1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 Amen. Good morning, church. 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,000 We're going to jump right into the subject matter for this 3 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,680 morning because I have a lot to share with you today. 4 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:10,780 Hopefully you were with us last Sunday when we walked through 5 00:00:10,780 --> 00:00:14,280 part one of our annual celebration of the Protestant 6 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:15,480 Reformation. 7 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:18,280 And the reason we do this every year is because the Reformation, 8 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:22,860 that is our historical roots, early church Reformation and 9 00:00:22,860 --> 00:00:26,720 that time period and the men that we talk about each and 10 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,360 every year have had a great impact on our lives in so many 11 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:33,040 ways and in the life of our church. 12 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,840 Now, I don't have time to recap where we were last week, so if 13 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:40,200 you missed last Sunday or you're visiting with us this morning, 14 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:42,740 it's my hope and prayer that you can just jump in with us and 15 00:00:42,740 --> 00:00:45,080 pick up the stories we go along. 16 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,880 To celebrate this year in 2024, we are talking about the life 17 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:52,660 and teaching of one of our great spiritual fathers here at 18 00:00:52,660 --> 00:00:57,060 Oak Hill, one of the great heroes of the Reformation, John Calvin. 19 00:00:57,060 --> 00:01:01,000 Now, last week we looked at the first 28 years of his life, the 20 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,900 foundation that the Lord was building in him and the reasons 21 00:01:04,900 --> 00:01:08,960 why he turned away from his Roman Catholic upbringing. 22 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:11,580 Today we're going to walk through the last 26 years of his 23 00:01:11,580 --> 00:01:15,100 life and discuss what he believed, what he taught about a 24 00:01:15,100 --> 00:01:19,580 whole range of subjects that we find dear here at Oak Hill, 25 00:01:19,580 --> 00:01:24,020 Scripture, preaching, worship, missions, and more. 26 00:01:24,020 --> 00:01:28,360 Now, before we get started, let me apologize for something. 27 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:29,920 There are going to be some things that we're not going to 28 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:32,820 be able to get to this morning when we talk about Calvin's 29 00:01:32,820 --> 00:01:34,160 legacy. 30 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:38,600 I really, I found out I needed three Sundays to do this well, 31 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:40,500 but the elders said, nope, you get two. 32 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:44,040 So, we only have today, but that means we're not going to be 33 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:48,100 able to get to Calvin's view on civil government, which may be 34 00:01:48,100 --> 00:01:52,180 the most controversial part of his life and very timely in 35 00:01:52,180 --> 00:01:55,240 light of where we are as a nation with the election coming 36 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,220 up and sort of the rise of Christian nationalism in our 37 00:01:58,220 --> 00:01:59,460 country. 38 00:01:59,460 --> 00:02:00,660 So, that's one thing we won't get to. 39 00:02:00,660 --> 00:02:03,760 The other is we're not actually going to get to the five points 40 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,120 of Calvinism or the canons of Dort, mainly because those 41 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:11,000 things were formulated after Calvin's death, but not by him, 42 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:12,560 but by his followers. 43 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,900 So, to make it up to you, what I'm going to try to do in the 44 00:02:14,900 --> 00:02:18,000 coming weeks and months is to sit down and record some 45 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,340 podcasts on these particular subjects. 46 00:02:21,340 --> 00:02:23,840 And I think in particular the one on civil government will be 47 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:25,180 very important for you guys to hear. 48 00:02:25,180 --> 00:02:26,540 So, sorry about that. 49 00:02:26,540 --> 00:02:27,780 I have the time that I have. 50 00:02:27,780 --> 00:02:29,020 So, let's dive right in. 51 00:02:29,020 --> 00:02:30,220 We're going to start this morning. 52 00:02:30,220 --> 00:02:33,920 We're going to go back to our timeline where we left off last 53 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:34,920 Sunday. 54 00:02:34,920 --> 00:02:37,020 By the way, even though I'm shaving off those couple of 55 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:40,220 subject matters, this is still not going to be a short sermon. 56 00:02:40,220 --> 00:02:43,660 So, you probably, that's your shocked face, right? 57 00:02:43,660 --> 00:02:44,660 Surprised. 58 00:02:44,660 --> 00:02:46,260 So, buckle up and get comfortable. 59 00:02:46,260 --> 00:02:47,260 Lots to talk about. 60 00:02:47,260 --> 00:02:52,000 So, we left off last week in the year 1538 with Calvin's first 61 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,400 stay in the city of Geneva coming to an end. 62 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,740 Now, remember, when he had first arrived in Geneva and was 63 00:02:58,740 --> 00:03:02,520 convinced to stay there by William Pharrell, the city at 64 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:05,620 that time and the church was completely unstable. 65 00:03:05,620 --> 00:03:08,680 Pharrell, the guy who preceded him there, had worked very hard 66 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:12,280 to drive out Roman Catholic influence, but it was not easy 67 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:13,280 at all. 68 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,920 He records in his memoirs that he was beaten several times 69 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:20,040 physically by Roman Catholic opponents. 70 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:23,360 But over time, the population in Geneva had come to embrace the 71 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,060 Protestant movement, but it was still shaky. 72 00:03:26,060 --> 00:03:29,020 And that's why he begged and pleaded that fateful night at 73 00:03:29,020 --> 00:03:32,180 the end when he found out Calvin had come to Geneva for a 74 00:03:32,180 --> 00:03:33,180 stay. 75 00:03:33,180 --> 00:03:36,160 He went and pleaded with him to stay there and help. 76 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:39,120 But they were fighting an uphill battle because Geneva was run 77 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,600 by a secular city council. 78 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,480 And these were a group of people that enjoyed wielding power. 79 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:47,920 And so when Pharrell and Calvin teamed up and started laying 80 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:52,000 down reforms in the city, these secular authorities didn't like 81 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:53,780 being overshadowed. 82 00:03:53,780 --> 00:03:56,640 And it's clear from the record that they never liked Calvin in 83 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:57,640 the first place. 84 00:03:57,640 --> 00:03:59,720 In fact, in their minutes of their meetings, they refer to 85 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,280 him as that Frenchman. 86 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:04,000 They did not like him. 87 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,120 So after less than two years of ministry in Geneva, Calvin and 88 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,040 Pharrell were summoned by the city council and they said, you 89 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:14,480 have 48 hours to pack up your stuff and get out. 90 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:15,680 So the irony here is sick. 91 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,280 The city that Calvin never wanted to go to in the first 92 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:21,320 place was now banishing him. 93 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:22,520 And I mentioned this last Sunday. 94 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,080 This part of Calvin's story is so encouraging to anybody who 95 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:28,360 has ever worked in ministry. 96 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:30,080 Ministry is really hard. 97 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:32,120 And the opposition is ever present. 98 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,960 And most people, most pastors have at least in their history, 99 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:39,960 at least one drastic ministry failure where things just go 100 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:44,040 awry and you have to move on to the next assignment and not 101 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:46,800 doubt God's call on your life. 102 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,560 But for Calvin, leaving Geneva was something of a sigh of 103 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:50,560 relief. 104 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:52,880 He had been treated poorly during the two years he was 105 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:53,880 there. 106 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,000 And now he felt like he was being released by God and he 107 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,480 wanted to go back to his passions, which was studying and 108 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:00,920 writing. 109 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:03,040 So Calvin and Pharrell left Geneva. 110 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:05,960 They first went to the cities of Bern and Zurich and they 111 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,120 visited fellow reformers and encouraged them. 112 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:12,200 Then they moved on to Basel once again where they stayed for two 113 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:15,640 months with the gentleman who had printed Calvin's first 114 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:18,320 edition of his institutes. 115 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,680 And while they were in Basel, Calvin received a letter from 116 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:23,400 Martin Buser. 117 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:27,600 He was the leading reformer in the city of Strasbourg and he 118 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:31,840 pleaded with Calvin to come to Strasbourg and help him to 119 00:05:31,840 --> 00:05:32,840 teach. 120 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:36,880 Now we looked at this map last week just to sort of zoom in on 121 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:38,240 central Europe here. 122 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:40,240 You see France to the left there. 123 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,000 The blue square is Paris. 124 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:43,720 And you see that blue squiggly line. 125 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:46,840 That was the border between France and the Holy Roman 126 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:49,280 Empire to the east. 127 00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:52,560 The two main cities we'll talk about this morning, Geneva is 128 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:57,400 the red dot in Swiss territories and the yellow is 129 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:00,200 Strasbourg in the German territories. 130 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:04,800 So Buser wrote to Calvin and basically said to him, look, I 131 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:07,360 know that you've been rejected at Geneva. 132 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,920 And he said, don't be like Jonah. 133 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,120 Don't run away from the call that God has on your life. 134 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:17,680 And so Calvin went to Strasbourg. 135 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:21,200 And I told you I was going to become a travel agent, put up 136 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:23,600 some nice pictures of European cities, went to the city of 137 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:28,480 Strasbourg, and this was a huge turning point in his life and a 138 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:32,520 huge turning point for the Protestant movement as a whole. 139 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:36,040 Calvin did in fact continue with study and his writing, but 140 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:39,840 he did so much more than that during three years in this 141 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:41,000 particular city. 142 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:46,080 He took on the role of pastor teacher of a French speaking 143 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,800 congregation of about 500 people. 144 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,440 All refugees, people who had had to flee France for their 145 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:57,000 lives, had come to Strasbourg and Calvin pastored them. 146 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,320 And this is where he truly learned that he had to be more 147 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:01,400 than a scholar. 148 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:02,920 He needed to be a shepherd. 149 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:06,200 He had to minister to these persecuted saints, entire 150 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:08,800 families who had lost everything, had left everything 151 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,120 behind in France and had fled for their lives and ended up in 152 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:13,240 Strasbourg. 153 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:17,720 And Calvin would write later on that it was here at 154 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:20,960 Strasbourg that he finally understood what Paul meant in 155 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:25,320 Romans 12 when he said, we need to weep with those who weep. 156 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,760 So God was teaching him some great skills here in 157 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:29,360 Strasbourg. 