I would like to present a history lesson in this hour. And Brother Bob was going to pass out these Confessions of Faith of 1120 and make sure everybody got one. If you didn't get one, raise your hand and he'll get you one. Okay, we're all on the same page. We sang about the faith of our fathers And that is what we're looking at here in this confession of faith. Before we look at the confession, let's read a Scripture to begin with in the Gospel of Matthew 16. Matthew 16. In Matthew 16, we have what we call Peter's great confession. He confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus, in verse 17, answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon, Barjona, For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." You're familiar, I trust, with the wording here. The name Peter means a little rock. The word translated rock here in our English version when Jesus says, upon this rock, he's speaking of a large boulder or a cliff, we might say, a large formation of rock. And of course, this rock that Jesus refers to is himself. The church is built upon Christ, the chief cornerstone. It's not built upon Peter. Peter was just one of the building blocks. The promise, however, at the end of verse 18 is what I'm interested in here for our purposes to begin with. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Lord's institution that He established while He was on this earth. His church. And we would expect then to find traces through the history of the last 2,000 years of churches that preached the gospel, that held to the scriptures, that were true and faithful to the Lord, that were not corrupted. And this confession of faith is a testimony to the Lord's faithfulness in keeping this promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. Now, if we have time today, we're going to read through this confession. We've worked through the 1689 confession a couple of times over the years here and taken many months to do that. This is a shorter confession. It deserves more than just one hour of reading here, but we'll try to read it together here. But let me introduce it this way. The historical significance of this confession can hardly be overstated. It is a window into true religion 400 years before the Protestant Reformation. The source of this confession, as it says, is taken from a book entitled The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont, sometimes called Piedmont. And I was fortunate enough to get a copy of the book. that this is taken from. This is the book right here by Samuel Moreland. This is a facsimile. It was published in 1658. This is a facsimile of the 1658. If you want to look at it, I might let you. It's written in two languages, and the English text is the old-fashioned style letters that takes a little getting accustomed to to read and so forth. But so important is this confession that many years ago, I put it in this form so that we could have it available and pass it out. The writer of the book was Samuel Moreland, who lived in the 1600s. And I put this word of explanation. Moreland was commissioned by Oliver Cromwell to give aid to the Waldenses and to research their history. And that brings up the subject of the Waldenses. This is sometimes called the Waldensian confession of faith. The Waldenses, or sometimes called Waldensians, either term works, they were Christians and churches who maintained a separate existence apart from the Roman Catholic Church forever. from the time that the Roman Catholic Church had its evolving and beginning, which we can trace even to the days of Constantine. There are those called Waldenses today, but the modern Waldenses are a far cry from the ones that wrote this confession in 1120. Because at the time of the Reformation, the numbers of the Waldenses were greatly reduced because of severe persecutions. Many of them died. Their pastors were all killed in the years previous to the Reformation. Many who remained in the Waldensian faith ended up merging with the German Anabaptists at the time of the Reformation. The remainder of them came under the influence of the Reformers. The Reformers sent pastors to their churches, and thereby they became Protestant churches. They embraced baby baptism, and the church-state sacral society, which is one of the great hallmarks of the Reformation. And so the modern-day Waldenses are nothing like the ancient ones. Now, just a little bit more of history about the Waldenses. Their name probably comes from the region where they lived. were valley dwellers. And the word Waldensian comes from a word that means in the valley. They lived in the Alpine valleys of Italy and France. They lived there for their safety and protection and to escape from persecution in great measure. Sometimes the persecution would come right into the valleys where they lived. As far as the origin of these people is concerned, we know that biblical Christianity is known to have flourished in this region of northern Italy from the early days of church history. During the Roman persecutions, this is pre-Constantine, Roman persecutions, Christians fled to the mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees in order to survive. The Waldenses themselves said that their