This morning I invite you to turn with me to 1st Timothy 6. 1st Timothy 6 as we read together verses 11 through 21. The text being the first part of verse 20. Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. And also this morning we begin to consider the truth of the Word of God as summarized and explained in one of our confessions, the Belgic Confession. And I would ask that you turn with me to page 69 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. There we find a couple of paragraphs giving just a very, very brief history for what is known as the Confession of Faith. This morning actually we consider in this introductory sermon just the first phrase of the first article which says, We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth. We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth. I'd like to read just the first paragraph and then the first line of the second paragraph of this brief history just to give you a little bit of an idea of the background leading up to the writing of this confession. The oldest of the doctrinal standards of the Christian Reformed Church, we might add for us and the United Reformed Churches as well is the Confession of Faith. It is usually called the Belgic Confession because it originated in the southern Netherlands, now known as Belgium. Its chief author was Guido de Bray, a preacher of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands who died a martyr to the faith in the year 1567. During the 16th century, the churches in this country were exposed to the most terrible persecution by the Roman Catholic government. to protest against this cruel oppression and to prove to the persecutors that the adherents of the Reformed faith were no rebels, as was laid to their charge, but law-abiding citizens who professed the true Christian doctrine according to the Holy Scriptures, Debray prepared this confession in the year 1561. In the following year, a copy was sent to King Philip II, together with an address in which the petitioners declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to the fire, rather than to deny the truth expressed in this confession. Although the immediate purpose of securing freedom from persecution was not attained, and Debray himself fell as one of the many thousands who sealed their faith with their lives, His work has endured and will continue to endure for ages. Just to give you a bit of a taste of the historic background of the writing of what we call the Belgic Confession. Timothy, before verse 11, the section just prior to verse 11 has been talking about the love of money. It says, For the love of money, in verse 10, is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. The love of money, not, of course, money itself. And then he goes on, But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses, in the sight of God who gives life to everything and of Christ Jesus, who, while testifying before Pontius Pilate, made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in His own time. God, the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to Him be honor and might forever. Amen. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, how strong are you? Now, boys and girls, I'm not talking about physical strength. And young men, I'm not asking how much weight you can bench press in the weight room. I'm not talking about physical strength or mental or psychological strength, but I'm talking about spiritual strength. You see, in reality, the other kinds of strength don't really matter. All they do to the world, they matter to the world. Those things are all that matters to the world because when it comes to the theory of evolution and the idea of the survival of the fittest, those who are physically stronger and mentally wiser and psychologically more sound are the ones who are thought to be the ones to have the upper edge. And as far as spiritual matters, well, of course, to the world that's optional. In fact, for many, for so many, only those who are weak are those who need some sort of a God to call upon and cling to. But of course we know, don't we, how false that is. Where do you stand in the faith? And how firm do you stand? This is important, isn't it? First of all, it's important for eternal security. But it's also important because what we as Christians profess to believe is not popular with the world. The truth is, congregation, the truth agitates. It irritates. And as I trust you've probably seen at some point in time, It tends to bring out the worst in those who do not have this like, precious faith. You see, it's not doctrine that divides, as some say, but it's truth that from which doctrine flows. Truth divides. It's truth, beloved, that pins each one of us up against the wall, as it were. It says, where do you stand? Where do you stand? So how strong are you? Are you willing and courageous to stand up for what you believe? Are you willing, if called to, to offer your backs to stripes, your tongues to knives, your mouths to gags, and your whole bodies to the fire, rather than to deny the truth expressed in the Word of God? See, that's what those people way back then, that's exactly what they wrote to the king. Can you imagine that? That's taking quite a stand, in a sense, against the king. But unless you are willing to lay down your life for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are not worthy of Jesus Christ. Beloved, the Apostle Paul calls Timothy and all believers to take an active role for the kingdom of God in the midst of this world, and that role is guarding the gospel treasure. Again, the