Christ Himself, the living, risen, Lord, stands forth for worship, stands forth for fellowship

and stands forth for obedience in our lives today from the book.

That's where He stands forth.

When Martin Luther discovered the gospel in the scriptures, everything changed for him.

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper begins a three-part series

exploring Luther's relationship with the book.

His talk was originally given at the 1996 Bethlehem Conference for pastors.

Luther discovers the book. One of the greatest discoveries of the Reformation,

rediscoveries, especially of Martin Luther, is that the Word of God comes to us in a book.

The Word of God comes to us in a book. In other words, Luther grasped the powerful fact

that God preserves the experience of salvation and holiness from generation to generation

in a book of revelation, not a bishop in Rome, and not in the ecstasy of Thomas Moonser and the Zwickau prophets.

One of Luther's arch-opponents, Sylvester Prierios, wrote in response to the 95 Theses,

he who does not accept the doctrine of the Church of Rome and Pontiff of Rome as an infallible rule of faith

from which the Holy Scriptures to draw their strength and authority is a heretic.

In other words, the Church and the Pope are the authoritative deposit of salvation and the Word of God.

And the book is derivative in truth and authority.

And what's new in Luther, Obermann Heiko Obermann, wrote, is the notion of absolute obedience to the Scriptures against any authorities

be they popes or councils, close quote. In other words, the saving and sanctifying authoritative Word of God comes to us

in a book.

1539, he's coming in on Psalm 119, he wrote,

in this Psalm David always says that he will speak, think, talk, hear, read, day and night, and constantly,

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