ancestors had been in the valleys since the days of the apostles. But we might question their own history handed down to them. So let me give some other historians who say as much as the same. A Presbyterian historian named Robert Baird, quoted in Perrin's history, says, the Waldensian churches never belonged to Rome. Jonathan Edwards says, they never submitted to the Church of Rome. And in every age of this dark time, and he's speaking of the dark ages, there appeared particular persons in all parts of Christendom who bore a testimony against the corruptions and tyranny of the Church of Rome. God was pleased to maintain an uninterrupted succession of many witnesses through the whole time. Another Protestant historian named Muston, in a book called The Israel of the Alps, says that, and this quotation is priceless, it is not they, speaking of the Waldenses, who separated from Catholicism, but Catholicism which separated from them in modifying the primitive worship. There were two historians in the early 1800s appointed by the King of the Netherlands to research and write history concerning this time. And these historians wrote, we have now seen that the Baptists who were formerly called Anabaptists and in later times Mennonites were the original Waldenses and who have long in the history of the church received the honor of that origin. On this account, the Baptists may be considered as the only Christian community which has stood since the days of the apostles. and as a Christian society which has preserved the pure doctrines of the gospel through all ages." I'll even quote a couple of Roman Catholic historians here. The Roman Archbishop of Turin at the time of the Reformation was a man named Caecilius. He maintained that the Waldenses originated in the Alps with a man named Leo in the days of Constantine. Now that's the early 300s, early fourth century. A monk named Belvedere said that the, what he called, what he considered the heresy of the Waldenses had always been in the valleys of the Alps. In the 1200s, there was a man named Rhaenarius who was himself a Waldensian for 17 years. Then he turned and became a fierce opponent and inquisitor of the Waldenses. And he wrote these words, among all sects that either are or have been. There is none more detrimental to the Roman Catholic Church than that of the Leonists. That was another name they were called, the poor men of lions, or perhaps after Leo in the days of Constantine that we just referred to. He goes on, he says, and that for three reasons. The first is because it is the sect that is of the longest standing of any. For some say it has existed continually since Pope Sylvester. Now, Pope Sylvester was the pope at the time of Constantine. Whereas others say since the time of the apostles. The second reason is because it is the most general of all sects. For scarcely is there any country to be found where this sect has not been embraced. That's because they sent out missionaries all over Europe. The third reason is because while all other sects frighten their hearers by the abominable nature of their blasphemies against God, this sect has a great appearance of godliness, since they live righteously before all men." End quote. And that's found in the history, or rather in the theology set by Wilhelmus A. Brockle, who was a Dutch Reformed writer. Let me give you a Lutheran historian, Mosheim. He says, quote, the true origin of that sect which acquired the denomination or the name of Anabaptists is hidden in the depths of antiquity and is of consequence extremely difficult to be ascertained. They are not entirely in an error when they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrussians, and other ancient sects, who are usually considered as witnesses of the truth in times of general darkness and superstition. Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, There lay concealed in almost all the countries of Europe, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany, many persons who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrine which the Waldenses, Wyclifites, and Hussites had maintained." And the doctrine he's referring to is the purity of the church, regenerate church membership, which is a feature that neither Roman Catholicism nor the Reformation affirmed. In fact, they spoke and wrote fiercely against the principle of regenerate church membership. Well, that gives you at least the word of quite a few different historians from many different perspectives concerning these Waldenses. Now, we have the words here on the opening page of Moreland himself, the historian under Oliver Cromwell. He says, after all the authentic proofs that have been alleged to make good the antiquity of the evangelical churches in the valleys of Piedmont, even from the time of the apostles, If there yet remains any scruple in the mind of the Christian reader concerning this truth, their own language in their confessions of faith from time to time, which I have here inserted in the following form, will easily discover whether they be Jews or Galileans, the true seed of Abraham or a counterfeit generation. For if they have the doctrine of the prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ, then