Christ Reformed Baptist Church

Here in Mark we find a stark contrast between Christ's unwavering faithfulness and Peter's threefold denial during Jesus' trial, revealing that the church's security rests not in human strength but in Christ's divine constancy. Ultimately, the message is one of hope: the church endures not by human virtue but by the unbreakable faithfulness of Christ, who forgives, restores, and sustains His people through repentance and the assurance of His eternal intercession.

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. The focus here today is the conclusion of the book: "What tends to the glory and beauty of a true gospel church?"

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. The focus here today is the conclusion of the book: "What tends to the glory and beauty of a true gospel church?"

What does it mean that Eve is "the mother of all living"? What does Adam's naming Eve signify about their faith, hope, and love toward God and one another? Here we find the fundamentals of genuine faith, which is belief in God's word and an ordering of life accordingly.

Here we see Psalm 115 as a blueprint for Christian worship, revealing a divine order that has endured from the early church to the present day.

Sunday evening service, looking at the Heidelberg Catechism/Orthodox Catechism question 6, 7, and 8: 6). DID GOD CREATE PEOPLE SO WICKED AND PERVERSE? No. God created them good and in His own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love Him with all their heart, and live with Him in eternal happiness for His praise and glory. 7). THEN WHERE DOES THE CORRUPT HUMAN NATURE COME FROM? From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners –corrupt from conception on. 8). BUT ARE WE SO CORRUPT THAT WE ARE TOTALLY UNABLE TO DO ANY GOOD AND INCLINED TOWARD ALL EVIL? Yes, unless we are born again, by the Spirit of God.

God's word of judgment upon the man speaks to our very purpose, identity, and existence in life. The curse of sin, rooted in Adam's disobedience, has distorted creation, turning life into that marked by toil, frustration, and decay. Yet, against this dark backdrop of sin, the light of the gospel shines the brightest. For Christ as the second Adam has borne the curse, defeated death, transformed our toil, and accomplished our redemption,.

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. The focus here continues from last week, part 8 and the question: What are the causes of church division and discord, and how can such be prevented?

God's word of judgment upon the woman focus on her calling and purpose in creation: having and raising children, and marriage. And His words of judgment promise that life's deepest blessings will be a source of some of our deepest pain. Here we find the root of all pain and sorrow related to motherhood, as well as marital discord. Yet, even in judgment there is mercy, as the Lord continues to bless childbearing and marriage after the fall, and He is even pleased to use such this to accomplish our redemption and restore all things.

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. The focus here continues from last week, part 7 and the question: What are the causes of church division and discord, and how can such be prevented?

In God's words of cursing to the serpent, He essentially lays the essential framework for all of human history: He promises a spiritual war to follow, and a fight to the end that will only be won through suffering.

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. Today's focus: What are the causes of church division and discord, and how can such be prevented?

This Resurrection Sunday, we consider the transformative power of Christ's resurrection, understanding that it is not merely a historical event to be affirmed, but a living reality to be experienced in the present and anticipated in the future.

Guilt causes us to flee from God, fear His presence, cover, deny, accuse, make excuses, and shift the blame. But God in His goodness pursues sinners and calls out to each one of us, "where are you?" This is God's gracious call to the sinner to step out into the light, to confess, to acknowledge, to come clean, rather than fleeing, denying, blame-shifting. For the path to forgiveness and reconciliation always travels through confession.

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. Today's focus: Division in the church, specifically in those who abandon the church, leave the church, run away from the church, resign from membership in a disorderly way.

Sunday evening service, looking at the Heidelberg Catechism/Orthodox Catechism question 3, 4, and 5. 3.) HOW DO YOU COME TO KNOW YOUR MISERY? - The law of God tells me. 4) WHAT DOES THE LAW OF GOD REQUIRE OF US? - Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22 – "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." 5) CAN YOU LIVE UP TO ALL THIS PERFECTLY? - No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.

In the fall, we find a revelation of the utter irrationality of sin, as eating the forbidden fruit was not a mere act of disobedience, but a cascade of transgression, treachery, and tragedy rooted in the heart's rebellion against God. The sinfulness of humanity is exposed here as we see how sin begins in the mind, through the distortion of God's Word, the allure of sensory pleasure, the desire of emotional satisfaction, and in the deceptive promise of self-exaltation. All of this leads to open defiance and the tragic consequence of shame, alienation, and self-justification through fig-leaf efforts like self-righteousness. And yet, this should not leave us in despair, as in this story we are also pointed to Jesus Christ as the Last Adam who perfectly obeyed where the first failed, bearing the curse of sin and offering salvation not through human effort but through faith in His substitutionary life, death, and resurrection.

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. Today's focus: How do we handle heresy and false teaching in the church, which is ultimately sectarianism, division, and schism? How do we handle things when pastors fall into sin?

