and still present. So we'll kick it over to you. Take it away. That's me. Okay. All right, guys. Yeah. Name's Michael Early. I'm one of the elders there at Grace Chapel Reformed Baptist Church. I hate that I can't be there in person to meet you. And really I can't even see you. I'm looking at the ceiling of the church. But I ended up being sick the last couple of days and one of my kiddos ended up sick as well. And I figured y'all would appreciate me not spreading my germs to you guys. Really hate I can't be there. Really hate that I can't be there to absolutely dominate all of y'all in volleyball this afternoon. The providence of God has prevented that for us, so I'll let other teams that I'm not on win today. But today my assignment or the title of my talk will be discussing the guardrails of confessionalism or the guardrails of creeds and confessions, and we might even throw in there catechisms as well. So guardrails of confessions, of creeds, of catechisms, all of these things that are statements of what we believe, statements of faith, systematized statements of what we believe as Christians. Now what we won't be talking about today is the history of creeds or histories of confessions, catechisms, whatever, and we really won't be talking about any specific creed, confession, or catechism either. What we will be talking about is much more general than that. Like I said, a confession or creed is something that is written down. It is a public statement regarding what one believes about the Christian faith. It's a public declaration as to the content of what one believes. Now that is in itself what all of those things are, creeds, confessions, catechisms, and a little bit of a different structure. But again, our main focus is what we can use these things for as with regards to using them as guardrails within the church and also within our personal lives, our personal Christian walks, and also in how we deliver that content of our faith to others, particularly to our families or to our friends. I know most of this is supposed to be a young adults conference, so many of y'all are just a hair's breadth away from being parents yourself, having to raise children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And what will be the foundation of that instruction? And will those serve as guardrails for them in their faith moving forward? Once they leave the threshold of your home and enter in, as the name of the conference would state, enter in behind enemy lines as they go into the world, will they not be of the world? Will they, when they get behind enemy lines, know the content of their faith enough to persevere behind enemy lines? Now, believe it or not, every so-called Christian has a confession. Now, the difference in what we're talking about is whether it is public or not. Is that confession, is there creed, is there statement of faith? Is it public or not? And that is a huge, huge distinction. Carl Truman, many of you know who he is. He's a theologian, I believe he's a professor at Grove City College. He has a book called The Credal Imperative. I would recommend that to your reading, The Credal Imperative. He states it this way, Christians are not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who don't. Rather, they are divided between those who have public creeds and confessions that are written down and exist as public documents. Not only that, I'm going to stop right there, not only that, not only that they've written them down, that they exist as these public documents, as he says, but they are central to the life of the church. Now we'll see the opposite of that in just a little bit in an example that I bring up, but it's more than that. It's just written down and exists as a public document. It's central to the life and existence of that particular church. start that sentence over. He says, rather they are divided between those who have public creeds and confessions that are written down and exist as public documents subject to public scrutiny, evaluation, and critique. That's vital. That's vital. Is the faith that one confesses Are their creeds, are their confessions open to such a scrutiny? And does the church talk about that scrutiny? Do they evaluate it critically? Do they critique it? So the difference is between those and those who have private creeds and confessions that are often improvised. made up on the spot, improvised, unwritten, and thus not open to public scrutiny, not susceptible to evaluation, and critically and ironically not, therefore, subject to testing by scripture to see whether they are true. Now, not that what they state as their belief, if you ask them a question, hey, what do you believe about the Trinity? Not that it can't be subject to testing by scripture. It's often that those who have these private or unwritten creeds and confessions, they don't often test what they believe against scripture. Now, it's obvious that they're not open to public scrutiny. They're not out there in the open, not published publicly in order to have that scrutiny given or make it susceptible to evaluation, as Truman says. But again, whatever their statement may be, it can be said that it can be tested against scripture, but they are often not willing to test it by scripture. So we have these two groups, those who have a public written confession, those who have it as front and center within the life of their church, and also have it as a central element of their own faith, their personal faith. When we have a confession in our church, we're hoping more than just the structure of the leadership within the church believe these confessions of faith, believe these statements of faith. We hope that the individuals within that church will believe it as well. So that first group has that public written. It is out there. It is central to the life of the church. And that second group who doesn't necessarily have it published, or they might have it published, but they don't fit that other criteria of having it exist to further the life and existence of the church. It is so far in the recesses of the church's life and existence that it's hardly ever subject to that scrutiny or evaluation or subject to critical thought or critique regarding it. There's been an example of that, by the way, a