Belgic Confession

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So if you turn on the radio one day and you hear, who would be on?

I don't know, Tom Krause? That's not me. How's Tom doing, I wonder? Well, today

I want to talk a little bit about the Belgic Confession. I'll be in Europe soon, not in Belgium, although that would be fun.

But the Belgic Confession, and this is a doctrinal confession.

And I just read it the other day and thought, this is a great confession. Now, confessions aren't equal to scripture.

They're not over scripture. But they summarize scripture, and especially these historic confessions, especially when you read quite a few of them, you'll quickly see how they thought about Christ, what they thought about the

Bible. And you'll say, I agree fully with these men.

And then you'll go to baptism, and if you're a believer's

Baptist, then you'll say, oh, I don't agree with that. You know, there's a few spots where you just automatically say, okay,

I get it. I understand. 17th century Latin designation, Confessio Belgica.

That's what it follows. And if I read this right, this confession forms part of the

Reformed, three forms of unity. The confession's chief author was Guido de

Bries, D -E space B -R -E with an accent S, a preacher of the Reformed Church in Netherlands who died a martyr to the faith in 1567.

So de Bries is Calvinistic, of course. He is Presbyterian.

And according to this internet article, the text he prepared at the beginning was highly influenced by the

Gaelic confession. Kind of just makes me sound smart, doesn't it? The Gaelic confession.

I should have a little Braveheart music going on in the background. That's what I should have. I think probably,

I wonder if I have that on my iTunes. I don't have time to figure it out. But that is a good soundtrack. So this confession, the

Belgic confession, becomes a basis to foil against the

Armenian controversy that happens. So it was revised at the Senate of Dort in 1618 and 19 and was included in the

Canons of Dort as one of the doctrinal standards that everybody who holds an office in the Reformed churches had to subscribe.

So today we're gonna talk a little bit about the Belgic confession. And what I think I could try to convince you to do is this.

If you have an iTunes, so if you have an iPhone or something equivalent, some smartphone, the Westminster Seminary Escondido has an app and it has an app for confessions and it's free.

Athanasius Creed, Shorter Catechism Westminster, Larger Catechism Westminster, Westminster Confession of Faith.

And it's an app and it makes good reading. I don't want you to read this instead of the

Bible, of course, but I like it because it helps you summarize the faith. So if you don't read systematic theologies on a regular basis, you should.

I've talked about that before. Read Dabney, read Robert Raymond, read

Millard Erickson for all I care. It's not the best, but still interesting reading. I don't wanna,

I don't know if I wanna say Institutes of Christian Religion. Calvin is technically a systematic theology, but close enough, or you probably know about Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.

There's all kinds of books that systematize the Christian faith, and so too do confessions.

And so it's a bird's eye view. And so today I want to try to promote the study of doctrine because unwholesome thinking leads to an unholy life.

And wholesome thinking leads to a holy life. And one of the things that this does when you study the confessions is so God -centered that you try to think in a

God -centered fashion. I mean, we wake up in our own bodies, we go to sleep in our own bodies, and everything is through the lens of ourselves, and our worldview is me.

And so I don't wanna do that. I want to think about the world from a

God -centered perspective. That's one of the reasons to read Old Testament narratives, and of course New Testament, but Old Testament narratives give a history that's a theological history with God, with God in His proper spot, that He is a

Creator, that He is the Ruler of the universe, that He is Judge, Sovereign, Savior, all simultaneously.

So the Belgic Confession, we have a discipleship group at our church. I'm meeting with about 10 men, and we're just gonna read a confession a week, and then sit down and talk about it.

We'll see the themes, we'll see the differences, and the point is to extol Christ Jesus and His Word, and think about it in a systematic fashion, because probably most of you can't read the

Bible through in a week, but you could read a confession. So I'm not after confessions, rule, and something else drools.

What I am after is, it's important for you to read a confession to see how the

Spirit of God has moved through people, authors, I don't mean in an inspired way, but just in a church history way.

Okay, enough said. The Belgic Confession. Now it has a lot of what they're called articles, and article is just a heading.

