31st of October is a remarkable day, one of the most important days of the Christian calendar. Tonight, most of the nation are involved in pagan spookery. Halloween. But today marks a memorable day in the history of the Christian Church. It was on the 31st of October, 1517, that Dr. Martin Luther, nailed 95 theses or propositions on the castle church at Wittenberg in Germany and that was the catalyst that led to the Protestant Reformation and we would not be here were it not for that remarkable day in 1517. So tonight I want us to consider the man Martin Luther and the influence of the gospel on that man. In the 1970s, 71, 72, I got to know Professor James Atkinson. He was then one of the few born-again lecturers in theology in any university in the country. He was Professor of Biblical History and Literature at the University of Sheffield. He contacted me in 1971 and wanted me to do a PhD thesis under his direction. but had already committed myself to going into education, having been rejected for the Methodist ministry because I preached the cross and preached the blood. But I would have loved to have done that course with him, but he remained a friend. His two books on the Reformation, The Great Light, Luther and the Reformation, and The Trial of Luther, are the classic works on Martin Luther, along with all the other articles he wrote. as the world's leading authority on the Reformation and on Martin Luther. He died at the age of 97 in 2011. I've got a copy of the obituary that was in the Times and in the Telegraph. And that obituary said that James Atkinson lived Luther, thought Luther, and breathed Luther. And I would endorse that. And he was he who gave mere desire to read the works of Martin Luther. We are in grave danger of both underestimating and sadly even forgetting the surpassing privilege that is ours in our Protestant heritage. Since Vatican II in the 1960s, many gullible Protestants have dropped their guard Now they imagine that Rome has changed. No, it hasn't. I have here the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church. It was published in 1994. It was compiled by the German Cardinal, Mr Ratzinger, who became the Pope. And nothing has changed. In fact, things have got worse, far worse than it was in Luther's day, if you read this. If people read Vatican II, they would understand why it is that after 700 years, the last three popes have been non-Italian. For 700 years, all the popes have been Italian. Why have the last three not been Italian? Mr. Bocciola from Poland, Mr. Ratzinger from Germany, Mr. Bergoglio from Argentina now. Well, if you read Vatican II, and the attempt of the Roman Church for worldwide domination, you've got the explanation. No, Rome has not changed. Protestant churches by and large did absolutely nothing to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the great stand that Martin Luther took in 1521 at the Reichstag of Worms, the Diet of Worms, when Luther declared, unless I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, for my clear reason, for I do not trust either in the Pope or in councils alone. I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. May God help me. Amen. Protestant churches did nothing in 2017. It might surprise you to learn the Roman Catholic Church certainly did. They actually commemorated the Reformation. The Vatican's philatelic office printed 17 new stamps in 2017. One of the stamps, amazingly, was a stamp celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. There it is. Not only that, they designated a square in Rome opposite the Colosseum and renamed it. What was the name they gave it? Piazzo Martin Lutero. They've named a square opposite the Colosseum after Martin Luther. And further, on the 31st of October 2017, Pope Francis visited the Protestant Cathedral at Lund in southern Sweden, and that marked a year-long commemoration of the Reformation by the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church. That's the details of the street, and that's the Pope celebrating the Reformation. What have we come to? Protestant churches ignored it, forgot all about it. The Roman church certainly didn't, as they tried to rewrite history. As the late Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, the Protestant Reformation is not something to be hidden. It was not done in a corner. It has made itself known in the history of the world ever since. It is something to glory in. It is something to boast of. It changed the entire course of history. We must thank God for his exceeding grace in raising up a man such as Martin Luther. Luther was an outstanding genius. He could have been one of the great musicians of all time, scrupulously honest, filled with amazing strength and courage. He was a great mountain of a man, a volcano, a mountain on fire for the Lord. But above all, he was God's man for God's hour. So in looking at Martin Luther, I want to divide his life into three phases. First of all, from his birth in 1483 through to 1513, and there we see Luther becoming the peasant priest. Martin Luther was born in the Saxon village of Eichelbahn on the 10th of November, 1483. He never forgot his humble background. He said, I am a peasant's son. My father was a peasant, my grandfather a peasant, all my ancestors were genuine peasants. The rough surroundings and the Spartan discipline equipped him with the rapport he was to have with the German lower and middle classes. He was educated at the University of Erfurt, planning to fulfil his father's wish to go into the law profession. But one night in a violent storm, his friend was struck by lightning. In this, Luther believed he saw the hand of an angry God. And in great fear and in gratitude that his own life had been spared, he offered himself in service to God for the rest of his life. In the 15th century, that meant only one thing, entering a monastery. He returned to Erfurt not as a student of law, but now as a monk. At the age of 22, he entered the Augustinian Eremite Monastery on the 17th of July, 1505, believing that his sure and certain hope he would deliver his soul from his present conflict and would gain eternal salvation. In September 1505, he received the tonsure, that is the shaving of the head. Then he took the cowl, the scapula, that