Thank you for having us. We thought that, or I thought, that we would start taking a look at the Westminster Confession of Faith. during this education hour. It’s always good for me to go through it and to be reminded, but I’m hoping that this will be a good opportunity for us all to look at the foundational Christian doctrines, doctrines of our particular faith. So before we get started, let me pray for us. You see this is a presentation that I did for the Knox School of Theology a couple of years ago.
Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for this day that you’ve made. Indeed, you’ve made it holy. You set it aside for us that we would come before you and worship and praise and service and and rest in the person and the finished work of Jesus Christ. Oh, Lord, what a glory this is. but an opportunity for us to draw ever closer to you through your Son. And so help us to do just that, even this morning. We ask, Lord God, that you would open our hearts, that Father, we would be open to all that you have for us this day, even starting now.
We ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen. So as I get organized, hopefully I’ll get a clicker and I can advance these slides from up there. Let us open up the Word of God from Acts chapter 26. Beginning at verse 9, Paul is in trouble, so to speak. He’s giving a defense before Agrippa, King Agrippa. And we’re kind of in the middle of that defense here in Acts 26 at verse 9.
I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priest, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme. In enraging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.
At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus. whom you are persecuting.
But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins in a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. For this reason, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day, I’ve had the help that comes from God.
And so I stand here testifying, both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light, both to our people and to the Gentiles. And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said, with a loud voice, Paul, you’re out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you out of your mind. But Paul said, I’m not out of my mind. Most excellent Festus, but I’m speaking true and rational words.
Amen. So the question I’d like to ask this morning is what need do we have of creeds and confessions. Should we even have them, use them, and certainly should we study them? Well, what are they? Confessions are proclamations of orthodoxy. And what is orthodoxy? Right teaching. That’s right. Proclamations of Orthodoxy, which provide instruments for personal and congregational declarations of faith in Christ and the historic truths of his word.
That’s from Dr. McGoldrick, as he wrote a pamphlet on the historical necessity for creeds and confessions. They’re proclamations of right teaching and provide instruments for personal and congregational declarations of faith in Christ. So do we really need them? Don’t we have all we need here in the Bible?
Yes and no. Yes and no. OK. All right. Well, I’m going to try to convince you that the right answer is yes. We’ll see. We’ll see. Chad Van Dicksorn wrote this in Confessing the Faith. Confessional Christianity is marked by two things. First, an elaborate confession of faith, which goes beyond the 10 or 12 points necessary for a basic Christian profession of faith. So when somebody joins the church here in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, what do you usually hear? Vows. Vows, thank you. How many? Five. Five. That’s it. That’s all you hear. Somebody comes and wants to join the church, and you ask them for a profession of faith, and generally speaking, all we hear are five vows. That’s it.
Professor Dr. Van Dikshoorn is saying that confessional Christianity is marked by an elaborate confession of faith. It goes beyond 10 or 12 points necessary. Confessions. Do we have any examples of creeds and confessions? Have they been used throughout history? And I think the answer would be yes. We use the Apostles’ Creed. Who wrote that? Did the apostles write it? No, they didn’t.
But it was this summation of what was thought to be the teaching of the apostles, a very concise summation of it that was used. You see here, probably put together between this time frame, 350 to 400 AD. The Nicene Creed, we also use that quite often. The Nicene Creed was put together, why? because there was heretical teaching about who Jesus was.
So can you come to some wrong conclusions by reading the Bible and think that, well, Jesus was just a man? Can people come to that conclusion? They can. They’re wrong, but it’s possible. Can you come to the conclusion that Jesus was only God? Can. They’re wrong.
I’m trying to push you in the direction of the necessity of creeds and confessions. And then you have all these other creeds and confessions. Augsburg, the Athanasian Creed, Helvetic, Scots, Belgic Confession, the Decrees of Trent. That’s the Roman Catholic Church. They apparently thought it was necessary to put together a confession, a decree. And then the Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646.