published somewhat confession that has obviously not been scrutinized or evaluated enough. An embarrassing example was given here very recently and displayed by the president of the largest Protestant denomination in America. I will refrain from stating that denomination. But this president published on his website, on the church's website that he pastored in a what we believe section, on their website, a heresy regarding the Trinity. And apparently, from what I understand, it was up there on their website for some time before somebody after the election of this person for president of that denomination was elected. It was only found after that. So obviously people within that church have not thought it necessary to evaluate or to scrutinize that what we believe section on their website. And it obviously wasn't front and center in the church's life and existence either. It had to be corrected sometime later. So we have, again, these two groups, those who have published a confession, a creed, even use helpful catechisms in their instruction, that they're central to the life and health of that church, and those who do not. Now, you are about to watch a video of interviews that are done on the campus of UAB. I don't believe you've watched these yet. I think they will be done around the time of a group panel discussion. But one of the questions that's asked in these interviews on campus is why is it that approximately 75% of young adults leave the Christian faith after high school? the overwhelming majority of the answers that are given in this interview had something to do with the fact that they have left the care, the discipline, the instruction, the authority of their parents. And then when they are in the world or they are behind the enemy lines, and they begin to face the heavy scrutiny and criticism of the Christian faith from an unbelieving world, They then find what they have been instructed in is left a bit wanting. Left a bit wanting. They haven't been instructed well in the Christian faith. What they believe has not necessarily been espoused to them or what the church believes has not necessarily been espoused to them in a robust way in order to structure their thinking about Christ. about the gospel, about his church, about the Trinity, about the scriptures, any other of these basic elements of divinity within the church, their mind has not been structured by a robust understanding, a robust confession of faith, guiding them in what to think about certain issues of the faith. Now of the 75% that leave the Christian faith after high school, I wonder if you think the majority of them come from churches in that first category, where, or Carl Truman puts it as they have published creeds and confessions, those creeds and confessions that we would say are central to the life and health of the church, or that second group, that even if they haven't published, it's not central to the life and existence of the church. It's not really referred to, it's not really talked about at all. Which group do you think that they would come from? I am not a betting man, but if I was, I would put a rather large wager on them being overwhelmingly from that second group. Overwhelmingly from that second group. If they have not been instructed, if they don't have laid out for them what to think about these certain elements of the Christian faith, What structure are they basing their beliefs off of? And when it meets this scrutiny, this criticism, where are they going to stand? It's absolutely vital for the church to set the guardrails by which the church will strive together with one mind for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is absolutely vital that they do so. And that they use, it would be my contention, that they use a robust confession of faith to see that that happens. To see that a unity of mind, being of one mind for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ, seeing that that unity of mind serves as the guardrail for those within the church to recognize, oh no, I'm getting too close to the edge. I might fall off. I know exactly where I stand. I see these boundary lines where I need to be and I'm going to stay inside of them. It's the beauty of a guardrail. You know where the edge of that cliff, the edge of that road may be. And we are all on this one path together. Within that church, we are all on this one path together of one mind for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ, striving for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, how do I know that it's absolutely vital for the church to set these guardrails? Well, I know it from the instruction given in the scriptures themselves. A few places, Romans 15, verses five and six, Paul says this, now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus. Now, what do you believe about Christ Jesus? Was he just another man? Is he the second person of the Trinity? Is he the Archangel Michael? What do you believe about Christ Jesus? Your people within the church, the people within the church need to know this. You need to know this. And hopefully your church is providing a firm foundation for you to know this. And hopefully that comes in the form of a robust confession of faith, systematizing in a systematic fashion, what you believe about these things. Specifically, I was talking about Christ Jesus. What do you believe about Christ Jesus? Verse 6, Romans 15, so that with one accord, you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, all together staying on that path within the boundaries of those guardrails. So you don't veer to the left or to the right. but with one mind, one purpose, going down one path, striving together for the gospel of Christ Jesus. Philippians chapter one. Verse 27. Again, Paul says, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. There's that exact quote that I used in my question earlier. Philippians chapter two, one and two, therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Now that's great and good and all, and hey, maybe we can say, Well, you know, I have no creed but Christ, and maybe we can unify under that. Or maybe we can say, well, my confession is the Bible, and maybe we can unify under that. But on a very small degree, can we unite under that? What do you believe