Wycliffe and Religious Liberty

we are gathered here today uh on ourreligious libertySabbath and I hope you've been blessedso far as we've gone through this day uhthis afternoon we we we have two uhyoung students from Andrews Universitythey will be making a presentation at2:00 on should Adventists be involved inpolitics uh looking at the writings ofSister Sister White and the councilsfrom scripture and after that we'regoing to conclude our day with one hourshowing of the life of John Wickliffe uhwho will be featuring in our sermon thismorningum so before we begin uh as we break thehope and the bread of life today let'sbow our heads and ask God to break openourhearts sofather I ask thattoday we come before you as Sinners weknow we'reSinners and father we we claim thepromise of Ephesians 2:8 and9 that weare saved by grace not of Works lest anyman or woman boy or girl shouldboast so father today as we hear againthe principles of Liberty in thegospel I pray that the beauty of theGospel will take root in each of ourlives and the gospel May flourish and bea thing of beauty that all maysee father I ask that you speak throughme this morning and for me that yourSpirit whisper gently to every heartpresent here this is the way walk ye init this I ask in jesus' nameamen um I quite like sports and when Iwas much younger I used to enjoy umcycling I don't know if any of you enjoycycling I used to really enjoy the tourto France I think the tour to France isone of the most incredible Sports thereis out there I like the teamwork youalways have the team leader then youhave about three climbers in the teamand one time trial specialist and acouple of donkeys uh they kind of theirjob is to kind of keep the team goingalong through the tour to France thetour to France is an incredible Sportand when I was a young guy I used to gocycling in France we used to nip overthe channel from England and we'd go touh Bin or sherberg or Marseilles or downto groby in the Alps and then I and mytwin brother who's here today or some ofmy other friends from University we gocycling and we wanted to do the wherewhere the where the cyclists went on thetour to France and so one summer I wentdown to groby took the train from Parisdown to greny I hope that's how youspell it uh pronounce it and uh fromgryl we wanted to go up to the Alp dunow if you follow the tour to France youknow that the Alp du is the most famousclimb in the tour to France you start ina valley and there's a nice swimmingpool at the valley which I discoveredthat you start in the valley and youclimb up 21 switchbacks up the side of amountainyou climb 3 and 1/2 th000 ft in 10 milof steady climbing and there's no breakin those 10 and 1/2 miles you just gostraight up and you go up the side ofthis mountain this Massif and in thetour to France as long as you're youknow pumped by EPO and other chemicalsyou can do that in about 45 to 50minutes those guys are flying up themountain and I'm not full of epo orchemicals and so it took me about anhour and 50 minutes to climb up those 10and 1 half miles it's a climb I can tellyou but even 10 and a 1 and 1/ halfhours is a good time through those 10and 1 half miles up the side of amountain and um when I got to the top ummy friend who was kind of a fewswitchbacks below me um he was stillcoming up and I could see from the wayhe was going that that he was going tobe a long time making those last fewswitchbacks so um I was tired when youdo a climb like that your legs feel likejelly they're kind of tremblingunderneath you and uh so I looked aroundwhere do I find a seat because this ison the side of a mountain and um I sawthere was a littlechapel so I went up to the chapel and Ipushed on the doors and it was open andI walked in I discovered it was aCatholic Church it was a little Chapelhigh in the mountains overlooking thisbeautiful Alpine Valley and um I sawthese rows of pews I was so grateful forthat Catholicchapel and I plunked myself down and umyou know when you go cycling in Franceyou get rather saddlesore and you haveto take anesthetic cream with you andthings like this and I sat myself downthought oh I'm kind of dirtyhere but I looked up and the church wasempty the chapel and the door opened andan old wizened priest walked in and hewalked to the front of the church and hestood with his back to me like this andI realized he was about to perform themass and I was just a horror struckinglike man I got to sit through a mass Idon't want to participate in amass and I sat there and thought well myfriend hasn't come up the mountain I'mreally tired I'm just going to sit hereandrest so I sat there and I I wasbreathing deeply and um the guy was kindof going on in Latin so it clearly wasan old school Catholic church and Ididn't understand much of what he wassaying um and I sat there through it andas I sat there in the church I startedto take an interest in mysurroundings um you notice that in aProtestantchurch we don't have a cross in here butin a Protestant Church you always have across at the front in a Catholic ChurchJesus is always on the cross have younoticedthat yeah the crucifix Christ is alwayson the cross in a Catholic churchbecause in Catholic theology we aresaved by his stripes and by hissufferings they focus on the sufferingof Christ in a Protestant church becausewe focus on the resurrection of Christby his resurrection he was declared withpower to be the Son of God as wrote Paulsays in Romans 1 we have empty crossesChrist is not on the cross in aProtestant church I look looked aroundand I saw these statues ofsaints and beneath them there werevotivecandles um and then there was there wasa bowl of holy water and uh I lookedaround and there was a statue of theVirgin Mary holding the child theMadonna and child and uh my thoughtskind of went on and I realized that umthis church sitting in the heights ofthe Alps of Southern France itrepresented so much falsehood and ERthat had come into the puregospel and if I were to read myBible I wouldn't want to be I wouldn'twant anything to do with a place likethat because the Bible teaches a god oflove and there is one intercessorbetween man and God Jesus Christ and weare not saved through the Adoration ofthe Saints or the worship of Maryneither throughworks and so as I sat there waiting formy colleague my friend to join me I wentback to acts chap 