Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right. All right.
[00:00:02] Welcome, everybody.
[00:00:04] It's good to see all your smiling faces this morning.
[00:00:10] I'm happy to finally kind of be back in action a little bit. I was supposed to teach more of this class, but as you can tell by the boot on my leg that that was inhibited a little bit. So.
[00:00:23] And so with that, I wanted to first start off with just thanking Jacob Moore, who covered for me a few weeks ago, and then some guys are going to cover for me in the month of August.
[00:00:33] But also just wanted to thank the church family. So many of you in here have, like, brought me meals. Like, we didn't have an official meal train when I kind of went down. I'm not going to go into detail about that right now, but you can come ask me later. Most of you probably know.
[00:00:49] Anyway, I wanted to thank everybody who brought food and came and checked on me and prayed for me.
[00:00:55] My mom, who came and cared for me, she was blown away by the care of this church and its love. And I was blown away by the love of God displayed through you guys. So happy to be with you. Happy to be teaching this morning.
[00:01:09] As you know, we've been in church history and now we are going to cross the English Channel this morning. So it's not to say that a lot of the things going on in mainland Europe, this area are.
[00:01:23] Hold on, let me get my. There we go.
[00:01:26] Are unimportant for us.
[00:01:29] Like, we've already been talking about some of the important things going on with Luther and with Calvin and with Zwingli. But we're going to kind of leave their disciples and we're going to head across the English Channel and we're going to head here because for our church and what informed us most theologically in this church. And as we'll see in a minute, the very fact that you have an English Bible is going to happen in the country of England around the same time.
[00:01:57] So that's where we're headed this morning. If you got your Bible, go ahead and open it real quick, though. I want you. I think there's something that you can clearly see as a theme as we go throughout this.
[00:02:08] Just for your own heart, your thanksgiving to the Lord for what you're about to hear.
[00:02:13] Going to read the words of Paul in second Timothy, chapter two, verse ten.
[00:02:19] So I'll let you turn there. Second Timothy, chapter two, verse 10. The guys in the text to talk, they're going through second Timothy right now. So this text came to mind as I was studying for this second Timothy, chapter 2, verse 10.
[00:02:36] This is the Apostle Paul.
[00:02:39] Right before this, he says that the word of God is not bound, though he's a criminal, though he's in prison. The word isn't bound, it's still doing its work. And so then he says, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
[00:02:59] I'll read it one more time. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And what you're about to see in the English Reformation is a bunch of Englishmen enduring a lot of trial, a lot of persecution, a lot of suffering for the sake of the Gospel, but also so that every English speaker could be able to hear the Gospel in their own language and proclaim it to others. You're saved this morning because of the things that have happened in this Reformation, which.
[00:03:31] That's where we're going to go. So a few weeks ago, we talked about a man named John Wycliffe. He was English, this is before an English translation. But one of the big things he wanted, right, was an English translation and for people to be able to read the Bible in their own vernacular and a lot of other things, as you saw a few weeks ago.
[00:03:53] Well, he kind of started a. He kind of planted seeds of a reformed mentality that would make its way into England and would be carried through by what a people group called. Not a people group, a movement called the Lollards.
[00:04:08] Now, important to remember, in the early 1400s, translating the Latin Vulgate into English was outlawed.
[00:04:18] And they took it so seriously that in 1519.
[00:04:22] I just want you to think about this with me. Seven Lollards were burned at the stake for teaching their children the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Apostles Creed in English.
[00:04:35] That's how severe it was.
[00:04:38] So just imagine a type of magisterial religious power that is fearful of losing control, so fearful that they will burn anybody who tries to read the Bible in English.
[00:04:52] So you can't even have a quiet time without being fearful for your life.
[00:04:56] That was the scene, as we'll see, as John, As William Tyndale. Excuse me. Moves onto the scene.
[00:05:06] That's where we're going here. William Tyndale. How many of you have ever heard of William Tyndale? Oh, yeah, Great, good.
[00:05:14] So this is the world that William Tyndale grew up in. And by God's grace, he ensured that we would have an English Bible translation. We'll talk about how great his translation was in a minute. But he was a genius.
[00:05:29] He ended up going to.
[00:05:32] He ended up making it to the university by the age of 12, similar to John Owen. That we'll see later. He studied at Oxford, and there he would encounter the ideas of Wycliffe and the Lollards.
[00:05:45] And during this time, he disputed with a very learned man in the college. And this man essentially said, it's better to have the Pope's laws than God's law.
[00:05:56] And this is how Tyndale responded. Now, this is not misspellings. This is just how English was spelled. Then he says, I defy the Pope and all of his laws. If God spare my life for many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than thou doest.
[00:06:17] And brothers, sisters, he would see that happen. There would be young men out in the shepherd fields in Scotland, and there would be young men out in the shepherd fields in England, and there would be plowboys out there, and they'd be quoting, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want as they went because of this man. And they knew more Scripture than probably the Pope at the time.
[00:06:42] Through his education and personal study, he would become the Mike G. Of languages. Like he knew eight languages.
[00:06:50] Then, amidst the threats of persecution, he would flee to Germany, where he would translate the New Testament into English starting in 1524, and he would never return to his home country of England. Similar to Calvin, who was exiled away from France, he would have to stay in Germany, but there he would be faced with more and experience more of what was going on in the Reformation and would take on more Reformation thought as he was there.
[00:07:18] By the spring of 1526, Tyndale finished his English translation of the New Testament, and then he printed copies and started sending them to England years later. This is amazing to me. Years later, while traveling in Europe, apparently he was shipwrecked. And at that time, he had started to translate the Pentateuch from Hebrew into English, and they were shipwrecked. He lost all of it, lost all of his works on the Pentateuch at the time. But by God's grace, it's just amazing to me, just the mystery of God's providence, like, okay, why a shipwreck and why lose it all? But he continued, and he completed the translation of the pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, by 1530.
