Reformation 2025: Seeing Thunder | Part 1

I want to start this morning by explaining why

here at Oak Hill we observe Reformation Sunday

each and every year. I know that a lot of you

are newer to Oak Hill. If you've come in the

last 12 months or so, you may have seen what's

coming up and wonder why we do this. Because

I realize, our elder team realizes, that not

every church takes the time to observe the Reformation.

So before we just dive into our service, let

me give you a brief... primer on the value and

importance of Reformation Sunday so that you

can understand what we are as a church and why

we think this is important. First of all, we

do this in October because October 31st is the

true date on the calendar when Martin Luther

nailed his 95 theses on the door of Castle Church

in Wittenberg, Germany in the year 1517. Very

important date. And in doing that, he lit a theological

fire that burned across most of Europe and forever

changed Christendom. So the history itself matters

to us. It definitely was a movement of God. He

orchestrated this not just to reshape the church,

but actually to reshape Western civilization

as a whole. You may or may not know this, but

through the Reformation, we're the beneficiaries

of a long list of foundationally good things.

Things like freedom of conscience, Freedom of

assembly, freedom of worship, individual dignity

and human rights, the spread of literacy and

education, not to just the upper classes, but

to every level of society. The priesthood of

all believers, not just one small group of clergy.

And of course, the translation of the Bible into

everyday common languages. We are all the beneficiaries

of those things. So the Reformation matters.

On top of all that, we as a church at Oak Hill,

we are rooted in a combination of various streams

of the Reformation. Baptist, Reformed, and Evangelical.

And so the Reformation is a huge part of our

historical roots. Now, here at Oak Hill, those

roots stretch back further beyond the Reformation,

all the way back to the early church, actually

to the apostolic church of the New Testament.

But then to the first 500 years of the early

church, to the early councils, and then to the

brilliance of the reformers from the 14th to

the 17th centuries. Guys, these things matter

because as a church in 2025, we're not isolated

from the history of the church. In fact, we're

built on the shoulders of many faithful saints

whom God raised up in ages past. Saints who at

a very high personal cost led a charge to recover

the truth about things that we hold dear today.

Things like the authority of scripture, the gospel

of God's grace, the doctrine of biblical justification

that we're saved by faith alone. Through the

reformers, by the way, who were all just men,

they were flawed just like us. But when we study

their lives and we see the courage they showed

in the face of overwhelming pressure to fold,

it inspires us to stand up in our day for what

we know to be true and right. So there's a lot

to consider at the end of every October. And

here's one of the things that's often overlooked.

We tend to think of the Reformation as that past

historical thing. But the very truths that were

recovered back then are still there. vital issues

for the church today. And those battles still

need to be fought. So Reformation Sunday reminds

us that we have to have boldness to stand up

for the truth. It's required of every generation

to fight for these things. And the church is

always in need of being reformed. You know why?

Because our hearts are prone to wander. Always.

We're always drifting away from what is true

and right. So, in fact, this was the rallying

cry of many in the 16th century. It goes like

this. Ecclesia reformata. Semper Reformanda,

which means the church reformed and always reforming.

So the battle for the authority of God's word

and the true gospel is relevant in every age.

And that battle is going to continue right up

until the day that Jesus Christ returns for us.

Now, in past Reformation times, we've studied

all kinds of topics. We've talked about the Reformation

in Germany. We've talked about the life of Luther.

We've looked at Switzerland. We have analyzed

the great solas of the Reformation last year.

You may remember we did a whole two -week series

on the life of Calvin. And this year, both today

and next Sunday, because this too will be a two

-part message, we're going to look at the Reformation

in Scotland. Because that is a very unique story.

And so I can't tell you, having just gotten back

from there, after two weeks, I can't tell you

how excited I am to jump in. But for now, I want

to start this morning with a hypothetical situation

to get your minds going. What would you do if

the United States government officially endorsed

and aligned itself with a particular form of

doctrine and worship that you were convinced

was false? Not only that, what if it then insisted

that every church in America teach that form

of doctrine? That you only sing from one state

-approved hymn book, that you only say prayers

from one state -approved prayer book, and that

you practice a state -sanctioned liturgy? What

if the churches in America were closed to any

other form of doctrine and worship, including

the one that you believe was true. In other words,

what would you do if you were faced with true

religious tyranny without the freedom of conscience,

without the freedom of assembly and worship?

And what if, in addition to all those other regulations

that had come down from the state, this stipulation

was also included, that if you refuse to obey

the government's law concerning doctrine, or

if you speak out against what the government

has told you to believe and do, you could be

arrested. You could have your homes and your

property confiscated. Maybe even burned at the

stake as a rebel and a heretic. Can you imagine

that? Would you still risk gathering in secret

to practice your faith as you were convinced?

The Bible tells you. Would you take that risk

still? Would you consider taking up arms against

your government? Those types of questions are

not easily answered for people like us, right?

