Our Reformation Roots

Transcription of the fourth episode of the series Our Reformation Roots brought to you by Pastor Rusty Tardo.

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“Well, tonight I intend to conclude these studies that we began several weeks ago on our Reformation roots, which again is an exhortation to hold fast to the faith that was delivered unto us, first by the apostles in the Scriptures, and then through the reformers, when the faith had waned as far as many people had concerned. So, if you have your Bibles, let's bow our heads and just ask the Lord's blessing upon the Word. Father, bless us tonight as we open Your Word.

Minister, I pray to each and every one of us. Father, give me a mouth to speak Your words. Let Your anointing be upon us.

Lord, we give You the glory for it, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, according to church historians, the Reformation began on October 31st, what year? Who remembers?

1517. October 31st, 1517, that's the date that the Reformation, according to church historians, that's the date when it actually began. When a Roman Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg in Germany.

We've mentioned this before, but let me just remind you that although it's dated from the time of Martin Luther, actually the Reformation began centuries before Martin Luther even was born. It began with men like John Wycliffe, who is called the Morning Star of the Reformation, others like John Huss. Huss died a full hundred years before Martin Luther was even born.

John Huss, a tremendous man of God. These men, Wycliffe and Huss, and there were other groups also that existed as far back as 12th century, 13th century long before Martin Luther, a group like the Waldensis and the Albigensis and so forth, groups in France and Spain and Italy. These groups preached, returned to the Bible.

They preached an abandoning of the excesses of Roman Catholicism. You remember in earlier studies, we were talking about the antinomianism that had settled into Roman Catholic faith. You remember what that's a big word, but you know what it just means?

Lawlessness, excesses, indulgence in fleshly pursuits, abandoning of morality and so forth. Roman Catholicism was lawless as far as the behavior of even the clergy at the time. And so these groups like the Waldensis and Albigensis, they rejected those excesses, wanted people to just believe the Bible as a result.

The Roman Catholic Church attempted to suppress those movements. In fact, the Inquisition crushed those movements. The Albigensis were totally crushed in one of the bloodiest history's, bloodiest events in ancient history.

In medieval history was when the Albigensis and other groups like them were crushed by the Roman Catholic Inquisition, where literally hundreds of thousands of people, entire towns were put to the sword. Men, women, children, young, old, just brutally killed when they had embraced the doctrines of these groups. The Waldensis exist, continue to exist, although they were highly persecuted.

And they're one group that, I guess probably the only group that still exists in some way still today, that, you know, of the medieval groups back then. Then Martin Luther also had contemporaries, men like Zingley, they pronounced his name, and Switzerland, and the Anabaptists that sprang up in the early 16th century also were contemporaries of Martin Luther. But the Reformation is dated from October 31st, 1517.

But keep in mind, there was a Reformation already beginning before the Reformation. That's the whole point. You know, if somebody asked you, when did World War II start, what would you say?

December 7th, 1941. Brother Henry would remember, I bet you.

December 7th, 1941, it began when, of course, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. But look, World War II actually began years before that. In the European theater, it had begun years before with the Nazi invasion of their neighbors.

But for us, when we think about World War II, we say December 7th, 1941, that's when World War II started. Actually, it started years before. Well, in a similar vein, that's the way it is with the Reformation.

The Reformation is dated to 1517, but it had started actually before that. In fact, the beginning started centuries before that. Well, last time, we began expanding just a little bit on three, the three great pillars of Reformation faith, the three doctrines that the Reformation stands on.

And this is what caused the break between the Protestants and Rome. This is what divides Protestantism and Roman Catholicism still. Three major pillars, doctrines, what are they?

They summed them up, the early Reformers summed them up this way. They summed it up with this. Faith alone.

Secondly, the Bible alone. Thirdly, Christ alone. That was the three great Reformation cries.

The three, if you would, that's the whole cry, the theme, the motto, if you would, of the Reformation. Faith alone, Bible alone, Christ alone. And those doctrines were explained as, first, as we looked at last week, justification by faith alone.

How are we saved? By faith alone. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9 says what?

For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works, lest any man should boast.

And we don't have the time to go back and deal with this great doctrine of how a man is saved or a woman is saved, but we dealt with it the last time in our message dealing with the Reformation. I believe that here in the 20th century, the latter part of the 20th century, our Reformation faith and heritage is in grave danger of being compromised because no longer are people holding to these cardinal doctrines, even the doctrine of salvation itself. I mean, incessantly, we hear people say, doctrine is not important, doctrine is not important, doctrine is not important.