20 verse 29 30 this iswhat the Apostle Paul said to the Eldersof Ephesus just before he left Ephesusfor the last time on his way toJerusalem where he knew he was to be umimprisoned and ultimately he was goingto be executed this is what Paul said tothe uh the the Elders of the Church ofEphesus he says this for I know thisthat after my departure Savage wolveswill come in among you not sparing theflock also from among yourselves menwill rise up speaking perverse things todraw away the disciples after themselvesso the Apostle Paul talks here about thefact that um the early Apostolic Churchwould be corrupted primarily from theinside from inside uh he goes on to sayin 2 Thessalonians chapter 2: 3 and 4 hesaid let no one deceive you by any meansfor that day will not come that is thecoming of Jesus unless the falling awaythe word falling away is apostasia okayso where we get word apostasy fromunless the apostasy comes first and theman of sin is revealed the son of ptionwho opposed es and exalts himself aboveall that is called God or that isworshiped so that he sits as God in thetemple of God showing himself that he isGod and so the Apostle Paul was veryexplicit that within the ApostolicChurch there would be an apostasy afalling away from Heavenly Truth TheGospel would becorrupted as we're going to see thismorning in our three stages of oursermon first of all how did thatapostasy enter the church second startto bring about church and thirdly whatexactly is the puregospel so the first stage this morningis is uh how did Darkness overwhelmreligious liberty and the true gospelwell there are a number of factorshappened with the early centuries thefirst was the concept that the Ley couldnot understand scriptures for themselvesthe idea that the scriptures to be aclosed book to all except those who aretrained in the ancient languages peoplehad to accept the teachings of thechurch there was so much chaos in earlyChristendom in the second third andfourth centuries about the nature ofChrist and the Divinity of Christ etcetc that eventually a monk came up withthe idea he said that um the scripturesare subject to the authoritativeteaching of the church and that conceptof the authoritative teaching of thechurch meant that whereas in theApostolic Church the the church sitsunderneath the scriptures uh from thefifth century onwards with the idea ofof authoritative teaching now the churchsits above scriptures and we tell youwhat the scriptures mean rather than youfinding out for yourselves andsubmitting to it in your own life livesand origin who's up on the screen therehe taught that the scriptures are oflittle use to those who understand themas they are written that's quite astatementyes John 3:16 our our scripture readingthat was read for us this morningapparently is of little use if youactually seek to understand it as it iswritten and so origin introduced umconcepts of more metaphoricalunderstandings of scripture and that wasone of the first stages of corruptionentering the early church uh then theanother uh factor that entered thechurch was themass now the mass or the doctrine of theEucharist was introduced by a monkcalled pakus radbertus which quite aname yes in the 9th century and whathappened was that the teachingmissionary commissioned by Christ thatis the apostles and the disciples andthe elders in every Church who were tolabor in teaching and preaching wasreplaced by a sacrificing priesthood apagan priesthood and in Pagan Worship inthe in the early centuries of the RomanEmpire the mass was a ritual by whichthe son God God was worshiped by meansof the symbolism of a round wafer ofbread and if you and when I was in thatCatholic Church I saw the priest holdingup that wafer of bread little roundwafer and if you go to any CatholicChurch you will see that round wafer itis a symbol of the son God and itrepresents a pagan ritual that enteredthe church now for you and I to believeDoctrine the Catholic doctrine that saysthat that wafer that the guy is holdingup there turns literally into the bodyof Christ and that the wine you drink isliterally the blood of Christ um thatrequires you to suspend your criticalfaculties you're no longer supposed tothink for yourself you just have tobelieve that what you look looks likebread and it feels like bread and ittastes like bread and it passes throughme like bread is actually the body ofChrist you think this it doesn't makesense but the whole point is when youaccept the doctrine of the mass yoususpend your critical faculties and thenyou open to any Superstition that hastaught you because you've alreadyaccepted the proposition that in thechurch you suspend yourmind the third doctrine that entered thechurch was the idea that man can beserved saved not just by Grace but byMerit as well as Grace and when there isno pure gospel there is no religiousliberty and why do I say that becausewhen salvation is Holy of Christ then welook solely to Christ for our salvationand the doctrine of grace frees us fromdependence upon an Earthly priesthoodfor our Salvation when salvation is Holyof Jesus and of no one else no cunningpriests or Ambi ambitious Bishops cancome between us and our source ofSalvation that is Jesus Christ as Paulsaid to Timothy for there is one God andone mediator between man and God the manJesus Christ if however we are saved bya combination of grace andworks then logically why not compelpeople to do those Works conversion bycoercion then becomes acceptable andjustifiable for those in religiousAuthority who can Define what good worksare acceptable to God and are salvificand which works are not acceptable toGod and so any system that requiresworks as well as Grace for yoursalvation implicitly denies religiousliberty and freedom ofconscience because you can coers peopleto do those good works in fact Augustineof Hippo Hippo Hippo is in North Africamodern day Tunisia I think um he arguedbased on one of the teachings of Jesusthe parables in Luke where the king hesays so his servants go out and invitepeople to come in for the wedding feastand they go out and nobody comes so theking says to his servants we'll go outto the highways and the byways andpersuade people to come and draw them inbased on that Parable that we find inthe Gospel of Luke um Augustine arguedthat the word um persuade people to comein should also be translated