Our Reformation Roots #3

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

You can listen here.

“We're going to continue our studies in the Reformation. We're not doing anything in great length or great detail, but it's been heavy on my mind and heart for the last, actually a couple of months, to deal briefly with our Reformation heritage, to remind you of the vast doctrinal differences that separate us from Roman Catholicism. In a time and in an age where unity is placed above everything else, unity has become more important than truth in church circles.

It's certainly more important than doctrine in church circles. Doctrine is looked upon as a bad word, a divisive word. Kenneth Copeland recently said in one of his big crusades that unity is not going to come through doctrine.

Doctrine does not unite us, doctrine divides us. And therefore, we must lay such things aside so that we can be a part of everybody else who claims the name of Jesus Christ. Many times, you hear statements like that, and you'll get a great round of applause.

But if you don't think it through, I mean, it can sound good. And after all, we all believe in Jesus. Let's just go on together.

The problem is, the Mormons believe in Jesus. The Jehovah Witnesses believe in Jesus. The Moonees, the Krishnas, they all believe something about Jesus.

The devil believes in Jesus. What we believe is vitally important for our soul. I mean, if you don't believe right, you're not going to be saved, no matter how sincere you are.

There's a lot of sincere people out there who belong to cults. There's a lot of sincere Mormons, Catholics, Moonees, Jews, Muslims. Who's more sincere than a Muslim who's ready to die for Islam?

They're sincere, but they're wrong. And sincerity, when it comes right down to it, sincerity means nothing if you don't have truth on your side. Sincerity counts for nothing if you don't have truth on your side.

Truth counts for everything. Now, we've got to have the truth and hold the truth in the spirit of love. You don't hold the truth in the spirit of superiority and arrogance and such as that.

But we must stand for the truth. We cannot endorse what is wrong. I continue to hear reports virtually on a daily basis about a modern amalgamation of charismatic Christianity with Roman Catholicism.

If it's really not important what we believe, then why aren't we all Catholics? Why are we here tonight? Why aren't we just making mass once a week?

You could even go on Saturday. That way, you wouldn't have to get up Sunday morning. If it really wasn't important what we believe, which many are saying it's not, I get grieved, I get bothered down to the depths of my heart, really, when I hear some of the statements people make.

A man who has become very, very famous just recently, the last year or so, Paul King, proclaimed to be a prophet by many. I've heard him speak. When I heard him speak, the things he said weren't heretical or anything.

But he recently spoke at a major Roman Catholic conference, and in the conference, he blasted anybody there who was a Protestant and who had any derogatory thoughts about the Pope. Don't you people speak bad about the Pope? You know, you don't know what you're talking about.

You make your own Protestant popes. And to be honest, let's admit that many people do that. They make their own Protestant popes.

I mean, that's the truth. But his whole point of contention was that he said, I don't know if I'm a Protestant or a Catholic. He said, if I'm Catholic, well, I don't know if I'm Protestant.

I don't know what I'm protesting about. But statements like that strike, whenever I hear things like that, it's like a knife in the heart, or twisted in your ribs and turned, because millions, when I say millions, that's not an exaggeration. Millions of martyrs died at the hands of Roman Catholicism, because there was a vast difference in what Catholicism taught and in what the Bible taught.

Now, brothers and sisters, those differences remain today. Catholicism has not changed. What has changed is the faith and the fervor of those who once held to Reformation faith.

People who once said, yes, we will... You know what? They had three great cries.

It was only Scripture, only Christ, and only faith. Three great cries of the reformers. Nowadays, those things have been laid aside.

Now, it doesn't matter what you believe. We'll just get along with everybody, and if it's not scriptural, so what? I mean, we've got to, you know, they're our brothers and sisters, and if what they're teaching is against the Word of God, let's overlook those things and just unite with them anyway.

These are perilous times. In the last two weeks, I tried to show you from Revelation 17 where the modern church is going. Where is it going?

Going into one world, united, hodgepodge, amalgamation of religions, creeds, doctrines, denominations, all into a great one world apostate church. I believe that apostate church will be headed by Roman Catholicism. I believe the Bible makes that very clear.

Last week, we shared somewhat on the history of the Reformation, at least the times in which it was born, what was taking place in the world, what was happening within Catholicism itself. When the Reformers first began to wake up or re-examine the scriptures and awaken to, again, apostolic faith, we saw that the church, at the time of Martin Luther, who is considered the father of the Reformation in most respects, in fact, the Reformation is actually dated to, most church historians, October 31st, 1517, when he nailed his 95 b.C.s to the castle door, church door at Wittenberg in Germany. That's when the Reformation is dated from, although we know, as we saw last time, that there were men who actually preceded Martin Luther, men who preached and called for Reformation, men who were, some of them, within Catholicism, some from outside of Catholicism, men like John Huss.