The fall of Adam and Eve is not merely as a historical event, but is also a framework to understand all sin and temptation.

Sunday School Hour: studying Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church. Today's focus: Church discipline in how Christians are to approach confronting sin privately, confronting sin publicly, and excommunication when necessary.

God instituted marriage, and God governs marriage by His holy commandments. However, Genesis 2 is not just about marriage, but is also about God's greater design for human flourishing through communion. This passage has much to teach us about marriage. But it also points us to how, only in Christ, true God and true man, and in the community of the body of Christ, the church, is this communion ultimately found.

Sunday School Hour: Studying the book, The Glory of a True Church by Benjamin Keach. Today we discuss: Chapter 5 = The Reception of Members. Chapter 6 = The Power of the Keys. Chapter 7 = Of Church Censures.

Sunday School Hour: What duties do church members owe their pastor? Chapter 4 of Benjamin Keach's book, The Glory of a True Church.

Sunday evening service, looking at the Heidelberg Catechism/Orthodox Catechism question 1 and 2: Where is true, lasting comfort found, both in life and in and through and after death? In the profound reality that our life is hidden with Christ in God.

Guest Preacher John Miller opens up from Hebrews 11 the transformative power of faith in Jesus Christ, through which believes overcome the world's opposition and destruction. From this text we see courageous faith that resists tyrannical persecution, worldly pleasures, and the fear of power, and we see a confident faith that delivers from divine judgment through the Passover Lamb.

Guest preacher: Pastor Brandon Smith, Pastor at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Jackson, GA. Here from 2nd Corinthians we see how God alone is the only true source of comfort and peace, particularly in a world marked by suffering, moral decay, and spiritual confusion.

God creates a home for Adam and Eve -- but more than just a home, as the Garden of Eden is the first temple, the sanctuary where God dwells with His people that they might enjoy communion with Him. All of this points us to Jesus Christ as the second Adam, the builder of God's house, the one through whom we commune with God and have access into His glorious presence.

Here in the creation account, the Sabbath is set forth as a picture of our ultimate purpose and meaning in life: to enjoy God and glorify Him forever.

humanity was created with God-given capacities like knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, so that we might live in covenant fellowship with God and function as His royal representatives, reflecting His ordered goodness into creation. Though sin has grievously marred this image, the image of God is neither destroyed nor redefined; it is perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ, the true and final Image of God, who by grace restores us into renewed image-bearers through the gospel.

Sunday School Hour: An overview of the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Benjamin Keach's classic book, The Glory of a True Church.

What is the meaning and purpose of life? Why are we on earth? Well, God's word answers these questions for us right up front in the creation account. Here, God doesn't answer questions about purpose and meaning by pointing us inward to our dreams or aspirations, or even to our productivity --what we can produce in life, what positives we bring, what we can change, etc. Rather, God answers these questions by directing our gaze upward to Him, and outward to where He has placed us and gifted us in life.

Advent is not merely a celebration of past events, but a call to patient endurance, holy longing, and unwavering trust in God's faithfulness, knowing that grace abounds where sin reigns and that Christ's final victory is certain, even in the midst of present trials and the world's opposition.

Mary's Magnificat serves as a profound model for Christian worship during Advent by directing all praise to God alone. Through her words, Mary proclaims God's justice in reversing worldly power structures: scattering the proud, bringing down the mighty, and exalting the humble, thereby affirming God's sovereign rule over history. She also celebrates God's faithfulness in fulfilling ancient promises to Israel and extending salvation to all nations, underscoring the church as the restored people of God who fear Him across generations. Ultimately, believer's are called to emulate Mary's humility and trust, anchoring our hope in God's mercy, and the ultimate restoration of all things through Christ, who is both Savior and Judge.

Genesis 1 reveals God as a master craftsman who forms a habitable, beautiful, and purposeful cosmos, where God and man can dwell together. Although sin has entered the world and spoiled the original creation, the creation story anticipates the ultimate fulfillment in the new creation, where God's people will dwell with Him in everlasting fellowship through Jesus Christ.

The prayerful, faithful obedience of Jesus Christ stands in stark contrast to the disciples' failure to watch and pray. Here we see that our salvation is not secured by human vigilance or strength, but by Christ's faithful, active obedience, which reverses the failure of the first Adam in Eden and fulfills God's eternal plan of redemption.

Here we see that the creation account is not necessarily a scientific or philosophical treatise, but a theological revelation of divine disclosure as God is proclaimed as covenantal Lord, establishing a relationship with His creation through divine speech, order, and sacred commitments. Far from creation being neutral, God's self-attestation as the sole Creator present His word as binding oaths, where His design for humanity—made in His image—entails moral responsibility, stewardship, and communion. This covenantal framework also undergirds the moral law, particularly the Ten Commandments, which reflect the inherent structure of creation itself, making obedience not arbitrary but aligned with the very fabric of reality. Ultimately, the entire creation story points forward to Jesus Christ, the second Adam and true image of God, who fulfills the covenantal promises, restores the broken relationship, and enables humanity to enter into eternal communion with its Creator, fulfilling the original purpose of creation.

