SERMON: “Why Have a Statement of Faith?” (2 Tim. 1:13, 14, 2:2)
Why
Have a Statement of Faith?
(2 Timothy 1:13, 14, 2:2)
Series: Questioning the Church #4 Text: 2 Timothy 1:13, 14, 2:2
By: Shaun Marksbury Date: January
19, 2025
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church Occasion: AM Service
I.
Introduction
Suppose someone asked you on the street, “Hey, I’ve heard
you got a new pastor. What does your
church believe and teach?” Based on what
we previously discussed, you could reply by simply saying, “The Bible!” Yet, your friend might not accept that
answer, as that’s what practically everyone says. Suppose he or she is persistent, though —
you’ll find you need to define what you mean by “the Bible.”
Even though most Evangelical Christians have heard the Bible
should be our guide, it seems like many churches seem to be moving away from Scripture. In fact, there was a movement which began back
in the nineteenth century that echoes today; it sought to break away from
denominations and restore the Christian faith back to its basic tenants. In seeking to shed divisive denominational
elements and get back to Scripture, it ironically achieved the opposite effect.
It started with a benign-sounding mantra — “No creed but
Christ, no book but the Bible.” Of
course, since “creed” essentially means belief, saying “no creed but
Christ” is itself a creed.
Unfortunately, it’s one that fails to define Christ and Scripture, so
some professed Christians might say this while accepting wrong views (like
saying Jesus Christ is not God, the Bible contains God’s words but also human
error, etc.). By not drawing certain theological
boundaries, those repeating this mantra risk losing Christ and the
Bible.
In fact, false teachers purposefully used “no creed but
Christ” to squeeze in unbiblical ideas, finding an opening where many creeds
and confessions provided protections.
Within the American Baptist tradition, for instance, liberal theologians
smuggled in doubts as to the historicity of miracles in Scripture and emphasized
personal experiences. They also used it
to compromise Charles Spurgeon’s Baptist Union; while there is a danger of
elevating a creed above Scripture, Spurgeon “pointed out that if the creed
itself is true — that is, if it is in
harmony with Scripture and subject to Scripture — no such danger exists.”[1] Spurgeon went on to say,
To say that “a creed comes between
a man and his God,” is to suppose that it is not true; for truth, however
definitely stated, does not divide the believer from his Lord. …
I am unable to sympathize with a
man who says he has no creed; because I believe him to be in the wrong by his
own showing. He ought to have a creed. What is equally certain, he has a creed — he
must have one, even though he repudiates the notion. His very unbelief is, in a sense, a creed.
The objection to a creed is a very
pleasant way of concealing objection to discipline, and a desire for
latitudinarianism. What is wished for is
a Union which will, like Noah’s Ark, afford shelter both for the clean and for
the unclean, for creeping things and winged fowls.[2]
The anti-creedalists seem to have won, though. Most Evangelical churches never recite the
Apostles’, Nicene, or Athanasian Creeds.
While many have a statement of faith, it’s often paper-thin and seems to
hold little sway over the leadership.
Most Christians have difficulty defining even the most basic tenants of
their faith, stammering if someone asked them if Jesus is God or if someone can
be saved by faith through grace without works.
Creeds and confessions which don’t contradict Scripture can
help with this. Last time, I said that
we need to hold to the Reformation principle of Sola Scriptura, that
Scripture alone is the supreme authority for Christian faith and practice. To have a supreme authority means that lesser
authorities can help us define and understand the truth of the Bible.
So, we are considering whether it’s right to have such
statements by answering two questions.
First, is the concept of creeds and confessions biblical? Second, how might they help us? Let’s consider each of these.
II.
Are Creeds and Confessions Biblical?
Essentially, we are asking if there are key teachings that
Scripture highlights, and the answer is yes.
We could start with what’s called the Shema in Hebrew, a word
that means to listen or hear. It’s in
Deuteronomy 6, and it’s what the Jews would recite on a daily basis. Starting in v. 4, we read,
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today,
shall be on your heart. You shall teach
them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house
and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand
and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
This Shema was so repeated because it was important for
God’s people to see God is God alone.
Another clear example from the New Testament comes in 1
Corinthians 15:3–4, where we read Paul saying, “For I delivered to you as of
first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third
day according to the Scriptures.” He
says in the verses before that, that this is the gospel that he preached, “by
which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain” (v. 2).
This was a message to hold fast to, and the early church used this
passage as a definition of what the gospel is.
Turn now to 2 Timothy 1.
