We Believe: Pat Nemmers; August 30, 2026
2 Corinthians 11
Good morning, Saylorville Church! If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning, you can find 2 Corinthians chapter 11, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 as we begin a brand new six-part series we’re introducing this morning simply titled We Believe. And we’re going to bust out a creed at the end of all of this, and we’re pretty excited about it to be honest.
Now I realize coming here this morning, everybody comes with some kind of a heavy on their mind. You’re thinking about something. It might even be lunch afterwards, I don’t know. But my guess is that there are deeper burdens than that across this congregation, maybe watching online. So let’s just begin our time in the word by committing it over to the Lord. Shall we? Let’s pray together.
Our Father in heaven, we thank You, that as we come before You, we do exactly that. We come before You. You are God. We’re not. We worship You. We adore You. We exalt You. Even as we just did in song, may we do so in mind and in heart today as we begin this series, Lord, decidedly patterned to exalt You and Your word, and what we believe. Help us, dear God, to be able to grasp that today… begin to at least… and honor Yourself, Your Son, and by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Now Lord, we know there are people here that are hurting, physically hurting, and we ask that you would bless them. We pray that You would give mercy to them to those who are suffering in some physiological way. And then there are those, Lord, who are hurting spiritually, because they just don’t see You, They don’t know You. You’re sort of opaque to them. And there are those, Lord, who are hurting psychologically, emotionally, some other way internally. And I pray, dear God, that You would reach into those hearts and minds and comfort them because You are God, and show them that today through this message we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Second Corinthians chapter 11. I was after the membership class a few weeks ago… Excuse me. We… I got a text. This membership class had many young people in it, but it also had a number of older people that were in it. And one particular couple who’ve been around the block a couple of times, they… as a result, they began to read the articles of faith… which all of you have done… right? — like four of you. And they’re, in fact… here’s the text I got from her. “We’re reading the articles of faith… Oh my goodness! When will the English version come out?” Now, the articles of faith are in English, but they’re a bit dated. We’re working on that. We want you to know that. So speaking of English, let’s read together 2 Corinthians chapter 11 on the board. I’ve got the English version of the Geneva Bible which came out in 1557. Here’s how it goes. Let’s read it together.
2 Corinthians 11:1-4; Geneva Bible
1 Woulde to God, yee coulde suffer a litle my foolishnes, & in deede, ye suffer me. “
2 For I am ielous ouer you, with godly ielousie: for I haue prepared you for one husband, to present you as a pure virgine to Christ:
3 But I feare least as the serpent beguiled Eue through his subtiltie, so your mindes shoulde be corrupt fro the simplicitie that is in Christ.
4 For if he that commeth, preacheth another Iesus whome we haue not preached: or if yee receiue another spirite whome ye haue not receiued: either another Gospell, which yee haue not receiued, ye might well haue suffered him.”
I’ll just stop it right now.
And let’s go ahead and skip the King James 1611. I was going to put that one up there too. Here’s my point. The Bible never changes. Amen? — but the English language does and has. Now look, I am grateful. I’m really grateful for translations, modern day translations, accurate modern day translations, especially when they encourage God’s people to read and study their Bibles. And despite the fact that there are great modern day translations that are out there, too many of you are relying on those little pop-ups that come on your phone, you read the verse of the day… Good for you… or some devotional somebody puts out, maybe a good one. Or some hot shot preacher, the latest, the greatest, the hippest, the coolest, who’s drawing you in.
And you remind me a little bit… when I was a young pastor, I was a… I pastored this country church, and every once in a while, just for a change of pace, I’d go sit on the steps of the church, and there were two bushes, one on one side and one on the other. And one day as I was studying, I heard some rustling going on in one of the bushes, and so I just kind of listened for awhile. I heard the rustling. So I finally just very gently pulled back the bush, and just like that four baby robins just hatched from the egg, just lifted their necks up, opened their beaks. I could have dropped marbles down every one of them, and they would have swallowed them. Now they weren’t like that in the weeks that would come as they began to grow and become more wary of me. With that in mind, 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verses one through four out of the ESV. Here’s what it says.