[00:08:03] And then in 1535, Tyndale was essentially deceived and captured, which led to his imprisonment.
[00:08:10] And he would spend 500 days in a castle, prison.
[00:08:14] While in prison, Tyndale wrote a book called Faith Alone, Justified before God.
[00:08:20] Now you can see, like the heartbeat of the Reformation is in his heart, and he's defending justification by faith alone. And it's actually here in prison that I get one of my favorite stories from Tyndale Survives. It's actually a letter that he wrote, and you can just see his commitment to his work. But I want to read to you from what Tyndale said from prison. I wish I had it on the screen, but I don't. He says this now.
[00:08:52] Back then, prisons weren't like. Like our presence.
[00:08:56] You were on a cold, damp floor. There was no light and it was cold.
[00:09:02] He says, I beg your lordship, and of that of the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here through winter, you will request the commissary to have the kindness to send me from the goods of mine, which he has a warmer cap, a warmer coat also for this, which I have is very thin, a piece of cloth. I need a piece of cloth too, to patch my leggings.
[00:09:27] He's got holes in his leggings.
[00:09:29] He says, my overcoat is worn out.
[00:09:34] My shirts also are worn out.
[00:09:36] He has a woolen shirt, if he would be good enough to send it. I have also with him leggings of thicker cloth to put on above.
[00:09:44] He also has a warmer nightcaps for me, and I asked to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening. It is indeed wearisome sitting here alone in the dark, he said, but most of all, I beg and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the commissary, that I would be kindly permitted to have my Hebrew Bible, a Hebrew grammar and a Hebrew dictionary, that I may pass the time in study.
[00:10:14] Because, brothers and sisters, he hadn't finished the Old Testament yet and he needed to continue his work now.
[00:10:22] I just love how the saints of the Lord end up looking a lot like their Lord in moments like this.
[00:10:28] Does this not sound like the apostle Paul when he says to Timothy, when you come, Timothy, bring the cloak I left in Carpus, left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all, the parchments.
[00:10:43] Or as Paul says later in the letter, if we have food or clothing, with these we can be content.
[00:10:51] That's William Tyndale.
[00:10:54] This story just goes to illustrate how committed he was to the Lord's cause among English speakers. And ultimately his determination amidst suffering led to our salvation.
[00:11:05] So that we could hear the Bible, we could hear the Gospel in our language. And then October 6, 1536, at the age of 42, Tyndale was strangled, burned to death for his faith.
[00:11:19] And while dying, he said this word which is going to be really important later. He said, lord, open the eyes of the King of England. He knew if reformation was going to happen, he knew it had to start with the King in England, just to see the legacy. Here's a quote from his.
[00:11:42] I don't have it here. It's a quote from his biographer.
[00:11:46] He says, William Tyndale gave us our English Bible.
[00:11:50] Nine tenths of the King James Version's New Testament is Tyndale's. They did not change it.
[00:11:56] The same is true of the first half of the Old Testament, which. Which was as far as we are able.
[00:12:02] Which was as far as he was able to get while in Brussels in 1536. 84% of the wording of your New Testament, if you're holding ESV this morning, those are words from Tyndale.
[00:12:17] 76% of your old Testament are words from Tyndale that he translated, except for like thee's and thous, which we just changed according to our own language. Words he invented. Words like Passover, scapegoat, atonement.
[00:12:34] Even our society still uses words that he invented. Seashore fisherman, or the quote, sign of the times.
[00:12:43] These were his words that he made just to get a taste of some of the biblical sentences that Tyndale wrote.
[00:12:50] These are his word ordering. This is how he put it together so we could read them.
[00:12:54] Let there be light.
[00:12:57] Genesis 1:3.
[00:12:59] The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be merciful to thee. The Lord lift his countenance upon thee, Give thee peace.
[00:13:08] Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
[00:13:13] These are the words. This is the word and sentence structure that Tyndale put together for us.
[00:13:20] Think about it, brothers and sisters.
[00:13:23] This man was burned at the stake, willing to be burned at the stake so that we might have the Bible in our language this morning.
[00:13:34] Which brings us to the beginnings of the Anglican Church. He was very important for starting that fire with the English translation of the New and Old Testament. But now we're going to get to see where his prayer is started to be answered as we come to King Henry viii.
[00:13:57] Now, I don't know how many of you have studied Henry. Now, this is a great soap opera we're about to get into, and the Lord is probably not going to answer Tyndale's. If you ask Tyndale's if the Lord answered his prayer according to how he thought he would answer it, I think he would say, I didn't see that coming.
[00:14:16] So we come to King Henry VIII and he starts his reign in early 1500s. He ascends to his throne and he marries his former brother's wife, Catherine of Aragorn.
[00:14:30] And this is where we're about to see his great problem. She's a Spanish princess, she's Roman Catholic, he's Roman Catholic.
[00:14:38] And as we'll soon see, the marriages of the king would become no small controversy.
[00:14:44] To best this was common back then. But to best preserve the royal lineage and his family, he needed a son, and Mary could not bear him a son.
[00:14:58] And so he started to think that his marriage to Mary was cursed. According to Leviticus 20:21, which reads, if a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity he has uncovered, his brother's nakedness they shall be childless.
[00:15:17] So it also says what he thought about his, about the girl children that she bore. But anyway, this understanding grew over several years. In 1527, he appealed to the Pope to have an annulment, because marriage in the Roman Catholic Church was a sacrament.
[00:15:36] If you were to get a divorce, it had to be passed through the Pope and he wanted an annulment.
[00:15:43] And so, excuse me, you could get a divorce, but if you wanted an annulment to remarry, you needed to go through the Pope.
[00:15:52] However, he was still determined.
