Confessing the Faith .Part 1.

The need for Creeds

Pray

Read 1 Timothy 3:16.

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Introduction

(What are we doing) So what are we doing tonight and in weeks to come? We are starting a new series on our Thursday night worship service that I am giving the title of “Confessing the Faith.” Tonight will be part 1 of this series and we will be discussing “The need for Creeds” (Restate). I have chosen to do this on Thursday night, because as your humble new Pastor, I thought it would be extremely helpful to go through our churches Confsession in hopes to better build Our unity of the faith in Christ Jesus.

Now as many of us know, and something I greatly rejoice in is that we are a “Reformed Baptist Church.” But what does that even mean? We must be able to define in this term before our study on confessions today.

Reformed Baptist Church- Defined

Church- The called out ones who believe in the finished work of Christ. Invisbly speaking, it is the total number of all the elect of God. Visibly speaking it is those who gather together to worship the God whom they profess. Being the church means to hold to the essiantals of Christianity. It means to be a Christian.

Baptist- A Baptist in the basic definition is those who believe that the sign of Baptism is to be given only to those who posses and profess faith in Christ. This is what would be called “Credo Baptist” as opposed to those who believe in “Pedo Baptist” or baby baptism.

Reformed- What does it mean to be “reformed?” I think this term “reformed” is miss used often today by several Christians unfortunately. Some would think that just if your church goes through the Bible verse bible verse, this makes you “reformed.” Some would think if you have a beard this makes you “reformed.” Some would think that if you sing only psalms In worship, this is what makes you “reformed.” My point in this, is that we need to accurately and historically be able to define what it means when someone calls themself “Reformed” and not muddy the water with all these other types of definitions. So what does being “Reformed” mean in its very basic definition. Being “reformed” comes down to believing in 3 basic secondary doctrines which are; Covenantal, Calvinistic, and Confessional

Covenantal- is the means in which “Reformed” people recognize how God has historically Redeems His people in the Bible. It teaches that there is only one true people of God throughout all of history, and that God has revealed himself through a series of Covenants in the Bible.

Calvinistic- This is the doctrinal stance of sociology which is sometimes referred to as the Doctrines of Grace. Simply put, these doctrine herald that salvation is of the LORD alone! Unfortunatly many have label “Reformed theology” as only needing to hold to this singular doctrine of “Calvinism.” Brothers and Sisters, one is not “reformed” if only holding to the doctrines of Grace while forgoing all other reformed doctrine.

Confessional- To be “reformed” means that you also hold to a historical confession. One of the main reason that the 1689 LBCF was written was to show unity with other “reformed” Christians, namely the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the 17th century.

(Concluion “Reformed”) Now It might be news to some, but if you don't Hold to one of those 3 “C’s” of Reformed Theolgoy, then you just simply can’t call yourself reformed. That is not to say that you are wrong, it is simply to say you can’t be reformed because it is a violation of the definition of what it means to be “Reformed” in the first place.

(Confession) Today’s study though Is focused on doctrine number 3 of being reformed, and that is the need and use of creeds and confessions.

Why

But why confessions in the first place?

How many of us have ever heard of this saying; “No creed but Christ?” This saying of “No creed but Christ” sounds good does it not? What if I told you that this modern evangelical saying, that sounds nice to you and I, is actually moronic because it is a logical paradoxical fallacy And is used by almost every false religion and cult of our modern day.

Why is it a paradox statement? A “creed” simply means; a statement of faith. “No creed but Christ” is a statement of faith. It is a paradox Because to say no creed but Christ is a creed in and of itself. But what do creeds have to do with confessions? Well a confession is just simply a more lengthy and through explanation of a statement of Faith.

Another reason to avoid the idea of “No Creed but Christ” is because many cults also use this statement is some form of there system.

Church of Christ “The Church of Christ has no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, no name but the name Christian.”

Jehovah Witnesses “We do not have a creed that defines God, Christ, or faith. Our only creed is the Bible.”

Christian Science “We have no creed but the divine mind of Christ.”

Unitarian Universalism “We seek Christ, not a creed.”

Oneness Pentecostalism “We have no creed but Jesus Christ our Lord”

Mormonism “We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly, and no creed but the Living Christ.”

Also Jospeh Smirth claims that God told him that all the Christians of the 19 century who believed in creeds, such as the 1689 LBCF or the 5 solas, were believing in something that was an abomination in the eyes of God

What do all these false religions have in common? Amongst several things, I would say that for today’s study, they chiefly miss orthodoxy. Why would these cults, who deny the Jesus of the Bible tell its adherents in some varying form “We have no creed it the Bible” while then denying what the Bible teaches? These groups want to distance themselves from historical teachings from faithful men on the Bible because those faithful teachings contradict the Cults false teachings.

Reason

Now the reason for Creeds & Confessions goes beyond just the obvious avoidance of doctrine from wack-a-dos from those previous mentioned religions. But the use of creeds and confessions is actually cimpelled to us from history and scripture itself.