black hooded garment that comes down. As a clerical novice, he was taught all the prescribed acts, to go about with eyes downcast, looking at the floor always, never laughing, Never to eat or speak except at prescribed times of the day, and to go into the streets to beg for bread. He was confined in a single cell measuring nine feet by six feet. There was one chair, one table, one candlestick and a straw bed. He ate but twice a day. On fast days he could only eat the once. and there were a hundred fast days a year. He had no heating in his cell, and that was a severe discipline in a German winter. Luther had entered the monastery because he was in great anxiety about the state of his soul. But he found that the spiritual life served only to sharpen his anxiety without allaying that anxiety. He knew he could never be certain of having confessed his sins in their entirety and therefore he could never experience true forgiveness. He was somewhat of a depressive character, melancholic. He was in a morbid state of spiritual wretchedness and misery at this time. Yet in September 1506 he professed the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and in May 1507 he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest. In the autumn of 1508 he was called to the new University of Wittenberg. There he taught Aristotle and the Bible, and he qualified to hold a chair in the university. There was a general desire to reform the Augustinian order in the Catholic Church, to bring the lax houses up to the standard of Erfurt, and Luther was assigned the task of taking the appeal of Erfurt to Rome in 1510. The four weeks Luther spent in Rome turned out to be a time of grave disillusionment. This simple, devout, learned monk, he had hoped for spiritual and pastoral guidance from the Eternal City, the Holy City. All that he found were ignorant priests When he celebrated mass, which he did every day, his slow reverence created a botanic and he was pushed by the mass priests, anxious to gavel through their allotted quota. Passa, passa, passa. Move on, move on, move on. He went to all the pilgrimages available. He crawled on his knees up the 28 steps of the Scala Sancta. What's the Scala Sancta? The Lord climbed up before Pilate. According to the Roman Catholic Church, it made its own way from Jerusalem to Rome, stopping off at Istanbul on the way. He climbed up the steps of the Scala Sanctus, saying a paternoster on each step, and kissing each step most piously. That performance was guaranteed to free the soul At once from purgatory, he was shocked at the immorality of the Romish priests and the conduct of the people who performed their bodily functions in the street like dogs. Upon his return to Erfurt, it was clear to Luther two things. First, Rome had lost the keys of the kingdom. He said, I took onions to Rome and came back with garlic. And that led Luther to reappraise the gospel. The second thing he learned, he learned to stand alone against the majority. Ten years later, Luther defended himself at Worms. And he said, do we not read in the Old Testament that God usually raised up only one prophet at a time? Moses was alone during the exodus from Egypt, Elijah was alone in King Ahab's day, Elisha stood alone, Isaiah was alone in Jerusalem, Hosea alone in Israel, Jeremiah alone in Judea, Ezekiel alone in Babylon and so it went on. Even though they had many disciples called children of the prophets, God never allowed more than one man alone to preach and to rebuke the people. He knew what it was. He learned to stand alone against the majority. John Staubitz was his vicar general and also professor of theology at Wittenberg. He convinced Luther that his mission was to be a doctor of theology and a preacher and therefore he transferred Luther from Erfurt to Wittenberg where he was commissioned in 1512. He was allocated a room which remained his study till his death 34 years later. Professor Atkinson says, it was there on that miserable heap of sand that this unknown scholarly monk lifted Christianity of its hinges and rehung it straight. From Wittenberg, he stormed the papacy. He prepared his lectures for the university and prepared his sermon. Yet still, Luther did not know the glorious light of the gospel of Christ. He knew nothing of transition from the fear of hell and judgment to the rapturous enjoyment of the love of God and peace with God. The seven years of monastic life were years of spiritual darkness for Martin Luther. And that deepened his despair. He had been taught the moment the priest whispered, I now absolve thee, all sins were driven out of the soul. But Luther did not know forgiveness as a real experience for all of that. He turned to all the well-tried means, private flagellation, chastisement, beating himself with rods, with straps. Fastings, vigils, prayers. He tried to propitiate God by going extra, going the further mile. He ruined his health by all this striving. His bones, we are told, stuck out like an old nag's. They hovered over Luther in his helpless plight, the threat of an angry God on the day of judgment. He felt an overpowering fear of God, a trembling awareness of the majesty on high. And so intense was his awareness of the Christ Holy God in all his eternal majesty, and so intense his own frailty and sin, he felt like a moth longing for the flame, but about to be scorched by that desire. Nevertheless, Martin Luther had the hand of God upon him. He had scaled the heights of medieval mysticism, and he had reached the summit, and he found nothing. Like Nicodemus of old, he needed to be born again. Ah, but in the university library at Erfurt, he discovered a complete copy of the Bible. And to his great delight, he made it his chief study. He began to invest all his hopes in the Bible where he would see the harmony between the twin concepts of the wrath of God and the one hand and the love of God in the unity of the gospel of Christ. He heard the word of the Lord and it was that word that he declared. From that moment he became God possessed. He was drawn to the Augustinian view of predestination. seemed to explain his own experience as well as the teaching of the Bible. The Roman Catholic teaching then and now was that the human element is the determining fact in salvation. Augustine