[00:15:54] So the Pope gets back to him, refuses infuriating King Henry.
[00:15:59] And he was still determined to get an annulment with Catherine of Aragorn so that he could remarry.
[00:16:06] So he sends all of his officials out to study the matter, to continue to try to fight for. And as we'll see, one man, one of those men was Thomas Cranmer. He's trying to fight for him to get an annulment.
[00:16:20] And so before the matter was officially settled, however, he quietly marries a woman named Anne Boleyn, who he had been cheating on his wife with for a while at the time, and she was already pregnant with their future daughter, Elizabeth.
[00:16:36] Then, on May 23, 1533, King Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragorn was officially annulled by the Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, who we'll see more about in a second.
[00:16:49] This annulment officially cut ties with the Roman Church and what became known as the act of Supremacy was given. And this is what the act of Supremacy says. And this is going to be a hot button issue in the Church of England for the next 150 years. This is what it says.
[00:17:12] The King is the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England, including full power and authority to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offenses, contempts and enormities.
[00:17:35] So he officially becomes the King and the Pope of the Church of England. And thus the Church of England is born. But it's not Protestant. It's still Roman Catholic in its theology, which is going to lead us to a very important man, Thomas Kramer. But before I get there, any questions before I continue, I know this is quite the soap opera. Hey, Danny.
[00:18:11] Yeah. As you heard from Danny, like the, the Roman Catholic Church owned all of the churches and then the priests and essentially all of them had to swear allegiance to the throne and it became his. Yep.
[00:18:28] Any other questions?
[00:18:31] Okay, I don't think this is how Tyndale thought this was going to go, but this is where we're at. So this leads us to a really important character here.
[00:18:39] His name is Thomas Cranmer.
[00:18:44] So we left off seeing that the Church of England's doctrine is still very Catholic.
[00:18:50] Now we'll get, now we'll get to talk about an individual who helped bring Reformation to England.
[00:18:56] And it was this man, Thomas Cranmer.
[00:18:59] So from 1503 to 1526, Cranmer studied and taught at Cambridge University and similar in some ways to Tyndale at Oxford, he began to come into contact with several reform minded individuals with whom he would debate. And then from 1529 to 1532, he was sent to study on behalf of the King about his annulment. He sent to mainland Europe.
[00:19:24] And so he's hearing more and coming more face to face with the Reformation in Germany.
[00:19:31] And during this time he was quietly married to a woman named Margaret, which, as you know, as we've seen. Can a Roman Catholic priest be married?
[00:19:42] No.
[00:19:43] Which tells us that he's starting to be favorable to Reformation and Protestant sentiment that's going on in mainland Europe.
[00:19:54] And later he would become after. So after he finds out that he secretly married King Henry, secretly married Anne Boleyn, he heads back to mainland England and he's declared the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
[00:20:10] And as head of the Church's organization, he declares an annulment for Henry when it came to Catherine. But then when Anne Boleyn couldn't bear him a son either, he annuls that marriage as well.
[00:20:26] Which kind of interesting to think about. But anyway, at this point it's really unclear to see whether Cranmer becomes convinced of justification by faith alone, because he doesn't make his position known until after Henry's death in 1547.
[00:20:42] We certainly can tell that he supported the King's supremacy over the Church, not the Popes. He supported a vernacular Scripture, meaning he supported the Scriptures in English, and he supported a.
[00:20:54] The liturgy, meaning the worship service being in English.
[00:20:59] But his work to move the Church of England toward orthodoxy would happen in a different way. So he would write what would become known as the Book of Common Prayer.
[00:21:14] Now, the Book of Common Prayer is not the theological statement of the Church of England.
[00:21:22] It's literally just a.
[00:21:24] So in England at the time, the priests were only educated in a Latin mass that was in. Yeah. Not in the vernacular.
[00:21:34] And there were certain reform things that were happening, and he wanted to prevent that. And he didn't think they were educated enough. So he wrote the Book of Common Prayer for them to have homilies, for them to have prayers which they could lead a worship service to make it easier on them. So he wrote that.
[00:21:51] And the second edition was published in 1552.
[00:21:57] And some of the like really important changes were this once. So, like in the. In the church building, he moved what was the altar and started calling it the Lord's Table, which was pretty important because altars were places where sacrifices occurred. Thus, having an altar condoned Rome's views of Christ being re sacrificed in the Lord's Supper.
[00:22:23] For this and other reasons, substantive changes were made to the practice of communion as well.
[00:22:30] So again, moving away from Transubstantiation, in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, it says this about the Lord's Supper. It says, feed on Christ in thy heart with faith by thanksgiving, so not feed on Christ's flesh, literally. In addition to these changes, a number of enduring religious phrases came from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer. If you've ever been here for a wedding, which Brad was the officiant, you've heard this before. This is Cranmer. Dearly beloved friends, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.
[00:23:10] Those are Miss Imelda. Oh, goodness. She leaned over Ed and said, ed, I bet you don't remember that, do you?
[00:23:19] I had to say it.
[00:23:21] I had to say it. Oh, that was great.
[00:23:25] Brad did say that at that wedding.
[00:23:28] So that's the Book of Common Prayer. And then.
[00:23:32] Then what he would do is he would start a statement of faith. The 39 articles as you see in your guide there, some things would happen at this time, and the 39 articles don't become official till after Bloody Mary is gone. So Bloody Mary is.
[00:23:54] Excuse me, her name is Mary, but she's officially going to be called Bloody Mary.
[00:23:59] So what happens is King Henry. We're flying over a lot of information. King Henry officially does have a son. His name is King Edward. He dies suddenly, and he's Protestant leaning before the 39 articles could go into canon law.
[00:24:16] And so at Edward's death, his sister, half sister Mary, who was King Henry's firstborn by Mary of Aragorn.
