to present to the church. This gift was given to us by one of our deployed soldiers, Lieutenant Lee Whitesell. He sent this to me about six months ago. He wanted to give this to me personally. However, I already have a copy of this version of the Bible, and this is a large family Bible, so I conferred with him to give this, and he agreed to give this family Bible to the church. to be on display in the front foyer and entryway. The Bible is the very Bible that the pilgrim fathers and our English Puritan forefathers brought with them from the old world to the American colonies. It is not, they rejected and would not have anything to do with the government Bible, the government Bible being the King James Bible, 1611. Rather, they use this English translation of the 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible, footnotes by reformer John Calvin himself in the bottom. And so I would like for one of the deacons to come and present this to the church, if they could put it on permanent display in our front foyer. Thank you, Chuck. Be sure and go back and look at that when you have time. All right. The title for my message this morning from Romans chapter 1, verses 16 through 17 is, He who is righteous by faith shall live. Let's see. Turn this on. If we can start the overhead. The church historian, Alistair McGrath, in his book, The Reformation Thought, says Martin Luther must be regarded as, quote, the most significant personality in the European Reformation. The Reformation was born out of what Luther, in his writings, called his affectum in German. Now, that means his most inner, deep struggle. As he says, he would struggle to find a gracious God. His personal quest to find a God of grace and mercy reflected actually the impulse of the entire German society as a whole at that time. As Louis Spitz in his book, The Protestant Reformation, explains, quote, the Reformation was born deep within a single individual, but emerged to become a public matter and a powerful historic force, close quote. Never forget that one person and one person alone can make a difference in this world in the service of God. One obscure person made such a difference, Martin Luther. To properly understand Luther and the Protestant Reformation, I think it is important for us to understand him in his background and his time. Luther and later Calvin, all the other reformers, are like us. They are people who are shaped and influenced by the time of our own age. The thought forms, the institutions, and the practices of our own day do color our thinking and our understanding of the Bible and our service for God. If we do not acknowledge this, then we always run the risk of distorting people when we evaluate them. So let us remember there may be things we disagree, But let us remember, this is the way people thought, this is the way they acted, this is the way they understood God himself in the 1500s. The best place, in my opinion, to start with Luther and the Protestant Reformation is where his biographer, Roland Bainton, in his wonderful book, which I would recommend to anyone, Here I Stand, where he starts it. He says, quote, On a hot human day in July of 1505, A 22-year-old law student by the name of Martin Luther was returning to the University of Erfurt after visiting his parents when he was caught in a violent thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning struck a tree that was near him, throwing him to the ground and in terror the young Luther replied, Saint Anne, this is the patron saint of minors, his father was a minor. Saint Anne, he said, help me and I will become a monk. Now, there's nothing unusual about a person becoming a monk and entering the monastery in the 15th century. Everyone knew that if you were serious about salvation, you would take hold of every help that the church would afford you. And the first help, of course, starts with the Now, the sacraments, these are the rituals of the church, the ordained activities, which the Roman church understood as the vehicle by which the grace of God was dispensed. Now, just a little bit of an explanation. In this particular period of time, Rome understands the grace of God as something of a substance. It's almost like a commodity. And much like food is a substance which we take in and we ingest for the strengthening of our bodies, so also Rome understood that the grace of God was a substance that one takes into his soul to infuse his soul with the very righteousness and very character of God. Now, the tool, the means by which the grace of God was infused, was fed into the soul of the human being, were the rituals commonly called the sacraments. We refer to them as ordinances of the church. So, the sacraments were the first aid that a person needed to lay hold of in order, if he hoped to ever receive salvation and enter into heaven. Now, it would start I'll give you a little review of this. It would start at birth. At baptism, the infant had water sprinkled upon them, and it was understood that baptism would wash away original sin, and this would infuse the infant with grace and