158 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,200 Now among this congregation he preached almost every day of 159 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:36,040 the week, twice on Sundays, plus taught in the Strasbourg 160 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:37,120 Academy. 161 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:39,840 He brought a greater discipline to the church there. 162 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,400 He established a formal liturgy for worship. 163 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,760 He even taught the people in this French speaking 164 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:47,960 congregation how to sing the Psalms. 165 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:52,360 In fact, he published a hymn book of 18 selected Psalms, 166 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:56,480 translated them into French, and actually wrote the melodies 167 00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:59,600 for them and taught even a choir how to sing them. 168 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:01,960 This is something that very few people know about Calvin. 169 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:04,760 Very passionate about music. 170 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,960 It was also during this time that Calvin started a lifelong 171 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:10,920 project of writing commentaries on the Bible. 172 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:14,600 At the age of 30 in Strasbourg, he finished his first 173 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,400 commentary on the book of Romans and published it. 174 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:20,920 Calvin also raised his profile across Europe during these 175 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:21,560 years. 176 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:25,440 Not only had his institutes become a sensation, he began to 177 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:29,280 participate in high level debates with antagonistic 178 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:30,480 Roman Catholic scholars. 179 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:34,200 He even worked alongside Luther's primary theologian and 180 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:36,360 right hand man, Philip Melanchthon. 181 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:39,640 They worked together on several debates and they developed a 182 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:40,800 very strong friendship. 183 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:44,200 Later, Melanchthon, who would say that he was so impressed by 184 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:49,000 Calvin's mind and his ability to debate on the fly, he, 185 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:54,120 Melanchthon, called Calvin the theologian of the day. 186 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:56,000 And he still wasn't even 30 years old yet. 187 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:57,360 Amazing. 188 00:08:57,360 --> 00:08:59,440 Now, we have to be careful not to get the impression that 189 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,040 Calvin was perfect, or that he was anything other than a 190 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:02,680 regular man. 191 00:09:02,680 --> 00:09:06,160 He was a sinner, just like us, and there were signs in this 192 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:08,640 period of his life that he still needed to work out a 193 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:09,920 whole bunch of things. 194 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:14,080 He actually writes about an incident that took place a time 195 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,640 when he was meeting with other Protestant leaders from all 196 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:19,840 over Europe and the discussion did not go well and he was not 197 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:21,200 getting his way. 198 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:24,440 And although Calvin was quite reserved, if you got into his 199 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,840 face about theology or practical ministry, we found 200 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:29,600 out he had quite a temper. 201 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:33,160 And he blew up in this meeting and he chewed out his 202 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,840 colleagues and he stormed out of the room and later he would 203 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:37,360 write this. 204 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:41,000 He would admit, he said, I have sinned grievously. 205 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:45,880 This fierce beast, this impatience within me is not yet 206 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:47,640 conquered. 207 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:49,800 Now, one last happy note about Calvin's time in 208 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:50,640 Strasbourg. 209 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:53,760 He fell in love and he married a woman named 210 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:55,880 Idelette de Bourree. 211 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:58,120 That's the only portrait that we have of her. 212 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:00,880 She was a widow when he married her. 213 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:03,800 Again, he was, I believe, 31 at the time. 214 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:07,920 She was a widow, had been married to a man that Calvin 215 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:09,680 himself led to Christ. 216 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:13,120 She had two children so he became a stepfather overnight 217 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:17,400 and by all accounts, Idelette ended up being a gracious and 218 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:22,120 extremely helpful wife to Calvin's ministry. 219 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:25,840 Meanwhile, in Strasbourg, back in Geneva, the predictable 220 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:26,400 was happening. 221 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:28,800 The city was falling apart. 222 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:31,440 The city council could not control the city. 223 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,960 Not only had immorality set in but Roman Catholics were 224 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:37,720 returning to the city and were now trying to sway the 225 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:42,040 population away from reformed ideas and back to Rome. 226 00:10:42,040 --> 00:10:47,440 So in 1541, Calvin's now 32, the city council had to sit down 227 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:51,240 and write a very humbling letter and they invited Calvin 228 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:55,080 to come back to Geneva and to put things back in order. 229 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:57,600 Now what I love about this part of the story is, is in 230 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:01,120 Calvin's discussions of how this went, he doesn't give us 231 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:03,000 the standard godly answer. 232 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,120 What would be the standard godly answer? 233 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:06,720 Well, of course, God's opened the door. 234 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:08,360 I'll come right away. 235 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:10,560 Calvin did not want to go back. 236 00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:13,320 In his flesh, he did not want to go back to Geneva. 237 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:15,720 And I think this is something that every person in this room 238 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:17,000 can identify with. 239 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,560 When you get to that place where you have an agonizing 240 00:11:19,560 --> 00:11:23,600 choice to make, this is what I want but this is the need that 241 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,880 God has put before me. 242 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:28,360 And so here's part of what he wrote about this. 243 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:32,480 He said, I would prefer a hundred other deaths to that 244 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:37,040 cross, meaning going back to Geneva, on which I should have 245 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:39,120 to die a thousand times a day. 246 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:41,840 He really disliked Geneva. 247 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:46,160 Yet because I know that I'm not my own master, I offer my heart 248 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:48,400 as a true sacrifice to the Lord. 249 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:53,080 Promptly and sincerely, I offer my heart. 250 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:56,200 So he walked away from this beautiful, fruitful time in 251 00:11:56,200 --> 00:12:00,120 Strasbourg and he headed back to the place that he didn't want 252 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,200 to go to, that his biggest ministry failure, the place 253 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:06,280 where everybody treated him poorly, and not only did he go 254 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:12,000 back, but then he stayed for 23 years for the rest of his life. 255 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,200 And he labored there in that very difficult city as its 256 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:18,680 pastor, as its shepherd. 257 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:20,240 And we'll find out more about this as we go along. 258 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:22,360 Now we could talk about these 23 years. 259 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:25,200 Again, this could be a seven week series, just these 23 260 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:26,320 years of his life. 261 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,200 But I'll give you a few of the highlights. 262 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:31,600 As we go along, we'll talk about some theology and about 263 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,880 some practical ministry. 264 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:36,760 And as we do this, like last Sunday, what I want you to do 265 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:40,520 is to seal some of these truths in our hearts, to see all of 266 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:44,760 the connections that we have here in this Bible church in 267 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:49,120 the year 2024 that connect back to the practical ministry 268 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:52,720 philosophy that Calvin had that grew from his conviction from 269 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:54,480 scripture. 270 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:56,800 So we want to seal those truths in our hearts and see those 271 00:12:56,800 --> 00:12:57,720 connections. 272 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:00,480 And the first thing we have to talk about is Calvin's 273 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,600 preaching ministry, which in a word was quite remarkable. 274 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:07,800 Once he returned to Geneva, he was appointed the head pastor 275 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:09,360 at St. Peter's Cathedral. 276 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:10,520 How many of you guys have been to Geneva? 277 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:11,480 Anybody? 278 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:13,840 OK, you've probably seen some of these pictures. 279 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,520 They don't make churches like this anymore. 280 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,560 This is St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva. 281 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:24,280 This is where Calvin put down roots and began to teach. 282 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,440 Now, this church has a long history. 283 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:30,440 There was a church built on this site in the early 400s. 284 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:34,000 There's been a church on this site in Geneva for over 1,600 285 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:35,400 years. 286 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:37,760 So long history, long before Calvin got there. 287 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:40,480 The building you see in that picture was built in the 12th 288 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:42,080 century for Americans. 289 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:43,880 That's like super, super old. 290 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:46,960 For Europeans, it's like, yeah, that's kind of new. 291 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:48,040 It's just a different mind. 292 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:49,160 If you go to Europe, you get it. 293 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:50,040 You see the buildings. 294 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,320 You're like, we don't have anything this old in America. 295 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:54,640 12th century. 296 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:57,360 Originally, it was a Roman Catholic cathedral. 297 00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:59,880 And then it was converted to a Protestant church seven years 298 00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:02,480 before Calvin came back. 299 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:05,800 And by then, the authorities had scripted of its Catholic 300 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:09,680 altar, its side chapels, all of its statues and images of 301 00:14:09,680 --> 00:14:11,280 Mary and the saints. 302 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:13,600 And this is where Calvin preached for the next 23 303 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:13,840 years. 304 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:16,280 Look at the inside. 305 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:19,280 Now, I'm not one to be jealous or envious. 