Because, praise God, we've never had to face

them. But they were very real questions for our

spiritual forefathers who had to face those questions

back in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Remember,

back in those days, there was only one approved

church in the West. It was the Roman Catholic

Church. And its leadership, beginning with the

Pope, who wielded absolute power, and then down

the line through the cardinals and the archbishops

and the bishops, they tolerated zero dissent

from the nations of Christian Europe, from the

citizens of Christian Europe. Over the centuries,

what had begun is this humble, persecuted apostolic

church in the New Testament had, through the

accumulation of wealth and power and greed, grown

into this massive institutional force that in

many corners of Europe was a breeding ground

for corruption and abuse. And as early as the

12th century, many were looking at what was happening

and saying in a practical sense, the church has

lost its way, that reform was badly needed. The

God -breathed scriptures were no longer the guiding

light of the church. Instead, it was ruled from

the top down by this vast hierarchy of gluttonous

men who were building a religious system for

the benefit of the institution itself while filling

their pockets with financial benefits. One thing

was for sure, the sheep who they were claiming

to shepherd were not being fed well. In fact,

the people were starving from lack of good preaching

and teaching. They were starving from a lack

of theological knowledge and understanding. In

short, the pure gospel had been obscured by all

these layers of liturgy and ritual and tradition.

And for the average medieval European worshiper,

here was the message that they were getting from

their church. Imagine this. Attend the Mass.

Take the elements. Say these prayers. kneel when

we tell you to kneel, put a coin in the coffer,

and don't ask any questions. You can't read Latin,

so don't worry about what the Bible says. We

will tell you what you should believe. And as

long as you identify with us as part of this

Catholic church and you participate in the seven

sacraments that we have given to you, then you're

accepted by God. But was that true? What do you

think happens when a worshiper like that one

day finds out that he can actually hear the scriptures

read in his own language? What happens when a

man can finally hear what Jesus actually taught,

hear it for himself, read it for himself in his

language, actually hear what the Apostle Paul

wrote about grace? and about faith and about

salvation, about how to be justified in the sight

of God, when they're able to open up the Bible

and either read or hear what the church is supposed

to look like. What happens when people who've

been kept in the dark for so long finally get

a glimmer of light, when they hear the truth

for themselves, when they're finally allowed

to exercise freedom of conscience? What happens

when God gets a hold of people like that, when

he begins to renew their minds and brings them

to life through the power of his word applied

by the Holy Spirit in the heart? What happens?

And what happens when simultaneously the institutional

church is telling them, don't do that, don't

listen to those voices, that's dangerous information,

and by the way, if you do, we'll arrest you.

Put that mixture together and you know what you

have? You have a revolution. Welcome to the Reformation.

Grab your Bibles. And let's open up to Philippians

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. I just want to briefly read once again

our call to worship passage for this morning.

Philippians 3 verses 7 through 11. By the way,

Philippians 3:7–11

as you're finding your way to that passage, let

me briefly explain to you the title of this two

-part series that we're doing. We have called

it Seeing Thunder. And that is a reference to

the primary historical character that's going

to come in this story of the Scottish Reformation.

His name is John Knox. It's been said by historians

that Luther was the spark of the Reformation,

that Calvin was its pen, but Knox was its thunder.

And we'll see why as we go along. Knox was a

force to be reckoned with. He was the kind of

tough, relentless fighter that God required for

the task at hand in that time. And even in his

day, some 300 years later, Charles Spurgeon famously

said this about the need for reform in the English

church. He said this, John Knox's gospel is my

gospel. That which thundered through Scotland

must thunder through England again. So we're

gonna look at his life. First, let's read this

passage, and we're gonna read through this slowly.

And as we do this, I want you to think about

what someone like John Knox would count as loss.

For the sake of the gospel. This is God's word.

Whatever things were gained to me, those things

I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

More than that, I count all things. What's included

in all things? All things. Even our physical

life, right? All things to be lost in view of

this, the surpassing value. Of knowing Christ

Jesus, my Lord. Because that's eternal, isn't

it? For whom I have suffered the loss of all

things and count them all as rubbish. Worthless

in comparison. So that I may gain Christ and

may be found in him. What an important statement.

Found in Christ. Not having a righteousness of

my own derived from the law, that's not possible.

I have no righteousness of my own. But that which

is through faith in Christ, Christ makes me righteous.

And through faith, which was a gift from him

in the first place. The righteousness which comes

from God on the basis of faith that I might know

him, not just intellectually, but in the heart.

Right? to give my life to him, to know him, and

the power of his resurrection, resurrection living,

and the fellowship of his sufferings. That's

the part we don't like so much, right? Everything

else looked really good up until that point.

But the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed

to his death, the way he died, in order that

I may attain, again, eternal picture to the resurrection

of the dead. But look again, the fellowship of

Christ's sufferings being conformed to his death.