place him or her in a state of grace. So then, if this infant were to die, and most did, Most all of them did. If this infant were to die before reaching age of maturity, it would not go to eternal hell. Rather, the infant would go to limbo, a neutral place that's neither heaven nor hell. If the infant were to survive infancy and childhood and grow up, the child could be confirmed. And what's confirmed would have the privilege of partaking of the Communion. Now, the Communion, or the Mass, is the second important sacrament to infuse grace within the soul to enable the soul to be righteous and right with God. The Communion was understood to be a literal re-crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The elements of bread and wine symbolized after the particular statement of the priest offering it to God. It was transformed and it actually became the literal flesh of Jesus Christ and the literal blood of Jesus Christ. By partaking and eating of these elements, the grace of God was infused into the soul. One became more righteous. So it's becoming more and more what God would have you to be. However, as is always the case, if a person after partaking of the communion was to leave and then commit a sin, let's say it is a mortal sin. A mortal sin would be the violation of one of the Ten Commandments. Let's say he told a lie. Thou shalt not lie. He committed, that is a mortal sin. It is mortal because it kills the grace of God that has been infused within the soul. So, it's gone. It's killed. You're no longer in a state of grace. If a person was to die in that condition, they would go straight directly to eternal hell and suffer forever and ever. So, in order to rectify the situation, The Roman Church understood the sacrament of penance. This was a way of restoring grace to the soul. And the way the sacrament was practiced is that an individual, upon committing a sin, any kind of murder, a violation of the Ten Commandments, would come to the priest. They would meet in a confessional, and there the penitent would confess the details of his sin to the priest. The priest at that point, upon hearing his confession, would absolve him, say, your sin is forgiven. Now what the priest did do was he forgave him of the guilt of that sin. And so forgiving the person of the guilt of that sin, he is restored to a state of grace. could come and partake of the communion, the Lord's Supper, where greater degrees of grace would be infused into the soul as a result of the partaking. However, God isn't just God, and any time a person transgresses God's law, there is a penalty for the guilt of one's sins. Now, what would be the penalty that God would attach to any one's sin Nobody knew. Only God Himself knew that. It has not been revealed. But we know that God is just and He will punish sins. So, even though the person's guilt may be absolved, the punishment for that sin has not been remitted. He owes a certain amount of punishment to God to pay back, to atone. In order to mitigate the punishment that is due to this person, to lessen it and reduce it, after absolving the individual, the priest would then give works of penance to the confessor. And that is, he's to say a certain number of prayers, Hail Marys, do certain things, go on pilgrimages, whatever it may be. And this would mitigate, this would reduce the temporal punishment that was due to this person for that sin that they committed. So we have the forgiveness of the guilt by the absolution. We have the giving of penance to work off the penalty of sin. But the penance, the working off of that penalty, never fulfills its job. It never completely works it off because we do not know how much penalty God would affix to any sin. Therefore, when any person, believer, Christian, died in the state of grace, they would not go to hell. They would immediately go to purgatory, where the remaining temporal punishment for their sins, that has not been reduced and worked off by the penitents, would be expunged from the soul. purified through the sufferings of the flames, and as a result, after all the penalty has paid off, then that soul would enter into the beatific presence of God in heaven, and he would be classified as a saint. Now, that's a lot, and that's what is going on at this particular time. Now, if you become a monk, your opportunity for this cleansing The opportunity for salvation, the opportunity to get into heaven quickly is much more increased. It's just elevated because you have more access to the sacraments. You're not distracted by the world. You can do the work of penance diligently. You can accrue more and more merit and righteousness for your soul. so that it is much easier for you, upon death, to enter into the presence of God in heaven. And this is what everybody wants. And for that reason, he says, help me, Saint Anne. You're in heaven, a saint. Help me. I will dedicate myself to become a monk so that I, too, will eventually be where you are. That was his prayer. Now, Luther, at this particular time, was being trained as a lawyer. That's a whole other story. It's amazing. A second