306 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:20,880 I look at the auditorium we have here. 307 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:22,360 I'm extremely thankful for it. 308 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:24,400 But wow. 309 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:24,800 Wow. 310 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:26,600 Can you imagine the acoustics, Grant? 311 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,640 This is where he preached right up until his death. 312 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:35,720 And the centerpiece of this amazing structure was the 313 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:41,120 pulpit, which, again, I love my little pulpit here. 314 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,440 But man, look at that. 315 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:46,840 That is where Calvin would climb up into to address these 316 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:49,960 huge audiences that would come to hear him preach. 317 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,080 And Calvin was a simple man. 318 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:53,840 But you see how ornate this pulpit was. 319 00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,720 And he was OK with that because, again, in his mind, 320 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:00,760 he thought, well, preaching is the centerpiece of worship. 321 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,160 So it's OK for it to be ornate. 322 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,800 But in terms of his own personal comfort, the opposite 323 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:06,560 was true. 324 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:11,760 For 23 years, Calvin sat in the exact same chair in the 325 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:15,720 exact same location for every single worship service. 326 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:17,720 And it wasn't a great chair. 327 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:19,160 You can go see it today in Geneva. 328 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:20,840 It's still sitting there. 329 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,400 That's the chair he sat in for 23 years. 330 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:29,920 So as I shared last week, Calvin, the reputation he has 331 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:34,440 is of a cold, remote academic and a scholar of great 332 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:37,480 intellect, but somebody who was like stuck in an ivory tower. 333 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:39,520 Hopefully, I've already convinced you that that is 334 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:40,560 completely wrong. 335 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:42,600 And you'll never think that again. 336 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:44,240 Yes, he was reserved. 337 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,240 Yes, he was modest. 338 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:49,640 But in Strasbourg and in the second time in Geneva, 339 00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:53,760 Calvin became a pastoral powerhouse. 340 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:55,880 And I'm convinced that the older he got, the more he 341 00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:59,040 realized, I cannot just live in that ivory tower. 342 00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:01,560 I've got to come out of my shell and be with the people 343 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:02,800 for this reason. 344 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:05,920 He realized that the average Christian in that day just 345 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:08,320 didn't know the word of God, needed to be fed the word of 346 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:10,320 God in all of its forms. 347 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:12,960 Otherwise, he knew they would never grow beyond the 348 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:16,320 traditions and the rituals and the idolatries that they had 349 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,080 been fed all their lives by Roman Catholicism. 350 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,800 So for Calvin, the Bible was a vital daily necessity in the 351 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:25,200 Christian's life. 352 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,880 And you might think, well, yeah, duh, but you don't 353 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:32,160 understand, in the 16th century, after all this time, 354 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:36,000 centuries of Roman Catholic supremacy, the idea that a 355 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,560 Christian could be in the Bible every day, reading it for 356 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:45,320 themselves, completely new idea, absolutely revolutionary. 357 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:46,960 Here's how he described this. 358 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:52,360 He said, whoever would desire to persevere in uprightness and 359 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:56,000 integrity of life, let them learn to exercise themselves 360 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,680 daily in the study of the word of God. 361 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,240 For whenever a man neglects instruction, he easily falls 362 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:05,720 into carelessness and foolishness, and the fear of God 363 00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:08,480 vanishes from his mind. 364 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:13,600 A daily vital walk with God through the word. 365 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:16,520 Even before returning to Geneva, Calvin was convinced 366 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:19,080 that for the most part, the lamp of God's word had gone 367 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:21,880 out in medieval Europe. 368 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,560 And he called it a fearful abandonment. 369 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:27,240 Yeah, he knew that there were certain corners of Europe where 370 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:30,920 it was still flickering, but Rome had so badly quenched the 371 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,160 word that the common man and the common woman sitting in 372 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,880 the pews of churches had no idea what the Bible said. 373 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:40,960 Can you imagine being a Christian, a weekly worshiper, 374 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,640 but you really don't know what the Bible says. 375 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:46,600 You've never had it in front of you. 376 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:47,520 So what did they know? 377 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:49,840 Only what the priest told them. 378 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:51,520 That's all they had. 379 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:55,400 So Calvin knew the antidote to that deplorable situation was 380 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:59,160 to convince medieval worshippers that they had to come and be 381 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,280 patient and sit under the constant teaching of God's 382 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:06,000 word, one verse at a time, one book at a time, in an 383 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:07,160 expository fashion. 384 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:11,120 Again, that was new to this day and age. 385 00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:13,520 So what Calvin often writes about is his overwhelming 386 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:17,520 passion and devotion to the majesty and the glory of God as 387 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:19,880 seen through the word. 388 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:23,720 Here's what he says, illuminated by the Spirit's power, we 389 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:27,800 affirm with utter certainty, just as we were gazing upon the 390 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:32,480 majesty of God himself, that it, the word, has flowed to us from 391 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:35,480 the very mouth of God by the ministry of men. 392 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:39,560 That's how convinced he was of the inspired nature of 393 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,560 Scripture. 394 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:44,160 Now according to this man, Theodore Beza, who you should 395 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,200 know as well, who served alongside Calvin through much of 396 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:51,640 this time and actually succeeded Calvin as the pastor of Geneva 397 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:55,800 after Calvin passed away, get this now, he said Calvin could 398 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:59,680 write a sermon in less than an hour. 399 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:03,280 Now for someone like me, that's terrifying and really 400 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:04,880 impressive. 401 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:07,280 Preaching in that day, you have to understand, was a little bit 402 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:09,480 different in terms of expectations. 403 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:14,360 When you read Calvin's sermons, they're not carefully crafted 404 00:19:14,360 --> 00:19:17,600 like today pastors would carefully craft sermons in order 405 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,560 to make them appealing, to make them something that can hold the 406 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:22,000 attention of people. 407 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,320 Calvin's sermons when you read them are more like running 408 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:27,720 commentaries on the text. 409 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:29,720 They're just different. 410 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:34,800 They generally lasted 45 minutes to an hour, I love that, and the 411 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:39,640 only thing he brought into that pulpit was the Bible in its 412 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:44,720 original languages, in Hebrew and Greek, nothing in French. 413 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:47,440 And he would provide his own translation of the Bible on the 414 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:54,160 fly, again, no notes, no manuscript, no iPad, Adam. 415 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:58,400 And what's amazing is in all of that, his sermons aren't overly 416 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:00,000 technical either. 417 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,160 In fact, he's often criticized by modern scholars because it's 418 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:04,360 such plain language. 419 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:06,320 But Calvin knew his audience. 420 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:09,480 He could fly right over them, but he knew he couldn't do that 421 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,520 if he wanted people to learn and to grow. 422 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:15,320 And so he would simply explain the text, he would do a 423 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:19,360 translation on the fly from the original language, and then he 424 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,640 would help them understand it and then provide practical 425 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:23,360 application. 426 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:26,360 And again, we had this idea in our mind that Calvin must have 427 00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:29,760 been this massive intellect that just couldn't connect with 428 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:30,520 people. 429 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,640 But when you read his sermons, it's very practical. 430 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:37,280 He always ends with practical application. 431 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:41,400 And Calvin was very quiet and reserved and private, but by all 432 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:45,160 accounts, people who heard him preach, he was extremely 433 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,760 passionate and dynamic in the pulpit. 434 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:49,160 And he demanded that of himself. 435 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:53,320 He said, the preacher must use forcefulness so that all 436 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:56,360 may know that this is not a game. 437 00:20:56,360 --> 00:20:59,400 The preacher must combine sweetness and gentleness with 438 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:01,200 vigor and vehemence. 439 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:05,160 He must speak as an ambassador in a way that shows that he is 440 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:07,160 not pretending. 441 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:09,680 And that comment raises one of my favorite things about Calvin 442 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:11,280 that he talked about often. 443 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:14,640 He understood that the text of scripture was sovereign over 444 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:18,440 both the people in his audience and also himself. 445 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,360 So he didn't come into that pulpit with a holier than thou 446 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:22,080 attitude. 447 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,800 In fact, this is what he says, when I mount the pulpit, it is 448 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:29,680 not to teach others only. 449 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,600 The word that proceeds from my mouth should serve me as well 450 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,920 as you, or it is the worst for me. 451 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,160 Indeed, nobody is fit to teach in the church unless he 452 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:45,680 voluntarily humbles himself to be a fellow disciple. 