In the opening of Genesis, we find the divine self-revelation of God as the eternal, majestic, and sovereign Creator where from him and through him and to him are all things. The king is revealed in his majesty and power, but we also see the boundaries of His kingdom as well as His rightful claim of Lordship over it.

A fitting summary and conclusion to John Cotton's treatise on Congregational church government. Here we see that, 1) Jesus Christ is the first and supreme subject of all "power of the keys". 2) The local church, has the ministerial power of the keys. 3) The Apostles were a unique, temporary office of ministerial power. 4) Church power is jointly held by the elders and the members. 5) The joint exercise of elders and the congregation is the complete expression of church power. 6) Ordination is valid within a local church alone. 7) The local church's censures, disciplines, are binding in heaven. 8) When a particular church falls into error or scandal, and a faction maintains it, an assembly of churches is to judge and correct it. 9) A church's spiritual authority is independent of the civil sword, but it must submit to civil government in things that concern civil peace—such as property, justice, taxes, and social order. 10) Independent churches ought to voluntarily associate in covenant and communion with other churches.

Genesis is the divine origin story which reveals God as the eternal, sovereign Creator who transcends and sustains all things, establishing the basis for understanding God's nature, Scripture's authority, and the most central truths of the gospel. Without Genesis, our grasp of God's character, human dignity, the reality of sin, and the purpose of redemption collapses, as much of the Bible's doctrine rests on the seeds of truth planted and revealed in Genesis.

What rule and authority has Christ given synods (associations)? And how does this congregational view differ from Presbyterianism and other forms of church government?

Mark 14:26–31 illustrates the sobering yet gracious truth that even the most devoted followers of Christ will stumble and fail, as the disciples did after the Last Supper. True worship then does not rest in our own human strength, but in the sovereign reign of God, who sustains His people through their failures. Far from being a final defeat, our failures become a divine means to deepen our dependence on Christ, revealing the sufficiency of His grace, and pointing us to the gospel's power to restore and sustain.

What is the Old Testament background for baptism? What do the washings prescribed in the Law teach us about baptism? Here from Hebrews 10 we see that the commissioning of priests in the Old Testament serves as the model and prerequisite for New Testament baptism, undergirding the priesthood of all believers.

Sunday School Hour: Chapter 5 of John Cotton's book, "The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven" details the authority and rule that Christ has given pastors/elders in the church.

Here in Mark 14:12–21, we see Jesus presented as both the sacrificial Passover Lamb, and the sovereign Son of Man, whose betrayal by Judas fulfills divine prophecy while demonstrating God's ultimate triumph over evil. Through the preparation of the Passover meal, we see Jesus' divine control and foreknowledge, teaching us that His death was not an accident but the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The betrayal by Judas is both a tragic act of human responsibility as well as a necessary part of God's sovereign plan.

How do we grow as Christians? Spiritual growth is not an isolated or individual pursuit, but is rather a communal, corporate pursuit rooted in God's redemptive plan of gathering his people for grace, growth, and commissioning. Here, sanctification occurs in faithful participation within the local church, where God's grace is poured out, believers are formed, and the body of Christ is equipped for mission, all to the glory of God.

What authority of rule has Christ given pastors/elders? And what say, or rights, or privileges has Christ given church members in relation to the rule of pastors? Here we cover chapter 4 of John Cotton's book, The Keys of the Kingdom.

How do we grow and mature as Christians? The Lord's Supper is a central means that the Lord uses for such growth. For the Supper shapes our Christian identity, our corporate identity in relation to the church/body of Christ, and it whets our appetite for the age to come.

Part 3 of our study of John Cotton's book, "The Keys of the Kingdom." Here, working off of Colossians 2:5-6, we consider the "key" of Faith and the "key" of Order within the church. The key of faith grants direct access to the kingdom of heaven for all believers, and the key of order empowers the congregation to maintain faith, discipline, and mutual responsibility toward one another.

How does baptism serve as a means of our growth in grace? Because baptism is the objective declaration from God that our conscience has been cleansed by the blood of Christ. And a clean conscience is the basis upon which we live and are free to serve the living God without fear. Baptism then is a a powerful means of ongoing sanctification, ultimately empowering believers to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ.

Here we see several contrasting responses to Jesus during his passion week, specifically between betrayal, devotion, and a failure to fully grasp the worth and significance of the Lord Jesus Christ. What this shows is that true discipleship requires recognizing and treasuring Christ above all else.

In Matthew 16:19, Jesus gives Peter the "Keys" of the kingdom. But what is this "kingdom"? What are these "keys"? What do these keys do? What is the extent of their power? And who receives these keys?