{"id":18885,"date":"2017-07-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/protestant-reformation-005\/"},"modified":"2017-07-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T05:00:00","slug":"protestant-reformation-005","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/protestant-reformation-005\/","title":{"rendered":"Protestant Reformation 005"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[480],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18885","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-matthew","series_event-protestant-reformation","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Protestant Reformation 005","sermon_date":"20170709","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4782,"sermon_slides":4783,"sermon_mp3":4785,"sermon_id":"7917947441","series_or_event":480,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"16:18","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Protestant Reformation 005\n\n7-9-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 16:18\n\nLet\u2019s s open up in a word of prayer.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for today and You woke us up today Lord, that was not guaranteed but here we are with another opportunity to praise You and serve You.\u00a0 I pray you\u2019ll be with our class this morning as we try to talk about an important issue, the Protestant Reformation and I pray You\u2019ll be with our worship service that follows.\u00a0 And I also pray for our baptism today, I pray that would go as You would see fit and this day would be a memorable time for those that are being baptized.\u00a0 So we lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026Amen.\n\nWhy don\u2019t you open up your Bibles if you could to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16 and verse 18.\u00a0 We have a new handout for today so if you need a hand out just put your hand up and Ron will give you one of those.\u00a0 This is part 5 of a study on the Protestant Reformation, and the reason we\u2019re talking about it is I just got back from Germany twice where the events of the Protestant Reformation really kicked into full bloom.\u00a0 I might be showing you a picture or two from that trip a little bit later but the second reason we\u2019re studying the Protestant Reformation is because we\u2019re coming up, October 31st<\/sup> of its 500th<\/sup> anniversary.\u00a0 So October 31, 1517 is when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the cathedral door in Wittenberg, Germany and touched off what\u2019s called the Protestant Reformation.\n\nSo as we get closer and closer to moving from summer to fall you\u2019re going to hear a lot of information and people talking about the Protestant Reformation and so I wanted to give you\u2026 I wanted to beat them all to the punch and describe the Protestant Reformation, not just the good \u00a0as we\u2019ll talk about but the bad and the ugly.\u00a0 And there\u2019s an ugly side also to the Protestant Reformation just like there\u2019s a good side.\u00a0 More on that later.\n\nBut here is the outline that we\u2019ve been following.\u00a0 It has eight parts to it.\u00a0 You can\u2019t really appreciate the Protestant Reformation until you understand the mess that the church was in prior to the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0\u00a0 We didn\u2019t start this study in the sixteenth century; we started it back in the first century to try to understand what the early church handed off to the first generation of Christians and how it got lost.\n\nSo we started off with the early church and the early church received from the apostles a baton of truth which I think they tried to largely be faithful to in the circle up north called Antioch, and there developed there the Antiochian school of thought and these were folks that took Bible prophecy in which way?\u00a0 Allegorically or literally?\u00a0 Literally, and we\u2019ve documented that.\u00a0 There\u2019s another picture there of Antioch.\u00a0 So we spent some time talking about that and that takes you up to about the second century A.D.\n\nAnd then we moved into part 2 which was something that I call the Alexandrian eclipse which is the circle down below, down south, where eventually the school of Alexandria, a rival Christian school, eclipsed what was taught at Antioch.\u00a0 And there\u2019s another picture there of Alexandria there in North Africa or Egypt.\u00a0 And they basically, as we\u2019ve explained, introduced a method of interpretation, not just of Bible prophecy but eventually to the whole Bible called allegorization.\u00a0 Allegorization, as we\u2019ve talked about, is where you use the words of the text to bring in some kind of higher spiritual meaning.\u00a0 You can document this even before Christianity got off the ground back to a guy named Phyllo who did this with Judaism, coming from Alexander, Egypt, and he, as we have explained, took the four rivers in Eden, Genesis 2 talks about the four rivers in Eden, the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Pishon and the Gihon.\u00a0 \u00a0He says those aren\u2019t real rivers; those represent parts of the soul.\u00a0\u00a0 Now immediately that should startle you a little bit because we have a Euphrates and Tigris River today, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 So why would we take those rivers anything other than in their ordinary sense?\n\nAnd I kind of showed you what they did to the gates around the wall of Jerusalem as described by Nehemiah 2, each gate represents evangelism, Jesus\u2019 care for the sheep, and different things like that, some kind of a higher spiritual meaning, when in reality all that\u2019s talking about is gates around the wall.\u00a0 So fish gate doesn\u2019t have anything to do with evangelism, it means they brought fish in and out of that gate.\u00a0 But who wants to listen to a sermon on that.\u00a0 It\u2019s more interesting to hear about evangelism even though evangelism isn\u2019t spoken of in that passage.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you call allegorization.\u00a0 And we went through the whole reasons why allegorization is an improper method of Bible inter\u00adpretation.\u00a0 The key problem with it is you\u2019re reading into the text a bunch of stuff that\u2019s not there.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re not doing exegesis (drawing out from the text) you\u2019re doing what?\u00a0 Eisegesis, reading into the text what\u2019s not there.\n\nBut anyway, this started in the school of Alexandria and lo and behold once you get outside of the second century whose method of interpretation begins to capture the hearts and minds of Christen\u00addom?