2 Corinthians 11:1-4 ESV
1 “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!
2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 But I am afraid that as the serpent (harken us back to the Garden of Eden) deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”
In fact, if you have a New American Standard, it says, “… you put up with it beautifully.” The Apostle Paul feared that the Corinthians he was writing to were swallowing marbles by what he describes in the very next verse in the fifth verse as super apostles. He’s being sarcastic. These are the rock stars of the day, the great orators, the persuasive and powerful preachers that you’ve just got to listen to ’em! I mean, they are your devotion, which prompted Tim Challies to say:
“Satan’s greatest ambassadors are not pimp’s, politicians are power brokers, but pastors.” Tim Challies
Now it’s this very same church that Paul was writing in this very same letter earlier on in chapter two, verse 17, Paul says:
[2 Corinthians 2:17; “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”]
Have you ever read that? Peddlers. There were peddlers then. There are peddlers now, and some of you are falling for them. And just as unwittingly, you don’t get it, you don’t know it. You don’t realize it. And Paul has three fears from this passage that I want to elucidate here. So the first fear that he had was, he’s basically saying to them, you’re engaged to Christ, but you’re sleeping with your enemy. So if you notice the apostle Paul in those first two verses is sort of likening himself to an adoring father giving his daughter away in marriage. He’s engaged, you know, to be marriage. I mean a Jewish marriage took place in several phases; the engagement, about a year later the actual consummation. Paul has the idea that if you know Christ as your Savior, you’re engaged to Him, and the consummation will take place when He returns. And Paul says, ‘I set you up for all this, and yet you’re in bed with a bunch of false teachers right now in believing their lies.’
Here’s a second theory has. He says, ‘You’re departing from simple devotion to Christ to the cunning deception of Satan.‘ Again, look at verse three again. It says:
2 Corinthians 11:3, “But I am afraid that as the serpent (that would be Satan disguised… Garden of Eden) deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
Now the very fact that he invokes the serpent, that takes us all the way back to the beginning of God’s Word, all the way back to Eden. And the Apostle Paul is constantly warning us against Satan. Is he not? In fact, he says, again, in this very same book to these very same people early on, in chapter 2, he says:
2 Corinthians 2:11, ‘We ought not to be unaware of his devices.’
Those are his words to us. It’s the same Paul says to the Ephesians.
[Ephesians 6:12-13]
12 ‘We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principality, against powers, against the spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places,
13 so put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand up against the wiles of the devil.’
So he’s constantly warning us of these things, and he uses the word “cunning.” You see that word there? Some of your bibles may even translate it “trickery” because that’s what it means. That’s what he did to Eve. He tricked her! That’s what he’s doing to some of you. He’s tricking you! — and you’re unaware of it. Listen, what the devil did then, the devil does now. Let me say that again. What the devil did then, the devil does now… and that’s why he says you should not be unaware of his devices. Look, if he was able to trick the perfect couple, how much more imperfect you and me. Right? See the word “simple” there in verse three? Simple. The Greek word conveys the idea of uncomplicated. Uncomplicated. Something that’s uncomplicated. This is exactly what Satan attempts to do in our lives. He complicates things. He takes us into the weeds.
I… just the other day I got a message from somebody. It was very sincere. It needed to be answered, but it was a question that was totally in the weeds. It was… it was… it was peripheral to that which is peripheral. And yet, I needed to answer it. But this is… if we’re not careful we’ll go into the weeds on some subject, go into the weeds on an important subject, and before we know it, we’re far away from central truth. So the result is that… Paul’s third fear… you’re exchanging the real Jesus and the true gospel with dangerous imitations.