generation peasant is able now to be educated this particular time. I don't have time to explain that, but it is awesome. Very few people were educated this particular time in history. But he was being trained as a lawyer. And as a lawyer, Luther knows the full demands of God's law. He knows that the law demands a complete, total obedience perpetually in thought, in word, Indeed, the law demands that it be performed, Deuteronomy chapter 27, 6, Galatians chapter 3, 10. Cursed is anyone who does not do the law the law says to us. So Luther, knowing this, and fearing the condemnation of hell, he was an extremely conscientious monk in carrying out his duties. He recounts how he strove to live up to God's standard as set forth in his holy law, which the church is holding us to. He says this, quote, I was a good monk. I kept my rules so strictly that I could say if anyone, if ever a monk could get through heaven by his monkery, I was that monk. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out, and yet my conscience would not give me certainty, but I was always doubting, and said, you didn't do that right. You weren't contrite enough. You left that out of your confession. And the more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak, and doubting conscience with these human traditions, the more I daily found it more uncertain, weaker, and more troubled. If I had kept on any longer, I would have killed myself with vigils, prayers, readings, and other works. Now, his doubts and insecurities actually came to a head when he was installed as a priest and he had the privilege of saying his first Mass, that is the first communion, and actually partaking of the crucified body and blood of Jesus Christ and ingesting it. And since this was such a high privilege as a priest, His parents, who by the way were not in favor, particularly his father, of him entering the monastery, they were invited to the service. And the service, when it started, it went along just fine. You had the chiming of the bells. You had all the smells and the incense going on. You hear the psalms being chanted and sung. There were the readings and there were the prayers. And then it came to the climactic moment when the priest would raise the host, and in Latin, he would say, we offer unto thee the living and true and eternal God, and make the statements of the sacrifice. And suddenly, in the midst of doing this, Luther froze up. It's as though he went mute. Perspiration begins to break out over his head. Everybody is stunned. What's going on? He cannot continue. He drops the host, leaves the altar, and walks out of the sanctuary in total shock and chagrin to everyone and to the outrage and disgust of his father. Later he tried to explain what happened when he held up the host and he uttered these words. He says this, quote, at these words I was utterly stupefied and terror stricken. I thought to myself, with what tongue shall I address such majesty? Seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of him, even earthly princes tremble, who am I that I should lift up mine eyes to raise my hand to divine majesty? The angels surround him. at his nod the earth trembles, and shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say, All I want this, I ask for that, for I am but dust and ashes, full of sin, and I am speaking to the living, the eternal, the true God." Now, that is the fear of God, which Brian was preaching about the other week. That's what it is. Terrified And standing in the presence of a Christ Holy God, there's no games going on with God. He knows everything. We're not fooling anybody. He sensed this. Now, his confessor in the Augustinian monastery, Johann von Staupitz, was at his wit's end as what to do with this troubled seminarian. Luther would come to him every day for confession. And he would ransack his mind, thinking of all his misdeeds. I forgot to think this way about God. I forgot to say this. My motive wasn't pure. I let this act undone. On and on and on it would go. And one day, Stalpas just about had enough of it. He said these words, quote, Look, if you expect Christ to forgive you, come with something to forgive. Blasphemy, murder, adultery. Don't give me these peccadillos. Close quote. Finally, Staupitz came up with a solution to Luther's problem. You are to go to Wittenberg, the new university there, and I want you to take a doctorate in theology in order that you can assume the chair of Bible and preaching and teaching in the university. Can you imagine that? So here is a young man on the verge of a total nervous breakdown due to spiritual issues, and we're going to make him the preacher and the teacher and the theologian for troubled souls. That was Stalfitz's solution. We probably wouldn't go that way. But, in the providence of God, this was the right thing to do. Because Stalfitz sent him to the Bible. And it's in the Bible He gives his answers. After a much diligent study of the Psalms and in Galatians, in the year 15, the fall of 1515, he was studying Romans, lecturing on Romans. And then is when the Lord turned on the