How you view the Reformation will depend on your theological persuasion. Roman Catholic historians interpret the Reformation as a heresy inspired by Martin Luther. While Protestant historians - such as Schaff, Grimm, and Bainton - interpret the Reformation largely as a religious movement that sought to recover the purity of the primitive Christianity that is depicted in the New Testament.
The Reformers sought to develop a theology that was in complete accord with the New Testament and believed that this could never be a reality as long as the church, instead of the Bible, was made the final authority. The reformation proper began on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the church door.
In 1967, Time Magazine ran an article on Martin Luther which said, "A few men can it be said with absolute certainty, that they changed the course of history. Jesus was one, so was Carl Marx, still another was Martin Luther."
Church history is a subject that few twentieth century Americans know much about. Martin Lloyd Jones said, "Fortunately, we are not the first people who have been engaged in this battle (Christian life) and there is nothing which can be of greater help to us, next to the Scriptures, than the History of the Church." So, let's look at the history of Luther and the Reformation and see what we can learn.
Martin Luther was born November 10, 1483 in Germany. He attended school at Mansfeld, at Magdeburg under the Brethren of the Common Life, and at Eisleben. He then went to the university at Erfurt (1501), where he came under Nominalist influence and learned Greek, graduating B.A. in 1502 and M.A. in 1505. His father wanted him to study law, but in 1505 Luther became frightened during a severe thunderstorm on the road near Stotternheim and promised Saint Anne that he would become a monk if he were spared. About two week later, he entered a monastery of the Augustinian order at Erfurt. Here in 1507, he was ordained and celebrated his first mass.
In 1511, Luther was transferred to Wittenberg. During the next year he became a professor of Bible and received his doctor of theology degree. Luther at this time was still unconverted.
In his lectures from 1513 to 1515, he expounded the Psalms. Around 1515 he began to expound the book of Romans. It was in 1515 that Luther had what he called the "Tower experience". He said that Romans 1:17 just jumped out of the Scriptures and brought him to God. Romans 1:17 was his key verse.
Romans 1:17 (NKJV) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
It convicted him that only faith in Christ could make one just before God. From that time on Sola Fide - justification by faith alone, and Sola Scriptura - the idea that the Scriptures are the only authority for sinful man in seeking salvation - became the main points in his theological system.
He came to realize that God's righteousness in Romans 1 is not the justice that we have to fear but the positive righteousness that God gives believers in Christ--it is a righteousness they receive by personally trusting in Christ.
He began to understand that the Roman Catholic church did not square with the Scriptures. As he hears confessions at Wittenberg, he hears that people are trusting in their works and trusting also in their indulgence letters.
Archbishop Albert of Brandenburg, through a series of circumstances, wound up in some high offices in the church; technically he was not eligible for these high offices because of his age. Also, church law forbade multiple occupation of high ecclesiastical offices by one person. But the pope agreed to overlook the legal problems if Albert would pay him a huge sum of money. Albert borrowed the money from the wealthy and powerful Fugger banking house of Augsburg. Then, to enable Albert to raise money to pay his debts, and to raise money to build the new St. Peter's Church in Rome, Pope Leo X authorized an "indulgence" which Albert was permitted to have preached and sold in his dioceses.
An indulgence was an official church provision by which a penitent sinner could purchase from the pope a remission of the punishment for temporal sins--sins that would otherwise have to be atoned for in purgatory. Indulgence benefits were even extended to departed souls supposedly already in purgatory.
The Roman Catholic church taught that Jesus Christ's merit covered sin in a certain sense, but there also was a penalty that you must pay, and God punished you either in this life or in purgatory. So, the indulgence was a means to get rid of that penalty. In Roman Catholicism, purgatory is the place of cleansing after death, usually imagined to involve punishment and suffering. According to this doctrine, Christians go to purgatory to be purified of venial sins that were unconfessed and unforgiven on earth. After the appropriate cleansing has taken place, the soul is ready to be received into heaven. Indulgences, masses, and prayers for the dead can speed the cleansing process and reduce the time in purgatory. Purgatory is NOT Biblical! It is an invention of man.