\u00a0 And I gave you six reasons, which I won\u2019t go through again, explaining to you why the church shifted from literal interpretation taught by Antioch to allegorism, allegorization taught by Alexandria.\u00a0\u00a0 And once you have that under your belt then you begin to understand why the church, Christendom, went through a period of time called the Dark Ages, sometimes they\u2019re called the Middle Ages, other scholars refer to them as the Dark Ages, and I think the last time we were together we had finished, didn\u2019t we, talking about the Dark Ages.\n\nThe Dark Ages basically lasted from the fourth to the sixteenth century A.D. which is over a millennium.\u00a0 Prophetic studies became obsolete; the dominate school of thought was amillennialism which eclipsed the chiliasm, or premillennialism, that was taught in the church for the first two centuries.\u00a0 And there was only one church at that time, it\u2019s hard to imagine that today because we have all kinds of denominations, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 But you don\u2019t have that in the Middle Ages; you have one church, the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 And it\u2019s called the Dark Ages primarily because the Bible was removed from the people.\u00a0 The people were told they couldn\u2019t understand the Bible and in fact all over Europe you literally find the Scriptures chained to the pulpits of the various cathedrals or parishes because only the priest understood the allegorical method and therefore\u00a0 you are told you needed to interpret the Bible through the priest.\u00a0 In other words, you need some kind of intermediary acting as priest between yourself and God because you can\u2019t understand the Bible for yourself because you\u2019re too simplistic and\u00a0 you haven\u2019t been schooled in the allegorical method of interpretation.\n\nYou add to the fact illiteracy, which was rampant.\u00a0 You add to the fact that the mass\u2026 now Jerome in the fourth century, and I\u2019ve actually been to the location in the land of Israel where Jerome did this translation in the fourth century.\u00a0 But Jerome translated the Bible from its original languages into Latin to make it accessible to the masses.\u00a0 But by the time the Reformation kicks off Latin is a dead language.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re living in the Middle Ages or the Dark Ages prior to the Reformation and you\u2019d show up at the Roman Catholic mass and you literally wouldn\u2019t be able to understand what was being said if you didn\u2019t speak Latin, and nobody did because it was a dead language.\u00a0 And there\u2019s no accessibility to the Bible even if you had a Bible and were literate\u00a0 you can\u2019t understand it the hierarchy was telling you because you\u2019re not trained in allegorical interpretation.\n\nAnd this led to massive manipulations of the people in what\u2019s called the sale of indulgences.\u00a0 And one of the friars that really got under Martin Luther\u2019s skin just prior to the events of the Reformation was Yohan Tetzel, I showed you one of his sermons last week, his basic saying was when the coin in the coffin rings the soul from purgatory what?\u00a0 Springs.\u00a0 Now why can\u2019t you just stand up and say wait a minute, purgatory is not a biblical doctrine?\u00a0 Wait a minute, how can a priest pray a soul out of purgatory.\u00a0 You can\u2019t do that because you don\u2019t have a Bible.\u00a0 So the people are in this place of total manipulation by the priesthood and they were rebuilding St. Peter\u2019s Basilica at that time; it\u2019s not the beautiful structure that we know today in Rome, so they needed money to get this operation going and money was coming into the church through this sale of indulgences and a little bit of kickback was going to the political authorities and everybody is happy with it because it\u2019s a source of revenue and gravy train.\n\nAnd of course anti-Semitism is always alive and well; all you have to do is read Revelation 12 to see that.\u00a0 Satan hates the Jewish people and he knows that the kingdom is going to come to the earth through the Jewish people so it\u2019s always been his strategy in history to exterminate the Jewish people.\u00a0 So the normal mode of thought in the world is anti-Semitic.\u00a0 And the only people that have any real defense against that is the Bible believer and the Bible reader who looks at the Bible and says wait a minute, we can\u2019t hate these Jewish people, God has a special plan for their future.\u00a0 Paul, in Romans 11 says though they now are our enemies, for your sake they\u2019re out enemies, they are beloved on behalf of the patriarchs.\n\nSo if you don\u2019t have the Word of God, if you don\u2019t have Romans 11, if you don\u2019t have an Old Testament which allows you to see God has made certain covenants to Israel which have never been fulfilled you have no theological bulwark by which you can stand up against anti-Semitism.\u00a0 So the church drifts into a very anti-Semitic belief systems and I like this book by Michael Brown which is a quick read.\u00a0 We have it in our library, you can get this, I think for free online and download it to your Kindle.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Our Hands are Stained with Blood<\/em>.\u00a0 And it\u2019s basically a documentation of the church\u2019s attitude towards the Jewish people throughout its history, going back to the Middle Ages, he\u2019s got a lot of quotes from people like Chrysostom, who was known as Golden Throat or Golden Mouth because of his ability to be an orator.\u00a0 And you read through Chrysostom\u2019s material and it\u2019s just blatant Jew hatred, anti-Semitism.\n\nSo anti-Semitism is ripe and so the church is in need of what?\u00a0 Rescue!\u00a0 So what did Jesus say?\u00a0 Matthew 16:18, \u201cI also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock\u201d now in the original language, contrary to what the Roman Catholic Church wants you to believe, he\u2019s not saying Peter is the rock;\u00a0 He says, \u201cI also say to you that you are Peter,\u201d and he uses Petros <\/em>which means little stone, I believe the noun there is masculine, \u201cI say to you that you are Little Stone and upon this rock\u201d he switches the Greek word\u2026 he uses the word petra<\/em>, neuter noun, meaning big rock.\u00a0 So when you look at this in the original language there\u2019s no way he\u2019s saying Peter is the first Pope, contrary to what Roman Catholicism wants you to believe.\u00a0 In fact, I hope Peter is not the first Pope because what\u2019s the next thing Jesus said to Peter, a few verses later?\u00a0 \u201cGet behind Me,\u201d who? \u201cSatan.