Sermon
Membership 101 Series - Our Statements (Part 1)
January 22-23, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take from your bulletins our worksheets. It's the buff sheet. If you're new with us today, and I have met some new folks, we're doing something we do about every five years. And we do this because we live in a transient community where people come and go, and our congregation changes about two to three families a week move to other locations, and other people come and join with us. Thus we think it's wise for a church family that occasionally we just go back to square one and think through what we believe as Christians, what we believe as a church, what ties us together as a family. And this is a series of lessons. This is lesson number three today. If you would like, you can just make a note on your blue slip or check with the office if you've missed the other two lessons, we'd be delighted to give you the audiotape as well as the worksheet, and then we add those lessons to the rest of your lessons. When we're all finished we then will send these all back to you with your membership because you will have covered all the material that people cover when they come to our membership class. So it's really taking the membership class as a congregation and as a church family. Now what I'd like for you first of all to do is put your name right there on the front cover. Would you do that? Because, like again I say, when we're done you present your worksheet to one of the ushers, and we put it in your file so that when we've concluded all the lessons then we put all of your lessons together and send them to you with your membership. So make sure that you put it there, your name there, so we can put it in your file. And you will notice that we're not going to start at page one, at least not, it's not page one it's page fifteen, because in our plans Pastor Leighton was going to preach on pages 15, 16, 17 and I think 18. And then I was the following Sunday going to take the lesson that were going to take today, but Pastor Leighton's family has been ill with the flu, as well as he, and so he said Dad, if you'll take your lessons first then I'll fill in. So you'll not be able to fill in the front portion, but will give you a new set of notes for next week. Just remember to turn these in, because we're going to start our lesson today from page nineteen. Would you turn there with me? And also I pray that you have the white slips that state our faith. Make sure you have them. If you don't, raise your hand and the ushers would be pleased to give them to you. We'll need those two items for our lesson today.

And the passage that, there are so many passages of Scripture that we could read that relate to the church, it's the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. We learned the other day that Paul in his Philippian passage refers to the church as the colony of heaven. We're people who have been saved by God's grace and ultimately our eternal goal is heaven, and so we're just going to talk about the church and about what we believe today. So let's begin on page nineteen, shall we? Here's what it says. What we believe. In essential beliefs we have unity. Now in just a few moments we're going to go over those essential beliefs in our statement of faith. And it's those items, those matters, that we feel very deeply. We will not compromise. We will not equivocate. They are principles. They are truths we live by and, if necessary, we'll die by. But we have a sense of unity. Those we agree together we have as a body of believers, and we're going to go over those in just a minute.

There is one Body and one Spirit...there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. Thus that unity of faith we're going to express it in just the a few moments as we go over those various items. Secondly, in non-essential beliefs we have liberty. In the early part of the week, in my office I took a yellow pad and I put non-essential beliefs. What are nonessentials? We believe them but heaven isn't going to be determined by it, and they're issues that we may have personal backgrounds in, but to us there's a liberty. You say well what would they be? And so I listed a number of them. Let me give you just a couple of them. Let's take the issue of the variations in Bible translations. There's the American Standard. There's the Revised Standard. There's the Amplified. There's the Living Bible. There's the Goodspeed Bible. There's the Moffatt Bible. You go to a Christian bookstore today and there's a multiplicity of various versions of the Scripture. And I think that's good. Yet there are some who hold that if the King James Version was good enough for the apostle Paul, it's good enough for us. Now you say pastor that's a little narrow. It wasn't even written for Paul. That's right. But there is a narrowness in some churches that say unless you have a King James Version the rest of the translations are all from the devil. 