lights. He discovered this gracious God he's been looking for, seeking for all his life. He writes this about his experience, quote, I had certainly wanted to understand Paul in his letter to the Romans, but what prevented me from doing so was not so much Colfite as that one phrase in the first chapter, the righteousness of God is revealed in it, Romans chapter 117. For I hated that phrase, the righteousness of God. I had been taught to understand as the righteousness by which God himself is righteous and punishes unrighteous sinners. Although I lived a blameless life as a monk, I felt that I was a sinner with an uneasy conscience before God. And I could not believe that I had pleased Him with my words. Far from loving that righteous God who punishes sinners, I actually hated Him. I was in desperation to know what Paul meant in this passage. At last, As I was meditating day and night on the revelation of the words, the righteousness of God is revealed in it as it is written, the righteous person shall live by faith, I began to understand the righteousness of God as that by which the righteous person lives as a gift from God. And this is the sentence, the righteousness of God is revealed, to referring to a passive righteousness. by which the merciful God justifies us by faith. As it is written, the righteous person lives by faith. This immediately made me feel as though I had been born again, as though I had entered through the open gates into paradise itself. From that moment I saw the whole face of Scripture in a new light. And that which I once, the phrase which I once hated, I now love, and I begin to love and extol it as the sweetest of phrases, so that this passage in Paul became to me the very gates of paradise." Amen. Now let me just clarify what he's saying here and how he's understanding this. First of all, the righteousness of God in Romans 1.17, he's saying does not refer to the attribute of God's righteousness. God is not talking about His personal righteousness. That's the way the Roman church interpreted it. To me, you too have to have this experiential, personal righteousness like God in order to be just. It's not saying that. Rather, the righteousness which he's speaking of is a status. It's a standing which God gives to people as a free gift. It's a gift. It is totally passive. We're passive. We do nothing to earn it or merit it or activities by which we can lay hold of it. It is a pure gift. Gifts are only received only by faith. Thank you, Lord. That's how it's received. That is what he said. When he saw that, the lights went on. This is how God saved me. He's not condemning me. He is accepting me through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which He performed. And He gives it to me freely, apart from my performance. I simply, as a poor sinner, receive it by faith. Man, this is a totally different world. And it changes him. All of a sudden, Luther begins to teach that salvation is not through the rituals of the church. Not through the good works, not through the penance, not through all these things the church is telling him to do. This sets him up for a problem. He's not ashamed of it, and he stands for it, and not being ashamed of the gospel invariably leads him into controversy. Controversy that threatens his own life. Now, the controversy comes to a head in the year 1517 here. when the Pope in Rome, Pope Leo X, decides to offer the sale of an indulgence in order to finance the building of the great basilica, which we now see in Rome, St. Peter's Church. Let me explain an indulgence. What in the world is that? Let me explain. An indulgence is the remission of either all or part of the temporal punishment that is due to a repentant sinner in penance. Remember, punishment is given. You have to work it off. It's not all worked off. And indulgence, indulgence is a grant that will work that penalty off. OK, that's what we got going on here. This is a grant of remission, which is based upon the conception that Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and all the saints who served God faithfully accrued more merit that they needed for their lives. So this extra merit, this extra wholeness is placed in a treasury in heaven called the Treasury of Merit. And the Pope, and the Pope alone, because he's the Vicar of Christ, has access to this and can indulge, he can dispense this treasury of merit to be applied to the poor, dead, suffering souls in purgatory who's having their temporal punishment burned off. See, that's what is going on. And so what the Pope has done, he issues an indulgence. And you buy the indulgence and the receipts, the money that is collected through the sale of the indulgence will go to the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Now, the indulgence here is not a... Most of them were partial. This is different. We need a lot of money to build this thing. This is a full and complete indulgence. When you purchase this indulgence, you remit automatically all the temporal punishment that is due for the sinner for whom, who is suffering in purgatory, for whom the