(Scripture) Let’s first consider a couple of bible verses for us to consider

Let’s read again 1Timothy 3:16. (Read) This is thought and believed to be a early confession from the church in the first century that actually made itself into scripture. This was a common saying that is repeated by Paul to Timothy Under The inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

I think this actually teaches us a couple of things. Confessions can be good, as long as they confess what the Bible is teaching.

I also think this teaches us That confessions must be guided by scripture as its supreme authority.

and lastly, this verse I think also would teach us that if a confession is not biblical, it should be tossed and avoided. I say this because there are many confessions and creed in the world that are to be condemned. But by what authority do we condemn them? By the authority of Scirpture!

Now let’s turn to Hebrews 10:15-23 (23 is the important verse)(Read) I think that this verse is quite compelling in regarding statements of faith because it doesn’t come out and directly say what confession we need to hold to, but it says to hold to it. Now this does not give us permission to whimsically come up with anything on our minds for the confession, but the previous verse to this, and also restated in chapter 4:14, it seems to be telling us to always hold to our profession of Jesus and his finished work of salvation. How do we tell others about the finished work of Jesus? We confess Him as Lord! The previous verse here tell us about the covenant of Grace that Christ has mediated on our behalf, the work of what his blood has provided for us, and the forgiveness we have received as he resides as the great priest of the household of God.

This tells me a few more hints about confessions. firstly, it teaches that Christ must be the center object of our confessions.

Secondly, if it doesn’t teach Christ, it ought to be abandon.

And thirdly, Christ must be understood correctly in our confession.

I want to give you One more example of creeds and confessions from scripture. Turn with me to Matthew 16:15-18. (Read) These verses contain a creedal statement, that Christ says he will be Building his church upon as He is the rock of our salvation.

How many of us in here profess “Jesus is Lord?” Did you know that in the first century of the Church this was quite a scary thing to proclaim. During this time the Roman Caesar demanded that the people only say that Caesar was Lord. And so the creedal statement of “Jesus is Lord” is a claim that is defiant and true at the same time. Yet this saying of “Jesus is Lord” is a creedal statement that the earlier church was willing to die over.

So while many proclaim “No creed but Christ” mean well in their sentiment, they actually have disconnected themselves of the practices from the early

2. (History) And not only have they divorced themselfs from the early Church, but also from several centuries of giants of the faith. The Apostle’s creed, the Didiache, the Niciene creed, and the Athenasian creed are all forms of historical uses of creeds and confessions. Each time that these creeds were either used or came about was in times defencse for the church as wolves and false prophet taught doctrine that was counter to the gospel and the Bible. These early creeds sought to defend the God of creation, deity of Christ, the doctrine of the trinity, and so forth. They acted as teh walls of defense for the church to be safe behind.

(1689) Even in the case of the 1689 LBCF, it was written with a purpose to show unity with other reformed believers and while also standing for believers baptism. It was a document of harmony and a document of transparency. As Christians, we are to love the light, not flee from it. Confessions and Creeds act as a doctrinal light to those around us and serves as a helpful guardrail for us in our study.

Why Today

So why do we need confessions and creeds today?

(Imagine) Imagine you are on a beautiful mountain car drive. You are enjoy the day and continually are gain in elevation. You soon start to see snow on each side of the mountain. But you enjoyment than is met with fear as you crest the mountains peak. You are on a road that is now turned into a stepped switch back and is now going down the back side of the mountain with differing spots of snow and ice in front of you. (Question) Brothers and Sisters, would you be happy at the sight of guardrails? Yes you would. Let me ask you this, could you get down the mountain with no gaurdrails at all? Yes you could. But which would you rather have it be? Guardrails or no guardrails? Imagine that you family is in the back seat as well as think about answering this question. You and I would obviously say guardrails, even knowing that guardrails sometime fail, we would want that which is safest for us and our family. Creed and Confessions are like these guardrails for the churches. It is a mean of great safety to us.

The Creed and Confession Do not only serve as safeguardrail but it also serves as a way of unity. A great joy in holding to the 1689 LBCF, is not only that is it biblical, but that it has a host of other like minded Christians that have signed and subscribed to it. And this foes beyond the modern day but also ties us historical to previous Reformed Baptist and also to future Reformed Baptists.

But one of the greatest helps when it comes to the 1689 LBCF specifically is how strengthens us. This document is rich in its theology and summarization of Scirpture. It goes to great lengths to discuss many of the important doctrines in our bible in bite size pieces. It might take you all day to search in your Scripture about all the ways that man is fallen and sinful in nature.(Hold up the confession) But with this document and others like it, you can now read in a systamized manear, how you and I are completely lost with Christ. And also, you can see all the scriptural proof supports that send us to the scripture in a more direct manner to study out the claims in the 1689 LBCF.

Conclusion

My point in saying all of this Brothers and Sisters, is to help us see the need to study this document and to examine it claims to Scripture. The 1689, nor any other confession should never replace scripture, but it should help aid in the understanding of scripture. So it is my hope that as we progress through this book that you would enjoy the 1689 LBCF a little more than you already do, so that we can be unified together, protected from the dangers of this world, and be strengthen together by it.

Pray

Questions

Next week we will be discussing more of the history of the 1689 LBCF itself and start to look at chapter 1.