Keep those words in mind as we walk through the

story of the Scottish martyrs. After the Reformation

in Germany, it kicked off around the years 1517

to 1520. If you had looked at Scotland at that

time, you'd say there's nothing about Scotland

that would lead you to believe that very soon

it would become a Protestant nation for almost

a thousand years. Scotland had been a very typical

and very devout Roman Catholic country. But soon

after Luther lit that fire in Germany, Scotland

would find itself gripped by a religious civil

war that would very quickly result in a reversal

of her national policy. Get this, in just 35

years, she would go from being a staunchly Roman

Catholic country to a solidly Protestant country.

And really there's three things, as scholars

look back, step back and look, there's three

things that contribute to that. Their list is

on the screen. Number one, the steady and secret

infiltration of biblical truth into the land.

Things that have been kept from the people were

now finding their ways in. Number two, committed

leaders like Knox and others who took that truth

and they preached it with incredible boldness.

And by doing that, they infused courage. and

steadfastness in Scottish nobles and clan leaders,

bringing them over to the Protestant cause. God

works through his people, through his servants.

And number three, the failure of Catholic authorities

from Rome to Edinburgh to recognize their cold

and heavy -handed ways. They failed to do their

own internal reform before it was forced upon

them by their own subjects. On the street level,

the story of the Scottish Reformation is the

story of churchmen and theologians and nobles

and monarchs. Makes for a great movie. But on

a much higher plane, this is the story of the

prevailing power of the gospel that is too compelling

and too powerful to remain hidden forever. That's

the big idea of this morning. There is a general

truth about the human spirit, and it's true of

all people. in all ages and all places, when

they see an institution using fear and intimidation

and in violence to enforce ideas, it causes people

to look at that and go, hold on a second, is

that justified? When an institution says you

will agree with us and fall in line or else,

it naturally doesn't sit well with us, does it?

Now, most people won't stand up and do anything

about that. They'll recognize it and say that's

bad, but they won't do anything about it. And

the institution is counting on you doing nothing.

The human tendency is to back down out of fear

and self -preservation. That's what the institution

wants. But there will always be a small percentage

of people who are convinced of their righteousness

of their cause who will have the courage to stand

up and say, no, I won't fall in line. I won't

back down. We saw this happen in the early centuries

of the church, right? In the face of Roman threats,

men like Ignatius and Polycarp and Justin stood

up and said no. And they were put to death under

the reigns of wicked pagan governors and wicked

pagan emperors. But those persecutions that were

designed to scare away other dissenters actually

had the opposite effect historically, didn't

they? So much so that the church father Tertullian

wrote this around the turn of the third century.

He said, the blood of the martyrs is actually

seed for the church, which is counterintuitive,

isn't it? But the spilling of blood of the martyrs

actually grows the church. In other words, persecutors

be aware when you put one martyr to death, you're

planting the seeds for many more to spring up

in his place. And that's exactly what happened

in Scotland in the 16th century. Only the shocking

difference in all this between what I just described

in the early church and what we're going to talk

about in Scotland is the identity of the persecutor.

Back in the day, it was a pagan Roman empire.

In Scotland in the 16th century, it was the visible

church. Think about that. Don't brush that off.

Listen again to what I'm saying. The visible

institution that claimed to be the bride of Christ,

whose leaders claimed to represent Jesus' voice

on the earth, began to arrest, torture, and brutally

execute professing Christians who dared to challenge

their teaching. Sometimes when we do Reformation

Sunday, I get accused of being a Catholic basher.

I'm not. I'm just, this is history. This is what

it is. And we ought to have great empathy for

our Roman Catholic friends who are locked in

a system and are blind to it right now. So I

don't want, I'm not hating on Catholics. I'm

just, we're speaking about brute facts here.

Now, as you probably know, the history of the

church is a history of constant disagreement.

You see it in every generation of the church.

But the question always is, well, not that is

there disagreement, it's how do we handle disagreement?

And we see this even in the first century, right?

Even in the apostolic period, guess what? People

disagreed. Shocking, isn't it? But what did they

do with it? How did they handle that disagreement?

Well, those in authority, apostles wrote letters

to the churches and said, we need to push people

to repent and come back to what is true. Is that

a godly way to handle things? 100%. In the early

centuries of the church, in the first 500 years,

you see church leaders entering into vigorous

debate, trust me. They didn't hold back. They

produced detailed theological works to justify

their arguments. And then when disagreements

continued, what did they do? They called church

councils. And they came together, and by the

end of those councils, they'd established creeds

so that everybody understood what is orthodox

and what is heretical. But in the medieval period,

there is a major shift, a major shift. It's no

longer about entering into reasoned debate. It's

no longer about writing detailed theological

works to justify what we teach. It's an issue

of raw power. You have to know that. Do not question

or challenge what we tell you. You're not qualified

to object. don't ask questions and fall in line

or else. Guys, when an institution becomes so

powerful and so corrupt that it no longer feels

it has to justify its positions by words and

reason, it can simply condemn you to death for

disagreeing. It's time for reform. Isn't that

true? It shouldn't be forgotten that the so -called

one true church of Jesus Christ has to this day

put to death hundreds of thousands of professing

Christians over the centuries. And we shouldn't

allow Roman Catholic apologists, they like to

do this, to gaslight us into thinking, well,

you know what, it's okay because that's just

the way things were back then. No, it's murder.