Now, you know, if somebody was talking about some of the minor things in regards to doctrinal issues, you can shrug your shoulders and say, well, you know, we can be charitable. We may not agree with everybody, but we can be charitable with their views on this matter or that matter. But when it comes to the essential doctrines of faith, doctrine is vitally important because you're not saved unless you believe the right thing.

In fact, you're not saved if you don't believe that salvation is by faith alone. If you add anything to faith in order to be saved, then what you do is spit on the blood of Christ, and you say, his blood was not sufficient to save you, to eradicate your sins, to purge you of your past sinfulness. The blood was not alone.

You've got to add something to that, and that is your own meritorious acts or rituals or whatever. The theme today of the modern ecumenical movement is doctrine is not important. And that's why I cringe every time I hear it.

Don't use that kind of phrase.

And keep in mind that it is important. It's very important. It's vitally important.

If it's not, then these reformers died in vain. Hundreds of thousands, even millions of them, died in vain because they believe doctrine was important. So important that they would give up their lives rather than compromise their faith.

So the first great reformation principle is faith alone. That is, justification by faith alone. Like I said, we dealt with that thoroughly last time, so we're not going to repeat it.

Secondly, we want to look at this evening. The Bible alone is the authority for all faith in practice. The Bible alone.

Second Timothy, let me read a verse to you. Second Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, complete, mature, thoroughly furnished, unto all good works.

The Bible alone is the authority for all faith in practice. Now listen to me. That means, when we want to know, what do we believe as Christians?

The Bible alone. When you want to know, what practices do we observe as a church? I mean, what is our God?

I mean, how do we know if we should be observing certain things that the Jews observe? Or why aren't we observing certain things that the Roman Catholics observe?

Or that some of these cults observe, or whatever?

The answer is, the Bible alone is our guidebook. It alone is our standard. So we take the whole, the entire Bible, New Testament, Old Testament.

The Old Testament, of course, is understood with the new. Old is understood with the new. And the Bible alone is what we follow.

The Bible alone is what we embrace. Martin Luther and the Reformers believed that God spoke to man in the Scriptures. He spoke to man throughout history.

And of course, the record of God's dealings with man, his speaking to man, was all recorded in the Bible. The Bible is God's word to us. The Bible, of course, is God's will for us.

The difference between, the way one person put it, the difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism is that the Roman Catholics have an infallible Pope, the Protestants have an infallible Bible. Not an infallible church leader or man or whatever, but Protestantism has an infallible Bible. That alone is our text.

This is our Bible. The Bible plus nothing is our text, as far as what we believe, what we practice. It's the standard.

It's the authority. The Reformers didn't feel like they were to take the Scriptures and interpret it. They didn't feel that way.

Keeping in mind the things that we taught in earlier studies, that the Roman Catholic Church suppressed the Bible. We'll get into that in just a little bit more in just a few minutes. But the Roman Catholic Church has throughout its history suppressed the Bible and the knowledge of the Bible.

They taught that the priest alone could interpret it properly. In fact, it wasn't... I mean, just not long ago, Roman Catholicism still discouraged people from reading their Bibles.

Only until probably the last 20 years or so has there been some change in that regard. But I know my dad even told me when he was a kid that the priest would tell him not to read the Bible, that they didn't need to read the Bible. Everything they need to know, the priest would tell them, and the church would tell them.

Some of you have been around for a little while. You could, I'm sure, attest to that fact. But you know what the Reformers said?

The Word of God is not subject to the arbitrary interpretation of a priest, a pope, a church, or anybody else. The Reformers didn't even feel like they interpreted the Scripture. They didn't feel like they were the ones who were to handle the Scripture.

You know what they said? The Scripture handles us. In fact, they said, God handles us through the Scriptures.

That's the way it works. We don't interpret Scripture.

God handles us through the Word of God.

He's the one who deals with us through the Bible. The Reformers believed, let me give you about three things concerning this matter, the Bible alone being the authority for all faith and practice. The Reformers believed that God would speak to each believer in their own individual situation, through the Scriptures.

They believed that you can hear from God in the Bible. You can hear from God. Nobody has to hear from God for you and give you some interpretation of what God said in the Bible or whatever.

You can open the Bible and hear from God yourself. God will speak to you through its pages. We know that's true, don't we?

God will deal with us, reprove us, correct us, rebuke us, crush us. I mean, through the Bible, God will deal with each of us intimately, personally, through the Holy Scriptures. Secondly, the Reformers believed that the Bible should be made available to every Christian in his own language.

They believed that we should have the Scriptures in our own language, that we should be able to sit down and read the Bible for ourselves. Now, you have to keep in mind the background of the Reformation. This belief of the Reformers, the Reformers said, let's take the Bible out of the Latin.