they are the true successors and the legitimate children of Abraham for as much as they have the faith of Abraham, Romans 4 and 9 and 11, as Gregory Nazianzen observes in his oration in Magnum Athanasium. And so Moreland was convinced that these people that he went to live among and research for a period of time were not only true followers of Christ, but that their history was that they had been faithful from the time of the apostles. And so he calls this confession. In fact, there are other confessions in his book besides this one. This is the oldest. An ancient confession of faith of the Waldenses copied out of certain manuscripts bearing the date AD 1120, that is to say nearly 400 years before the time of either Calvin or Luther. So we are right here almost at the 900-year mark for the writing of this confession. Article I. We believe and firmly hold all that which is contained in the 12 articles of the symbol, which is called the Apostle's Creed, accounting for heresy whatsoever is disagreeing and not consonant to the said 12 articles. Now, if I were writing a confession, this probably isn't the first article that I would write, honestly. We have the Apostle's Creed here at the beginning of our hymnal. You're familiar with it, I suppose. I'm not sure, and I'm not sure anyone is sure, about the true origin of the Apostles' Creed. It is a very ancient statement. And it's in 12 parts or 12 phrases. Each one is supposedly attributed to or representing one of the 12 apostles. I wouldn't take that too seriously. But they mention this in this confession, I think, in order to emphasize that they are orthodox in the faith, that they are not some new cult, as their enemies would like to have described them, but that they believed the basics of the faith. It is interesting that one group, well, the ones known in the days of Constantine to have opposed the changes that Constantine brought, that the huge seismic changes that Constantine brought, were known as the Donatists. The Donatists refused to say One word in the Apostles' Creed, and that is the word Catholic. The part that says, I believe in the Holy Catholic Church. They would say Holy Church, but not Catholic. And of course, people today say, well, the word just means universal. That was their complaint. That Constantine's church, claimed to be the only one, the universal, the true and only church. And so by their refusing to say that word, the Donatists, who were, well, doctrinally akin to these Waldenses, were making an important statement. But let's move on here. Article 2. We do believe that there is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So they are Trinitarian in their doctrine of God. Article 3, we acknowledge for the holy canonical scriptures, the books of the Holy Bible, namely the books of Moses called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, the Song of Solomon, the Prophecy of Isaiah, the Prophecy of Jeremiah, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonas, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Here follow the books apocryphal, which are not received of the Hebrews. That is, the Jews didn't recognize the inspiration of the apocryphal books. But we read them as saith St. Jerome in his prologue to the Proverbs, for the instruction of the people not to confirm the authority of the doctrine of the church, namely, 3rd Esdras, 4th Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with the epistle of Jeremiah, Esther from the 10th chapter to the end, the song of the three children in the furnace, the history of Susanna, the history of the dragon, 1st Maccabees, 2nd Maccabees, 3rd Maccabees. Here follow the books of the New Testament, the gospel according to St. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James, the 1st Epistle of St. Peter, the 2nd Epistle of St. Peter, the 1st Epistle of St. John, the 2nd Epistle of St. John, the third epistle of St. John, the epistle of St. Jude, the revelation of St. John. This article certainly shows us the high view of scripture, the importance of naming the books of the Old and New Testament, and distinguishing the apocryphal books from these 66. In fact, these missionaries that they sent all over Europe memorized huge portions of Scripture. Some say that they memorized the whole New Testament, could quote it from memory. At least some of them could. And by the way, the Bible that they had was one that is known as the Old Italic Bible. which was from the received text from which our King James translation is based also. Now, Article 4. The books above said, teach this, that there is one God, almighty, all wise, and all good. who has made all things by his goodness. So here is at least something of the attributes of God. His work of creation, for he formed Adam in his own image and likeness. And here's the doctrine of the fall, but that by the envy of the devil and the disobedience of the said Adam, sin has entered into the world and that we are sinners in Adam and by Adam. So this is their doctrine of the fall and of sin and of the depravity of the whole race in Adam. Article 5, that Christ was promised to our fathers who received the law, that so knowing by the law their sin, unrighteousness, and insufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ to satisfy for their sins and accomplish the law by himself. These fathers they're referring to here, of course, are the Old Testament believers. They had an understanding of the progress of revelation. The Old Testament was preparatory to the coming of Christ. They had, obviously here, a concept of the place of the law of God and its significance. and that Christ accomplished the law for our salvation. Article 6, that Christ was born in the time appointed by God the Father. That is to say, in the time when all iniquity abounded and not for the cause of good works, for all were sinners, but that he might show us grace and mercy as being faithful. This confession sets forth clearly a denial of any human merit in the matter of salvation. Christ was not sent in order to save good people. He's sent to save sinners by His grace and mercy. So they had a clear understanding of the grace of God in Christ. Article 7, that Christ is our life, truth, peace, and righteousness, as also our pastor or shepherd, advocate, sacrifice, and priest, who died for the salvation of all those that believe and is risen for our justification. This article addresses the saving work of Christ. Christ alone is the Savior, and it is through His death that we are saved. And who are saved? All those that believe. And of course, at the end here, a clear statement about the resurrection of Christ as well. Now, I'm especially interested in this article because of some wording here. There's been debate among some concerning the doctrine of salvation that the Waldens has held to. And it surprises me in a way that some say that they were of the free will bent. But the wording here is wording I've never heard any free will or Arminian person use when it says that he died for the salvation of all those that believe. That makes it very particular. And to sort of chase this a little bit, let me give you some other quotations that tell us something about the understanding of salvation in particular of these people. There's another ancient document that Moreland dates to be from the year 1100, which is roughly the same time as this confession, a little bit earlier. And this writing called A Noble Lesson, concludes with these words, may it please the Lord which formed the world that we may be of the number of his elect to dwell in his court forever. Praised be God. Amen. Now, here are some very interesting quotations from some historians, really theologians, again, Brockle, the Dutch Reformed theologian in the 1600s, he refers to the Romanists who declared that, quote, prior to the time of Zwingli and Luther, there had been very many who adhered to the same doctrine, which they refer to as heresy, that Zwingli, Luther, and Calvin had by renewal brought this doctrine to light. In Jones's church history, Jones was a Baptist, but he quotes a Catholic bishop from the mid-1500s named Lindanus. Lindanus accused Calvin of being, quote, the inheritor of the doctrine of the Waldenses. And perhaps most interesting is from a footnote in one of the books by Leonard Verdien, The Anatomy of a Hybrid. And Verdien was a Dutch Reformed historian In his biography of Calvin, Beza says that Calvin received his first impressions of true religion from Olivetin. Olivetin, who was Calvin's cousin, had been active in the Waldensian church, was even a Waldensian pastor, according to some. While a student in Paris, Calvin lived with Etienne de La Forge, another Waldensian. Calvin acknowledged that he, too, was at one time a Waldensian. And you can actually buy that book if you want that quotation. It's on page 199 and a footnote in The Anatomy of a Hybrid. I just bought some copies. We have some on the book table, as a matter of fact. Last of all, a quotation from a Scottish Presbyterian named James Durham, who wrote many good commentaries. He says in his exposition of Revelation that the Romanists claimed that the Calvinists now are the same called Waldenses before. So at least in the eyes of the Romanists, they saw some continuity or at least similarity of doctrine between the Waldenses and the Calvinists. And I would suggest that Article 7 here is what they were referring to especially concerning the doctrine of salvation. Well, Article 8. In like manner, we firmly hold that there is no other mediator and advocate with God the Father save only Jesus Christ. And as for the Virgin Mary, that she was holy, humble, and full of grace. And in like manner, we do believe concerning all the other saints, namely, that being in heaven, they wait for the resurrection of their bodies at the day of judgment. Now, this is a clear statement. concerning Christ as the only mediator. Mary is not a mediatress. The other saints are not mediators. I would question the phrase, full of grace, because I don't see that as a biblical phrase, and I'm sure that Whatever they meant here, they did not mean that she had grace to spare, that she could share with others who didn't have enough. Supererogation, as it is theologically called. Article 9, item, and I don't know why they put item on some of these, We believe that after this life, there are only two places, the one for the saved and the other for the