text, verse 20, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. And then in the first chapter of 2 Timothy, we see somewhat of a repeat. In verse 14, Paul says to Timothy, Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. The idea of guarding this trust or this good deposit is talking about keeping some sort of a treasure or something very important. Keeping it secure. Today, we use vaults and safes. We use safety deposit boxes at the bank. But in the ancient world, some would leave some sort of a deposit, maybe like some valuables, jewels maybe, whatever it might be, something valuable with another. Leaving it with another either as some sort of security or for safekeeping. And then in turn, the one who received the valuables to take care of, he had a heavy responsibility to watch over that deposit. He had a most binding, sacred duty to keep that deposit safe, guarding it against theft or damage or any sort of attack. In fact, in Exodus 22 and Leviticus 6, we read there that if the one who was watching over the deposit is found negligent, if the deposit was stolen or something happened to it, if he was found to be negligent, then he himself was responsible to pay back the owner in full out of his own pocket. I believe the good deposit which had been entrusted to Timothy is talking about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in all of its fullness. that Gospel is the complete Word of God which teaches the truth about God Himself and teaches the truth about man, including his sin and his need for a Savior. It includes the truth about the only Savior, Jesus Christ. It includes the truth about the work of the Holy Spirit, the truth about the church, even the truth about the end times, including again the second coming of Jesus Christ, as well as eternal glory in heaven or eternal punishment in hell. But of course, it all centers around salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Jesus Christ alone. But we know that from the very dawn of history, already in the Garden of Eden, that truth, that treasure, has been attacked. As the serpent said, did God really say? Did He? The truth of God's Word throughout the ages and still today continues to be attacked, denied, and misrepresented. And all of God's people, along with Timothy, are called to guard the gospel treasure. And we are called to guard this treasure by believing it and by confessing it. In Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10, Paul writes, That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. You see, beloved, Scripture closely connects believing and confessing in many passages. For example, along with Romans 10, we read the words of our Lord in Matthew chapter 10, verses 32 and 33, when He said, Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven. I mentioned in the earlier service, I'll never forget when a young man, a college student in my previous congregation in Michigan, came to me to talk about professing his faith. He wanted to make public profession of faith. And I asked him, like I do with all those who come before the elders, why? Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to do it now, at this point in your life? And I'll never forget what he said. He had read these verses. He said, I believe. And therefore, I must profess my fame. I must tell the church. I must tell the world. Dr. P.Y. DeYoung, in his book on the Belgic Confession, called The Church's Witness to the World, says, True religion, true religion is the bond which binds man and God to God in saving fellowship. True religion is the bond which binds man to God in saving fellowship. And that binding includes the fact that the believer's heart hears God's voice and the believer in turn by the power of the Holy Spirit proclaims God's Word with his own voice. Guarding the Gospel treasure includes, first of all, believing it. And in order to believe the Gospel, we need to know it. We need to understand it. When Paul says, believe in your heart, this assumes something. It assumes a knowledge of the truth and it assumes acceptance of the truth of God's Word. And now in order for that to be true, we need the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, as Paul says in verse 14 of 2 Timothy 1. It's no secret to any of us, I trust, that new life, new birth, and a new heart comes only by the work and the power of the Holy Spirit in us. And what a demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power to change the lives that was given on what we know as that first Pentecost Sunday. It's the Holy Spirit of God who alone makes the Word of God clear to us. And of course, then, He uses means, doesn't He? The preaching of the Word, catechetical instruction, but also one of the means He uses is what we call our creeds and confessions. We subscribe to what we call the three ecumenical creeds. Ecumenical simply means, talks about the fact that the Christian church as a whole has held to these doctrines, these teachings, these creeds since the early centuries of the New Testament church when they were written. We know these are the apostles, the Nicene and the Athanasian creeds which give expression to our belief in the triune God, the Trinity, with emphasis on the divinity and the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we also subscribe to that which we call the three forms of unity, which are distinctly reformational, products of the Reformation. And these are the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, and the Belgian Confession. And there are other Reformed creeds and confessions that are out there today that