[00:24:29] And she is Roman Catholic, and she has a vendetta against her dad, and she is trying to return England back to Roman Catholicism, and she starts to kill any Protestant leaning, burning them all at the stake.
[00:24:48] One of those men would be Thomas Cranmer. You heard Brad a few weeks ago. He talked about Cramer, who had denied the faith and then realized his mistake. And he realized also it wasn't going to stop her from burning him at the stake because she didn't like him.
[00:25:05] And he's like, okay, I need to.
[00:25:08] And so he denied his denial, holding to reformation theology.
[00:25:15] And then because he signed a document declaring that he wasn't reformed, he put his hands in the fire first. Do you remember that? Okay, well, Bloody Mary is the one who murders him.
[00:25:31] Now, after she's gone, Queen Elizabeth is the new queen, and she's Protestant. She actually read the Greek New Testament every morning when she. When she woke up.
[00:25:43] But she's not, as we'll see later, she's not like, she's Protestant, but she doesn't want to be a Puritan either. We'll see that in a second.
[00:25:51] And she introduces the 39 articles officially to the Church because she does not want to see the Church go back to being Roman Roman Catholic. In the 39 articles, as we'll see and as I'm about to read, they are thoroughly Protestant. Here's Article 11 on justification by faith.
[00:26:11] It says this. We are accounted.
[00:26:15] Important word.
[00:26:17] Uh. Oh, my pen's not working.
[00:26:20] Okay, pin's not working. We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, by faith and not for our own works or deservings, wherefore that we are justified by faith only is the most wholesome doctrine. Very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the homily of justification.
[00:26:46] Okay, solid on justification. Here's Our article, article 12 on good works, albeit that good works, which are fruits of faith, and follow after justification cannot put away our sin and endure the severity of God's judgment. Yet are they pleasing.
[00:27:05] Yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ. And do spring out necessarily of a true and living faith, insomuch that by them a living faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruits solid.
[00:27:22] So now we see a truly reformed Church that holds to the five SOLAs, essentially. We'll see. They don't quite agree with Sola Scriptura, which we'll see here in a second, but there's a rich tradition in the Anglican Church of godly men who have preached the Gospel faithfully and defended it faithfully. You think about men like.
[00:27:49] We'll see Richard Sibbes here in a second. You think about men like J.C. ryle, you think about men like John Stott, and you think about men like JI Packer. They fought for reform, as we'll see in a little bit, in the Anglican Church, and we have benefited much from their ministry.
[00:28:09] But as you can tell, the times are tumultuous in England and it's all according to who's reigning, as you can tell. So as you look on the screen, you can see you've got Henry and you have an Anglican Church.
[00:28:28] Let's see here if I can make this pen work. I don't think it's going to work, guys.
[00:28:32] We have an Anglican Church. And then with Edward, we're following reform towards Protestantism. And then that's interrupted by Bloody Mary and her reforms to go back to Catholicism. But then Elizabeth comes and she brings and codifies the 39 articles.
[00:28:52] And we'll talk about more of the act of Uniformity in a second. But from Elizabeth onward, we have a Reformed Church.
[00:29:00] But here's the thing, when the monarch is now the official head of the Church, and as we'll see, as we saw with Elizabeth, she was scared to go back to Rome.
[00:29:13] So what does she do? She declares the 39 articles, she puts the 39 articles forward. But she also has the act of Uniformity, which required every church leader in the Church of England to abide by the Book of Common Prayer.
[00:29:32] Now, there were things in the Book of Common Prayer that was all to keep them from going back to Roman Catholicism. Now, there were things in the Book of Common Prayer that were still very Roman Catholic vestiges, the sacrament of marriage and the way they talked about marriage in the marriage ceremony, as we'll see, Puritans did not wear wedding rings because of this, which, that sounds wild, but to them that was not wild.
[00:30:00] And there were a lot of other things that went against the consciences of a lot of people who were studying God's word at the time.
[00:30:10] And these men and women who did not.
[00:30:16] They didn't want to go back to Rome either, but they also didn't want to submit everything to the.
[00:30:23] To the prayer book. They became known as the Puritans.
[00:30:29] The Puritans.
[00:30:30] And as you can tell by the word.
[00:30:34] Actually, I just want to ask a question.
[00:30:37] How many of you, you're like, you've read Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.
[00:30:43] Okay.
[00:30:45] That is a, like a very negative view. The guy who's writing it. It's a very negative view towards the Puritans at the time. A very legalistic view, which they would have not been like. Very honestly, a lot of you have been very much blessed by the writings, the Puritans. But the name Puritan was a byword to the people who did not like them, especially the people loyal to the throne and people loyal to the Church of England.
[00:31:18] But they would fight for reform.
[00:31:21] The act of uniformity in 1559 that Elizabeth put forward still allowed for them to kind of hold to their own beliefs at the time.
[00:31:32] There will be another act of uniformity that will come, that will kick them out of the Church of England and they'll all be known as non conformists.
[00:31:42] But before we get there, we have the Westminster Assembly.
[00:31:47] So one significant movement reached its watershed in 1643.
[00:31:55] The tensions between the throne at the time and Parliament. And. And Parliament was made up with mostly Puritans was extremely high.
[00:32:03] So Parliament assembled a bunch of theologians to help further reform the Church. They gathered from England, from Wales, despite King Charles at the time forbidding anyone from attending.
[00:32:15] The assembly produced a confession of faith. Now it's called the Westminster Confession. Many of you are very familiar with it.
[00:32:23] They produced two catechisms. The larger catechism in the Shorter Catechism for teaching children.
[00:32:28] They produced the Handbook of Worship, which is called the Directory of Public Worship of God. And then they espoused a view of Presbyterian Church governance that took a lot of the authority away from the King, which is probably why they're going to. Which is definitely why they're going to be persecuted for their faith, as we'll see here in a second.