\u201d\n\n[Matthew 16:23, \u201cBut He turned and said to Peter, \u2018Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man\u2019s.\u201d]\u00a0 So he\u2019s not doing a very good job in his papacy, this man, Peter.\n\nBy the way, Peter was married because had a \u2026 my mother-in-law is here, he had a mother-in-law which proves he was married and they believe in the perpetual celibacy of the priesthood.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s just a side note.\u00a0 \u201cI also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 16:18]\u00a0 The \u201crock\u201d is not Peter; the \u201crock\u201d is what Peter said, where he declared Christ as God, Messiah; upon this statement of the veracity of who Christ is \u201cI will build my church.\u201d\u00a0 So the church is in bad shape by the time you get to the eve of the Protestant Reformation and so it\u2019s in need of rescue.\u00a0 And once you understand this background now you can begin to understand the significance of the Protestant Reformation and what the Protestant Reformation accomplished.\u00a0 It got us back on the road to Antioch the first two centuries, rather than steeped in allegorization of Alexandria, Egypt.\n\nAnd before I leave the Dark Ages and get to the Protestant Reformation itself one of the things I want to point out is I think, to a large extent, Christendom, evangelicalism, is moving back into the Dark Ages.\u00a0 And I say that because almost everywhere you turn in the writings of the emergent church, have you heard of the emergent church, emerging church?\u00a0 There is a perpetual denigration, deprecation of the things that Martin Luther believed in in terms of Bible teaching and Bible literacy.\n\nHere is an emergent church writer.\u00a0 He says, \u201cAt Solomon\u2019s porch\u201d Doug Pagitt, \u201cAt Solomon\u2019s porch \u00a0sermons are not primarily about my extracting truth from the Bible to apply to people\u2019s lives<\/u><\/em>\u2026\u00a0 So our sermons are not lessons that precisely define belief<\/u><\/em> so much as they are stories that welcome our hopes and ideas and participation\u201d\u00a0 [Italics added].\u00a0\u00a0 So this guy here just trashed my whole life right here because all I\u2019ve ever tried to do at this church or any other church I\u2019ve been privileged to teach at is to explain the truth of the Bible and apply it to people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 And here we have this fellow saying that\u2019s not what church is about.\u00a0 And if you put your ear to the ground you can hear Martin Luther rolling over as I read that.\n\nAnother church writer says, \u201cIt isn\u2019t<\/em> about clever apologetics or careful exegetical or expository preaching<\/em>\u2026.\u201d Really, that\u2019s what John Calvin was all about.\u00a0 John Calvin, with his warts (which I\u2019ll be explaining in this series, wrote a commentary on almost every biblical book in detail.\u00a0 He left out, I think three New Testament books, and fourteen Old Testament books but when you get into the life of John Calvin he was all about careful exegetical and expository teaching.\u00a0 But here this gentleman, Dan Kimball says, \u201cEmerging generations are hungering to experience\u00a0 God in worship\u201d Italics added.\u00a0 [Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church<\/em>, 116]\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s not about truth, it\u2019s about experience.\n\nAnother emergent church writer, Leonard Sweet, he\u2019s a little older than some of these\u00a0 younger guys that I\u2019ve been quoting, he said: \u00a0\u201cA spiritual Tsunami has hit postmodern culture. The wave will build without breaking for decades to come. The wave is this: People want to know<\/em> God. They want less to know about God<\/u><\/em>\u201d so we don\u2019t want to know about God, we want to know God personally, which is not a bad goal but how in the world do you ever get to know God personally until you study how He\u2019s revealed Himself in this Book; right.\u00a0 So he saying this younger generation \u201cwant new experiences\u2026.\u201d [Leonard Sweet, Soul Tsunami<\/em>, 420.]\u00a0 So get away from Bible\u2026 see, it\u2019s almost everywhere you turn they\u2019re writing, it\u2019s always some kind of shot or denigration of careful Bible exposition.\n\nBrian McLaren, one of the leaders of the emergent church, said there\u2019s \u201c\u2026something beyond a belief system or doctrinal array<\/em> or even a practice. I mean an attitude\u2013an attitude toward God and our neighbor and our mission that is passionate<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 [Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy<\/em>, 117-18]\n\nSo what we want is passion, not doctrine.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m all for passion but how do you know you\u2019re worshipping the right Jesus?\u00a0 The Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, not if but when they show up to your house will use the word Jesus.\u00a0 The Muslims use the word Jesus.\u00a0 How in the world are\u00a0 you going to figure out what is the right Jesus and what\u2019s the wrong Jesus?\u00a0 The only way you could ever know is through what?\u00a0 Through doctrine.\u00a0 But it\u2019s always about anything other than Bible teaching.\n\nHere\u2019s some sayings that have been collected over the years by various leaders: \u201cDon\u2019t give me doctrine, just give me Jesus<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0Well, how do you know you\u2019re getting the right Jesus?\u00a0 \u201cWhat really matters is Christ not creed<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0I don\u2019t have the statement from Rick Warren but he basically, in his book, actually not in his book but in one of his interviews he says \u201cThe prior reformation was about creeds; the new reformation is about deeds.\u201d\u00a0 So again he\u2019s trying to cut the link between modern evangelicalism and biblical truth.\u00a0 \u201cWhat really matters is Christ, not creed.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDevotion is important and not doctrine<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0\u201cWhat counts is our behavior, and not our beliefs<\/em>.\u201d Look folks, I\u2019m all in favor of beliefs and proper beliefs as a basis for influencing what?\u00a0 Behavior!\u00a0 I mean, let\u2019s have the behavior, no doubt about it, but let\u2019s anchor that behavior in proper beliefs.\u00a0 But you see, these are statements that area always made deprecating Bible doctrine, Bible teaching.\n\nNow a lot of people say well how come you\u2019re not promoting Rich Warren in your church?