taught that salvation is due to an eternal decree and therefore it is infallible. It is an eternal election to eternal life, a choice made in perfect justice, a choice not only to grace but to eternal glory. But Lothar was still in a state of spiritual torture. He grew fatalistic, almost determinist. He felt absolutely impotent to change his fate, decreed from all eternity, unable to know for certain whether he belonged to the elect or to the reprobate. He knew that God was thrice holy. He knew that he himself was a miserable sinner. He knew that he was unable to make himself acceptable to God. His vicar, General Staupitz, who was deeply read in the Bible, sought to turn Luther's mind away from the system of penance to the reality of repentance, to the depth of an inward change and conversion. Stauropitz, for all his faults and inconsistencies, taught Luther to see God in Christ, whom God sent to this world not as a condemning judge, but as a living saviour and redeemer. And yet Stauropitz never really understood the battle raging within the soul of Martin Luther, but he comforted Luther by his kindliness and helped Martin Luther to dwell upon the cross. As Luther turned the Bible, he began to do it alone. He was working on his lectures on the Psalms in the summer of 1513, when that familiar psalm struck him. Psalm 31. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Then these words Deliver me in thy righteousness. These words troubled Luther. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Surely he thought if a righteous God meet with such an unrighteous man as he felt himself so to be, then Luther would be utterly destroyed. He was confused. But then as he prepared his lectures on the epistle of Paul to the Romans, he came across that verse that I ended with in our reading. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written that just shall live by faith. And the Holy Spirit began to reveal to Luther that a man is not justified in God's sight by his own works or merits or pretended righteousness. that by faith in Christ and Christ alone. In other words, it is Christ's work, not ours. That salvation is no longer a case of man and his work, but rather of God and God's work. No longer a matter of man's righteousness. He saw the righteousness of God as a righteousness which reached out for a soul which, if left to its own devices, would be utterly destroyed and lost. And through the study of the epistles of Paul, he was led to see that justification came by faith alone in Christ alone, with no attending merits on man's part, and a profound peace swept over Luther's soul. He wrote, when I realized this, I felt myself absolutely born again. The gates of paradise had flung open and I had entered in. There and then the holy scriptures took on a new look to me. He was a changed man, brought out of the darkness of medieval mysticism into the glorious light and liberty of the gospel of Christ. He had rediscovered that primitive evangelical faith in God as expressed in the scriptures. Luther's soul was saved by an unyielding and uncompromising faith in the Bible as the inspired, the pure, the preserved Word of God. And he wanted every man, every woman, every child to look again with fresh eyes at God's Word for man as recorded in the Bible. Stop listening to the priests, read the Bible. He was aided by his friend and associate Philip Melanchthon, Much later on, as he translated the Bible into the language of the people, it remains a magnificent achievement. His ardent desire was, let the scriptures be put into the hands of everybody. Let everyone interpret them for himself according to the light he has. Let there be private judgment. Let spiritual liberty be revived as in apostolic days. Then only will the people be emancipated from the Middle Ages. and arise in their power and majesty and obey the voice of enlightened conscience and be true to their convictions. I want everyone to read the word of God. Such theology rang the death knell to the sacrificing mass priests and their mediating and their mysterious powers. The call now from Luther was for an educated ministry men who could teach, preach, and minister the treasures of Christ's gospel. Luther's burden from now on was to point men to Christ and the gospel of Christ. He saw countless souls lost and dying for want because they had not heard the saving theology as revealed in the Bible. They had been listening to these ignorant priests. Salvation is not a matter of works. It's solely a matter of grace. Faith is no longer a human achievement or effort, it is a free gift of God in Christ Jesus. It was the word of God and the preaching of that word rather than the sacraments which Luther saw as the chief mission of the church. That's the opening years of his life. I move on to the second phase, a very brief period of his life, 1513 through to 1517. There we see Luther, the preacher and theologian, There were formative years. During those four precious years, he had a very light teaching load of about two lectures a week, but he had other duties. He preached at least three sermons a week. We're living in days when some men find it difficult to preach one sermon a week. He lectured twice a week, he preached three sermons a week at least, and he used every second of those four years to strengthen his theology. so that, as James Atkinson said, when Luther showed his hand in the matter of the indulgent scandal of 1517, it was no zealous youth who had got excited, but a massive man, wearing a great weight of learning, with a known and impeachable life, and of granite integrity, who could hold his peace before God and man no longer. His lectures and disputations delivered during those four quiet years reveal all the basic themes of his later Reformation theology. Universal regulations required him to lecture on the Psalms and the Epistles, and he threw himself wholeheartedly into the tusks. After his monastic duties were performed, he worked long into the night hours, so much so The mice grew impatient, waiting for him to go to bed. To read his lecture notes on the Psalms is to see Luther wrestling with all the great theological ideas that were later to be essential to his theology. He constantly refers to Christ speaking and prophesying