453 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:49,400 That is a level of humility you don't even find among a lot of 454 00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:53,360 pastors today, let alone a genius like Calvin. 455 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:55,960 He's also on record as saying this very famously. 456 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,120 He said, it would be far better for the preacher to break his 457 00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:02,320 neck going up into the pulpit if he does not take pains to be 458 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,720 the first to follow God. 459 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:07,120 And that's a scriptural principle. 460 00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:10,640 Let not many of you be teachers, lest you incur a 461 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:13,320 stricter judgment. 462 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:15,560 Finally, I'll share this about what made Calvin special as a 463 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:16,480 preacher. 464 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:18,520 He had a naturally brilliant mind. 465 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:20,240 Nobody debates that. 466 00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:23,560 But what set him apart was he took that beautiful mind and he 467 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,840 combined it with just good old fashioned hard work and 468 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:29,640 devotion and faithfulness. 469 00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:35,040 His production is unrivaled by any theologian that I'm aware 470 00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:35,400 of. 471 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:39,480 His collected works from the last 25 years of his life fill 472 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,960 68 volumes of about 600 pages each. 473 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:44,960 That's what he produced. 474 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,240 And that's only partial because not everything he wrote down 475 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:49,040 has survived. 476 00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:50,520 Catch this now. 477 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:54,240 Before his death, he had written a commentary on every New 478 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:57,320 Testament book except Revelation, which I find very 479 00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:58,920 interesting. 480 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:01,600 And most of the Old Testament as well. 481 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:05,560 The entire Pentateuch, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the 482 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,400 Psalms, and all of the minor prophets. 483 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,080 His preaching schedule will make your head spin. 484 00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,600 Generally, he preached twice on Sundays, both morning and 485 00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,720 evening, and almost exclusively from the New Testament on 486 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:18,960 Sundays. 487 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,280 And then during the week, he would preach from both the Old 488 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:23,960 and New Testaments every weekday morning. 489 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,400 And then in the afternoon, go to the Academy and lecture there 490 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:28,640 as well. 491 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,560 So overall, historians believe that he was producing on 492 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:36,000 average 8 to 10 separate lessons every week of his life 493 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,560 for 23 years. 494 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,360 I don't think even vacations were even a thing. 495 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:43,320 Back then, we talked about, oh, you need a vacation. 496 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,560 Calvin didn't. 497 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:50,040 That adds up to somewhere around 500 lessons each year. 498 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:54,240 Now, I've been told that I work too hard, and that I work too 499 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:55,200 many hours. 500 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,920 But I started doing the math in my head this week about how 501 00:23:57,920 --> 00:23:59,720 many lessons I create. 502 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,400 I am not even in the ballpark. 503 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:05,720 I'm in the parking lot, looking into the ballpark of how hard 504 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,560 Calvin worked and how much he produced. 505 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:12,080 One colleague of his in Geneva called him, I love this, a bow 506 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:17,120 always strung, meaning he was always prepared, always ready 507 00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:19,200 to lead and to teach. 508 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:20,600 One of his biographers, though, wrote, 509 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,600 Calvin did not spare himself at all, 510 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:27,640 working far beyond what his power and regard for his health 511 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:29,480 could stand. 512 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:30,880 And that's another amazing factor. 513 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,360 Calvin produced all of this work in the midst 514 00:24:33,360 --> 00:24:35,800 of constant health problems. 515 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:37,440 He suffered from a whole bunch of things 516 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:39,280 that honestly, when I look at the list, 517 00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:41,640 I'm not sure I would have survived any of them. 518 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:45,280 But he survived all of them, frequent migraines and fever. 519 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:46,800 He had gout. 520 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,640 He had kidney stones. 521 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:51,240 He had horrible digestive problems. 522 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,120 But on and on, he pushed, always coming back 523 00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:57,520 to what drove him, which was the expository preaching 524 00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:58,600 of the text of scripture. 525 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:00,960 And some of you guys may have heard this story. 526 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,600 It's one of the best examples, most humorous examples, 527 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:07,480 of just how devoted he was to verse by verse exposition 528 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:08,680 of the scriptures. 529 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,480 After he had been banished from Geneva that first time 530 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,560 and gone to Strasbourg, when they invited him back, 531 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:16,800 the first Sunday he was back in Geneva, 532 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:18,600 he walked up into that pulpit. 533 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:20,600 He opened to the Bible to the very place 534 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:26,000 he left off three years earlier and said, next verse. 535 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,000 And he started the sermon with this, as I was saying. 536 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,200 So before we finish with the historical details 537 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:39,400 of Calvin's life, I do want to talk about two really big issues 538 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,800 that took up much of his attention. 539 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,520 And the first one will probably come as a surprise to you. 540 00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:48,080 Calvin was extremely concerned about worship. 541 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:49,760 And let me be clear. 542 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,720 By worship, I don't just mean singing praise songs. 543 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:54,280 That's one of the major mistakes we 544 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:56,160 make in the evangelical church today. 545 00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,440 We equate worship with just that one thing. 546 00:25:58,440 --> 00:25:59,640 Well, we sing songs. 547 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:00,920 That's only a small part of it. 548 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:02,920 When Calvin talks about worship, he's 549 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,480 talking about every element of a Christian gathering. 550 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,200 The order of service, corporate prayer, 551 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,800 yes, music and singing, how to listen to a sermon, 552 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:16,680 and maybe above all else, coming to the Lord's table. 553 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:18,440 That's what he means by that. 554 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:20,360 And the reason for his concern was this. 555 00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:25,840 He said, in worship, God meets with his people. 556 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:27,440 Right? 557 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:29,880 God meets with them to receive their praise. 558 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,040 He meets with them to abide with them, to nourish 559 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:33,440 and strengthen their faith. 560 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,360 And so Calvin wrote, what could be more important than that? 561 00:26:37,360 --> 00:26:39,160 And maybe you've never thought of it that way, 562 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,920 before, but what could be more important than the fact 563 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:45,840 that the church gathers to meet with the Lord? 564 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,160 And a follow-up principle, if worship is that important, 565 00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:52,480 well, then how much care and planning should go into it? 566 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:54,800 In his Institutes, Calvin writes this. 567 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:58,320 He says, there is nothing more perilous to our salvation 568 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:03,480 than a preposterous and perverse worship of God. 569 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,200 And it was his opinion that the worship of the medieval Roman 570 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,440 Catholic Church that was so detached from scripture 571 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:14,760 and so filled with superstition had devolved into idolatry. 572 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:16,440 And to him, the issue of idolatry 573 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,160 was as serious as works righteousness 574 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:20,800 was to justification. 575 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:21,400 And here's why. 576 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,400 He said, look, both of those things 577 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:27,560 involve putting human wisdom above divine revelation. 578 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,760 Both of them involve pandering to human appetites 579 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:35,880 rather than just trusting what God has said in his word. 580 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,480 So what did Calvin prescribe for Protestant churches? 581 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,400 Well, he believed that the remedy for all the theatrics 582 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:44,840 and superstition of Roman Catholicism 583 00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:48,520 was to establish an order of worship that was simply rooted 584 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,480 in, here's the phrase, biblical simplicity. 585 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:54,200 Keep it simple, stupid. 586 00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:56,120 You've heard that before, right? 587 00:27:56,120 --> 00:27:57,400 Keep it simple. 588 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,240 And later on, people would call this the regulative principle. 589 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:02,920 Anybody heard that phrase before? 590 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:04,840 Calvin's regulative principle. 591 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:06,040 It simply goes like this. 592 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:06,640 Are you ready? 593 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,320 It's going to sound crazy. 594 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,520 When the saints gather to worship, 595 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,200 the church should only engage in activities 596 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:14,520 that are described in the Bible. 597 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:18,160 Right? 598 00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:19,800 Crazy. 599 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:20,520 Calvin writes this. 600 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,840 He says, every addition to his word, 601 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:27,680 especially in the matter of worship, is a lie. 602 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,440 So do it well. 603 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:30,160 And do it right. 