Now, basically, the only Bible they had back then was the Roman Vulgate, the Latin Vulgate, and only the scholarly could read it, you know, the priests and so forth. And it was through many of the priests, like Wycliffe and Luther.

These men were priests.

But they're the ones who said, let's put the Bible in the language of the people. Let's put the Bible in the language they can read for themselves. And you wouldn't think it would be this way, but the Roman Catholic Church fought them fiercely, ferociously, because they wanted to put the Bible in the language of the people.

John Wycliffe was excommunicated from the Church because he translated the New Testament into the language of the people. He was excommunicated. They would have killed him.

You know, that went along with being a heretic. They brand you a heretic. But he died before they could kill him.

So 30 or 40 years after he died, they exhumed his bones and burned them and scattered his ashes in the river because they were so angry with him for putting the Bible, translating the Bible, putting into the language of the people. John Huss, another priest, followed in the footsteps of Wycliffe, and he too labored to put the scriptures into the hands of the common people. John Huss was excommunicated.

John Huss was burned alive because of his faith in Christ. That was his punishment for attempting to translate the scriptures and put them in the hands of the people. The reformers labored to put the scriptures in people's hands.

They wanted the people to have the word of God in their own language. They tried to go back to the Hebrew. They tried to go back to the Greek and translate the scriptures and make it available to the people.

Tindale, another of the reformers, put the New Testament into English in 1525. In fact, Tindale devoted his whole life to translating the scriptures and putting them into English. The story of his life is one of running and hiding because the Roman Catholic Church pursued him from one place to the next because of his translation work.

Finally, he was sentenced to death, caught and sentenced to death. He was strangled, and then his body incinerated. Tyndale's crime, he translated the scriptures into English so that they could be read by the average man.

Tyndale, by the way, is called the father of the English Bible. So if we give you a test, you'll want to remember that. Tyndale's last words.

He died in 1536. His last words were, Lord, open the eyes of the King of England. Because keep in mind, the papacy, the pope, actually dominated even the emperor.

And the King of England was manipulated by the pope. And so Tyndale's prayer, his dying prayer, before they strangled him to death and then incinerated him, was, Lord, open the eyes of the King of England. And you know, Tyndale's prayer was answered because some years later, the King of England did have his eyes opened and ordered that the Bible be translated into the common vernacular so that it could be used throughout England, Scotland, and so forth.

That was King James' Bible, 1611. But here's the third thing that the Reformers did concerning this cry of only the Bible. They said sola scriptura, only scripture.

Sola scriptura, only scripture. They rejected all practices and all beliefs that could not be substantiated in the Bible. Only the Bible.

Sola scriptura. Any practice or any belief that could not be substantiated from the scriptures, they rejected. Now, you know something?

We'd be wise to do the same thing. If we can't find a doctrine or a practice in the Word of God, then what should we do with it? Throw it out.

That's right. The Reformers said tradition is important, but it does not carry equal weight with the scriptures. You see, Roman Catholicism teaches that the scriptures are the basis for faith and practice, but they also teach on an equal par with the scriptures is church tradition.

And if church tradition and scriptures contradict one another or conflict with one another, and they often do, then the scriptures are suppressed and tradition goes to the forefront. Well, the Reformers rejected that entirely and said that we believe that the scriptures alone, sola scriptura, only the Bible, is our authority. If tradition contradicts the Bible, then we throw tradition out the window.

And of course, they would quote the words of Jesus, who make, you know, speaking of the Pharisees and so forth, who said that Jesus said the Pharisees would make void the word of God by their traditions. So, every practice that could not be scripturally justified was rejected. Now, you think about this.

Every doctrine that could not be justified from the New Testament, from the word of God, was rejected. Now, you know what that meant? That meant the reformers did a lot of rejecting.

It means they rejected confession to a priest, because that's not a New Testament practice. So, it went out the window. It meant they rejected prayers for the dead, because that is not a New Testament practice.

Obviously, if a person is justified by faith in Christ alone, if the only way a person can be saved is by a personal relationship with Christ, if they personally must exercise faith in Christ, then once they're dead, it's too late to do that. So, you know, that whole concept of prayers for the dead was considered absolutely ridiculous, not only unscriptural but foolish. Things like indulgences, well, Martin Luther's 95 theses basically were a refutation of the idea of indulgences, the sale of indulgences.

That was rejected. The authority of the Pope was rejected. You know, his supremacy and so forth.

The merit of good works, that was rejected. The mediation of the Virgin Mary was rejected. The intercession in prayers to the saints was rejected.