[00:32:53] Now, the assembly, all these guys that came together, now, they weren't monolithic, like, they all didn't agree on everything, but they all believed that the Scriptures were the final authority over the Church.
[00:33:06] And so as we'll see here, this is what the Westminster Confession says about the doctrine of the Word of God.
[00:33:14] It says, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added. Now, there's more to that statement, but if you've ever read our Statement of faith on the Word of God, it sounds very similar.
[00:33:40] Well, because through history, it comes from the Westminster Confession and those guys, because the Baptists at the time that would come on in 1689, which we'll see, they. They're borrowing a lot of their statements from the Westminster, and then they're just improving the ones that they don't quite agree with. But in for most part, they. They agreed pretty widely on most things at the time.
[00:34:08] Now, so you. So you'll have the Westminster, and then Congregationalists will start who believe that the authority to rule the church is the church itself.
[00:34:19] And then you'll have Baptists come along, the Congregationalists, they had what was called the Savoy Declaration of 1660.
[00:34:28] And actually, let's see if this link works. I hope it does. Oh, yeah, here we go.
[00:34:33] I just want y' all to see how similar the Westminster Confession, the Savoy Declaration, and the London Baptist Confession are, because sometimes we can sit and go, okay, we're not Presbyterian. Well, yeah, we're not. But we benefited a lot from Presbyterians and Congregationalists at the time. So this is a website. I think I can share this website with you later. But mainly what it's doing is showing you the similarities and differences between these three confessions of faith.
[00:35:04] And it may be helpful to know our Confession of faith comes from the Philadelphia, which is based off of the 1689 London Baptist Confession. So our church has benefited greatly from this.
[00:35:16] So as we'll go through, the words that are highlighted in blue are the differences between the London Baptist and the Savoy and the Westminster. But as you go through, I mean, apparently they disagreed, Baptist disagreed. They thought it was the Song of Solomon, not the Song of Songs.
[00:35:34] But as you go through, you see, it's not that different.
[00:35:38] Change in language here, clarity here.
[00:35:41] It's not going to be until we get to church government. Let me see if I can go down and find it.
[00:35:52] The Fall of Man punishment there. Let's see, where was it at? Oh, yeah, here we go. Go.
[00:35:58] Yeah. God's Covenant. They're similar in certain ways, but different in a lot.
[00:36:04] Let me see if I can find church Government here.
[00:36:07] No.
[00:36:10] Anyway, as you can tell there. Oh, here we go.
[00:36:13] No, that's repentance unto life.
[00:36:16] I found it in here earlier. Anyway, so what you see, see if I can get back to my slide, is a lot of similarities. But where they're going to majorly disagree is on church government. Pretty much like Baptists are going to be Congregationalists, like the Congregationalists. But they're also going to say, no, you're not baptized unless you're baptized upon profession of faith and therefore a member of the church, which is the same thing we believe. But the major doctrines affirmed in the Westminster Confession, five points of Calvinism, they agree across the board.
[00:36:54] They also agree in what's called the regulative principle.
[00:36:58] And this is essentially what the regular principle says. This is what we believe as a church. We must worship God in the way that he prescribes in his word, as opposed to the normative principle that says that we can do anything in worship that is not expressly forbidden in God's word.
[00:37:14] So Anglicans at the time would have been normative, Lutherans would have been normative.
[00:37:19] But the regular principal people like the Puritans were like, no, we can only do what God has told us to do in the worship in the gathered assembly. And they would have gone to Nadab and Abihu and said, here's our proof from the Old Testament.
[00:37:36] They all believed in a form of covenant theology. But Baptists would be a little bit different than Presbyterians.
[00:37:43] And then they all believed in a Christian Sabbath.
[00:37:49] A brief sketch.
[00:37:51] It helps us understand what issues were being debated amongst the puritans in the 17th centuries.
[00:37:57] And as I said, many matters revolved around public worship, church governance.
[00:38:04] But tensions would continue to rise between the Puritans in Parliament and the Crown.
[00:38:12] And it would lead to a civil war where Parliament actually executes the king at the time.
[00:38:20] And they enter into a period of 10 years. Let me show you on here. 10 years.
[00:38:27] It's called the intergum of the Commonwealth where there's no king in England.
[00:38:33] There's. They're completely led by the Puritans, Oliver Cromwell being one, and then his son Richard, and eventually the crown would retake authority and that would lead to what's called the next act of uniformity. And we saw an act of uniformity with Elizabeth where everybody has to worship according to the prayer book.
[00:38:54] Well, now we have another act of uniformity.
[00:38:59] And what happened in this act of uniformity is that everyone who would not conform their worship practices in the churches to the book of Common Prayer would be completely ejected from their pulpits and from the buildings that they were worshiping in.
[00:39:16] And this would become known. This would happen on St. Bartholomew's Day and it would be called Black Bartholomew's Day.
[00:39:24] It's the great ejection day of all the Puritans from their pulpits.
[00:39:30] And as we'll see, different Puritans dealt with this in different ways.
[00:39:37] And what I want you to see is three different Puritans during this time, at different times, during.
[00:39:45] I mean, we've covered a lot a long history here, but I want you to see three different Puritans and how they handle things a little bit differently. But also want to just share with you some encouraging words from some of these men.
[00:40:00] Actually, before I do this, any questions? Because I know I just went through a lot of information and covered a lot of history.
[00:40:08] Any questions from anybody?
[00:40:20] Say that one more time.
[00:40:24] Yes. From numbers. When Nadab and Abihu go into God's temple or tabernacle and they author unprescribed fire, the Puritans would have said, this is proof that we can only worship God in the way that he's prescribed in his word.