There was a contemporary of Martin Luther, Zwingli, in Switzerland, and then there was the great morning star of the Reformation, John Wycliffe, and so forth. But actually, Martin Luther is credited with being the father of the Reformation. At his time, the church had drifted far, far away from its New Testament roots.

Instead of faith and a man's religion, or a woman's religion being something personal, instead of it being a real relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, religion had become sacramental, it had become ritualistic, it had become dry, impersonal, pretty much a formality, something to be observed, but not really to be embraced by the heart. Religion really, at that time, had very little or no effect at all on people's morals, upon people's ethics. So the Reformation, the Protestant awakening, was an attempt by the reformers, men like Martin Luther, John Huss, Tyndale, Zwingli, scores of others, to return to the simple pattern of New Testament faith, New Testament church, simplicity of worship, simplicity of doctrine, simplicity in everyday practice.

The reformers universally saw one thing as they studied the scriptures, and they were all scholarly men. You had to be in order to study the scriptures in those days because the Bible was not available to the average person. It was not in the language of the average person.

You either had to read Greek, Hebrew, or Latin in order to read the scriptures, and the average person, they were biblically illiterate. In fact, Roman Catholicism has always kept its adherence biblically illiterate throughout its history. It's kept its adherence that way.

And still to this day, in countries that are Roman Catholic strongholds, the people know nothing about the Bible. Literally, they know very little or nothing about the Bible. They're told that the priest will interpret it for them.

They don't need to know the Bible. The Catholic Church always suppressed translations of the Bible. They did not want the Bible translated into the language of the people.

In fact, anyone who dared to do so would be arrested, copies of the Bible confiscated and burned, and the people who owned those copies were also burned at the stake. You did not dare have a copy of the scriptures in your possession in the times of the Roman Catholic heyday. Multitudes, multitudes lost their lives simply for possessing a Bible.

You think about it. No one has been more oppressive against true faith than Roman Catholicism. It has assorted dark and bloody history.

Listen, here's the straight facts. This is just the way it is. Not even the persecutions of ancient Rome under men like Nero can match in the depth of blood or in the volumes of names martyred for the faith.

Not even ancient Rome in its pagan heyday martyred as many as the Roman Catholic Church did when it was entrenched in world European power. It bathed the continent of Europe in blood, the blood of martyrs. Literally millions went to death for their faith.

The church had become all-powerful. It had become entrenched not only as a religious power, but as a political power as well. The church ruled the empire.

If the church told an emperor that so-and-so was to be executed, the emperor dared not, dared not resist the papacy. They did what they were told to do, or they would be excommunicated, and they could lose their heads. They could be branded heretics, because the papacy, the pope, literally ruled the world.

He controlled the world. He controlled that part of the world, at least. But these reformers, as they studied the scriptures, they began to awaken again to the simple beauty of New Testament life.

Just how simple New Testament Christianity really was. And they began a move to reform the church from within. Of course, history records that Roman Catholicism did not reform.

Catholicism did not change. It did not return to simple New Testament pattern of what Christianity is all about. Any change had to take place outside of the walls of Catholicism.

Catholicism has not changed. It remains what it always was. In fact, I'm going to read something in just a few minutes, a few documents from Trent that they still uphold, and that will let you see that in no uncertain terms.

At any rate, the Roman Catholic Church resisted the reformers at every time, at every turn. The Roman Catholic Church branded their teachings as heresy. The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated the reformers.

In fact, it also executed many of the reformers. Many of them lost their lives for their faith in Christ. Today, when we say it's not important what you believe, you spit on the blood of millions of martyrs who died for what they believe.

I don't know how many are going to hold their heads up in glory. In fact, I don't know if they're going to make it in glory, to glory, with that kind of faith that says, it doesn't matter what you believe. It matters a whole lot what you believe.

It matters a great deal what you believe. Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Now, these theses were not inflammatory.

They were actually just a call to debate these issues. I want to just read a couple of them to you. And I think you'll get the tone of what they're all about.

Here was number 45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences, but God's wrath. Now, remember, the 95 theses predominantly were dealing with the subject of indulgences.

They also dealt with papal infallibility. They struck at the heart of Catholicism, to be sure. But here Luther says the church is building a gigantic cathedral in Rome by selling these indulgences.

Martin Luther says, if you pass by a man who's begging, he's got nothing to eat, you pass him by, and yet you give your money to buy an indulgence. He says this, you do not buy a papal indulgence, you do buy God's wrath. Here's number 46.

Christians are to be taught that unless they have more money than they need, they must reserve enough for their family's need, and by no means squander it on indulgences. It's a squandering of money. Here's number 82.

