And would you turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Congregation, we are thankful that Pastor Isaac launched us into the Belgic confession a couple of weeks ago. I want tonight to pause a moment from the direct study of it to speak to you about a man. Just a man, but a man called by God and given grace by God to be a brave man. who on May 31, 1567 hung from the gallows in the lowlands we would call Belgium or the Netherlands today. He was hung on the gallows. He was hung on the gallows for writing the very document that we're studying called the Belgic Confession. There are multiple reasons for systematically working through this document. One great reason is because it presents to us the gospel as taught in the scriptures. It's a good tool. It's a confession. A confession of a man who was willing to even be martyred. verses to step away from the gospel, to back away, to shrink away, as of course the book of Hebrews is teaching us as we've been studying it not to do. So, one reason to study it is because it's been faithfully written by a man who loved the Lord Jesus Christ even unto death. There's blood on this document. That's the second reason to read it, to study it. There's the blood of the martyrs on it. This was another time in history, just as it's true today, that thousands upon thousands of Christians were martyred for following the Lord Jesus Christ. Thousands upon thousands. This was the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Philip II, now king of Spain, was convinced that he could just snuff out this Reformation by killing them. In some cases, he wiped out whole villages. A difficult time in history. This document comes out of one of the worst times in history. Not the worst, perhaps, but one of them. So I say to you, when you're studying the Belgic Confession, just remember, you're reading, you're studying something that cost the lives of many Christians. They lost all for the sake of following Jesus Christ. So we turn tonight to Hebrews 11, and we want to hear what Hebrews 11 has to say about these kinds of times. We'll begin reading at verse 32. And read through 40. What we're about to hear is the very Word of God. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war. They put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy. wandering about in deserts, in mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth. And all of these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. The word of the Lord to us tonight. Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. But the man we speak of tonight's name is Guido de Bray, author, of course, of the Belgian Confession, one of our three forms of unity in our Reformed churches. We hold these documents dearly. Here are some reasons why I believe it's worth our time tonight to learn of the story of Gideon de Bray. Number one, at the core of Gideon de Bray was a man that sought for reformation in the church. That was his heart. His heart was that the church would be reformed, would change. And he sought to help her. He was a pastor at heart. This guy was a pastor. He loved his people, but he loved his Bible, the truth taught in the scriptures. So now, having finished the Heidelberg Catechism, we want to give attention to the Belgic Confession. Over the next several months, it's going to take some time. We will do well to spend an evening getting to know the author. But more importantly, I want to tell you about a spirit-activated faith in the life of a man by the grace of God, which prepared this man to be used by God in a mighty way. I share this story with the prayer that our good God would place his hands on many of the young men and young women of this church and call them to great works of missions, great works of pastoring. Again, boys, let me just tell you again tonight, we're running short on pastors. Would God call you to be a pastor? It's our prayer. That's our prayer. So let me pause before we get started and give some proper acknowledgment. I'm beholding to two pamphlets. One is by Van Halsma entitled The Glorious Heretic. Perhaps you've seen that. I don't even know. It might be in our library. I'm not sure. And then Guille de Bray and the Birth of the Belgic Confession by Reverend W. Peter Gadsby from our banner, August 1976. If you want to hone up a little more on the author, because I'm only going to touch on a few things tonight, You may want to do so with these documents. Now let me take you to the town of Mons, Belgium. The year is 1522, a long time ago, 1522. One morning, a woman left her house to do her day's errands. She walked on the cobbled stone street, past the castle and the city hall, standing together on a hill. She went past the impressive cathedral, unto the other side of town. But here she stopped to listen to a street preacher. preacher who knew the word of God and was proclaiming it just at a street corner. And she stood and she listened to this preacher. And then moms, get this, she prayed just a quiet prayer. She whispered a prayer, oh my God, Why have you not given me a son like this preacher? May the unborn child I carry within myself be a preacher of thy words. Shortly after