You see, in the line of creeds and confessions, the Westminster Confession actually comes pretty late in the history of the church. So it’s been around for a few years. I want you to see that and the importance of, well, we’ll get get to the importance of creeds and confessions, but just with regard to the Westminster Confession, it’s been around for, I don’t know, how many years would that be? Going on 400? I don’t know, my math isn’t all that good. Not quite 400, right? And so it stood the test of time, so to speak. Well, I don’t know, maybe we don’t need it.
Confessing the faith is an intelligent act, this is from Dr. McGoldrick, one which indicates the specific content of what a person or an ecclesiastical body believes. Now, that’s kind of important. Ecclesiastical body. What brings us together here? Our common faith? Ah, okay. Well, then it would be important for us to be able to define that faith, right? Okay, I’m pushing you in the direction of confessions. It’s an intelligent act, which indicates the specific content of what a person or an ecclesiastical body believes.
Who is Jesus? Isn’t that what Paul asked? Right before the scales were dropped from his eyes, isn’t that what he asks? Who are you that was speaking to him? That’s an important question. One which creeds and confessions pull together from the scripture. Who is Jesus?
Creeds and confessions have been necessary because God left the task of organizing and explaining his revelation Do you believe that? Dr. McGoldrick wrote that. Is the Bible in chronological order? No. Even some books in the Bible don’t appear to be in chronological order. One way in which we organize things is by chronology, by time. And so, if we’re going to understand the timeline of the Bible, we need to do some research, thinking, and pulling things together, don’t we? God left the task of organizing and explaining His revelation to believers.
Again, from Dr. McGoldrick, this insistence upon sound doctrine distinguishes Christianity from most other religions. which often stress cultic duties more than precise theology. What’s a cultic duty? It can be, I’m not sure that that’s what Dr. McGoldrick was thinking of. What about the Roman Catholic Church? How do you get cleansed from your sins in the Roman Catholic Church?
By doing things. There’s another thing that happens every single time the Mass is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church. What happens in the Mass? Sacrificing Christ, and as you’re taking it, you’re actually being, at that point in time, cleansed from your sin, as the priest declares it, right? That’s a cultic duty, that’s a cultic right that’s happening. And so that’s what the Roman Catholic Church is going to stress. You need to come to Mass to be cleansed of your sins. Christianity is distinguished because it stresses precise theology, right doctrine, orthodoxy.
To insist upon no creed but Christ may appear to be the zenith of piety But soon the question must arise, which Christ? So have you, I don’t know, we don’t live here yet. Do folks come to your door, knock on the door, and wanna talk to you about religion? What Christ do they bring to the door? Right, they don’t bring the Christ of the Bible, they bring a different Christ. Now they think they’re bringing the Christ of the Bible, But they’re wrong. And so, if we just cast off creeds and confessions, say, well, I just believe in Jesus. Well, okay, which one? Is it the Jesus of the Jehovah Witness? Or is it the Jesus of the Bible? Which Christ?
So, brothers and sisters, I’m gonna, Go out on a limb and say, we need creeds and confessions to pull together the doctrines of Scripture so that we do then understand and come together as the body of Christ, believing in the Christ of Scripture. And so creeds and confessions are a tool for us to use. They don’t go above the Bible. They’re not above the authority of Scripture. Scripture is the highest authority. But creeds and confessions help us as a tool to bring together the right teaching of the Bible. So we know which Christ.
Creeds and confessions. Therefore, everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven. As the session interviews folks for membership, they are seeking to hear a credible profession of faith. We can’t tell what’s on the heart of someone, but we can listen to their words, and we’re looking for that sincere, credible profession of faith. Exactly what Jesus states here in Matthew chapter 10. Everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who’s in heaven.
Now we’re not talking about church membership right now, but kind of. So this is really important. For those who are outside of the church, who say I really don’t need to belong to a church, I don’t need to be a member of a church, this particular verse should come to mind immediately.
No, no, no. You do need to confess Jesus Christ before men and God. And this is why it’s not because we make it up. It’s not because we think it’s a good idea. It is a good idea, but it’s because Christ tells us that you must confess him. And if you must confess him, then you must know which Christ, which Jesus.