If the pope can release souls from purgatory for the payment of money, why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of most holy love and for the supreme need of souls? He can do it for money. Why doesn't he do it just because he loves people?

I mean, you'd think common sense would help you to see through the whole idea of indulgences and actually the whole concept of purgatory, which was birthed in Catholicism solely to enrich its own coffers. Number 86, listen to this one. Why does not the pope whose wealth is today greater than the wealth of the richest crassus build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?

He wanted to build the church so bad, why didn't he do it with his own money? At the time, you see, Rome owned one third of Europe. I mean, the church owned it.

It was just theirs. Well, as you might guess, these 95 theses did not make Martin Luther popular. In fact, it didn't make him popular, at least with Catholicism.

It made, they spread all over Europe quickly. They were copied, they were duplicated, and then everywhere, these things became the subject of discussion. Martin Luther was then contacted by an emissary of the Pope with a papal bull, which said, you've got 90 days to retract your writings, or you'll be excommunicated, and you'll suffer what heretics suffer.

And you know what heretics suffer, we'll kill you. We'll give you 90 days to recant these things. And this was a papal bull.

Now, that's a decree from the Pope himself when he sits ex cathedra and writes infallibly on matters of faith and doctrine, morals, and so forth, practice. When he writes ex cathedra, that's a bull. When he says, this is the way it is, this is God speaking.

I mean, this is infallible. They sent this to Martin Luther. Now, you recant or you're dead meat.

I mean, that's what it amounts to. Martin Luther. Now, nobody can say this about him.

The man, the man was bull. Martin Luther publicly burned the papal bull in front of his German audience, and the Reformation went into full swing at that point in time. But what I want to share with you this evening is basically the three pillars on which the Reformation stands.

The three great Reformation doctrines, and that's what they're referred to as. The three great Reformation principles. I want to give you those three, and begin expounding on them tonight.

The first one is this. These were the doctrines rediscovered by the reformers upon which all of Protestantism stands. The first one is this.

Justification by faith alone. Justification by faith alone. That's the one, that's the central pillar of Reformation faith.

Secondly, solo scriptura. One of the great cries of the reformers. Only scripture.

That is, the Bible alone is the authority for our faith and our practice. Not the Bible plus church tradition, not the Bible plus the decrees of the Pope, or anybody else, solo scriptura. Only scripture.

The Bible alone is the authority for all faith and practice. And the third great pillar of Reformation faith is the priesthood of all believers. The priesthood of every believer.

These are the doctrines that the Reformation actually hinged upon. They are the doctrines that divided the church in the 15th and 16th century. And brothers and sisters, these are the doctrines.

These are the three great Reformation doctrines that divide us from Roman Catholicism today. There is a vast gulf between the non-Catholic and the Catholic. The Protestant believer and the Catholic.

A vast gulf, and it hinges upon these three Reformation principles right here. Roman Catholicism has not changed. It believes the same way it always did.

Unfortunately, Protestants today, Charismatics especially, no longer believe that these great Reformation principles are important. They don't believe they're vital. They don't believe anything's important except unity and love.

But it's a false unity, and it's a false love when it is not based on truth. Let's look at these. First of all, justification by faith alone.

Justification by faith alone. That is, justification by faith without works. A man is not justified by his works.

Martin Luther spoke of, well, what he referred to as an alien righteousness. Now, the alien righteousness is basically this. It's a righteousness that's not our own.

It's an alien righteousness. It's a righteousness given to us, imputed to us. And how is it imputed?

By faith. By the faith of the believer. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.

We're not saved by our own righteousness. We're not saved by our own good works. Aren't you glad that we don't have to earn it, deserve it?

We're not worthy of it? We can't earn it. What could we do to earn salvation?

What could we do to erase the stains of sin that have blackened our souls? What could we do? We could do nothing.

So we can't earn salvation, but there is an alien righteousness imputed to us. It's the righteousness of Christ that's imputed only by faith. It's given us as a free gift of God's grace.

Now, I want to just remind you of how Martin Luther came to this understanding. Remember, he was a priest. He was actually a monk.

Martin Luther grew up a good Roman Catholic boy who had no aspirations whatsoever for the priesthood. He was a student, an honest student, an excellent student, and he spent his youth preparing for a career as a lawyer. That's what he intended to become.

But something happened in his life. They date this back to 1505, when he was caught in a severe thunderstorm. Lightning was striking all around him.

Lightning struck nearby and knocked him to the ground, and he knew he was going to die as this lightning storm broke all over around his head. At that point, Martin Luther made a vow. If his life was spared, he'd become a monk.

So, his life was spared, and Martin Luther kept his vow. He entered into a monastery, and in 1507, he took his ordination vows and became a very conscientious priest. One thing he was always smitten with was a powerful awareness of his own sinfulness.

