Are you searching for a church that values biblical preaching?

We believe that preaching must get to the heart of the matter... which is the heart. As the Puritan Thomas Watson put it, "Until sin be bitter, Christ is not sweet." This means that our sermons won't feel 'light' or 'fluffy' because the problem of sin in us is so great and the good news of Christ's ministry to us is so glorious! 

J. Gresham Machen’s words have particular resonance for our view of biblical preaching:

“The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God—the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in man, but is absolutely undeserved, resistless and sovereign. The theologians of the Church can be placed in an ascending scale according as they have grasped that one great central doctrine, that doctrine that gives consistency to all the rest; and Christian experience also depends for its depth and for its power upon the way in which that blessed doctrine is cherished in the depths of the heart. The center of the Bible, and the center of Christianity, is found in the grace of God; and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone.”

Quote in Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (Grand Rapids, 1955), page 396.

Please visit us this coming Lord’s Day if you are searching for a church that values biblical preaching. We can promise you that we are profoundly committed to the faithful preaching of the whole counsel of God’s Word.

Check out our ‘Sermons’ page for more of an explanation of our view of biblical preaching

Finding Peace for Our Hearts in a Tumultuous World

Our hearts cry out that there is a gap between what we need to make us feel at peace and what our actual circumstances are.

This is the chasm that keeps us up at night – or brings us down during the day.

What we need to make us feel at peace seems at odds with what our actual circumstances are on any given day.

As Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down.”

The Lord Jesus Christ knows well that we are weighed down by anxieties and fears of many kinds. He speaks with Kingly authority and Shepherd-like tenderness in Matthew 6:24ff to teach us how to find peace in a tumultuous life.

Join us this Lord's Day as we meditate together on God's righteous care for His holy people.

One of the Longest Psalms to Learn...

It was Charles Spurgeon who once said of Psalm 131, “it is one of the shortest Psalms to read but one of the longest to learn”. And he’s right, isn’t he?

We can pick this Psalm up and read it quite swiftly – and with just a few hours of practice we can have it committed to memory so that we can recite it at will. 

But to learn this way of living – this way of humbling ourselves before God – this way of Christian lowliness... of a will subdued to the will of God – that is a lifelong lesson. 

To simply sum up the psalm’s lesson, it is this: a believer rests with the greatest contentment in the Lord’s abiding love, without the grand boasting of those who are enemies of God. 

Do We Make Time to Incline Our Ear?

Like most of the book of Proverbs, there isn't a specific setting that the words we find in Proverbs 22:17 are addressing but they are rather touching on the reality that faces us as image bearers of the LORD our God who are fallen and broken by sin and being restored and renewed by the Holy Spirit.

For in our creation in the image of God, we have been given minds of discernment and understanding – with the ability to reason and to reflect in ways that make plain that we are not animals but are a distinct creation of God.

We are created to be revelation-receivers.

We incline our ears and hear the words of the wise. 

If you have a pet at home, you'll know that they receive communication from you – they'll incline their ears, but they are not hearing and comprehending the words of the wise in the way that the Word calls us to.

They hear instructions and words of affection – but as animals they are not then applying those words to the recesses of their hearts or thinking to themselves, “I'm sure glad I have such a wise master". 

But we're different.

And we apply the things we hear – we hear the words of the wise and God says, “apply your heart to my knowledge”. 

Receive it and store it and reflect on it.

Do you have time for this? 

It's not idleness to devote time to this type of reflection – whether in the middle of the night when you're unable to sleep or during the day in personal meditation on the Word.

Do you have time to incline your ear and apply your heart to the knowledge of God?