APOSTLE'S CREED (Part 1)

Introduction

-At the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021, a motion was brought forth for the Credentials Committee to look into removing Saddleback Church from the fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention because they ordained three ladies as pastors, and the Baptist Faith & Message of the Southern Baptist Convention states, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” That would seem cut and dry. The Credentials Committee was to report back in 2022 with their findings.

~At the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention, the Credentials Committee came back and said that they were “unable to form an opinion regarding the relationship of Saddleback Church to the Southern Baptist Convention, until clarity is provided regarding the use of the title “pastor” for staff positions with different responsibility and authority than that of lead pastor.” So, let this sink in. Just like a liberal Supreme Court Justice nominee couldn’t answer the question WHAT IS A WOMAN?, the SBC couldn’t answer the question WHAT IS A PASTOR?

~What this indicates to me is that the Baptist Faith & Message must be weak if people are able to find loopholes or redefine the statement of faith in order to fit their own beliefs. If people are able to find loopholes in the definition of pastor, how long before they find loopholes to the definition of marriage? How long before they find loopholes to the nature of God or the personhood and/or godhead of Jesus Christ?

-Too often we Christians ignore or sluff off the importance of doctrine. What is doctrine and why is it important. As one person defined it:

Doctrine is the body of teachings of the Christian faith concerning its central beliefs. Doctrine is grounded in Scripture and aims to maintain the integrity of Christianity by distinguishing it from non-Christian beliefs. Doctrine is of central importance in Christian preaching and teaching in that it equips the people of God for effective and faithful service in his world.

-What you believe matters in real life—your real life. Yes, what you believe determines your ethics and your values and your general outlook. If your beliefs are wrong, everything else is going to be off. And that’s not only true for individuals, but it is true for a church as well.

-We believe that Scripture alone is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, and that it alone holds all authority for life and practice. But we need to know what all of Scripture says about certain subjects of life and faith. We look to the Scriptures to find what the complete counsel of God has to say about God, ourselves, and the world. But how do we state and affirm the truths of Scripture and at the same time confront the errors of our day in a succinct way? How do we summarize the truths that are found in Scripture? Over the centuries the church used creeds and confessions of faith to define and defend true Christianity.

-What are creeds and confessions? One work defines creeds as: a concise, formal, and authorized statement of important points of Christian doctrine. That same work says that a confession is: a profession of faith made, [it is] a declaration of religious belief. They sound about the same, but the difference between them is that creeds are shorter and have a wide circulation among Christian churches. Meaning that creeds can cover most orthodox denominations: Baptist, Presbyterian, Anglican, etc. Confessions, however, are longer and are more precise about what a particular church or denomination holds to be proper biblical views and interpretations of important subjects. But, as one author warned: Creeds, confessions, and catechisms are useful only to the extent that they reproduce faithfully the teaching of Scripture itself.

-This is what we want to do in our study on Wednesday nights. We want to look at the Scriptural view of important subjects as they are described in the creeds and confessions given to us by saints in the past, and to look at the Scriptural basis of those beliefs. As the world throws at us so many false teachings, we want to have a solid foundation of Scriptural truth such that there will be no loopholes, nor will there be any redefining of the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. This is not only a matter of life on earth, it is also a matter of eternity.

-But why do such a thing? Why study and look at creeds and confessions? Al Mohler gives several reasons why creeds and confessions are useful and necessary in the life of the church:

Creeds and confessions define truth. We must study the creeds and confessions of the faith, so long as they rightly espouse the Scriptures, because they outline the truths of our faith.

Creeds and confessions correct error. Heresy and false teaching exist and these are horrible dangers to the people of God. No error presents a greater danger to the church and the world than theological error.

Creeds and confessions provide rules and standards for God’s people. They provide guardrails that prevent people from stumbling into error by providing a rule to follow and boundaries for healthy theological discussion and development.

Creeds and confessions teach the church how to worship and confess the faith. These guide the church in worship and contain the most precious truths through which we can worship God and rightly praise His name.

Creeds and confessions connect us to the faith of our fathers. They contain the faithful witness of those who have finished the race faithfully.

Creeds and confessions summarize the faith. These documents do not seek to replace Scripture. Rather, they accurately seek to summarize its content into succinct statements in order to equip Christians with brief yet crucial distillations of the faith.

Creeds and confessions define true Christian unity. People cannot be united over error. True Christian unity is unity in the truth revealed by Christ, not unity at the expense of truth. Anyone who says UNITY ABOVE ALL is a false teacher.

-So, I want you to hear me on this. I fully believe that the Bible alone is the inerrant, infallible Word of God that is authoritative for all life, faith, and practice. But it is helpful to us personally, and is important for us as a church body, that we are able to succinctly summarize what it is that we believe that the Scriptures say. We need to know what Scriptures say about truth and faith, and we need to live according to what it is that we proclaim. Now, the creeds and confessions that we are looking at have stood the test of time for centuries, but there are things in them that we may not agree with or they might need further clarification.

-What I ultimately would like to do is lead us as a church to have our own confession of faith. If you did not know, Harvest Baptist Church has a statement of beliefs. The problem with the statement of beliefs is, first, no one knows what it is and it is never really used for anything, and has thereby become meaningless. And probably nobody knows when it was created, who created it, and what they intended with it. Second, it gets too specific on secondary issues but not specific enough (or doesn’t mention at all) other important doctrinal issues.