\u00a0 I mean, don\u2019t you know that everybody is reading or has read The Purpose Driven Life<\/em>?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you understand how popular Rick Warren is?\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t promote him in this church or anywhere I go because if you read The Purpose Driven Life<\/em> what you\u2019ll see all of the time is him doing the same thing these emergent church writers are doing, trashing Bible doctrine.\u00a0 God won\u2019t ask you about your doctrinal\u2026 won\u2019t ask you about your religious background or doctrinal views.\u00a0\u00a0 The last time I checked what you believe about doctrine determines whether you\u2019re going to heaven or not.\n\nHe goes on and I have all the page numbers on there where you can look it up for yourself and see it, \u00a0\u00a0[Purpose Driven Life <\/em>34, 124, 183; Purpose Driven Life<\/em> 186, 231; Purpose Driven Church<\/em> 300]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus said our love for each other, not our doctrinal beliefs, is our greatest witness to the world.\u00a0 Newsflash:\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t understand the sacrificial death of Christ in my place I would have no framework for loving other people.\u00a0\u00a0 Today many assume that spiritual maturity is measured by the amount of biblical information and doctrine you know.\u00a0 The Bible is far more than a doctrinal guidebook.\u00a0 The last thing many believers need today is to go to another Bible study.\u00a0 These are all direct quotes.\u00a0 They already know far more than they are putting into practice.\u00a0 So don\u2019t waste your time in Bible study.\u00a0 I think the first thing people need to do is go to Bible study because we constantly need our minds washed, don\u2019t we, through the Word of God.\n\nThis one is actually humorous, my pastor has been in Daniel 70 weeks longer than Daniel was.\u00a0 You guys are going to be the victims of that not too long down the road because we\u2019re approaching Daniel 9.\u00a0 But you hear all these quotes and you say what does the Bible say.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have time to look at all these verses but you\u2019ll see that the New Testament and Old Testament places a huge priority on Bible study, Bible teaching.\u00a0 In fact, Acts 2:42, that\u2019s the first thing the early church gave themselves to, was apostolic doctrine.\u00a0 [Acts 2:42, \u201cThey were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.\u201d]\n\nWe\u2019ve taught 2 Timothy in this church and we spent a lot of time in 2 Timothy 3:15-4:2 showing you that Paul in his last will and testament explained that Bible teaching is to be a priority for a minister.\u00a0 Jesus said, \u201cMan does not live by bread alone,\u201d Matthew 4:4, \u201cbut by every\u201d what? \u201cword that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u201d\u00a0 And people say well, why are you emphasizing all this Bible teaching; don\u2019t you know that your people can\u2019t even remember what you said last week?\u00a0 Why are you teaching them something new?\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s the deal folks\u2014I can\u2019t remember what I had for breakfast last week but the meal was necessary for my nourishment so whether I can remember it or not at the time I needed it.\n\nAnd you go into the Old Testament and you\u2019ll discover there are times of brightness, when God brings forth a revival.\u00a0 And every single authentic revival of God in the Old Testament is precipitated by a return to the Scripture and careful Bible teaching.\u00a0 You can see if for yourself in Nehemiah 8.\u00a0 You can see it for yourself in 2 Kings 22, in the days of Josiah a revival breaks out and why did that revival break out?\u00a0 They discovered this thing in the temple\u2026what is this thing?\u00a0 Well it\u2019s God\u2019s Law that had been in neglect for centuries.\u00a0 What\u2019s this doing in here?\u00a0 What is this thing?\u00a0 In other words, they started reading the Bible and as they brought it out and read it and the priest began to preach on it and teach on it you had a revival take place there in the days of Josiah.\n\nYou cannot have authentic revival without the Word of God; it\u2019s impossible!\u00a0 If you think you\u2019re getting some kind of revival without the Word of God it\u2019s a counterfeit revival, that\u2019s what it is.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the blessing of the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 The Protestant Reformation is a back to the Bible movement which had been lost for over a thousand years to the influence of Alexandria, Egypt.\u00a0 As I look at all these quotes I\u2019m wondering, are we moving back into the Dark Ages?\n\nDan Wallace correctly says, \u201cBy my count, there are twenty-seven explicit commands given in the body of this letter.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 2 Timothy; 2 Timothy is Paul\u2019s last will and testament to a young preacher in Timothy.\u00a0 Wallace says, \u201cIn 27 words Paul tells pastors what to focus on. You have to be blind to miss the thrust of Paul's instructions here, because eighteen<\/em> of those commands--fully two-thirds<\/em>--have to do with the ministry of the Word<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel Wallace, \u201cCrisis of the Word: A Message to Pastors or Would-be Pastors,\u201d Conservative Theological Journal<\/em> 1, no. 2 (August 1997): 108.]\n\nBut you see, the emergent church is moving away from all of that.\u00a0 One emergent writer says: \u201cPost-moderns prefer to encounter Christ by using all their senses. That\u2019s part of the appeal of classical liturgical or contemplative worship: the incense and candles,\u201d see folks, I grew up with all that stuff in Episcopalism for the first sixteen years of my life; I grew up with all the smells and bells and I was basically unregenerate and on my way to hell.\u00a0 And when the priest did finally get up and talk it was sort of his experience of the week, his marathoning and different things that he was doing and I became so disheartened when I discovered that there\u2019s actually a company that you can subscribe to as a minister that will give you a ten minute sermon, and with the jokes, the illustrations, the whole thing.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re getting your sermons from a company are\u00a0 you on your knees all week studying God\u2019s Word, praying for insight, you know, praying for clarity.\u00a0 You just don\u2019t get that if you\u2019re getting this regurgitated \u201chappy meal,\u201d for lack of a better expression.