this, a son was born into the home of John de Bray. The parents, looking down into the cradle, named him Gittel de Bray. 45 years later, 45, from a cold, dark prison cell, this young man wrote his mom a note. With shackled hands grasping a quill pen, he scratched one last letter to his mama. In the letter, he reminded his mother of her prayer that day on the street. You prayed that your son would become like that Jesuit priest. Well, God has made me an imitator, not of a Jesuit priest, but of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and has called me to his holy ministry, not to teach the words of other men, but the pure word of God. of Jesus and his apostles, and this I have done. And for this, Gilead de Bray was ushered out of the cell block, and he was hung. Mothers, as you sit and hear my voice this evening, whisper to God, ask of him, to do great and mighty things through your children. And mom, I'm not talking about moms here that just have young little ones, but I'm even talking to the more older women. And maybe your sons, maybe your daughter now is 35, 40. and suddenly God is beginning to work in a new and different way in your child's life. Continue to pray for your kids that God would do great and mighty things. You know what we need today in the United States of America more so than some new president? We need boys and girls rising up to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the challenge of this church, amen? That's what we're about. Kids, we're not going to hide that secret. We want you to grow up and be strong men and women for God. Spirit-activated faith. Here's my outline. A spirit-activated faith. Like the kind of faith we saw in these men in Hebrews 11, and the women in Hebrews 11. Men like Samson, Jephthah, and David, and Samuel, they weren't perfect men, that's for sure. Gideon, Barak, no, not perfect. But they were saved through the work of a Savior. That's what a spirit-activated faith does. So that's my first point, saves us through the work of a Savior. The Reformation of 1517. Just a few years before Gideon de Bray was born, he was born in 1522, Reformation started in 1517, stood on the biblical statement that spirit-activated faith saves only through the work of Jesus Christ. The two hold hands. The work of the spirit is to activate the work of Jesus Christ. You wonder yourself, what's the Holy Spirit doing today, as we saw this morning, counseling us from the Word of God? Amen, yes. But he's counseling us to save us and ultimately to sanctify us. He's using the word of God to that end, the counsel of God to that end. And this is what occurred in the heart of Gideon de Bray. The spirit of the living God activated a faith in his heart to trust in the redeeming work of Christ to save him. Boys and girls, when did he do that? When did the spirit of God get a hold of this kid? When he was just a teenager, just a teenager. Your teenage years are such critical years. Such critical years. Don't waste your teenage years like I did. Don't do that. It's foolish. Spend your teenage years pursuing a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what happened to Get Old and Pray. The Spirit activated a work in his life through faith. So sometime while a teenager, Gideon got his hands on a Bible, which he read, studied, and pondered together with other Reformed literature. Before he was 25 years old, Gideon de Bray was a man in the streets known as a converted man to Christ. He was a powerhouse of a preacher by the time he was 25. Gideon de Bray had tasted the work of the Holy Spirit activating faith in his heart to trust the work and only the work of Jesus Christ, the complete and total work of Jesus. So now he was a heretic at 25, in danger of being burnt at the stake for his new faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's try and capture the theology of Guido de Bray from the Belgian Confession, where he writes about this work of salvation found only in Jesus Christ. So let me just read Article 23. Remember, there's 37 articles, I think I got that right, 37 articles in the Belgian Confession. Here's Article 23 that Guido wrote. This is the topic, the justification of sinners. He writes this. We believe, note the word we, He's always joining in with the body of Christ. He's a team player. This isn't arrogance here. He's speaking with we, we believe. So he's writing this document to give to King Philip II of Spain, this is what we believe. We don't understand why you're killing us. But here's what he wrote on justification. We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ. and that in our righteousness before God is contained as David and Paul teach us when they declare that man blessed to whom God grants righteousness apart from works. So again, he was always addressing the issue of works-based salvation versus faith-based salvation. That was his passion. And rightfully so, it's the passion of the scriptures. So that Jesus Christ gets all the glory. The same apostle says that we are justified freely, Paul says this, freely or by grace through redemption in Jesus Christ. And therefore we cling to this foundation, which is firm forever, giving all glory to