indulgence is purchased. And that sinner immediately moves from purgatory into the presence of God in heaven and is a saint. So, it's an important indulgence. Now, the vendor chosen to hawk this particular indulgence in Luther's Saxony was a Dominican friar by the name of Tetzel. And in order to stir up the people and to motivate them to cut loose of their hard-earned money, not too many gold and silver coins as are being floated around in those days, So it's something to turn loose of actual money. In order to get them to this, he would preach a little sermon to motivate them to buy the indulgence. And he evidently, according to the records, was quite good in the sermons. And he could really motivate people to turn loose of money and buy this indulgence. Here, listen to what he would say. He would stir up the people saying, quote, listen, do you not hear the voices? of your dead relatives and your dead friends in purgatory, saying, pity us, pity us, we're in dire torment, for you can redeem us for just a penance. Open your ears to hear a father saying to his son, the mother to her daughter, we bore you, We nourished you. We brought you up. We left you our fortunes. Are you so hard and cruel that you will not be willing for so little to set us free? Will you delay our promised glory while we are here in these flames? And he would always conclude his sermon by saying this particular saying. This is an important saying. As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory upward springs. And that's, and he got, he made good sales. Okay. Uh, now I came preaching that in Saxony. This is a very early, but an extremely crass form of what we hear today in our own circles, name it and claim it. I guarantee it's the same stuff packaged a little differently. This incensed Luther when he heard. Other people are trying to buy their way in. There's no repentance. There's no faith in Jesus Christ whatsoever. He's totally incensed. And there come attendants to my people, who he is pastoring and trying to preach to. So he goes back to his cloister and he writes out, quote, 95 theses, which criticizes the practices and abuses of indulgences. He writes this out. He puts it in Latin because he wants it to be debated of the clergy and amongst the university professors, and he goes to the church, the castle church door, and there he nails it to the door. Now, that's the early internet of the 16th century, putting things at the church door. And that's what he did. It was in Latin. He did not write this in German for the very few people who could read for some sort of public consumption, but it's for the scholars. However, God and his providence had different purposes. Someone took it down and translated it from Latin into German and now with the aid of this new technology called the printing press. We printed this stuff up in mass and circulated it throughout the country and within two weeks this man was a national hero or a national person of interest of what he was saying. brought him into great conflicts because it was spreading everywhere with the Roman authorities. He was called in 1518 before Cardinal Cattagin to answer for his thesis. He dealt with that and the Cardinal was not pleased whatsoever. He was later brought to a debate with the Roman Catholic theologian John Eck at Leipzig in 1519. And the word keeps getting back to the Pope, and the Pope reads it and says, what drunken German priest is saying this stuff? And that was his view. And so he decided to declare Luther a heretic in the June of 1520. Luther responds with three little books. I started to bring it. You can buy it today and call it his three treatises, a little paperback. It's well worth reading. His first book in this little treatise is entitled to the German nobility. It is a critique of papal authority. The problem is this is not how we get saved. We're finding out that the problem is in authority. Authority for what we believe. We're believing in the Bible. They're believing in some other authority. So he critiques the papal authority at this particular point and this is in August 1520. His second book, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, October 1520. This is a full frontal attack upon the sacramental system. You want to devastate the Roman sacramental system? Read Luther. This little book is devastating. And then finally, The Freedom of the Christian, November 1520. Here he affirms that the Christian is free from sin through faith in Christ and yet he's bound by love to serve one another as a brother. Now the Emperor Charles V, after reading all this stuff, he gets involved and he summons Luther under the promise of a safe conduct passage. You can come safely to this meeting. He summons him to appear before the German princes, all the princes of the area, in what is called the Diet of Worms. This is so on 1517-1521. Luther stands before the civil magistrates and all the Roman Catholic authorities. He has a table placed in front of him. Before him, on that table, are all his books in full view. An inquisitor comes forward and asks him, are the books