That was something he could never escape from. No matter how much he did, no matter how many good works he performed, he couldn't get away from this awareness of his own sinfulness. Of course, Roman Catholicism taught that a person was justified by faith, yes, but parallel with faith, they were justified by their own works of righteousness, their own meritorious acts.

And so, as a priest or a monk, Martin Luther prayed consistently. Many, many times, he would spend all night in prayer. They believed, as these ascetic monks did, in depriving yourself of comforts and luxuries.

They took vows of poverty and celibacy and so forth. They would sleep on a cold stone floor without covers, you know, in the middle of winter and so forth, because they believed that by depriving your body, you can draw your soul or your spirit closer to God. He made perpetual confessions of his sins.

In fact, the church history records that he would actually wear out all of the other priests by his constant confessions of his sins. They didn't want to hear him anymore, the other priests, because they got tired of his confessions. He would deprive himself, and he thought that these things would draw him closer to God.

He made a statement that I thought was humorous. He said, if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was me. But no matter how much he did, no matter how much he prayed or fasted or whatever, he never felt any closer to God.

He never felt like he did enough. And you know, this is the great weakness in any works religion. The great weakness is this.

If you're saved by works, how do you know when you've done enough? How do you know when you've worked enough? How do you know when you've fasted long enough?

How do you know when you've prayed enough? And if you pray 48 hours straight, no matter how many laps you make around those beads, it's still not enough. You never, ever have any satisfaction in your heart, any sense of knowing that you've finally done enough, now I'm saved.

In fact, you never have that knowledge. No matter how much a person does, when they're not saved, all they're aware of is how sinful they are. So this is the great weakness.

When can I ever have any confidence that I've done enough to be saved? You never can. Not when you're in a works-based religion that bases one's salvation on works.

Luther thought, as all Catholics did, that salvation was earned. And of course, it came through the sacramental graces that were bestowed by the Catholic Church, water baptism, the infant sprinkling, bestowed sacramental grace, and of course, good works. There was auricular confession, and various acts of contrition, absolution, penance, and so on.

But according to Roman Catholicism, then and today, a person was not saved by faith and faith alone. That's the way Catholicism believed then, that's the way they believe now. They do not believe that you're saved by faith alone.

That's a doctrine of the Reformation. Martin Luther spent more and more time studying his Bible.

The more he read, the more convinced he became that Roman Catholicism was not teaching the straight in regards to one's salvation. Then he started reading some of the things by Wycliffe and Huss. And then he began reading his Bible more and more.

And he fell across a passage over in Romans chapter 1 that says this, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Then there was a verse over in chapter 3.

In fact, if you have your Bibles, I'd like you to turn here with me in Romans chapter 3.

This passage of Scripture turned on a light in the soul of the monk named Martin Luther.

I want to begin reading in verse, well, let's just read beginning in verse 19, keeping in mind that the Book of Romans proclaims virtually from beginning to end that we are saved solely by God's grace, that we're saved by God's grace. It's not because of any meritorious works that we've done. In fact, Romans tells us we're unworthy of God's grace, every one of us.

Look with me in chapter 3, verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and that all the world may become guilty before God. The law was not a means of works whereby a person could become saved, but the law instead showed man that they were all guilty.

The law showed man that none of them were holy. None of them were righteous. The whole world is guilty before God.

Verse 20, Therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Now, what do you think? Now, here's a scholarly, sincere, I mean sincere Roman Catholic.

Martin Luther, fervent, wanting to know God, you know, doing all of these acts, these works and so forth, reads passages like this by the deeds of the law. In other words, by works, nobody is justified. And the law, these things the law requires are not in order for you to earn salvation, but to show you how sinful you really are and how far from God you really are.

That's what we, you know, we read the law. We read the Bible. You know what you find out?

When you're a sinner, you're far from God. A person who doesn't know anything about the Bible, a lot of times you start talking to them about their sinfulness, and they don't believe they're sinful. They'll shrug their shoulders.

Because I'm a good person. I keep the Ten Commandments. I do the best I can.

I don't kill people. I'm a pretty good person. But if they got involved in reading what the law requires, what God requires in the law, you know what they'd find out?

I don't have a chance. I am a thousand zillion miles away from God. I'm not even close.

That's what the law does. It shows men how sinful they are. Well, verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

There's a righteousness that does not come by observing the law, in other words. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which is through faith in Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all, them that believe, for there's no difference between Jew or Greek, between male, female, black, or white, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

In other words, redemption is not something we earn. It's not something we, it's not acts, meritorious acts that we perform. We're justified freely.

You don't have to buy indulgences to get out of purgatory. You don't have to do acts of contrition. You don't have to do penance.