In v. 13, we read, “Retain the standard of sound words
which you have heard from me.” Paul
showed Timothy the standard of sound words, a standard that arose from biblical
teaching but also accurately explained it.
He gives him another command in v. 14: “Guard, through the
Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you,” which is what Paul said he himself accomplished back in v. 12. Timothy was to pass this on; 2:2 says, “The
things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust
these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Retain, guard, and entrust — there was a
standard of good doctrine by which Timothy could prepare the next generation
and protect them from false teaching.
What might that standard have looked like? Paul gives Timothy these words in 1:9–10 —
God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in
Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of
our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel.” If someone
were to say that our good works attracted God’s attention (like some of the false
teachers were proposing), then they depart from the standard. That’s why Paul could say there is a clear,
true gospel in Galatians 1 and could call others false. So, yes, Christians have always noted certain
standards of belief which we could call creeds or confessions.
Now, these standards don’t come alongside inspired
Scripture but instead arise from it.
These standards come together into frame of sorts, to liken it to a
house, built on the foundation of Scripture.
But are such standards really that necessary in a church?
III.
How Might Creeds and Confessions Help Us?
Because of Scripture, we can define some theological
boundaries. We can reject anyone
claiming that there are many gods. We
can also be encouraged by the true knowledge of the good news of Jesus Christ —
a concise statement that Jesus died for our sins encourage us when we are
feeling low or under attack spiritually.
We can look to Scripture and conclude with certainty what is true and
false.
So, Christians throughout the ages have crafted statements
to help define and defend the faith.
First, the developed creeds, again coming from the Latin word credo,
“I believe.” These were meant to be truths
that bind all God’s people together and to reject heresy. The Apostles’ Creed, as we’ve noted, affirms for
the universal (or catholic) church belief in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the
virgin birth, the forgiveness of sins, and the coming judgment. These creeds are generally true regardless of
denomination, so it’s safe to say that one cannot claim to be a Christian while
holding major theological difference from the early creeds.
A confession is similar to a creed. It stating Christian beliefs for believers which
unite them together on the local level.
It brings universal belief and further defines particulars which appear
on the denominational level. For
instance, all Christian believers hold to the importance of baptism, but not
all agree on the mode or the recipients of baptism. The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689
was written to show many points of agreement with Presbyterian Westminster
Confession of Faith, but it also highlighted key differences in areas like
baptism, which we will discuss in a few weeks.
Confessions are typically historical documents, but not
always. A statement of faith is
synonymous with a confession, though it can also sometimes feel like a
sub-species of it. Some churches do not
necessarily require their pastors and teachers to hold to them, nor do they ask
their members (if they have members) to sign off on them in any way. Moreover, these statements can be anemic by
comparison, giving a dozen or so pithy statements that can fit on a single page
rather than the multiple-page booklets comprising many of the historic
confessions.
Some statements are larger, though. For instance, this church is familiar with
the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. This
is a statement which is the product of many good revisions. For instance, it paused the egalitarian push
in the convention by reserving the pastoral role for qualified men (though many
today are pushing again, arguing erroneously that this only applies to senior pastors,
and there can therefore be female associate pastors in churches). This is a more detailed statement than what
many churches have on their websites.
Yet, it also suffers from a broadness in points, lacking definition in
key areas, creating a “big tent” that would not always work on the local level.
We’ve been handing out a slightly different statement from
Grace Community Church called, “What We Teach.”
It’s not quite as detailed as some of the historic confessions, but it’s
far more detailed than many modern statements.
It bears the influence of history and many thoughtful men who knew
theology at The Master’s Seminary and University. Because that’s where I received my training
and our leadership has also been heavily influenced by both Grace Church and
Grace to You, it’s the perfect expression of where we are currently.
The advantage to calling it “What We Teach” is that it
unifies our pastors and teachers. Yet,
it gives grace to some church members who might not understand or agree 100%
with it. It avoids creating lockstep
agreement for members still growing in their understanding of Scripture while
helping them to see some future areas of recommended study.
But, is it important to have a statement of faith? Recently, I was listening to Pastor Don Green
of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, OH, answer this question. He’s a former pastor at Grace Community
Church before moving to become the senior pastor in his Ohio church. He just wrote John MacArthur: An Insider’s
Tribute and has a great perspective on how a robust statement of faith has
helped both churches. I’m adapting a
couple of his points for our study.
A.
First, a confession of faith speaks to the
purpose of the church.
When we know what core beliefs unite us as a church, we know
why we gather. We know what drives our
worship, whether we’re singing together, praying, or hearing the Word of God
explained. We know what our purpose
is.
We can consider it this way.