compel themto comein therefore the church can compel youto enter if necessary by torture andexecution because once you are in thechurch you find Salvation and it's foryour your own good that we torture youto join the church because once you'rein the church you found salvation isn'tthat good news brothers and sisters sobear with me while I pull yourfingernails out it's for your ownEternalgood this led the way to the Inquisitionand the burning of Heretics at the stakein the 13th century pope honoriusestablished the order of Dominican monksthey had two duties and I quote thebusiness of the one was to preach thatof the other was to slay Those whom thefirst were not able toconvert so there you have it the goodnews the fourth problem entered themodern ancient Christendom was theconcept of the Divine rights of Kings uhthis started with a guy calledConstantine the Great the Roman Emperorwho shifted the capital of Rome fromRome itself to the city now we callistambul um that Bridges between Europeand Asia and what he said to the Bishopswas this he said I quote you are Bishopswhose jurisdiction was within the churchI am also a bishop ordained by God tooverlook whatever is external to thechurch and so Augustine uh conConstantine argued that while theBishops have authority over the churchhe as the emperor was also set aside byGod to rule in civil matters he had adivine right to be the emperor and thisconcept of the divine right of kingsgrew and grew and grew over thecenturies um when Pope Zachary madePepin King of the Franks about 800 or soad this divine right of kings Doctrinewas now interpreted as the rights of thePope to appoint all Kings on earth andthe rights of the king in turn to governthe people the popes then extended thisto include the doctrine of passiveobedience this stated that because thepopes cannot make an error anyone whochallenged to King appointed by a popewas guilty of heresy and was to beexcommunicated you've just heard whatI've saidyes if the popes cannot make an error ifyou challenge a king who's beenappointed by the pope you're actuallychallenging the pope himselfand then they extended this to includepriests so if you made a complaint aboutsexual abuse by Catholic priest or theyinvolved in murder or torture or theftor whatever they wanted to do if youcomplained about the priest you weretherefore by definition guilty of heresybecause you were challenging theauthority of thePope it was a perfect system ofreligioustyranny the decision to merge church andstate in the third through the sixthcenturies was a deliberate and acalculated one on a part of um ambitiousprelates and Bishops who wish to securesecular power to exalt their religiousgoals and Christian Emperors in thebizantine empire were encouraged toadopt the same Pagan principle ofmotivated per Pagan persecutions that isthat political Unity requires religiousconformance the Emperors first tried topersuade people to enter the churchthrough the early church Council such asthe Council of NAA but then theyprogressed to the use of the swords toenforce Conformity the the first Martyrsto the Ambitions of the Roman Bishopswere created by Constantine's attemptsto coerce the African Bishops to adoptthe Creed of Rome now in order tobolster their power um out of Rome therewere two sets of forg documents maybeyou've heard of these maybe you haven'tthe first was known as The Testament ofthe emperor Constantine in 776 ad thiswasallegedly a letter from the emperorConstantine to the bishop of Rome calledSylvester in which the popes wereallegedly given all authority over theWestern Roman Empire and it was aforgery and uh even today the Vaticanaccepts this as a forged document thesecond document upon which church lawwas based were known as the falsedecretals of isidori they are theCornerstone of canon law that is thechurch law today this was allegedly aseries of letters from early Pastors inRome and in them in those letters theytalked about the authority of the bishopof Rome these were false documents thatwere forced on Western Europe to lay thefoundation for church law canon law thatstill exists to this day and much ofCatholic canon law continues to be builton these recognized forgeries now PopeGregory he made some proud claims he wasone of the proudest of the Medievalpopes and uh he he issued these thesethese statements um these were hisdecretals he used them to his advantageand this is what he said the 11thmaximum this is his letter to theWestern Europe to the nations ofChristendom he said the pope's name isthe chief name on Earth can anybody sayAmen to thatmaybe not the second he said the 12thMaxim it says it is lawful for the popeto depose Emperors he claimed authorityover all Civic rulers the 18th Maximsaid that the Pope's decision is to bewithstood by none that is you can neverdisagree with the Pope that's prettyhandy is it not the 19th decretal wasthat the pope can be judged by no onewhich means you must accept whatever thePope says that you have no right to everquestion what he says the 25th there arethere are a lot of these um maxims thathe uh he promulgated was the pope hasabsolute authority to remove and appointBishops that is the church the poperules not just in Civic matters he canappoint and Depo depose Kings he alsohas absolute right to appoint and deposeBishops and by extension all religiousofficers and 27th most frighteningly forthe rulers of Western Europe the popecan anull the allegiance of subjects toKings these were the claims of PopeGregory in 1073 ad overall theconclusion we draw is this that thepapacy had erected the most perfectblueprint for religious tyranny seen inhuman history and during the years ofthe Dark Ages tens of millions offaithful Christiansperished in many ways for refusing toaccept the papal lies and for cherishingthe pure Gospel of Jesus Christ when youhave when you do not have the Gospel ofJesus Christ you cannot have religiousliberty so we're going to come shortlyto what is the Gospel of Jesus Christbut but there is good news because Godwas not silent and God did not have hispeople Faithfully serving him light didcome in to to uh disperse the Gloom ofreligious oppression and in the Gloom ofpable Oppression Brave voices wereraised in protest such as Ambrose ofMilan Claudius of churin and the wenseswhere many of us are familiar with thestories of