It's justification free. Now, keep in mind, all of these things are sinking in to the heart and soul and mind of a sincere Martin Luther. We're justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.

How is it? Through faith in his blood. To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.

Jesus, in other words, by shedding his blood, he was the atonement, he was the covering for all of our sins. It was only Christ. How are we saved?

Only Christ. That was one of the great reformation cries. Solo scriptura, only the Bible, only Christ, only faith.

Only Christ, they said. Only Christ. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, verse 26, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Justifies those who believe. Verse 27, where is boasting then? It is excluded.

How can you boast and say, I fast twice a week, like the self-righteous Pharisee. I tithe of all that I possess. I go to church five times a week.

Not just once, like these un-pious people over here. I'm there five times a week. I do all these good works.

I give to the poor. I'm kind to animals. I blah, blah, blah.

He says, how can you boast when salvation is by grace and not by your works? You can't. He says, it is excluded.

By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Because when salvation is based on faith through grace, grace through faith and not by works, you've got nothing to boast about. If you're saved, it's because of God's grace, not because of your works. Verse 28 is the verse that turned on the light in the soul of Martin Luther and actually brought him to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Verse 28 is the verse. The truth of this verse resulted in the Protestant Reformation. When one Roman Catholic monk saw the fallacy of the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification by works, Paul said in verse 28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Praise God. Justified by faith. How are we saved?

Not by our works. Our works mean nothing.

We can't earn our salvation. We are justified by faith without the deeds of the law. This passage flew in the face of everything Martin Luther had been indoctrinated with in his Roman Catholic background and in his Roman Catholic heritage.

In this sacramental religion, with its complicated forms of penance and so forth, prescribed rites and rituals and sacramental grace, earning one's salvation, this flew in the face of everything that he had ever been taught. Let's read the next verse. Is he God of the Jews only?

Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it is one God, which shall justify the Jew by faith and the Gentile through faith. How does he justify him?

Through faith. How is the Jew saved? By works?

No, by faith. The only way he'll be saved is by faith. He's got to have the same faith in Christ the Gentile has to have.

Nobody's justified by being a Jew. Nobody's justified by being a Roman Catholic. Nobody's justified by being a Baptist.

You're not justified because your parents are saved. You're only saved by faith. Only by faith.

Chapter 4 and verse 1, boy, I'll tell you, he just doesn't stop. He just goes right on and describes here in this passage, What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, then he's got something to boast about.

Was it works that got Abraham saved? No. What does the scripture say?

Verse 3, Abraham believed God, and it, that is his belief, his faith, was counted unto him for righteousness. And he goes on and describes the difference between a works salvation and a grace salvation. He says, now, to him that worketh is the reward not of grace, but of debt.

If you work for something, then how can, when you get it, how can you say, you know, boy, this is a real gift, this is grace. It's not grace, it's a debt. If you work for it, you earned it.

But salvation, we don't earn. Salvation is a gift. It is given to us.

And by its very nature, because it is a gift, it is not a reward. There is a vast difference between Catholicism, which teaches salvation is a reward, and Protestantism, which teaches salvation is a gift. Is it a reward?

If it's a reward, then it's something you earned. It's something you work for, it's something you deserve, it's something you merited. Then it is not a gift, it is not grace.

You're not saved by grace. The Bible tells us, how are we saved? By grace, through faith.

That's right. That's the great chasm that divides us from Catholicism. Works versus faith.

They believe salvation justification is a reward. We believe salvation justification is a gift. It's not by works.

He says, verse 4, if you worked, then the reward is not reckoned of grace, it's a debt, you deserved it. But, verse 5, to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. God justifies the believer.

The worker, know the believer. Even as David, all the way back in the Psalms, describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. What did the Reformers believe?

Justification by faith alone. Justification by faith without works. Without works, praise God.

He goes on and just describes how that Abraham was justified not by being circumcised, not by observing the law, but actually he was justified before he was circumcised. He was justified by his faith. And it's the same way with us, beloved.

It's not works, it's not deeds, it's not meritorious actions, it's grace. Look with me in chapter 5. I mean, you read Romans, and you'll come to the realization that nothing you do can earn salvation for you.

You can't be good enough to earn salvation. You can't be good enough to deserve salvation. You feel like an unworthy sinner tonight?

Listen to me. You feel like an unworthy sinner. You feel like somebody who is just not worthy of God's blessings or God's grace or God's healing or God's provision.

You feel that way? You're not worthy. None of us are worthy.

What could we do to deserve the blessings of heaven? What could we do to deserve all the blessings of glory poured out upon us? Not a thing.

What could we possibly do to earn or to merit the gift of eternal life? There's not a thing in the world we could do. Because you know what?

