The Reformation & Confession

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 117
• Hymn — A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Luther's Small Catechism
• Scripture Reading — Romans 8
• Baptisms — Constance Wadley, Levi Wadley, and Parker Gunn
• Prayer
• Hymn
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — In Christ Alone
• Sermon
• Hymn — Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

---

Sermon Title: The Reformation and Confessions

Scripture: Colossians 2:16–23

I. Confessions Uphold Sola Scriptura — Scripture Alone as Authority

A. Paul warns against "human precepts and teachings" and "self-made religion" in Colossians 2:20–23, condemning man-made tradition treated as divine teaching (cf. Matthew 15)

B. In 2 Timothy 1:13 Paul instructs Timothy to "follow the pattern of sound words" — a structured, transmissible doctrinal tradition, not merely verbal repetition

C. The historic creeds and Reformed confessions embody this "pattern of sound words"

1. The Apostles', Nicene, and Chalcedonian Creeds carry forward apostolic orthodoxy
2. The reformers were not anti-tradition; they opposed man-made tradition and sought to re-establish scriptural tradition
3. The Westminster divines initially resisted proof-texting, preferring conclusions drawn from the whole counsel of God

D. Without confessional standards, Sola Scriptura becomes a vague slogan open to anarchic interpretation

1. The American church's "no creed but the Bible" motto in the early 1800s (documented in Nathan Hatch's The Democratization of American Christianity) led to the spread of Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarianism, and Universalism
2. Confessions give the church a shared "we confess" rather than a fragmented "I confess"

II. Confessions Uphold Solus Christus — Christ Alone

A. The false teaching in Colossae was a syncretism of Jewish ritualism (Colossians 2:16–19) and Greek mystical asceticism (Colossians 2:20–23)

1. The Jewish elements were genuinely scriptural — festivals, sabbaths, food laws — yet Paul says these are shadows; "the substance belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:17)
2. Christ is the sum and substance of all Scripture's meaning

B. Paul himself answers false teaching with creedal and confessional language

1. Colossians 1:15–20 — Christ as firstborn of creation and firstborn from the dead
2. Philippians 2:6–11 — Christ's humiliation and exaltation, every knee bowing
3. 1 Timothy 3:16 — "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh…"

C. Without confessional standards, "Christ" becomes whoever any teacher says he is

1. Every heterodox group — including Mormons — claims Scripture and Jesus; the Nicene Creed exposes the difference
2. Confessions draw a clear line: the triune God of one substance, Christ born of the virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit

III. Confessions Uphold Soli Deo Gloria — The Glory of God Alone

A. Paul's concern in Colossians 2:19 is that growth comes from God, not from human systems

1. Man-made religion gives the appearance of wisdom (Colossians 2:23) but has "no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh"
2. Human traditions offer false assurance: "so long as I follow this leader or observe this practice, I am good" — the very error Luther attacked in the indulgence system

B. Man-made religion is dangerously attractive to fallen human nature

1. Jim Jones led over 900 followers to death; Christ died utterly alone — a stark contrast showing how powerfully man-made religion captivates fallen hearts
2. Cult leaders often wielded Scripture literally while ignoring the orthodox pattern of sound words

C. The Reformed confessions liberate the church from self-made religion and anchor it in God's glory alone

1. From the Augsburg Confession (1530) to the Westminster Confession and the London Baptist Confession (1689), the reformers — Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Bullinger, Ursinus, Owen, Goodwin — labored to give the church a biblically robust confessional standard
2. These confessions uphold all five Solas: Scripture alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, Christ alone, to the Glory of God alone
3. As Spurgeon warned: we eagerly hear what the Spirit says to us but care little for what the Spirit has said to others — confessions guard against this arrogance by connecting us to the faith "once for all delivered to the saints"