604 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,760 And do it biblically, he said. 605 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,120 He was well aware of the human tendency 606 00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:38,600 to think that sincerity and religious zeal can somehow 607 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:42,120 substitute for what is true. 608 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:43,120 Think about that. 609 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:46,640 He called this one of the most profound effects of the fall. 610 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:47,400 He writes this. 611 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,400 Experience teaches us how fertile 612 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,840 is the field of falsehood in the human mind. 613 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:57,400 Even among Christians, the temptation to idolatry 614 00:28:57,400 --> 00:28:59,400 remains strong. 615 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:02,920 The mind of man, I say, is like a factory of idolatries. 616 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:07,080 And every one of us is a master craftsman of idols. 617 00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:10,760 As long as any relics of superstition continue among us, 618 00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:14,400 they will always entangle us. 619 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:15,920 Think about those words, especially 620 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:17,880 as it relates to worship. 621 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,560 So Calvin's great caution reflected his belief 622 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:22,440 that in worship, Christians often 623 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,600 would rather please themselves than please God. 624 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:27,400 Do we not see that today? 625 00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:29,480 When we talk about worship, we'd rather 626 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,560 do things that make us happy than things 627 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:32,560 that please the Lord. 628 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:34,000 Here's what he said. 629 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,000 He said, under the pretense of holy zeal, 630 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,960 superstitious men give way to the indulgences of the flesh. 631 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,520 And Satan baits fictitious modes of worship 632 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,240 with such attractions. 633 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:50,440 Men are delighted with their own inventions 634 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,920 and choose to be wise in their own eyes 635 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:57,680 rather than restrain their senses in obedience to God. 636 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,320 Nothing is more abominable in the sight of God 637 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:04,880 than pretended worship, which proceeds from human design. 638 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:09,360 It's true. 639 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:09,960 It's true. 640 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:11,400 We see it in churches all the time. 641 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:14,960 Well, I've got so many new ideas about doing this or that. 642 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:16,760 This will bring in the crowds. 643 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:18,920 This will feed the appetites of people. 644 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,640 And Calvin would say, no. 645 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:23,800 Don't do it. 646 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,480 The importance Calvin placed on worship 647 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,080 is reflected in his active involvement in worship 648 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:31,560 everywhere he went. 649 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:33,840 Not only did he have a theology of worship, 650 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:35,640 but as the preacher, he was deeply 651 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,800 concerned with pastoral involvement in worship. 652 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,840 And again, this is something we don't often see. 653 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:42,120 Ask Grant about this. 654 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,240 In churches today, you have pastors that say, look, 655 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:45,560 my job is to preach the word. 656 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:47,560 You handle the rest. 657 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:51,040 But he was pastorally involved in every aspect of worship. 658 00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:55,280 We know he wrote hymn books and service books and liturgies. 659 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:57,440 And this was key for Calvin. 660 00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,040 And we've adopted the same mindset at Oak Hill. 661 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,880 Worship is always to be directed by the word. 662 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,800 Not only does the word direct worship, by and large, 663 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:10,120 the word is the content of worship. 664 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:11,440 You understand what I'm saying? 665 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,360 It directs the worship, but it's the content of worship. 666 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:16,560 In other words, when we gather together, 667 00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:18,560 God's word is to be read. 668 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:20,320 God's word is to be preached. 669 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:24,160 When we sing, we lift up words that are biblically rooted. 670 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,440 When we pray, we pray biblical things. 671 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,880 It doesn't come out of our inventions or our designs. 672 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:31,920 It comes from the word. 673 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,920 And so the worshiper is directed to meet with God 674 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:38,640 through the word in every aspect of the service, 675 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:42,520 both head and heart, both thoughts and emotions, 676 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,720 but always being drawn back to the majesty 677 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:46,960 of Christ in the gospel. 678 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:48,120 This is what Calvin taught. 679 00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,040 It's not complicated, is it? 680 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:52,680 But it requires a disciplined approach that says, 681 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,560 no to pragmatic ideas that are rooted in man-centered stuff, 682 00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:00,200 rooted in entertainment, and just saying, 683 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:03,080 we're going to stick with what the word says. 684 00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:05,640 And again, in our world today, those types of churches 685 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,080 are becoming fewer and fewer. 686 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:12,480 So Calvin's Sunday morning liturgy in Geneva 687 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,200 looked like this, a call to worship 688 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:18,960 where scripture was read, corporate prayer, 689 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:23,760 with time given for confession of sins, the singing of a psalm, 690 00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:26,800 then more corporate prayer for illumination, 691 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,160 followed by a scripture reading from the Old Testament 692 00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:30,640 and the New Testament. 693 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,320 Then came the sermon, and after that, 694 00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:37,040 a collection of offerings, the singing of another psalm, 695 00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,560 and then a closing prayer of thanksgiving 696 00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:41,880 and a benediction. 697 00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:43,360 And you may think to yourself, well, 698 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:44,640 what's the big innovation there? 699 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,440 We do that every week at Oak Hill. 700 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,160 Yes, we do. 701 00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:49,880 That's exactly the point. 702 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:51,960 And praise God for it. 703 00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,600 Praise God that we have an elder team and a worship 704 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:58,520 pastor who's committed to this same principle. 705 00:32:58,520 --> 00:32:59,760 But you cannot imagine. 706 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:02,320 I wish you could study the history 707 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:06,520 and see how different that was from a typical Roman Catholic 708 00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:08,480 mass in the 16th century. 709 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,960 This was revolutionary in the church in Calvin's day. 710 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:14,960 And one of the things that came through with this 711 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:18,320 that Calvin stressed was the active participation 712 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,240 of the congregation in worship. 713 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:23,000 And again, this ran totally contrary 714 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,760 to the Roman Catholic mass, where the worshipper would come 715 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:27,080 in and be an observer. 716 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:28,800 Calvin says, no. 717 00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:30,920 That's not what we're called to. 718 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:32,800 God has called every Christian worshiper 719 00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:37,080 to be active in listening to the sermon, 720 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,200 both with the mind and the heart, 721 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,640 to be active in the singing of praises 722 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,840 that we lift up to Christ, to be active in praying 723 00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:48,520 with the minister as he prays, and agreeing in prayer. 724 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:52,560 And Calvin said, this is what true reverence for God 725 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:55,480 looks like. 726 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:58,320 Alongside active participation, Calvin constantly 727 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,240 talked about an idea that maybe you've never thought of before. 728 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:05,360 But worship for him was about spiritually ascending. 729 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:06,920 Spiritually ascending. 730 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:08,200 Here's what he means by that. 731 00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,400 Christ descended in his incarnation 732 00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:14,000 in order to lift his people up. 733 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:17,480 And in a mysterious way, worship draws the Christian 734 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:20,680 into the heavenly realms, where we come into communion 735 00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,240 with the ascended Christ. 736 00:34:23,240 --> 00:34:25,080 And Calvin says, this process is ongoing. 737 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,000 Christ continues to draw us heavenward 738 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,960 as the Holy Spirit empowers the Word and the sacraments 739 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:32,600 in the church. 740 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,520 And when he talked about sacraments, 741 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:35,680 I defined that last week. 742 00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:37,240 You can go back and look at that. 743 00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:40,320 He calls them spiritual ladders. 744 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:42,480 The ordinances of the church are spiritual ladders 745 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,360 that take us heavenward in worship, 746 00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:47,120 and especially so at the Lord's table. 747 00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:51,320 So let's talk about communion for just a moment. 748 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,120 In Geneva, on mornings where communion 749 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,500 was going to be celebrated, that order of service 750 00:34:55,500 --> 00:34:57,240 would change slightly. 751 00:34:57,240 --> 00:34:59,800 First, Calvin always insisted on the reading 752 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:04,280 of the Apostles' Creed, which we did this morning together. 753 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,520 Then came his instruction and exhortation 754 00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:07,800 about the elements. 755 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,640 And then as we practice here at Oak Hill, 756 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,400 the members would come forward and partake 757 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,080 of the bread and the cup while they were singing a psalm. 758 00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:16,920 That was typical. 759 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:19,440 Now, as you may know, among all the things that 760 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,920 were debated during the Reformation period, 761 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:27,080 no issue was more discussed than the issue of communion. 