956. It’s Not Just a Creed

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today, we're concluding a study series based on the creed that students recite each day in chapel services, which is a summary of the doctrines of our Christian faith. Today's sermon will be preached by Dr. Sam Horn. I'd like to ask you to take your Bible this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 4.

If I had a title for the message this morning, I would call it this. It's not just a creed. There is much more going on when you and I profess and confess the truths that are in this creed.

For many, many years, my wife and I and my family have had the privilege of working during the summers with a program at the Wiles called CIT. And one of the early summers that I was there, I heard a statement that was made by one of the other speakers that really has stuck with me and it applies to what we're talking about this morning. And the statement was this, we do what we do and we say what we say because we think what we think. And he went on to say we think what we think because we believe what we believe about God, about his world, about man from his word.

In other words, what I think arises up out of what I believe and my belief system arises out of the Word of God. So this morning as we look at the creed together, the text before us is going to teach us some things about the creed. And what I want to encourage you to do as we wrap up the semester is maybe just jot some of these ideas down and reflect on them over the course of your years here as you think about the creed. When you think about the nine statements that make up our creed, let me give you five ideas that at least ought to lodge in our thinking. Number one, these are biblical statements. These are biblical truths. These are inherently and thoroughly biblical.

Their authority rises up out of the express teaching of scripture. Our creed is not the only creed confessed by Christians or affirmed by Christians. It's not the oldest creed. That distinction belongs to a creed called the Apostles Creed which arose in the early church around 140 AD. But ours is a creed that is inherently biblical.

And then the second thing I think I would use, the word I would use to describe the realities that you and I affirm every day in chapel is this. They are not just biblical truths. They are important truths. They are significant truths. They are not minor or obscure doctrines that are sort of buried in the corner somewhere of a New Testament book.

They are taught clearly, expressly, repeatedly and consistently throughout the witness of the New Testament documents. And then thirdly, they're essential truths. These truths are what we would call cardinal truths or primary truths that make up the content of the Christian faith. Seven of the nine are actually essential components of what it means to be a New Testament believer.

In other words, if you don't believe what the creed articulates in those seven areas, you cannot be, according to the documents of the New Testament, a genuine New Testament believer. So they're not just biblically relevant truths and they're not just significant truths. They're actually essential truths to your relationship to God through Jesus Christ.

And then number four, they're bold truths. These truths that you and I affirm together or recite together are bold statements of allegiance to a single Lord above all other earthly authorities. They are exclusive statements of true religion and what it actually entails in the face of all other competing religious ideologies and all other earthly authorities. And the history of the church, particularly at certain seasons throughout that history, is filled with the stories of individuals who valued these truths and gave allegiance to these beliefs even to the point of the cost of their own lives.

And then they are defining truths. You and I, when we genuinely affirm and boldly confess the truths in our creed, are actually declaring our loyalty and our allegiance to God in the face of a world that actually rejects those truths, refuses to give allegiance to the God who gave those truths, and at times is aggressively hostile to those people like you and like me who embrace those truths. Our creed is essentially countercultural to the world's theology, what it actually believes and professes about God. It's countercultural to the world's morality, how it views the moral and ethical norms of life, and it is countercultural to the world's idea of what evangelism should be. In other words, you live in a world where the vast majority of people do not think they need to be saved from sin. They believe they need to be saved from ignorance. And so as you look at this creed, this creed is entirely definitive.

It is countercultural at every level. And so as you say and affirm these nine realities, you come to the place in your life where the Apostle Paul was writing to Timothy at a very similar stage in his life, and Timothy is exhorted, like you and I are exhorted, to hold onto these truths with all of his strength in the face of extreme opposition and pressure and relentless persecution, and then to defend these truths in the face of anyone who would contradict or deny them. And you can see this reality in two texts.