\n\nSo I\u2019ve done all the incense, I\u2019ve done all the candles, I\u2019m here to tell you there\u2019s nothing in that, there\u2019s nothing magical in that.\u00a0 What changed me was the Word of God because that\u2019s where I discovered the gospel.\u00a0 So the incense and the candles, making the sign of the cross, the taste and the smell of the bread and wine, touching icons and being anointed with oil, see this is where the emergent church wants to go.\n\nHere\u2019s Dan Kimball again, he says, \u201cmultisensory and interactive\u201d in fact, you should know that word, interactive, people use that all the time; they don\u2019t want the emergent church authoritative preaching from behind the pulpit.\u00a0 What they want is conversation so you don\u2019t really have a preacher who\u2019s trained in the Bible, Greek, Hebrew, theology, you have more of a discussion leader or the key word today is \u201cfacilitator.\u201d\u00a0 And you go to emergent churches and it\u2019s like being something out of the Phil Donahue show where the microphone is passed around and everybody is exchanging out of the abundance of their ignorance (pardon me for saying that).\u00a0 \u00a0\u201c\u2026 multisensory and interactive \u2026Through various experimental elements as well as through the space itself, we can actually preach. Art preaches. Scripture preaches. Music preaches. Even silence preaches.\u201d [Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church<\/em>, 186]\u00a0 Well, if silence preaches why are you writing a whole book to me, Mr. Kimball?\u00a0 But you see, all of these things preach and Scripture is just one of the things that preaches, but don\u2019t but too much emphasis on it; that\u2019s the spirit of the emergent church.\n\nBrian McLaren says, \u201cIf Charismatics gave me my high school diploma\u201d by the way, you can go to Barnes and Noble and you can see all these books arrayed there.\u00a0 You may know nothing about these books if\u00a0 you\u2019re an older person but I guarantee you this much, your children and your grandchildren know a lot about this.\u00a0 So we need to equip ourselves on how to reach that next generation who are wrapped up in all this stuff.\u00a0 In fact, I was involved in one church in the Dallas area and all this emergent church mentality had totally taken over the youth group and the elders and older people in the church didn\u2019t even know what had happened.\u00a0 They were basically almost unaware of it.\u00a0 Well, they had hired this sort of emergent church youth pastor and he was introducing all this stuff to the next generation of Christians.\n\nBrian McLaren, I\u2019ve got the book and the page number if you\u2019re interested in looking it up.\u00a0 [Brian McLaren, \u00a0A Generous Orthodoxy<\/em>, 175]\u00a0 He says, \u201cIf Charismatics gave me my high school diploma in the ways of the Spirit, it was from Catholic contemplatives<\/em> that I entered an undergraduate degree in the liberal arts of the Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 What does he mean by Catholic contemplatives?\u00a0 What is he talking about?\u00a0 What he\u2019s talking about is pre-Reformation Middle Ages stuff that in his mind we have to go back and retrieve and bring back into the life of the church.\u00a0 All of the things that Luther moved the church away from after the thousand years of the Dark Ages the emergent church wants to go back and retrieve all of that and bring it back into the life of the church.\u00a0 So things like stations of the cross, which I did as an Episcopalian, the smell and the taste of the bread and the wine, they\u2019re into holy water, they\u2019re into something called the labyrinth.\u00a0 Have you ever heard of that?\u00a0 A labyrinth is something that was practiced in the Middle Ages, it\u2019s like a maize and you walk through it and sometimes it\u2019s out on a carpet so you walk through this maize and\u00a0 you get this sort of spiritual experience and sadly all over the Dallas area when I was living there I saw church after church after church putting out a labyrinth; that\u2019s the emergent church.\n\nI mean, where are we told in the New Testament we need to walk through a labyrinth to be spiritual?\u00a0 There\u2019s not a shred of truth in it so what they do is they say well, it was practiced in church history.\u00a0 Well when?\u00a0 In the Dark Ages.\u00a0 So you have labyrinth, you have a lot of emphasis on candles, not that candles in and of themselves are wrong, it\u2019s just a question of emphasis.\u00a0 The darkening of the sanctuary, a lot of churches were darkening the sanctuary and you\u2019d go in and you\u2019d say why are they darkening the sanctuary?\u00a0 It\u2019s part of this multisensory approach to the ministry that was practiced in the Middle Ages.\u00a0\u00a0 Ash Wednesday, which I grew up with. \u00a0\u00a0I was involved in a Bible church that moved into Ash Wednesday where you received the ash of the cross on your forehead; this is not a Catholic church I was at, it was an Episcopalian church that I was at, this was at a Bible church, so-called Bible church.\u00a0 A big emphasis on the Christian calendar, a huge emphasis on medieval monasticism.\n\nAnother phrase you should know is Lectio Divina<\/em>; Lectio Divina<\/em> is not Bible study!\u00a0 Lectio Divina<\/em> is taking a verse of the Bible, it doesn\u2019t matter what its context is, and you just repeat it over and over again in your mind and you get some kind of spiritual experience from it.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like a mantra; it\u2019s mere repetition.\u00a0 It\u2019s not examining what that verse is saying, what is its context.\u00a0 So that\u2019s supposedly a practice that happened during the Dark Ages that needs to be brought back.\u00a0 The sign of the cross, closing the service with the sign of the cross.\u00a0 Stations of the cross, contemplative prayer, meditation.\n\nYou say well what\u2019s wrong with meditation?\u00a0 Meditation is find biblically, Psalm 1 says we ought to meditate on His Word, how frequently?\u00a0 Day and night.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not what these folks mean by meditation.\u00a0 To them meditation is you\u2026 this is not Bible, this is Eastern mysticism, what I\u2019m describing here, you empty your mind of all reality and you put yourself in sort of a trance like state and once\u00a0 your mind is emptied of all reality then the first thought that comes into your mind is the voice of God.\u00a0 How many problems can we point out with this within the short time that we have?\n\nNumber 1, the devil can speak to your mind, can\u2019t he?\u00a0 Your sin nature can speak to your mind.