the wenes now in response tothese brave men and women boys and girlsa powerful pope called innocent IIissued an edict in 1209 authorizing theelimination of Heretics and the papacylaunched Crusades within Europe not justCrusades against the Muslim world butCrusades were launched within Europe toexterminate the Heretics withinEurope not just the wenses people likethe cathars of Southern France weresystematically hunted down andexterminated by Catholicarmies and then in1324 a man was born in littletown he was born in 1320 and he livedthrough1384 he was as we say as Protestants themorning star of the Reformation he wasborn in the noon tide of papal Supremacyand the midnight of religious freedom weneed to understand this guy within hiscontext so even though he was born in1320 we're just going to drop back a fewyears uh to the year 1205 and in 1205you have this guy again innocent theiperhaps the greatest the most vainglorious the most proud of all theMedieval popes and uh he wanted to gavean example to all of Europe of hissupreme authority in civil as well asreligiousmatters and he claimed the right toappoint all of the Bishops within everyland this is like Pastor Ted Wilson oneday claiming the authority to personallyname every Pastor conference presidentdepartmental director in everyconference and Union Church around theworld we'd probably have a problem withthat yes but this is kind of anAdventist equivalent of what this guywas claiming he claimed the authority toappoint every Bishop in Christendom andin 1205 the Archbishop of Canterburydied and King John of England he saidwell this is my candidate I'm going toappoint him as the new Archbishop ofCanterbury and the local um monks aroundCanterbury they said no we want to electthis guy as new Archbishop of Canterburyand they both appealed to Pope InnocentIII and Pope Innocent II thir he wantedto make a point he said I won't acceptthe king's choice and I won't accept theMonk's Choice here's a third guy andhe's theguy now what it just happened was thatthe Pope in Rome had just appointed thesecond most powerful office in the landof the kingdom ofEngland and the English Barons were upin arms aboutthis and the pope sent the French KingAugustus to fight to impose his will andin1213 uh Philip Augustus brought a aPapal official and King John of Englandbowed and he took off his crown and heput it on the ground and he said I givethe crown of England to thepope and the Barons of England were madasanything and they rose up in Rebellionthey rose up in Rebellion against KingJohn and they forc King John to sign oneof the most important documents inwestern civilization known as the Magnacataa they forced the King John theysaid we will not accept what you'redoing with the Pope we insist on basiccivil liberties they weren't so muchconcerned about religious liberty atthat time but they were concerned aboutcivil liberties and the Magna Carta hasthe following principles of Libertyprinciples that we today take forgranted number one the right of everyman to be Tried by jury of his peers doyou appreciate that right would you wantto have no trial by jury nosecondly no man's life liberty orproperty shall be taken from him exceptby the Judgment of his peers and the lawof the land which that that means thatwe are ruled by law not by individualrulers and their whims today the thirdprinciple was that the royal power wasprevented from taking private propertyand the government had to paycompensation for whatever it took fromyou that's a beautifulprinciple the fourth principle was thisthe owners of private property could becould dispose of their property as theysodesired does any of you question yourright to spend your dollars as you wishthat principle was enshrined in theMagna cataa be grateful for those Baronswho fought for you 800 years ago andfifthly that unlawful punishments wereprohibited that is the king could nottorture you to force you to hand overyour estate to him when when you diedthe king did not have the right toimpose an unlawful punishment that hadnot been agreed by jury you appears andwas not within the parameters of the lawof the land that was the Magna cataa isthe foundation for civil liberties in inBritain today and in the United Statesnow innocent III he recognized that themagnata was a threat to his to hisauthority and so um he told the king toget rid of the Magna Carta and theBarons Rose in Rebellion again and theyforced the king to open a parliamentParliament is a French word it means aplace where you negotiate and if you goto the English Parliament if you see ifYou' seen pictures of the EnglishParliament you have the two sides oneither side yes the government on oneside and the opposition on the other andyou notice that there are white linesalong the ground you know why thoselines are there it's because in ancienttimes everybody had a six-foot greatswordand those white lines are there so thatyou cannot cross that white line so evenif you reach out with your six-footsword you won't get somebody on theother side of the aisle that's apractical reason why they have thoselines there but the Barons forced theKing John to establish what we now knownas the House of Commons the ameran equAmerican equivalent is a House ofRepresentatives thus undermining theDivine rights of Kings and the last kingin England who who said I have a divineright to rule was Charles I first if youknow anything about English History hewas beheaded by Parliament under theleadership of Oliver Cromwell and thatdid away with the concept of the divineright ofkings and it was in this age thatwickliff was born Wickliffe was born inan era where the papacy was trying toenforce its its Authority its absoluteright to rule and there were people inthe nation of England who were pushingback and saying no the papacy does nothave the right to determine everymeaningful decision in our lives in ourcountry and it's into this context thatWickliffe was born he was a brilliantscholar he entered Oxford at the age of16 years and he graduated in 1345 at theage of 21 wickliff then spent 15 yearsas a professor before being appointedmaster of Bal College in 1360 ad and itwas in this capacity as the master ofBal college that like Luther many yearslater in vitberg you have these um youngCatholic Brilliant Minds reading thebooks of Romans and and the Psalms andrealizing