[00:40:44] He's laid out in his word how we are to approach him and to approach him in any other way is to essentially commit the same act of treason that Nadab and Abihu did. Yeah. Because God is holy, I think. Yeah. Leviticus 10. Thanks, Jacob.
[00:41:02] Yeah, Haley.
[00:41:18] Yeah, that's going to be hard in the time I've got.
[00:41:24] Jacob Moore, do you. Would you be willing to take that on?
[00:41:27] I think you would better summarize that than me.
[00:41:36] One of the big things.
[00:42:10] And Baptists would have.
[00:42:25] Is like.
[00:43:14] Another in part of this is like. So Presbyterians. The Westminster would have advocated that all the different covenants were a part of the one covenant of grace.
[00:43:24] So the one covenant of grace under that would have been the Abrahamic covenant, the Sinai covenant, and then the New covenant.
[00:43:33] Baptists would have argued that the covenant of grace is not. The Sinai Covenant is not a part of the covenant of grace.
[00:43:42] And they would have argued that then what the covenant that Jesus enacted, the new covenant is actually the overarching covenant of grace.
[00:43:53] So that would be some of the differences there.
[00:43:56] Yeah, I think it's called.
[00:44:00] Jacob, remind me what it's called. It's not called covenant like covenant theology. It's called federalism. Right. Baptist. I think it's called Baptist federalism, but it's very similar.
[00:44:11] Okay. Any other. Hey, Danny.
[00:44:15] Church of England and Anglican Church.
[00:44:18] Yes. Good. That's a good distinction there. Danny asked if the Church of England and the Anglican Church are one in the same. Yes, they are the same thing. Sorry, I probably interchanged those words 15 times by now.
[00:44:32] Other questions?
[00:44:35] Okay, okay, okay. Let's talk about three late Puritans.
[00:44:40] So first, the first Puritan I want us to see is Richard Sibbes. Now, many of you have benefited from Richard Sibbes. He was known, he had many nicknames. One was the Sweet Dropper.
[00:44:52] Another was the Heavenly Doctor.
[00:44:56] Banner just published a.
[00:44:58] It's called A Year with Richard Sibbes. I forget the exact name of it, but it's excerpts from a lot of his writings and sermons. And there. It's super. It's super well put together. It's very encouraging. I'd encourage you to grab it. Especially since the Bruised Reed is no longer published by Banner, which is kind of sad, actually. I have a bunch of books somewhere.
[00:45:24] Oh, I have a bunch of books in my office to bring to give out to you guys. Okay. Maybe somebody could. Would anybody be willing to go grab that?
[00:45:32] They're on the right side of my desk, Peter. Thank you.
[00:45:35] Okay, Richard Sibbes.
[00:45:38] Now, he led his congregation to conform completely to the Book of Common Prayer. So this man was an Anglican. He would have been similar to the attitudes of J.C. ryle, J.F. packer, John Stott, who wanted to work for reform within the Church of England.
[00:45:55] He became known as the Heavenly Doctor, the Sweet Dropper, because of his godly preaching and manner of life.
[00:46:03] Because of his work and reputation, King Charles offered him the charge of Holy Trinity, which is a part of Cambridge University in 1633.
[00:46:15] He knew that reform would only come from the pulpit in England.
[00:46:21] And so he said this about preaching.
[00:46:26] He says preaching is to woo.
[00:46:29] The main scope of all preaching is to allure us to the entertainment of Christ's mild, safe, wise and victorious government.
[00:46:40] And then his most popular book is the Bruised Reed. And it's a book written to people who are cast down, who are struggling in their faith, which if we're all honest with ourselves to a degree, all of us struggle with.
[00:46:54] And he expounded upon the words in Isaiah 43, just one line of words talking about the suffering servant to come. This God's servant. He will not break a bruised reed. He will not quench a smoking flax. And he just meditated with for 128 pages on that verse.
[00:47:17] And here are some of my favorite lines from it. There's a lot more from it, but there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.
[00:47:26] That's Sibbes.
[00:47:29] He says this after conversion. We need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds and not oak trees.
[00:47:38] You ever thought of that?
[00:47:40] Sometimes we need to be bruised by the Lord so that we may realize we're not oak trees, but fragile.
[00:47:48] And then he says, we are weak, but we are his.
[00:47:54] He also, from the book, talked about how we should view other people in light of this understanding of us being bruised reeds who are also smoldering flax. That it's like the candle that looks like it's about to go out, but it doesn't. It stays lit.
[00:48:12] He says this is.
[00:48:14] He's asking for us to view others, ourselves and others through the very lens of Christ. And he says things of greatest perfection are longest in coming to growth, coming to their growth.
[00:48:28] Man, the most perfect creature, comes to perfection by little and little.
[00:48:34] Worthless things as mushrooms and the like, like Jonah's gourd, soon spring up and they soon vanish.
[00:48:41] A new creature is the most excellent creature in the world.
[00:48:46] Therefore it grows up by degrees.
[00:48:51] He's advocating for patience with one another, to bear with one another, love and brothers and sisters.
[00:49:03] As I've meditated on some of Sib's lines, I can't help but think that some of it is relevant for our own church.
[00:49:14] When you read Sibbes bruised reed, you see a man who's acquainted with his own weakness, yet so convinced of Christ's mercies and that it made him merciful towards others.
[00:49:27] When he looked at people, he didn't see inconveniences or enemies. He saw bruised reeds. He saw smoking flaxes. He saw weak people harassed, helpless people, people tossed to and fro by the trials of life.
[00:49:43] He saw little children.
[00:49:46] He saw people through the eyes of his Savior, and it made him and gave him the reputation of the heavenly doctor.
[00:49:54] It filled him with compassion and meekness towards others.
[00:50:00] And the reason I say I think there's something here for us, especially in this season as a church, is because how we begin to see each other will inform how we treat one another.
