Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 42 Timothy chapter 4. We looked at all of chapter 3 a couple of weeks ago, and today I wanna pick up where we left off and, and move into 2 Timothy, chapter 4. We're not doing a series through 2 Timothy. This is a part of our total devotion.
Series and if you want to give a title to this particular message, it would be Total Devotion to the Word. Total devotion to the word. this past week, as most of, marked the 500 year anniversary of the launch of the Protestant Reformation. Mike spoke a little bit about that last Sunday.
At the center of this seismic event in history was a man, Martin Luther, who was willing To call the church to a truer devotion. to God and to His word. And if there ever was a time period in history when false doctrines and sinful practices were steeped in the culture and enshrined by centuries of teaching and practice, it was Martin Luther's Day. If there ever was a day when the pressure was enormous to just go with the flow and not rock the boat, that would have been Martin Luther's Day.
If there ever was an era to feel faint-hearted and to begin to doubt the ability of God's word to prevail, it would have been in Martin Luther's day. But one day, making a really long story short, as Martin Luther was reading the scriptures, a verse leaped from the page and pierced Martin Luther's heart and shined a light in his heart that was brighter than the light of 1000 suns. The verse was Romans 1:17, which is speaking of the gospel, and the apostle Paul says, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written. But the righteous man shall live by faith....