\u00a0 Give me one verse in the Bible where we\u2019re told to empty our mind of all thought.\u00a0 That is not a biblical concept; that is a concept that comes out of Eastern mysticism.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what you\u2019re having in the emergent church is this merger between East and West.\u00a0 What else?\u00a0 Monasticism, the huge push today in colleges and seminaries, Bible colleges and seminaries is something called spiritual formation, and as you examine spiritual formation and what it is it is just regurgitated Monasticism from the Dark Ages.\n\nYou say well, you\u2019ve given us a lot of information, where can we go for further information on this.\u00a0 I recommend the website, Lighthouse Trails.\u00a0 You type in any major Christian character or figure, I don\u2019t care who they are, you put it into their search engine and you can see very fast based on what comes up are these people connected with the emergent church or not.\u00a0 They\u2019ve just done some tremendous research.\u00a0 I also recommend the book by Gary Gilley, I believe the title of it is Out of Formation.<\/em>\u00a0 [Out of Formation<\/em>: Spiritual Disciplines of God and Men Paperback \u2013 October 21, 2014]\u00a0 Gary Gilley has been on top of this; he\u2019s a pastor also, since this stuff first started to become popular, probably in the 90\u2019s, late 90\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0 And so as you go into that material, the Lighthouse Trails or Gary Gilley\u2019s materials\u00a0 you can see I\u2019m not making things up.\n\nYou might know the name Francis Beckwith, do you know that name?\u00a0 Francis Beckwith was the President of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2006.\u00a0 So he is, in 2006, the leading evangelical scholar in the world.\u00a0 And right in the middle of his term he says you know what, I\u2019m not going to be a Protestant anymore, I\u2019m going to be a Roman Catholic.\u00a0 How do you do that if you\u2019re the president of an evangelical theological society?\u00a0 So he announces that he\u2019s going back into Roman Catholicism.\u00a0 Now why did he go back into Roman Catholicism?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t go back into it because he\u2019d been studying the Bible; and that\u2019s what you never hear from these guys\u2026 I was studying the Bible and I decided to drift away.\u00a0 \u00a0No, he got enmeshed in the writings of the church fathers, which are good at points and as I\u2019ve been showing you and will continue to show you the very negative points and he started to think that Roman Catholic doctrine is more his bag of tea, so to speak.\n\nI\u2019m just showing you the power and the influence of the emergent church.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to show you what\u2019s happening out there, even as we kind of sit in our comfortable circles here at Sugar Land Bible Church there\u2019s a spiritual war taking place.\u00a0 And the emergent church is always saying we\u2019ve got to get back to these practices that were lost.\u00a0 What did Paul say in Acts 20:29 to the Ephesian elders at Miletus as he\u2019s completing missionary journey 3?\u00a0 \u201cI know that after my departure\u201d that\u2019s when the apostles left the scene, \u201csavage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.\u201d\u00a0 So you don\u2019t look for truth for what God wants you to have based on practices in church history because Paul specifically says that after I and the rest of the apostles leave the scene wolves are going to come in.\n\nIf\u00a0 you want to go to truth you go back to the apostolic generation.\u00a0 Now where do we find information about the apostolic generation?\u00a0 It\u2019s right here; this is where you go back to, to discover what truth is, what should be emphasized in a church, what should be de-emphasized in a church; you don\u2019t go into a bunch of medieval monastic practices that were lost in the Middle Ages.\u00a0 So what is happening out there is largely people are trying to leapfrog the Protestant Reformation and get back to the Dark Ages because you might be listening to me talk saying I want something relevant to my life, why is he talking about the Dark Ages?\u00a0 Because we\u2019re going back to them in many corners today; that\u2019s why they\u2019re relevant.\n\nWhy not go back to the beginning?\u00a0 Where in Scripture are we told that it\u2019s essential to embrace ancient liturgical and contemplative practices?\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to find any Scripture on that.\u00a0 That\u2019s why they\u2019re trying to anchor their case in church history, not the Bible, because the Bible doesn\u2019t support where they want to go.\u00a0 In fact, when you look at the words of Christ in Matthew 6:7 you actually find, I believe, Jesus condemning these contemplative practices.\u00a0 He says, \u201cAnd when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.\u201d\u00a0 So the Gentiles thought they were heard by God through practices like repetition, contemplative prayer, Lectio Divina<\/em>, and yet Jesus is specifically saying that\u2019s not how you gain a relationship with God.\u00a0 It\u2019s not through some kind of liturgical monastic practice.\u00a0 So there we have it folks; the Dark Ages which are not just a footnote in history; they\u2019re actually things on our horizon today.\n\nSo we\u2019ve gone through the early church, the Alexandrian eclipse, the Dark Ages which to my mind are resurfacing to some extent today.\u00a0 And this takes us to Roman numeral IV on our outline, which is The Contribution of the Protestant Reformers and you see there we have a long list to go through and we may, if we\u2019re lucky, do Roman numeral VIII today.\u00a0 I want us to have some sensitivity to the fact that God prepared these Reformers.\u00a0 Even before we get to their preparation we sort of have a belief that the Protestant Reformation started with Martin Luther and certainly he probably had the biggest influence, but there were others that God raised up during the Dark Ages to speak against what was happening.\n\nHere\u2019s some names to know, one is John Huss who lived from about 1369-1415, he was basically trying to do what Luther did and was martyred.\u00a0 A name that you probably have heard (these are morning stars of the Reformation) is Wycliffe, you\u2019ve heard of Wycliffe Bible Translators named after this man; lived from 1320-1384, he was trying to get the Bible translated into the language of his people, the language of the common man which was going against what the Roman Catholic hierarchy was wanting to do throughout the Middle Ages.