God, humbling ourselves and recognizing ourselves as we are, not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits and leaning and resting on the, but resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in him. That is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident, freeing the conscience from the fear, dread, and terror of God's approach without doing what our first father Adam did, who trembled as he tried to cover himself with fig leaves. Gideon de Bray had no interest in covering himself with fig leaves or works of righteousness. He clung to Jesus Christ. So teenagers, here we got a young man here. And he's clinging to only Jesus Christ. Adam sought to hide himself from God, but for Giddeau de Bray, in Christ, there was justification before God. All of his sins were transferred to Christ. All of Christ's righteousness was transferred to him. This belief saved his soul. But this belief of his that God gave him would do more. When the Holy Spirit activates faith in our hearts, second point tonight, he severs us for sacrifice. Severs us from the world that we might be a sacrifice unto God. So boys and girls or young people here tonight, if you're holding on to dreams of worldly riches, it's not going to work. Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, He's going to sever that, just like we talked about this morning. We're going to have to pull up that dumpster and start emptying out all the rubbish in our hearts. Holy Spirit-activated faith severs us for sacrifice. A Holy Spirit-activated faith works the ability to let go of the temporal pleasure, even though it might mean grasping temporal suffering. The Holy Spirit severs us for sacrifice by causing us to experience a pleasure, yes, a joy that exceeds the suffering. So boys and girls, you might be on a school bus and other kids are laughing at you because you got your Bible and you love the Lord Jesus Christ and you're talking about Jesus Christ and your joy in Christ. I don't know, maybe you're at college and kids are looking at you, maybe you're in a dorm room or something, maybe somebody tonight's listening by way of live stream, and you're different, you're weird. Because you're following Christ, because the Holy Spirit will sever you from the world so that you can serve Him. The year was 1548, King Charles was on the throne of Spain. His rule reached into the homeland of Guido de Bray. This was a time when Spain was very powerful and so they controlled the land of Belgium and the Netherlands and the Holy Spirit Well, let me back up. The year was 1548. King Charles was on the throne. His rule reached into the homeland of Guido de Bray. King Charles was responsible for the deaths of over 50,000 reformers during his reign. During his reign. During his reign. Did you hear that number? That's a lot of funerals. 50,000. To escape persecution in 1548, the Holy Spirit led him to sever from his family, sever from his work as a stained glass painter. That's what Gideon was doing at the time. He was a stained glass painter and severed him from his homeland to depart to England. which at that time was a haven for those of the Reformed persuasion. There wasn't always this case, depending on who was on the throne in England, of course, as you know, but at this time, that was the safest place to go, and so the Holy Spirit led Gideon de Bray up into England. After the death of Henry VIII of England in 1547, the cause of the Reformation gradually began to advance in England, guided by the Archbishop Thomas Cramer. Gideon knew this severing was the work of the Holy Spirit to prepare him for what lie ahead. This was like his time to go to seminary, his time to study, his time to be separated from his loved ones there in Belgium and the Netherlands, separated from that, moved over to England so that he could study. For four years, he labored to attend classes in theology conducted by eminent reformers like Lasko and Bosser of Strasbourg. In 1552, he returned back to the Low Countries as a trained man of God. Now, that means he returned. He went back to where it was dangerous. I don't know if you've seen the movie of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but there's some similarity there. Dietrich was safe in the United States, but he chose to go back to Germany. I don't know if you've seen that movie. Okay, 1552. Gittel became a traveling preacher based in Lille near his hometown. He ministered to a group of Christians who met secretly there. and who called themselves the Church of the Rose. You heard that term before? The Church of the Rose. There was a quiet in the storm right now of persecution. This is 1552. Because it was during this time that Charles V was smoothing the way for Philip II to become king and take over the throne. But in 1556, Philip II reignited the fire of persecution across the land. Several members of the Church of the Rose were martyred. The congregation fled then to Frankfurt along with Gilda Bray. God kept him safe, kept him moving. He preached in house churches. That was his main audience. Small groups, this house, then over to this house, always trying to maintain secrecy. But you know how that works. The government's always got its spies. It was in Frankfurt that Guido de Bray met John Kelvin. Here too, the Holy Spirit was working. Again, Guido de Bray was severed from direct ministry to study with a great reformer. It's almost like, okay, let's pull him back out of ministry for a little while. Let's give him some more training, maybe like get his doctorate with John Kelvin, so to say. Well, after three years of study, began to yearn for the active ministry once again, because that was his heart. He was a pastor's heart. He couldn't just sit there studying all the time. I got to get back on the street. So traveling up to the Rhine, he came to the city of Durnick. He became the minister of a secret Protestant church of the Palm. Studying in a little garden house and preaching in the evenings. Again, moving from this house to that house, to this house to that house. Sounds like the Book of Acts, doesn't it? It was here in Dornoch that he fell in love with a dark-eyed Catherine Ramon. I think that's just wonderful that God would bless him at that time. In his marriage proposal he warned her with these words, I can only offer you a life of uncertainty in this world." Gideon de Bray understood that he was a severed man for sacrifice. But Catherine was also filled with the Holy Spirit, a holy activating faith. And she replied that it was enough to know that they loved one another. and that they were in God's good hand. So it was in 1559 that they were married. He hoped to provide the people with a summary of the Christian faith so that they could be kept from falling into error. He kept finding that the people were off starting to believe this and off starting to believe that. So he saw the need to get the Word of God into a document that could be helpful as the Heidelberg Catechism was. So, congregation, the lesson is here. If you have a Holy Spirit-activated faith, you will be severed from this world to be a sacrifice unto the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be severed from the world to be shaped into Christ. You will be severed from your plans to carry out God's plans. You will be severed to be a sacrifice at some level. Praise God that we are not in a time here presently where there's open persecution. But again, boys and girls, I wonder about you. I've seen a lot of change in my life. I wonder how much change you are going to see. And I hate to be pessimistic and negative, but unless the Lord plans to have another Reformation in our time as he has had in the past, I think things are going to get hard. Again, I'm a pastor, not a prophet, but I see the trajectory of where we're heading. And young people, I think you need to guard your hearts. You need to watch the times. You need to be careful. Third point tonight, spirit-activated faith sanctifies us for splendor. What will spirit-activated faith do? It will sanctify you for splendor. So that's our third point. This is a splendor that only the Lord can give. It's a joy deep within your heart that no matter the sacrifice, it's worth it to know Jesus. Let me take you now to the year 1561. The ministry had secretly been growing. Slowly, the seeds of Reformation were bearing fruit, but there was a movement in the congregation to move things faster. So on the 29th of September, 1561, in the evening, several hundred Protestants assembled into the marketplace. They lustily were singing the Psalms of David, and they marched along into the main streets, fearing insurrection. The governor, in his castle, ordered that the marchers be fired upon, but to no avail. Next evening, they were out again, 500 strong, in masks and cloaks, defying the city magistrates, singing and shouting in front of the house of the bishop's vicar. See, Guille de Prey was not for this. He told those people, stay home. Don't hit the streets and cause chaos and trouble. Don't go against the government. But they did. And ultimately, this led to a crackdown by the authorities that led them to discover that there was a pastor in the midst of their city leading the people into the heresy of the Reformation. Guilherme de Brès suddenly was in the sights of the government. They wanted him. But de Bray remained undetected, having gone by a false name for many years, hiding in his rooms. He wondered what to do. The royal commissioner's investigation had thwarted his plans for a gradual reformation. The Protestants were being labeled as disorderly bunch of rebels against rightful authority, no better than the troublesome Anabaptists of the time. So the plan was conceived to present the king with a copy of the Protestants' confession of faith, this Belgic confession. This would show that they were not revolutionaries. They were not against the government. They were for order. However, Gittel wrote that while they wanted to support the government, they would, and I believe Pastor Isaac quoted this the other day, they would offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their bodies to the fire, rather than deny the truths set forth in this confession. So on November 2, 1561, the gatekeeper of the castle of Dornoch found a package. which had been thrown over the wall the night before. It was addressed to the king himself, King Philip II, and contained a copy of the Belgic Confession. Confession together with an open letter to the king's commissioners, warning them that nothing that they could do would prevent the progress of God's work in the town of Dornoch. If you try by killing, for everyone who dies, a hundred will rise in his place. If you will not forsake your hardness and your murder, then we appeal to God to give us grace, patiently to endure for the glory of his name, and heaven and earth will bear us witness that you have put us unjustly to death. Debray then escaped from Dornoch, Sometime in December of 1561 and went into exile in the French towns near the lowland borders where he committed, where he continued to minister secretly. That's 1561. So he has six more years of ministry. But then in 1561, he was captured. 1567, he was captured. Philip II was hot on his trail. And he was finally captured. He was cruelly treated by his captors. And de Bray was transferred to a prison where he spent seven weeks in the black hole, they called it, a filthy dungeon. And as I said earlier, on May 31, 1567, Guido de Bray was paraded into the market square and hung. As he reminded the gathered crowd to be respectful to the magistrates and to continue faithful to the word which had been preached to them, the hangman received his signal and threw his victim from the scaffold to the glorious splendor of the presence of God. Gideon de Bray was dead. But the word of God is not dead. The power of the spirit of God was not dead. And many came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through this man. Listen to the man speak one last time for today from Article 37, The Last Judgment. Finally, he wrote, we believe, according to God's word, that when the time appointed by the Lord has come, which is unknown to all creatures, and the number of the elect is complete, Our Lord Jesus Christ 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. And as a gracious reward, the Lord will make them possess a glory such as the heart of man cannot even possibly imagine. So, we look forward, Gideon de Bray wrote, to that great day with longing in order to enjoy fully the promises of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I ask you tonight, do you join with him with that statement? That no matter what happens, you look forward to the day when you will be ushered into the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Has his Holy Spirit activated a faith in you? Has he not ignited your soul to serve him? I don't have time tonight. to tell about Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. But I have time to say That when a man is ignited, when a woman is ignited by the Holy Spirit with a true faith from God, that man, that woman will move mountains and reach thousands for Christ. I ask you tonight, Would you not ask of the Lord to be that woman, to be that man? Would you not tonight beg of Him to cause your life to be of such value that you're planting the seed of the Word of God wherever you may be, leaving the harvest to Him? I believe God is still seeking men and women who will give themselves fully to the Lord Jesus Christ. May it be said of us that by the grace of God, we want to be that kind of man. We want to be that kind of a woman. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask tonight that as we're gathered together in this place, we ask that your Holy Spirit would be moving, speaking, prodding, going deep within all of our souls, asking ourselves, What is the purpose of our life right now? What are we doing? Who are we living for? We pray tonight for a spirit-activated faith in all of us that would not just save us, but even sever us from the world that we might be the kind of servants that could bring you glory. Father, I want to pray again tonight for the kids here. Lord, do a great work in this new generation. We pray, we beg of you, do a great work in their lives to stand in the gap, to put their finger in the leak of this society that's crumbling all about us. Lord, if ever there was a time for a new generation to rise up, this is another one of those times. So we pray for our young people and our kids. Bless them. giving them a full understanding of the gospel and a full experience and awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit being in them and with them. Forgive them of their sins. Have them know that you are for them and not against them. Father, thank you for Jesus again tonight. We want to say to our Lord that we love him and that we are so thankful for his blood there spilt on Calvary, for his resurrection power, for his ascending prayers. Father, we want to thank you for Jesus, your gift to us in all the horrors that he went through that we would be his children tonight. So Father, in the coming week, may all that we do be to your glory and honor, we pray. Father, thank you for this congregation. Thank you for their desire, their deep desire to serve and to know and to love you. So Father, bless us continually, we pray. Watch over us, keep us from the evil one, we ask. For we pray these things tonight now in Jesus' name and all of God's people said,