[00:50:15] And we need to ask ourselves, how are we in this season, in the life of our church? Are we drawing battle lines? And then whoever's on the other side, we see them in a certain light and in a certain way.
[00:50:28] Are we splitting the room into allies and enemies? Rebels and loyalists?
[00:50:35] Brothers and sisters, when that begins to happen in our hearts, your allies are never wrong and your enemies are always wrong.
[00:50:44] Your allies become your idols. And your enemies, you begin to despise.
[00:50:49] They begin to become subhuman.
[00:50:54] Beloved, this is not how Jesus looks at this church right now from heaven.
[00:50:59] When he looks at UBC right now in this season, he sees storm tossed.
[00:51:05] He sees God, bruised reeds in our church, harassed and helpless individuals. That's what he sees.
[00:51:15] And unless we start seeing each other through that lens in this church, we'll devour one another.
[00:51:25] Jesus said this in how to treat one another in Matthew 18. I've been meditating on this a lot lately.
[00:51:32] He says, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.
[00:51:37] Think about the disciples that were with Jesus.
[00:51:40] You had a zealot, you had a tax collector who took very taxes from the zealot and from the fishermen.
[00:51:48] Every one of those men had the very right to hate each other.
[00:51:52] And Jesus says, whoever receives one such child and their children, whoever receives one such child in my name, they receive me.
[00:52:02] If we're going to receive Christ by receiving one another, that starts with viewing one another differently. It starts with viewing one another as little children.
[00:52:11] No matter how old, how young, how different, how similar.
[00:52:16] We're all weak, we're all needy, we're all harassed and helpless, bruised reeds, smoking flaxes.
[00:52:26] Our church covenant says that we'll treat one another with humility and affection.
[00:52:32] And that starts with how we view one another.
[00:52:37] Brothers and sisters, we're not oaks, we're bruised reeds.
[00:52:42] And maybe this season will teach us that and will teach us how to view one another with the very eyes of a compassionate savior.
[00:52:52] Now I want us to look at the next Puritan here. His name is John Owen and he is known as the prince of the English divines because of his theological knowledge, but also just his vision into the glories of Christ.
[00:53:15] The now he decided that.
[00:53:18] He decided to work for reform within the church, but then he became a nonconformist minister.
[00:53:28] And he wasn't the only one to do this.
[00:53:32] Let me see where I'm at. I lost my place here.
[00:53:34] So when England was led into a civil war, he was like, okay, reform is not gonna come through the king. It's gonna become this way. So he became an advisor to the Lord Protector at the time, which was Oliver Cromwell. He's advocating for those type of reforms.
[00:53:53] And he kind of wants the authority to be taken away from the crown completely.
[00:53:59] Now it's not going to work out the way he wants.
[00:54:04] And he's going to be one of the ones in 1662 that are going to be completely left without A pulpit, and he's going to be persecuted. Yet he had a lot of friends in high places that protected him. A lot of other guys, as we'll see with John Flavel in a second, didn't have that kind of protection from people in high places.
[00:54:22] But one of his friends was a man named John Bunyan, who was a Baptist.
[00:54:27] Many of you have read the Pilgrim's Progress, which is behind the Bible. It's still the number one selling book of all time.
[00:54:34] Isn't that amazing? People in those days, they had their King James Bible, they called the authorized edition, and they had a copy of Pilgrim's Progress and they had their hymnal. That's what they had.
[00:54:47] And he loved Bunyan and he loved his preaching. Now the king of England despised Bunyan and he imprisoned him. He was imprisoned for 12 years, off and on. Sometimes they'd let him go preach and then come back and get back in jail.
[00:55:00] But anyway, Owen took care of him, took care of his family, made sure that he was taken care of.
[00:55:06] But the King of England despised him, despised Bunyan, and he did not understand why Owen liked him.
[00:55:17] And Owen replied to the king's disdain for Bunyan. He said, if I could possess that tinker's abilities for preaching, please, your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning.
[00:55:31] He was a tinker, meaning he just like he didn't have a higher education, he tinkered on different types of things.
[00:55:38] That was what he did. But he was a great preacher. And as you've read Pilgrim's Progress, you'll see that he was a great writer as well. But talk about not thinking too highly of yourself.
[00:55:48] He was the prince of the English divines at the time, yet he didn't think too highly of himself.
[00:55:56] Now amongst the also with the turmoil that came with just persecution at the time was turmoil in Owen's home.
[00:56:05] Owen had 11 children.
[00:56:07] He and his wife had 11 children.
[00:56:10] Ten of them did not make it past infancy.
[00:56:15] And then his 11th, his daughter, she died shortly after her first, shortly after getting married.
[00:56:25] So owen buried all 11 of his children.
[00:56:29] He was a man acquainted with much suffering, but was faithful to Christ through it all. On his deathbed he said this.
[00:56:38] After a life full of suffering, he says, I'm going to him whom my soul hath loved, or rather hath loved me with an everlasting love, which is the whole ground of all of my consolation, which just means peace.
[00:56:53] I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm because the persecution going on.
[00:57:01] But while the great pilot is in it. The loss of a poor under rower will be inconsiderable.
[00:57:11] What great hope for us. We have a great pilot in this storm.
[00:57:17] Live and pray and hope and wait patiently and do not despair. The promise stands invincible that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
[00:57:29] Though Owen's life was marked by many controversies and changes in the Church of England, he spoke the same Christ as Sibbes. He worked to reform the church from within and then became sympathetic to the non conformist cause. He went from being a Presbyterian by the way to a Congregationalist.
[00:57:48] Some scholars think that he was trending and became sympathetic.
[00:57:53] If he lived a few more years, he would have become a Baptist.
[00:57:59] Now the last one I want us to see is John Flavell, the preacher of Divine providence. Born in 1628, he was a non conformist the entire time of his ministry. He was forced out of his pulpit in 1662.