are very, very good. We don't subscribe to them in the same way. In many respects, some of them were used to pen what we do subscribe to. For example, if you continue reading that second paragraph in the history of the Belgic Confession, I believe it says that Guido de Bray used John Calvin's Confession, John Calvin's writings as well. Well, then how are we to understand our creeds and confessions? I mean, we treat them as pretty important, don't we? In fact, there are those who would say that we treat them as too important. We give too much emphasis to them. We teach our children and our young people the content of the confessions and we require them to memorize the questions and answers. Our church order in Article 40 says, At one of the services, morning or evening, each Lord's Day, the minister shall ordinarily preach the Word as summarized in the three forms of unity with special attention given to the Heidelberg Catechism by treating its Lord's days in sequence. You know we do that here. It wasn't so long ago we finished a complete run-through of the High Library Catechism. And now, of course, we begin to consider the Belgic Confession in a little greater detail. But why do we do these things? Do the confessions replace the Bible? Do they add anything to the Word of God? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. You see, the word religion is thrown around today so flippantly like a five-cent word, but the truth is there is only one true religion. As Dr. DeYoung clearly explained, it is a bond that binds man and God in saving fellowship. There's only one true religion. There's only one true faith. There's only one true way of salvation. There are many, even thousands of false religions and superstitions and ways of salvation being taught in the world today. But there's only one true way of salvation, and that is through Jesus Christ our Lord. And of course, not everybody appreciates this viewpoint. Many condemn it. They accuse Christians of discriminating. When the truth is beloved, in truth it is God who discriminates Because again, that truth pins each one against the wall. It cuts like a knife. It says, what do you believe? Today, the position that the Christian faith is exclusive is not acceptable. Yet true churches maintain and must maintain the basic claim that the Christian faith is radically different from any other kind of belief or philosophy being promoted and taught. It's different because it's true. And the truth and the lie cannot live together. Acts 4 verse 12 says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, given to men by which we must be saved. And of course, the Apostle is talking about the name of Jesus. And Jesus makes it clear in his I am statements, I am the good shepherd, I am the gate for the sheep, I am the living water, I am the bread of life. He makes it clear in his I am statements that there is no other, especially as he says in John 14 verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one, unqualified, no one comes to the Father except through me. You see, that's the gospel truth, beloved. And that truth is denied, attacked, misrepresented, and ignored today. And the church, which is the pillar and the ground of the truth, is to guard and defend that truth. And God, in His good providence, has led the church by His Holy Spirit to develop faithful confession. and what we mean by confession here is that a confession is as someone has said a summary of what the church believes according to the word of God it is not designed as an addition to the scriptures but only functions as a summary of the contents of the scriptures and may therefore never take the place of the Bible a summary of what the church believes according to the word of God it is not an addition Only a summary. In other words, the confessions are the church's studied response, we might say, to what God teaches in His Word. The Word of God has been studied over the centuries, studied with blood and sweat and tears and even lives. It's been studied over much debate and conflict. And the creeds and confessions have become necessary for a number of things in order to maintain the true doctrine of salvation, As well, to refute heresies, as many of our confessions, creeds and confessions, were penned during the time of attack by heresies. That which was false being promoted, and therefore the church developed these creeds in response to those heretical sayings and teachings. Our creeds and confessions are necessary to preserve and promote the true heritage of the Christian faith from generation to generation. As well, they're necessary for the unity of the church. You see, to confess means to say the same thing. When the church as a whole confesses, she says the same thing that God says in His Word about Himself and man and all these other things. So corporately, we say the same thing. But it's also for the unity of the people of God. For example, us here in this place. Or even in our federation. and even along with all those who profess the Lord Jesus Christ. We say the same thing as one another. We are bound together, united together, and our confessions and creeds help us in that. With the confessions, the church echoes what God has said in His Word. Again, Dr. DeYoung writes, By officially formulating Christian doctrine, the church has produced and preserved precious benefits for individual believers. By means of the creeds, they come to a clearer and fuller understanding of biblical truth. Beloved, through the confessions, which are the result of faithful study in the midst of heretical conflict and attack