Anybody here who has been suckered into an imitation? Hmm? Come on, be honest. I’m not asking you to give a testimony. I bought the coolest… just about 30 years ago, I bought the coolest pair of Oakleys you’ve ever seen, (sunglasses) at a flea market. That should have been my first warning. About three days later the iconic “O” was coming off! (audience laughing) I mean, that’s not so bad. The Apostle Paul is saying, ‘You’re falling for something much worse.’ And remember, we’re talking about Satan who likes to nudge up as close as he can to the truth as possible. Reminds me of what Mark Twain once said. He said:
“The right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Mark Twain
You see the word “another?” You’re going after another Jesus. See that word “another?” You should underline that because that’s the word. It’s the Greek word “allos.” The word “allos” means “similar.” You’re going after a similar Jesus. By the way, Paul almost never called Jesus just Jesus. He usually called Him Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ. And that’s the whole point. It’s not the same Jesus. Some of you are hearing about “a” Jesus, but he’s not “the” Jesus of the truth of God. He’s saying, you’re going after another Jesus. By the way, the word antichrist or antichrist… many of you, most of you, all of you have heard that expression. It’s in the Bible. And when you think of the prefix anti, what comes to your mind? What word comes to your mind? I’m hearing a bunch of stuff, but most people think “against,” against Christ, and that is what it means. But it also means “instead of,” and that’s where the subtle cunning of Satan comes in. He likes to replace. Remember, he was quoting scripture to Jesus when he tempted Him! You remember that? So he says, ‘You’ve got another Jesus here,’ and look at this, and there’s a different spirit… verse four:
[2 Corinthians 11:4]
4 “For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”
… and “a different gospel.” That’s a different word. It’s not the word “allos,” which means a similar spirit or similar gospel. It’s the word “heteros,” which means one of a different kind. So if you get a… if you nudge up really close to Jesus but not quite like him, everything else just falls to pieces. That’s the point here. And you must be thinking, ‘Well, these Corinthians were a bunch of idiots!’ Not really. In fact, just the opposite. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 7, he says:
1 Corinthians 1:7
7 “… so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
They were the most gifted church in all the New Testament. Did you know that? Every single gift they possessed, but you need to hear this folks. Giftedness and spirituality are not the same… never have been, never will. Paul is talking about how concerned he is that his people are going to get sucked in by these super apostles, by these false… he later calls them false teachers.
Every once in a while, I’ll take a new Christian who’s showing that they’re not very discerning, and I’ll play that whole word association game, say, ‘You know, like father… mother… daughter, you know… pastor… friend.’ And then I’ll say, ‘Angel of light,’ and they’ll say, ‘Jesus!’ Skip down in context verse 13. Here’s what it says. He’s talking about those super apostles. Now he calls them out. He says:
2 Corinthians 11:13-15
13 “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen. disguising (and he uses the word three times, same word, “sche?mata.” It’s changing the outward, not the inward, which, of course, is just exactly what a disguise is. So this is a really good translation of the Greek word here) “disguising themselves as apostles of Christ,”
14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise (there’s the word again) themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
And by the way, again, same epistle, same letter, earlier chapter, chapter four and verse four…
[2 Corinthians 4:4
4 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”]
Satan is called “the god of this world,” little g, god of this world, “who blinds the”.. anybody know the next word? — “minds.” That’s what he’s after. He’s not after your wallet. He’s not after your stuff. He’s after your head. He’s after your mind. That’s what he’s after.
So let me ask you this question. If I pulled you aside and said, ‘I would like you to summarize what you believe.’ Would you be able to do that? Now I don’t mean give your testimony. Praise the Lord if you know Jesus and you can give your testimony. Praise God! That wasn’t the question. If I took you aside and I said, ‘Could you summarize what you believe?’ Could you do it? How do we combat falling for the subtle cunning, satanic lives of false teachers that are everywhere? How do we do that? With the Word of God! Can I get it ‘Amen?’ Okay, I tricked you. Yes, we do it with the Word of God. But here’s the point. What do you mean ‘with the word of God?’
