Embracing Luther's Legacy: Diligence, Grace, and Scripture

"so I plead with you who do not have the languages to exalt them, humbly exalt them, now you can take the time to to learn, especially if you're younger, I want to make my Hebrew better in 1996. so that I will be more faithful in my exposition of the Old Testament, more penetrating more fresh more reliable, and if you're younger you can do that, but I have in mind something bigger than that suppose you have just settled it you're never going to know them you're going to do the best you can with your English Bible, glorify them raise up young men in your church to become language lovers and tell them you wish you had and that you wish you could and if you had your life to live over you probably would, glorified and when you go to the to the Seminary tell the faculty teach them stop taking it away yes I don't know them yes I'm a pastor but I think we need them because the gospel is at stake and time will show that if we minimize our commitment to the original languages we minimize attention to specificity in the Bible it's everywhere today folks minimizing specificity of Doctrine is everywhere and part of it is the loss of the languages" [00:01:33]

"he was a professor of Bible all of his life, he wrote theological treatises scars and scores and scores of them he was always translating well for a period of about 13 years translating the Bible he carried on voluminous correspondence because everybody wanted his counsel and advice and remember no computers no typewriters all longhand and no ballpoint pens, No Ordinary paper all dip and scratch dip and scratch, and he was preaching 200 times a year now we are not Luther okay these are always discouraging talks if you try to measure Yourself by Spurgeon or Luther or somebody we are not Luther that's a settle it I'm not Martin Luther I can't read more than my 250 words a minute I read less than most of you in this room I know that to be a case, and I get discouraged when I go into that bookstore and look at all that stuff that I will leave unread when I die, but the question he poses for us is this wherever you are whoever you are, are you diligent or are you slothful, are you casual about your life or are you intense about living here I can't help but quote Mark uh my friend Edwards resolve to live with all my might while I live" [00:05:43]

"he wrote some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good they do not pray they do not read they're not they don't search the scriptures the call is watch study attend to reading in truth you cannot read too much in the scriptures and what you read you cannot read too carefully and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well and what you understand well you cannot teach too well and what you teach well you cannot live too well the devil the world and our flesh are raging and raving against us therefore dear sirs and brothers pastors preachers pray read study be diligent this evil shameful time is not the season for being lazy or sleeping and snoring he said household sweat is great sweat political sweat is greater sweat Church sweat is the greatest sweat" [00:06:13]

"Temptation and affliction are the hermeneutical touchstones of his study Temptation and affliction are the hermeneutical touchstones of his study here's the key text he said now some of you remember this from Seminary days that there were three ways to become a theologian he gets this from psalm 119. oratio meditation prayer meditation and in German trials suffering the hermeneutical key to the Bible is affliction biblical basis for that Psalm 119 67 and 71 before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy word here's the key verse verse 71 it is good for me that I was afflicted that I may learn thy statutes is that not amazing where do you see that in any hermeneutical textbook you got to go back 3 300 years 400 years to read a hermeneutic that says the Touchstone of my hermeneutic is pain" [00:09:46]

"he wrote I want you to know how to study theology in the right way I have practiced this method myself here you will find these three rules they teach you not only to know that the afflictions teach you not only to know and to understand but also to experience how right how true how sweet how lovely how Mighty how comforting God's word is it is wisdom Supreme listen this for I myself oh my papists many thanks for so beating pressing frightening me through the devil's raging that they have turned me into a fairly good theologian foreign driving me to the goal I never would have reached that's he's not playing games there he was a Marked Man the band of Emperor Charles Charles said I have decided to mobilize everything against loser this is the Emperor of the of the Roman Empire Charles V I have decided to mobilize everything against Luther my kingdoms my dominions my friends my body my blood my soul you can kill him" [00:11:13]

"emotionally spiritually Listen to listen to this kind of Torment for more than a week I have been thrown back and forth in death and hell my whole body feels beaten my limbs are still trembling I almost lost Christ completely driven about in the waves and storms of Despair and blasphemy against God but because of the intercession of the faithful God began to take mercy on me and tore my soul from the depths of hell he looked very invulnerable on the outside you read his biography you think well this man was a giant but here he is in Wartburg where he supposedly was flat out translating the New Testament in 10 months and this is what he wrote to melanthen I sit here at ease hardened and unfeeling alas praying little grieving little for the Church of God burning rather in the fierce fires of my Untamed flesh it comes to this I should be a fire in this a fire in the spirit in reality I am a fire in the flesh with lust laziness idleness sleepiness it is perhaps because you have all ceased praying for me that God has turned away from me" [00:14:04]

