Pastor Steve Hopkins' sermon, titled 'The Just Shall Live By Faith,' focuses on the impact of Romans 1:16-17 on Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. The sermon recounts Luther's journey from a troubled monk seeking righteousness through works to discovering justification by faith. It highlights the pivotal moment when Luther understood that righteousness comes from faith in Jesus Christ, not through human effort, a revelation that sparked the Protestant Reformation. The sermon also explores the historical context of Luther's actions, including his 95 Theses against the Roman Catholic Church's practices, particularly the sale of indulgences. By challenging the Church's teachings, Luther emphasized the authority of Scripture and the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which became central to Protestant theology. The sermon calls for reflection on personal faith and righteousness in light of these teachings.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. Good morning once again. That of course is a Luther hymn, and the title of the message this morning will be Luther, The Just Shall Live by Faith, as we return to our exposition of Romans chapter 1. I thought it very interesting, apropos, that the Lord would have us to fall upon this passage that was so impactful to Martin Luther on October 31st 2021 504 years ago this very day from the day that he nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, Vittenberg as it should be pronounced.

I thought I would just mention this. I leaned over to my wife after our second hymn, O Four Thousand Tongues to Sing, and the scripture passage was read afterwards and he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple walking and leaping and praising God and I leaned over to her and said I'd like to stand up and walk and be walking and leaping right now and praising God." She said, I wouldn't recommend it right now. I wouldn't suggest that. With my issues that I'm facing health-wise right now, praising the Lord though, right, we can always do, whether we're standing on our feet and walking and leaping, or even able to get out of bed. If you would stand with me for the reading of the Word of God.

Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. We'll read verses 16 and 17 together. Word of the Lord. 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." Let's pray.

Father, again, how appropriate that you would cause us to land upon this passage of Scripture that so impacted the beginning of the Reformation on this Reformation or pre-Reformation day. Lord, we are so grateful Lord for your word and we ask Lord that you would open up our understanding to understand it this morning. We're asking Lord that you would inspire us by the the history of Martin Luther. We're asking that you would fill us with your spirit and Lord with all understanding as we look at this passage of Scripture that so impacted him. May it so impact us as well.

And Lord, may we see revival and reformation in our time, the likes of which this country has not seen for a generation or generations. Lord, we ask these things in the name of our blessed Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's be seated. Again, today is October 31st, 2021, 504 years ago.

On this very day, a Roman Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg, or Wittenberg Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. And the world would never be the same. In God's providence, the Gutenberg Press had been invented. And what was initially a posting on a church door where there was common postings for discussion or debate, intended for men to discuss, men to debate, intended for public discussion, was duplicated because of the printing press and widely distributed within weeks. A copy eventually making its way all the way to Rome to be read by Pope Leo X.

The match had been struck and the fire would never be put out. The Protestant Reformation had begun and with it the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The response from Rome would set the stage for an epic battle between truth and lies, between the true preaching of the gospel of Christ and a false gospel that had fallen upon the earth. The darkness was about to be shattered by the light of the truth of the Word of God. But how did it all begin?

How did it really begin? And what were the circumstances that led to the match that lit the fire of Reformation? As I said in our beginning, as we began, it was this passage of Scripture from Romans chapter 1, particularly verse 17, that God used to open the eyes of that Augustinian monk 504 years ago. What were the circumstances that led to this match that lit the fire of the Reformation. Martin Luther was born in Eslaban, Germany, November 10th, 1483.

His father was a copper miner, a hardworking man. He saved his money well. He wanted to use it for the education of his son. He wanted his son to be something great. And he intended for Martin to become a successful lawyer.

And Luther was groomed for that profession from his earliest years. By the time Luther was 15 years old, He enrolled at Eisenach to pursue his career, and later at the University of Erfurt, Germany, where he would receive his bachelor's degree in 1502, and later his master's in arts in 1505. But his career as a lawyer was interrupted one day. In July of 1505, Luther now 21 years old was caught in a violent thunderstorm. How many know the story?

