Sermon: The Case for Confessionalism

Let me pray before we open God's word together.

Our Father, we are thankful for the gift of your word.

We're thankful that reveals to us who you are, what it is that you require of us.

Great gift that you have given to us in your son.

We pray this morning that as we consider these things together, that we would find that you're opening our mind to understanding the truth of your word and that you would have your way with us. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Deuteronomy six, uh, verse four. This is a holy iner, sufficient word of God here, O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. The grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

We are university, reformed church. And so that means that our life and our life of ministry revolves around the university. Uh, it is our great aim to reach that university with the gospel of Christ and to minister each year along those lines to those that gather at the university. And so in many ways, our year follows the academic calendar. So each fall we are seeking to reach those new students and staff and faculty

and scholars that come to the university. And as they come here, we want them to walk through the doors of this church and find this to be a place of hospitality and truth. We believe both of those are essential. They need to hear truth and they need to receive, uh, our hospitality as they come through the doors. In the summer months, uh, we prepare ourselves for our fall ministries and so we prepare ourselves by getting ready

and equipping to be hospitable when people walk through the doors. And then we are also seeking to equip ourselves for ministry to one another. And so we recruit for our men's ministries and our women's ministries and our Sunday morning gathering and for our youth ministries and our children's ministries as we seek to get involved in one another's lives and minister to one another. Six or so years ago, the elders kind

of looked at the calendar and said, ah, we, we, we have a gap here. We don't really have a focus at the beginning of the year and maybe that provides an opportunity for us. So we decided that what we would do is the start of each year, we would do what we call our faith focus, where we just take some subject, something that we want to see more in the DNA of our church that we want to see our church either grow in or that is absent from our church.

And so what we do is on Sunday mornings in the month of January, we preach through that one thing. We take a break from our going through a book of the Bible and we just preach through it on Sunday mornings. We then on Sunday evenings preach through it in a more practical way, a more specific way. And then what we ask our growth groups to do is during the month of January, we give them a couple of different possibilities for studying along these lines

as faith focus and ask them to do that. We also ask all of our ministry directors and area leaders to come up with a plan on how they will work it through their ministry area. And then this year we did something a little different. We gave you a book as Pastor Nate pointed out this morning that you could do with your family and private devotions or do with your roommate or by yourself. It's just we're just trying to get something more in the DNA of our church.

This year, uh, our elders decided that our faith focus would be, as you see in the handout and as we announced last week, we're calling it Rooted Confessionally Connected Universal Reform Church is a confessional church but marks us. And that's important to understand because it shapes both what we believe and how we do ministry here. And so it's important for you and I to understand it. We are confessional. That is we as a church confess,

the Westminster confession of faith and the larger and the shorter catechisms of the Westminster Assembly. We do so in continuity with other creeds and confessions that have historically articulated the core. The faith Pastor Kevin will tonight preach on that and looking at the first seven ecumenical creeds, uh, that were, uh, put in position by the church, we are connected to the churches of the past. As he will look at tonight.

We are connected to churches in the present and we are connected to churches in the future and this has major implications for our ministry here at University Reform Church, which I hope to draw out even more next week and in the week after. But what I want to do this morning, Lord willing, is just help us to understand the biblical case for Confessionalism because for many or even most of us as I go through our URC about URC class,

I think for most of us this is strange and it's different and it can even be offensive. And so I want to make the case to you this morning from the scriptures. When I went off to college, I found myself attending a college ministry and by God's incredible grace, I came to saving faith in that ministry. And that college ministry came from a historical tradition called the Campbell Light Movement. Uh, the Campbell Light Movement, uh,

arose in the 18 hundreds. It was a revivalistic movement and it formed a number of denominations out of that movement. You may not be familiar with that movement, uh, but I bet you're familiar with the slogan of that movement. Most of you, that's something you know or that you've heard and it is the slogan, no creed, but the Bible, no creed, but the Bible, I remember thinking that was exactly right. I had seen a dead church in my childhood

where people were just confessing manmade creeds and with no heart and no life. And I thought that kind of confessing together, it seemed to me like the apex of of deadness and dead spiritualness. So when Lee and I found our way into a Presbyterian church when we moved to Dallas, Texas, I was absolutely disgusted that the church that we were in that particular Presbyterian church every week had a confession of faith. It was a corporate confession of faith.