that we are saved by grace andnot byworks the Reformation started within theCatholic Church it didn't start withoutthe Catholic Church it started withinthe Catholic Church Wickliffe discoveredin his readings of scripture and I saypraise God for this that salvation is ofGrace and byGrace he realized that the foundationfor the gigantic and bloodthirsty andoppressive religious political systemestablished by the papacy that usurpedthe place of Christ and kept Europe inabject servitude and misery was thedoctrine that man can earn salvation byworks of Merit Wickliffe realized thathe who can forgive controls the keys toto heaven and such a person is God toman and that Authority was claimed bythe Catholic priesthood who thus becameGod to men wickr wrote the little bookhe called it objection to Friars inwhich he declared that it was morallywrong to demand money for theForgiveness of sins and it was blasphemyto Pedal indulgences he asked thequestion is it from the Friars or fromJesus Christ that we obtain forgivenessfor sins he asked and step by step theminds of men in England were led to askthe more fundamental question not whatdoes the pope say but what does the wordof Godsay and we take our liberties forgranted from the time of Wickliffepeople were dying at the stake for evenmentioning the possibility that thecommoners could read the word of God forthemselves in fact the word of God inthose days was the Latin vul Gates andmost people in England had no idea whatLatin or how to interpret Latin it was aclosed book to most peoplein1365 this guy here Pope Urban V hedecided to send the English king a billand he said when John signed over thethe the English crown to the Pope in 121212 ad this guy said you haven't beenmaking payments for decades and you owethe pope money plus with interest and hesent this huge bill to to the king ofEngland Edward III Edward III was a afamous King he just thrashed the Frenchin the Battle of cresi I think there heis there um so from an Englishperspective he was a wonderful King okaybut not from the French perspective umthe Battle of cresi there uh Edward IIIwas the most powerful Monarch in Europeand when the pope sent a bill to theEnglish king this was a challenge to allthe monarchs of Europe and if the kingof England had to pay the principal plusinterest for the last 100 or so yearsback to the pope if the pope could dothat to the king of England then everyKing Kingdom in Europe would grovel atthe feet of the Pope and the King ofEngland Edward III didn't know what todo about it but his chaplain and thechaplain of parliament was JohnWickliffe and wickliff said call theparliament together so they called theparliament Barons and commoners and uhwhat they said in that Parliament wasquite astonishing Baron after Baron andcommoner after commoner stood and saidwe will not accept the authority of thePope over the Affairs of thisnation there was an angry mood in thatParliament and finally theyvoted that the PO the pope had noauthority over Earth any Earthly Kingdomit was a profound victory for religiousliberty but it was really wit Cliff'sVictory wickliff made a trip to Rome torepresent the king of England in somenegotiations and he came away convincedlike Luther many years later that Romewas the Antichrist of scripture he wrotethe gods of Rome are avarice ambitionand hypocrisy he then attacked thedoctrine of transubstantiation in themass Rome insisted that without the massyou cannot be saved Wickliffe insistedthat we should use our reason in ourwalk with God and the evidence of oursenses and if it looks like bread and itsmells like bread and it tastes likebread and it feels in your mouth likebread then probably isbread and he attacked the doctrine oftransubstantiation which is the heart ofCatholicpower because who the church gives Massto says you are in the church and youare saved and who the church withdrawsthe Mass from defines you you aretherefore automatically lost the mass isthe heart of Catholic power and theHeart of Catholic oppression of theGospel Wickliffe insisted that we mustusereason and he thus laid the foundationfor modern science and modern learningtoday we think that science and learningare are completely opposed to each otherthe science andscriptures look through your historybrothers and sisters it was because ofgreat theologians that we have themodern scientific revolution of today itwas scienof theologians who insisted that we usereason and God says come let us reasontogether it was theologians who said wemust lift our eyes from the Superstitionand we must study things as they arethat lay the foundations for theIndustrial Revolution and the scient rescientific Revolutions of the West wellin 1378 Urban V died and a college ofcardinals elected an Italian replacementbut the French Cardinals didn't agreeand so they elected a Frenchman as Popeit was the year of the two popes and sothat wrote that gave rise to a questionwho was the true Keeper of the keys ofSalvation was it the French Pope or wasit the Italian Pope the French Pope saidthe Italian Pope is Antichrist theItalian Pope says the French Pope isanti the French Pope is Antichrist andwickle wrot attract and says they'reboth telling thetruth but morefundamentally what is truth as pilateasked Jesus and what is the source ofauthority on Earth wickliff published abook called on the truth and meaning ofscripture and he argued that the truthwas to be found in the word ofGod but more radically he argued thatevery man woman or child has aresponsibility to read it and understandit for themselves we take it for grantedtoday this was a revolutionary thing tosay 600 years ago but he realized thatthe the in England the the the uh Bibleswere kept chained in the churches youhad to get permission to open a Bibleand even if you did open it was in Latinand foreign language to most people sowickliff decided to put his mouth wherehis money was or put his money where hismouth was I guess and he decided totranslate the Bible into English andthis is I pulled it out from Li Andrew'sLibrary yesterday I'll take it backtomorrow there are a thousand versionsof this in theworld this is copy number250 and you can't see it very well butit's really hard to read this kind ofstuff it's a beautiful addition thereare thousand of these in the world todaythis is the New Testament wi