All of the sacraments that were not instituted by Christ, all the sacraments that had no New Testament basis were rejected. Things like mass and penance and extreme unction and so forth, all those things were rejected. The reformers believed in two ordinances, and that's all we believe in, two ordinances.

We know what they are. Water baptism and what's commonly referred to as the Lord's Supper. We refer to it as the communion of the bread and cup.

That's the only two ordinances the reformers embrace. That's the only ones we embrace. They also rejected transubstantiation, which is a uniquely Roman Catholic belief that when the priest consecrates the wafer, it turns into the body, the literal body of Christ.

And the wine cup turns into the literal blood of Christ. They also rejected the idea of withholding the cup from the laity, because I guess now the Roman Catholic Church does give the cup to the laity, but that's new. I mean, that's real new.

I mean, last 10, 15, 20 years or so, that was unknown up until then. The reformers rejected the whole concept of the mass as a sacrifice. You know, according to Roman Catholic theology, Christ is sacrificed again at every mass.

Christ dies again. In fact, at every mass held virtually every day in every Catholic Church, Christ dies millions of times a day, according to Roman Catholic theology. The Bible tells us in Hebrews that once he put away the sins of the world, once, in one offering for all, that was it.

Christ does not die over and over and over. In fact, the Roman Catholic mass is a blasphemous doctrine. Furthermore, they rejected the doctrine of purgatory, one of the cruelest hoaxes ever perpetuated upon human beings, the doctrine of purgatory, which has no single scriptural justification.

So the reformers rejected it. The celibacy of the clergy, the reformers rejected that. The whole concept of rosary, images, you know, the statues and idols and so forth, holy shrines, pilgrimages to holy places, holy water, holidays, they rejected all of those things.

Burning religious candles, the veneration of relics, all of those were rejected by the reformers. They also rejected infant baptism. Martin Luther didn't reject it personally, but it was later rejected by the rest of the reformers.

Well, I believe they had a good idea. If it's not Bible, reject it. If you can't find it in the Word of God, reject it.

They even rejected the concept of the priesthood, because that's not a New Testament doctrine either, which brings up the third great reformation principle. Remember, it was faith alone. Secondly, the Bible alone.

Thirdly, Christ alone, Christ alone. This is the third reformation doctrine, the priesthood of every believer. Not that there is a separate caste or class of priests, not that there is a distinction between priesthood and laity, but that every believer is a priest according to the Bible.

And listen to this, and Christ alone is our mediator. Christ alone. The Bible says, in fact, I'll just read this to you, 1st Timothy, chapter 2, and verse 5, For there is one God and one mediator between God and men.

And who is that? Christ Jesus. One God, one mediator, and that's Jesus Christ.

One mediator.

One mediator.

That's why they said Christ alone. Christ alone, faith alone, scripture alone. Now, let me give you a couple of verses that declare the priesthood of the believer.

1st Peter, chapter 2, and verse 9, says, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. You are a priesthood. You, each believer, is a priest.

Revelation 1 says this. Revelation 1.5.

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And verse six says this, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his father unto him be glory and dominion forever and ever. He's made us all priests, in the sense that we all have access to God.

Remember the Old Testament priest was the mediator between God and man. A person came to the priest in order for the priest to mediate for him. The priest would make sacrifice.

The priest would see to it that blood was spilled so that you could be reconciled to God. But in the New Testament, we're all priests. In the New Testament, we all have access to God through the blood of Christ, so that we all have immediate access to God in heaven through Jesus Christ.

Here's what the Reformers said. There is no precedent in the New Testament church for a priest as a mediator. A priest is foreign to the New Testament.

Search the scriptures and what you'll find. You'll find apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, teachers, deacons, but you won't find priests. In fact, in the New Testament, the only references to priests would either be to the Jews or to the believer as priest, every believer being a priest.

Furthermore, the reformers said there are not two kinds of Christians, some who are clergymen and some who are laymen. There is no such distinction in the New Testament. No such thing as the clergy-laity distinction.

They claim that a religious profession was no more sacred than a so-called secular profession. You know, the guy who is a preacher, his job is no more sacred than the guy who is a plumber.

Both serve Christ.

We can both serve Christ in whatever capacity we serve. You know, if you're a farmer, you serve Christ as a farmer, or whatever. But certainly, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer is a key doctrine of Reformation faith, and we all need to hold on to it and hold firmly to it.

This, too, rejects many of the foundations of Roman Catholicism, because men go directly to God. We can all pray directly to God. We don't have to have a priest to hear our sins.