It often came from the early creeds of the church or it came from the Westminster Confession and it was corporate. And that the entire church as we did this morning from Philippians two would confess it together in most weeks. I refuse to participate. Uh, some weeks before the service began, I would sit down and I would read in the bulletin what we were going to confess that morning, and I would think about the confession in the bulletin

and if it passed muster with me after my close scrutiny, then I would sheepishly and reluctantly mouth the words with everyone else in the congregation. No creed but the Bible. I'd understood that I'd imbibed it and I'm thankful, eternally thankful for that campus ministry that I came to saving faith in eternally thankful for the teaching I received there and the zeal of those college students. But its tradition was wrong.

It was just flat out wrong. As one reformed historian rightly said, he said the endeavor to have no creed, but the Bible is successful only so long as there is common agreement as to what the Bible teaches. And I would add friends, once you have that common agreement about what the Bible teaches, you have a confession.

Of course, what is so funny about the slogan no creed, but the Bible is that it itself is a creed. It's a confession. People by nature confess what they believe and I want to think through that together biblically this morning. I want to do so by looking at a few passages, but primarily this Deuteronomy chapter six verse four. Again, Deuteronomy six, four here, oh, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. If you were a Jew at any time in the history

of the world from the time of Moses until the present, you would know Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. In fact, a modern day practicing Jew confesses and prays Deuteronomy six verse four, at least twice a day. It is not an overstatement to say that Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four is at the very heart of Judaism. It's at the very core of what Israel believed it is called historically the great Shama. Deuteronomy six, four here, oh, Israel here.

That word here in Hebrew is Shama. It's the great Shama. Israel in the ancient world was unique. It was surrounded by all of these other nations and whatever of these nations that you would take that had surrounded it from the Canaanites to the Jebusites, to the Amorites, to the AILITEs, to Babylon, to Assyria, even to the Greeks and to the Romans, whatever nation you would take surrounding Israel, that nation believed in Gods not one God.

Gods in Israel's unique. It was odd, it was even strange in that it did not believe in Gods, it believed in a God. It was monotheistic as we'll say belief in one God here, oh Israel, the Lord are God. The Lord is one. The word Lord, there as you look in your Bible, it's all in caps in most of your translations. And that's because that translation is telling you. That's a specific word. That's the word Yahweh in Hebrew.

It's the covenantal name of God that God revealed to Moses from the burning bush. The covenantal God is their God and they are his people and he alone is God. The word here is equal to God saying, obey Israel. Do Israel, especially within the context that this is God's covenant withs people. In fact, in the preceding chapter, Deuteronomy chapter five, the nation of Israel was given the 10 Commandments, the summary of the entire moral law

and the very first commandment is what you shall have No other god's before me. He alone is God none other like him. You have this one God, Israel, and what is the implication? Deuteronomy six, five, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your might. As one commentator said, to hear God without putting into effect the command is not to hear him at all. The great Shema is

so very important to the Jewish people since the time of Moses, even today saying it aloud at least twice a day. It is so very important. Why? Because it's, it articulates. It summarizes and articulates the very core of what Israel believed and in whom they had believed. And this is what confessions do.

They summarize or seek to summarize and articulate what we believe, what we believe the scriptures teach. It's what they do. It doesn't change with the New Testament,

God's people keep confessing what they believe. It's our first point this morning just two points. The first is this is God's people confess what they believe. You see that with Israel. They confess what they believe. God calls them to confess what they believe. That carries over into the New Testament, no creed, but the Bible is not biblical. Jesus himself, he elicits confession of faith. I want us to think about that together from the passage

of Matthew 16, a scene that is very famous. It's a turning point in the whole book of the gospel of Matthew. It's there at Caesarea Philippi where Jesus has all of his disciples before him at Caesarea Philippi. And it's a famous place in the Old Testament and in the ancient world was here at Ca Caesarea Philippi that the headwaters of the Jordan River were. And so it was a very lush area. There was all kinds of green there.