He was caught in a violent thunderstorm in which he was nearly struck by lightning. Lightning struck actually very close to him and the jolt from that lightning bolt that struck near Luther threw him to the ground and he was in absolute abject terror and in his terror Luther cried out to St. Anna for help. St. Anna was Roman Catholicism's patron saint of minors.

Certainly She can help me, right? And he cried out, oh save me, save me, and if you save me, he vowed that I will become a monk. Well his life was spared and he kept his vow to the great anger of his father, who saw his costly education as having been just thrown away. All that he'd poured into his son, all the finances he'd poured into him, all the education just down the drain. His father was not happy.

Within a couple of weeks after the vow was made, Luther made good on his vow. And he entered the monastery at Erfurt, Germany, and took his vows as a monk in the order of Saint Augustine. You see God's providence as we go forward. He's now a monk in the order of Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine, of course, one of those men in history that inspired so many of the reformers with his doctrine.

Augustine knew the true gospel of Christ, but it had been lost in Roman Catholicism over the years. For the next 15 years, Luther would seek peace with God. He had no peace with God. He was troubled by his sins. He was troubled that knowing God is holy and that he was not holy.

His conscience continually disturbed him greatly. So in the monastery for the next 15 years Luther would seek peace with God through works of righteousness He would try to gain the favor of God by keeping different laws and by keeping different requirements of the monastery, like fastings. He fasted more than all the other monks. Like vigils, all night vigils. He held more vigils and watchings and fastings than any of the other monks.

He knew he needed to be in prayer. They had to say particular prayers at particular times. He prayed more than all the rest. He said the prayers by rote more than all the others. He would torture his body.

He would go out. He would give himself no comforts. He would go out and pray or prostrate himself on the ground in the freezing cold. He would go back into the monastery and he would sleep at night on the cold rock floor of the monastery. He wanted to gain the favor of God.

How can man be acceptable with God? How can I, a sinner, be acceptable with God? And yet he found no rest for his soul. He wearied his confessor. Every one of the monks in the monastery would have a confessor.

He would have a man that he would go to a priest And he would confess his sins. And the priest would take his daily confession of the sins that he had committed. But he wearied his confessor by continually confessing everything he could think of. And then he would finish confessing, and he would think of something else and go back and weary him for another hour, confessing his sins. And he would confess the way that he confessed his sins.

He would repent of his repentance, so to speak. He could only think of how he had offended God, and that his offenses were great, and he could find no peace for his soul. The Roman Church offered peace, peace, but for Luther there was no peace. He would later write, quote, Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that God was placated by my satisfaction.

In other words, the things that I was doing was not placating the wrath of God that was due me for my offenses against him. Nevertheless, two years after entering the monastery, Luther was ordained to the priesthood. You may remember in the life of Luther his first mass. His father actually came to witness this first mass and again his father was very discouraged by what he saw. He was not even able to get through the first mass.

He thought, how could I, sinful man, be holding the actual body and the actual transubstantiated blood of the Son of God in my sinful hands? How could I possibly be doing that?" And he actually just ran out of the church and did not finish his first mass. In 1512, Luther was awarded his doctorate of theology and became a professor of the Bible. Here we go. Look at God's providence in all of this.

He now is a professor of the Bible teaching students at the University of Wittenberg. He's now got to search the Scriptures. At that time, they were using the Latin version of the scriptures. But he stumbled onto a copy of the Greek manuscript which God used to open his eyes concerning the doctrine of justification, which we'll get to in a moment. Remember, he is in the Augustinian order of the monks, and he has a Greek manuscript that has commentary that is written by St.

Augustine, who knew the true gospel of Christ. But he is now commissioned to teach the Bible to his students. If you remember one of the things that really set Luther off before he nailed his 95 theses on the door, on the castle church door at Wittenberg, you remember that a Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel appeared on the scene in Germany. I think he actually was doing this as early as 1503. But he appears on the scene in Germany and he's selling what are known as Papal indulgences.