762 00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:31,000 And in particular, what is the presence of Christ 763 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,360 in the bread and in the wine? 764 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:37,560 And Calvin made a very important contribution to that debate. 765 00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:40,680 He brought a unique perspective in his day 766 00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:45,160 that was rooted in that concept of spiritual ascending. 767 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:47,520 Now, by the time Calvin made his case, 768 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:49,920 the battle lines over communion had already been drawn. 769 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:52,720 Luther had come out with what he believed in Zwingli 770 00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:53,880 on the other side. 771 00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:57,320 And then Calvin looked at both of those and said, nope and nope, 772 00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,520 and took a middle lane. 773 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:00,960 Took a middle lane between the two. 774 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,200 So let me try to explain some of this briefly. 775 00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:05,760 So the three views of the presence of Christ, body, 776 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:07,120 and blood in the Eucharist. 777 00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:12,320 Luther, man, this is, I'm going to try to do this. 778 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:13,920 Again, this should be a podcast, but I'm 779 00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:15,520 going to do this really quickly. 780 00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:18,200 Calvin rejected Luther's idea that Christ's body had 781 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:23,320 a real or a local presence that coexisted in and around 782 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,080 and under the elements. 783 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,620 And really, Luther's position was very close to Rome. 784 00:36:29,620 --> 00:36:32,280 The only thing he would say was the elements don't actually 785 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,080 get transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ. 786 00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:37,560 So they remain just bread and juice. 787 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:42,360 But he talked about the presence of the body and blood 788 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:44,560 coexisting with the elements. 789 00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:46,280 Then on the other side, we had Zwingli. 790 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,960 And Zwingli took a completely opposite position 791 00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:52,560 that there was no presence at all of Christ in the elements. 792 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,160 It was a purely memorial to Christ. 793 00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:58,640 So it's all about, communion is just about remembering. 794 00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:00,720 And the bread and the cup are just mere symbols, 795 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:02,040 and that's it. 796 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,840 The position that Calvin took between them 797 00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,080 is called the spiritual presence view. 798 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,120 And this view points to the bread and the cup 799 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:13,000 as signs that are given to believers of the promises 800 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,320 that God makes to his children. 801 00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:19,400 And the supper was given to us as a sacrament of the church 802 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,480 to seal the promise that those who 803 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:25,160 partake of the bread and the cup by faith 804 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:30,200 truly partake of the body and blood of Christ. 805 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,800 There are signs that point to that reality. 806 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:34,440 And you say, well, how is that possible? 807 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:35,480 Well, Calvin said this. 808 00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:38,400 It's because of your union with Christ. 809 00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:40,520 And that is a completely biblical principle, 810 00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:41,800 your union with Christ. 811 00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:43,280 It's all over the New Testament. 812 00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:44,000 We are called what? 813 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:44,960 His body. 814 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:45,960 We are united with him. 815 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,920 We are found in him. 816 00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:50,400 And then Calvin goes on to explain 817 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:54,360 that Christ's human body will forever be present in heaven. 818 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,120 He doesn't have to descend to earth 819 00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:57,240 to commune with his people. 820 00:37:57,240 --> 00:37:57,840 Why? 821 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,600 Because we already have the Holy Spirit within us. 822 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,120 So while the others were talking about, 823 00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:05,040 oh, Christ descends into the elements, 824 00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:07,600 he was saying, no, Christ doesn't have to move at all. 825 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:09,840 He's already given us the Holy Spirit. 826 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,240 So in a spiritual sense, Calvin says this. 827 00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:14,320 When we participate in communion, 828 00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:18,280 there is something quite supernatural happening. 829 00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:21,720 The Spirit of God lifts us up into the heavenly realms 830 00:38:21,720 --> 00:38:23,920 to enjoy this meal. 831 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,000 And by eating and drinking the common bread 832 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:27,760 and the common fruit of the vine, 833 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,160 we are in reality being nourished 834 00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:35,440 by the body and blood of Christ and strengthened in our faith. 835 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:37,480 So for Calvin, coming to the Lord's table 836 00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:41,600 is the richest experience we can have this side of heaven. 837 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:45,240 And yet he explains he doesn't fully get it, 838 00:38:45,240 --> 00:38:47,680 which is such a humble position. 839 00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:51,480 He says, now if anyone should ask me how this takes place, 840 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:53,560 being lifted up into the heavens, 841 00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:55,800 I shall not be ashamed to confess 842 00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:58,840 that it is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend 843 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:01,800 or my words to declare. 844 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,120 And to speak more plainly, I experience it more 845 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,160 than I understand it. 846 00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:09,280 Whoa, Calvin said that. 847 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:11,720 Amazing, right? 848 00:39:11,720 --> 00:39:13,440 OK, so I'll let you process that. 849 00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:15,760 If you have any questions, I actually 850 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:18,480 did a whole sermon series on this years ago. 851 00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:21,000 At some point, maybe we'll reboot that up 852 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,240 so that you can get a more fully rooted inscription, 853 00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:25,360 all that stuff. 854 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,000 But this is a very important thing for us to understand. 855 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,480 Because at Oak Hill, we take the spiritual presence view. 856 00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:32,640 We believe there's something supernatural happening. 857 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,120 Even if we can't fully explain it, we know it's mysterious, 858 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,960 but there is something happening that's more than just a, oh, 859 00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:42,000 yeah, here's a time to remember. 860 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,600 OK, last big issue I want to talk about before we finish 861 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,320 with the end of Calvin's life. 862 00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:49,840 This is, again, maybe a surprise to you. 863 00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:54,840 Calvin was very, very concerned about missionary activity. 864 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:56,560 Now here's why that might be surprising. 865 00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:01,000 Because you see fools on the internet who hate Calvinism. 866 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,640 And they'll say things like, well, if you're a Calvinist, 867 00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:06,600 why would you be concerned about missions? 868 00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:08,760 Because if God's elected somebody to be saved, 869 00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:10,360 He's going to save them. 870 00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,720 And those people just ignore them. 871 00:40:13,720 --> 00:40:14,880 It's ignorant. 872 00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:16,120 It's disingenuous. 873 00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:17,520 They know better, but that's what 874 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:19,240 they like to throw in your face. 875 00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:22,560 Obviously, the need to send out missionaries with the gospel 876 00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:25,520 doesn't change just because you believe God has chosen some 877 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:26,280 and not others. 878 00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,680 In fact, because the Bible does say that, 879 00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:30,800 that's all the more reason for you and I 880 00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:33,200 to get out there among sinners and share the gospel, 881 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:34,920 because God does save. 882 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:35,680 We sang it earlier. 883 00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,520 God will save whom He will save. 884 00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:41,040 And He uses people like us to spread the gospel, 885 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:43,400 to accomplish that work. 886 00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,200 Not only does God ordain who will be saved, 887 00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:49,000 but He ordains the means by which those people will 888 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:50,120 be saved. 889 00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:51,760 And that's us. 890 00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:54,480 But you should know that under Calvin's leadership, 891 00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:58,520 Geneva became the most prolific hub of missionary work 892 00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:00,680 in all of Europe during the Reformation period. 893 00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:02,800 Again, that might be surprising to you. 894 00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,560 In spite of the haters, you try to claim otherwise, 895 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,280 Calvinism, throughout history, has always 896 00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:11,720 produced the greatest missionary movements, 897 00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:14,640 precisely because we know God saves 898 00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:16,320 and that He's sovereign to save. 899 00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:18,280 That's why we go out. 900 00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:20,440 That is a historical truth. 901 00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,200 And in the 16th century, Protestant evangelists 902 00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:27,800 and preachers, they would travel to Geneva for training 903 00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:30,760 and for prayer and to get counsel from Calvin 904 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:35,080 on how they could turn their cities toward reform theology. 905 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,280 Geneva under Calvin became the number one location 906 00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:41,440 for refugees from all over Europe who were fleeing 907 00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:42,560 because of persecution. 908 00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,320 And some would come and they would settle in Geneva. 909 00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:47,080 Others would train for a time. 910 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:48,360 And then Calvin would say, now you've 911 00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:49,920 got to go back to your country. 912 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:51,420 And you've got to preach the gospel. 913 00:41:51,420 --> 00:41:54,800 And you've got to plant underground churches. 914 00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:58,640 By 1553, Calvin was actually sending missionaries back 915 00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:03,480 into his home country of France, back at great risk 916 00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:05,760 to their lives because he knew he was sending them 917 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:07,000 into the mouth of the enemy. 