We don't have to have a priest to tell us what kind of penance to do. So many Hail Marys, and we don't make a pilgrimage or whatever. We don't have to have, we can go right to God ourselves in our own prayer closets through Jesus Christ.

No mediation through a priest, through a pope, or through a church. You know, salvation is not through a church. It's not through Roman Catholicism.

It's not through Protestantism. Salvation is through Christ, and Christ alone. Also, the Reformers believe that the church was a community of believers, not a hierarchy of religious officials.

They believe the church is an assembly, that it was an organism, not an organization of officials, not a building, not a denomination, not a man-made system, but an organism. The assembly of believers, that's what the church is. I spoke to someone just recently, and they were telling me on the phone, it's kind of a strange conversation, but they were saying that they were the church.

And I've had conversations like this one before, but this particular person, I said, what was that again? And the person said, I am the church. I guess I was kind of silent, you know, when they said, well, you understand what I'm saying?

I said, I don't understand what you're saying, not according to the Bible. You are not the church. The church is not a person.

The church is the assembly, ecclesia. It is the assembly. When the assembly comes together, that's church.

One person is not the church. I'm not the church.

You're not the church. But when we come together, that's the church, the ecclesia, the meeting, the assembling of the saints. That's the church.

It's not the building. It's not a denomination. That's not what church is.

I know many times we'll speak about the, we'll refer to the church as a building. You know, like, I'll meet you at church. Well, we know what church means.

It means when we gather, when we assemble, that's what church. Church is not a building. Don't think of the church as a building, because it's the assembly.

Wherever we are, that's church.

If it's in a field, if it's in a cave, if it's in this building or any other building, wherever the church meets, that's the church, not the building. Also, the Reformers said, ecclesiastical authority lies in the local church, and that the local church is to be under the sole authority of Christ and the Bible. That means things like bishops, cardinals, popes, or any other religious officials, you know, that would dominate a church, a local church, from the outside, are unscriptural and were rejected.

Even a denomination that would manipulate a local assembly is unscriptural. The local church is fully autonomous. That means it governs itself.

It hears from Christ alone, and is guided by Christ and the Word of God, not from a denomination, not from some religious headquarters, not from a pope or a cardinal or a bishop. But each local church is fully autonomous. It's a self-government.

Any kind of external government is unscriptural. And so the Reformers rejected it.

Now, Roman Catholicism considered a person a Christian if they belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, if they were baptized and so forth. The Reformers believed that the church was composed of a company of regenerated, that is, born again, baptized believers who were united as the body of Christ for the observance of the Lord's Supper and teaching and so forth. But they said, joining a church doesn't make you a Christian.

Being baptized doesn't make you a Christian. Faith in Christ makes you a Christian. Christ alone, scriptures alone, faith alone.

That's what makes us Christians. The Reformers rejected the antinomianism of the Roman Catholic Church. These were the moral excesses, because as we shared in earlier messages, and any study into church history would show you.

I will recommend, by the way, that you do some reading in church history. It'll bless you, it'll grieve you, it'll slap you on the face. It'll cause you to just weep over the hundreds of thousands, and even millions of people who laid down their lives for their faith, when we think of how soft we've become in the 20th century, as far as our Christianity.

We take our Christianity for granted, I'll tell you. You know, now we want to be comfortable, and we don't want to come to church if the air conditioning ain't cold enough, or if we've got to go too far, or if we've tired that day, and we can't only get ourselves to the assembly. You know, in Bible days, and even in Reformation days, it would cost these brothers and sisters their lives to believe the things we can freely believe.

It would cost them their lives. And yet, they embrace them still. What if it really cost us something today to be Christians?

What if it did? Now we can be comfortable. Come to church when we feel like it, put a few dollars in the plate or whatever.

And no real demands are made on us, but what if it really cost us? You know, anytime I read church history and I see the things that the early church sacrificed, what they paid to serve Christ, it just makes you question your own faith. And you know, I always wind up praying, Lord, give me faith like that.

Let me be found worthy like that. Because I'll tell you, sometimes I wonder how we'll look some of these martyrs in the eye in heaven. When we see what they went through, what they did, what they laid down for Christ.

And what can we say? What did we lay down for Christ? An hour a week.

They laid down their lives to serve the Lord. They rejected antinomianism. They rejected the formality and ritualism of Roman Catholicism.

In fact, they even rejected the Roman Catholic Church's involvement with the civil government. Because you know how intertwined Catholicism was, and still is, by the way, with government. The reformers rejected that.

You know what I think? I think we need a new reformation. I think we just need to go back to this reformation heritage and hold on to it.

The reformers said, we're not going to be like that. Separation of church and state, no bearing of arms, no military service, no guns, no oaths. That's the way the reformers believe.