in the Psalms. He says, every word of the Bible peels forth the name of Christ. You know, my friends, I've heard sermons preached thirty, thirty-five minutes and the name of Christ has not once been mentioned. That wouldn't be Martin Luther. And it wouldn't be the Apostle Paul either. Justification was ever before his mind. The fact that God shows mercy toward me in itself justifies me. His mercy is my justification. It's often assumed that the Epistle to the Romans was the textbook of the Reformation. But Luther's commentary lay unpublished, unknown, unread for 400 years after the death of Luther. It was only discovered in 1908 and hurriedly published in 1908. He begins his preface, the sum total of this epistle is this, it is to tear down, pull out, destroy all the wisdom and righteousness as man understands them. God does not save us because of our personal and private righteousness and wisdom. He saves us by His righteousness. The same truth about man is revealed only by God. To Martin Luther, the important point is not what man thinks about God, but rather what God thinks about man. He became Theologian would say theocentric, that is God-centred in his theology from that point onwards. He came across that verse in Hebrews, Hebrews 1. I'm preaching through Hebrews in our Bible studies over at Walsh and Llewellyn. Hebrews 1 verse 3, when he had by himself purged It was Christ who purged our sins, not we ourselves, and certainly not the Pope in Rome. To Luther, this one text alone destroyed the Romish myth of purgatory. So we move now to the third phase of Luther's life, from 1517 through to his death in 1546. And there we see Luther, the great reformer. God had appointed a day, not Luther, God had appointed a day in 1517, the 31st of October, that would spark off such a movement as Europe had never seen before, nor since, nor ever shall do. The Lord had chosen the day, and the Lord had prepared the man that would shake Rome to its foundations. Biblical truth would begin to triumph over Roman Catholic heresy. On the 31st of October, 1517, at 9am that morning, this somewhat insignificant monk in a relatively small and obscure German town would nail some 95 written propositions or theses on the castle church gate. That was the notice board in that area. His naive intention was to stimulate discussion amongst the academics in the university. Well, that was his intention. God had other plans. In God's eternal purpose, it was to be the catalyst that would set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the Reformation. Europe would never be the same again. The focal point of Luther's conflict with the papacy revolved around one problem. What is the supreme and final authority in all spiritual matters? Is it the Church? or is it the word of God? Shall the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church exercise sovereign control over men's souls and consciences, or shall the Bible? That was the issue. My friends, if you read that catechism, it is still the issue today. Nothing has changed. Here stands the great divide the mighty watershed that separated and continues to separate historic Roman Catholicism from historic Protestantism. The 95 theses were compiled on the scandal of indulgences. He invited his colleagues to a disputation. You ask, what is an indulgence? Well, it was a certificate signed by the Pope which guaranteed that time in purgatory would be shortened, but you had to purchase these. None of the lecturers went along to the disputation, but the academics, though they regarded them, the people of Wittenberg, the people of Germany, sat up. The common people sat up and they took notice. Thousands of copies were printed. Luther had written far more searching documents than these and said far more disturbing things than these, but oddly enough, for it is by no means a remarkable document, It was a document that caught the imagination of Europe and set Martin Luther on the world stage. Medieval man had a deep concern for the purgings of Pope's purgatory. He believed that if he died forgiven by a priest, he would certainly reach heaven, but first of all, he would have to go to purgatory to purge away all sins that he had ever committed, known or unknown. and linked with that was the so-called Treasury of Merits. The Pope claimed he had a vast reserve of merits built up by Mary, the Saints, treasured in heaven, only available for the Pope to draw on like a private bank account. The Elector Frederick had collected many relics in his castle church. His inventory of 1518 listed no less than 17,443 relics, including the thumb of Saint Anne, a twig from the burning bush, the rod of Moses, which he performed miracles with, a feather of the angel Gabriel's wing, the finger of a cherub, Enoch's slippers, a lock of Mary's hair, a tear which our Lord shed at the grave of Lazarus, the face of a seraph with only part of the nose, part of a nose without the rest of the face. Why did he get some superglue and stick them together? I don't know. Rays of the star that appeared to the wise men, hay from the holy manger, milk from the Virgin Mary, a piece of iron's body, a jar of wine from the wedding of Cana, a thorn from the crown of our Lord, one of the stones that killed Stephen, and some manna from the wilderness contrary to scripture did not breed worms and stink and money was paid to go and venerate these relics in the castle church and if you paid and rendered appropriate devotion to each of these relics you would receive listen get your calculators out you would receive one million nine hundred and two thousand, two hundred and two years, two hundred and seventy days worth of penance. In other words, your time in Purgatory will be shortened by one million, nine hundred and two thousand, two hundred and two years and two hundred and seventy days. Luther had preached sermons against indulgence throughout 1515, 16 and 17. To Luther they were a denial of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. and he attacked the false sense of future security generated by the indulgences. Now, back in Rome, Pope Leo X had plans to build St. Peter's. He had no money to build it. Ah, indulgences. So, more indulgences that will raise the money. And so he appointed a man, an unscrupulous