It's tyranny and it's murder. That's what God's

word says. And those who perpetrated that tyranny

and that murder in the name of the church. We'll

have to answer at the judgment seat of Christ

for it. Now before we dive into the history of

the martyrs, let's look at a map. I mean, you

knew this was coming. Plus, I just need to lighten

the mood. That was heavy. Just in case you're

unfamiliar with the geography of the British

Isles, here's a look at them. What you see there,

that big pink area in the south, that is... England,

very good. To the left there, you see Ireland

and that small section at the top, that's Northern

Ireland. They are two separate nations today,

Northern Ireland. And then up in the north in

the yellow there, that is Scotland, correct?

And there are some dots there that represent

key cities that we will mention in today's story.

So take a look. The blue dot is the capital of

Scotland. That is Edinburgh. The green dot is

Glasgow. The red dot is the coastal city of St.

Andrews. A lot takes place in St. Andrews. And

then the purple dot there is the city of Perth.

So just so that you have an idea of the geography.

Now, the first shot that was fired in the war

for truth in Scotland happened in the year 1528,

and it happened with this guy. His name is Patrick

Hamilton. A decade earlier, Luther had begun

turning the world upside down, simply asking

questions about how the Catholic Church was selling

indulgences, the abuse of that situation. And

as Luther's ideas then began to sort of expand

and germinate, they were being put down in the

form of pamphlets. And they were being translated

into languages other than German. And they were

being printed. And they were being disseminated

through parts of Europe. And Lutheran ideas had

begun to trickle into Scotland in 1528. So much

so, this is so funny, the Scottish Parliament

actually had to pass a law, pass a law banning

the importation of anything from Luther. The

government passed a law to stop these ideas from

hitting the shores of Scotland. As a Catholic

nation, they said, we can't allow those ideas

onto our shores. Luther is not welcome here,

and if we catch you in possession of his materials,

you will pay a price. Yet, Lutheran materials

continued to be snuck into the ports of Scotland,

and they were getting into the hands of the common

people. Something else was going on at the very

same time. In that same year, 1525, an Oxford

scholar and linguist by the name of William Tyndale

had done the unthinkable. What is the unthinkable?

He translated the Bible into English. He had

taken the New Testament Greek manuscripts of

Erasmus and over a three -year period had translated

them into this guttural common language of Old

English. But he didn't have papal approval to

do that. He didn't have approval from the Catholic

Bishop of London at the time. And so he found

out that the authorities were targeting him.

So he took his manuscripts and he fled to Germany,

to the city of Cologne, and there he began to

try to print and publish his work in English.

But then word came to his printer that he'd been

discovered in Germany. So Tyndale had to run

for his life with just the first 22 chapters

of Matthew completed. That's all he had at first.

And that work, which one copy of it still survives

to this day, it's in the British Museum, is called

the Cologne Fragment. It actually looks like

this. What an artifact that is. Look at the artwork.

That's the beginning of Matthew. You see the

genealogies there, if you can read it. Only the

first 22 chapters at that point. And the Cologne

Fragment was smuggled into Scotland. Now, Tyndale

escaped. He eventually got to Holland where he

was able to begin to print again and he finished

printing his entire New Testament from Holland

and that work also found its way into Scotland.

This is what I meant when I said when people

finally get a little bit of light, they finally

can see the Bible for themselves, read it and

hear it in their language. It's a game changer.

And by the way, historical note, for this great

service to Christianity, nine years later, Tyndale

was burned at the stake by Catholic authorities

for translating the Bible. His final words were

this, Father, open the eyes of the King of England.

Patrick Hamilton was 19 years old when Tyndale's

New Testament and Luther's material were coming

to the shores of Scotland. Now, he was a unique

young man. He was a noble Scot by birth. In fact,

he was the great -grandson of King James II.

He was an important young man. He was raised

in power and wealth and privilege. At the age

of 14, he'd studied abroad in Paris. He was a

real scholar. He'd gone on to Holland. He studied

under Erasmus. And in both places, he came into

contact with the writings of Luther and Philip

Melanchthon. And what he saw in those writings,

and he made this clear, was a connection between

the Pharisees of Scripture and their works -oriented

view of the law. and the works -oriented view

of salvation that was being taught by the Roman

Catholic Church. He made that important connection.

And he came to embrace the gospel of sola fide,

salvation by faith alone, and he saw it as the

only hope for his Scottish countrymen. So at

the ripe old age of 20, 20, he came back to Scotland,

he came to the University of St. Andrews, he

became part of the teaching faculty, and his...

People are wont to do as they teach, guess what?

The truth about what they believe comes out and

he begins to speak publicly about his Lutheran

leanings. And that did not meet with approval

from his colleagues. In fact, soon after the

Bishop of St. Andrews interrogated him, recommended

that he face a public trial for holding heretical

beliefs and understanding where that might lead,

Hamilton decided to flee. And he went to Germany.