about the Bible? Again, what do you believe about Christ? I would have to know in order to unite my spirit together with you to strive together for the faith of the gospel. If you don't say the same thing about the gospel, I can't be united with you to strive together for the faith of that gospel. I must know where you stand. I must know what you confess. And how do we know that we are of this same mind? It's because we say the same words. It's because we say the same words. In the New Testament, the word for confess is hamalagot. It literally means same word. Hama, legev, same word. To confess the same thing with one another is to say the same word. To be of the same mind with one another means that when we speak, when we use our words, when we confess things about Christ, we say the same words. We are united in that together in our proclamation of the gospel. We're saying the same thing. and having a robust confession that details what we say about Christ, what we say about the gospel, what we say about the scriptures, helps us to know that we are on that same path, that we understand where our boundaries are, and we are not deviating. We are together, striving for the faith of the gospel of Christ Jesus. The responsibility of the church leadership is to instruct the people within the church under that confession, under those same words, what we say about Christ, instruct them to have that same mind and to deal with the scrutiny and critique of that confession. So having same words that are faithful words, faithful to the scriptures, Having that scrutinized, the leadership within the church should be able to deal with that. And those under the care of the leadership of the church should hear that and hear it often, should be exhorted in those faithful words, in those same words, instructed in it, and then refute those who would contradict. And we hear just that in Titus 1.9, where Paul instructs Titus in verse 9, holding fast to the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching. Faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching. So a faithful word, a word that is true to the teaching that they heard regarding Christ. Paul being an apostle of Christ, dispensing these words to others. So the faithful word that should be proclaimed from the elder, that's being referred to in this particular verse, should be faithful to those words concerning Christ. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word concerning Christ. Should be faithful to that word. It goes on, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine, and here we go, to refute those who contradict. When we have that confession that is publicly out there, that is out there in the open, it is open for that public scrutiny, it is open for that examination, that evaluation, for that critique, we should then be ready to take that critique. know how to deal with it and either reform ourselves to the Word of God or be defensive regarding the faithful word that flows from the Word of God. It's my contention that a robust statement, creed, confession of faith is vital to the health and life of the church. It protects the church. It is for the protection of the church. Again, we're talking about guardrails of confessions. They protect. They protect you from going over those edges. But I'm not talking to my church here particularly. I can't see anybody of course, but I understand that there are plenty of folks from Grace Chapel here, but hopefully we have an abundance of folks there that are not from Grace Chapel. So I'm not talking necessarily to Grace Chapel. I'm not talking necessarily to the church that I am elder over. I'm largely talking to individuals not under the authority of my church, hopefully under the authority of another church. But the question for you individually is how can creeds, confessions, and catechisms be used by you, by all of us really? to prevent myself, my friends, my future family from being in that number, that 75% statistic number? Will it be said of your children when someone goes to whatever campus and interviews them, when they say this 75% number or maybe more, hopefully less, that will your children be in that number? Will your friends be in that number. How can we use creeds and confessions and catechisms to prevent that? We know there's nothing new under the sun, and that issue of children leaving what they've been brought up under is not anything new, obviously. It's been something that has happened for probably as long as the Christian religion has existed. And this is from the preface of our confession, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. And there's a statement regarding the decay of religion in that day. Again, this is published 1689. This preface was written before that. But the preface to a confession that is over 300 years old says this, and verily, there's one spring and cause of the decay of religion in our day, which we cannot but touch upon. and earnestly urge a redress of. And that is the neglect of the worship of God in families. So this is an individual aspect of your lives, how you will deal with your families moving forward. What will you do? Will you institute a level of worship within your household or not? Will you pray with your family? Will you read the word of God with your family? Will you instruct them in the things of God? Will you espouse to them what it is you believe, what it is you confess? Will they know that you say the same words with those within your church? Well, they know what you confess. The neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed, namely their parents. May not the gross ignorance and instability of many with the profaneness of others be justly charged upon their parents and masters who have not trained them up in the way wherein they ought to walk when they were young, but have neglected those frequent and solemn commands which the Lord hath laid upon them, so to catechize instruct them or instruct them with question and answer and instruct them that their tender years might be seasoned with the knowledge of the truth of God as revealed in the scriptures. Let me tell you this. We frequently do catechisms within our family worship time. We've structured that in such a way to include that type of instruction. And