A book was written about two years ago and I think the person who wrote it wasn't a theologian, I know she wasn't a theologian, she was a dietitian, if I remember correctly. But she did a very powerful job in trying to convince that only the King James text was authentic and every other translation was wrong. And that became very difficult for many churches because some read those books and as the result they were convinced that they had to throw away all the rest of their translations. In fact, I had a man in my church who came to me and said Pastor, why are you letting the devil in the front door every Sunday? Boy! I said what do you mean? He said every time you let in a translation that's other than the King James, you're letting in the devil and I won't come here anymore. He isn't here, but he went to a church where he gave the pastor a book, and the pastor read it, and the next Sunday he stands up and said, from now on, if anybody comes to this church other than with a King James text, you're not going to be allowed in the front door. That's foolish. It's hurtful to the body of Christ. If you find that the translation the American Standard is your favorite, God bless you. If you like the Amplified, God bless you. If you like the old King James, which I do, God bless you. Well you say well what Bible do you read? Well we thought that, so that we at least could read the Scriptures together, and we do this that almost at every service, we use the New King James. What they did is took out the language that was 300 years old; thees and thous, but 98 percent of the text is the same as the original King James. Now I'm not saying that it's the better one. It just so happens that that's the one we use, but we want you to know that is a non-essential. And to us we're not going to be narrow and divisive and hurtful by saying the text that you enjoy is wrong. We won't do that. That's a non-essential. 

What's another one Pastor? Well, let's take the issue in theology known as the doctrine of eschatology. Now you say what's that big word mean? Well it's the study of future events. An eschatological study would be a prophetic study of man's interpretation as to how this world is all going to wrap up. How's it all going to end? And folks, when you get into theology you'll realize that there are a thousand different interpretations as to how this world's going to end up. All got it different. You know, they have various ideas. Let me tell you the one, so that you understand when we speak of eschatology. Most people think of prophetic doctrine as Evangelicals in this form. They say the Bible says that in 1 Thessalonians Jesus will ascend from heaven, the saints will rise to be with Him, and that's called the rapture of the church. The Saints will be with Him in heaven and we'll be enjoying the great marriage supper of the Lamb while down here on Earth will be the seven years of tribulation. Then the Saints return with Christ, He sets up His millennial kingdom for 1000 years, at the end of 1000 years is the great cataclysmic war, and the great judgment, and the beginning of eternity. Now that is known as premillennialism. And that's a position that's most comfortable with many Evangelicals. 

Strange though, when you understand the history of theology you'll realize that that particular doctrine only came back into the church in the year of 1832, and then came to America through Pastor Schofield, who was then pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas. He wrote the Schofield Text Bible and as a result, there was a proliferation of that particular point of view throughout all the Evangelical churches. But, 1600 years ago it was thrown out of the church as heresy, and you say, well what about it? I'm saying that there are variations in trying to work out how it's all going to end up. We had a man come some time ago and say pastor, if you teach that Jesus is going to come before the tribulation, then you're teaching it wrong. I said well what should we do? He said well let me stand up and tell them that He's not going to come until the mid tribulation. I said I'll do that under one condition, after you finish, give me thirty minutes to disprove you. Well I won't do that because I'm right. Here again, it's an area where there is so diverse opinions. It is really foolish to be dogmatic in this area. It's really Christian immaturity I think. Understand this, we have one statement when it comes to prophecy or eschatology. We believe that Jesus is going to come back to this earth again. 

Paul says the skies will part, trumpets shall blow, He shall come, we will be taken to be with Him forever. So we believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. I can't tell you when it's going to happen. I cannot tell you how it's all going to happen. I just, we just believe that He is coming again to take the church, the believers, to ever be in His presence. How He does that will be wonderful. Now all these folks who thought they were going to enjoy a millennium, you get cheated out of it. Maybe? Or you may enjoy it. What I'm simply saying is, however God works it out that will be wonderful. But our goal is to so live so that if He should come today, we would be ready for His coming. And I think that that really is a wonderful position, and that way we can discuss but never argue the whole issue of prophecy. Okay? Because it has become very divisive in many churches. Nonessentials. So in nonessentials we have the wonderful liberty here to respect one another and realize that we come from various backgrounds and we have certain set feelings, and we love one another, enjoy one another, we may disagree, but we are maturity enough to respect one another. And that I think is what makes Church of the Highlands as unique as it is. Because as we've shared with you I've had the joy of being your pastor for 40 years, and because we've taken this position of maturity and respect and love, we've not had divisions or strife in our church. We've had the joy of each of us growing in Christ as He speaks to us. Now in all of our beliefs then we show charity. If I hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but also the very secrets of God, and if I have the faith that can move mountains - but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. It's a tragedy that churches are split by divisive arguments, and some churches are totally devoid of love. And I've often said this and I mean it, there are some churches that should be nailed shut and burned down, because for years those churches and congregations have fought and bickered, and it leaves a terrible witness in the community. Jesus said all men shall know that you are My disciples because you love one another. And when the church is devoid of love, it loses its witness in a hurting world. My prayer is that when you come here you'll sense a love for God and a love for each other, but we are mature enough to realize we're not going to all think the same, and I'm not here to clone you to think all one way. All right? Now what we have to do is we have certain areas though we will not in any way equivocate. Now let's go to those.