that are published under his name, are they his? He affirms that they are. In this next act, do you recant? And Luther is stunned. He says he thought he was called to debate the matter. He's not prepared to recant. Please give me time to pray about this, to think about this. He knows his life is on the line here. 24-hour reprieve was granted. The next day, he comes into the same auditorium before the same, Charles the Fifth Emperor before the same, I think there were six princes of Germany, the same Roman Catholic authorities. But this time, the place, the house is packed with a lot of common folk, German people, just full. And they're all eyes upon Luther. Again, the quizzer comes forward and they ask him the same two questions. These are your books? Yes. Do you recant? And here is what he says. Stork answer. Quote. Unless I am convinced by scripture or by right reason, for I trust neither in popes nor in councils, since they have often erred and contradicted themselves, unless I am thus convinced, I am bound to the text of the Bible. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I neither cannot nor will not recant anything, since it is neither right nor safe to go against conscience. Here I stand. May God help me. Amen." And when he said those words, he said it in German. He did not say it in Latin. The common folk. For the first time. Amazingly, Luther holds his hands up like it's a state of victory. He walks, just gets up and walks right out of the hearing. Gets on his horse and heads back to Whitman. Unbelievable! Just absolutely unbelievable! Everybody is stunned. The guards stand there. No one tries to apprehend him. Charles V and the church authorities, they're furious, absolutely furious. He goes back, Charles V does, and he writes out an edict saying, I give Luther 20 days to recant. Otherwise, he is hereinforth outlaw. He can be attacked and killed by anyone, full state authority to do so. And so Luther just walks out. Frederick the Wise, one of the princes of Germany, he's going to be like us, his goose will be cooked. He decides to capture him. So, as Luther's making his way home, he sends some men to capture him. Luther doesn't know what's happening. He's captured and he's scurried off and placed in the Wartburg Castle. He comes to find out his protector has protected him. A human prince protected him. In the castle of Wartburg, where nobody knows where he is, he takes up his pen and begins to translate this Old and New Testament Scriptures into the German so that the common German folk could read the Bible for themselves and see what God's Word is saying for himself without the aid of a Priet or a priest or some church interpreter. Now, Luther is extremely essential. He rediscovered the gospel for the church. He called the doctrine of justification by faith alone the article of the standing and falling church. He says, if the doctrine is preserved, the gospel will continue in the church. If it is lost, it is lost forever. I mean, it is told that the gospel is lost and Christian teaching is lost altogether. Now, John Calvin comes along and follows behind him. He plays a very important role. He is the organizer of the Reformation. Very important role he plays. He organizes everything. He organizes the worship. He organizes theology. And he sits down to write out commentaries on the Bible. Now, he stands with Luther hand to hand. On justification, he says this about it. He says, quote, justification is the principal ground upon which religion must be supported. So it requires greater care and attention. For unless you understand first of all what your position is before God and what the judgment of God is that has been passed upon you, you have no foundation on which your salvation can be laid or on which your piety towards God can be reared. Close quote, that's out of the Institutes. Calvin makes it clear. Justification has nothing to do with our performance and what we do. Justification is a legal standing before God. It is everything to do with what God himself has accomplished and done for us in Jesus Christ. We simply receive this. by simple faith. Calvin says, what is our standing before the law? What is the law's verdict about you? What is its verdict about me as I stand here? He says, listen to Romans 3, verse 9, this is what the law says about you and me. First of all, there is no one righteous, no, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. All have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is upon their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes." That is the human condition right out of the book of Scripture. Calvin says, that's what we are before God. We have to be serious with this and take this to heart. That's where he tries. We're going to come to our God. Let's get on our knees, prostrate and confess our sins. All his worship starts with confession before God because of the sin of what we are in his presence. Now, if the verdict of God's law here is this, and the scripture says, if you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, Who, O Lord, will