[00:58:15] He didn't have friends in high places who could protect him. So he had to flee for his life and he had to flee for the life of his congregation the entire time, like he had to. Well, I'll tell you about that in a second.
[00:58:31] He had to get creative when it came to leading his congregation.
[00:58:35] So at least one occasion he.
[00:58:38] He dressed himself as a woman so that he could pass the magisterial guard, so that they wouldn't recognize him, so that he could meet his congregation out in the woods and they could have church service.
[00:58:52] On another occasion, he had his congregation meet on an island in the middle of an estuary in Devon, which means that it was uncovered during low tide, but then would cover itself up in high tide, which made it the perfect place to flee from the authorities. So they would row out during low tide, they would have church, they would spend time with one another, fellowship with one another, until the water would literally force them off the island and back in their boats and back home. It's in this context that Flavell wrote the mystery of Providence, which drips with wisdom learned from a life devoted to the Lord in the midst of to persecution.
[00:59:36] He says this.
[00:59:38] The providence of God is like Hebrew words, it can only be read backwards.
[00:59:45] The providence of God is like Hebrew words, it can only be read backwards.
[00:59:49] Now, we covered a lot, which kind of brings us to the end, but I think I just want to leave us with the first thing I read to us, which is the words of Paul, Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
[01:00:07] These times are super tumultuous. They were full of persecution, but godly people endured. And because they endured, brothers and sisters, we benefited.
[01:00:16] I just want to list off a couple of ways. You benefited because of their endurance, because of. Because Tyndale endured.
[01:00:24] You have an English Bible in your laps this morning as you hear Scott preach because Cranmer endured. Not only did justification by faith come to the English speaking world, but you don't have to listen to a church service in Latin anymore, but in your own tongue.
[01:00:41] Because the Puritans endured. You get their rich writings and sermons that help stir your love for Jesus. And also their understanding of government would develop our understanding of government in America and to prevent persecution from the state.
[01:00:57] They all learn from the Puritans because of their endurance. We receive a model of endurance for the sake of the elect and some brothers and sisters. Because of these men and women, because of their endurance, we obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
[01:01:17] For that we should give thanks to God.
[01:01:20] Now that leads us to end of our time. I think we've got five minutes for small groups in the back of your guide.
[01:01:28] Hey. Oh, yeah, can you bring those up here?
[01:01:31] Actually, we're just going to give books away.
[01:01:34] I'll field some questions if you have them, and then we'll go to the main service. That's what we'll do.
[01:01:40] All right, so we have. Thank you, Peter, for doing all this.
[01:01:44] So we have the Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes.
[01:01:47] If you don't have this.
[01:01:50] Oh, okay. We got a hand already. There we go. Sweet.
[01:01:54] And then we've got the Glory of Christ. Two copies of the Glory of Christ by John Owen. Who would want those? Okay, Mr. Green.
[01:02:04] Anybody else? I see a second hand. Okay.
[01:02:09] And then I've been reading this in my quiet time. It's called Keeping the How to Maintain youn Love for God by John Flower.
[01:02:16] Who would want. I have two copies of it. It's been great.
[01:02:19] Okay, right there. Listen. That. And then right here. There we go.
[01:02:25] If you wanted. If you wanted one of those copies, please, like, come find me. I can get more. It's no problem.
[01:02:33] Okay. Any questions from you guys that Lord willing, I can answer.
[01:02:43] Does anybody have like a story or like a testimony short of how a Puritan has blessed their life that they would want to give?
[01:03:01] Go ahead.
[01:03:05] I try to be a wonderful.
[01:03:23] Colin Said. Read the Pilgrim's Progress. I was talking with Ava Pipkin this week about reading Pilgrim's Progress. It was helpful for me because of the language and some of the Allegory and it's a story. I played it through audible, get the unabridged. But I played it through audible and read it that way. Much easier and much more encouraging to me. Some people are like that.
[01:04:02] Communion with God.
[01:04:35] Yes, he does.
[01:04:42] Yeah. Owen, unlike Bunyan, is like known for being difficult to read.
[01:04:50] But Mike McKinley put together what's called the Friendship with God. It's his thoughts and meditations and quotes from Communion with God that Owen wrote. And it is. If you haven't read it, I would highly suggest you read it. Especially if, like sometimes it's hard for you to go to God.
[01:05:09] You know yourself to be a sinner, you know yourself to be weak, you know God to be holy.
[01:05:13] If it's hard for you to approach God as a Christian at times, which I think we all could all can relate, reading that book would be a great nourishment to your soul.
[01:05:24] Yeah.
[01:05:27] Questions? Thoughts?
[01:05:29] Thoughts on how I'll share one more.
[01:05:34] I'll share one more on JC Ryle by looks at me. I am an old man, but we just recently read Thoughts Thoughts for Young Men. For young men.
[01:05:46] And all you men in the room, I would encourage you to read that book.
[01:05:52] It takes maybe a couple of hours, but if you've got someone you can share it with, either your son or grandson, etc. And your own life, that is powerful.
[01:06:03] Yes.
[01:06:04] Thanks.
[01:06:08] For anyone dealing with anxiety, triumph.
[01:06:21] Can you say the name of that one again?
[01:06:24] Triumphing over Sinful Fear by John Flavell. Yeah.
[01:06:29] Helpful. And anxiety.
[01:06:31] Yeah.
[01:06:33] Okay.
[01:06:34] Any others?
[01:06:36] Time for one more.
[01:06:41] Okay.
[01:06:43] Well, I think it only fitting that we close this time by praying and just thanking God.
[01:06:49] And we are all built on like we all stand on the shoulders of giants and their endurance led to our salvation. So let me, let me thank the Lord and then we'll sing the doxology.
