****THE SOLID ROCK (2)revised

On Christ, The Solid Rock I Stand

Martin Luther was only 13 years old when he enrolled at the University of Erfurt to study law. He earned a baccalaureate and a master’s degree in the shortest amount of time allowed by university statutes. And he was so skilled at public debates that he earned the nickname, “The Philosopher.”

It was All Saints’ Eve in 1517 when he publicly objected to the church’s practice of selling indulgences. Those were documents whereby parishioners could have their sins forgiven. As Tetzel once preached, "Once the coin into the coffer clings, a soul from purgatory heavenward springs!"

Martin Luther was rude, crass, and obnoxious. And the older he became, the more cantankerous he was. He mocked the popes and other theological enemies with cutting sarcasm and vulgar language.  Nevertheless, he was God’s chosen man for the times, and he was on a mission to declare that SALVATION IS BY FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE.

Luther objected to so many of the church’s practices that he called for public debates to challenge the authority of the church and expose its blasphemous and heretical paganism.

At one debate, he declared that "a simple layman armed with the Scriptures was superior to both popes and councils without them.”

When the church leaders threatened to excommunicate him, he replied with his three most important treatises which are like these three Distinctives held by Baptists today:

In the first, he called for church reform, arguing that all Christians were priests.

The second treatise called for the reduction of the church’s seven sacraments to just two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's Supper.                                                             

In the third, he declared that Christians are free from the bondage of church laws, but instead, they were bound in love to their neighbors.

In the 1953 movie, MARTIN LUTHER, is a scene where his opposing superior asked, “If we removed all these ‘rituals and relics’ as you say, with what would you suggest we replace them?”

Luther’s answer was powerful and unapologetic; he simply shouted, “CHRIST!”

In 1521, the Holy Roman Emperor summoned Luther to an assembly at Worms, Germany. Luther believed he was going to another debate, but it was a trial demanding him to recant his 95 theses.

He replied, "Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures, I cannot and will not recant.” Then he added, "Here I stand. I can do no other.  God help me!  Amen.”

When the Roman church convicted him of heresy, Luther fled and hid for nearly a year. Yet he maintained his defiant determination to STAND FIRM with God’s Word against a corrupt religious system for the rest of his life.

I don’t know if Edward Mote was inspired by Martin Luther, but in his hymn, THE SOLID ROCK, are some similar declarations of truth that remind us that we too, must stand firm on Christ alone. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name. On Christ, the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

N

****A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD

Oct. 31 is the beginning of what we generally refer to as the HOLIDAY SEASON and I am intrigued by how the holidays line up on the calendar.

  

Halloween comes first and in actual dollars spent on decorations and entertainment, it has overshadowed Christmas as the biggest holiday of the year.  From a spiritual standpoint, Halloween is an appropriate holiday; the world is in darkness. That is our natural condition.  In fact, the Bible tells us that “men love the darkness because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19).  It also tells us that we are “dead in sin” (Eph. 2:1, Col. 2:13).  We are “of our father, the Devil” and have no knowledge of God so it is understandable that most people embrace or celebrate the holiday of darkness, superstition, and evil.   Unless and until the Spirit of God brings us light, we cannot know Him.

  

The next holiday on the calendar is Thanksgiving Day.  In 1621, the Pilgrims had just endured a terrible winter in which scores of children and adults had starved to death. They were discouraged and defeated and ready to return to England when God answered their prayers and another ship arrived with medical supplies, food, and just enough hope to encourage them to press on despite the adverse conditions.

Two years later William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, said, “Inasmuch as the Father has given us an abundant harvest and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish; and He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship Him according to the dictates of our own conscience; I now proclaim that on Thursday, Nov. 29, 1623, we will render thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings.”

Romans 2:4 says, “The goodness of God leads you to repentance.” We celebrate His goodness at Thanksgiving and the ultimate manifestation of God’s Goodness was the gift of His Son, the Light of the world, and we celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas time; the very next Holiday on our calendar.

St. Valentine's Day was named for a priest near Rome during the rule of Claudius II.  A few years before Claudius began persecuting Christians for not worshiping the Roman gods, war broke out in the Roman Empire and Claudius began drafting all the able-bodied men to go into battle.  Many of the men were reluctant to leave their families or their sweethearts.  So, to remedy that, Claudius ordered that there be no marriages and that all engagements were to be broken off immediately.

In addition to helping many Christians escape persecution, Valentine earned a reputation for being a friend of lovers by secretly performing Christian marriages in defiance of the Emperor's ban.  Claudius imprisoned him on Feb. 14, 270 A.D., and later had him beheaded because he would not renounce his faith.

Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrated His love for us (the bride of Christ) in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  And He did that on the cross at Calvary, which brings us right up to Resurrection Day.

Spring is the season of new life.  Statistically, there are more babies born in the Spring than any other season.  There came a time when each of us was physically born into this world.   And, for Christians, there was another time when God caused His light to “shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor 4:6 ).  He gave us new life and we were Born Again.

Next on our American calendar, is Independence Day when we celebrate our liberties which were secured by those who made great sacrifices for our political freedoms. Likewise, Christ sacrificed His life to free us from the bondage of sin and death. “If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). That’s real freedom worth celebrating.

Finally, we come all the way back to Halloween, but we who are Christians, no longer lurk in that darkness.  “The Light of the world has shined in our hearts.”  We walk in the Light and have no fear of death because Christ has triumphed over sin, death, Satan.

Oct. 31 is one of the most important dates on the church calendar.  It is Reformation Day; the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Wittenberg Cathedral door.  After 600 years of worldwide spiritual darkness (the Dark Ages) when most men were illiterate and very few had access to the written Word of God, Martin Luther and a host of other reformers, ushered in the Renaissance by shining the Light of God’s Truth into a world of superstition and darkness.

Martin Luther wrote A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD, based on Psalm 46.  The hymn, sometimes called the Battle Hymn of the Reformation, is a celebration of the sovereign power of God over all the earthly and spiritual forces of darkness, and of the sure hope we have in Him because of our Savior, Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world. 

*HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION (Reformation Day)

(Reformation Day is one of the most important days on the church calendar, so for our worship service, I chose some hymns appropriate for the day.)  

It was on Oct. 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral and exposed the errors and unbiblical practices of the Roman Catholic Church.  That incident is widely recognized as the initial catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.

As it happened, my pastor's sermon for the day would continue his series, “Confronting the Culture,” in which we have been learning that our faith will often bring us to a point where we must make hard decisions or take difficult stands that will cause us trouble.

As I was thinking about his sermon outline, I couldn’t help making the connection between it and the Reformation.

The Gospel is both attractive and repulsive.  It is attractive to those whom God is saving; it is repulsive to the lost.  Whenever or wherever real, Biblical Christianity collides with Government, the culture, or even an apostate church, the result is tribulation or persecution.  There is going to be trouble; that is just the way it is.

In the hymn, HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION, verse 3 says,

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,

My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

That reminded me of this interesting analogy:

As they were studying chapter three in the book of Malachi, a group of women came across the verse that says, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." They wondered what that statement meant about the character and nature of God.

Later that week, one of the women made an appointment to observe a silversmith at work.  He held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that, in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot - then she thought again about the verse, that He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was necessary to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The smith answered yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire because if the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

Then she asked him, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"  He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's the easy part – it’s when I see my image reflected in it."

There is no question that troubles and trials are both fiery and painful but we can rest assured that God is holding us over the fire to remove the impurities and He is watching until He can see His own image in us.

(Click here for more commentary on this hymn)


7/19/2015