If we're honest, we realize in our hearts, although we've been regenerated, I'm talking about in our heart of hearts, we know we're not what we should be. And boy, if we had to deserve being saved, we'd just never make it. We'd just never make it.

If we had to earn it, if we had to deserve it, we just wouldn't make it. I'll tell you something else. If you got to earn getting healed, you're not going to get that either, brothers or sisters.

We're going to have to start finding out that the gifts, the blessings, the promises, the covenants are grace. They're grace. They're all grace.

And though they are conditions, let's not kid ourselves, they are conditions, yet we have to realize the fact that we're saved by God's grace, we're preserved by God's grace, we're healed by God's grace. He expects us to exercise faith, but that too is God's grace. He says, therefore, verse 1, chapter 5, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

You'll never have peace if you've got to be justified by works, because you'll never do enough. You'll never earn it, never merit it, never feel like you've done enough to be saved, to have peace, to be able to sleep, and have confidence that if you died before you awoke, you'd wake up in glory. You'd never have that peace.

The only way you can have it is by realizing we're justified by faith. It's only because I believe on Christ. It's not because of what I did, it's because of what He did.

He died at Calvary, He paid the price for my sins, and now by my simple repentance of sin, and belief in Christ, calling upon Him for grace, His righteousness is imputed to me. God sees me not as I am, but He sees me as Christ is. He sees me righteous.

And it's a gift, it's all gift, it's all grace. Brothers and sisters, it's no wonder that they would say, praise be to God for this unspeakable gift, because that's exactly what it is. Verse 6, He says this, For when we were yet without strength in due time, at the right time, according to God's perfect timing, Christ died for the ungodly.

That's you and me. In verse 8, He said, God commends His love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more than being now justified by His blood. Not by our works, but by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Praise God. We will be preserved and kept. That's what Romans is all about.

But I'll tell you, you just, you read these passages, you read passages like Romans chapter 10, and how that we see in these passages. Let me just read a verse to you right here.

He's speaking here of Israel. His desire for them was that they might be saved. Verse two, for our bare them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves into the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And you know how this applies so well to anyone who's involved in a work's salvation religion, like Catholicism, or any of the cults. All the cults are involved in a work's salvation religion.

But the point is, he's saying this. Israel, I'm praying for Israel that their eyes would be opened, because although they're zealous, and there's a lot of zealous Catholics, a lot of zealous Mormons. I mean, who's more zealous than the Mormons?

Riding their bicycles from door to door, or the Jehovah Witnesses going from door to door, and so forth. Who's more zealous than these people? But he says, they're ignorant of God's righteousness.

They don't realize that righteousness is imputed to us by faith, and they're out to establish their own righteousness. What do you think it is that keeps the Jehovah Witnesses knocking on doors? He's trying to earn his salvation.

What is it that keeps a Mormon peddling his bike, week after week, month after month, as they give two years of service? What do you think keeps them out there, rain or shine, cold or heat? They're trying to work and earn their salvation, because they have no assurance of salvation by grace through faith, none whatsoever.

They, a Roman Catholic, has no confidence, no assurance that they're saved. They don't know that they're saved. My wife had a conversation one time with a Roman Catholic priest, the priest from the former church that she was a part of, after she received Christ and was born again.

And she told the priest, she said, I've been saved, I've been born again. Christ has come into my heart and forgiven me of my sins, and I know that if I die, I know I'm going to heaven. And the priest just looked at her with a puzzled look on his face.

He said, that's wonderful, Diane. He said, because I don't know if I'd go to heaven if I died. It's a works salvation.

They have no assurance of faith, because when have you worked enough? When have you done enough? You never do.

You just never do. He tells us, they go about to establish their own righteousness by their own works, good deeds, meritorious actions, and they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. It's a submission.

It's a repentance and confession of faith that Christ died for you, that what he did at Calvary was sufficient for the remission of your sins. It's embracing him as a Savior, allowing him into your own life and heart. And Christ, verse 4, says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

Well, it's no wonder that the Reformation began. When you get ahold of verses like this, Romans just so full of such passages. Romans 10, 9 says, If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.

That's how simple salvation is. The Reformation was a move back to simplicity. Confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, you'll be saved.

It doesn't come much simpler than that, does it?

That's just Romans. That's not even taking into consideration books like Galatians, that was written to refute, especially to refute the errors of those who believe in a work's salvation.

That's not even to say anything about Ephesians. In fact, I want to read something. Ephesians chapter 2, a familiar passage I know, but I'm going to read it to you.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says this, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Just doesn't get much clearer or much plainer than passages like this.

Nothing we do has sacramental grace attached to it, even though Roman Catholicism teaches otherwise. You know, there are some Protestant churches that also teach that there's sacramental grace attached to different rites and rituals. Some have made the right of water baptism a sacrament of grace, so that if you're baptized in water, you're saved.

