Lessons We Can Learn From Hugh Latimer

Yesterdays post was a quick overveiw of the life of Hugh Latimer, one of my heroes of the faith. Today I want to look at some things we can learn from his life & heed from his teachings.

His Conversion
A Christian took the time, thought, courage & effort to meet with this zealous opponent of the reformed faith and God gave grace & sight to Hugh Latimer. As far as I'm aware Bilney didn't go into the theological arguments, rather shared his own personal testimony (confession) of Christ, something that every single one of us can do whether we have any training or not. Rather this is simply something we are all called by Christ to do in the great commission (Matt 28:18-20).

The work of Thomas Bilney in Latimer's conversion is a great example to us all, that even those enemies of the cross need us to simply love & witness to them (perhaps in imaginative ways as Bilney used).

Talking of his conversion Latimer mentioned that he began 'smelling' the word of God and 'forsook his school-doctors' etc. By this we can see that when people come to Christ in saving faith, we begin to esteem the Bible highly, we are given desires for it & this Word of God has a deeper & more real impact on our lives than it did before.

Accused of Heresy & a Recanting
Jesus tells us in John 3:19-20 that natural man hates the light because it exposes his sin & so we see in the life of Hugh Latimer that, much like in Jesus day, the religious leaders hated the truths of God's word that were coming out in the reformation & protestantism, and so began accusing & killing those who taught it.

Unfortunately at one point Latimer, at one point recanted rather than face death but before we jump to judge him on this let us ask ourselves what we would do in his position.
Are you or I sure that we would not deny our Lord in order to avoid a painful death, perhaps along with the suffering & death of our family?
Just something to think & pray about!

Back to Preaching the Reformed Faith
When king Edward VI came to the throne the tide shifted & protestantism had freedom in England. Soon Latimer was uncompromisingly preaching the Word of God & often preached with the king as his audience.

When we read the sermons he preached before the king we see that he did not repect persons above the Scriptures. This is surely a more couragious & Christ trusting man than he who had recanted. In this we see a great picture that it is possible, after failing God, to have a restored place in ministry & with a stronger courage proclaim His truths.

Up to this point Latimer had not lived in a time when he could freely talk, preach & live out the reformed faith without fear & persecution. Perhaps this period of freedom under king Edward gave him the chance to deepen his roots in doctrines & teachings of the Bible.
In our age of relative freedom it is a great opportunity for us to sink our roots deep into the teachings of God's Word so that if more difficult days (persecution, sickness, death), come we are firm in our assurance of Christ's sovereignty and as we see in Latimer's life, we are faithful, even unto death.

His Sermon Style
In a country & age where most sermons are 3o minutes long, to hear that Latimer preached for atleast 2 hours seems a put off. But I think we see a man who could hold interest with applicable humour that carried the Word of God through real life examples, yet did not compromise on the truth.
It is said that he spoke his sermons, and I'll let you take out of that what you will. He was full of zeal with directness & a simplistic way of putting it accross so that people understood and 'got' what he taught.

Many of us would do well to pray for zeal, simplicity & direct, to the point preaching that many would hear & understand the word of God expounded to them. It would be brilliant if the clock did not dictate the length of our sermons, but that we, as hearers, would be riveted by the Truths taught to us, & by interesting, enthusiastic, men who could so preach that we are captive to God's word.

His Martyrdom
As he was about to burn he cried out to the guy being burned with him:
"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man: we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."

Unlike the previous time, when he recanted, Latimer followed his Saviour to a chunk of wood that would be his death. A wooden stake at which he would burn because of the reformed faith that he held to. And also giving us a display of courage, that we men would do well to have!

Even at this point he models our Saviour; Jesus was thinking of others as He died & cried 'Father forgive them'. Latimer was longing to see a candle, a light lit in England by God's grace, that would never be put out. Surely his hope was that many would see this light and find Christ as Saviour & Lord.
He also trusted that his death was not in vain and by these words he showed that he trusted God to bring the Gospel of grace, the true light, to England even through his death.

As I asked earlier, 'Are you or I sure that we would not deny our Lord in order to avoid a painful death, perhaps along with the suffering & death of our family?' In his death Hugh Latimer gives us a great example of faithfulness through persecution & death (even if we've failed in this before).

He gives us something to pray deeply about; that the grace of God would keep the candle; the witness of the Gospel alive in Britian & that we would not bow to persecution or fear, so that we may uncompromisingly declare God's truth to those around us.

His Teachings
Latimer called England to repent of sin, particularly the sin of covesousness, one we would do well in our day to heed.
A simple search in google with his name will bring you to many of his sermons etc. They are pretty olde English so it can be a bit of a struggle to read through them, but they are worth it (I got a D in english GCSE, so i'm sure you'll get through them better than I).

Sermons by Hugh Latimer