He went to Wittenberg. He met Luther. He sat

under Luther's teaching for six months. And then

he traveled to Marburg where he studied under

a man named Francis Lambert who had been a French

Catholic monk who had also been converted to

Lutheranism. And Lambert wrote later about Hamilton

this incredible condemnation, not condemnation.

This is what he said of Hamilton. His learning

was of no common kind for his years. Still a

young man. And his judgment in divine truth was

eminently clear and solid. His object in visiting

was to confirm himself more abundantly in the

truth. And I can say truly, I have seldom met

with anyone who has conversed on the word of

God with greater spirituality and earnestness

of feeling. While he was at Marburg, Hamilton

began producing his own theological pamphlets,

which he offered for public debate. Come, let's

talk about these things. One of them was titled,

and this is a really catchy title, Errors and

Absurdities of the Papists. Subtitled, Touching

the Doctrine of Law and Gospel. These became

known as Patrick's Places. They were deeply theological

and brilliant, and they also made their way,

to England and back to Scotland. And in that

same year, Hamilton once again mustered up the

courage to return to Scotland, fully convinced

of his need to bring reform to the church there.

His friend said, please don't come, Patrick.

It's too dangerous. But his heart for his people

and for his country was too great. This time

he avoided going to St. Andrews. He chose to

do open air preaching in the fields around Inverness.

Talk about humility. He didn't need a big church.

He didn't need a big cathedral. Just fields and

hungry people. And predictably, once again, his

words came to the attention of the authorities.

The Archbishop of Scotland summoned him to come

to St. Andrews and defend his... his positions

in private interviews. In over three weeks, he

was able to speak openly about what he believed

in front of the archbishop. He was even given

a chance to debate a Catholic friar. And it was

his effectiveness in those settings that led

the archbishop to demand that he be put on trial

for heresy. Hamilton's friends begged him to

flee the country, but he refused because he wanted

to keep pressing the issue at the court. But

when he arrived at the proceedings, he found

there were 13 charges leveled against him. Among

them, these statements which he had preached.

Number one, that baptism does not remove the

depravity of man. Two, that a man is not justified

by works but by faith alone. Three, that remission

of sins cannot be obtained by means of penance.

Neither Hamilton's youth, his good character,

or his noble birth was going to save him from

the bloodlust of the authorities. So the council

found him guilty on the official charge, listen

to this, this is the official charge, holding

and maintaining the heresies of Martin Luther.

Not that he was being unbiblical. Nothing else

to say, well, this is why. Biblically, this is

why he's a heretic. No, he just holds to the

teachings of Luther. Guards escorted Hamilton

to the site of his execution, which had already

been prepared. in front of the gate of St. Salvatore's

on the campus of the University of St. Andrews.

As he approached the site, he still had a copy

of the Gospels in his hands, which he gave to

a friend along with his faculty cap and gown.

And when asked if he would recant, he looked

at his accusers, and this is what he said. As

to my confession, I will not deny it for awe

of your fire. For my confession, I always get

emotional when I read these. I'm sorry. For my

confession and belief is in Christ Jesus, therefore

I will not deny it. I will rather be content

that my body burn in this fire for confession

of my faith in Christ than my soul should burn

in the fire of hell for denying the same. The

executioner bound Hamilton with an iron chain

to a stake and lit the fire beneath him, but

unfortunately it was a very damp day. as it usually

is in Scotland, and the wood would not light.

Hamilton stood there hour after hour as the pile

just smoldered. At one point, to speed things

up, the executioner threw gunpowder on the wood.

It exploded, but it still didn't take his life.

After six hours of agony and suffering, and finally

on the brink of death, he cried out in pain.

How long, O Lord, shall darkness overwhelm this

nation? How long will you suffer this tyranny

of men? And then he uttered his final words,

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Patrick Hamilton

was 24 years old. As I was contemplating his

life this week, this passage from Mark, Mark

Mark 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8, came to mind. Jesus summoned the crowd

with his disciples and said to them, if anyone

wishes to come after me, he must deny himself

and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever

wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever

loses his life for my sake and the gospels will

save it. For what does it profit a man to gain

the whole world and forfeit his soul? Patrick

Hamilton embodied that truth right to the very

end of his short life on earth. But friends,

I have this feeling in my heart that the current

life that Patrick Hamilton is enjoying is glorious

beyond what we can imagine. Today he's considered

the first martyr of the Scottish Reformation,

but he certainly won't be the last. And his execution

did not sit well with the people of Scotland.