rascal, Tetzel, a Dominican monk. He was placed in charge of selling these indulgences. If you bought an indulgence, your time in purgatory would be shortened. So as part of his sales pitch, he made heart-rendering appeals in the name of the dead, languishing in the agony of purgatory. Here is Tetzel, the dead cry, pity us, pity us. We are in dire torments from which you can redeem us for a pittance. Would you let us lie here in the flames? Would you delay our promised glory?" He went on, as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs. Will you not then, for a mere quarter of a florin, receive these letters of indulgence through which you are able to lead a divine and an immortal soul into the fatherland of paradise? That was his sales pitch. Every town he went in there would be a drummer boy beating the drum, attracting the crowds to buy the indulgences. Luther's response, I'll knock a hole in his drum. He had drawn up his 95 theses for academic disputation. He sent printed copies to his own bishop and archbishop. The documents was nailed on the church door of the Castle Church on the eve of All Saints Day, that is 31st October 1517, the day when the university attended divine service in its official capacity when crowds flocked to venerate these 17,443 relics. I have to say the first reading of those 95 theses is somewhat disappointing. They're anything but the stuff of revolution. They were written for academic discussion, not for public dissemination. No academic came to that discussion. Luther said if people had wanted a book on indulgences, I would have written one. He had written to his bishop explaining the theses, and he told the bishop, the treasure of merits is a figment of the pope's blinded imagination. The church's only treasure is Christ himself. Luther was at pains in these years to prove that contemporary Christianity, that is Roman Catholicism at the time, had departed from New Testament Christianity. He was somewhat naive. He believed that once these matters were pointed out, then the Pope and the Cardinals and all the rest of them would sort things out. How wrong he was. Luther's archbishop reported him to Rome, describing Luther as this rash monk of Wittenberg, Rome ordered Luther's vicar general to go and soothe, quiet the man down. Tetzel, however, in 1518 at Frankfurt on Oder, debated 106 theses against Luther. Luther was reported to Rome for heresy. After some weeks, Luther made a move that was to characterize all his acts. he made a direct appeal to the common man and woman in Germany on the subject of indulgences and grace. His letter to the common people was this. Let none of you procure tickets of indulgence. Leave them to those lazy Christians who are dozing and half asleep. You go right ahead without them. I know nothing about souls being dragged out of purgatory by an indulgence in my Bible. I do not believe it. In spite of the newfangled doctors who say it's there, you cannot prove it to them. On these points, I have no doubt at all. They are not based on scripture. Therefore, I have no doubt about them, regardless of what the scholastic doctors say. I pay no attention to that sort of drivel, for nobody engages on it except a few dunderheads who have never even smelt a Bible nor read any Christian teachers. The touchpad paper was lit. The bishop was alarmed, sent a senior abbot scurrying across Germany to withhold the document from the German people. They were even more alarmed when Luther announced he would walk halfway across Germany to give an account of his theology. He also sent to the printer his explanation and proofs of what he had written. He began to see that the Church of Rome was no longer a church. He says the church then, the New Testament church, was not what it is now. Now it is a hydra, a monster of many heads, an underworld of simony, lust, pomp, murder, and the rest of their wicked abominations. The theology of the cross, he says, has been emptied of its meaning, and all else has been turned upside down. large was the hole that he knocked in Tetzel's drum. The whole elaborate scheme collapsed. Tetzel no longer dare appear on the streets in any German town. The whole affair killed Tetzel. The following year Tetzel lay dying in Leipzig, ignored, rejected, broken and ill. And yet it was Martin Luther, who wrote a letter to Comfort Tetzel, assuring him that he was not the cause of the scandal, but rather its victim. There then followed various trials, beginning on April the 26th, 1518, with the Heidelberg Trial. The Augustinian monks would gather for their three, every three years, Luther set off on foot to walk the 400-mile journey to Heidelberg. Luther was to give an account of his stewardship as vicar to his district vicar. Staupitz asked him to be non-controversial. Be very calm, Luther. Don't say anything controversial. So he said nothing about indulgences, but he dealt with original sin, grace, free will, and faith. It was an ideal audience for Martin Luther. He was a theologian before theologians. He very graciously and firmly handled the themes which had exercised his heart and his soul for the past 10 years, the righteousness of God, sin, grace, justification, and the theology of the cross. He says, it is the sweetest mercy of God. that it is not imaginary sinners, he says, but real sinners. We escape his condemnation because of his mercy and not because of our righteousness. Grace is given to heal the sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes. Theodore Buser was a young monk and he was present. And he said, although our chief men contradict him with all their mind their wiles were not able to make him move one inch from his propositions. His sweetness in answering was remarkable, his patience in listening incomparable, his explanations you would recognize the acumen of a Paul, his answers so brief, so wise, drawn from holy scriptures, easily made all his hearers his admirers. On his return to Wittenberg, Luther concentrated his attack upon those who destroy the authority and all sufficiency of Holy Scripture. He wrote concerning them, I will not put up with it one minute more when they handle Scripture like a cow's sow going at a sack of corn. Every day they invent new kinds of keys. What for? To empty our purses and