There are over 557,000 words in this book. Which ones are you going to use to summarize what you believe? You say, ‘Well, I’m not thinking words. I’m thinking like verses.’ Okay. All right. There’s over 31,000 verses. Which one’s are you going to pick? Could you summarize what’s most important and most essential in God’s Word? Could you do that? You see, well, that would be a daunting kind of a task, but that is the… here’s the point. The elders of Saylorville Church have the same fear as the Apostle Paul. We fear even though in this day where information is virtually everywhere, ‘I can’t remember,.I can’t remember, I’ll AI. Oh, there… Oh, there’s Chat GPT… Got it!’ And we’re becoming more ignorant or more gullible, ready to just swallow those marbles as they come. And we know this. This isn’t just theoretical, because we talk to many of you. We’ve heard words come out of your mouth thinking… coming out of your head and lives as a result of that thinking that doesn’t back it up, or that aren’t backed up, rather, with the truth of God. And it’s troubling!
I can remember many years ago in the little church I was pastoring. A guy was visiting and came in with a big fistful of number 2 pencils, and said, “Hey, I want to give these out to your people,” and he just set them on the place where you come in the door. You take one as you go.” And I say, “Okay… whatever.” I picked one up and it said. Here’s what it said. “God votes for you, the devil votes against you. You make the decision.” I said, “Hey, let me take… let me show you what I’m going to do with these pencils,” and I threw them into the garbage. That is not what the Bible teaches! But even saying that some of you are thinking, ‘Oh, hey, that’s good!’ No! That isn’t good! That’s bad theology… and we just gobble it down. By the way… That’s what a gobble sounds like. (audience laughing)
So we started a year or two ago the Institute, the Saylorville Institute. It’s awesome! It’s great in its content, yet it’s intentionally lengthy and purposely drawn out. I’m just saying to you today, friends, the early church had an answer to the question about summarizing what is most important and most essential in Scripture, and in a word, it was the creed. The word “creed” comes from the Latin word, “credo.” Credo. We get our word… something that’s credulous, believable. If I say it’s… ‘That’s incredulous!’ — it means I don’t believe it. A creed… the word literally means “I believe.” It conveys the idea of commitment, and that’s the reason, or confession… and that’s the reason why I’ve underlined it here.
What is a creed? A creed is a concise confession, keyword of the essential truths of the Christian faith that unite believers of all ages across time and place, rooted in Scripture and echoed in historic confessions of faith. Creeds remind us that we are not inventing truth but receiving it. There are actually several creeds in the Bible. Did you know that? Several. And I’m not going to exhaust them. Chat GBT it. But, you know, even the Shema in the Old Testament…
[Deuteronomy 6:4-5]
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
5 ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, all your strength…’
(right?)
Jesus added some of that too in Mark’s Gospel. But that is a… that’s a creed. That’s an Old Testament creed. In fact, here’s the shortest creed of them all. Some of you already know the verse.
(Romans 10:9)
9 “If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord…” (That’s a creed. That’s a confession) “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.” (Hallelujah! That is a confession)
So back in Bible times, when the Romans would take them in during the persecution, would take them into the arena to be attacked by dogs, or lions, or some other wild animal, or to be beaten or to be torched, they would say, “Say it! Caesar is kurios!” (lord, boss, god) And if they were worth their theological, spiritual salt, they couldn’t do it. And they would say, “Jesus is Lord!” — and they would die. In fact, interestingly, many under a lot of pressure gave up, capitulated, would say, “Caesar is Lord,” some of which really knew Jesus, and it became a real problem in the early church, whether we should take them back. So, “Jesus is Lord” is a declaration of faith. It’s a creed. And it’s Jesus! Amen? Just say, “Jesus.” Everybody just say, “Jesus.” Was that that hard?
We had an elder come one day after listening to a testimony and we said, “How… what was his testimony?” The elder goes, “That was a great testimony, really good except he said everything but the name of Jesus.” What? “He said everything, but the name of Jesus?” I mean, isn’t that name the name by which is above every other name and at the name of Jesus, every knee one day will bow? — every tongue one day will confess? — ’cause everybody’s gonna confess Him sometime, either on this side of eternity or on the next. Everybody confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You want to know what my favorite creed is in the Bible? Say, ‘Yes.’ Thank you. Here it is right here, 1 Timothy chapter 3. Here it is.