Albert commissioned a Dominican monk, John Tetzel, as the indulgence preacher. Tetzel was selling indulgence letters throughout Germany. His crassly mercenary sermons were successful in filling church coffers. His slogan was, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul into heaven springs." Fifty percent of the money he raised was used to build St. Peters cathedral in Rome. Tetzel preached that by buying indulgences, you could buy a relative out of purgatory into heaven.
When Luther discovered what was going on, he drafted his famous 95 Theses. On October 31, 1517, Luther posted his Theses on the door of the Castel Church in Wittenberg. In them he condemned the abuses of the indulgence system and challenged all comers to debate on the matter.
Number 27 of the 95 Theses said, "Those who assert that a soul straightway flies out of purgatory as a coin tinkles in the collection box, are preaching an invention of man."
Number 32 said, "Those who think themselves sure of salvation through their letters of pardon, will be damned forever with their teachers."
In 14 days, Martin Luther's theses had spread all over Germany. Just 100 years earlier Huss had been burned at the stake for saying things not far distant from Luther.
When translated and widely circulated, these theses brought an explosion of anti-church feeling that wrecked the indulgence. Given practical application in this way, Luther's theology could no longer go unnoticed, and he came at once under ecclesiastical pressures ranging from attempts at intimidation to promised favors for compliance.
Early in 1521 a bull of excommunication was prepared that, if carried out, would have deprived Luther of civil rights and protection. Before its execution, Charles V agreed to give Luther the chance to recant at the diet to be held at Worms. Here, Luther made his resounding confession before the emperor, princes, and other rulers: "I ask for the Scriptures and Ek offers me the fathers. I ask for the Sun, and he shows me his lanterns. I ask, Where is your Scriptural proof? And he adduces Ambrose and Cyril. With all due respect to the Fathers, I prefer the authority of the Scripture."
Charles V said to Luther, "One friar who goes counter to all Christianity for 1,000 years must be wrong." Luther replied, "My conscience is captive to the Word of God . . . Here I stand, I can do no other." Luther went against the corrupt Christianity of the day, but he stuck to the Scripture. Sola Fide, and Sola Scriptura, were the cry of the Reformation.
Luther said that only Erasmus knew what the real issue in the Reformation was, and it was the issue of the bondage of the will.
Erasmus was Europe's most famous philosopher, and he and Luther debated on the question of whether or not the human creature has the freedom to accept or to refuse divine grace. The issue was; do we have "free will"? This debate was not new, in the fifth century Augustine and Pelagius debated the same issue, and Pelagius' views were condemned at the church council of Ephesus in 431.
Erasmus published a Diatribe on Free Will(1524). To this, Luther made a sharp and almost scornful reply in his Bondage of the Will (1525). This work is a powerful statement of the Augustinian position that in matters of right conduct and salvation, the will has no power to act apart from the divine initiative.
Luther taught that man, because of the fall, was so bound by sin that he could not of himself do anything to avail himself to get out of the situation, but that God must do it. This is what is called the doctrine of "Total Depravity." Luther believe that man has the power of choice, but that the will of man was not free.
Luther and Erasmus disagreed. Erasmus taught that the will of man was always able to choose good or evil. Luther accused Erasmus of Epicurianism - the idea that the universe is basically chance. It teaches that God hasn't foreordained everything. Luther said that Erasmus taught an indeterminate God, a God that hasn't determined everything. That was semi- plaginism. Luther said that this was not only heresy but blasphemy. And more than blasphemy, it was atheism. Because if God is not totally in control of everything, he's not God. He said that Erasmus' god didn't exist, and that he was teaching a form of atheism.
Luther believed that after the fall, man's will was a selfish sinful will. Man could choose - he was uncoerced, but man fallen had no desire for anything except the evil, and as long as he is inclined only to evil, he chooses only evil. Edwards, in his essay, "The Freedom of the Will", wrote that all men everywhere always act according to their strongest inclination at any given time. After the fall, the Bible teaches that man's strongest inclination at any given moment is always to sin. Fallen man loves darkness (sin) and he hates light, so whenever he is confronted with a choice between darkness and light, he chooses darkness. He chooses what is attractive to him.
John 3:19-20 (NKJV) "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
A person always chooses according to his strongest inclination, he is in bondage to choose what he loves. Now, you might ask, "Where is the bondage in choosing what we love and want?" The bondage comes in the result of the sin he loves, the consequences of sin he doesn't like. He wants to live forever; he wants joy, love, peace; but he hates righteousness.
