Verses on the God you are called to Believe in...

1. Human plans and accidents. - Top
   1. Exodus 21:12, “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. ¹³“But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.”
   2. James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ¹⁴Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. ¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.”

Verses on the God you are called to Believe in...

1. Human Birth - God grants offspring and descendents - Top
   1. Gen. 4:25, “And Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel; for Cain killed him.”
   2. Deut. 10:22, “Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
   3. Ruth 4:13, “So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.”

Verses on the God you are called to Believe in...

1. Human History - nations, times, boundaries, people, - Top
   
   1. Acts 17:26, “and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation,”
   2. Psalm 47:1-4, “O Clap your hands, all peoples; Shout to God with the voice of joy. ²For the Lord Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth. ³He subdues peoples under us, and nations under our feet.  ⁴Hchooses our inheritance for us, The glory of Jacob whom He loves.”
   3. Psalm 33:10, “The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples.”

Verses on the God you are called to Believe in...

1. Chance occurrence - Top
   1. Prov. 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
2. Natural realm - sun, rain, birds, grass, hair. - Top
   
   1. Matt. 5:45, “in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
   2. Matt. 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”
   3. Matt. 6:30, “But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?”
   4. Matt. 10:29, “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”
   5. Matt. 10:30, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

Verses on the God you are called to Believe in...

God's Sovereignty - Top

1. God's ability to do and accomplish His will - Top
   -- God does whatever He pleases.
   
   1. Gen. 18:14, "Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."
   2. Psalm 115:3, "But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases."
   3. Psalm 135:6, "Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps."
   4. Isaiah 46:10, "Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;"
   5. Jer. 32:27, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?"
   6. Dan. 4:35, “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What hast Thou done?’"
   7. Matt. 19:26, "And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
   8. Luke 1:37, "For nothing will be impossible with God."

Top Ten Reasons Not to Attend or Join a Reformed Baptist Church

*Satire*
 

.

A tongue-in-cheek list of the reasons you should not attend or join a Reformed Baptist Church:

.

1. The doctrine is too defined.

Come on….  I mean the Second London Baptist Confession (1689) is 40 pages long!   It does not define crucial doctrines like election and depravity so ambiguously that even an Arminian could affirm them. If you define your doctrine too clearly that will exclude a lot of people, and isn’t our main goal to get larger in number?

.

2.  The worship is too “regulated.”

.

There’s no children’s church, no children’s sermon, no skits, no choir specials, no praise team, no choir cantatas, no testimonies.  In fact, all they sing are psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to tunes that are too square to ever be covered on the local pop station.

.

3.  The expectations are too high.

.

If you miss a service, someone is likely to call and ask how you’re doing.  The church is so small that everyone has to pitch in and do something.  You can’t just fade into the woodwork.  The membership covenant is taken too seriously.

.

4.  The sermons are too long and complicated.

.

The focus is always on the text and not on random contemporary topics.  There’s no power point outline or fill in the blank bulletin inserts.  I can’t just zone out, but I have to think about and follow what is being said.

.

5.  There’s too much emphasis on Sunday as the Lord’s Day.

.

If you go to this church you’ll probably end up spending nearly your whole Sunday (that’s one of your two weekend days) in the public worship of God.  It’s like they don’t even take the college athletic or professional sports schedules into consideration when planning the church calendar.

.

6.  There’s not enough “freedom” in the Spirit.

.

There are no people speaking in tongues, raising their hands while singing praise choruses, giving prophecies or “words of knowledge.”  It’s almost as if they believe that the extraordinary offices and gifts ceased after the time of the apostles, and now all they talk about is how the Spirit speaks through the Scriptures!

.

7.  The leaders are too strong and have too much authority.

.

Sure the Bible talks about how elders are supposed to lead and feed the flock, but what about our American democracy?  I mean, isn’t every member a minister?  Anybody should be able to preach.  I don’t think anyone ought to be able to tell me what to do or how to live.  If ministers cross the line, we need to put them in their place.

.

8.  There are not enough programs.

I mean basically all these folk do is meet on Sunday for worship and at mid-week for Bible study and prayer.  Where are the children’s choirs, the youth groups, the senior member outings, AWANA, etc. Why, they don’t even do Sunday School or small groups!  It’s no wonder they don’t grow.

.

9.  They don’t do altar calls.

The service ends with the benediction rather than an altar call. There are no multiple verses of “Just as I am.”  They talk about the preaching of the gospel as the preferred means of evangelism. They don’t teach any neatly packaged evangelism programs, and they do not rush to announce professions of faith or to baptize persons prematurely.

.

10.  They teach that commitment to Christ is more important even than commitment to family.

.

Sure, they emphasize strong marriages, family discipleship, and family worship, but they have the nerve to suggest that if anyone loves his family more than Christ he is not worthy of Christ.

.

I think you will agree with me that for all the reasons above, you should be very careful about attending or joining with a Reformed Baptist Church.

.

Jeffrey T. Riddle, Pastor

Christ Reformed Baptist Church

Charlottesville, Virginia

www.jeffriddle.net

Preaching & Sacraments: Means of Grace

Please visit the Reformed Baptist Fellowship,

By the means of the preached Word and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, our gracious God meets with us in public worship. By these means, God the Father stoops down to our level as little children in order to communicate to us as well as to bring us into intimate fellowship with Himself. Although these means are not outwardly flashy, exciting, or even seemingly powerful to accomplish what we say they do, they are God’s chosen means to sustain His weary pilgrims in the wilderness and to strengthen their faith. (Daniel R. Hyde, Welcome to a Reformed Church: A Guide for Pilgrims, 141)