1 Timothy 3:16
16 ‘God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.’
That is a creed right out of the Bible. You say, ‘Well, that’s all we need, I guess, isn’t it?’ Well, yes and no, because Satan has been infiltrating the Church as much as possible ever since then. And so since then, there have been some historic creeds that are fantastic, like the Apostles Creed, which came around 150 like the next generation AD. And the Apostles Creed has… I mean I learned it as a little Catholic boy growing up and said it every week. Al Moller, the great theologian of Southern seminary, said that:
“It was the most important class assignment ever given him was to memorize the Apostles Creed.” And then he said this. “All Christians believe more than it’s contained in the Apostles Creed but none can believe less.” Al Moller
(Great statement)
A couple hundred years later… almost not quite… came the much more popular, more robust, and the creed by which all other creeds are measured, the Nicene Creed in 325 AD. I’ll come back to that. That has 230 words, so you know, 100 more give or take, but still not 557,000 words you’ve got to memorize here. Okay? So just to give you a little sense of what was going on, just a hundred years ago now… 100 years ago was at the height of what is often called the Modernist music… or not music. Got enough of that too… The Modernist Movement. The Modernist Movement was a movement whereby people were starting to… great orators, super apostles, great preachers, persuasive, you’re leaning into them ’cause… man, they could talk good! And those same guys were denying that Jesus was God. They were denying that Jesus rose from the dead. They were denying that Jesus was the eternal Son of God. They were denying the authority of the Scripture, but almost everything came back to Jesus. And so seeing this in great Evangelical conferences across the country and even world, there were people saying, ‘Let’s make everybody in our conference ascribe to a creed.’ And so, what happened was some of these super apostles would go up to the microphone, they’d go, (tapping their hand on the bible) ‘The Bible’s the only creed I need.’ Oh, Amen! Do you see what they were doing? Very slighly, very wiley, they were trying to evade being pinned down on what they didn’t believe, simply saying, ‘We’ve just gotta have the Bible here.’
And so this is the reason why we’ve worked so diligently on this end in recent days… on a creed. Creeds. The historic creeds affirmed biblical truth, and at the same time, refuted Satanically led heresy. All of which almost every heresy that has attempted to creep into the Church over the last couple of thousand years has had to do with who was Jesus. The most famous creed of all… I’ve already mentioned it… the one God would greatly use and still greatly uses to guard His young Church at the time of… from heresy, was the Nicene Creed. And the story around the Nicene Creed is dramatic.
Christians were so persecuted up till 300 AD. In fact, Diocletian was an emperor who, in order to get Christian to deny their faith, he cut their arms off, he gouged their eyes out. He’d even have their leg’s tendons cut, hamstring them if he could, whip them, and then suddenly a change takes place. The new emperor is Constantine. In 312 AD, Constantine supposedly saw a sign. We don’t know what. We can’t prove it was an experience, but he saw a sign of the cross and basically in Latin “in this sign conquer,” and through the whole thing, Constantine, because Christianity was still growing… because the blood of the martyrs is a seed of the Church… he became a follower of Christ. I know that historians will debate whether it was real. I actually believe it was real, and I’ll prove it to you at the end of this message. But one of the reasons would be what took place in the next year. Constantine in 313 AD issued an edict which was an Edict of Toleration, which basically said ‘We favor Christianity now.’ Just imagine this! We favor Christianity. Christians were now not only free across the entire empire to believe and profess their faith, they were now able to argue over their faith, and, boy, did they argue! They got in fights over who is Jesus because the false apostles started creeping up. So Constantine called 1800 pastors, bishops to a little town of Nicaea, 70 miles south of modern-day Istanbul, right along the lake… beautiful setting, marble palace. He invited 1800. 318 of them showed up. And among these were those men with missing limbs, gouged out eyes, severely lamed and maimed, but stood up for their faith. Those men formerly persecuted are now given a carte blanche, all expense paid ticket to Nicaea where they met, and they all came in. When Constantine walked in, there was like a holy hush. I mean, he was 51 years old. He was handsome. He was big. He was strong… and he was ticked! — because there was so much fighting in the empire now. Now they freed up Christianity. He said, ‘You have to settle this matter about who Jesus is!‘ And for the next seven weeks, that’s what they did. And they duked – it – out during that time. In fact, the very first thing he, Constantine, did was he burned all the complaints they were sending to him that he wanted him to take on, he was so upset with them. And so for the next seven weeks they’re taking on 84 subjects, the principal one, “Who was Jesus?” And there’s two stalwarts that stand up. One is a guy with the name of Arius. When you think of the word Arius, think of Arian, think of ‘Bad Guy.’ He wasn’t a bad guy. He was a super apostle! He was eloquent! He would hold your attention! He could sing! They chanted in those days, but it would be… Arius was what we call a modern day Jehovah’s Witness. He didn’t believe that Jesus was the eternal God. In fact, he came up a little ditty that was being sung all around the Empire. Even little kids were singing it. And here it was.
