Welcome to Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church! We are delighted to have you visiting with us and trust that the Lord will bless you through the ministry of his word. Oftentimes when people visit a new church, they have many questions related to the church and the way it functions. Perhaps something about ERBC has struck you as being unfamiliar or quite different from what you are used to. Please feel free to talk to any of our members or our pastor about any of your questions. However, one item can be addressed in this little booklet. No doubt you will have noticed the emphasis that we place in our worship service on preaching God’s word. Why does our church preach so much?
We believe that the God who created the world also determined to save his people from the rule of Satan and the power of sin when mankind rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. He purposed to bring each one of his children to eternal glory in heaven where they would be in his presence for ever. He accomplished this plan through the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, dying on a cross and rising again from the dead. And it is the Holy Spirit who applies this work of Christ to each one of his brothers and sisters so that they can enjoy all of the benefits of his work on their behalf. We call this work of God a work of grace. But how are people made aware of God’s grace? How do sinners know that God is reconciled to them in Christ? How do people hear about this wonderful salvation found in Jesus?
Preaching is the primary means that God uses to tell people of his great salvation and his grace toward sinners. When we read the New Testament, we find Jesus and his apostles preaching the grace of God. Especially in the book of Acts, we see that preaching was the great tool that God used to convert people. Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost saved 3,000 people! When the apostle Paul went on his missionary journeys he always preached. He tells the Corinthians that Christ sent him “to preach the gospel” (I Corinthians 1:17). It was his great weapon against Satan’s kingdom. Later, Paul commanded Timothy to “preach the word” as a summary statement of Timothy’s pastoral work (2 Timothy 4:2). So, our church places preaching at the centre of our worship service because we want everyone to experience God’s grace in Christ toward them. We want everyone to know how to enjoy God’s grace.
We also believe preaching ought to be central to every worship service because preaching is the primary means of edifying the saints. Every Christian is commanded to grow spiritually. But no one can make progress in the Christian life without understanding God’s grace to them in Jesus. God’s people must hear again and again about Christ and his great work on their behalf. Husbands must love their wives “as Christ loved the church” and each church member must build up his neighbour because “Christ did not please himself” (Ephesians 5:25, Romans 15:2-3). In other words, we run our Christian race “looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
We trust that the Lord will bless you through the preaching of his word. We trust that as you listen to the preaching you will see the immensity and preciousness of God’s grace in Christ for the souls of wicked sinners who have been loved with an everlasting love.
“it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” I Corinthians 1:21.