What we believe. Shall we? Just take the little white insert that we have, and this really, it spells out just the heartbeat, the very core of our Christian faith in very precise words. And you'll see that it is very, very it is just as fundamental and just as biblical as we can make it. First of all you'll notice that we started with a couple of creeds. You say Pastor why the creeds? Because over the years you have the occasion to move away from the origination. In other words, we go back to the early moments of the church and it was imperative that those great men of God put down in creedal form what the church believed in 2000 years ago. Because 2000 years has a tendency to change. And if we don't know what they believed then, then all kinds of heresies can come into the church. So the creeds are the writings of great godly men centuries ago in the early moments of the Christian church who put down in precise terminology the very heartbeat of the Christian faith. Now many of you when you went to church read the, or said the Apostles Creed.

I believed in God almighty (the Father almighty)
And in Christ Jesus his only Son, our Lord
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried
And the third day rose from the dead,
Who ascended into heaven
And sits on the right hand of the Father
Whence he comes to judge the living and the dead
And in the Holy Ghost, the holy church,
The remission of sins; the resurrection of the flesh;
The life everlasting.

Now Pastor David and all of us read the Nicene. And I'll just make one passing comment. Notice in that last paragraph some of you found it difficult to say, we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Now I make a comment on this because I remember precisely five years ago when we were going through this sitting right over here was a lovely couple. And we got to that phrase, their tongues froze. You see look at it again. The word catholic is not capitalized. If it was capitalized it would be a proper noun, thus designating a denomination. It is what I think an adjective. Some would say it's a noun but it modifies really the word Church. And so catholic means universal. So we could rightly say we believe in one universal Church. We do, don't we? We sit here in our sanctuary, but we know that in South America, and in Russia, in Europe, and around the world there are people who love Jesus just like we do. And they make up the church, the universal church, the body of Christ around the world. And one of these days we'll all be together forever in heaven. Any place where a soul has trusted in Jesus Christ, they're a part of the universal church. Well you say Pastor just explain, what does it mean apostolic? Well it's simply means that we are people who believe the teachings of the apostles; Peter, John, James. So our beliefs are founded upon the teachings of Scripture which were the teachings of the apostles who were taught by Christ. So when we say we believe in one holy universal Church which has based their faith in the teachings of the apostles who wrote the Scriptures under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I had a lady come up to me after last service and said Pastor, we acknowledge one baptism for. She didn't like the preposition for. Remember this was written maybe, I don't know how many hundreds of years ago, but I said put out on this side Acts 2:38. Acknowledge one baptism, because those are the precise words of Scripture. So that will help us. We're saying the creeds were written to keep us on course, because years have a way of changing what was said years before. 