Let me just read them to you and you can see them for yourself. 2 Timothy 1.13, Paul says to Timothy, Hold fast, grip firmly the form of sound words which you have heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. And then in Titus 1.9, holding fast the faithful words as you have been taught that you may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. So this morning, as we wrap up our time in the creed, I've asked you to turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4, because I want to show you how the Apostle Paul actually takes a creed in the New Testament, a creedal statement, and how he uses it to shape the life and the ministry and the health of people like you and like me. And if we're going to see that story and understand how Paul actually uses this creed, we actually have to start up in verse 14 of chapter 3, where Paul says to Timothy, these things ride I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how you ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar in the ground of truth. And then he lays out an early New Testament creed. And it goes like this, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Now that New Testament statement is an early New Testament creed that we believe was often repeated and recited and affirmed by believers when they came together to worship. That creed has six individual statements about the Lord Jesus Christ. Our creed has seven.

And then there are two that speak to the authority and the inspiration of scripture and the creation of man as a direct act of God. So we have a very similar creed in large measure to the one that you and I recite and affirm every day. And so I want you to notice out of this text, number one, that creeds serve an important purpose. The creed that you have been reciting for your time here as a student at Bob Jones University has a very important function in your life as a believer.

And let me lay it out to you this way. A creed like the one Paul is using here in verse 16 of chapter 3 has the ability to teach us how to behave as members of the household of God. In other words, the realities and the doctrines that we are affirming that have been revealed by scripture and are captured in the creed we recite actually prescribe acceptable thinking and acceptable behavior for those who are actually part of God's household of faith. Paul is reminding Timothy that God wants him and the people that he is shepherding to know how to live their lives as the household of faith. This is not what you do when you show up at church. This is not words that you say just in the context of a worship service.

This is actually how God wants you to live your life. And the reason for this is Paul says to Timothy that you and those who serve with you are overseeing and actually members of the household of God. And God has done something with this body of people. He has established in them the truth. He has given to this community of people that have been called out of darkness, transported, transferred over into the kingdom of his dear son, and he has revealed to these people what the truth really is. They really are the place where God has deposited the truth. So if you are in the world and you get to the place where you really want to know the truth about the big questions of life, Paul is saying to Timothy, God has put that truth somewhere. He has established a ground upon which he has established that truth, and that ground, that place, that location is the body of believers that he has called out of darkness and has placed into his own household. So the truth resides with you. And the God who gave you that truth intends for you to do something with that truth as the household of God. And you can see the imagery there, the church of the living God, which is the pillar and the ground of truth. It's the place where God has revealed and established truth, but it's also the place where if you live in the world and you get desperate enough and you're looking for the deep truth of God that can change your life, there's a place where that truth is being held up and it is being declared and it is being displayed. And it is in the truth that God has given to the church as it is being portrayed and displayed by the way they live their life. And so as you think about the creed this morning, one of the functions that the creed has is it teaches us how to behave as God's people, and it reminds us of what we should believe. So what exactly do we believe about Jesus Christ?

What do we actually believe about the scriptures? What do we actually believe about the death of Christ? And the resurrection of Christ? What are the implications of the incarnation of Christ that we're about to celebrate later this month and a few weeks when you head home?

Or in a week and a half actually. And so the creed that Paul uses in 1 Timothy chapter 3 actually has an important function. It teaches us how to behave and it reminds us of what we should believe. And the truth that Paul wanted Timothy and the believers that he was overseeing to believe was a great mystery.

Without controversy, great is the mystery. And this mystery, this divine secret that God had chosen to reveal had to do with godliness. And when Paul talked about godliness, he revealed it this way, that God himself had come in the flesh, and as you start reading through those six statements, you begin to discover that these are all talking about an individual that you know and that you have believed on and his name is Jesus. And so Paul is saying here to Timothy, the function of this creed is to teach you how to behave and to remind you of what you believe in light of the fact that God has come in the flesh through Jesus and you have embraced him.

And God has deposited truth about Jesus with you and he intends to display that truth by lifting you up like a light to the world as you live out those realities in your life. So creeds have great spiritual or have a great spiritual function but they also have great spiritual value. Look at verse 6 of chapter 4. Paul says, if you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, what things? Well if you go up to verse 14, that same phrase is there so he's obviously talking about the creed and there are people beginning in verse 1 who have come and deny that teaching and speak against that teaching and seduce people away from those realities and then Paul says to Timothy in verse 6, now regarding these things that I talked to you about when I showed you that creed up in verse 14 through 16, if you put the brethren in remembrance of those things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.