-What I want from this study is for you to know what you believe and why you believe. I want you to be able to stand upon a solid foundation of faith from which no one will be able to move you. I want you to think biblically about life and live out the faith that you proclaim. And I want we as a church to be able to iterate and declare THIS IS WHERE WE STAND AND WE WILL NOT BE MOVED.

-After all of that, where do we even begin? We want to begin our study with the Apostle’s Creed. This creed (along with similar creeds such as the Nicaean Creed and Athanasian Creed) gives the very bear minimum of basic Christian belief. If you want to call yourself a Christian, you cannot believe any less than what is contained here. Now, Christians will obviously believe a whole lot more than what is here, but you cannot believe anything less and still call yourself a Christian. This is as low as the bar goes.

-Even though it is called the Apostle’s Creed, it wasn’t actually written by the apostles. The first known form of the creed appeared in the late 4th century, and it has had different forms over the centuries. Why it is called the Apostle’s Creed is because it is a reflection of the truths that Jesus handed down to the apostles, who then, in turn, handed them down to the church. It is a reflection of what the apostles themselves taught.

-The creed begins with two simple words: I BELIEVE. The Latin form is credo, from which we get our word creed—a creed declares what we believe. But we look at those words I BELIEVE, and we pass over them to get to what we might call the meat of the issue. But I don’t want us to take these words lightly, because by saying I BELIEVE, what you are saying is that you put your full faith and trust in these truths, and I am going to align my life in light of these truths.

-Listen to me, to say you have faith and to say that you have trust and to say that you believe is not you admitting that you look at these things as some sort of mere proposition or philosophy, the same way that you might believe the Pythagorean Theorem that a2 + b2 = c2. You believe that theorem, but it doesn’t affect you in any way. You store it in the back of your mind and it has no bearing on how you speak, how you act, the attitude you take on and the choice you make. When we say we believe doctrinal truths, we say that not only do we think that this is true, but my whole life wraps itself around this truth and is affected by this truth, and I will cling to this truth with everything that I have.

-So, when we hear Paul say:

Acts 16:31 ESV

31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

we don’t look at it as merely accepting a statement as true, but that this is life-changing and I have to align myself to this. Jesus Christ is Lord and He died for me and He rose again and this is the only way that God made for me to get to Him. I don’t just assent to the fact, but I submit to its authority. That’s the difference between saying we believe in a proposition and it actually making a difference in my life. That’s what makes us different from demons. James warns us:

James 2:18–19 ESV

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

-James is telling us that what we claim to believe is to have an affect on our life. That is true faith. And we are told that this type of belief and faith is necessary, for as the writer of Hebrews tells us:

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

The doctrines that we hold to ought to cause us to trust in God more, seek God more, and then conform ourselves to His Word more. When I agree with a creed, and I say that I believe, it means that this doctrine is going to move me to act. Just look at the saints of old. They believed in God and His truth, but it caused them to do something about it. Because, it was by faith:

Building a Firm Foundation: A 12-Week Study on the Apostles’ Creed Week 3: I Believe

• Noah Building the Ark (Gen. 6:14–22)

• Abraham leaving Ur (Gen. 12:1–4; Rom. 4)

• Abraham waiting for Isaac (Rom. 4)

• Abraham offering up Isaac (Gen. 22:1–10; Rom. 4)

• Peter walking on water (Matt. 14:27–33)

• Paralytic lowered through the ceiling (Luke 5:17–20)

• Rahab offering hospitality to the Hebrew spies (Josh. 2:9, 11)

• Caleb & Joshua in their assessment of Israel’s ability to smite the Canaanites (Josh. 2:24)

• David slaying Goliath (1 Sam. 17:37, 46, 47)

• David not killing Saul (1 Sam. 24:1–22)

• Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego (Dan. 3:13–27)

-So, when we say that we believe whatever is in the creeds and confessions, that means that these truths are what we live by. These truths mean something to us and determine the course of our lives.

-As one author describes faith, he says:

Sermons on the Catechism, Vol. II: The Apostles’ Creed Christian Faith

Faith is just walking with God, as the child walks with a parent; it is enjoying the Father’s company, leaning on the Father’s arm, listening to the Father’s counsel, joyously running the Father’s errands. This is faith, this is spiritual life, which two things, in the final analysis, are practically one.

That same author later says:

Sermons on the Catechism, Vol. II: The Apostles’ Creed Christian Faith

Faith is a Divinely-wrought living experience of the soul of man. Faith is not a cold, speculative, indifferent acceptance of the theory concerning God; but the surrender of the heart to the personal Being who has created, redeemed, called, enlightened, and saved us. Faith, at least where it has come to some degree of maturity, is not an uncertain, trembling waiting for deliverance; but, while it is the cause, it is also the blessed experience of it.

And again:

Sermons on the Catechism, Vol. II: The Apostles’ Creed Christian Faith

Faith is the eye of the soul by which that unseen to the physical senses becomes visualized and certain.

-So, when we claim to be people of faith, and we stand and declare I BELIEVE, not only do we say that we hold certain facts to be true, but that these facts have so impacted us that we are going to live in light of them. Let that be true of all of us...