“There was a time when the Son was not.” Arius
And everybody was singing it! And so he actually starts singing this to Constantine trying to impress him. Didn’t work. Constantine wanted more robust, biblically centered arguments about who Christ was, and so at it they went. There was another hero… and he is our hero… Athanasius. Athanasius was actually a deacon in a church, but he was a man just filled with the truth of God, and he argued for the person of Christ that Jesus was God of God, the eternal God, the eternal Son of God. And as the weeks went by, most started leaning toward Athanasius, and then, so did Constantine, and as a result, Constantine would burn all of… Arius’s false teaching.
Here’s the point. Until… this is 325 AD. A lot of years… there’s been a minute or two since then. Right? All of you who hate history say ‘Amen.’ Shoot! Here’s the point. Until Jesus returns we have to keep teaching and reaffirming the truth of God. The result of these seven weeks before he sent them back to their various pastorates around the world, literally at the time, was a creed for the ages. And here is a summation of what Christians believe in the Nicene Creed right here.
The Nicene Creed
“We believe in one God, the Father almighty, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; (Notice the rub here) of one being with the Father (because Arius said that Jesus was made, so this is to counteract Arianism) Through Him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit He became incarnate of the virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried.
On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory…”
That’s a great statement. Is it not? So, honoring that great creed, in January of this year the elders of Saylorville Church told you we are going to be working on a creed, and we have it and we’re ready to bust it out. So why recite it? Why recite creeds of the faith? Let me give you an answer. By confessing these truths together we are declaring what we believe about the essentials of our faith and the hope we share with one another as followers of Jesus.
Just the other day, I was meeting with a group of guys I meet with early in the morning on Fridays… about ten of them, almost all military guys except for a couple of us. Three of them are Army Rangers, and one of them, one of those Rangers through the course of the conversation, just busted out the Rangers’ Creed. He didn’t read it. He didn’t just pull our his phone. He just looked at us and quoted it with conviction, with belief! And as he quoted the Rangers’ Creed, I couldn’t help but think as he did it if this soldier of the Army cherishes his Rangers’ Creed that much, how much more I, How much were me… a soldier of the cross should cherish my confession, creed to the living God?
And so, we offer to you this morning the brand new minted Saylorville Creed. And I’d like all of you to stand, please. Would you just stand up? Now listen… I was so excited about that Ranger’s Creed, I quoted the Ranger Creed and I became a Ranger. (laughter) You get it! You get it! Just quoting the Ranger Creed didn’t make me a Ranger. Just quoting this Creed that we’re about to read doesn’t make you a Christian, and won’t make you a Christian. Some of you need to become a Christian. And if from all of your heart, you believe what these words are, you would become a Christian. So take these words to heart. You don’t have to say them. If you’re not a Christian, just listen. But together, we’re going to say this together. You’ll have to trust this. I know you’re saying, ‘Well, I’ve never, I’ve never read it before. Why would I want to say…?’ Well, I’m asking you to. We’re cashing a few chips here, okay? — as elders to trust us as we say this together. All right? Are you ready? Here we go.