And so it quickly became a, a place where nature was worshiped. The ancient Canaanites built a a a sanctuary there to bail as a sign of fertility there in the area. But it wasn't just that Cesarea Philippi was also known by another name. It was known as Panas named after the Greek. God panned to whom the Greeks had dedicated a temple in that very same place as well. But it wasn't just that, it was called Caesarea Philippi

because when Herod the Great, he had been given this land by none other than Caesar Augustus as a reward. And so there was Herod the Great built a temple to honor Caesar Augustus and then his son renamed it Caesarea Philippi. So Caesarea Philippi was known throughout the ancient world as this place of worship. It was a monument to pluralism. It was a kind of capital of syncretism in the ancient world. And it's there that Jesus has the disciples

before him and it's there in that context that he elicits confession from them. And he asks the question, who do you say that I am?

And Peter, Peter, who is always ready with an answer declares in boldness, you are the Christ, you are the son of the living God.

And Jesus says, in response on this rock, I will build the church. Not Peter, but Peter's confession.

He solicits the confession and then says On this, I will build the church.

Romans 10, nine through 10, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes in is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Notice that both for Jesus and for the apostle Paul. There's no such thing as just a private inward faith.

No. When you have faith,

it's required. It's demanded of you and I that we confess it, that we say it, that it has given breath and voice to the ears of those around us to hear it. God's people confess what they believe.

Second, when we confess what we believe, we are confessing doctrine.

Israel confessed the Lord, the Lord our God. The Lord is one Peter confessed thou Lord the Christ, the son of the living God. Paul said, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's doctrine. God is one, Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is Lord. Jesus was resurrected from the dead. We confess what we believe and that is doctrinal.

As Carl Truman said about Romans 10, nine through 10, what I just referenced, he said, words and content are thus significant. What Paul does not say is, if you have a warm incommunicable feeling in your heart and express this by incoherent words and sounds from your mouth, you'll be saved. No, there is propositional content there publicly expressed in a manner comprehensible to others. God's people confess what they believe.

And when we confess what we believe, we are confessing doctrine as we will see next week, especially the great motivation behind no creed. But the Bible is that the argument was doctrine divides

and the scripture said, no, no, no. Doctrine does not divide as we'll. Look at next week. It actually is the only basis for unity.

Thus it's not strange that we find in the New Testament church early confessions of the faith. Paul writes in one Timothy one 15, this statement is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Paul is referencing words that others were already using and he references them as core truth that must be believed. And then he says, we accept it. We confess it. Who in Philippians two, five through 10,

what I had us confess this morning from the scriptures,

almost all scholars see Philippians two, five through 10 as an early creed that was used in the church. There is a rhythm to it, there is a conciseness to it. And what is it that we're confessing in Philippians two verses five through 10, confessing the incarnation, confessing the life of Christ, confessing the death of Christ, confessing the exaltation of Christ. It's doctrine, no creed, but the Bible denies the Bible.

What is a confession of faith? Again, it's just simply the church attempting to summarize and articulate what the Bible says. It's always attempting to do what we believe the scriptures teach. And that's what I want you to take away from this morning 'cause it's very biblical. All that creeds and confessions are doing are attempting to summarize and articulate what we believe, what we believe the scriptures teach.

And you want to know what the scriptures teach. We want to live as a body according to what the scriptures teach you want in your families as you're gathered together to to be explaining and be summarized and articulating to each other as husband and wife and add to your parents and parents or children to your parents. You want to articulate what the scriptures teach.

So let me just answer a few questions in closing ones that are pretty common. First, can't we do without confessions? Can't we do without confessions? What you can try but you won't succeed because you and I are naturally going to confess what we believe. No creed, but the Bible is a creed. People always confess what we believe. Even if it is an articulated, there is still a body of belief. For example, if I as a Pato Baptist, that is as someone

who believes that covenant children, children growing up in the church are to be baptized, if I went to one of these denominations that came out the candlelight movement and I asked to be a pastor in one of these denominations, they would rightfully say no. Why? Because they believe in only believers baptism, credo baptism and not covenantal baptism. And so they rightfully would disbar me from becoming a pastor in one of their congregations.