Look with me at Zechariah 1 which is a call to Israel to return to the LORD.
Zechariah 1:1-4 (NKJV) In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 2 "The LORD has been very angry with your fathers. 3 "Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Return to Me," says the LORD of hosts, "and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. 4 "Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds." ' But they did not hear nor heed Me," says the LORD.
Commenting on these verses, Luther said, "It is not in your power to turn to God. If you think that it is in your power to turn to God, you have missed the whole point of the Reformation and don't understand total depravity. It is not in your power to turn to God. You are a sinner, you're dead, you're eaten up with corruption. Every choice of yours is evil and not good. So how can we turn to Him who is light, righteousness, holy and good?"
Luther taught that you have a duty to return to God, but you do not have the ability. RESPONSIBILITY DOES NOT IMPLY ABILITY!
John 12:36 (NKJV) "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
Jesus said "believe in the light." Most believers today would say that because Christ commands us to believe, we must be able to believe. That is not correct! Look at the following verses.
John 12:37-39 (NKJV) But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: "Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" 39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: 40 "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them."
They did not believe because they could not believe. Scripture states dogmatically some things that a lost man cannot do:
Man cannot see or perceive the kingdom of God - until he first be born again
John 3:3 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, UNLESS ONE IS BORN AGAIN, HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD."
Man cannot understand spiritual things - until he first be given a new nature.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) But THE NATURAL MAN DOES NOT RECEIVE THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Man cannot come to God - until he first be effectually called by the Holy Spirit.
John 6:44 (NKJV) "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Some have tried to interpret the word "draw" here as "call or invite." But this is not what the word "draw" means. The Greek word translated "draw" is helkuo, which means: "to drag." It is used eight times in the New Testament. To understand what it means, let's look at a few of its uses.
John 18:10 (NKJV) Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew [helkuo] it and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
Now, did Peter invite or call his sword to come out? No! He grabbed it, and pulled it out.
Acts 16:19 (NKJV) But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged [helkuo] them into the marketplace to the authorities.
James 2:6 (NKJV) But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag [helkuo] you into the courts?
The usage of this word makes it very clear that helkuo means: "to draw by irresistible superiority." So, John is saying that no one comes to Christ unless the Father draws them by irresistible superiority.
A sinner absolutely cannot (notice it is not "will" not) come to Christ until God first does something in that sinner's nature. That "something" is what the Bible calls "regeneration", or the new birth, and it is the exclusive work of God, the Holy Spirit. Man has no part whatever in regeneration. In John 11, Jesus commands Lazarus to come forth out of the grave.
John 11:43 (NKJV) Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"
Did Lazarus have the ability in himself to obey that command? No, he was dead! He had no ability at all. Unsaved man, natural man, has a duty to believe the gospel, but he does not have the ability.
Why does God command us to do what we cannot do? To show us how depraved we are, to show us the depth of our depravity. The foundation of reformed theology is the doctrine of total depravity. Many people think they have trouble with the doctrines of election and predestination but their real problem is they don't understand how depraved we really are. When God commands us to return and promises that if we do return to Him he will return to us , we won't do it, we can't do it. We are in bondage to what we love, which is darkness and evil. And we reject what we hate which is light and goodness and God. We should be able to turn to God but we are not because of our choice to disobey God in the garden. We all chose in Adam to turn away from God.
Romans 5:12 (NKJV) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned;
We all made a choice in the garden to turn away from God. This act has left all of us spiritually dead.
The very fact that God commands us to do that which we are utterly unable, morally unable, to do shows how totally depraved we are. And if salvation is going to come at all, it's going to be applied sovereignly. This overthrows self-confidence and convinces sinners that their salvation is altogether out of their hands and shuts them up to a self-despairing dependency on the glorious grace of a sovereign Savior.
The nature of the human will:
The will is the faculty of choice, the immediate cause of all action. You think about something and then you do it. In every act of the will there is a preference, the desiring of one thing rather than another. To will is to choose, and to choose is to decide between two or more alternatives. But there is something which influences the choice. The will is not causative because something causes it to choose, therefore, that something must be the causative agent.