Now, you know why?

Because that's New Testament.

It's New Testament. Well, those are the same views that later came to be held by the Baptists, the Congregationalists. I'm talking about the early Baptists, the Quakers, the Brethren, friends, Mennonites, hopefully us.

So, the Reformers believed that through faith, the Christian is brought into immediate communion with Christ himself. There's no need for the Virgin Mary as a mediator. There's no need for departed saints as intercessors.

There's no need for a priest to confess to. Every believer can pray. Every believer can seek God.

Everybody has access to God through faith in Christ. We can all hear from God for ourselves. Somebody say, Amen.

Praise God. You know, a couple of weeks ago, one of my daughters, I don't even know who I'd been talking to, but they overheard me on a telephone conversation. I'd been talking about the old shepherdship covering discipleship era.

Some of you know what I'm talking about. The old era that went around in the 70s. It's still with us in dribs and drabs today.

But according to this doctrine that swept through the charismatic churches, every man needed a covering. You know, we needed a, you all heard that terminology before, you know, you got to have a covering and so forth. Well, this was real popular in the 70s.

It was begun by a man named Juan Carlos Artes in his book called Disciple. And through that, a snowball effect started, and the whole movement began down in Florida. A group of men like Charles Simpson and Ern Baxter and Derek Prince and Bob Mumford, there was a whole group of them down there that started what was known as the Discipleship Movement.

And in this movement, everybody submitted to somebody else. Everybody had to have a covering. So you had a whole pyramid effect where you submit to me, and then I'd have you submit to that one, and you submit to the one before him, and everybody has a covering.

You had to have some man or whatever as a covering. So anyway, I was on the phone talking to somebody about this stuff, and one of my daughters asked me, Dad, what does that mean, a covering? And so I tried to explain it to him how that this was real popular in charismatic circles.

It's still current in many charismatic churches today. They still use that term covering real loosely. I'll tell you, whenever I hear the word, little antennas go up, you know, and my warning signs begin to flash.

Because it's not New Testament.

At any rate, as I was explaining it to her, she said, well, that's just like having a priest. I said, that's it. You've hit the nail on the head.

It's just like having a priest. If you've got to have a covering, then that's what you're saying.

You've got to have a priest. It's a return to Catholicism. It's a return to the Old Testament.

It denies the fundamental doctrine, reformation principle of the priesthood of every believer. We're all free to hear from Christ ourselves, to approach Christ ourselves, to pray ourselves. And if you've got to have a covering, it's not New Testament.

It's back under the bondage of a priesthood law, legalism bondage that will get you nowhere but hell. I thought, that was so simple, it was profound.

That's exactly right. That whole covering business, it's right back to having a priest. It's a denial of our Reformation heritage.

Might as well spit on the blood of the martyrs, I'll tell you, if you're going to go back to that kind of nonsense. You know why we don't follow the shepherdship covering neo-discipleship era? Because it's not Bible.

It's the same reason why we haven't followed the JDS era.

You know, the people who preach Jesus had to be born again. He died spiritually and so forth. Why don't we follow that?

Why don't we believe that? Because that's not Bible either. The Bible alone is the rule for our faith and our practice.

Why is it that we've rejected the holidays? Is it just to be mean and take, be the grunt, what they call them, the grinch that stole Christmas? Is that why?

No, because it's not Bible! In fact, we can clearly tell you that the whole Christmas celebration came from the Roman Saturnalia. It's pagan.

And the very word Easter is an abominable twisting of Ishtar, the pagan goddess. The whole thing is pagan. Why have we rejected it?

Because our creed, like the Reformers, is sola scriptura, only the Bible. If it's not Bible, let's get rid of it.

If it's Bible, then let's embrace it with all of our hearts. We've had people to look around and wonder, why is it that some of these ladies cover their heads in the church? Why is that?

Because it's Bible. Hello. 1 Corinthians 11.

Read it for yourself. Do your own homework. Don't listen to Brother Rusty.

Read 1 Corinthians 11. Study it. I mean, don't just do a passive reading, but read 1 Corinthians 11.

Search the Scriptures, like the Bible says. Study to show yourself approved. And let the Lord convict you.

It's not a law. We don't make laws. We don't make law about Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Mardi Gras, or a head covering, or anything else.

No law. It's not like it's some legality thing.

You know, we don't go for that either. That's wrong. At the same time, if something is viable, then I believe in all clear conscience, we should want to embrace it.

If it is not viable, let's reject it. Hello. It's the same reason why I reject the idea of bringing the muscle men, and the karate men, and the brick breakers, and the people who lay on beds of nails, and walk on hot coals.