Rightfully so. Every church, regardless of its claim, every Christian regardless of this or that Christian's claim has a confession. As soon as you and I begin articulating what salvation is, we're confessing. As soon as you say anything about Jesus more than his name, you're confessing. You are articulating and summarizing what you believe the scriptures teach. It is inescapable. Second, doesn't this show a lack of dependence upon the Bible?

No. It actually shows more dependence upon the Bible.

God has so graciously think about this all the time. He could have left us in utter darkness. He could have said, try and find your way through this morass. But he doesn't. He he by his incredible grace, he shines the light in this world by giving us the scriptures so that we know who he is so that we know salvation through Christ so that you can place your faith in him. He's given us his word. Confessions aren't taken away from this word.

We're actually exemplifying our dependence upon this word.

And Acts 20, when Paul is on the beach with the the elders of Ephesus, he, he says to them about his ministry among them, he says, I did not shy away from declaring to you the whole council of God. What does he mean? He means that as a preacher, he was not a hobby horse preacher. He wasn't a one topic tom or a one doctrine Dan. He preached it all. And in the same way as Christians, you and I want to understand the whole counsel of God.

And as we seek to articulate what the scriptures teach, we gotta understand the whole council of God. So if I said to you, tell me what prayer is, how do you do There's no verse you can turn to that articulates what prayer is. There's no verse that gives every component of prayer or every type of prayer or every effective prayer or every cause for prayer. You can't do it. No. If I was to ask you what prayer is, you would no doubt turn

to the Psalms, you would turn to a Psalm like Psalm 88, but you wouldn't stop there. You would no doubt turn to other passages like Acts 10 where Peter is on the rooftop and he is in prayer. You would go to Ephesians three where Paul Grs praise that great prayer for the church in Ephesus, that they would know the height and the depth and the breadth and the length of the love of Christ. You would no doubt go to John 17

and Christ high priestly prayer. You would no doubt go to the gospel of Matthew, Matthew six, where Jesus says, go into your closet when you pray and you would take all of this and more and you would put it all together and you would seek to summarize and then articulate what prayer is.

This is all the confessions are trying to do. If we turn to the Westminster short of catechism, it briefly summarizes and articulates the definition and practice of prayer in question and answer 98 Question, what is prayer? And it answers prayers and offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies. And then you could go look up all the proof text

and you could say, is it really accurate? And the summary and the articulation that it's giving of prayer, it says dependence upon the Bible. Third, doesn't confessionalism give something authority over or equal to the Bible? No. Westminster confess in phase chapter one is on holy scriptures. Westminster has confession of faith, has been criticized through the ages in that some have said, listen, the Westminster Divines, that is the men who wrote

that document in the 1640s that they made a great heir. They should have began the Westminster confession of faith with the first chapter being on God and all things begin with God. But they began it with holy scriptures and they began it with holy scriptures. I think rightfully because they're saying, look, we know nothing about God as savior. We know nothing about him as our redeemer. We know him nothing absolutely perfectly

apart from what is revealed to us in the scriptures. In fact, in chapter one, section six of the Westerner confession, they say this, the whole council of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the spirit

or the traditions of men. So even the Westminster confession of faith is saying, look, we would not dare to add anything to the scriptures. There is nothing that is above the scriptures. There is not even anything that is on par with the scriptures.

All that we are confessing, we are deducing from the scriptures. Summarizing and seeking to articulate the confessions are only right as they are right in summarizing and articulating what the scriptures say. So a related question, does being confessional mean that the church is establishing what is true? And again, the answer is no. The church never establishes what is true. A thing doesn't become true because the church says it is true.

Rather the church says a thing is true because she believes the thing itself is true. In other words, the church doesn't define truth. The church doesn't create truth, the church doesn't establish truth. She identifies and affirms what is already true and how does she know what is already true? Because it's revealed here.