damned, the which two places we call paradise and hell, absolutely denying that purgatory invented by Antichrist and forged contrary to the truth. Well, that speaks for itself. Article 10, item, we have always accounted as an unspeakable abomination before God all those inventions of men namely the feasts and the vigils of saints, the water which they call holy, as likewise to abstain from flesh upon certain days and the like, but especially their masses." So they're showing how strongly they disagree with errors of Roman Catholicism. Same in Article 11. We esteem for an abomination and as anti-Christian all those human inventions which are a trouble or prejudice to the liberty of the spirit." They believed in liberty of conscience, soul liberty. And the significance of this article is huge. It means that they did not believe that you could or should coerce people into becoming Christians with the sword. But rather, there was the liberty of conscience, liberty of the spirit. This article touches on the whole subject of the church-state-sacral society. Article 12, we do believe that the sacraments are signs of the holy thing. And again, I would not use the word sacraments today, but they used it here. And so there it is. We do believe that the sacraments are signs of the holy thing or visible forms of the invisible grace. accounting it good that the faithful sometimes use the said signs or visible forms if it may be done. However, we believe and hold that the above said faithful may be saved without receiving the signs aforesaid in case they have no place nor any means to use them." And Article 13, it must go along with it, we acknowledge no other sacrament but baptism in the Lord's Supper. Rome, of course, has seven sacraments. But their point here in these two articles is that baptism in the Lord's Supper are not salvific ordinances. They do not save. They are not effectual unto salvation. They are signs, visible forms, but not the actual salvation itself. And last of all, Article 14, we ought to honor the secular powers by subjection, ready obedience, and paying of tributes, what we would call taxes. So this little short article sets forth their belief in God's institution of civil government This is an important article because they and others like them were often falsely accused of being anarchist. And the reason they were accused of that was because they did not believe that the state was an arm of the church. And so you can see how in the minds of their foes that was turned into you must be an anarchist then. You don't believe in any civil government if you don't believe that it's under the arm of the church. No, they believed in civil government, but that it was a separate institution and a separate entity, not an arm of the church. I was at a meeting many years ago where a well-known Reformed Baptist pastor and author was speaking and he made this blanket statement, all the Anabaptists were Arminian and anarchist. And of course I was familiar with this. I had read Moreland's book not too long before that and was familiar with his confession of faith. And I asked him privately afterwards, I said, if I can show you some historical evidence that shows that not all Anabaptists were Arminian and Anarchist, will you make a correction or at least change your presentation on that point?" And he looked me in the eye and he said, no. And so I got back home and I sent him some of these things anyway and never heard from him. articles, these 14 articles of this confession of faith, show us that these ancient Christians were sound in the basic doctrines and practices of the Christian faith. We might not agree with them on everything. I pointed out two or three things here that I would certainly change if I were writing this confession. But on the major essential matters of the faith, we can look to these as our spiritual ancestors, truly fathers. This is the faith of our fathers as evidenced by this historical document. And I'm thankful to be able to identify with them as I look at church history and not with Romanists nor Reformers. We are the heirs of a rich heritage. And it is a pity that there are those who want to ignore or even deny this rich heritage. But this confession shows it's just one little piece of evidence from church history that our Lord's promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church is a promise that He has kept. If you're interested in doing more reading about these Waldenses, I have a lot of resources that I can point you to. I mentioned the books by Leonard Verdine, I cannot emphasize enough the value of those books. We've had them on the book table from time to time. We've restocked, partly to have some on hand here for our Bible conference, but you can get a jump on the rush and get some. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word We thank you for the promises of your word to perpetuate the institution of Christ's church in all ages. And we thank you for the testimony that we see here and there in epics of church history. And thank you for preserving us this day. Help us to recognize what a great privilege is ours and what a great responsibility is upon us to be faithful in our generation. In Jesus' name, amen.