They knew of the gracious character of this young

man. They sensed injustice in his death. In fact,

one writer of the day wrote this in the local,

I guess you'd call newspaper of the day. It says,

the reek of Patrick Hamilton's death infected

all on whom it did blow. To this very day, you

will find his initials set as a monogram in the

cobblestone pavement at the exact site where

he was executed in St. Andrews. That's us. We

were just there. It's powerful. Now, we've talked

about a couple of foundational dates, which means

I want to give you a timeline. I know that's

not a surprise either. For you visual learners

like myself, remember Luther's 95 Theses. are

posted in the year 1517, the accepted dates of

what we call the Scottish Reformation, 1525 to

1560. 1560 is when Scotland becomes officially

a Protestant nation. So we're gonna start walking

down this timeline just so you can see these

dates. Luther on one end, the end of the Scottish

Reformation on the other, and we have the martyrdom

of Hamilton there in 1528. Now, in spite of the

public's reaction to the execution of Hamilton,

the Scottish authorities were not done. They

pressed forward with more persecutions. There

was a young man named Henry Forrest, a young

Scotsman who had dedicated his life to Christian

ministry, so much so he had become a Benedictine

friar of the Catholic Church. But soon after

making that commitment, he'd become aware of

Lutheran teachings. He had heard the preaching

of Patrick Hamilton. And he was present on the

day that Hamilton was put to death. And in 1533,

five years after Hamilton was executed, Henry

Forrest was arrested because he was caught in

possession of an English New Testament. That's

it. He was caught in possession of an English

New Testament. But because the archbishop was

unable to convict him based on public testimony,

The archbishop, get this now, sent a fellow monk

to go hear his confession under false pretenses.

And trusting the sanctity of confession, Henry

Forrest admitted his beliefs. Quote, Patrick

Hamilton died as a martyr, he said. And his articles

were true. This was then relayed to the authorities

and Forrest was brought before a council. He

was stripped of his holy orders and he was accused

of heresy. In response, he looked at the monk

who had betrayed him and he said, shame on your

falsehood. Shame on you, revealer of confessions.

After this day, let no man trust a friar. Haters

of God's word and deceivers of men. And then

he turned to the archbishop and he said, take

from me not just my orders, take my baptism as

well. He would have nothing to do with the Catholic

Church. Henry Forrest would spend the next few

months in the... prisoned in the Tower of St.

Andrews before being taken to the north style

of the Abbey Church where he was burned alive.

The Archbishop of St. Andrews, who now had been

elevated to the position of Cardinal, then went

hunting for even more heretics that he could

use as public examples, as if he could scare

away the people from truth. He became aware of

two young men in the city of Glasgow who had

recently been arrested. Jerome Russell was a

monk as well, a Franciscan monk, and 18 -year

-old Alexander Kennedy was a Scottish poet, and

both had been publicly, both publicly expressed

support of Reformation principles. And on the

day that they were examined, Kennedy surprised

everyone, 18 years old, when he fell to his knees

and began to praise God and thank him for the

trial. And as he looked at his accusers in the

eyes, he said, now I defy death. Do what you

please. I praise my God. I am ready. According

to eyewitnesses, Jerome Russell was even more

blunt and more eloquent. He said this. This is

your hour, he said, the hour of darkness. Now

you sit as judges as we stand wrongfully accused

and wrongfully to be condemned. But the day shall

come. when our innocence shall appear and you

shall see your own blindness. To your everlasting

confusion, go forward and fulfill the measure

of your iniquity. Man, I hope if this ever happens

to me, I have words that eloquent. Wow. More

martyrdoms. Still, that wasn't enough. In the

year 1543, six members of the local mercantile

community in the city of Perth were arrested

for having Protestant sympathies. Now, these

six people were not churchmen. They were not

theologians or monks or priests. They were just

everyday folk who had embraced the materials

that had come over from the continent, come across

their vision, and they had read it. Two of the

men worked with barley. They were farmers to

make whiskey in Scotland, which everyone does,

by the way. Two of them were farmers. One was

a skinner. Two others were butchers. And the

sixth was a woman by the name of Helen Stark,

a wife and a mother. The charges leveled against

them included this, interrupting a friar in the

pulpit to ask a question about his understanding

of the scriptures, eating a goose on All Hallows'

Eve, which was a fast day in the Catholic Church,

And in Helen Stark's case, are you ready for

this? Do not throw anything at me. Declining

to call upon the Virgin Mary during childbirth.

That was an actual charge against her. And even

though there was great sympathy and intercession

made by the townspeople to square their lives,

these five men, I'm just gonna read their names

because it matters. William Anderson, James Finlayson,

James Hunter, Robert Lamb, and James Ravelson

were taken to the gallows and hanged for those

crimes. As for Helen Stark, the council did not

have the stomach to watch her hang, so they drowned

her in a sack in the nearby river. These are

known as the Perth Six. Three years after that,

the most important martyr of the Scottish Reformation

was executed. And this one was truly the hinge

point that sparked the movement. His name was

George Wishart. Like Hamilton, Wishart descended

from a noble Scottish family. Like Hamilton,

he was a learned scholar. And like Hamilton,

through his studies, he became absolutely convinced

of Reformed theology. Wishart first came into

contact with the gospel, get this, while teaching

New Testament Greek. He was a linguist. He'd

studied the classics at the University of Aberdeen.