Cliff'stranslation people were burnt at thestake for even admitting they knew whereonewas these lay preachers lards traveledthe length and breadth of EnglandWickliffe was determined that one daythe common plow boy would know thescriptures better than the pope and hewas probably right the moment theylearned even a singletext there's a story of a pope in thetime of Luther or the Archbishop of carI think it was of mains in Germanysomebody gave him a copy of the Biblewhich he'd never seen before thisCardinal and he opened it and he read abit and he says I know not what thisbook is but of a truth it is opposed toeverything webelieve we may not understand it justlooking at this Old Middle Englishscript but this laid the foundations fortheReformation it's a beautifulbook okay i' take that back on on Mondayit's the library a precious documentwicklifftaught use this text he say we are to bealways ready to give a defense toeveryone who asks you a reason for thehope that is in you with meekness andwith fearam what wickliff taught was that we areto know whom we believe and what webelieve and why we believe it and weneed to be ready to share it at amoment's notice we are to be the lightsof the world we're not to be a bush alight hid under a bushel we are to knowthe re what we believe and in who whomwe believe and what we're looking forthe Blessed hope and that hasn't changedfrom the time of Peter through to todaywickliff understood that all laws inevery nation have a moral basis and thelaws of Any Nation merely reflect theunderlying religious worldview of thelegislators and the Divine magnar thescripture reveals that we are createdbeings with inali inalienable rights andif you remove the concept of a Creatorfrom yoursociety and your inalienable rights asGod's creatures vanish what is left aretemporary privileges granted by the newGod the secular State and what the stategives it can just as easily take awaythus we see in the west the steadysecularization here in America and inBritain my country and the eliminationof a Protestant and judeo-christianworld view in our legislature will leadinevitably as it did in secular NaziGermany and secular Soviet Russia to theelimination of civil and political andreligious Liberties same-sex marriage ismerely a symptom of the underlyingabandonment of God in Western societyand is a roadmark into our descent intoPolitical tyranny civil chaos andspiritual darkness that is the pathwe're going in thewest so what was this gospel thatWickliffe was talkingabout wellum the first stage is this if you neverheard the gospel before this is for yourecognize our desperate need forhelp I need help because I'm a sinnerwhen I bow down in the mornings I I saythat sinner's prayer God be merciful tome asinner over life you kuu many kind oftitles and job descriptions and all thatkind of stuff but the bottom line is I'ma sinner we're all Sinners the word ofGod says this as it is written there isnone righteous no not one for all havesinned and fallen short of the glory ofGod and the wages of that sin is deathso the first stage in us being saved isto recognize our death desperate needfor help I cannot work my way out of mypredicament the last ey checked nomatter what I do or do not eat or how Itreat my brother and sister it does notchange the fact that my hair is goinggray and I'm getting slower by the yearokay I'm aging as part of living in asinful world and being a sinful humanbeing so the first stage of the Gospelis to recognize our desperate need forhelp the second stage of the Gospel isto understand as in our scripturereading that yes I need help and thereis a God who loves me personally can yousay Amen to that amen John 3:16-17 forGod so loved the world that he gave hisonly begotten son that whosoeverbelieveth in him should not perish buthave everlasting life my favorite versenext for God did not send his son intothe world to condemn the world but thatthrough but that the world through himmight be what so God's purpose is mysalvation and your salvation it'swonderful news God did not send Jesus inthe world to point the finger he hepoint Jesus God sent his son into theworld to beckon us toheaven so the first stage of salvationis to understand my desperate need ofhelp the second stage of Salvation is tounderstand that God loves me and hewants to save me the third stage ofSalvation is to look in faith to Jesusthe son of God dying in my place on aHill Called Calvary as the Apostle Paulsaid to the Church of Corinth for Idelivered to you first of all that whichI also received that Christ died for oursins according to the scriptures andthat he was buried and that he roseagain on the third day according to thescriptures the first thing that Paulwanted people to know is that Jesus diedfor my sins and he didn't just die formy sins as a random act it was accordingto the scriptures which means jesus'death had a purpose and there was a planand there was a time scale he came inthe fullness of time that God had a planfor your salvation and my salvation thatyour salvation is not an afterthought isnot an emergency protocol that God putin place God has wanted from Eternityfor you and I to be saved it is goodnews isn't not brothers and sisters thefourth stage of Salvation is we don'tjust look in faith to Jesus dying in ourplace on Calvary but then we believethat he is Jesus of Nazareth is theDivine Messiah of God come to deal withmy sin problem John 20:31 but thesethings are written that is the Gospel ofJohn that you may believe that Jesus ofNazareth is the Messiah that is theChrist the son of God and that believingyou may have what in his name he so thewages of sin is but the gift of God iseternal amen so we believe in Jesus ofNazareth as the Messiah the DivineMessiah of God the next stage ofSalvation is we confess and turn awayfrom our sins and the concept of ofrepentence metan in Greek is you'rewalking one way and you don't just sayI'm sorry and pause for a moment andcarry on walking the concept offorgiveness or repentance is you'rewalking one way in life you realizeyou're a sinner this is a terrible thingI'm doing I'm breaking God's law and youturn around and I say no more and I walkin the opposite direction I actuallywalk away from my sins I don't justtemporarily stop my sins I ask God togive me the strength and the grace toturn around and to walk away