upon the truth, through those confessions, the Holy Spirit leads us to understand the truth of that which we confess to believe. The confessions embody the truth of God's Word in a systematic and a teachable and a professable and a witnessable format. Sometimes we wonder what we can say to one when they say, what do you believe? But draw from the creeds and the confessions a true summary of the Word of God. Things you have committed to memory. The doctrines of Scripture. But, of course, some don't want doctrine. Doctrine has become a dirty word for so many. But how dangerous. And as I have tried to explain before, the word doctrine in its simple form means teaching. You see, what we must understand is that without true doctrine, beloved, there is no true life. Without true doctrine, there is no application for life because we act on what we believe. With true doctrine, there is true life. While those who hate true doctrine give evidence that they do not love and they do not desire the service of the Lord. Even here in this church, once in a while, some of you I hear complain that the sermons are too doctrinal and without application. And I stand here unashamedly and say to you, I reject that distinction. I reject it. Because doctrine by its very nature is application. It's applicable. Oh sure, sometimes it's a little harder for us. It takes more work for us to apply the truth of Scripture. And by the way, that's not the preacher's job. It's the job of each and every believer to take what they hear from the pulpit and apply it to their own heart and life. It's your job. But I reject that distinction. And really those sentiments, those who think that way, it's scary. Not for me. But again, for those who think that way because that is evidence that they don't know what they're talking about. They don't understand the Word of God. They are not serious about the faith. And they will not be equipped to guard the Gospel treasure, which is the scariest thing of all. The most dangerous. Beloved, Christian faith is all about doctrine. The teachings of the Word of God. You cannot live without it. We are beginning our consideration of the truth of the Word of God as summarized in the Belgic Confession. And I agree with those who say that the overall theme of this confession is everything in Christ. We have everything in Christ. Guido de Bray wrote this Belgic Confession we know in a time of crisis, but his basic reason for writing it was to defend and promote, first of all, the glory of God in His unique work of salvation through Jesus Christ. His, de Bray's, and the church's desire was to guard the Gospel treasure. And that's clear, I believe, from the very first phrase of Article 1. We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth. Of course, while that phrase sets the stage for the entire confession, it could be used at the beginning of each and every article, yet the confession itself begins with an article talking about, it begins with the simplest, yet such a profound statement of faith. A statement that reflects the highest dignity as well as the deepest dependence that one could ever express. the statement which, if we are to summarize, says, I believe in God. That statement expresses that highest dignity at the same time, that deepest dependence. I believe in God. You see, this statement shapes all that we believe about ourselves and about the world and all that God says in His Word. Because to believe in God, to believe in the true God, means to believe His Word and what He says about Himself and man and sin and the Savior and salvation and eternity. And again, then the rest of this confession helps us to understand more fully what we believe God reveals to us in His Word. But we are also called to guard the Gospel truth by confessing that truth. By giving testimony with our mouths and our lives to the truth of God which we believe. And again, the confessions, including the Belgic Confession, help us in formulating our testimony and giving expression to what we believe. In fact, one of you told me this past week that your young child asked a question, a devotion at the dinner table. And Dad was able to go back to what this young child has memorized from the Heidelberg Catechism and say, see how that fits, how that answers your question. And again, how we are able to use these. The confessions give form, shape, expression in words that we can articulate and pass on to someone else about what we believe. As Paul says, we are to confess with our mouth what Jesus is Lord. What an awesome confession. But again, that goes against the grain of this world's belief. The world's belief on the one hand that all roads lead to heaven or the world's belief on the other hand that no man needs salvation. Man doesn't need to be saved. But we, as those who believe, we are called to openly confess our relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship that we enjoy only by faith. And we are called to confess our dependence upon Him as our Prince and our Savior. And we are called to confess before a world that tempts us and threatens us, confess that we are Christians, We are Christ followers. And that in whatever situation or season of life, by the grace of God, we stand firm on the solid rock of Jesus Christ because all other ground is sinking sand. Beloved, just as believing with the heart assumes knowledge and acceptance of the truth of Scripture, confessing with the mouth also assumes something. It assumes a desire for God and His truth and a willingness to stake a claim for Him. Boys and girls, many years ago, the prospectors would come to California and I trust when they would find one little nugget of gold, they would stake a claim. Say, this vein is mine. It belongs to me. That's what our Lord did. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ staked His claim and says of His people, You are mine. Why? Because I have redeemed you. In the same way, those who by true faith believe in Him are called to claim Him as Lord and Savior of their life. Again, we are called, beloved, to believe and confess something very specific. And that is to say, I believe in God. Paul had passed on to Timothy such a good deposit, the gospel message. And while he had it, Timothy was responsible to preserve sound teaching from becoming distorted, deluded, deleted, and added to. How? By confessing the truth. And as Paul says in the second part of verse 20, turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge. Again, to confess it, but even as we read earlier, with his life, confess it. with mouth and with life. And that deposit, beloved, is to be passed on its garden by passing it on from generation to generation that with the help of the Holy Spirit all of God's people might confess with Paul one day, I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. That first phrase of the Belgic Confession, Article 1 again says, we all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth. We all, indeed, may this be our personal testimony to be sure for each one of us, but we need to understand, beloved, that this is a belief of the church of Jesus Christ. The church as a whole, not one of us stands alone as an island. This is a corporate, a communal confession. The church has received the canon of Scripture in its entirety. The church has accepted these creeds and confessions as being true to Holy Scripture. And again, just as iron sharpens iron, the church's confession and witness to the truth then corrects, expands, and even strengthens the believer's personal confession. God uses the church to bring His people in line. The church guards that gospel treasure by faithfully preaching and teaching this truth to the glory of God, to the edification of the saints, of you and me, and by the grace of God to the conversion of sinners. And the church confesses the truth of the gospel by going into all the world and preaching the good news to all people. And God's people guard the gospel treasure by striving to stay faithful with the help of the Holy Spirit to our promise to instruct our children as soon as they are able to understand in the true doctrine of God's Word. That indeed, the gospel treasure might be passed on, guarded from generation to generation. And God's people guard the gospel treasure by standing up for the truth, challenging that which is false and that which dishonors God. And God's people guard the gospel treasure by living according to the truth. And our prayer must be, beloved, that God would be faithful to His promise to us and our children. And again, through us, He would guard His gospel treasure and preserve the truth of His Word until all He has chosen have been safely gathered in. Beloved, we know that this day that we live in is a day of compromise. The life of the world around us is tempting, it's attractive, It's alluring with the goal, the goal that we might let our guard down. May we not compromise. May our constant daily prayer be that the Spirit of God would make us a discerning people, discerning right from wrong, discerning truth from error. May we not let our guard down when it comes to the world's philosophies and the world's entertainment and the world's standards of right and wrong. Instead, may we embrace in the strength of the Spirit, may we embrace the doctrines of the truth of God's Word. May we love them. And with the Spirit's help, apply them to every part of life. For those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God is clear. Jesus will also reject them before His Father who is in heaven. But for those who heed the call to repent of their sins and confess Jesus Christ as Lord, they will enjoy the gospel treasure for eternity. You see, believing on and confessing God's Word in Christ Jesus may not be, very well may not be, the most popular thing to do. But there is no greater treasure. And only those who guard this treasure in the strength of the Spirit will one day hear those coveted words, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Beloved, over the months ahead as we, the Lord willing, and study the Word of God as summarized and explained by the Belgic Confession. May it be the prayer of each one of us that God will bless each of us with a greater understanding of His truth, the truth of His Word, and make each of us more faithful guardians of His gospel treasure by believing it, by confessing it, and by living it. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, as we humbly bow before you again in this morning hour, we do thank you for your blessings. We thank you for your truth, so rich and so free. Your truth, which indeed pins each one of us against a wall. It says, what do you believe? What do you believe? Father, may we claim that truth. May we claim it more and more every day with greater understanding and knowledge and strength in faith. Father, may we be willing to give our lives, if so called upon to do so, for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ in thanksgiving and praise for the great salvation which is ours, signified and sealed in the sacrament of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Hear our prayer, O Lord, for Jesus' sake and in his name, amen.