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. See, right here in this passage, you see that Jesus must have been and still is fully man. How is it that God could die? And so you must confess that Jesus is fully man and also fully God.
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. It’s so important for us to understand that we must confess our faith, and if we must confess it, we must know exactly what it is. But in your hearts honor Christ as Lord, Christ the Lord as holy.
Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. How are you going to make a defense unless you pull together the doctrines contained in scripture? And what do we use to help us to do that? Creeds and confessions. Always being prepared to make a defense.
Are you starting to see the significance of creeds and confessions? Are you seeing what a help they can be to us? Again, from Dr. McGoldrick, those churches which have been overtly confessional. and have required their officers to subscribe to their creeds, have thereby helped to preserve Christianity against dilution of its teachings and defection from its God.”
What does it mean to subscribe to a creed or confession? Well, you subscribe something, you write your name down, right? You’re saying, if I subscribe to a contract, I’m saying I agree to these terms in the contract. Well, to subscribe to a confession is a bit different, but there are some similarities. You’re saying I agree with what is written in this confession, that this confession is biblical, that these doctrines are true, they come from the word of God.
So the officers here in this church have been called to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith. So you can go up to any one of your officers and ask them, do you believe that these doctrines set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith are pulled out of Scripture and thus are right and true and good? And the answer would be yes.
That’s what has brought them together. preserve Christianity. This is from Philip Schaff in Creeds of Christendom. The first object of creeds was to distinguish the church from the world. So you think of the Apostles’ Creed, one of the first ones that we would know of historically.
And so the design there was to do just this, to distinguish the church from all others, from Jews, right? Could a Jew confess the Apostle’s Creed? No, because a Jew would not believe that Jesus is indeed God. So to distinguish the church from the world, from Jews, and heathen, afterwards orthodoxy from heresy, So the Nicene Creed, the teaching was that Jesus was just man.
Okay, and so the church comes together, studies the scriptures to say, wait, wait, no, that’s wrong. And so they cast off the heresy and set forth the Nicene Creed. This is what the Bible teaches, the orthodoxy. In all these respects, they are still valuable and indispensable in the present order of things. Every well-regulated society, secular or religious, needs an organization and constitution and cannot prosper without discipline.
Catechisms, liturgies, hymn books are creeds also as far as they embody doctrine.” And so you see what Philip Schaff is saying is that anything that brings together the doctrines of Scripture is just lumping in with creeds and confessions. hymn books, liturgies, catechisms as well.
From Carl Truman, first creeds and confessions witness to the fact that no Christian simply believes the Bible. Do you believe that? No Christian simply believes the Bible. Do you agree with him? Can we just say, look, I’ve got the 66 books. So I just believe this. All believe the Bible actually means something.
And the basic elements of what it means can be synthesized. What does it mean to synthesize? To bring together, right? To bring together in statements of faith. to claim, therefore, that one has no creed or confession, but the Bible is misleading at best. He’s saying that there needs to be some explanation. So here’s the question. Is God triune? Yes. Okay, good. Right answer. That’s the right answer. Where can you see that in the Bible? Okay. Good. So the word Trinity doesn’t exist in the Bible.
So we need to pull together various scripture verses and interpret them. in order to understand and come to the right conclusion that we serve a triune God. So, that’s part of what Carl Truman is saying. No Christian simply believes the Bible. You have to pull together the doctrines that are set forth in it, such as the Trinity, in order to truly understand it. Obviously, that can only be done by the Spirit. But Truman’s point is that everyone has a creed and confession. You actually believe the Bible means something.
The question is what? Again, from Carl Truman, creeds and confessions offer concise summaries of what churches believe, both to their members and to those outside. They can therefore function both as pedagogical tools or teaching tools, in discipleship and as apologetic tools in evangelism. You ever think of the shorter catechism as a tool for evangelism? Apparently, Carl Truman does.