Let's see, it goes to article 37. Now I'm no way gonna be able to read this thing today, that's not my point.

But the articles, for instance, the first one is the only God. We all believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being whom we call

God. Eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty, completely wise, just and good, and the overflowing source of all good.

And then there are verses to go along with that. Now see, that would be a no -compromise radio show.

Believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths, see the language of Romans 10, verse nine.

A single, we're not tritheist, and simple, God doesn't have parts, spiritual being,

God doesn't have a body, whom we call God, and then his attributes. It just gives different articles like that.

And so when you read through it, you can get the Bible verses and look these up.

Actually, if you're saying to yourself, what would I do for a study? I'm a single guy dating this girl and I don't really know what to study.

Why don't you study the Belgic Confession? It's romantic. But seriously, you could just look up the verses together and then talk about who

God is. You could do this as a dad, you could do this as a mom, you could do this for homeschool. You could do this for a lot of different things.

You could do it as a discipleship group. The Belgic Confession is a good summary of the

Christian faith that helps you think in a God -centered way. Article two, the means by which we know

God. And again, I'm not gonna go through 37 of these. This is just gonna be a little teaser, a primer, a insight into the discipleship class.

The means by which we know God. So if I were to ask you, how do you know God? Well, you should say through creation and through scripture, right?

General revelation, Psalm 19, first half. Specific revelation, Psalm 19, second half.

And here it says, first, through the creation, preservation, and government of the universe.

Since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God.

God's eternal power and divinity, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1 .20. All these things are enough to convict humans and to leave them without excuse.

So what a great way to write it. How wonderful it is just to write that way and to say, okay, creation, preservation, government, that's natural revelation, and there's enough to hold us accountable.

But how do we know God is triune? How do we know about substitutionary atonement? How do we know about the soon return of Christ? We have to go to his holy and divine word.

So here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna just pick a few highlights. So my purpose is going to be you say,

I gotta read that. So the first two I just gave you, not necessarily as highlights, but just as a primer into what was going on.

The rest that I'm going to tell you is just some salient quotes, some things that just will have you say if you're anywhere, if you're anything like me.

By the way, these trucks keep pulling up in the parking lot and they're totally bugging me. I should tell these people, that's enough of turning around here in my parking lot.

But that wouldn't be a Christian thing to do, would it? All right, under article seven, the sufficiency of scripture, it says here, and it was just talking about how important it is to have an external revelation.

And this is why it's important to have an external revelation. For all human beings are liars by nature and more vain than vanity itself.

So see, you've got to have human reason. Well, you have your human reason, but you've got to have external source because human reason is affected by the fall.

It's like that Dos Eches thing that I saw on Facebook where it's got a different deal underneath that Andrew sent me from Canada.

And it said something like, when I hear God speak, he sounds a lot like me.

And so you need to realize that your heart is wicked and you need an outside source.

When you think God speaks to you, he sounds a lot like you because it is you speaking to you. So that was an excellent quote.

I really, really like that one. Underneath the Trinity, the

Father did not take on flesh, nor did the Spirit, but only the Son. Things like that, focusing on the

Lord's baptism where you have the Father's words, the Son in the water, and the Spirit descends in form of a dove.

Excellent things on the Trinity. It's got the deity of Christ section, which is good.

I'm not trying to say that isn't. Let's go to Article 13, Belgic Confession, the Doctrine of God's Providence.

Now this is as good as it gets. This is just sweet.

I think if I were Edwards, I would say this is sweet. Yet God is not the author of, and cannot be charged with, the sin that occurs.

For the divine power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that God's will is ordained and accomplished very well and justly, even when the devils and the wicked act unjustly.

Now get your mind around that for a second. Well, I don't understand how it all works and sovereignty, responsibility, author of sin, ordain sin, permit sin.

Jesus dies on the cross. That's the worst sin of all time, yet God ordains it. I need to figure it out.

Now that's not part of the confession, but the confession does say, and so listen to this very carefully, for those of you with analytical minds, which

I'm glad for, but have to have everything tied up in your mind before you can just rest in what the Lord's Word says.