One that is nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto you have obtained. And so Paul says to you and to me and to Timothy, the creed that I deliver to you up in chapter 3 verses 14 through 16 has a great spiritual value in that it makes you a profitable servant of Jesus Christ. It makes you useful. It makes you a good beautiful servant of Jesus Christ.

Now how does that happen? And it happens because of how you relate to a particular set of words about the faith. The sound doctrine about Jesus that is being articulated up in verse 16 of chapter 3. And Paul says it this way, you become profitable when the words about the faith of Jesus train you and educate you regularly that you nourish yourself in them and you follow, you remain committed to the truths that are taught about Jesus no matter who comes against them, no matter how convincing their argument might be, no matter how strongly they wage that argument, you are constantly nourishing yourself on the truth that is in that creed that Paul gave in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. And you are remaining in that creed as you feed your soul regularly on its truths. And not only will that make you a profitable servant of Jesus, it will make you an effective servant to others because when you actually understand and believe and know these truths that are being given to you here in bullet form in this creed that is articulated in chapter 3 verse 16, this great mystery of godliness, when you actually understand it and embrace it and can defend it, you will deliver yourself and you will deliver others around you from the devastating damage that has come or that comes when a person brings false teaching to bear in another person's life. Many of you in this room have had the wonderful fortune and privilege of sitting under good preaching from wonderful men who stand before you every week and to the very best of their ability. They come to the text and are careful exegetes of the text and they preach it passionately and authoritatively and your life has been enriched by that.

But that is not the case for everyone. There are people over the years that I've had the privilege of ministering God's word that I've known and I've cared deeply about and have been personally invested who have come under teaching that is expressly contrary to the teachings of what Paul has given here in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and they have embraced very passionately things that God actually tells a person not to believe. I'll just get very personal here. I have members of my family on my mother's side who have embraced teachings about the person of Jesus Christ where they no longer believe that he is the actual son of God or the only way in which a person can be saved. And as I think about those people and they're actually cousins that we had a lot of interaction or some interaction growing up as you think about what has happened to their life over the course of the years now decades of them embracing those realities you begin to realize there's a lot of damage that comes into a person's life because of false teaching. You have been extremely privileged by God and I know that you're thankful for this that God has given you the safety and the health that comes from sound teaching. Maybe your pastor wasn't a perfect pastor and maybe he didn't get it all right every single time but as you think about what you experienced growing up in your church and as you sat under your youth pastor week after week or maybe you went to a Christian school and you sat under teachers who day after day after day taught you and maybe they didn't get it right every single time but as you look back over the 18 years or 20 years that you sat under their teaching and their ministry of the word you are healthy spiritually because they fed you sound words. Don't assume that is true for everybody and don't ever take that for granted and I know you don't I would be remiss to sort of kind of speak to you thinking that you don't do that I know you appreciate that truth and I hope I do but this creed that Paul is using is actually designed to take you and make you that kind of a person over the next 40 or 50 years of your life and that brings us to the final thing. Creeds serve an important function and they have great spiritual value but in order for them to be effective they have to be practiced and not merely professed.

They have to be practiced and not merely professed. Look at verse 15 Paul says to Timothy meditate upon these things. You can take that little phrase that shows up in verse 14 of chapter 3 these things that shows up again in verse 6 these things that shows up in verse 11 these things command and teach and now verse 15 meditate on these things. What things?

The things that I talked to you about Paul says in the creedal statement in verse 16. Meditate on these things. Practice these beliefs personally. This is not just the idea of casually thinking this is the idea of careful intentional study that results in personal practice and behavior. Practice these beliefs personally. And then he says immerse yourself in them fully. Give yourself wholly over to them.

Be fully engaged in the pursuit of them. Find out why you believe in the inspiration of the Bible. Find out why you believe in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think carefully about how you would talk and argue for the resurrection of his body from the dead.

Think through why you can say his power to save men and me from sin. Give yourself wholly to the pursuit of these truths and then guard your life and your mind carefully. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Take heed and then persevere in these truths persistently.

