RFPA Blog News

Apostasy (2): What the Apostate Does

In verse 26 we read, “If we sin willfully.” That is a general statement. In verse 29 the Holy Spirit describes the serious sins of the apostate. He does this to underline the guilt of the apostate, to warn the reader against the sin of apostasy, and to set forth the utter hopelessness of the apostate’s case. We have in verse 29 proof that apostasy is no ordinary sin. It is not dishonesty; it is not theft; it is not adultery; and it is not murder. It is something much worse.

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Apostasy (1): Who the Apostate Is

The text of Hebrews 10:26-29 is a warning against apostasy. In fact, the epistle to the Hebrews contains many pointed warnings against apostasy. Indeed, it contains some of the most chilling, most frightening, and most sobering passages of the New Testament on the subject of apostasy. In a number of blog posts I intend to explain and apply these warnings against apostasy.  Read More

Gleanings in the Church Order (4): The Right to (Protest and) Appeal

Article 31 speaks of appeals, but a member may bring three kinds of matters to a major assembly under Article 31: a protest, an appeal, or an overture. Read More

Gleanings in the Church Order (3): Legality at the Assemblies

Perhaps one of the least understood matters in the Church Order is legality at the broader (or major—not higher) assemblies of classis and synod. Assuming that the matter is ecclesiastical in nature and manner, what may and may not be treated at classis or synod?

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Gleanings in the Church Order (2): The Assemblies

An assembly, specifically an ecclesiastical assembly, is a gathering of officebearers. The church order does not have in mind here the gathering of the whole congregation for worship or for some other activity. Those assemblies are, of course, very important. Nevertheless, the assemblies of Articles 29-52 are the assemblies of officebearers for official ecclesiastical business. The church order speaks of three assemblies: the consistory, the classis, and the synod. Read More

Gleanings in the Church Order (1): The Offices

For many the Church Order is a dull, unexciting document. At first glance, it seems to be a book of interest to none but elders, deacons, and pastors. But the church order is necessary because God requires that his church be orderly. Paul writes, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40). That really is the motto text behind the church order: we do not want anarchy, chaos, or disorder in the congregation; we want order and peace. To another congregation Paul writes that he “[rejoices] and [beholds] [their] order” (Col. 2:5). To another he writes to warn against “every brother that walketh disorderly” (2 Thess. 3:6, 11).

Order in the church is important, therefore.

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Grace Conferred (7): God's Promised Blessing

The duty that the Canons have in mind is the duty of preaching and the duty of listening and taking heed to the gospel with its admonitions (and never forget that the preaching comes also to the preacher; he not only preaches to the congregation, but he also preaches to himself). The word duty (officium) could be translated as office, but its meaning is wider than that. Read More

Grace Conferred (6): The Admonitions of the Gospel: More than Repent and Believe

Last time I asked, “Is that the only thing—the call to believe, and possibly, repent—that God uses to preserve, continue, and perfect his work of grace in us (Canons 5.14)?” My answer is absolutely not! God uses the admonition of Matthew 5:24 to confer upon us the grace to reconcile with our brother, even though... Read More

Grace Conferred (5): The Admonitions of the Gospel: An Important Grammatical Point

In the last blog post, I made a distinction, following Ursinus, between the bare law without the gospel (which is the killing letter of 2 Corinthians 3:6) and the law with the gospel, which is effectual by the work of the Spirit in the heart of the child of God, so that he, by the grace of God conferred to him, begins to obey the law. Read More

Grace Conferred (4): The Sacred Precepts and Admonitions of the Gospel

If you were paying careful attention to the Canons and looked them up, and I hope that you make a practice of doing that, you might have thought that I changed the Canons last time. In the English version of Canons 5:14 we read of “the hearing and reading of His (God’s) Word, by meditation thereon, and by exhortations, threatenings, and promises thereof.” I wrote, “The exhortations, threatenings, and promises of the gospel.” Which is it, “the exhortations of the Word” or “the exhortations of the gospel”? And is there an important difference or distinction? Read More

Grace Conferred (3): The Means Which God Employs: Admonitions

If God’s grace works in rational, moral creatures “endowed with understanding and will” (Canons 3-4.16), how does God’s grace operate? He works by means of admonitions. Of course, he does because you cannot admonish a stock or a block, but you can admonish—and God does admonish—a rational, moral creature; a living, thinking, willing human being, whether man, woman, young person, or child. “Grace,” we read, in Canons 3-4.17, is conferred. Read More

Grace Conferred (2): The Grace Which God Confers

The truth that “grace is conferred by means of admonitions” (Canons 3-4.17) is often misunderstood. How can grace, we wonder, be conferred? And how can it be conferred by means of admonitions? Is grace not the unmerited favor of God by which we are saved? And do we not all agree that “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9)? Read More

Grace Conferred by Means of Admonitions (1): God's Use of Means

Canons 3-4.17 was written in response to an Arminian objection to the sovereignty of God’s grace in regeneration and conversion. If, as the Reformed faith teaches, God saves man by working regeneration in him without his will, why is preaching necessary? To that the Reformed answer is and has always been quite simple: the sovereign God who ordains the end (salvation) also ordains the means (in this case, the means of grace, especially the preaching of the gospel). Read More

December 1, 2020 Standard Bearer preview article

John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California is embroiled in a legal battle with the County of Los Angeles (LA County) over the right to worship indoors during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Grace Community Church (GCC) is a nondenominational, evangelical congregation with an average weekly attendance in excess of 8,000 people.

On March 4, 2020 Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a State of Emergency in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since issued a number of executive orders to curtail public gatherings in the State of California. An order on March 19, 2020, required almost all establishments, including places of worship, to close. On June 18, 2020 the LA County Health Officer, Dr. Muntu Davis, issued an order “allowing reduced-capacity indoor operations at houses of worship,” but subsequent orders prohibited “indoor operations at a variety of establishments, including houses of worship.” Those orders are still in force at the time of writing. In California, therefore, churches may worship only outdoors.¹

 

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