\n\nAnd another morning star of the Reformation is the advent of the printing press which came about in the 15th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Once the printing press became available to folks you could take the ideas of the Reformers and you could take the Scripture itself and you could print it and it would have a mass audience.\u00a0 So I believe God put the technology in place to overcome the negativity that was happening with the Dark Ages.\n\nSo God was always working through different morning stars, whether it be Huss, Wycliffe, I can give you many others, the advent of the printing press.\u00a0 The advent of the printing press is sort of like what the internet has done.\u00a0 I made it all the way through high school, college, and law school and I never used the internet because it wasn\u2019t around then.\u00a0 In fact, I remember one guy I was talking to, this was when Bill Clinton became President, he goes I\u2019m so mad at the President, I\u2019ve been sending him e-mails all day.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what he was talking about, an e-mail, what is that?\u00a0 And this would go back to what? 1992-1993.\n\nAnd now look at how e-mail has\u2026 I mean, how do we function without e-mail?\u00a0 How do we function without the internet?\u00a0 And there\u2019s a part of the internet that\u2019s bad, because as you know there\u2019s a lot of weird stuff on there but let me tell you something, there\u2019s a part of the internet that\u2019s great because it allows us at little Sugar Land Bible Church to take messages that we do and put them out for the whole world.\u00a0 Prior to the advent of the internet the only people that could do something like that were big, BIG churches with BIG BIG budgets and now all of a sudden the internet and social media and all these things that we have levels the playing field.\u00a0 And so there\u2019s a bad side to it but there\u2019s a good side to it.\n\nAnd that\u2019s basically what you have with the printing press.\u00a0 The printing press is this new idea and now God has the right stage set for the rapid transmission of the ideas of the Protestant Reformers.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what I mean by morning stars, stage setting.\n\nAnd something else to understand about the Protestant Reformers is God prepares His instruments.\u00a0 Before God uses anyone for anything there\u2019s always a time of preparation.\u00a0 This chart here\u2026 did you know Moses lived to 120 years of age.\u00a0 We know all about age 1 to 40, he\u2019s being\u00a0 trained, is he not, in the household of Pharaoh, Pharaoh\u2019s daughter wasn\u2019t it that found Moses there on the Nile.\u00a0 That was the sovereignty of God.\u00a0 So he\u2019s being given the best education that could be given, age 1 (roughly) to age 40 because he\u2019s preparing this man to write the\u2026 what did Moses write?\u00a0 The Pentateuch, the Torah, the first five books of what we call Old Testament, better said Hebrew Bible.\n\nAnd then we know about the last forty years of Moses\u2019 life, age 80 to 120 where he\u2019s doing his thing, he\u2019s leading the children of Israel out of the Exodus, God is giving him the Law, he\u2019s leading Israel through the wilderness preservation and he\u2019s offering the Pentateuch. So we know about age 1-40; we know about age 80-120, but what about age 41 through age 80?\u00a0 Ever thought about that?\u00a0\u00a0 What\u2019s God doing with this man\u2019s life during this time period?\n\nMoses had a human education but he hadn\u2019t had a spiritual education yet.\u00a0 So Moses realizes his calling, he sees, you remember the story, the Egyptian abusing the Hebrew and what does Moses do?\u00a0 He commits murder, I\u2019ll take matters into my own hands.\u00a0 So obviously you\u2019re dealing with someone that\u2019s very fleshly, that thinks they can do the work of God through human power.\u00a0 So God, therefore, ushers Moses into the middle phase of his life where he did what for forty years?\u00a0 He worked at McDonalds flipping hamburgers, basically\u2026 I mean, here\u2019s this guy that has all this education and God puts him out there in Midian and he shepherds God\u2019s people for forty years. By the way, the exact same length of time he would shepherd God\u2019s\u2026 not God\u2019s people, Moses was shepherding actual sheep, right, like baa baa, those kind of sheep, which is part of Moses\u2019 task in the final third of his life, shepherding God\u2019s people.\u00a0 He did it exactly for forty years because he would shepherd God\u2019s people for forty years.\u00a0 He did it in Midian which is where a lot of the events in the final third of Moses\u2019 life took place.\n\nSo God trained Moses for forty years for the task he would do in the final third of his life.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where he\u2019s totally emptied of himself.\u00a0 In fact, when God finally calls him God actually gets angry with him.\u00a0 Remember?\u00a0 Because he says who am I to do this, to lead God\u2019s people.\u00a0 Now he wasn\u2019t saying that at age 40, he was out strangling people to death.\u00a0\u00a0 So my point is Moses doesn\u2019t become Moses until God prepares the instrument and that\u2019s how you have to look at the Reformers.\n\nSo the key guy is Martin Luther and how did God prepare Martin Luther?\u00a0 Well, first of all his consecration.\u00a0 What I\u2019ve read of Luther he was basically caught in a lightning storm at a fairly early age in his life; they thought he was going to die and he calls out to God, some accounts say he called out to Saint Anne, and he promised he would serve God his whole life if God protected him in this lightning storm, which God did.\u00a0 And that moves Martin Luther\u2026 well even before we get to that can I say something nice about lawyers?\n\nMartin Luther and John Calvin both have law in their background; both of them were studying law.\u00a0 Now you say well, that should disqualify them, not qualify them.\u00a0 But let me tell you something about law since I went through law school; one of the things you're trained in law school is the literal method of interpretation except when it comes to the Constitution then you can just do whatever you want [laughter].\u00a0 But when you\u2019re interpreting contracts and things like that you\u2019re taught a method called the literal, grammatical, historical method of interpretation.\u00a0 That is the same stuff that they were teaching in Antioch for the first two centuries.\u00a0 And this is the method that Luther and Calvin used to rescue the church from allegorization in certain areas.\u00a0 So that legal training is part of who the Protestant Reformers are.