918 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:09,280 And it was likely they could be arrested and burned 919 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:11,240 at the stake. 920 00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:13,280 And entire networks of underground churches 921 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:16,800 were being established in France by French believers. 922 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:18,040 You may have heard this term. 923 00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:19,560 They're called Huguenots. 924 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,480 And they were establishing networks. 925 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:24,460 Within five years, 100 Protestant churches 926 00:42:24,460 --> 00:42:26,200 had been planted in France. 927 00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:27,560 And three years later, that number 928 00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:31,560 was 2,000 because of the work coming out of Geneva. 929 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,760 In fact, by the year 1600, the Huguenot movement 930 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,880 was so strong that 10% of the French population, which 931 00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:42,320 was incredibly Catholic, staunchly Catholic, 932 00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:43,520 had turned Protestant. 933 00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:47,720 King Louis XIV at the pope's command 934 00:42:47,720 --> 00:42:52,440 had to revoke all the privileges of Protestants in his country 935 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:56,760 just to hold them off, just to keep his country Catholic. 936 00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:59,040 So the missionary work out of Geneva was tremendous. 937 00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:00,440 And that was their blueprint. 938 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:04,400 Train pastors, equip evangelists, send missionaries, 939 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:08,920 and fund gospel ministries all over Europe. 940 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,000 And it came from Calvin. 941 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,560 And he kept a watch on the international scene. 942 00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,420 We know of his correspondence speaking 943 00:43:16,420 --> 00:43:18,960 with Protestant authorities, even speaking 944 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,960 with kings in letters, and also writing 945 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,400 to all these Protestant pastors and encouraging them, 946 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:27,920 and welcoming them and saying, look, come to Geneva. 947 00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:29,600 Come spend some time here. 948 00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:31,000 Train with us here. 949 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:33,840 And then I'll give you space to teach in the academy, 950 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:35,240 in my church. 951 00:43:35,240 --> 00:43:37,080 And so he welcomed people came. 952 00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,480 Protestant pastors came from all over Europe 953 00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,640 to be a part of what was happening in Geneva. 954 00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:44,760 And this is something that is kind of special to me. 955 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:47,640 We're a church that relies on other people 956 00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:51,520 to have space, to have worship services, and to preach. 957 00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:53,600 Well, that's what Calvin did back in that day. 958 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:56,640 Gave space to all these non-French speaking 959 00:43:56,640 --> 00:43:59,720 congregations and non-French speaking pastors. 960 00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:01,920 In fact, if you look back at this picture 961 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:04,760 that I showed you earlier, see the white building in the back? 962 00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,640 That became known as Calvin's auditorium. 963 00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:09,800 And that whole building was devoted 964 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,940 to other reformed pastors who could preach 965 00:44:12,940 --> 00:44:15,160 non-French speaking congregations. 966 00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:18,560 Calvin shared his space so that the gospel could go out 967 00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:22,280 to all languages and all people groups in Europe. 968 00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,600 So at any time you would find teaching going on there 969 00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:30,520 in Italian or German or even English, can you imagine? 970 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:33,680 But that's what Calvin, that's what his heart was. 971 00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:36,520 The most notable of these, by the way, John Knox. 972 00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:40,520 John Knox had to flee Scotland and then flee England 973 00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:44,280 because Queen Mary I, Bloody Mary, had come to power 974 00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:46,760 and was arresting Protestant leaders. 975 00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:47,840 And he came to Geneva. 976 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,280 He spent 3 and 1 half years in Geneva. 977 00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:54,680 And he taught in that building for 3 and 1 half years 978 00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:58,840 to absolutely overflowing crowds of English speakers. 979 00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,320 And he made a huge impact on that city. 980 00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,320 How many of you guys have ever heard of the Geneva Bible? 981 00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:05,720 Why is it called the Geneva Bible? 982 00:45:05,720 --> 00:45:09,720 Because it took place in that place at that time 983 00:45:09,720 --> 00:45:11,920 when this amazing hub of activity 984 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:13,400 was happening in the city. 985 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,200 All the men who translated the Geneva Bible, which, 986 00:45:16,200 --> 00:45:20,240 by the way, preceded the King James by about 50 years. 987 00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:22,600 But it's one of the most important English translations 988 00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,200 we have because it's the first one that went back 989 00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,520 to the Hebrew and Greek and didn't just work off the Latin. 990 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:29,240 Very important. 991 00:45:29,240 --> 00:45:31,560 But all the men who did that translating 992 00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:36,160 sat under Knox's teaching in that auditorium in Geneva. 993 00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:38,360 It's an amazing place. 994 00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:39,920 Amazing place for missions. 995 00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:41,640 OK. 996 00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:42,440 I could do this. 997 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:43,360 I could do this for weeks. 998 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:43,960 I'm sorry. 999 00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:45,080 And I wish I had more time. 1000 00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,360 But let me close with just a little bit 1001 00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:51,720 about Calvin's final years and his legacy. 1002 00:45:51,720 --> 00:45:53,960 As I said earlier, Calvin always had health problems. 1003 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,280 By the time he got to his 50s, he was in really bad shape. 1004 00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:00,200 And he steadily went downhill. 1005 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:02,880 I'm feeling it in my 60s. 1006 00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:04,200 I've outlived him by quite a bit. 1007 00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:08,760 I'm really happy about that. 1008 00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:10,800 In addition to all those things I mentioned earlier 1009 00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:12,920 that he struggled with, later in life 1010 00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:16,240 he started to struggle with asthma and with breathing. 1011 00:46:16,240 --> 00:46:19,040 Doctors said he had adult colic, which I'd never heard of 1012 00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:22,960 before, that caused him to spit up blood on a regular basis. 1013 00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:24,400 He was in bad shape. 1014 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,240 He rarely slept more than four hours a night. 1015 00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:27,740 Grant. 1016 00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:33,800 Partially because he was always in pain. 1017 00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,080 And partially because of so much he had on his plate. 1018 00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,240 But even when he was sick, eyewitnesses 1019 00:46:38,240 --> 00:46:40,560 report that every day in the last few months 1020 00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:46,040 he kept four scribes working, both in French and in Latin, 1021 00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:49,840 because he wanted to finish as much work as he possibly could. 1022 00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:51,760 And then there was the heartbreak of his family. 1023 00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:53,520 I mentioned it briefly last week. 1024 00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:56,560 His wife, Idelette, died 13 years before he died. 1025 00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:58,640 So they only had nine years of marriage together. 1026 00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:02,280 She died at the age of 49 of tuberculosis. 1027 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:04,840 Nine years together as husband and wife. 1028 00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:06,720 And they were never able to raise 1029 00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:08,080 any children of their own. 1030 00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:11,200 They had two daughters that were stillborn, 1031 00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:15,600 and a third child, a son, who lived for two weeks. 1032 00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:17,040 Absolutely heartbreaking. 1033 00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:20,080 And he would write later on, the Lord 1034 00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:23,200 has certainly inflicted a severe and bitter wound 1035 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:24,680 in the death of our baby son. 1036 00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:28,280 But he is himself a father, and he knows best 1037 00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:31,080 what is good for his children. 1038 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:33,000 And the saddest thing about this, 1039 00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:34,920 I don't know why I'm emotional about this, 1040 00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:38,840 the saddest thing is his opponents seized on this. 1041 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:42,200 And in the tradition of Job's awful friends, 1042 00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:47,240 they began to say, well, maybe God is punishing you, John. 1043 00:47:47,240 --> 00:47:48,600 And so here's how he responded. 1044 00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:50,960 And so gracious, he said, the Lord gave me a child, 1045 00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:53,480 but he was pleased to deprive me of him. 1046 00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:57,160 In his place, he has given me thousands of children 1047 00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:00,800 in all parts of Christendom. 1048 00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:04,200 That's a minister mindset. 1049 00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:07,480 As Calvin neared the end of his life, ministers from all 1050 00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:09,840 over Europe came to visit him because they knew 1051 00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:11,400 his strength was fading. 1052 00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:15,240 And even in the last weeks of his life, 1053 00:48:15,240 --> 00:48:18,840 he had a scribe working on his final commentary 1054 00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:21,720 on the Book of Joshua. 1055 00:48:21,720 --> 00:48:24,560 His close friend, Beza, pleaded with him to rest more. 1056 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:26,180 And Calvin said to him, would you 1057 00:48:26,180 --> 00:48:30,920 have the Lord find me idle as he's bedridden? 1058 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:36,840 This is really weird. 1059 00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:38,920 This is really hard. 1060 00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:41,180 When you get older, you start thinking about these types 1061 00:48:41,180 --> 00:48:42,440 of things. 1062 00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:48,640 May 27, 1564, just after 8 PM, a nurse 1063 00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:51,760 summoned Beza to Calvin's bedside. 1064 00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:53,800 By the time he arrived, he'd already 1065 00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:55,720 gone home to be with his Savior. 1066 00:48:55,720 --> 00:48:59,960 And he'd fought the good fight right to the end. 1067 00:48:59,960 --> 00:49:05,640 So one last PS then to Calvin's story. 1068 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:07,160 And this is so cool. 1069 00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:10,520 It is very common for important men of the church 1070 00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:13,800 to be buried in the vaults in great cathedrals. 