We reject all of that because it is not Bible either. You search the New Testament. You search the Scriptures and show me how Christ evangelized.

How did Christ, how did the Holy Apostles win the lost? It wasn't through things that are occult. That's for sure.

It wasn't through things that glorified the flesh, because, you know, those things, brothers and sisters, are contrary to everything the New Testament teaches about what's humility, denial of self. Not the aggrandizement of self, but the denial of the flesh. Come on.

Such practices are actually contrary to everything the New Testament teaches. And not only that, but they're just so pitifully shallow and carnal. I don't understand how people can't see through it.

Some of the things that I see are so shallow, you couldn't, if it was a pond, you couldn't drown a flea in it. I mean, it's bad shallow. Sola Scriptura, that has to be our motto.

Sola Scriptura. If it's Bible, let's follow it. If it's not, let's reject it.

Just because everybody else does it, doesn't mean we should do it. Only the Bible. Well, you know what happened to Martin Luther?

Because of his Reformation Faith Sola Scriptura, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. He took his papal bull of excommunication and burned it in public. Instead of being shaken by it and so forth, he burned it in public.

Now, let me tell you, that's bold, because if you're arrested, you die. And he knew his days were numbered, if they could lay their hands on him. Well, excommunication failed to silence Martin Luther.

He continued to publish one thing after another, one publication after another. So finally, the Pope pulled the Emperor's strings and called for Martin Luther to come and stand before what they called the Imperial Diet, which was a gathering of not only the Emperor and all of the high officials, but all of the official clergy and all that. I mean, this was a big pompous to do.

And so in a little town called Worms, Germany, Martin Luther was called to appear before the Imperial Diet. Now, here is an unknown, excommunicated Roman Catholic priest standing before every important man in all of Europe, in this place. When he arrived there, all of his publications were laying on a table, and they said, Lutha, will you retract the things you have written?

Let me read his response to you, because it stands today, I believe, as some of the most convicting words you'll ever read. He says, Unless I can be refuted from clear reason or the testimony of the Scriptures, I cannot recant. My conscience is bound to the Word of God, and it is neither safe nor honest to act against one's conscience.

Then he uttered these words that I guess will ring through the halls of Christendom until the Lord returns. He said, here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me.

Well, I'll tell you, I don't know about you, but I read things like that, it actually causes me to tremble. Here he stood before the most powerful men in the world. Did he shudder?

Did he tremble? Did he cower? When they said, Martin Luther, recant, or you know what will happen, he said, unless you can prove me wrong from the Word of God, here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.

God, help me. Now, brothers, that's the kind of testimony we need to have. Why we do the things we do, why we reject the things we do?

Because if the Word of God says it, then let's stand on it.

That's why.

If the Word of God rejects it, then we'll do it too. We need to stand just as boldly and confidently as Martin Luther did. And this is a time when I believe it's especially important.

In our day and age, charismatics are still flocking to religious superstars in spite of what's happening in the media. And many of them have fallen still today. Multitudes are flocking to religious superstars, chasing religious personalities, elevating some like they were Hollywood entertainers or whatever.

I can't help but get a little bit upset with a lot of the shallow, foolish things I see in Christian circles, the so-called Christian musician rock stars and that kind of foolishness, Christian rap and some of the shallow music that we hear, the Christian rock music and so on. This is a time when humanism and psychology, rationalism, even mysticism, occultism, and so forth has infiltrated the churches. You'll find everything in church bookstores.

I'm talking about Christian bookstores. You'll find just about anything from hypnosis to reincarnation, New Age lies, Hinduism, aspects of Buddhism, evolution, occultism. I mean, you just check out the average bookstore and you'll come away weeping.

Hello. It's the truth. I mean, the proponents of theistic evolution, one of the biggest lies ever perpetuated.

I'll tell you, this is a time when church people are called to give their allegiance and loyalty to denominations and to causes and so forth. People are running after signs and wonders. They'll change anybody who supposedly has a word, you know, I've got a word or whatever.

Anybody who supposedly moves in the gifts, they'll run after that. They'll amen any emotional appeal for unity at all costs. I believe it's time for us to take up the Reformation cry of sola scriptura, sola scriptura, the Bible alone.

Let's follow the Bible alone. Not a personality. Don't even follow this preacher.

You follow what the Word of God says. And you check me out. You check anybody out with the Word of God.

And you stay with the Word of God. I don't care what personality.

I don't care how popular they are.

I don't care how wonderful you think they are. I don't care how much they supposedly move in the gifts. If what they say is not in line with the Word of God, you stay with the Word.