\n\nAnd after Martin Luther\u2019s consecration that moves into his monasticism where he takes a vow of poverty.\u00a0 Now this really upset the Catholic Church, it really upset Luther rather because here he was living in poverty and the Catholic Church was making all this money off the people through the sale of indulgences.\u00a0 Why is the Catholic Church living so high when I am consecrated to God and living at such a low level?\u00a0 He joined, Martin Luther, the strictest order he could find, monastery or order.\u00a0 It was so severe that it allowed him to speak one time a day; he had to wear kind of a shirt, I guess we would call it a sweater that was intentionally irritating.\u00a0 Have\u00a0 you ever worn an irritating shirt and it just bristled on you?\u00a0 That was what was given to these particular Monks in the severity of Luther\u2019s order that he voluntarily joined.\n\nAnd this was a guy in these monastic years that would show up to confession four times a day and a lot of times he would wear the priest out because he was there for two hours.\u00a0 I mean, he confessed everything he ever did and this is where he discovered that no matter how harsh he put his body under these treatments his anger problem still continued.\u00a0 So he\u2019s discovering what Paul says in Colossians 2:20, \u00a0\u201cIf you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, [21] \u2018Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!\u2019\u00a0 [22] (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?\u00a0 [23] These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.\u201d\n\nNo matter what type of monastic deprivation you put your body under the sin nature is still there and you don\u2019t really know that until you put yourself under monasticism and see its total inability to control the sin nature.\u00a0 What you need to control the sin nature is your baptism into Christ and the new resources provided by the Holy Spirit but you see Luther is learning all of these things through his monasticism and this is all the hand of God.\u00a0 Before God uses someone He prepares the instrument and this led to Luther\u2019s conversion where he, because he was showing up four times a day to these priests and this monastic order and wearing the priests out the priest said we\u2019ve got to get rid of this guy, he\u2019s wearing us out; I know what we\u2019ll do, we\u2019ll have him teach the first year students.\u00a0 He\u2019s a pretty bright guy, so Luther, here\u2019s your job,\u00a0 you\u2019re going to translate from the Greek New Testament, you\u2019re going to teach the first year students.\n\nOh my gosh, what does he discover as he\u2019s doing that?\u00a0 The Book of Galatians, Galatians 2:16.\u00a0 He\u2019s reading things like this:\u00a0 \u201cNevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law\u201d that was counter intuitive to everything that he was experiencing, \u201csince by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s reading Galatians 2:20, \u201cI have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life<\/em> which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s reading Galatians 3:3, \u201cAre you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s reading Galatians 5:16, \u201cBut I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.\u201d\n\nMonasticism and the harsh deprivations and treatments of the body aren\u2019t going to control the sin nature, he\u2019s reading, it\u2019s the walk of the Spirit.\u00a0 And the Lord is using all of these experiences to prepare Luther as His instrument.\u00a0 So this is what we would call revolutionary, this time of study, translation and teaching.\u00a0 And he begins to refer to the Book of Galatians, this is a German word, meine frau<\/em>, anybody know what that means?\u00a0 My wife.\u00a0 He says I\u2019m wedded to the Book of Galatians because of this revolution I\u2019m experiencing.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why Luther is so pro Scripture in his debates with the Catholic Church because he\u2019s seeing in the Scripture things that are going opposite of everything that he\u2019s been experiencing in monasticism.\n\nAnd so consequently this leads to the Reformation which begins with Martin Luther nailing his 95 Thesis to the cathedral door in Wittenberg, Germany.\u00a0 That\u2019s Anne and myself, Beauty and the Beast, in front of the very door that Luther nailed his thesis to.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of disappointing because the door is made of metal now and I always picture a hammer going into the wood and the tour guide told us that that door burned down at some point and they replaced it with this metal door.\u00a0 But anyway, that\u2019s where it happened.\n\nAnd he nails his 95 Thesis to this door.\u00a0 Now why did he do this?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t do it to start a Protestant movement; that was probably the furthest thing from his mind.\u00a0 He did it because as a teacher, as a professor in that day that\u2019s how you started what today we would call a dialogue or a conversation.\u00a0 It\u2019s what you guys do on Facebook, if you want to discuss something you post something and someone else comments and you comment, and that\u2019s what Luther was trying to do.\n\nHe never said okay, I\u2019m going to start a new movement here, he\u2019s just starting a conversation based on the revolution that he was experiencing through the study of the Word of God.\u00a0 Most people don\u2019t understand this but Luther wanted to stay Catholic.\u00a0 He never wanted to break away and start something new; he was ultimately forced into it because of the way the Catholic Church started treating him when he went this direction.\u00a0 They started to question him as a heretic, and that surprised him as much as it surprised anybody else.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet he found this groundswell of support amongst the poor or the middle class or the working class because what he was doing and what he was standing for was empowering them who had been put in a top down situation and abused through the sale of indulgences.\u00a0 All of the power resided with the upper echelons and Luther, they sensed he was sort of reversing that by what he was doing.\n\nAnyway, I hope that helps a little bit.\u00a0 That\u2019s the preparation of the instruments.\u00a0 And then next week we\u2019ll get into exactly what the Protestant Reformation covered, accomplished.\u00a0 I\u2019ll give you the specific accomplishments but I wanted to insert this as sort of a background and preparatory to give us a sense of how God prepared the way, so to speak, for this Reformation.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t