from themand have nothing further to do with themso we confess and we turn away from oursins and the promise is given to usthere if we confess our sins famouspassage he who is faithful and just toforgive us our sins and will cleanse usfrom all unrighteousness how muchunrighteousness not some of yourunrighteousness but all yourunrighteousness that everything I everwished I had never done every could havewould have should have is washed awayand I need not sit in the pews with aburden of guilt or fear or shame becauseGod has washed me of all myunrighteousness and what God washes andcleanses I don't need to second guessthe next stage ofSalvation Mark16:16 he who bapt he who believes and isbaptized shall be saved it used to bethat circumcision was the entry pointinto God's covenant people from Abrahamonwards but from the time of Christonward circumcision was done away withand now all may enter God's covenantpeople anyone here today may enter God'scovenant people by being baptized byfollowing Jesus Through the the waterygrave and having our sins washed awayand as Peter says be baptized and bereceive forgiveness and be baptized andbe filled with the HolySpirit then you believe you receive thegift of eternal life for by Grace youhave been saved through faith that notof yourselves it is the gift of God notof Works lest anyone should boast thereis no reason for any Christian to boastother than in the Cross of Christ andwhat he's done forus the gospel doesn't say you have to beso good before you can be saved thegospel doesn't say God can only forgivecertain sins but some are Beyond ThePale God can remove any Sin from ourlives if we simply confess it before ourheavenly father It Is by Grace you havebeen saved it is God's gift to us andwe've just celebrated ChristmasI don't know how it is in your familybut in my family and it goes like thisum I won't say which one it is otherthan it's my oldest it goes somethinglike this um Dad when can we open ourpresents because they're sitting underthe Christmastree well in England we open them onChristmas morning well I understand thatbut uh the Christmas day starts onSunset Christmas Eve doesn'tit yeah well I guess that's true so wecan open them on Christmas Eve uh well II guess there's a Biblical argument forthat well then goes the argument if wecan open them on Christmas Eve how about9:00 a.m. in the morning on ChristmasEve well I'm not too sure about that orif we can open them on Christmas Eve whynot the day before Christmas Eve in theevening and you work your way back heyou just have to draw a line in thesound somewhere don'tyou the point about Christmas is thatdoes anybody still have an unopened giftunder the Christmastree were you all eager to open thatgift whatever it was I agree with mywife no gifts then she saw a shirt for areally good price and it was under theChristmas tree and I was horrified toget this gift on Christmas morningbecause I hadn't got my wife a gift youknow there's a basic lesson there okaywhenever you have an agreement like thatnever honorit the point I'm making is that not oneof us has left the gift of Grace aChristmas gift under the Christmas treeso why do we live our lives notaccepting the gift of God's grace to uson a daily basis why do we live ourlives wondering what God's goodnessmeans to us when it's waiting for us toopen it and to receive it for ourselvesbyfaith and the final stage of Salvationis to witness about your faith in JesusChrist you don't just receive salvationwe are transformed that we might be thelight of the world and the salt of theearth if you confess with your mouth theLord Jesus Christ and believe in yourheart that God has raised him from thedead you shall be what saved and theidea that if you confess with your mouthwhen Paul was writing this in the earlychurch this wasn't just a casual youknow Facebook posting I'm now aChristian uh that what was happening inthe early church was that Christianswere being hauled before the Romancourts and they were being told that youmust offer incense to Caesar and saythat Caesar is Lord Kaiser curios orCaesar curios and the Christians willsay no Jesus is Lord yes wascurios and if you refuse to say CaesarKura Caesar is Lord and offer theincense you'll be executed you are youwere to witness and so when Paul saidsays if you confess that verb thereconfess isn't just a casual say I'm aChristian it's when the when the rubbermeets the road when everything is on theline when it's your job or your marriageor whatever it is you need to say I am aChristian give you an example of thatmany years ago and it was many years agoI was a young undergraduate at EnglishUniversity and um I couldn't I didn'thave much money as any student does so Iuh had to choose between a car and agirlfriend I chose the car and and um umin my final semester I kind of looked atmy spreadsheets and figured I can afforda girlfriend so um I had agirlfriend and I'm not a very romanticguy and um in England in the in thespring semester before all the graduatesgo through yourexams um and when I was going throughuniversity in England your entire examyour grade for your degree hung on yourfinal exams which lasted about 3 weeksmaybe three or six hours of exams everyday and it was really stressful and justbefore the final exams the um the thebig companies the corporations fromLondon the engineering companies theaccounting companies the law firms theycome on what is called the milk groundand milk ground is all the big companiescome to the universities they're tryingto milk off the cream of thecrop and I was interviewed by a numberof Corporations and I was offered a jobin the city of London that was going tobe before the age of 30 I would retiredamulti-millionaire it was a great jobofferand in myinterview I was a he was a Jewishpartner he said now I know you're anAdventist and you honor the Sabbath Isaid yes he says now we will you canhave the job but on one condition I saidyes hesaid we want you to agree that we're notrequiring you to work on the Sabbath butif during one audit in the city ofLondon you are required once a year tocome in on a Sabbath to cover forsomebody else you have to agree to dothat you just have to be available forone Sabbath in the year for audit andall this wealth will beyours I looked athim and I thought about this text hereif you confess with your mouth