Now what do we believe concerning the Scriptures? We believe that the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God and that men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the very words of Scripture. The Bible is therefore without error, the inerrancy of the Scriptures, in its original manuscripts. God has supernaturally preserved the Bible and it is the sole and final authority for faith and life providing encouragement, guidance, comfort and instruction for training in righteousness. You will find that as you come here we stay as close to the Bible, and Sunday after Sunday, chapter after chapter, verse after verse, sometimes word after word. We spent a year and a half studying Matthew 5, 6 and 7, the Sermon on the Mount, because we wanted to really understand what Jesus was teaching in that majestic text. That's called expository biblical preaching, and we do that because, ladies and gentlemen, this is God's Word. From cover to cover, and we believe it. Secondly, we believe in the Trinity. We believe in one true God eternally existing in three distinct persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) each of Whom is fully and equally God; possesses all the divine nature and attributes, and is totally worthy of our worship and service. We believe that God the Father is the first person of the Trinity and is the eternal, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise, all-loving, completely just and perfectly holy, sovereign Ruler and Sustainer of the universe. How could you say it more strongly? He is the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Father of all true believers.

Next. We believe that Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity and is the only begotten eternal Son of God Who became flesh (Bethlehem) to reveal God to man, to fulfill prophecy, and to become the Savior of the lost world. Now the next sentence is deep, deep theology. You might want to underline it so when you get your lessons back you'll remember. In becoming man Jesus did not cease in any way to be God so that He is fully God and fully man inseparably united in one person forever. It's at that verse where the heretics change the teaching of the Scripture and make Jesus less than what the Scriptures says that He is. When I was in Bible college 55 years ago I was taught heresy on this subject. It was called the kenosis, k-e-n-o-s-i-s, kenosis theory. And what it taught that when God came to this earth and took upon human form in the person of Jesus Christ, He became less than God to take upon His manhood. That's not true. Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man in His incarnate being. Let me explain. He could go to that tomb and weep with those who were weeping for the death of Lazarus. He felt the pain and the loss of death. His human side grieved genuinely. John 11:35 says He wept. After He dried His tears He stepped up to that tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth! The Bible says He said it loudly. Now I know why he said Lazarus, because if He said just come forth, He'd of emptied the graveyard. But here was humanity weeping with those who wept, and here was God Almighty bringing life back from the dead. He's asleep on the boat. He's tired. His humanity is weary. And the waves began to beat and the disciples said, Jesus, wakeup we're going to drown. Can you ever imagine a boat going down with Jesus in it? His humanity was sleeping. He stood and said peace, be still. One of the beautiful things when you read through the Gospels you see this beautiful flow of perfect manhood and perfect deity in Jesus Christ. He was never less God when He became man. Never.

God the Holy Spirit. We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity Who specially came into the world on the day of Pentecost to glorify Christ and to enable men to appropriate the salvation wrought by Christ. Just dropping down because were hurrying a long for time. The last sentence says; We also believe that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to believers for the purpose of edifying the church in accordance with the teachings of the Scripture. We believe that God gave to the church beautiful spiritual gifts. Now let me explain. Somebody came to me and said Pastor, what would you do if somebody stood and spoke in tongues in your church? Well I'll tell you this. I believe that there is a maturity and a spiritual sensitivity in our congregation that if it was from God every one of us would know it. We would sense His awesome, glorious, majestic presence and we'd be awed in His presence. But I think we're mature enough to know that if it wasn't right, if it came from man, we'd know that. I come from a background; I was raised in a Pentecostal church. I understand. I've experienced some marvelous demonstrations of God's mighty power in the church. I've seen some ridiculous acts of man that have been ugly, but I've seen God do some beautiful things. And every time I come before you on Sunday my prayer is this, Spirit of the living God however You choose to manifest Your glory today, it's Your service. Now we mean that. The gifts of the Spirit flow in so many different ways in our church. So I just want you to know sometimes, you know, we're accused of being liberal and modern. I had one local Pastor, 20 years ago, said old Sheley up there on the hill doesn't believe in the Spirit of God. In fact, if you get up and speak in tongues he'll shut you up, he'll sit you down. So one day he thought he would try it. He came on a Sunday night service. He sat right over here. Right in the middle of the service that guy gets up and he does his gibberish and just shaking all over, and I just, when he's all finished, I just let about three minutes of silence scream at him. Never said a thing. I said a prayer and went on with the service. I proved to that critic that I wasn't going to stop something. When he walked out everybody knew he had done wrong. But if that had been genuine, I would have bowed along with the rest of the congregation and we would have listened to what the Holy Spirit would say to the church.