God saw fit to reveal Himself in written form for His people throughout
the ages. It is not wrong, then, for
God’s people to express what they believe about the truth in written form. It’s interesting that we have no problem with
this when it comes to writing books on particular subjects germane to the
faith, or writing praise songs, but sometimes we struggle with systematizing
the truth of God’s Word and publishing it to reveal what we believe about God.
A statement of faith helps new people wanting to come to our
church, though. If they are Bible
believers, they will have an internal system of belief drawn from the pages of
Scripture. They will want a document
from us that they can examine and see quickly if we believe the Bible. Moreover, they can see if our understanding
of Scripture lines up enough with theirs for this to be a comfortable church
for them. I know that, when I am looking
at a church, one of the first things I do is go to the church’s website and
check their statement of faith — and the presence, size, and content of the
statement communicate what the church sees as important.
When a church has a confession of faith, it understands that
it exists to proclaim and defend truth. In
the Great Commission, Jesus commands we make disciples, to teach people
what He commanded (Matt. 28:20). That
doesn’t just mean the Gospel accounts, but all of His Word through what
would become the 66 books of Scripture.
Okay, but how do we know what to teach about Jesus or things
like salvation or sanctification? It’s
summarized in the church’s confession of faith.
Churches that fulfill the Great Commission have a good deal to say about
the truth of God’s Word, while those that lack a clear statement of faith might
be trying to hide the fact that they don’t follow the Great Commission. And that brings me to the next point:
B.
Second, a confession of faith helps us to
discern false teaching.
There are clear definitions in a good statement of
faith. It will define the difference
between justification and sanctification, for instance. So, if someone comes teaching that it is
through our personal good works that we get saved, we will know that person has
confused the categories presented in Scripture.
Of course, it can be intimidating to read through a lengthy
document like this, and many Christians (especially younger believers) are not
used to reading anything theological.
Moreover, prospective members may have questions about previously-unknown
doctrines, or they may see conflict with a particular point and their own
church backgrounds. A church should
always understand that people are at different places and can only sign off on
a document as they understand it, perhaps with some minor reservations.
Still, no one at the church can say that the leadership is
hiding its true beliefs, nor can anyone claim surprise. Moreover, the congregation can hold the
leadership accountable for deviating from the confession of the church. If a pastor begins teaching that God doesn’t
know the future, or that there’s a fuller gospel message out there that
requires us to keep good works, then the congregation is within its rights to
bring that man under discipline. That
brings me to the last point:
C.
Third, a confession of faith helps pastors know
their job.
Christian ministers should teach the Bible, explaining it to
give it meaning. Nehemiah 8:8 says,
“They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so
that they understood the reading.”
Elders must similarly be able to teach and refute (Titus 1:9). In Titus 2:1, Paul commands speaking of what is
fit for sound doctrine; doesn’t that imply there’s difference between the sound
and the unsound?
Now, if that’s the job of an elder, then he should be able
to recommend specific passages of Scripture to those who have struggles with a
point of doctrine (say, on the deity of Christ). May he not also recommend a sermon, a good
book, or some other form of media to help someone on this point? Then it follows that a confession of faith is
also a good tool he can and should utilize.
IV.
Conclusion
It’s emotionally appealing to true believers to say, “No
creed but Christ, no book but the Bible.”
However, Christians must answer the next questions — who is Christ and
what does the Bible teach? Any answer
given to those questions are summaries of Scripture and could come from creeds
and confessions.
You might say, “Yes, but it’s still uninspired.” That’s correct, but we have all manner of
uninspired elements in our worship because we recognize that God uses sinful
man. We sing hymns written by fallible
people, not just the inerrant psalms. Pastors
preach sermons when they could just read the Scripture aloud and then sit. Don’t you also read books, listen to radio
broadcasts or podcasts, watch programs and videos, and engages in other kinds
of learning that relies on people who might disappoint us? Utilizing the creeds and confessions is no
different, as long as we recognize that these statements come under the
submission of Holy Scripture.
If you haven’t considered this before, I hope that you will
read over a copy of the Apostle’s Creed and our statement, “What We
Teach.” We currently have a Sunday
School class going over the Fundamentals of the Faith if you want to dig
deeper. I also have many book
recommendations you can borrow. As 2
Peter 3:18 says, let us “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of
eternity. Amen.”
[1] John F. MacArthur Jr., Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes like the World,
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 220.
[2] Charles Spurgeon, “The Baptist Union Censure,” The Sword and the Trowel (February
1888), 82, as quoted in John F. MacArthur Jr., Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes like the World,
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 220.