He had taught languages as a schoolmaster. In

1538, a decade after Hamilton had been executed,

Wishart was first accused of being a heretic.

And while Hamilton had run off to Germany, Wishart

ran off to Switzerland. And there he was profoundly

influenced by the teachings of John Calvin. A

few years later, after proving himself theologically,

get this, Wishart was invited by King Henry VIII

to come to Cambridge to join his faculty of reformers

that he was assembling there. He spent time teaching

at Cambridge, and in spite of the risk, he returned

to Scotland in 1544 with the very simple goal

of preaching the gospel and exposing the pagan

idolatry that he believed had come into the church.

And when he found that churches in Scotland,

when he got back, he expected to be embraced.

When he found churches were closing their doors

to him because they'd been ordered to close their

doors, like others, he went out into the fields.

into the hills of Scotland and began to preach

to large crowds that were hungry for the truth.

He spent time preaching in public spaces around

Montrose and Dundee. And one incident in particular

that's worth mentioning in Dundee, listen to

what happened. The new Cardinal of St. Andrews,

a wicked man by the name of David Beaton, he

sent a priest in disguise to attend one of Wishart's

sermons, but with the goal of assassinating him,

an archbishop. an archbishop. But when the plot

failed and the crowd realized that this assassin

was there to kill Wishart, they wanted to lynch

him on the spot, and Wishart defended the man.

He actually told the crowd to back away. He forgave

the man. He freed the man and sent him back to

Cardinal Beaton as a message of grace. You think

that didn't impact people? After that close call,

Wishart left Dundee. He went to stay in East

Lothian where God orchestrated a divine meeting

between himself and a young man by the name of

John Knox who became not only his disciple but

a very close friend. In fact, Knox, who was known

to be sort of a tough guy and very good with

a sword, volunteered to be Wishart's personal

bodyguard and would stand next to him in the

fields while Wishart preached. sword in hand,

just in case another assassin came his way. This

was the heart of John Knox. But it was clear

that Wishart's ministry was upsetting all the

wrong people. He was a marked man. He knew it.

And so one night during their travels, George

Wishart turned to Knox and ordered him to depart.

He knew deep in his soul he was going to be betrayed.

He wanted to spare Knox. So according to Knox's

own recollection, Wisher turned to him and said

this. He said, return to your barons, meaning

his students, and God bless you. One is sufficient

for this sacrifice. Wisher was arrested within

a week. He was condemned by the church council

to burn at the stake. And Cardinal Beaton planned

to make sure that Wishart was publicly humiliated

in front of him. He chose to have him executed

just outside the castle at St. Andrews where

Beaton lived and worked so he could watch it

happen from his bedroom window. And on March

1st, 1546, Wishart was burned alive as the cardinal

coldly watched from his window. Now the ruins

of that castle, We were just there a week ago.

They still stand. They're pretty beaten up, and

you'll learn why in a bit. See that window? That's

where Cardinal Beaton stood, gleefully watching

George Wishart burn to death. But when he came

to this place of death, Wishart knelt and he

prayed, and then he addressed the watching crowd

with these words. I love that people recorded

this. He said, If I had taught the doctrines

of men, I would have received greater thanks

from men. But for the true gospel, which was

given to me by the grace of God, I suffer this

day by men, not sorrowfully, but with a glad

heart in mind. This grim fire I fear not. I know

surely that my soul shall sup with my Savior

this night for whom I suffer this. As the fire

was lit, he said of those who had persecuted

him, I forgive them with all my heart. And finally,

he said to all those who could hear his voice,

he left this. He said, I beseech you, brothers

and sisters, exhort your bishops to the learning

of the word of God that they may be ashamed to

do evil and learn to do good. Like Patrick Hamilton,

today the initials GW are built into the street.

there in St. Andrews on the site of his execution.

So we have a last martyr. Not the end of it,

but this really is the hinge point for the Scottish

Reformation. And here's what makes Wishart's

execution so important. It's not just that John

Knox was his disciple, that this was Knox's mentor.

The bigger issue was the response from every

corner of the Scottish countryside at the death

of Wishart. Beaton was already disliked by the,

by the clan leaders, by the Lairds of Scotland.

They had grudges against him for all kinds of

things, but now the injustice of this, the speed

at which Wishart was put to death, they began

to see that there was this growing tyranny of

the Catholic Church because the people had known

Wishart and they had seen his character. They

saw how he cared for people. They saw how he

forgave. They saw how he preached the truth of

God's word and they had seen his sacrifice now.

for the cause of Christ, that he would not deny

his Lord. So when the nobles and the lairds stepped

back and they said, look at the Protestant martyrs

of St. Andrews, look how they carried themselves,

and then compared them to the Catholic authorities

that ruled over them, there was no comparison.

And the smell of an uprising began to form. Although

Wishart didn't have a long gospel ministry in

Scotland, its effects were very long -lasting.