That's what transmits the new birth. But that's what the Church of Christ teaches. You know, the denomination called the Church of Christ.

That's what the United Pentecostal Church teaches. They believe in a baptismal regeneration doctrine. Roman Catholicism teaches it.

So a sacrament of grace is an infinite sprinkle. They won't go to hell. You won't go to heaven, but you won't go to hell.

You'll go to purgatory. And eventually, somebody will be able to pray you out of there. You know, it might take a thousand years, it might take a million, zillion years.

Depends on how much money you can leave behind for masses and prayers to be said for. But eventually, you can get out of purgatory according to Roman Catholicism. But Martin Luther led these passages and faith came alive in his heart.

Because all of these things flew directly in the face of everything he had been taught in Roman Catholicism. Well, the church responded to his 95 theses and his proclamations of faith in Christ for salvation and justification and so forth. He was excommunicated in 1520.

He would have been killed if they could have caught him. But he found a protector in Germany that never allowed him to be killed as a heretic. But in response to Martin Luther's proclamations of faith, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent met in a session that lasted some 18 years, and they made the following, among many other proclamations, this is some of the things they have said.

And these proclamations still stand today. I want you to listen to this. Roman Catholicism proclamed at the Council of Trent, If anyone shall say that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema.

The point is, they reject the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. And if anybody says that they are saved by faith alone, let them be anathema. Let them be accursed, in other words.

Roman Catholicism proclaimed that in 15, at the Council of Trent, they still proclaim it today. They insist that good works will save us, along with faith, that the two cooperate together. The Reformers said this, good works is an evidence of faith.

Good works is a fruit of faith. Catholicism says good works is the cause of faith. Now, there's a difference.

The difference is cause and effect. Catholicism teaches good works will cause or bring about your salvation. The Reformers said good works are actually the effect of a person's salvation.

If you're saved, you'll have good works. If you're saved, it'll be the fruit. It'll be the outgrowth of your life.

If you're saved, you'll be good. If you're saved, you'll do good. If you're saved, you'll be holy.

If you're saved, you want to serve the Lord. But it's an effect of your faith and not the cause of your justification. Catholicism teaches the opposite.

Trent also declared this. If anyone shall say that the righteousness received is not preserved and also increased before God by good works, but that those good works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of its increase, then let him be accursed. Let them be anathema.

If you say that good works is the fruit of salvation, it's the fruit of justification, then Roman Catholicism says, let them be accursed. Vatican I and Vatican II did not change one single thing about these declarations. Roman Catholicism still pronounces a curse upon all who believe in the Reformation doctrines of justification by faith alone.

The Reformers said, only faith. Jesus said, only believe. The Apostles said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

That's how simple justification is. Roman Catholicism says, anyone who says that they are saved by faith alone, without works, let them be accursed. Well, we believe, as the Reformers did, that we're saved by the free, undeserved grace of Christ.

We're not saved by what we do, we're saved by what Christ did. Of course, we don't disapprove of good works. We believe that the person who is justified will do good works, but that's evidence of our salvation.

It's not the source of our salvation. We don't do good works to earn salvation. We do good works because we're saved.

Now, this cry of only faith by Martin Luther and the Reformers, you can imagine if you think it through a little bit, it actually struck at the core of Roman Catholicism because it meant that purgatory was a lie. Obviously, purgatory couldn't stand if a person was saved by grace through faith, and purgatory is a joke and a cruel one at that. It was a rejection of indulgences.

Masses and prayers for the dead were worthless. They were useless. If people have to be saved by personal faith in Christ, praying for a dead soul is useless.

It's too late. It meant penance was worthless because you can't do any acts now to perform forgiveness, to earn forgiveness or whatever. Pilgrimages to holy sites and holy shrines and the veneration of relics and so forth.

All of that is foolishness and pagan superstition. Prayers to the saints, prayers to Mary, all those things are also worthless. Infant baptism is unscriptural because an infant can't believe.

Just the other night, I happened to see a little bit of the Eternal Word Channel, the Roman Catholic Television Channel, where one of the priests was leading people in a recitation of the Rosary. Then at the end of that, he held up a relic. I forget there was a relic of some saint.

I can't remember now which one it was, but he held up a relic and he blessed everybody who was watching this relic. I tell you, the superstition attached to Catholicism is heartbreaking. It really is.

It's a heartbreaking thing. You have to keep in mind that you don't want to become angry with Roman Catholic people. They are trapped in a superstitious belief system that has held them in bondage all of their lives.

What you've received is grace. It's grace. It's not something that you can boast in.

It's just something you can praise God for, and you can pray that God likewise would open their eyes. That all of these relics, all of these superstitions are worthless. Actually, they're ridiculous.