These are basically papers guaranteed by the Pope to save souls, to forgive sins. Basically what we might call today get out of hell free cards or in this case purgatory. And these indulgences were being sold by Tetzel in order to finance the reconstruction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. So the the pope is is all in on this.

The hierarchy of the church are all in on this. And actually there was another man, I forget his name right now, who was actually receiving some of these funds, who was in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, and he was actually getting a cut from Tetzel's earnings as well as he sold these get out of purgatory free cards. You could take money and throw it into his chest as he made these speeches before the crowds and you were told that your relatives who are suffering in purgatory could immediately be released all you have to do is buy this indulgence put your money in and their sins will be forgiven and the merits of the saints will take care of it and all this Catholic doctrine, false doctrine that set people's hope in lies. So Tetzel is circulating in the neighborhood towns, the neighboring towns. He's selling these indulgences, offering the forgiveness of sins.

And Luther is enraged by this. And Luther begins to write his 95 Theses. And he sees corruption in Rome. He's just recently been on a trip to Rome. Some think that he was sent to Rome so that he would strengthen his faith and help him to become a better Catholic.

But he saw the corruptions. He saw the people putting their faith in relics. You know, if I can just touch one of the nails from the true cross or a splinter from the true cross. They were putting their faith in physical things that had no spiritual reality whatsoever and not in Christ. And Luther was seeing these corruptions And he intends to start debate.

He wants to see public debate. How do we get public debate going on this? Well, you go to the church house door at the Castle Church at Wittenberg where the public postings are nailed. His wasn't the only thing. It might be something that's coming up in the future, some posting about something that's going to be an event that's going to be taking place, but also public discussion.

How do I get public discussion going here? And he writes his 95 Theses, unaware that God is going to use that to be the match that will light the fire of a reformation that will spread throughout the world even to this day. In Luther's Theses number 27 of the 95 theses that he nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1515. Luther wrote, quote, they preach vanity, who say that a soul flies out of purgatory as soon as the money thrown into the chest rattles. That was what Tetzel and his company were preaching.

As soon as you throw the money in and it rattles in the chest, You can be sure that the souls of your relatives have escaped purgatory and are no more suffering. Who wouldn't sell whatever they had if they were in ignorance and bondage to the lies of Roman Catholicism? Who wouldn't take their money, their hard-earned money, and sell whatever they had in order to free their relative souls from purgatory, from suffering and have their sins forgiven. It was a horrifying time in the life of the Christian Church. Luther's writings were now circulating throughout Europe.

His main points revolved around the most important issue that man faces. Every one of his 95 theses, if you trace it back to what is the purpose, really underlying purpose for writing this, Where is Luther going with this? And it was how is sinful man justified in the sight of a holy God? He challenged Rome's doctrine of justification of faith plus works plus the merits of the so-called Treasury of the Saints in order for man's sins to be forgiven. Luther in doing so also challenged the authority of the Pope.

Because you remember that popes were considered to be infallible. When they speak on matters of morals and spiritual matters, matters of faith, Their word is to be taken as equal with Scripture. So Luther is challenging the doctrine of justification that the popes have all preached and taught and said, this is true, this is how you're saved. This is the way to God. This is the way to be acceptable before God So Luther is challenging not only the doctrine of justification, but the authority of the Pope and the church councils putting the scriptures above Church doctrine putting the scriptures above the teaching of the popes, quote, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves.

So he's saying look the councils of the church, the popes of the church have often contradicted one another and Therefore they cannot be trusted. The Word of God alone can be trusted. You'll remember the five solas that came out of the Reformation. One of them is according to Scripture alone. Sola Scriptura.