Third, creeds and confessions focus Christians on matters of non-negotiable importance to the faith. What does it mean to be non-negotiable? That’s it. We come together on this basis, and if you can’t come together on that basis, then maybe you can’t come together with us. Non-negotiable, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation. What about Presbyterianism? Is that non-negotiable? All right. I think we have brothers and sisters in the Baptist church as well. All right. In turn, they respect Christian freedom and matters where they do not speak. Okay.
So an example of this occurred in the presbytery that I’m coming from. Actually, two Presbyteries ago. When the session in a church made the decision that if there was a family with children seeking membership in their church, and those children had not yet been baptized, and the parents were not ready to agree to have them baptized, that they would not permit them to join the church. Because of that position, members of the church or a member of the church brought a complaint against the session. And basically the complaint was, this is wrong, you shouldn’t do this, You should allow them to become members, and possibly over time, they’d come to the conclusion of infant baptism.
Well, the presbytery denied that complaint, and so it went to the General Assembly. General Assembly took up this matter, and the General Assembly also denied the complaint. I mean, I didn’t write the minutes, but as I was sitting there listening to the debate going on on the floor, it seemed to me that what the General Assembly was saying was that this particular matter is not taken up by our confession. And so the session was free to make this decision, that the General Assembly could not come back to the session and say, this is out of accord with our confession.
Now, I think that many of the folks that voted to deny this would say, we wouldn’t do that in our church. We don’t think that’s a good idea. and we would urge them not to hold that position, but could we say that this is not in accord with what we’ve agreed to in terms of our confession? And I think the General Assembly came to the conclusion that no, we can’t say that, that you as a session are free to do this. We don’t think it’s wise, or at least that was my conclusion. I don’t think this is wise, but can I say you can’t do this? The General Assembly said, no, we can’t say that.
So you see that in turn they respect Christian freedom in matters where they do not speak. That’s just an example of what brings us together and what do brothers and sisters have freedom in that’s not spoken to within the creed and confession. Does that make sense? It’s just an example. Consequently, they also provide clear guidances to the limit of church power.
Creeds and confessions witness to the historical ecumenical nature of Christianity, connecting the contemporary church both confessionally and liturgically with the church of the past. What year was the Westminster Confession finished? 46. So in a sense, there’s one way you can think of being connected with the church back almost 400 years ago. Now, I would have to say, we’re actually connected with the church that goes way, way back further than that, right? But that’s Carl Truman, connecting the contemporary church with the church of the past. We confess the same. Now we have some modifications, but not many. Creeds and confessions fulfill liturgical and doxological purposes by providing content and even words for praise and prayer.
Can you pray through our confession? Yeah. Can you give God praise through our confession? Many of the words within the Westminster Confession are taken directly from scripture. So yes, absolutely. Okay, the Westminster Assembly. And let me ask, did I convince you? Do we think that creeds and confessions are very helpful? I think so. I think they’re very helpful.
They’re not above scripture. We don’t want to go there. We don’t ever want to go there. Scripture is our highest authority. Creeds and confessions are tools that are to help us understand Scripture. They also bring us together as the body of Christ. Which Christ?
So the Westminster Assembly introduction to it. How long did the Westminster Assembly meet? And who called it together? Parliament did. It’s just really strange, isn’t it? What would you think about President Trump calling the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to the General Assembly? So it’s just an odd thing, right? We don’t think in those ways.
But this was not odd for them. For the Parliament to call these divines together. Who are divines? Yeah, those ministers that came to the Westminster Assembly were referred to as divine. Some people don’t like that term. They’re not saying that they are divine. They’re not gods. But that was just a term used to refer to them.
1643, during a period of civil war, the English Long Parliament, that’s the government, under the control of Presbyterian Puritans, convened an assembly of divines over 100, I think it’s 140 something, mostly Puritan ministers, including a few influential Scottish commissioners at Westminster Abbey in London. 1643. So the king, I believe, had abolished the parliament at this point in time. And so this parliament that calls the divines together wasn’t very friendly to the king. In fact, they were in opposition to each other.