His heart for preaching in the fields helped

to lay a foundation of biblical truth among the

people of that region and in the sovereign plan

of God. It was the foundation that Knox would

build upon over the next 14 years to turn Scotland

to a Protestant nation. Now, I'll wrap up with

this. There is an interesting PS to the story

of Cardinal Beaton. It'll set the stage for next

Sunday's message. Next Sunday we'll really focus

on the life of Knox and how those last 14 years

came about. But two months after Wishart had

been humiliated and executed, a group of Klan

leaders from the county of Fife hatched a plan

to get revenge. Disguised as stonemasons, a well

-trained group of operators snuck into that same

castle at St. Andrews. They overwhelmed the guards.

And they paid a visit to Cardinal Beaton in his

bedroom. Not only did they stab him to death,

they returned his humiliation of Wishart by hanging

his body from that very same window where he

watched Wishart die. And so for the next two

years, catch this now, a Protestant militia,

a Protestant militia led by Protestant clan leaders

controlled St. Andrews from that castle. One

year into their rule from that castle, those

same clan leaders sent word to John Knox. And

they said, will you come to St. Andrews? Will

you join us in this garrison in the castle? Will

you be our chaplain and our preacher? To this,

Knox hesitated. He responded by writing to them,

I cannot accept such a role without a clear and

lawful calling from God. But after further urging

and days spent in prayer, Knox eventually accepted

their invitation and he joined the Protestant

garrison at the castle. And he began to preach

for the first time. He'd been a bodyguard. He'd

been present with Wisher, but now he was in charge.

You're our preacher. And he began to teach the

word of God to the men in this castle. Now I'll

share more about this next Sunday, but very quickly,

the political situation in Scotland at this time

is important. Four years before Wishart was executed,

the king of Scotland, James V, had died. And

his heir was one daughter, and she was an infant.

Now she would grow up to be a very controversial

figure. Her name is Mary Stuart. We know her

as Mary, Queen of Scots. But while she was an

infant, her widowed mother, took control of Scotland

as the regent in her place, and her name was

Mary of Guise. And this Mary was not Scottish.

She was French. She was from a very powerful

French house, the House of Guise. And her two

goals in life became these. Number one, protect

her daughter's throne, and number two, increase

French influence over Scottish politics. So when

Mary of Guise was told about this Protestant,

Clan leaders have taken over the castle of St.

Andrews. She reached out to her contacts back

home in France and said, I need some help. And

soon enough, French Navy ships were spotted off

the coast of Scotland. For weeks, they bombarded

the castle from the sea as Knox and his fellow

Protestants barricaded themselves inside. And

they held out for weeks, but eventually the French

Navy landed. They surrounded that castle with

soldiers and with cannons, and they said, you

have one chance to surrender, which they did.

Smart move, saved their lives. But among the

men that were arrested that day, Knox was not

seen as an important man. So you know what the

French did with him? They took him as a slave.

So catch this now. For the next two years, the

great reformer of Scotland was forced to live

below the deck of a French Navy ship chained

to an oar as a galley slave. He rode for two

years in the French Navy, day in and day out,

as a slave. And later he would admit he never

physically recovered from this period of his

life. But we'll unpack all that next week as

we talk more about... Knox's Protestant reforms.

For today, I just want to leave you with this

one thought, coming back to where we started

at the beginning of the message. If you were

suffering religious tyranny at the hands of your

government, what would you do? Just consider

it this week. Think carefully about it. Don't

just think emotionally. Think biblically. What

would you do? Whenever we talk about martyrs

for the cause of Christ, it's worth considering.

What things am I willing to count as loss in

view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ

Jesus as my Lord and my Savior? What are we willing

to count as loss? We all know Paul wrote these

famous words, right? Philippians chapter one.

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Is that a slogan that we live by? Just a slogan,

or do we actually believe that? I pray that none

of us has to be in the position of a Patrick

Hamilton or a George Wishart, but it's always

profitable to ask the question of our own hearts,

given that kind of test, am I willing to give

my all for him? Consider that this week. In the

meantime, happy Reformation Day. Honestly, may

we as a church continue, continue to remember

our history well. May we honor those who have

gone before us, honor those who have paved the

way to the freedoms that we enjoy today, and

may we never, never, never, never take the gospel

of God's grace for granted. Amen? Let's bow our

heads. Father, when we look back at things like

this, we are overwhelmed by The level of sacrifice,

the level of courage that these men have showed

in the face of great testing. Lord, we also know

that in those moments, we 100 % believe that

it was you that was strengthening them for that

time. And so we praise you, Lord, for their examples.

We praise you for the work you did in their lives.

We praise you for the movement that was created

through your servants, God, that you were doing

a work in Europe at that time and that we sit

here today because you did that work. So we praise

your name above all else. We can talk about the

great deeds of men, but Lord, it's about you.

It's about what you've done through them. So

thank you for the inspiration of these examples.

Lord, may it cause us to Spend time even this

week asking good hard questions of our own heart.

What are we willing to give up? Are we willing

to sacrifice all? Thank you for that. Thank you

for our time together this morning. In Christ's

name we pray. Amen.