coffers and then unlock hell and lock up heaven. These men are worse than the Turks at the gate, for they are on the inside. Luther went on to say that the Pope and councils might err, only the Scriptures were infallible. The Dominican order made their move in May 1518. They pressed charges against Luther to Rome. They were handed over to Cardinal Cajetan with a citation that Luther appear in Rome within 60 days. Luther refused to go and said he would be tried in Germany. He continued to preach at Littenberg. Dominican spies listened to every sermon he preached and reported back to Rome what he had said. Luther was declared as a notorious heretic by Cajetan, and Cajetan was ordered to arrest him, and the Elector Frederick was told by the Pope, hand over that son of perdition to Cajetan. In the providence of Almighty God, for all things work together for good to them that love God, the Emperor Maximilian wanted his young nephew, Charles, to succeed him as emperor. Frederick, one of the electors, is courted by Rome on the issue, and as a consequence, Gadgeton received fresh orders to command Luther to appear before him for a gentle, fatherly handling, not a judicial handling. Luther remembered what had happened 100 years before to John Huss. He says, There is only one thing left, my weak and broken body. If they take that away, oh, they will make me poorer by an hour of life, perhaps two. My soul they cannot take. I am perfectly well aware that from the beginning of the world, the word of Christ has been of such a kind that whoso wants to carry it into the world must necessarily, like the apostles, renounce everything and expect death at any hour and every hour. if it were not so it not be the word of Christ. By death it was bought, by death spread abroad, by death preserved. He knew he was in a battle from now on. The second trial was before Cardinal Cagetan at Augsburg in 1518. A remarkable trial. Luther was a marked man. Friends feared he would not return from Augsburg alive. But Luther knew it was not his cause but God's, and the Lord is faithful to those whom he has called. Luther and his friend Philip Melanchthon, fellow reformer, both melancholic, depresses. They were at their lowest, feeling as they walked to Augsburg that Rome was about to triumph. And as they walked through the streets of Augsburg, they overheard some truth. These dear children were praying and they heard the prayers of these dear children. Oh Lord, they said, let the gospel spread in the teeth of the Pope and his priests. Melanchthon turned to Luther. My friend, all is well. The children are praying to God and he will hear them. For out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hath he ordained strength. Luther, then turning to his friends, said, Come, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth psalm. God is our refuge and our strength, in straits the present aid. Therefore, although the earth remove, we will not be afraid, though hills amidst the seas be cut, the waters roaring make, and trouble be, yea, though the hills by swelling seas do shake. the 46th Psalm. Cajetan was a formidable opponent, schooled in the theology of the great Thomas Aquinas, who he had read some of Luther's works before they met, though he never for a moment intended to discuss theology with the shabby little friar as he called Luther. His sole mission was to command the shabby little friar to repent and recant Gadgeton announced that all the Pope wants is for you to repent of your error and recant, never to teach heresy again and never to disturb the peace of the Church. Luther replied to Gadgeton praying, what are the errors I am to repent of? Father of two, said Gadgeton, the treasury of merits and faith justifying a man, not our sacrament. Luther's response was that scripture takes precedence over papal decretals. Cajetan said, the Pope is above councils and scripture. Luther denied such arrogance. Cajetan broke out in a violent temper. I have come to command you to repent and recant, not to debate with you little friar. The following day, Luther argued the treasury merits was Christ himself. not a papal chest kept in heaven, and he outlined the biblical teaching of justification by faith. Luther's friends now had cause to be fearful for his life. Many, as they did with the Apostle Paul, forsook him. Luther was now alone in a forest of wolves. Once safely home in Wittenberg, he wrote, I await my excommunication from Rome any day now, On that account, I have set my affairs in order, so that when they come, I shall be ready for them with loins girded. I shall be like Abraham, not knowing whither, yet I am most certain whither I go, for God is with me." That led to a third trial in July 1519, known as the Leipzig Trial. One of the leading theologians in Romanism, John Eck, had launched an attack on Luther. Luther had engaged in a detailed study of the papacy so that when he arrived at Leipzig, he had a mass of historical detail which convinced him that the authority of papal decretals was questionable and that the medieval papacy was of recent imposition. He argued, as always, his case from Scripture. Eck insisted that Luther's theology was the same as John Husser's, who had already been condemned. and burnt. Why doesn't Luther attack the Hussites instead of attacking the Holy Father? Luther was provoked into stating that many of the views of John Huss were evangelical and biblical, and that church councils may err. That created uproar. Eck was ecstatic, almost dancing with joy. He announced to the whole world. He had routed the Wittenbergers. He had returned home in triumph. But the learned knew it was Luther who had won the debate. Eck had failed to meet the biblical arguments of Martin Luther. Once more, Luther wrote to the German people so that the laity could judge for themselves. From now on, Luther clearly saw that it was not the mere abuse of indulgence that he was attacking, it was the whole conception of priestly mediation on which medieval Catholicism was based. When Luther returned from Leipzig, he realized that he had launched the ship of the Reformation on the high seas, and he found himself at the helm. Luther's method of working was very clear. He said, I simply took wrote God words, otherwise I did