What is it that determines the will? If the will is not causative, then what is it that causes you to make a choice? Let's say that your boss comes to you and says, "You're going to California." You don't have a choice, he's ordering you to go. But he says, "Would you like to drive or fly?" He is giving you a choice. What determines which option you choose? What determines your choice is the strongest motive power which is brought to bear upon it. With one, it may be the logic of reason-- if I drive, it will take me five days, and if I fly, it will only take me about five hours. I choose to fly. With another, the impulse of emotion - there are a lot of plane crashes and I'm not ready to die, so I'll drive. What you think, causes you to will. Which ever of these presents the strongest motive power and exerts the greatest influence upon us, is that which impels the will to act.
In other words, the action of the will is determined by the mind or heart. The will is not free but is in bondage to the heart. The Word of God teaches that it is the heart which is the dominating center of our being:
Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV) Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Our choices are determined by our desires. When we have conflicting desires, which ever desire is greater at the time of decision is the desire I will choose.
Example: What causes a teenager to take drugs? Your mind, your thinking, will determine your choice. If you desire to honor and obey God and your parents, and if you believe that drugs are wrong, you will say, "No" to drugs. If you're really undecided if drugs are wrong, and you want to please your friends, you'll say, "Yes." This is why we are to train up our children and this is why we are to guard our thinking - the condition of our hearts will determine our choices. J. Edwards defined the will as, "The mind choosing."
Let's carry this idea of the will to the non-regenerate. Does the lost person have a free will to choose God or reject Him? By and far the majority of the church today believes that the lost person has a free will. The church, during the days of the reformation, held that man had no free will. In the eighteenth century, Campbell, a Scottish preacher, was excommunicated from the church for teaching that man had a free will. The church today is man-centered, so they want man to be able to determine his own destiny. Does the lost man have a free will? No! He can not choose God because he loves sin and hates God, he has no desire for Him. He cannot choose what he does not desire. He does not desire God because his heart is wicked.
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Until God changes his heart through a supernatural sovereign act, he cannot choose God.
Ezekiel 36:26 (NKJV) "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Our will is not free but is in bondage to our heart which is controlled by God.
Proverbs 21:1 (NKJV) The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.
Revelation 17:16-17 (NKJV) "And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 17 "For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.
God put it in their heart to give their kingdom to the beast. God inclines men to fulfill that which He has ordained, and performs that which He has foreordained.
Luther was committed to total depravity, that man could not choose God, as was Calvin. As we go backward in time, we see that Augustine taught the same thing in the fifth century. Augustine said, "Man's will is entirely corrupted by the fall so that he must be considered totally depraved and unable to exercise his will in regard to the matter of salvation." The reformers taught it in the 16th century, Augustine taught it in the 5th century, and the apostles taught it in the 1st century.
Romans 3:10-12 (NKJV) As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."
"There is none who does good." People will admit they're sinners, but not many will admit sin is this serious. Is there really none who do good? We see unbelievers doing good every day; obeying laws, providing for their families, giving to the needy. Is Paul using hyperbole here? Is he exaggerating to make his point? No! This is God's judgment on fallen man. What is the standard for good, the standard by which we shall all be judged? God's law. In biblical categories, a good deed is measured in two parts; outward conformity and motivation. We look at outward appearance, but God reads the heart. For a work to be considered good, it must not only conform outwardly to the law of God, but it must be motivated inwardly by a sincere love for God. From this perspective, it is easy to see that no one does good. Our best works are tainted by our less than pure motives. God doesn't grade on a curve. He demands perfection. We do not do what God commands ever!
Romans 3:11 (NKJV) There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
Do you believe that? Have you ever heard someone say, "they're not a Christian but they are searching." I've got a secret to tell you - God is not hiding. In the garden of Eden, who hid? God? No! Adam and Eve hid from God, he was looking for them.
Luke 19:10 (NKJV) "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Jesus is the one seeking and saving. People don't seek God. They might seek after the benefits that God can give them, but they don't seek God, Himself.
Romans 3:18 (NKJV) "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Men have no fear of the Holiness and justice of God.