Thus, if we ever find our creeds, ever find our confessions out of accord with the scriptures, we amend them, we change them. In fact, in presbyterianism, in our polity, that is how we govern the church. We have a very clear laid out way that in our ecclesiastical courts there is a way to amend our confessions when we find or if we find they are out of a accord with the scriptures. Because the confessions are what we say in Presbyterian.

They are our subordinate standards. They're subordinate. Subordinate to what? To the scriptures.

Lemme give you just two quick applications.

First, would you begin reading through the devotional book that we have given to you as elders here at the church? If you haven't grabbed one as Pastor Nate said, you can grab one on the way out. Would you begin reading through that as it's going through the shorter catechism? And what I want you to do is just be open. Just have an open mind that the confession may have something to teach you what the scriptures teach

as you read it alongside the word of God. If we're going to exercise our wills for God, we must have hearts for God. But if we're going to truly know and obey this God, we must know him with our minds and the mind and the heart and the will always operate together. And so we must be able to articulate what we believe. And that takes some effort, that actually takes some study that actually takes you trying to get your your arms around

what, what does the whole council of God teach on this?

Because you want to know God more fully and you want to know his word more completely so that you can delight in him all the more

and so that you can be of more service to the kingdom.

Second, you take this week read through Westminster Confess Confession of Faith, chapter 18, chapter 18. It's my favorite chapter in the whole confession of faith. There are a number of you that have come to me over the years because you're a struggling with assurance of salvation besides troubled marriages and troubled troubles with children. The third thing that I'm most often counseling people about is assurance of salvation.

I've found over the years, and if you've come to me to talk through your struggle with assurance of salvation, I've led you through chapter 18 of Westminster Confession Faith.

It is incredibly beautiful, incredibly pastoral. It is robust doctrinally, it is sound biblically. Once you, just to take a a few minutes this week, you, you can find the Westminster Confession of Faith Online. You can find copies here on the standout here. Doesn't take long to read chapter 18. In fact, it will take you all two minutes and 41 seconds. I timed myself last night. My kids sat, they like to sit while I'm working on the sermon

and my study last night, they're both sitting there and they were each doing their own thing reading a book. And I'm sitting there and I'm starting the timer and they're watching me and listening to me. Say it out loud. Two minutes, 41 seconds. That's all it's gonna take you. And then if you wanted to, you could look at all the proof texts, depending on the confession you had. There are at least 20 proof texts and you could walk through all those proof texts

and say, does this actually line up with what the scriptures teach? That'd take you all 15 minutes,

but you do that this week, two minutes and 41 seconds. Minimum 15 minutes max.

And if you will, think through it with your mind and pray through it with your heart. Engage. I promise you that you will find yourself stirred by the truth of the word, the summary of it, the articulation of it. You may even find yourself confessing, ah, the Lord. The Lord my God is one. You may even find yourself delighting in the fact that you oh Christ are the son of the living God. And you've purchased my salvation and you've sealed it,

and you've given me this great gift of the assurance of my salvation. You may even find yourself worshiping, which is what confessions and creeds are motivated in leading you to do all they are. It's a summary, an articulation of what we believe the scriptures teach, and we want to be able to articulate what we believe the scriptures teach.

For the next two weeks, what I'm gonna do is walk through the blessings of being confessional. We're gonna look at a number of things over these next two weeks and hope to press it home a little more. Let's pray together.

Our Father, we're thankful that you are a God who reveals yourself. We're thankful for the saints that have come before us, that have fought deep and prayed long and dialogued much about the scriptures, men and women that have given their lives, that we might receive this good deposit of the faith, shoulders of giants upon whom, which we stand and are able to confess and articulate what it is that your word teaches. We're thankful that we do not stand alone,

but by his power of your spirit, that you work in the church, that you continue to keep this word alive in our day and we want to confess it. We want to confess it boldly without reserve, with all of our mind, all of our heart, all of our soul. See, our wills moved accordingly. We give you praise, our Lord and our God. Amen.