nothing. And then while I slept, the word so weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor inflicted such damage on it. I did nothing. The word did it all. I left it to the word. He was an incredible writer. He wrote a book every 14 days. And that, in addition to his lectures, his preaching, his disputation, a book every fourteen days. In 1976 I was studying in Toronto and I discovered in the University Library in Toronto the 55 volumes in English of the works of Martin Luther. So I spent six months. Every morning as soon as the library was opened I was in the University Library and I stayed there until I wanted to close the library and I read through the works of Martin Luther. Whether it was in German or Latin, he wrote the fluent style, full of humor, holy truth, poetry, simplicity. He knew there is call of God. He wrote two books, one entitled Treatise on the New Testament and the second, The Papacy at Rome. It is clear as you read those books, he began to think that Antichrist lived in Rome. He began to see this Sodom as an institution of the devil, a city set against God, the enemy of the gospel. When Luther realized this and saw Rome could not and would not reform herself, he turned again to the laity. He wrote an open letter to the German nation concerning the reform of the church, the first of his Reformation writings. He argued that scripture needed Rome argued that scripture needs to be interpreted before it can be understood. And there's only one man that can interpret that. That is the Pope. Luther says, if this is true, let's burn the scriptures. Let's be content with the learned boys of Rome. No, Luther said, it's Holy Scripture. It's open to all and can be interpreted by all true believers who have the mind of Christ and seek the help of the Holy Spirit. A condemnation of Luther was drawn up in Rome. Eck drew up a bull of indictment, a papal bull. was a decree from the Pope, and it's called a bull because it was sealed by the Pope's seal, which is known as a bulla. And so Eck drew up a paper, a bull of indictment, which he submitted to the Holy Father. On July 17th, 1520, the Pope appointed Aleander and Eck to execute that bull. Aleander arranged a bonfire of Luther's books in Louvain, The bull, exurged Domine, went into 30 pages of text, criticising all the errors in Luther's writings. The Pope invoked the help of St Peter, St Paul, all the saints and the Church, declaring that a wild boar had entered the vineyard and this beast was ravishing the Church and must be put down. He attacked the Pope and all the Pope's teachings. On December 10th, 1520, a notice appeared on the walls of Wittenberg inviting the professors, lecturers, students to meet at nine o'clock in the morning at the carrion pit adjacent to the East Gate. Luther, walking at their head, led the procession to the appointed spot. A great number of teachers, lecturers and students and townspeople had assembled there. A bonfire had been prepared. The torch is lit, and as the flames rise, I, Agricola, consign to the flames the volumes of Canon Law, Summa Angelica, together with some volumes of Eck and Emsa." To Luther, the Canon Law embodied the confusion of the gospel with the law. That's basically the Canon Law. It was the Bible of the Antichrist, to Luther. Luther said, the sum and substance of the canon law is this, the Pope is God upon earth. And if you read this book, Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, that is still the case. He is regarded as the God upon earth. Superior to every other being, celestial or terrestrial, spiritual or secular, all things are pertained to the Pope and no one dares ask him, what doest thou? Luther described such pretensions as proving the abomination of desolation was standing in the holy place. Luther was seen to approach the bonfire. He drew the papal bull out of his cassock and he threw it on the fire. He said, since thou hast grieved the Lord's anointed, let the eternal fire grieve and consume thee. Never was war declared with more energy and resolution. Thus did Martin Luther declare his separation from the Pope and his church, and placed himself on the world stage. The papal curia now knew they had on their hands not a man, but a movement. And the University of Wittenberg supported their famous professor. A thrill went through Europe. If the Reformation can be dated precisely, that date must be the 10th of December 1520. If eras can be dated, our modern era began at nine o'clock on the 10th of December 1520. That leads on to another trial. I must be brief. The Diet of Worms, the Reichstag of Worms in 1521. It fell into five stages. I'll just mention a couple of them. The first stage was the case for the prosecution against Martin Luther, and it was led by Aleander. And he said this, Luther states that the body of Christ is not really present in the sacrament of altar under the species of bread and wine. Oh, gracious God, what an outrageous slander. What a blasphemy as he has spoken against thee. With these words, Luther offends and blasphemes God in heaven. Has it come to this, that we have now begun to doubt how and whether God is truly present in the sacraments of the altar? Not only does Luther repeat Wycliffe's blasphemous denial of transubstantiation, but also his dangerous doctrine limits the authority of the state. Every day he seeks only to pervert and destroy the entire structure of law and righteousness. This he does in his preaching, leading the people into those damnable errors He turns them against the Pope and the priesthood. And then the final stage after Luther had appeared before them and many charges brought against him, he was asked two questions. that you may here in this court publicly acknowledge if the books spread abroad in your name up till then now are actually yours, and, secondly, if you confess they are, are you willing to retract any part of them? Ruth said, well, yes, all those books, I've written them, and there's lots more that I've written, you've not got on that table. But as to the second, whether I would account of anything I have said, I need time to consider and pray. So they gave him a night to prayerfully consider whether he would recant of anything he had said. All night long, Luther wrestled with his problem. He