What was going on in the church? The church was a mess. The ministers were not educated. Some of them were not preaching. They certainly weren’t preaching well. Some of them were taking written sermons by others and just reading those. And so I’m getting off on a rabbit trail. You know what rabbit trails are? Okay, good.
And so one of the things that isn’t really published enough is that the Westminster Assembly, when it came together, began examining ministers who were already in the pulpit and pulling some out. And then it began examining those who wanted to become ministers, and so there was a lot of work that was being done by the Assembly in examining men for the ministry.
Because the church was in such a mess. And so a lot of work was done at the assembly with regard to revitalizing the church on a huge scale. We think of the Westminster Assembly as coming together to write the Westminster Confession, the shorter, larger catechisms, but they did so much more. Their task was to advise Parliament on how to bring the Church of England into greater conformity with the Church of Scotland and the Continental Reformed churches. Church of England was going in a different direction. It wasn’t going into the Reformed direction. And so the Parliament, just an amazing thing, the providence of God, to bring these godly men together to redirect, to repoint the church, to reform the church.
That’s kind of the overarching task. The purpose of the Westminster Assembly was to propose to Parliament any corrections which might need to be made to the existing structures, worship, and teaching of the Church. That’s from Dr. Ben Dixon, Confessing of Faith. Writing at the end of the Long Reformation, what’s the Reformation?
When did that take place? Yeah. What years? 1600 to 1650, approximately. The Reformation. Just generally speaking. Luther, Calvin, right? Busser. running at the end of the Long Reformation. So 1500 to 1550, what did I say, 1600? Did I say that? I was wrong. I was wrong. Sorry. I was way off.
1500 to 1550, the Reformation, but then those that come after the original reformers, right? Yeah. 1643 to 1653. We’re eager to harvest the best biblical exegesis of the reformers. So Calvin had died already, obviously. So he’s got all this writing. Luther’s dead. And those who follow after them, they’re dead as well.
And so they’re bringing out, they’re reading them, they’re bringing out that exegesis, the most useful doctrines and structures, the medieval theologians. Remember, as we looked at the creasing confessions, the Westminster Confession really comes at the end of all that list that we saw earlier. So they had a lot to pull from, a lot of good theology that had been mined by these men, bringing the church back to where it was biblical. The Westminster Confession is a summary of Christian theology in the Reformation tradition. It digests more than 30 distinct truths of scripture. How many chapters are in the Westminster Confession? I think so,
33. Each topic originally entitled an article of faith in imitation of the 39 articles of the Church of England. Like the 39 articles, it presents orthodoxy, or right teaching, more authoritatively than personally. This is my opinion. Is that what you want to hear? No. You don’t want to hear my opinion. What does the Bible say? What does Jesus say? The assembly’s confession is clear. Offers a good guide to the Bible, provides useful treatment of difficult doctrines, from Dr. Van Dikshoorn. I think that’s kind of a good way to describe confession. Good guide to the Bible.
So, if you want to make a chicken dinner, where do you go in the cookbook? Yeah, there’s a section on it, right? There’s a section on poultry. Well, if you want to know about Jesus, you go to that chapter on the mediator. It’s a systematic theology. It brings together the doctrines of Scripture systematically, or like a cookbook. All right, you want a particular topic, you want to know about something, there are 33 chapters, you’ve got titles, you can go look. And then they’ve got scripture proofs. What’s a scripture proof? Yes, where did you get this from? Well, here, here, here, and here. That’s very helpful. You’re looking up a particular doctrine, oh, where’s that in scripture?
Here, these various scriptures will bring you to it. Westminster Assembly produced documentation on doctrine, church government, and worship that have largely defined Presbyterianism down to this day. Confession of Faith, 1646, a larger catechism, 1647, a shorter catechism, also 1647. Who is the shorter catechism for? children Well, yeah, but it was really for children larger catechism is for y’all I Confess Larger catechism is more difficult and it’s longer. Yes Yes It’s an excellent book. It’s an excellent book, G.I. Williamson. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church. See, we’re drilling down. Orthodox Presbyterian Church is governed by three sets of documents. Can anybody tell me what they are without looking at this slide?