Saylorville Church Creed
We believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three persons equal and eternal. We believe in God the Father, who created everything from nothing. He rules with wisdom, power, and love. He is holy, just, merciful, and kind. He gives life and every good gift. He is in control of every nation, every moment. Everything exists by His word and for His glory. We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our sinless Savior. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, fully God and fully human. He died for our sins, was buried and rose again. He ascended to heaven and will return in glory to judge all people, the living and the dead, and to reign forever. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the person of God in us. He convicts us of sin, opening our eyes to our need for grace and leading us to repentance. He conforms us to Christ, helping us live like He did, and giving us gifts to build up the Church. He comforts us until the end, sealing our salvation and strengthening our hope. We believe the Bible is God’s word and our final authority. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. The Church is the body of Christ. Believers baptism and the Lord’s Supper are commands from Christ. Those who reject Christ face eternal judgment apart from God. Those who receive Christ, experience eternal joy with God.
And all God’s people said… “Amen.” You may be seated. Yeah, you can clap if you want. That’s cool. [APPLAUSE]
You know, there are many in history who have studied what happened around the Nicene Creed. There’s like six to eight stories, so pick the one you want to believe. But anyway, this was the result of it, the Nicene Creed over the next generation or so. And many don’t believe Constantine really became a Christian. I do… for several reasons. I think we’ll see him in heaven. But not the least of which is this one. Remember those bishops who showed up lame, maimed, limbs cut off, eyes gouged out? One of them was a pastor from Egypt, whose name was Paphnutius. Paphnutius was one of those who had his eye gouged out during the persecution. After the Council of Nicaea, Constantine invited him to his palace in Constantinople, 70 miles north. And we’re told that when Paphnutius walked into the palace, the emperor went off of his throne, walked up to him and kissed him on the empty eye socket.
In this room and watching online are many hurts. Nobody’s got their eye gouged out, but some of you are hurting because of marriages, because of infidelity. You’re hurting because of some sin that you’ve committed and you’re suffering those consequences. Some of you are hurting internally with deep emotional issues going on in your life, and it’s painful to live every single day. Some of you are hurting because the pain is something you haven’t gotten, and you’ve been praying for, and it hasn’t happened. There’s coming a day… if you know Jesus… that you will see Him and He will kiss that wound. He will kiss that hurt. I’ve got one better. He’ll take it away… because He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And those who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
If you’ll notice, as you’ve read that creed, every single line began with, “We believe.” Do you believe? Would you believe? Would you from your heart today give your heart to Jesus Christ who died for that wicked heart of yours, who died for all of your sin, who rose again from the dead, who ever lives to make intercession to those who know and love Him? Would you trust Him today? And if you will, you can say, “I believe!” Let’s pray together.
Our Father, how grateful we are to open up Your word, to see in Your word that there’s always been deep concerns for the people of God to be– to not be misled by the super apostles of our day… become gullible or ignorant. Save us from these things, Lord. Now, your Bible is a big book. Lots of words. We should love it. We should read every one of those words and love them and memorize them. But Lord, You have led these elders in this church of Yours at Saylorville to develop a creed that finds its foundation in the historic creeds of the faith. And it is our desire to exult You, not just through the recitation of these creeds, not just reading them, reciting them, memorizing, but believing those essential truths that are found therein. We know it’s not the Bible, we know it’s not one of Your ordinances, but we believe it’s important for us to be able to be strong in our faith, that we might not be baby birds just hatched from the egg, but more discerning, and more godly, and more Christ honoring in our lives. I pray for those who are in this room who’ve never known, come to know Jesus, and you know ’cause your heart is saying, ‘I want that. I want that.’ You can have it… if right now from your heart, you would say, ‘Lord, I’m a sinner. Oh, I’m a sinner. I don’t want to die in my sins. I want you to kiss my wounds. You’ve already done it through the cross. I believe in You, Lord Jesus. And I believe You rose from the dead. And I’m trusting You now as my Savior.’ Can you pray that? We’d love to rejoice with you, and we’ll do these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand. [Music]