And we'll look at those solas when we close the five solas that came out of the Reformation but he's saying look it's well known that popes have often erred and contradicted themselves why would We put our trust in the words of the popes and the councils rather than in the word of God which lives forever and is truth. Pope Leo X responds in 1520 with what is known as a Papal Bull. A Papal Bull is to be taken very seriously by Catholics calling down judgment on Luther for preaching salvation by faith alone, Justification before God by faith alone. In this papal bull, Pope Leo writes, quote, and this is distributed throughout Germany, he writes, arise, O Lord, and judge your cause, As if God were in opposition to Luther. He said a wild boar has invaded your vineyard.

41 of Luther's 95 theses were condemned. Luther responded by publicly burning the Papal Bull. When that news hit the Gutenberg press, the world was turned upside down. There was excitement everywhere. Someone was finally standing up against the tyranny of Rome, and his name was Martin Luther.

It became very popular. The scripture passage that God used to open the eyes of Martin Luther is the text before us this morning. As I said before, he had been assigned the task as a Bible professor to teach his students, and now he had been given the assignment to teach them the book of Romans. And he barely gets into the book of Romans, into the first chapter, when he comes to verse 17, and he is filled with questions. He wants to know, he's got to teach his students what in the world does this mean?

What is God saying when he says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith? Speaking of the gospel, therein. In the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. When the apostle writes, therein is the righteousness of God revealed, Luther questioned the meaning.

How is it that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel? He wants to know. He has to teach his students the truth. Luther had understood the righteousness of God in terms of God's attribute of righteousness. He had understood this passage to be speaking of God's attribute of righteousness.

God's attribute of righteousness is revealed in the Gospel. Well, how? He had been taught that it was God's inherent righteousness which was revealed in the Gospel, and that is what Paul, the Apostle is speaking of in Romans 1 17 if this is speaking of his attribute of righteousness Then how does that righteousness? Reach me Because I found it to be in my own experience unachievable through all human effort to merit that righteousness before God. How am I to understand that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel and that somehow that reaches man by faith?

Now the lights are beginning to come on. And Luther, who has been doing everything in his power to achieve with human effort a righteous standing before God, who is all holy and all just, and He knows must punish all sin, now begins to understand the righteousness of God that is revealed in the gospel, a righteousness that God gives to men freely apart from any work, from any merit on the part of that man. He began to understand all man merits by his works is the condemnation of a holy and a just God who because he is just must punish all sin. That's where he's been in the monastery, trying to achieve a righteousness that makes him acceptable before God, but he can't achieve it. And every time he aligns himself, looks at his life and aligns it up against the law of God, all he receives is more condemnation.

He feels more condemnation, more judgment, more wrath from God. He knows that God is all just and he must punish all sins. Luther knew from his own experience that when a man attempts to achieve a righteousness acceptable to God based on human effort, all he sees when he compares himself with the law of God is more of his own sinfulness. You look into the holy law of God and you say, Wow, I can't achieve it. I can't achieve it.

I can't achieve it. It's the goal. The law is there. It's wholly just and good. And we are to look into the law of God.

And we are to have the goal of Christlikeness after regeneration. But we never are to put our trust in our works as though they somehow make us acceptable before a holy God. He compared himself to the law of God, and all he saw was more of his own sinfulness, and thus an ever-increasing sense of God's condemnation, of God's frowning upon Him. But Luther begins to understand, he begins to understand that in the Gospel is revealed the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ and that is freely given to man, a righteousness that is freely imputed to man when he believes on Christ, whereby a man is justified apart from works and declared to be righteous in the sight of God, on account of the righteousness of another, God's own Son. So back to what I mentioned earlier, the text that the Roman Catholics used at that time was translated by Jerome and it was a translation from the Greek into the Latin.

The Roman Catholic Church only used Latin in their services. It became another one of those superstitions. Somehow If the priest is speaking in Latin, then it's somehow holy. And if he's not, then it is not holy. They didn't have the Bible translated into their own language, into the vulgar, as they called it at that time, into that language.

They relied upon the priest and his magical words in Latin, which they couldn't even understand, to give them entrance and acceptance with God. We just have to trust what he's saying, even though most of the people had no knowledge of Latin whatsoever. But Luther is at the university, he now is commissioned to teach the students the Bible. And so he gets a copy of the New Testament in Greek. And it is a Greek New Testament that has entries, commentary by Saint Augustine, who lived back in the 300s or so.