Ephesians 2:1-6 (NKJV) And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Verse 5 teaches that we were dead. Dead men can't make themselves come alive. It is God who quickens us from spiritual death. Non-reformed analogies: Mortally ill man must take the medicine of the gospel to live. They say man must make the choice, he must take the medicine. The problem with that analogy is that the Bible doesn't speak of mortally ill man. It speaks of dead man. I guess you understand the difference between being mortally ill and dead.
Genesis 2:17 (NKJV) "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely (get very sick, mortally ill?) die."
Let me ask you a question? Did Adam die when he ate the fruit? Did God tell the truth? Adam lived physically another 930 years. But he died spiritually the day that he ate of the forbidden fruit. Man's problem is a spiritual problem, he is spiritually dead, separated from God.
Romans 6:23 (NKJV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Is this referring to physical or spiritual death? Notice the contrast - sin equals death; gift of God equals eternal life. The wages of sin is spiritual death. We already saw that Ephesians 2:5 says we were dead in our sins. Sinners are not mortally ill, they are spiritually dead. There is not one ounce of spiritual life in them.
Other analogies that are used are: the man drowning in sin must take the life preserver of the gospel. Or unsaved man is in a pit and he can't get out by himself, he must be thrown the rope of the gospel. I hope that you can see that these analogies are not biblical. Man is not drowning, he has already drowned. He not only needs to be pulled out of the water, he needs to be given life. Man in the pit of sin must be thrown the rope of the gospel. God doesn't throw a rope into the pit so unsaved man can of his own power crawl out. A rope won't help a dead man; God jumped into the pit and pulled the dead man out, giving him life.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 (NKJV) 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
Jude tells us who the natural man is:
Jude 1:19 (NKJV) These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
The word "sensual" here is the same Greek word that is translated "natural" in 1 Corinthians 2:14. Natural man is the man without the Spirit. The natural man is dead and totally unreceptive to the gospel. He must first be given life before he can understand the gospel.
Romans 8:7-9 (NKJV) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
There is nothing good in the flesh, it can do nothing good. We cannot believe the gospel until God gives us life. The teaching of the reformation is that "Regeneration precedes faith." We must have life before we can believe. The Scriptures clearly show that faith is the evidence and not the cause of regeneration.
1 John 5:1 (NKJV) Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is ( has been ) born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.
Suppose a man who had been dead for many years greeted you on the street one day. Would you conclude that the man had gotten tired of being dead and "decided" to ask a great doctor to perform a miracle and give him life? I'm sure you would instead, exclaim in amazement, "Man, what happened to you? Who brought you back to life?" You would see he was alive because he was walking and breathing, but you would know these were evidences of a miracle having been performed on him from without and not the results of his own power of will. Just so, when a spiritually dead man begins to perform spiritual acts such as faith and love, that shows that the miracle of the new birth has taken place.
Spiritual death brings an insensitivity to the things of God. It is a spiritual slavery, the prisoners of which are helpless. This is the doctrine of total depravity. It does not mean, as many have misunderstood, that man is as bad as he can possibly be. It means that man is as bad off as he can possibly be. The bottom line is this: Our hope does not lie in our own will. It is our will that has got us lost! We are all sure for condemnation unless God would somehow incline our wills in the opposite direction. We must have a savior who is mighty enough to rescue us from ourselves. Clearly, God must do something. We've made our choice; our will has spoken. We are hopelessly lost - unless God will choose otherwise. This is the doctrine of total depravity.
Let me close this morning with a quote from the famous Baptist preacher, C. H. Spurgeon:
I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ brought out upon the cross.
It is also my conviction that Calvinism is biblical and is the true gospel. The church today is being flooded with a new gospel, a humanistic gospel.
The gospel is always and essentially a proclamation of Divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment. It is a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and grace. Its center of reference is God. But in the new gospel, the center of reference is man. You choose, you decide, you initiate salvation. The chief aim of the gospel was to teach men to worship God, but the concern of the new gospel seems limited to making them feel better. The gospel is - God Saves Sinners!
If we understand "total depravity" then we will understand that our salvation is a gift from God. Then God, and not man, receives all the glory in salvation.
Romans 16:27 (NKJV) to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
Jude 1:25 (NKJV) To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.
Psalms 148:13 (NKJV) Let them praise the name of the LORD, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven.
This message preached by David B. Curtis on October 31, 1999. Tape #127.
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