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

Book Recommendation: Sacred Bond

Over at the Modern Reformation website, you can read an interview of the authors of Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored. (interview here)

I've included an excerpt from the interview in order to whet your appetite for this excellent book that we'd highly recommend to you! I (Pastor Norm) have used it as a teaching resource for a course on covenant theology and it was great to see the reception it received among lay-readers! You can buy a copy through Reformed Fellowship. 

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MR: How will this book impact the way lay Christians read the Bible devotionally?

MB: Our prayer is that reading Sacred Bond will help you know how to read and interpret the Bible more faithfully. Studying God’s covenants has one primary goal: to know God and our relationship with him more fully. Studying the covenants should never be a dry academic exercise. It has immense pastoral and practical value for the Christian. It revolutionizes our approach to Scripture, providing us with helpful categories to understand the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. It shows us that the Bible is actually one book with one story, told on the stage of real human history. It highlights the plotline and central point of Scripture, setting every story in the context of the larger story about Christ. More importantly, it comforts us as we learn that God accepts us not on the basis of our covenant faithfulness but on the basis of Christ’s. It sweetens our fellowship with the Father as we come to know his oath and promises to us, promises that are “yes” and “amen” through the Mediator of the new covenant. It changes our view of the local church as we discover that we are part of God’s covenant community and worship him in a covenant-renewal ceremony every Lord’s Day. It transforms the way we see our children—namely, as the baptized members of God’s covenant of grace. It helps us understand that covenant is not a means to an end, but it is the end itself—the communion between God and his people.

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The Impact of God's Covenant with King David

What are we to make of the Davidic covenant found in 2 Samuel 7 and described again in 1 Chronicles 17?

First, we should be clear what we mean by 'covenant'. In the memorable words of the Children's Shorter Catechism, a covenant is a "relationship that God establishes with us and guarantees by His Word." Thus, when God made a covenant with King David, the LORD was telling David and his descendants what he could expect in the generations to come. 

The LORD looked upon the shepherd king of Israel and established an everlasting covenant – a binding and constant arrangement between God and David and his offspring. The Davidic covenant established an expectation of a greater Son of David who would come to bring us into an everlasting kingdom! And if we want to summarize the significance of the Davidic covenant in a single sentence, we might say: 

Because God keeps His Word, His promise of an everlasting house (or dynasty) and Kingdom to David gave confidence to all who anticipated the fulfillment of this promise. 

Ray Grau