"for the last eight days I have written nothing nor prayed nor studied partly from self-indulgence partly from another vexatious handicap that's his piles he's talking about I really cannot stand it any longer pray for me I beg you for in my seclusion here I am submerged in sins my my own testimony here in this regard would be that I uh am tempted constantly to resent the hardships of the ministry precisely because they get in the way of what I want to do and Luther has rebuked me and he has taught me afresh that the very painful visit that you may have to make today the very painful phone call that you have to make the very squabble that you may have to address the very practicalities that frustrate you so much may be will be the lens through which this text opens tentatio is the pathway to be a faithful biblical Theologian" [00:17:05]

"he says the faith to get through this exceeds my powers and this is probably the most important point because Luther believed it was the most important point in histology the sixth point is prayer and reverent dependence on the all-sufficiency of God we've heard this too but I want you to hear it from Luther because it's remarkable you get right to the center of Luther's theology this way um 1518 he writes that the holy scriptures cannot be penetrated by study and talent is most certain Therefore your first duty is to begin to pray and to pray to this effect that if it pleased God to accomplish something for his glory not for yours or any other person's very graciously Grant you a true understanding of his words for no master of the Divine words exists except the author of these words as he says they shall be all taught of God you must therefore completely despair of your own industry and ability and rely solely on the inspiration of the spirit" [00:19:27]

"now he did not mean you leave the external word the book and go to Mystical reveries he meant bathe all of that study that he's been talking about in prayer and cast yourself on God to sustain you and prosper you in your study he says since the holy writ wants to be dealt with in a fair in fear and humility and penetrated more by by studying with Pious prayer than with keenness of intellect therefore it is impossible for those who rely on their intellect and rush into scripture with dirty feet like pigs as through scripture they were merely a sort of human knowledge not to harm themselves and others whom they instruct and he goes again to Psalm 119 and you read Psalm 119 and what do you find David doing open my eyes that I may see make me understand thy way Teach Me O Lord give me understanding make me walk in thy path incline my heart to thy testimonies revive me in other words he's crying out to the Lord to be an interpreter through him and to enable him so be saturated in prayer go to the study with self-doubt and God reliance" [00:21:19]

"he says you should completely despair of your own sense of reason for by these you will not attain the goal rather kneel down on your little private room and with sincere humility and earnestness pray God through his dear son graciously to Grant you the Holy Spirit to Enlighten and guide you in this understanding now here's here's the last thing to get this approach towards study through a despair of your own ability and a Reliance upon God was the essence of his Theology and what he saw the essence of the Reformation controversy to be and it came out in his controversy with Erasmus over the bondage of the will he wrote on Romans 8 7 the natural mind cannot do anything Godly it does not perceive the wrath of God therefore cannot rightly fear Him it does not see the goodness of God therefore cannot trust or believe in him either therefore we should constantly pray that God will bring forth his gifts in US in other words we are helpless and God is free to help us and that is our only hope we are totally dependent which is why he said on the bondage of the will that this book is the one he wants to survive this is the book he thought worthy of publication and Erasmus has written his freedom of the will Luther responded with the bondage of the will and he credited Erasmus with penetrating to the heart of the Reformation he said others think it's indulgences others think it's Authority the issue of the Reformation is the powerlessness of man before God Erasmus smelled it and as a modern man he didn't like it he wrote against it and Luther gave his strongest response to it by defending the powerlessness of man and it was a great offense to Erasmus and the others" [00:23:16]

"Luther wrote I condemn and reject as nothing but error all doctrines which exalt our Free Will as being directly opposed to this mediation and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in other words the gospel of free Grace depends upon a free God and abound human will if we begin to think that our will is not bound but can break free of its own and launch ourselves towards God 's freedom is not the key to my justification and there's the end of the reformation and the end of the Gospel in Luther's idea for sins apart from Christ's sin and death are our masters and The Devil Is Our God and Prince there can be no strength or power to wit no no wit or wisdom by which we can fit or fashion ourselves for righteousness and life on the contrary blinded and captivated we are bound to be the subjects of Satan and sin doing and thinking what pleases him and is opposed to God and His Commandments the root issue of the reformation and the root issue of studying the Bible is the powerlessness of the human mind and the human heart he wrote on Galatians 1 11 it is true that the doctrine of the Gospel takes all glory wisdom righteousness from men and ascribes them to the Creator alone who makes everything out of nothing and so his approach fundamentally to the word is to come as a beggar Reliant upon the Lord believing that everything he has in his head and everything he has in his hands he has from the Lord and so the heart of the Reformation in its exaltation of the free grace of God over against the powerlessness of man is the essence of the way you study the Bible as well namely in prayer crying out to the Lord for his enabling Grace and acknowledging that without him we can do nothing and this is the way he lived this is the way he studied and finally this is the way he died at 3 A.M February 18 1546 with these last words combining his German and his Latin we are Beggars this is true" [00:23:58]