jesus Christ, may we uphold you. May we preach you. May you be the centre of our affection, the centre of our faith, the ground of our hope and the inspiration of our life. May you be the fullness of the church. And may men look to you for salvation and not to us. Trust in you as Savior and follow you as Lord. Until we all are gathered together and see you face to face in glory for your namesake. Amen. You have been listening to David Porson. Other talks by David Porson can be found and downloaded free of charge by visiting www.DavidPorson.co.uk.