6. We believe that man was created in the image of God by direct act of God and did not come into being as the result of evolution. On Monday night we're going through a series of studying the doctrine of evolution, and I've gotten some of the most fantastic tapes from scientists, from geologists, from paleontologists that are absolutely just thrilling, and we're having a wonderful time. We just believe God created man in his own image. It's just that simple.

7. We believe that Satan is the instigator of evil and a real spirit being, not simply the personification of evil.

8. We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross provides the sole basis for forgiveness of sins and salvation, that's why we come to the cross every Lord' s Day, which is the free gift of God's grace.

9. We believe that every Christian should live for Christ and not for himself and should, by the power of the indwelling Spirit, allow Christ to manifest His life through him to God's glory.

10. We believe that the church is the body of Christ of which Jesus is the Head and whose members are those who have truly received Christ by faith.

Now you can see folks that our church, we try to stay as close to the Scriptures. There are many verses that you could read that substantiate those. We're not a cult. We're not some off the wall group of people. We're just people, here, with our hearts in love with Jesus and our feet planted deeply in the word of God. Now let's go back to our workbook and let's finish up just the seven items. It says, I'm on page 21 now, beliefs are not worth much unless they are translated into actions. We believe that. I mean you can say only what you believe, but if your belief doesn't make you a person that lives out what you believe, what good is what your words say? So we say beliefs are not worth much unless they are translated into actions. Based upon what the Bible teaches, we feel very strongly about the following seven practices.

1. The Bible is our sole authority. The Whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and it helps us to do what is right. I think that's the Living Bible from 2 Timothy. We have this deep conviction that this book has the answers to life. We really believe that. If you should come to me and say Pastor, this is my problem what's the answer? Were going to do our best to find what God's Word teaches, and then once we know, we are obligated to do it. I told you that some months ago I had a couple in and divorce was being contemplated. My heart hurts every time I hear that word as I see families devastated and lives blasted and the sacredness of marriage thrown out the window. It hurts me so. I'll do anything in my power to save a home and save a marriage. And over the years I look across the congregation, there are dozens of families who have gone through difficult times in their relationships, but we came to the Bible and God straightened out their lives and straightened out their marriages, and they're happy people today and their homes are together. That's what we long for. We're all human. Were going to have our struggles, but we go to the Book for the answers. And I sat there that day and I said folks there is no justifiable biblical reason for divorce. It's your own selfish lives that are putting demands on this relationship, and this church will not tolerate this within the body of Christ. This is wrong. It's time you get your heart right with God and right with each other and settle this matter as godly Christians should. And one of the mates stood up and looked me in the face and said Pastor, I want you to know I don't care what your Bible says, I'm going to do what I want to do. And they turned and walked out. That's a tragic moment because when you turn from the light that lights your pathway, and from the lamp that God gave us for our feet, you turn down a pathway of pain and heartache and sadness. We may not like the way God answers our questions, but He is always right and we're always wrong. It's the Bible. It's our sole authority.

Let's go to the last page, shall we? Priesthood of every believer. You say what is that? That's some big phrase Pastor. I've never heard that word. Listen to what the Scriptures says in Revelation it says Christ loves us, and by his death he has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of priests, ahhh, to serve God. You say what does that mean? It just simply means that in this body of believers all of us have equal access to God. We serve God through ministry, through prayer, and you have just as wonderful access to God's thrown as I do. And I mean this with all my heart in this body of believers I am no more important than you are. The only thing that makes me different is that my calling and that my assignment is to teach you the word of God. That's my gift, but that doesn't make me more important than you. God called you into His kingdom to serve Him, to worship Him, to love Him, and to tell the world about Him. And your assignment is just as sacred and as all-inclusive as mine. We're all priests unto God. We have all access equally into His presence.