1071 00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:16,240 If you've gone through Europe, there's always 1072 00:49:16,240 --> 00:49:18,000 a basement or someplace where there's 1073 00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:19,960 the vaults of all the great churchmen. 1074 00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:20,760 Think about Luther. 1075 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:24,680 Luther was buried seven feet below the floor of Castle 1076 00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:26,840 Church in Wittenberg. 1077 00:49:26,840 --> 00:49:29,640 Philip Melanchthon, his friend, is buried right next to him. 1078 00:49:29,640 --> 00:49:30,920 That's normal. 1079 00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:33,200 William Pharrell, who served with Calvin, 1080 00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:35,760 he's buried in the cathedral at New Cattell, 1081 00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:38,720 where he served his final years in ministry. 1082 00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:41,880 Beza as well, Calvin's friend and successor, 1083 00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:44,400 he's buried right next to the pulpit 1084 00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:47,840 there at St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva. 1085 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:49,880 But not Calvin. 1086 00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:51,760 He refused. 1087 00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:54,560 He absolutely would not allow it. 1088 00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:57,960 At his instructions, his body was carried outside the city 1089 00:49:57,960 --> 00:50:00,440 walls to a very common cemetery. 1090 00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:04,760 This is where Calvin is buried today. 1091 00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:07,760 Simple shroud, simple casket. 1092 00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:12,440 And he specifically said, do not give me a headstone. 1093 00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:17,880 And of course, the tourism department gave him one. 1094 00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:20,400 But he said, I don't want a headstone. 1095 00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,080 He wanted his tomb to be unmarked, 1096 00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:26,360 lest he become the focus and not the Lord. 1097 00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:30,120 Or worse, that his grave would become a source of pilgrimage 1098 00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:32,760 and idolatry. 1099 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:35,320 And we should take a cue from this, you guys. 1100 00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:38,760 I know we're here celebrating the life of a great man, 1101 00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:40,560 but we don't worship John Calvin. 1102 00:50:40,560 --> 00:50:42,680 And we don't idolize John Calvin. 1103 00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:45,520 We worship the God who raised him up. 1104 00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:48,040 And we worship the God who gifted him in so many ways. 1105 00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:50,920 And we worship the God who accomplished so much 1106 00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:53,560 through this man's life. 1107 00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:57,200 Beza would write after his death, Calvin's modesty, 1108 00:50:57,200 --> 00:50:59,800 forged by his vision of God's glory, 1109 00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:03,320 was his most defining characteristic. 1110 00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:05,080 You can put that on my headstone. 1111 00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:07,840 I'm OK with that. 1112 00:51:07,840 --> 00:51:10,040 Now, in Geneva today, on the grounds of the college 1113 00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:13,360 that Calvin founded, there is a massive stone memorial. 1114 00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:16,920 If you've been there to Geneva, you've seen this. 1115 00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:19,440 It's a memorial to the four great Genoese leaders 1116 00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:20,800 of the Protestant Reformation. 1117 00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:23,640 This is Reformation Wall. 1118 00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:25,960 I give you the picture of the girls in that picture 1119 00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:29,040 so you can see how big this is. 1120 00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:32,120 Four towering figures are etched in stone there. 1121 00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:34,960 From left to right, you have Pharrell. 1122 00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:37,240 And then you have Calvin. 1123 00:51:37,240 --> 00:51:38,240 And then you have Beza. 1124 00:51:38,240 --> 00:51:40,520 And you have Knox. 1125 00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:42,600 And Calvin, as you can see, is one step 1126 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:46,120 in front of the others, the great leader of all four. 1127 00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:50,080 On the base of the monument is a special date, 1559. 1128 00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:52,960 That is the blessed year that all four of those men 1129 00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:56,240 were teaching at the same time in the city of Geneva. 1130 00:51:56,240 --> 00:51:59,800 What a year that must have been. 1131 00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:01,880 Listed on both sides of the figures 1132 00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:03,960 are various nations that have been impacted 1133 00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:05,120 by the Reformation. 1134 00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:09,120 On one side, it says Germany, the Netherlands, France, 1135 00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:10,720 and Switzerland. 1136 00:52:10,720 --> 00:52:14,960 On the other side, it says Scotland, England, Hungary, 1137 00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:17,000 and guess what else? 1138 00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:20,440 The United States of America. 1139 00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:23,080 Stretching behind the wall, behind the reformers, 1140 00:52:23,080 --> 00:52:28,760 is the Latin phrase post tenebrous lux, light 1141 00:52:28,760 --> 00:52:31,680 after darkness. 1142 00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:33,360 It is a spectacular monument. 1143 00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:34,900 But I'm going to go on a limb and say 1144 00:52:34,900 --> 00:52:38,440 Calvin would have absolutely hated it. 1145 00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:41,680 Don't do that, is what he would have said. 1146 00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:43,640 Today, we correctly regard Calvin 1147 00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:45,000 as a hero of the faith. 1148 00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:47,880 But he didn't see himself that way. 1149 00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:49,880 He just saw himself as a faithful Christian. 1150 00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:53,040 But his legacy for us is too important to ignore. 1151 00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:56,880 He is a spiritual father to so many churches today. 1152 00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:59,120 Listen to all the streams of the Christian faith. 1153 00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:01,880 The Swiss Reformed, the French Huguenots, 1154 00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:06,480 Scottish Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, German Evangelicals, 1155 00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:08,880 Hussites, Church of England. 1156 00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:12,240 Yes, the Pilgrims, and the Puritans, 1157 00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:15,240 and the Congregationalists of the early American colonies. 1158 00:53:15,240 --> 00:53:18,480 Did you know that for the first 200 years of America's history, 1159 00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:22,000 almost every college, seminary, school, and academy 1160 00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:25,880 was built and sustained by Calvinists? 1161 00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:27,640 That is true. 1162 00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:29,960 And of course, today, even here, this Bible church 1163 00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:33,040 that we belong to, Calvin's legacy and doctrine 1164 00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:37,240 live on in our teaching and in our preaching. 1165 00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:42,640 Calvin was, as J. I. Packer said, the finest exegete, 1166 00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:44,440 the greatest systematic theologian, 1167 00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:46,800 and the most profound religious thinker 1168 00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:49,400 that the Reformation produced. 1169 00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:50,440 And I'll close with this. 1170 00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:52,080 No less than the prince of preachers 1171 00:53:52,080 --> 00:53:55,520 himself, Charles Spurgeon, who was an avowed Calvinist 1172 00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:58,120 and was not shy about it, he wrote the following. 1173 00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:02,160 Hundreds of years later, after the Reformation, he wrote this. 1174 00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:04,560 There is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him 1175 00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:08,840 crucified unless you preach what is called Calvinism. 1176 00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:11,120 It is a nickname to call it Calvinism. 1177 00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:15,560 Calvinism is the gospel and nothing else. 1178 00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:18,240 He wrote on, the old truth that Calvin preached, 1179 00:54:18,240 --> 00:54:21,080 that Augustine preached, that Paul preached 1180 00:54:21,080 --> 00:54:24,760 is the truth that I must preach today or else be false 1181 00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:26,560 to my conscience and my God. 1182 00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:29,000 John Knox's gospel is my gospel. 1183 00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:30,640 And that which thundered through Scotland 1184 00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:34,720 must thunder through England again. 1185 00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:39,880 May that same gospel continue to thunder in this church 1186 00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:42,040 until Christ returns or calls us home. 1187 00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:44,080 Amen? 1188 00:54:44,080 --> 00:54:45,080 Let's pray together. 1189 00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:50,920 Father, we thank you for just a couple of Sundays 1190 00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:53,600 to walk through this history. 1191 00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:58,000 And we will just once again reiterate and pray together. 1192 00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:01,800 And I pray that all my brothers and sisters here this morning 1193 00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:06,280 are praying along with me that we worship you for all of this. 1194 00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:09,600 We praise your name, your glorious, majestic name, 1195 00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:11,040 because of the work that you have 1196 00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:13,040 done in the history of the church 1197 00:55:13,040 --> 00:55:17,080 to bring us back to the anchor of scripture, 1198 00:55:17,080 --> 00:55:20,680 to bring us back to what you have revealed about yourself 1199 00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:24,600 and, Lord, your faithfulness in raising up certain people, 1200 00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:28,360 certain men at certain times in church history 1201 00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:30,080 to do your work faithfully. 1202 00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:32,160 And I know, Lord, that you are doing it today 1203 00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:33,280 in so many places. 1204 00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:35,160 And, Lord, if we can here at Oak Hill, 1205 00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:38,600 if we could be counted, it's just a smidgen of that work 1206 00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:40,280 that you're doing in this world. 1207 00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:41,680 We will thank you for that. 1208 00:55:41,680 --> 00:55:43,480 And we will be so grateful. 1209 00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:47,080 And we will worship you forever because of it. 1210 00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:49,360 Lord, we're reminded this morning, 1211 00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:51,120 as we talk about all of this doctrine 1212 00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:55,920 about the body and the blood of Jesus Christ 1213 00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:59,240 and how precious it is that his body was broken for us 1214 00:55:59,240 --> 00:56:02,520 and that his blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. 1215 00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:04,920 That is what binds us here together, Lord, 1216 00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,480 that we are in union with you and you've given us 1217 00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:09,200 your spirit within our hearts. 1218 00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:10,920 Thank you for all of it, Lord. 1219 00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:12,600 There's not enough time or words that we 1220 00:56:12,600 --> 00:56:17,880 can express to communicate how grateful we are for your love. 1221 00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:19,840 So help us to just worship well in the time 1222 00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:22,840 we have left this morning to worship with all of our hearts, 1223 00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:26,720 all of our minds, all of our souls for your glory, we pray. 1224 00:56:26,720 --> 00:56:50,080 Amen.