You reject the entertainer. You reject the preacher, the prophet, the priest. You reject anybody who departs from the Word of God.

It is only Scripture, only faith, only Christ. That must be our Reformation faith.

We must hold on to that heritage.

These are dangerous days.

And we must hold on to our Reformation heritage. Brother Rusty, why do we believe in nonresistance? Why do we believe that?

Because it's Bible, that's why. Not because it's popular, because believe me, it's unpopular. But it's Bible, and so we believe it.

Why we believe? Not in pacifism, but nonresistance. There's a difference between pacifism and nonresistance.

The pacifists are out there blockading the abortion clinics. Now, they're pacifists, they're nonviolent, but the nonresistant will not break the law unless the law is requiring him to disobey Christ. That's the only time we are justified in breaking the law.

Other than that, we follow the Scriptures, obey every ordinance of man. You follow what we're saying? Brother Rusty, why do y'all believe in divine healing?

Because the Bible teaches it. But people get prayed for and they die.

Well, we don't believe it because people live or die. We believe it because the Bible says the prayer of faith will heal the sick and the Lord will raise them up.

That's why we believe it, because it's what the Bible says. Let's believe what the Bible says. Let's reject what the Bible rejects.

Praise God. Everything the Bible teaches, let's hold on to it. Substitutionary blood atonement, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the rapture.

Not too many people believe in a rapture anymore. Hell, I believe in eternal damnation for the wicked, for the lost. Not too many people believe in that anymore.

In fact, I get a lot of periodicals, a lot of magazines, articles, newsletters, and things like that. You would be shocked to know how few people believe in hell anymore. It's just incredible.

The things I read just over and over, I see the faith being undermined, people abandoning just fundamental doctrines of faith, embracing humanism, rationalism, and so forth. I believe in the infallibility of Scripture, the literal resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the dead in Christ. One day, the wicked dead will be resurrected.

We believe in a literal bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe in all the principles of the Protestant Reformation. I believe in what it stood for.

By God's grace, we'll hold on to it. Let's hold on to it. Let's hold on tight to it.

Listen, I read something the other day. I just want to close with this. A true story about an airplane pilot and one of those small commuter turboprop airplanes.

The pilot started noticing, there were noises, strange noises coming from the back of the plane as they were in flight. And one of the lights on the dashboard would come off and on, it would flicker. And he told his co-pilot, he said, I'm going to go check what's going on in the back.

You hold down the fart up here, you know, and I want to go see what's going on back there. So the pilot walks in the back of the plane, and when he got back there, they hit some turbulence. The plane bounced up and down.

It knocked the pilot against the door of the plane, and then he found out what the strange noise was. The door wasn't shut good. And so when he hit it, the door opened, and out he went.

The co-pilot saw the door, emergency lights come on, and the buzzers and everything going off, so he knew the pilot just went out the door. So he calls in for an emergency landing. They wanted to get the plane on the ground as fast as possible, and he gets emergency clearance and so forth.

But what he didn't know was on the pilot's way out the door, somehow or another, he latched on to a ladder, some step, something he was holding on to.

Now, the plane's flying 200 miles an hour, and he's holding on.

The plane managed to make its emergency landing, and in a miracle event that nobody can really explain how, the pilot survived by holding on, and he kept himself a mere few inches above the ground as the plane landed. It was a miracle that the guy lived through it. Totally miraculous, a true story.

And, you know, he survived.

He held on.

Man, he held on for dear life, and you know what?

You know what? That's a, let me tell you what that will do.

Here's a message here. Sometimes it's hard to hold on. I mean, in turbulent times, difficult times, 200 miles an hour holding on the outside of an airplane, landing and so forth, sometimes it's hard to hold on.

But what's the alternative?

So hold on. That's the point. Hold on to your Reformation heritage.

Hold on to the faith.

Sometimes it's not going to be popular.

Sometimes it's not going to be easy.

There's going to be a whole lot of opposition out there against you because people are going to say you're divisive, you don't have any love, this, that, and the other.

“When you say, we're not going to go along with this whole ecumenical movement, that we're going to hold on to our Reformation faith, that we're not going to give it up, sometimes it'll make you unpopular, maybe turbulent, maybe rough. But consider the alternative and hold on. Let's say like Martin Luther.

Here, I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Here on God's Word, we'll stand.

Well, Amen. Father, I pray that you would encourage us all this evening through the Word to stand on the faith that was delivered by you to us through Christ, through the apostles, through the reformers, and Father, that you've entrusted to us. Help us to hold on, to cherish what we've heard, what we've had, what we've received, and to keep it, and to spread it, until you come for us.

Father, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.”