Faith that Works A Study of the Langhorne Presbyterian Statement of Faith

1. Faith that Works A Study of the Langhorne Presbyterian Statement of Faith Week 5- Chaste and Faithful

2. Faith that Works A Study of the Langhorne Presbyterian Statement of Faith Why we Confess – the Call to Worship Honor, Respect and Care Without Regard Truthful, Honest, Sober, Self-Controlled Joyful, Prayerful, Thankful Chaste and Faithful In This World but not of This World – Serving the World in Word and Deed Topics of Faith Confessing Our Faith in a Faithless World

3. That truth is in order to goodness; and the great touchstone of truth, its tendency to promote holiness, according to our Savior’s rule, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” And that no opinion can either be more pernicious or more absurd than that which brings truth and falsehood upon a level, and represents it as of no consequence what a man’s opinions are. On the contrary, we are persuaded that there is an inseparable connection between faith and practice, truth and duty. Otherwise it would be of no consequence either to discover truth or to embrace it. F-3.0104 The Book of Order, PC(USA) Adopted by the first General Assembly in 1789

4. …we are persuaded that there is an inseparable connection between faith and practice, truth and duty. Otherwise it would be of no consequence either to discover truth or to embrace it. F-3.0104 The Book of Order, PC(USA) A faith worth stating is a faith worth living

5. We believe in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who always was, is and will be. God is all powerful, and perfectly holy. We believe that all things, seen and unseen were designed and created by God for his purposes. In sovereign love God reigns over his universe with providential care. God exists in both perfect love and perfect justice. We believe that God created humankind in his image for fellowship with him and community with one another. But the first humans rebelled against God and his good commands, losing fellowship with God and breaking community with one another. We believe that this first sin has tainted the lives of all persons; that having lost our fellowship with God, each of us lives in a sinful state which is separation from communion with God. This separation from God has resulted in broken relationships with each other and misunderstanding of our selves.

6. We believe that God in his perfect holiness cannot look upon sin and that sinful persons cannot stand in his presence. In his perfect justice God rightly condemns us to death, which is separation from his eternal presence and his perfect love. We believe that in his perfect love and never ending mercy, God the Father has sent his one and only Son to redeem sinful humanity. Jesus atoned for our sins and restored our fellowship with God. This restoration also has yielded a right relationship with others and a right understanding of our selves.

7. We believe that in Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, God became a man; revealing both the fullness of God and the fullness of human life lived in fellowship with and obedience to God. Jesus lived among us, healing the sick, loving the outcast and teaching us the ways of God’s Kingdom. Tempted in every way as we are, he did not sin. We believe that in perfect obedience to the Father’s will, Jesus willingly suffered death on a cross, taking upon himself all human sin – the sinless one receiving the punishment due the sinful ones. But death could not hold him and on the third day he rose bodily from death to life. He ascended into heaven and now lives ever to intercede for us.

8. We believe that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has opened the way to salvation which is the free gift of eternal fellowship with God and purposeful and abundant living in this life. Jesus is God’s sole provision for the salvation of humankind; the only way, the only truth and the only life that leads to reconciliation with God and others. We believe that this gift of salvation is by God’s grace alone received through faith alone by no human works or merit. This gift is ours to receive as we confess our need of a Savior repenting of our sinful state. We believe that nothing can separate those who have received the grace of God from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We believe that aside from the saving grace of God offered in Jesus Christ, all human persons will receive the punishment due them: the pain and anguish of eternal separation from God.

9. We believe that having received the gracious gift of salvation, we are called to a life of sanctification which is the daily work of living a holy and godly life. Empowered by Jesus’ promised gift of the Holy Spirit, we are to practice daily prayer, daily study of the Scriptures, and continuous fellowship with one another as we joyfully await the return of Jesus and his coming Kingdom. We believe that the church is the Body of Christ, Jesus being its head and Lord. The Body consists of those who claim him as Savior and Lord, in all times and all places, regardless of denominational identity. We believe that Langhorne Presbyterian Church is but one small part of the Body of Christ and that we are called to worship, grow, connect, serve and share as God’s people in our time and place.

10. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are the infallible Word of God, perfectly useful for instruction, correction, reproof and training in righteousness. We believe that through the Scriptures and by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, God calls his people to live lives of holiness, obedient and submissive to God in all aspects of our lives.

11. We believe, then, among other things that God calls us to: • Worship God in spirit and truth • Honor and respect all people as made in the image of God. • Care for all people without regard to race, ethnicity, nationality, economic or social status, beliefs or (lack thereof), sexual orientation, political preference(s), or the expectation of repayment. • Be truthful and honest in all our dealings with everyone. • Be sober and practice self-control in all aspects of our lives. • Be joyful, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances. • Use our God-given gifts to build up Christ’s body, the church. • Honor chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage which is Biblically defined as between one man and one woman. • Present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, to live in the world, to serve God and do His will, and yet not be enticed by the false promises of the world. • Live in the power of the indwelling Spirit allowing us to choose to do good and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We understand that in this life our worldly desires will never be fully eradicated but we must choose through the power of the Holy Spirit to keep the flesh in subjection to Jesus Christ. • Carry the Good News of the Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ to all people everywhere in the world using words and deeds.

12. We believe, then, among other things that God calls us to: • Honor chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage which is Biblically defined as between one man and one woman.

13. The Pragmatist Answers: Source: Charles Murray, Coming Apart, Figure 15.6

14. The Bible Answers: • Genesis 2:18-25 • Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” • Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

15. The Bible Answers: • Malachi 2:13-16 • And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

16. The Bible Answers: • Matthew 19:3-9 • And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

17. The Bible Answers: • Ephesians 5:22-28 • Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. • Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

18. The Bible Answers: • Titus 1:5-9 • This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

19. The Bible Answers: • 1 Corinthians 7:6-9 • Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

20. The Bible Answers: • Hebrews 13:1-5 • Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

21. The Bible Answers: • Romans 1:21-32 • For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. • Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

22. The Bible Answers: • Romans 1:21-32 • For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. • And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

23. The Bible Answers: • The “porneo” passages • Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. • Acts 21:25 But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity." • 1 Corinthians 6:13 "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food" -- and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. • 1 Corinthians 6:18 Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. • 1 Corinthians 7:2 But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

24. The Bible Answers: • The “porneo” passages • 2 Corinthians 12:21 I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and licentiousness which they have practiced. • Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, • Ephesians 5:3 But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints. • Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. • 1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity.

25. What God has joined together let no one put asunder.

26. The Church Answers: We gather in the presence of God to give thanks for the gift of marriage, to witness the joining together of _____________and _____________ to surround them with our prayers, and to ask God’s blessing upon them, so that they may be strengthened for their life together and nurtured in their love for God. God created us male and female, and gave us marriage so that husband and wife may help and comfort each other, living faithfully together in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, throughout all their days. God gave us marriage for the full expression of the love between a man and a woman. In marriage a woman and a man belong to each other, and with affection and tenderness freely give themselves to each other. God gave us marriage for the well being of human society, for the ordering of family life, and for the nurture of children.

27. The Church Answers: God gave us marriage as a holy mystery in which a man and a woman are joined together, and become one, just as Christ is one with the church. In marriage, husband and wife are called to a new way of life, created, ordered, and blessed by God. This way of life must not be entered into carelessly, or from selfish motives, but responsibly, and prayerfully. We rejoice that marriage is given by God, blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and sustained by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, let marriage be held in honor by all.

28. Faith that Works A Study of the Langhorne Presbyterian Statement of Faith Week 5 – Chaste and Faithful