And he begins to have his eyes begin to be open. And one of the things that opens his eyes is when he comes to this passage and all of the passages that deal with being justified before God, then he notices that the word that was used for justification was justificare in the Latin, which means to be made just. So he's looking at the Catholic doctrine based upon Jerome's translation with an incorrect translation of the word justification and believes man is actually made just in the sight of God. Has to be made just in the sight of God. He has to be just in the sight of God.

And the Roman Catholic Church has all of this program for getting you to a place where you're just before God. You have the merit of the saints that can be applied to you. You have purgatory after death before heaven or hell. You have all of these things, confessions of sins. You have all of the works and all of the prayers and all of the things.

You do all of these things. You've seen Roman Catholics counting their beads and saying their prayers. You've got things that you've got to do to get saved and continue to be saved. So Luther looks at the Greek and he says, wait a minute, the word is not justificare. The word in the Greek that is translated for justification is not to be made righteous, but to be declared righteous in the sight of God.

To be declared righteous. And Luther used the phrase, similiustus et peccator, in the Latin. Simultaneously, at the same time, just, justified in God's sight, yet at the same time, sinner. Simulustes at Pecator. He understood we are sinners, but at the same time can be declared righteous.

How? On account of the righteousness of another, Jesus Christ, God's own Son. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His righteousness is imputed, declared to the account of those whose faith is in Him, whose faith, whose trust is in Him and Him alone for their salvation and for their right standing before God. Luther begins to understand it is a righteousness of God through faith in Christ, whereby man is justified, declared righteous in the sight of God on the account of the righteousness of another, God's Son. A righteousness that is imputed or credited to the account of everyone who puts their trust in Jesus alone for their salvation and thus their justification in God's sight.

R.C. Sproul writes, Luther sought every means he knew in the confines of a monastery to satisfy the demands of God's law, yet he had no peace. This was the verse, Romans 1, 17, that the Holy Spirit used to awaken Luther as he was preparing his lectures on the book of Romans. He glanced at a manuscript from Augustine and found where Augustine said that the righteousness here is not God's righteousness, a righteousness I'll add here that no man can attain or achieve, but that which God, a righteousness which God provides for people who do not have any righteousness. You understand that?

We have no righteousness. You have no righteousness before God. You have nothing in your hand that you can bring to a holy and righteous and just God who must punish all sin and bring before Him and say, Oh Lord, is this acceptable in your sight for me to have a right standing before you and be able to enter into your presence. No, you have no righteousness whatsoever. All of sin and fall short of the glory of God.

They have altogether become corrupt. The nature of man is utterly corrupted, which we inherited from our father Adam, from our first parents. Our nature is completely corrupted and man acts according to his nature. The best of your most perfect deeds that you've ever done in the sight of God, God calls filthy rags. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before a holy God.

We have no righteousness, None whatsoever. We need the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and that comes to man by faith. Picking up a sprawl. It is the righteousness God makes available by free grace to all who believe. Justification is by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the righteousness God makes available by free grace to all who believe. Luther called it an alien righteousness. It's not inherent in us. It's not inherent in our nature. This righteousness is not our own, says Sproul.

It is Jesus' righteousness. It's His righteousness. Again, we've looked in the past at what is the righteousness of Christ, what does it entail? His perfect obedience to the law, His active obedience, and His passive obedience in dying for our sins. His active obedience in keeping all of the law perfectly in our place, which none of us kept, and his passive obedience in laying down his life on the cross and bearing our sin debt and paying the penalty in full for our sins so that we are absolved of all sin and can be declared righteous in the sight of God even though we're still sinners.