Continue in them. For these truths have lasting impact on your life and on the life of others. So as we end this morning, I want to ask you some questions and then I want to leave you with a challenge.

Here are the questions. You've been saying this creed all semester. Some of you, this is your last semester. In a week and a half, you will finish successfully what God called you to do here. And you will embark on a new stage of life and ministry.

And my question to you is this. Will you confess the truths and the creed wholeheartedly? Will you believe them fully?

Will you practice them consistently? Will you proclaim them boldly? Will you contend for them earnestly when they're challenged?

And here's the big one. Will you suffer for them joyfully? Are you willing, on the basis of what you have learned about the creed and the cardinal truths of the Christian faith that are expressed there, are you willing to live in such a way even if that life costs you a promotion?

Or even if that life puts you in a very difficult place? The religious world has been rocked by the recent news of two Christian missionaries who believe these truths enough to go to dangerous places in order to proclaim them. And both of them gave their lives for the truths that you and I affirm in the creed that we say every day. Now, most of you know the story of Charles Wesco, 44-year-old Baptist missionary to Cameroon who, at the end of October, was shot to death two weeks after arriving in the country. And I know many of you watched the webcast of his funeral, very powerful testimony that the Lord used in many ways. But you may not be as familiar with the story of John Allen Chow, who at his 26-year-old American missionary was killed on November 17th, so just a little bit ago, shortly after he arrived on the island of North Sentinel located in the Bay of Bengal in India. Now, there's a lot of chatter about him.

He's not much older than many of you. His hero was Jim Elliott. It's interesting that Jim Elliott and John Chow had very similar trajectories and they were almost the same age when they died. The island where Chow went was the home of a very removed, alienated, unreached, primitive tribe of people that was so hostile the Indian government actually prohibited visitors of any kind.

They had a five-mile perimeter around the island and by law were not allowed to go past that line. Chow had been very burdened for the Sentinelese people and had spent a good bit of his college life training. For example, he trained in linguistics and in cultural anthropology to try to prepare himself to reach a tribe that didn't speak a language that he knew or didn't have a written language. He took 13 different immunizations and observed a period of voluntary quarantine to make sure that when he got there he wouldn't accidentally expose or inadvertently expose these tribal people to western diseases. He took the trouble to get basic medical training in order to provide help to this tribe once he arrived. To make a long story short, he decided with the group that represented him that he would go in alone.

This was not advised, it's not wise, but for the particular set of circumstances that he was looking at he made the decision to go in alone. And so he got a fisherman or two to kind of take him into the perimeter and he had a kayak that they towed behind the fishing boat and he would make his way the last mile on his own. And for several days as he tried to encounter these Indian people on this island, he kept a journal and the journal is available.

You can see it, it's downloadable. And he wrote on the day that he died, the night before he died, he wrote these words to his parents. He said, you guys might think I'm crazy in all of this, but I think it's worth it to declare Jesus to these people. His first encounter with the Indians resulted in a young man, not much older than a boy really, shooting an arrow at him and he instinctively held up his Bible and the arrow pierced the Bible and he looked at the arrow, pulled it out of his Bible and tossed it back to the Indian. Later, he would be shot to death by an arrow and buried in the sands. And it created a huge stir out on the internet. You can go out and read about all of the people that think this is an incredible waste of time and life and why would we even do something like this. I want to read you what Tim Challies wrote a week after this happened on his blog.

Here's what he said. God has a long history of using the deaths of missionaries to provoke and inspire greater mission. It seems he often addresses the church's apathy by allowing some of his faithful, zealous people to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I suspect the Elliot, Stamps and Childs of this world considered that more than a fair trade. We ought to pray earnestly that God uses child's death to shock unbelievers into repentance and to move believers like you and me into greater and deeper obedience. And I want to end with this statement.

What makes somebody like this think the exchange of their life is a fair bargain? And I would say to you it's the nine statements that are passionately declared and embraced every time we affirm our creed. Lord, thank you for our creed. Thank you for the truth that it reflects from the scriptures. I pray that it would help us, encourage us and challenge us. And so we pray these things now in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Sam Horn. This concludes our study of the Bob Jones University Creed about the doctrines of our Christian faith. Join us again tomorrow as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform.