The nineteenth in a series of 17 sermons
Series Theme
This series of sermon follow the articles of the Belgic Confession to present an bird’s eye view of the main doctrines of the Bible.
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
Luke 18:9–14 (NIV84)
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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Belgic Confession: Article 21- The Atonement
We believe 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 His 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.
For it is written
that “the chastisement of our peace” was placed on the Son of God and that “we are healed by His wounds.”
He was “led to death as a lamb;” He was “numbered among sinners”45 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,46 and He suffered__ the “just for the unjust,”47 in both His body and His soul__
in such a way that when He senses the horrible punishment required by our sins
His sweat became like “big drops of blood falling on the ground.”48
He cried, “My God, my God, why have You abandoned Me?”49
And He endured all this for the forgiveness of our sins.
Therefore we rightly say with Paul that we “know nothing but Jesus and Him crucified;”50
we consider all things as “dung for the excellence of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”51
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, “Saviour”__ because He would save His people from their sins.52
- Isaiah 53:4‑12
- Psalm 69:4
- Peter 3:18
- Luke 22:44
- Matthew 27:46
- 1 Corinthians 2:2
- Philippians 3:8
- Matthew 1:21
Text
Philippians 3:1–14 (NIV84)
1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
2 Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