This is for you. I learned in seminary very, very early on that maturity just can leave loose biblical ends, realizing that we are fallen and finite and God is infinite and holy, and so we can't figure out everything.

So listen to what the confession says. We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what

God does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend.

But in all humility and reverence, we adore the just judgments of God, which are hidden from us, being content to be

Christ's disciples so as to learn only what God shows us in the

Word without going beyond those limits. Isn't that good? I know people who need to heed that advice.

Maybe you do. Maybe you're caught up in this puzzle, this enigma, this riddle wrapped in an enigma.

That you can't figure out how does sovereignty and human responsibility go together? How do they reconcile?

Well, Spurgeon would say, we don't have to reconcile friends. They're both in the Scriptures.

And Scriptures just assume both. Scriptures don't tell us how they reconcile. So get on with it.

Relax, trust, walk by faith. Realize your limitations and your abilities.

Realize the infinite nature of God and His majesty. And then move on.

The doctrine of providence should give you the opposite to what it's giving you.

So let's just stop and think for a second. If the doctrine of God's sovereignty is giving you angst because you can't figure it out, you're thinking in a wrong fashion.

You're thinking wrongly. Let me read to you what the Belgic Confession says should be the fruit of the thought of God's providence.

This is what you want. So if you're not getting it, you need to abandon your current way of thinking. The doctrine, excuse me, this doctrine gives us, what does this give us when we try to study sovereignty of God, responsibility of humans?

God's not the author of sin, but He ordained sin, et cetera. What should that give you? This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort.

Since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance, but only by the arrangement of our gracious heavenly father.

He watches over us with protective care, keeping all creatures so that not one of the hairs of our heads, for they are all numbered, nor even a little bird can fall to the ground apart from our father.

In this thought we rest, knowing that God holds in check the devils and all our enemies who cannot hurt us without divine permission and will.

For that reason, we reject the damnable error of the Epicureans who say that God does not get involved in anything and leaves everything to chance.

How great is that? Article 14, Belgic Confession.

I'm trying to get you to read a confession. A confession a day keeps the superscriptionists away.

No, I don't think that works. The creation and fall of humanity. Listen to this. I read this and I was floored.

It's amazing. So they made themselves guilty, he's talking about Adam and Eve, subject to physical and spiritual death, having become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all their ways.

They lost all their excellent gifts which they had received from God and retained none of them except for small traces which are enough to make them inexcusable.

Wow. Now that is something.

Article 15. See, we live in a world where the fall is not thought of.

And if it's thought of, it's not really thought of properly. It's hard for us to realize that God in his infinite wisdom decided that Adam would be the covenant representative.

He would be the representative for mankind. And whatever Adam did, we would all get credit for by imputation.

That's a hard one to muster. It's not so hard when you think, if I was in the garden,

I would have sinned faster. If I was in the garden when I was born, when

I was born and I had to be in a probationary period, I would have to be a probationary period person.

As an infant, I would certainly sin sooner. And eventually you'll say to yourself, that was a wise thing that God made

Adam. He was a human and he was our representative. Adam was very, very wise. And he would have done a better job than I would have anyway.

But the best way to take the edge off of imputation and Adam's sin imputed and credited to our account, everybody's account except Jesus, is to think, well, there's another kind of imputation that I really like.

I like it that even though I wasn't in the garden, I don't necessarily like it that although I wasn't in the garden,

I got credit for Adam's sin, but I really, really like, even though I wasn't on the cross,

I wasn't there at Calvary, and I'm not talking about the union with Christ part, but when it comes to this imputation,

I didn't earn what Jesus did. I didn't earn what Adam did, but I didn't earn what

Jesus did. And so the first and the last Adams, thinking about the last Adam, takes the sting off of this whole issue.

So original sin is a doctrine that we need work on and try to understand better because most people don't understand it today.

Article 15, the doctrine of original sin. We believe that by the disobedience of Adam and Eve, original sin has been spread through the whole human race.

It is a corruption of all human nature and inherited depravity, which even infects small infants in their mother's womb.

And the root which produces in humanity every sort of sin. It is therefore so vile and enormous in God's sight that it is enough to condemn the human race.