Thirdly, our church is supported by tithing. We believe in the biblical method, the teachings of the Scripture, that ten percent of our earnings God marks them as His. And when we are faithful in tithing the blessings of God flow so richly on our church. We don't believe in bazaars. We don't believe in pledges. We don't like pie sales. We would never degrade the high calling of the work of the kingdom in this community by those ugly things. And giving by tithing for our 41 years of existence has always been sufficient. You've watched that. I learned this as a little boy. I was born in the '30s and it was during the Great Depression. My father had not worked for four years. He begged for food on the streets. I had no shoes. There was no food in the cupboard. My daddy became a Christian then mother became a Christian. And I remember soon after daddy got a job working in a sawmill, 50 cents an hour, 10 hours a day, six days a week, check at the end of the week; $30, no income tax then. But I remember I'm just a little tiny guy and daddy went down to the store and cashed his check at the Red and White Grocery Store, a company store. And I watched him sit at the table. He took the three dollars and said, Momma, I'm going to run down to the church. This belongs to God. We didn't have shoes. We didn't have food, but my daddy made God the priority. When he died he didn't die a rich man in this sense of worldly goods. He never owned a home. When he died he had one suit in the closet to be buried in. That's all he had, but he had five boys who raised their families to love Christ. And today, seven stand in the pulpit ministering the word of God. He left a marvelous heritage and he died a spiritual billionaire because his family loved Jesus. When people teach you to give because you get material gain that's a selfish greedy way to give, but when you give to honor Christ, He turns the blessings loose on your family, and your home, and your personal life in dimensions you'll never understand apart from it. And when you cheat yourself by not giving to God, you rob yourself of God's blessings.

Fourthly, we talked about it last week, immersion. We're not going to argue over different modes of baptism. We just like to stay as close to the Scripture so we baptized by immersion.

Fifthly, we believe in a Spirit-led life. I am the vine, you are the branches. We have the responsibility of asking God's Holy Spirit to help us live godly lives.

6. The autonomy of the local church. You say what does that mean Pastor? Well that just simply means we're not connected to any national organization whatsoever. I don't like somebody back in Timbuktu telling us what to do. And sometimes denominations they start good, but after a few years they spiritually deteriorate and then they're speaking for people sitting in the pew who don't agree and believe what the headquarters is teaching. I remember when back in the '30s and the '40s when the Methodist Church was alive and dynamic and preaching the gospel of Christ. A great revival in Methodism. You go down the streets of most protestant cities today and some of the finest protestant architecture is in Methodist churches. Why? Because 60, 70 years ago those churches were alive with a love for Christ and for souls. But they have deteriorated so many of them, and now, they haven't got the slightest semblance of anything that's Christian whatsoever. Tragedy. Tragedy. So we say we're not interested. We've got our lives to live. We're here in San Bruno. We're on top of this hill. We've got a community to show the love of Jesus Christ to, and we don't have to go to anybody else but God to tell us what to do and how to do it. Autonomy means simply we are self-governed locally without the interference of any other body.

Lastly, we're here for one reason, to evangelize our community. Now if you'd like to write this down because you'll get your paperback, here's our statement of faith in one sentence. You say Pastor, why are we here? I'll tell you in just one sentence. Helping people fall in love with Jesus. That's it. If in our worship, in our fellowship we are drawn closer to Christ then we've achieved our purpose. That's why the musicians and the songs that we sing lift Christ. We make Him the center. And my prayer is that when you leave the sanctuary, you're more in love with Jesus today than you were yesterday, and love is powerful. When you fall in love it changes everything. When you fell in love with your mate, I mean, they didn't have to tell you to throw away your address book. You knew there was only one address to go to. Right? And your goal loved one makes you want to please the object that you love, and our prayer is that we so fall in love with Jesus that He changes our lives. And I'll tell you, when you're in love with Jesus, you make a wonderful Christian. Amen.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus thank you for this wonderful family of believers. I thank you for our many guests today. And I thank you that You've bound us together in Your love. May we never lose the focus on You Jesus. And may we never deviate from Your Bible. May it always be the heartthrob of this church. Help us to fulfill our task of helping this community fall in love with You dear Jesus. And everybody said, amen. God bless you. You don't have to go out in the rain. Just stay around till the rain stops if you want to. God bless you.