was alone. He knew it was not only the Diet of Worms, but the world was watching and waiting. Ah, but he also knew that God was watching and waiting. And God had called him to this hour. and that that hour he must acquit himself with God. On the morning that he was to appear finally before them, he spent time in prayer, and Philip Melanchthon heard the prayer and wrote it down. Here is Luther's prayer. O almighty and everlasting God, how terrible is this world! Behold, it opened its mouth to swallow me up, and I have so little trust in thee. How weak is my flesh, and Satan how strong! If it is only the strength of this world that I must put my trust, all is over. My last hour is come, my condemnation has been pronounced. O God, O God, do thou help me against all the wisdom of this world. Do this, thou shouldst do this, thou alone, for this is not my work, it is thy work. I have nothing to do here, nothing to contend, for with the great ones of the world, I should desire to see my days flow on peacefully and happy. But the cause is thine. It is a righteous and an eternal cause. O Lord, do thou help me, faithful and unchangeable God. In no man do I place my trust. It would be vain. All that is of man is uncertain. All that cometh of man fails. O my God, hearest thou me not? Thou art not dead. Thou canst not die. Thou only hidest thyself. Thou hast chosen me for this work. I know it well. Act then, O God, stand by my side, for the sake of thy well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who is my defence, my shield, and my strong tower. There is a moment's repose. Lord, where stayest thou? O my God, where art thou? Come, come! I am ready to lay down my life for thy truth. It is the cause of justice, and it is thine. I will never separate myself from thee, neither now nor in eternity. And though the world should be filled with devils, though my body, which is still the work of thy hand, should be slain and stretched out upon the pavement, be cut in pieces, reduced to ashes, my soul is thine. Yes, thy word is my assurance. My soul belongs to thee. Oh God, help me. And then at four o'clock on the 19th of April, he was escorted into the court. He was made to wait two hours. before he appeared. And as he appeared before the court, he said, since then your serene majesty and your lordships require a simple answer, I will give you one without horns, without teeth, in these words. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either either the Pope or his councils, I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive by the word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything Since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience, I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. May God help me. Amen. The following day, Luther was officially excommunicated from Roman Catholic Church. The edict of Worms, the document, ran into 30 pages. This is their verdict. Certain heresies have sprung up in the German nation during these last three years, heresies which have been dragged out of hell again. A certain Martin Luther has besmirched the German nation, sullied our religion. He has not revoked his errors, nor sought absolution from the Pope. On the contrary, he daily spreads abroad the productivity of his depraved mind and soul. He described the chief priest of our Christian faith, the successor of Peter, in scurrilous and shocking terms. Further he teaches there is no free will, all things determined by immutable decree. This one and only Luther is not a man but the devil himself in the form of a man under a monk's hood. He has collected a lot of heresies of the very worst heretics, long since buried, and mixed them into a foul cesspool of his own making. We declare and make known that Martin Luther is to be regarded and considered by us as a limb cut off from the Church of God, an obstinate schismatic, a notorious heretic. His life was in danger. His friends knew that, and they kidnapped him whilst he slept, threw him onto a horse, and the horse galloped for 40 miles before it collapsed when Luther also collapsed, too tired to care. His friends took him to Wartburg Castle. He grew a beard. They gave him the name Chevalier George, Knight George. And in 11 weeks, in that castle, he translated the New Testament from the Greek into perfect German. It was on the last visit to the place of his birth that Luther's body finally broke down. He died quietly in the village of his birth, knowing that he was about to enter into the presence of his Lord and Saviour. The words of Christ or the words of Scripture were on his lips. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Philip Melanthon, meanwhile, was lecturing to his students. The porter interrupted his lecture, and in that momentary stillness announced Professor Luther had died. Melanthon cried out in a sorrow that could not be soothed, alas, alas, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof The church had lost its Elijah, and Elijah could but cry. Melanchthon left the students stricken and silent, and he was later to say, and now we are like orphans forsaken of a beloved father. Luther died at the age of 62 on the 18th of February, 1546. The mortal remains of that godly ambassador for truth and godliness were brought back to Wittenberg and buried there, in the very church on whose door he had nailed those 95 theses 29 years earlier. There his mortal remains lie, near those of his friend Melanchthon. In 1547, one year after the death of Luther, the Emperor Charles entered Wittenberg, proceeded to Luther's grave, and he stood there in reflective silence. His companions suggested that Luther's corpse be exhumed and burnt, as they had done with John Wycliffe. Charles, recoiled, gave orders that his body must be left in peace. I end by saying this, Martin Luther is by any standard one of the most influential figures in world history. Not just church history, in world history. He is the chief architect of modern Germany. And through the German Bible, he profoundly influenced the German language, culture, and sense of national identity. Above all, he played a major part in the Protestant Reformation. I end with Professor Atkinson's assessment of him. The Reformation is Luther. And Luther is the Reformation.