stand the answer out of Psalm 130, verse 3? The answer is clear. Absolutely no one. So how in the world can God be just? He just can't sweep away our sin. He can't throw it under the rug and says it's not there. He must be just. He must judge our sins. So how in the world can our sins be judged and then we be forgiven and have a right relation with him and the promise of heaven? How can this be? Calvin points us to, and if you have your moment, turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5.21. It's important. I would like to bring this out from Calvin's perspective, and I think it will help us understand what Luther is saying by justification. First 2 Corinthians 5.21, Calvin points to the substitution of Jesus Christ in our place. And in this substitution, he sees what we call a double imputation. Our sins are then taken from us, imputed or transferred to, might be another way of saying it, to Jesus Christ. And there He suffers and dies under the full weight and penalty of those sins. In like manner, the obedience of Jesus' life, His perfect obedience, sinlessness under the law during His life, is lifted from Him, transferred over to us, receive his perfect obedience before the eyes of God. Look at what he's saying. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. So then him, we might become the righteousness of God. Notice that phrase, the righteousness of God. God made him that is he didn't Jesus was not a personal sinner. Okay. But God made him so that is God Another word, God reckoned to him to be sinned. God imputed to him sin is another way of saying it. To the one who in his life was sinless, but he was made to be sinned. Therefore, he stands under the full condemnation of God's law, bearing its complete total penalty upon the cross. Suffering and bleeding and dying for that reason. To pay for our sins. So that in Him, that is in Jesus through faith, we become the very righteousness of God. Now this righteousness of God is from Him who knew no sin, as he says. Jesus was sinless. He was born under the law. He completed the law. He did the law. He said, who will ever charge me with sin? No one could. His righteousness that He earned in His perfect obedience is transferred in the great and economy of God from the Savior to you and me. Therefore, when God looks upon you, He looks upon you as a person who had never sinned. Jesus never sinned. He looks upon you as if you were a person who was always obeying every aspect of life, because Jesus always obeyed. Now, I don't know about you, but for me, the person who struggles trying to serve God and obey God, I don't know, but that is hallelujah, good news, what a Savior. You ever struggle with praying? You ever feel inadequate in prayer? You ever struggle with inadequacy in witnessing? You ever bumble all over yourself and you have something to do for the Lord and it just goes right down the throat? Listen, all the time, that's me. But God says, in Christ, He took all your bumbling, all your failure, all your wrongdoing, and it's as if you have always prayed the way you should have prayed. It is as if you have always obeyed. It is as if you have always served Him. It is as if you have fulfilled in your own personage every requirement that God ever laid upon a human being. That is good news! That is freeing! That is freeing! You are free now to be yourself, to come, follow Jesus Christ, and learn what living is all about. Exalting your God, your Creator, being restored to the very glory for which God made you and me, which we forfeited and are fallen. We just complicate through all of our sins. That's what justification does for us. That's what the Gospel does. Now, I'm out of time. I wanted to do a little bit of Luther's exposition of Romans. Of course, I'm awful long-winded, so I'm going to spare you that. Just simply read that. Just know that what Luther is saying there is that the righteousness of God Himself is the gift to you and me. It is the righteousness that Jesus Christ achieved. And we receive that by faith, and by receiving it by faith, as you, as I, as this church who believes, stands before the law of God. You know what the law of God says? You're acquitted. You're accepted. You're perfect. You've always fulfilled it. Not that you did it personally, but you're substituted. Now, just one little word. Everyone to whom God does that for, who forgives them of their sins, constitutes him as righteous before his sight." Listen, he fully gives the Spirit to, and he begins to work in their life to make them more holy, more like Christ, a little bit by the lip, so that their life begins to actually express this decision of righteousness that God has already given to us in His grace. That's the whole doctrine of the Christian life in sanctification. But we start initially by the full-fledged, sovereign grace of God. We receive it simply as individual children. As a result, we're brought to life a new heart, a new power has come, a new love. Now, what Luther said, I used to say, hey, I love. That's all I want to talk about. I've got the diarrhea of the mouth about Jesus. And that's pretty good. We need that. That's all I left to do. You claim I bleed Bible, instead of John Bunyan. And that's what we're talking about. When that happens to us, the power of God has come to us through His grace. Let us pray. Almighty God and Heavenly Father, who was and who is to come, the Alpha and the Omega, our beginning and our end, You have taught us the truths of your holy gospel this morning. We are Lord sinners who can never save ourselves because of the sinful disposition in which we were born. We were just unable to ever do your law. We thank you for your gracious ministry of your law to us for it revealed to us our sin. It caused us great despair. It made us feel miserable in all of our efforts. And He appointed us outside of ourselves to the One who has fully kept the law and paid for all the transgressions of our sins and iniquity through His precious bloodsheddings. Father, we praise You for Your gift of righteousness. Jesus Christ, Your Son, who was born under the law, who kept the law perfectly, who was sinless in all His ways, You laid upon Him the full weight of our sins, our transgressions, our iniquities, and through His sufferings, through His violent death of bloodsheddings, You have forgiven us. You have healed us not only of the guilt, but also the full penalty of all of our sin. We praise you for his obedience, for his faithfulness in working out and fulfilling the righteousness in his own life so that his full and perfect obedience under the law can be transferred, given freely and reckoned to anyone who believes. Thank you for your servants of the past. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and a host of others who risked their lives to recover this precious truth for us. Give all of us here, Lord, humility to recognize the truth that we hold so dear. We're standing really upon the shoulders of others. We're indebted to them for these blessings that we now possess. Merciful Father, in this light, we would remember to pray for the entire Church of Jesus Christ scattered throughout the world. We ask for her sanctification, for her growth and knowledge of grace, for her moral purity before a watching world, and her faithfulness unto you, the Lord Jesus, and his gospel even unto death. We also pray in this way for our missionary partners in the gospel, the Wagmeyers in India, the Weinmans in Swaziland, the Carrs in New Mexico. Strengthen their hand, Lord, in the gospel, and may they be used of you as the instruments to herald your salvation to untold numbers of people. Extend, we ask, your kingdom through them. We would pray, dear gracious Father, for our precious elders and deacons at this church. Grant them strength, Lord, to preach and teach your word with power, with clarity, and with love. Guide them, we ask, as they seek to be so faithful in their task of shepherding and nurturing your people. Protect them, I ask, Father, from the waywardness of their own lustful hearts and from the wiles of the devil. Heavenly Father, you are God of all comfort, and we commend to you all those who are sick in body, who are depressed in their spirit, who may be confused about their future. We lift up even this day Bob Dumar, who we've been blessed to have him attend with us again. Show yourself merciful to these people as the great physician that in you they may find the healing that they long for so desperately, and the rest to their weary souls." In the same manner, Lord, we would pray for each of our deployed soldiers. We ask for Brother Borjeling, Lord, as he is now being transferred to Iraq. Protect each one, Lord. Enable them to be faithful to carry out their mission. Give them victory, we would ask, both on the battlefield and in the marketplace of of ideals as they were confronted with the Islamic forces of evil which are so hostile to the gospel and to your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May each of our soldiers, we pray, be returned to his or her family safe and sound. We would pray for our president, Lord, and not only him, but also all those whom you have appointed over us to rule us as political leaders. Protect him, we pray. Protect them, we ask. from all harm, both physical, spiritual, and moral. Grant them, Lord, the wisdom to rule us effectively. May they be instruments of peace. May they enact laws which honor you and give free reign, Lord, to the ongoing expansion of the gospel in this land. Now, Lord, we would draw our minds back to the cross, remembering the salvation that was purchased there for us by your Son, the Lord Jesus. Help us, Father, now to feed upon Him in a dynamic way in our hearts, to find that in His cross, that work is sufficient for every trial, every trouble, every hardship, every difficulty that we may be facing, whatever our difficulties may be. Help us this moment now to renew our faith and recommit ourselves afresh to following Jesus Christ as we journey through this life. We ask all these things in the name of Him. who taught us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Please stand with me. and let us know.