And it is not abolished or wholly uprooted even by baptism, seeing that sin constantly boils forth as though from a contaminated spring.

Nevertheless, it is not imputed to God's children for their condemnation, but is forgiven by His grace and mercy, not to put them to sleep, but so that the awareness of this corruption might often make believers groan as they long to be set free from this body of death.

So today, Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Don't forget, we're going to Greece, our church from Boston.

We're going to Greece April 17th through the 27th next year during vacation week, if you've got kids.

April, 2013, 11 day tour and cruise highlights of Greece. We're going to Crete, we're going to Patmos, which isn't in Greece.

So on the other side of the sea, we're going to go to Turkey to see Ephesus. We're going to go to Philippi, Corinth, did

I say Athens? We'd love to have you go if you got the moolah. It's around 3 ,400 depending on how many people go.

So you can write me info at No Compromise Radio. If you would like to have a brochure and sign up, we'd love to have you go.

If you've got an unbelieving spouse and they want to go too, just tell them that I'll be teaching the Bible at all the sites. We've had unbelievers go on cruises before or trips before.

And if they know what they're getting into, I'm perfectly fine with that. If they don't like Bible teaching on site, then

I don't know what to tell you. Put your iBuds in, your iPhones in, whatever they're called.

All right, so we're talking about the Belgic Confession because I'm trying to motivate you to study theology.

So let's talk about one of my favorite subjects and that is Christ and His atonement. We believe

Article 21 that Jesus Christ is a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, made such by an oath and that He presented

Himself in our name before His Father to appease the Father's wrath with full satisfaction by offering

Himself on the tree of the cross and pouring out His precious blood for the cleansing of our sins as the prophets had predicted.

What a great summary statement. For it is written that the punishment that made us whole was placed on the

Son of God and that by His bruises we were healed. He was like a lamb that is led to slaughter.

He was numbered with the transgressors. See, every one of these has a little verse next to it. And condemned as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, though Pilate had declared that he was innocent.

So he paid back what he had not stolen and he suffered the righteous for the unrighteous in both his body and soul in such a way that when he sensed the horrible punishment required by our sins, his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.

He cried later, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And he endured all of this for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, we rightly say with St.

Paul that we know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We regard everything as lost because of the surpassing value of knowing

Christ Jesus our Lord. We find all comforts in His wounds and have no need to seek or invent any other means to reconcile ourselves with God than this one and only sacrifice, once made, which renders believers perfect forever.

This is also why the angel of God called Him Jesus, that is Savior, because He would save His people from their sins.

See, that is just music to my ears. What else do we have?

It is 22 minutes and 30 some seconds into it. We have officers of the church, discipline.

Oh, let's read discipline, that'll be good. We could read resurrection, let's read discipline. Therefore, we reject all human innovations and laws imposed on us in our worship of God, which bind and force our consciences in any way to that inexcommunication with all it involves according to the word of God as required.

Didn't really have what I want. Sacrament of baptism, ooh, ooh. Having abolished circumcision, which was done with blood,

Christ established in its place the sacrament of baptism. Not gonna make any comments on that at the moment.

Civil government, the last judgment. Finally, we believe, article 37, according to God's word, that when the time appointed by the

Lord has come, which is unknown to all creatures, except Jack Van Impey and Harold Campion.

I guess that's not in there. And the number of the elect is complete. Our Lord Jesus will come from heaven bodily and visibly as he ascended with great glory and majesty to declare himself the judge of the living and the dead.

He will burn this old world in fire and flame in order to cleanse it.

What an amazing time that's going to be. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. We've been talking about the

Belgic Confession. So here's my point once again, and in case you think I'm crazy, is

I'd like you to get some confessions. Maybe that app with Westminster Escondido and just read a few confessions.

You need to know it anyway. It would be a good church history thing to read through. Even though you might be

Arminian or you might be Paedo -Baptist, Credo -Baptist, whatever it is, it'd be good for you to read these things as they extol

Christ Jesus. I think the parts about Christ you're really gonna like. Mike Abendroth, nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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