Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Today we are concluding our series on the Protestant Reformation.

During this month, we have looked at John Wycliffe and John Huss, two pre-reformation reformers.

Today were looking the teaching that has come from the Reformation.

Last week we saw Rome’s view of justification versus the biblical view.

This is the article upon which the church would rise or fall according to Martin Luther.

As we celebrate Reformation Day today, we are reminded of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenburg castle church.

This was to provoke discussion concerning papal indulgences.

It was also an invitation to debate any or all the propositions listed.

A month earlier, he wrote a thesis on the topic of scholastic theology.

Both of these documents together were intended to invite discussion on the topic.

When you read his theses, you see that the tone was humble rather than an academic, though that is there.

But the overall thrust of the document was nonetheless provocative.

The first two of the theses contained Luther’s central idea, that God intended believers to seek repentance and that faith alone, and not deeds, would lead to salvation.

The other 93 theses, a number of them directly criticizing the practice of indulgences, supported these first two (https://www.history.com/topics/reformation/martin-luther-and-the-95-theses#section_4).

If you notice the title behind me, 95 Reasons Why I Am Reformed, you immediately think of the 95 thesis.

But the title is much more than that.

It is an overall summary of what the Reformers taught then, and 102 years after the Reformation, and even today.

So I have two main points that I want to share with you today about being reformed.

And rather than answer what it means to be reformed, I’m going to let what I share today define that for you.

So instead of us looking at 95 points of debate by Martin Luther, we are going to look at 10 major teachings that have come from the Protestant Reformation.

So my two major points are reasons why I am reformed.

I am Reformed for two reasons: it is biblical and it preaches the true gospel.

Those are main reasons why we refer to ourselves as a Reformed Baptist Church, it is biblical and it preaches the true Gospel.

LESSON

Let’s begin with the first...

I.

It is Biblical

What developed later from the Protestant Reformation came 10 major doctrines (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide, sola christus, soli deo gloria).

Three of the five solas were used by Martin Luther, the rest were taught over time.

The other 5 doctrines, commonly referred to as the doctrines of grace or the 5 points of Calvinism were affirmed 102 years after the Protestant Reformation on May 9, 1619.

To understand those 5 points you have to go back to 1610.

This was one year after the death of James Arminius

His followers drew up five articles of faith based on his teachings:

Those articles were: free will, conditional election, universal atonement, resistible grace, and falling from grace.

These were presented to the state of Holland in the form of a "protest."

The followers of James Arminius, who were commonly known as Armenians, insisted that the Belgic Confession of Faith and the Heidelberg Catechism which was the official expression of the doctrinal position of the churches of Holland be changed to conform to the doctrinal views contained in the protest.

A national synod was called to meet in Dort in 1618 for the purpose of examining the views of Arminius in the light of Scripture.

The Great Synod was convened by the State General of Holland on November 13, 1618 with 84 members and 18 secular commissioners.

Included were 27 delegates from Germany, the Palatinate (a region of Germany), Switzerland and England.

There were 154 sessions held during the 7 months that the Synod met together to consider these matters, the last meeting was on May 9, 1619.

The five articles of faith presented by the Armenians' were unanimously rejected.

As part of their rejection, the Synod produced the five points of Calvinism.

So as we began our study this morning, I want to summarize each of these...

The first is...

Total Depravity

Total depravity teaches that man is completely helpless in his sinful state, is under the wrath of God, and can in no way please God.

Man will not and cannot seek to know God until grace prompts him to do so.

To put it another way: The Bible teaches, as a result of Adam’s fall, the entire human race is affected; all humanity is dead in trespasses and sins.

Man is unable to save himself.

Man in his natural state is dead in trespasses and sins - Ephesians 2:1, “1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.”

Man in his natural state is wicked - Genesis 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Man’s heart is deceitful more than anything else - Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”

Man is not righteous.

He doesn’t understand or seek for God - Romans 3:10-18, “10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”

13 “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace they have not known.”

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

The second teaching is...

Unconditional Election

That means...

God chooses who He will save

Ephesians 1:4, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

In love”

The word “chose” is the Greek word eklego.

It means “to pick out, select” (Vine) or “choose out for one’s own self” (Wuest).

This word “indicates God’s totally independent choice” (MacArthur).

Acts 13:48, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”

John Piper said, “Election is a condition for faith.

It is because God chose us before the foundation of the world that he purchases our redemption at the cross and quickens us with irresistible grace and brings us to faith.”

Jesus said to His disciples in...

John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”

When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he said in...

1 Thessalonians 1: 3-4, “3 constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, 4 knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you.”

He said it again in his second letter to the Thessalonians...

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, “13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

14 It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

God decided this “before the foundation of the world”

The word “foundation” used in Ephesians 1:4 is the Greek word katabole.

It comes from ballo, which means “to throw,” and kata, which means, “down.”

It is a “‘throwing or laying down.’

It describes God throwing down a universe into space, speaking a material universe into existence which had no existence before” (Kenneth Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek NT, 31).

In Matthew 25:34 Jesus tells us that “the kingdom” was “prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Remember the Gentiles who had believed in Acts 13:48 had done so because they had been “appointed to eternal life” beforehand

Even God’s plan of salvation in Jesus was “before the foundation of the world”

1 Peter 1:20-21, “20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

The word “foreknown” (proginosko) means “to know beforehand or in advance” (GING)

“In eternity past, before Adam and Eve sinned, God planned the redemption of sinners through Jesus Christ.

The Father did not react to the Fall with a last-minute fix; before the Fall—even before the creation—He predetermined to send His Son as the Savior” (John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible).

Peter said in...

Acts 2:23, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”

Later you hear the apostles praying in...

Acts 4:27-28, “27 “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”

We even hear Paul telling Timothy in...

2 Timothy 1:8-9, “8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.”

Total depravity, unconditional election.

The third teaching is...

Limited Atonement (also called “particular redemption”)

Christ took the judgment for the sin of the elect upon Himself thereby paid for their lives in His death

John Piper said, “The Atonement applies to the elect in a unique, particular way, although the death of Christ is sufficient to propitiate the sins of the whole world.

The death of Christ effectually accomplished the salvation for all God’s people” (John Piper, Summary of the Sovereignty of God in Salvation, December 10, 1997).