What’s the primary? The Bible, right. What’s the secondary? Confession, the tertiary. The tertiary is actually the Book of Church Order. So three documents, the primary one, the Bible. Secondary one, which comes from the Bible, is the Confession and the larger and shorter catechisms. And the third would be our Book of Church Order. Those are our three documents that we’re governed by. Standing above the Church’s Constitution, the Word of God is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him. Where does that come from? The shorter catechism. It’s on your wall back here. That’s good.
Subordinate to the Word of God is the Constitution consisting of two sets of standards. The doctrinal standards of the church, the confession of faith, the catechisms, or the secondary standards, the standards of government, discipline, and worship, the Book of Church Order. Do you all know the Book of Church Order? Have you? Yeah. Your officers use it quite often.
We don’t use it too often here as we sit and worship. Well, that was a quick end to this short presentation. Let me ask if there are questions. Yes, ma’am? It’s not a question. But when you were referring to scripture proofs, as I understand it, when they first came out with the Blessed Mr. Confession of Faith, they didn’t have scripture proofs. That’s my understanding as well. They sent them back. Please add them. Yeah, I think that was the case. Dr. Ben Dixon would know for sure, but I believe that’s the case. Yeah, kind of amazing. Yes. Yes, sir.
I just have a comment that it’s just amazing that the church systemically doesn’t have a structure like this. And it’s more about what I can get out of a meeting. And it’s more emotional-driven, maybe, Very loosey-goosey as far as what can and can’t be allowed in a church. And the structure is really, really appreciate the structure. Praise God.
So Presbyterians have a not so nice reference, frozen chosen, and I think that’s What you’re saying kind of goes along with that, that we’re so, we so emphasize doctrine that maybe we just kind of sit in the pews too long and don’t take that out. But it’s actually the doctrine that should take us out, right? It’s the truth of the word of God that’s contained, that Jesus gives us that actually should move us out of these pews, right? So I think unfortunately, well, that’s the wrong word to use, but maybe the doctrine has been such a focus for us that we fail at times really to use that to move us out.
I will say that the doctrine seems to apply more to Christians that are much further down the road. and much difficult to grasp for someone that’s coming in and just beginning to be inspired by Christianity. And it might leave a void there when you’re trying to draw people into the church. A lot of people will come to church because they go through a divorce, or they’ve lost a loved one, or something like that. So they’re looking for comfort in the church. And I don’t think doctrine serves that.
Ultimately, I hope it does. And we can. I think you’re right. I think we can. If we put our blinders on and we’re just arguing back and forth about what the truth is, we can lose sight of, hey, this is really supposed to move us to share this with others. And I think the idea should be that as we know more, as we glean more from the word of God, that it should become over time easier for us to share it with others and to be able to synthesize the Word of God to the point where we can share with anyone, regardless of where they’re coming from. Yes, sir?
There’s a book on my bookshelf, I forget the author, written in the 1800s, Northern Ireland, and great, great explanation of Presbyterianism, but the quote I like the best is, you can be a Presbyterian and not be a Christian. You can be a Christian and not be a Presbyterian.
It’s better to be both. That’s good. I like it. OK. Anything else? Yes, ma’am. I think that we have this strong doctrine that grounds us so that we’re secure and that we’re not loosey-goosey. We’re not wondering what. We’re grounded. Yes. Yeah. Praise God. Wonderful. Yes. All right. I don’t know what time it is. That’s a good time.
Let’s let’s pray and be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. It is a light into our path, a lamp to our feet. Lord, we ask that you would help us to use these creeds, these confessions in the right way. We thank you for those that you have moved to write them. We pray, Lord God, that we would never place them above your word. But Father, we would use them as tools given to us by you to know more of Christ.
And so help us, Lord. Help us to be those who, as we do know more of Christ, that we would have this burning desire to share it with others, to share Christ with our neighbors, our friends, our family members. Help us, Lord. Help us to do just that. We praise you. Help us now to prepare for worship.