But they're blinded by it. They can't see it. They don't understand it.

The Reformation called men back to just simple New Testament faith and practice. Salvation, brothers and sisters, is a result of repentance to sin and reception by faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness is imputed to you, not earned by you.

It's imputed by God's grace. It's charged to our account. I like the analogy, I used it once or twice before, of a checkbook.

I could take your checkbook, and with your deposit slip, I could deposit thousands of dollars in there, and that would just be a gift to you. Praise God, I wish I could do it for you. My money deposited into your account, now it's yours.

Do with it as you will. It's been put in your account. Well, in a very real sense, that's what imputation means.

That's exactly what the doctrine of imputation means. The righteousness of Christ has been charged to your account. It's been placed in your account.

God's gift, God's grace, by your simple faith in Him. Lord, I repent. Lord, I believe.

Lord, I receive you. And by simple faith, very simple, the righteousness of Christ is charged to your account, imputed to you, given to you. It's a free gift.

You can't earn it. You can't buy it. You can't deserve it.

You can't merit it. It's God's gift of grace. Remember this, Isaiah, I'm going to read this passage, and I'm going to close.

Isaiah 64 says this. Isaiah 64 in verse 6, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. The point is, Isaiah was proclaiming, here in Isaiah 64 in verse 6, that all of our righteousness, all the good things we do are worthless and nothing.

I mean, as far as to try and earn salvation, you can't earn it. Man, in and of himself, cannot perform any good deeds that are really acceptable in God's sight, because everything we do is tainted with sin. Every deed we do.

Now, I'm talking about as an unregenerate man, as an unsaved man, everything you do is tainted with the sin of selfishness. Everything has, even our good deeds are spawned from selfish motives. We're incapable of doing good.

We're incapable of pleasing God. That's what Isaiah's saying here. We're all an unclean thing, and our righteousness, all the good things we do, all the good things that we would hold up and say, You see, God, I've kept the Ten Commandments.

I was kind to animals. I gave to charity. I fasted.

I went to church twice a week. All these things, God says, it's all filthy rag. It's all filthy in my eyes.

It's all unclean. Nothing we do, nothing we can do, can earn God's grace or God's mercy. We can only receive it by faith.

So, let me just sum up by saying that the differences between Pentecostism and Protestantism is cause and effect, very simply, cause and effect. They believe good works cause our salvation. We believe good works are the effect of our salvation.

The Protestant believes that his own works are unnecessary and unacceptable to God anyway. Now, that is to earn salvation. Because we're all sinners, we're really incapable of doing anything really pleasing to God.

There's none righteous, no, not one, the Bible tells us. And since Christ died for our sins, for all of our sins, and actually his death paid the penalty, paid the full price for our sins, there's no need for us to pay more. The whole idea of indulgences, the whole idea of penance, the whole idea of a man having to perform works in order to receive more, forgiveness actually is a discrediting of the atoning work of Christ.

If you say something more has to be done, other than just repenting of your sin, and calling upon Christ for grace, for forgiveness, if you say you've got to do more than that, you've got to say, 40 Hail Marys, you've got to suffer so many Our Fathers, you've got to make a pilgrimage over to Fatima or Lourdes or Medjugorje, or at least go over to Tickfall and pray in the grove over there. Or you've got to put up a statue of Mary in your yard, and you know, if you've got to do any of those things, then what Christ did for us on Calvary was not sufficient. It was just not enough to forgive us completely or forgive us entirely, or forgive us always.

We have to pay more by our own good work. So there's a vast difference. That's just the first principle that divides us from Catholicism.

Of these three great Reformation principles, we'll deal with the other two next time. Follow your heads with me. Amen.

Well, Father, I pray that the message tonight, you would impress it on our hearts, that you would help us to understand with renewed vision, the importance of Reformation faith, Bible faith. Father, not that we would be void of good works, but Father, that we would recognize that we can never deserve the graces that you freely bestow upon us. We can't merit the forgiveness of our sins.

We can't merit any of the blessings or promises that you bestow freely upon your children, purely out of love, purely out of grace. So, Father, help us to deal with our own feelings of unworthiness. Let's acknowledge, help us to acknowledge that we are unworthy.

But, Father, help us to lay that aside and to embrace the righteousness of Christ that is so freely given to us. And, Father, I pray for everyone here tonight that there would be in each of our hearts a fresh confusion of confidence and peace, that there would be an eradication of condemnation and a false sense of guilt. Father, let us lay all of that aside, repent fully of every sin.

“And, Father, help us to realize that all of our righteousness, all of our salvation is all in You. And help us, Father, always to utter the same Reformation prize. Only Christ, only faith, only Scripture.

Let these, God, our life, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Praise God. Amen. Hallelujah.

Amen. Let's stand.”