the catechism that we use flows from our confessional standard, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. So we know that they are in conjunction with one another. If I'm teaching one thing, they are learning about the other, right? So when I catechize my children, I catechize mainly my four-year-old son. And I can tell you now that through that type of instruction of him at four years old, he knows way more about the Christian faith than I did when I was in my early teens. No question about it. Kid's smart as a whip. He takes in these questions and answers super well. And he already at four knows more about the Christian faith than I did in my early teens. Let me ask you, do you think that when he leaves my household, will he be more or less likely to be a part of that 75% number? By God's grace, by God's grace, he will not be a part of that 75% number. It's purely by his grace, and I recognize and understand that. It is the Holy Spirit that will soften his heart to the words that are proclaimed to him. But if I fail to be the means by which that word is declared to him, then the likelihood of him being a part of that 75% number is huge. Where were your family? Well, where will, easy for me to say, where will your family be in that number? Where will your children be in that statistic? Now that is challenging your children with catechesis, with other study of confession, study of the word. and seeing that they leave your care with a robust understanding of the faith, specifically regarding your children. But what about, what about your friends? They're not under your instruction. They're not under your care. So naturally the challenge that you give them will be a little bit different. You can't demand of them that they sit through a family worship time. How can you help them out? If you know that you have a friend that is on the brink, they don't come from a church that challenges them with regard to their faith, they don't have a confession, a robust understanding of the faith, how can you help them? How can you challenge them with regard to the faith? Well, you can specifically challenge them to state succinctly what they believe. If a confession of faith is just that, it is saying what you believe, challenge them to actually say what they believe. Open that up to a level of scrutiny, a loving scrutiny. a loving critique, a loving evaluation of what they believe, but they need that. Because if they go out into the world and receive that critique, receive that criticism, receive that scrutiny, it might not withstand outside of that love. If you lovingly scrutinize, if you lovingly critique what it is they believe, That confession becomes more and more and more robust. Challenge them to give a defense for the hope that is within them. If they declare the Christian faith, if they say that they are Christians, if they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and they believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, what does that mean? What all does that mean that he raised him from the dead? The depth of theology that you can dive into with just that statement of Christ being risen from the grave is huge. Challenge them on what they believe in that. Challenge them to give a defense for the hope that that provides within their lives. Then maybe show them your confession. Show them the scrutiny that your confession has come under. And likewise, you be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within you. Showing by faithful words, faithful to the scriptures, that you have a robust defense for that hope within you. The Christian faith has been challenged for as long as it has existed, and there is nothing new under the sun. There is no new question that comes about that just breaks everything. It's been dealt with before. It's been dealt with faithfully. Trust in that. Believe in that. And be ready for a defense of that faith. It is for us to grip tightly to the plow as we strive together with one mind for the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is our duty. And we can do that in those challenges that we might give to our friends. And we do that in how we raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Grip tightly to the plow. Prove yourself useful for the kingdom by giving that discipline instruction, by challenging your friends to tell you what they believe. Scrutinize it lovingly. Criticize it lovingly. It is our duty to grip that plow. Plow, plant, and water. We can only do so much. Our confessional standards can only do so much, but we merely do our duty. We plow, we plant, we water, and we recognize that it is God who causes the growth. It is God who brings that conviction of the gospel of Christ Jesus upon the hearts of those you're talking to. But how will they hear? unless it is preached to them? How will they hear unless it is proclaimed to them? Grip tightly to the plow. Rely on those faithful words regarding Christ Jesus. Learn them. Know them. Criticize them. Scrutinize them. Evaluate them to the hilt so that you can know them more. Be ready to give that defense with the hope that is within us. and be ready to declare the gospel of Christ Jesus for the glory of God alone. Amen. Let's pray real quick. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for this time. We thank you for the opportunity to use technology to to talk with the folks here. Lord, I praise you and thank you that you have set a group to be willing to do all of this, to show up. Lord, I pray that they were edified by the talk today. I pray that your people are built up in the faith by it. Lord, I pray that through their efforts of proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that many will come into the kingdom. Help us all again to grip tightly to that plow. Grip tightly to it, prove ourselves useful for you, for your kingdom, for the fame of your name to spread far and wide for many, many generations to come. And to those also of our peers in our generation, help us to always be ready and willing to proclaim the great news of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, to the glory of your name. We love you, Lord. All praise and honor and all glory go to you and to your name. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.