Matthew Henry will later write the righteousness of God quote cuts off all pretensions to a righteousness resulting from the merit of our own works." Again, the righteousness of God cuts off all pretensions to a righteousness resulting from the merit of our own works." End quote. The just shall live by faith. That's what the text says. The just shall live by faith. To live by faith is to live trusting in the person and the work of Jesus Christ alone.

Alone. And His righteousness imputed, declared, and credited to the accounts of all them that believe. Remember our sins, our sin debt, the sins of believers is imputed to Christ that is declared to His account. Jesus wasn't a sinner. Jesus never sinned.

Jesus was perfect. But on that cross he was treated as though he had done everything you've done and I've done. Our sin debt was imputed to Him. Think of the worst thing you've ever done. Jesus was treated like He did that instead of you when your trust is in Him.

Our sins were imputed to Him and His perfect righteousness imputed to us when we trusted him alone for our salvation. When Luther understood this, he said he saw, quote, the doors of paradise swing open and I walk through. The doors of paradise swung open and I walk through." He now understood to live by Faith is to live trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone and His righteousness imputed to all them that believe. From faith to faith, from faith to faith, from the first to the last. Look at our text this morning.

From faith to faith, from the first to the last, justification in the sight of God is all of faith. And it's the gift of God. It's the gift of God. Otherwise, we could boast about it as though we had achieved it. John MacArthur comments on this passage, quote, the gospel reveals that on the basis of faith and faith alone, God will impute His righteousness to ungodly sinners.

That's you and me. God will impute His righteousness to ungodly sinners. That's you and me. God will impute His righteousness to ungodly sinners. The righteousness from God, MacArthur writes, is completely on the basis of faith from beginning to end.

End quote. Amen. This is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. This is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. That word power, by the way, used in the previous verse, is the Greek word from which we get the English word dynamite.

That is the dynamite of God. That is the power of God into salvation to everyone that believes. And as the Reformation dawned, the gospel was restored and the explosive power of the true gospel of Jesus Christ was ignited, and the fire has been spreading throughout the world ever since. As we close, where does your hope lie today? Is it in any righteousness of your own?

Oh God, I prayed. Oh God, I repented. Oh God, I did whatever. Or is it in Christ alone? Is your hope of a right standing before God in your faith plus your works?

That's Roman Catholicism. Your faith plus some things that you've done to make you acceptable before God? Or is it in faith alone, in Christ alone? The five solas that came out of the Reformation, the five solas, solas mean alones, The five alones that came out of the Reformation ignited on October 31, 1515 state that salvation is quote, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone, for the glory of God alone. Nothing else brings glory to God than If it is faith to faith, unless it is all of God and nothing of man, then God receives all the glory.

Take out any one of the alones and you strip the gospel of its power to save. Let's pray. Father, in heaven, almighty God, we praise and thank you for your holy word. We thank you, Lord, that 504 years ago a man named Martin Luther stumbled onto the true gospel by your providence and by your guidance and by your spirit and By your word through your word. We thank you that you gave him an understanding Lord.

We thank you that you gave him a boldness to stand up against the Hierarchy of the Roman Catholic world We thank you that you gave him boldness Lord to be more than a wild boar but a man of God seeking your face who only wanted to please his God. We thank you Lord that he was used to strike the match that lit the fire of the Reformation. We thank you God on this day, October 31st, 2021, Lord that we can remember these things in glory in Christ and all that You've done for us. And we can look back and see Your mighty works in history, Your mighty works, O God, whereby light was shined into the darkness of the world and a new day dawned where the true gospel was restored. We praise you and thank you for that.

Oh God help us as we share in this Lord's table that's coming to examine ourselves in the light of the things that we've heard and the things we've read from your word this morning and help us God as we Eat of that bread and drink of that cup to consider these words is my faith in Christ alone is my faith in Christ alone for my right standing before God. Lord, I pray that every one of us who shares in this holy table set apart from all others would feed upon Christ spiritually and reconfirm that our faith is in Jesus alone and His righteousness imputed to us by faith, which is a free gift of God. For it's in His holy name we pray these things. Amen.