the LordJesus Christ is Jesus lord of my life ornot and I said I'm sorry sir you're aJew you shouldn't be asking methat and so the job offer was withdrawnwhen I went home I called my girlfriendand I said well this is what happenedand she tore me apartand as I listened to her going on aboutthis I realized that this could never bemywife because your faith and yourconfession affects every decision inyour life it's not just something youpolitely say your confession of faithwhen you are born again and you're savedby grace and you've opened thatwonderful gift which teenage boy todaywho gets let's say an iPod for Christmasdoesn't go and tell all his friends ofcourse they share it around don't theyif you got a beautiful sweater or wecall Jumper in England for Christmasdon't you tell people you've got abeautiful sweater you're proud of ityou're happy about it you're overflowingwithjoy and so part of being saved is yeswhen the rubber reachs theroad is um confessing that we are thefollowers of Jesus Christ and whathappens when we are saved well firstthing there are two things that happenone is we areJustified Romans 3:24 we are Justifiedfreely by his grace through theRedemption that is in Christ Jesus and Iask myself what does redemption mean andjustification justification means thatGod declares the penitent sinnerrighteous and innocent it is theopposite of condemnation there istherefore as Paul says in Romans nocondemnation for those who are in ChristJesus it is God's gift to us freelygiven to all who turn to God in faithjustification in scripture means havinga right relationship with God it meansacquittal of the guilt of our sins itmeans The Sinner being counted righteousby God receiving Divine forgiveness andexchanging the slavery to sin for thelordship of Jesus Christ and thereforeRomans 5:18 says we receive thejustification of life for the wages ofsin is but the gift of God in ChristJesus is eternal life justification isan initial and it's an ongoing Proprocess we are not once saved alwayssaved we are Justified when we are bornagain and we need dailyjustification we daily submit Our Livesto our Heavenly Father justification iswhat God does for us the theologianscall it um imputed righteousness but italso means what God does in us and thatis commonly known assanctification sanctification has threestages everything works in threes inscripture you'll know that when you're apreacher first is this when you areSanctified God sets you apart as one ofthe Saints Paul writes the Church ofCorinth the Church of God which is atCorinth to those who are Sanctified inChrist Jesus called to be Saints and ifyou read the book of Corinthians what doyou know about the book or the churchthat was a Troublesome Church they weresplit with all kind of factions andpoliticking and lobbying and all therest of it but they're still Saints whenwe are born again and we receive thegift of Salvation God sets us apart fora holy purpose that means we are theSaints the hago that means holy webecome God's Saints partakers in thePlan of Salvation called to Bear aMinistry of reconciliation asambassadors of Christ to our fallenworld the second thing that happens insanctification is what is calledProgressivesanctification Titus 3:5 captures thissays but according to his Mercy he savedus through the washing of of whatregeneration and the renewing of theholy spirit so we are set aside as theSaints you may not feel like you're asaint but when you accept Lord Jes Jesusas Lord and Savior and you're baptizedyou are set aside as a saint Godconsiders you a saint you may not feellike it but you are then through therest of your life you have theexperience of regeneration and renewalotherwise known as the fruit of thespirit we mature in Grace we grow inGrace and God transforms our mind and webecome a new creation we no longerdemonstrate the fruit of the flesh butGod brings an inner transformation TheHarvest of the fruit we live forHoliness andfinally we are set aside insanctification we are renewed insanctification and the final stage ofsanctification is what we callglorification behold I tell you amystery says the Apostle Paul we shallnot all sleep but we shall all bechanged in a moment in the twinkling ofan eye at the last trumpet for thetrumpet shall sound and the dead shallbe raised Incorruptible and we shall bechanged amen we will be changed ultimateglorification happens when Jesus Christcomesagain sofinally there are storm clouds gatheringaround our worldtoday whether you look at Islam or theresurgent papacy or the intolerance ofthe secular Elites of America all arefund fundamentally opposed to the gospeland to religious libertyso today then is the day ofsalvation today I want to challenge eachand every one of you not to leave thatgiftunopened just as none of us would thinkof leaving a Christmas present unopenedtill the middle of January it shouldalso be Unthinkable in our lives that wewouldn't accept the gift of God'ssalvation freely offered to all whoconfess and repent andbelieve when I was 13 I went to a a campmeeting I was a teenage boy I had awayward heart and the preacher spokeabout the prophet Hosea who was told tomarry um a loose woman called GMA andshe kept running away from him and God'skept saying to Jose go after her andbring her back and I heard that sermonfrom a Jamaican revivalist preacher andhe said that is God's love for WaywardHearts he keeps coming afteryou and when he did the altar call Iwent forward at the age of 13 in a bigcamp meeting and I gave my life to JesusChrist and to quote polycarp the f oneof the most famous Christian martys ofthe uh about 165 he says polycarp saidwhen he was arrested he said uh for sixand four score years I have served myking and he has done me no wrong whyshould I deny him amen and that is mytestimony today for three and two scoreyears I have served my king and he hasdone me no wrong why should I deny himbrothers and sisters the gospel is thebest news you've everheard it's changed my life and itcontinues to change my life for anybodybody here who is sitting with a sense ofwould have and could have and shouldhave maybe we're sitting with a sense ofshame or a burden we'recovering we need to know today that Godloves you he sent his son to save youhe's not pointing his finger at you he'sbeckoning to heaven and he's invitingyou into his kingdom