About Grace Presbyterian Church
The Purpose of Grace Presbyterian Church
Synopsis of Beliefs
Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
The Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
There is only one God, eternal and self-existing in three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who are to be equally loved, honored, and adored.
All mankind participated in Adam’s fall from his original sinless state and is thus lost in sin and totally helpless.
The Sovereign God, for no other reason than His own unfathomable love and mercy, has chosen sinners from every nation to be redeemed by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit and through the atoning death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.
Those sinners whom the Spirit quickens, come to believe in Christ as Savior by the Word of God, and will persevere to the end.
Justification is by faith and through it the undeserving sinner is clothed with the righteousness of God.
The goal of God’s salvation in the life of the Christian is holiness, good works, and service for the glory of God.
At death the Christian soul passes immediately into the presence of God and the unbeliever’s soul is eternally separated from God into condemnation.
Baptism is a sign of God’s covenant and is properly administered to children of believers in their infancy as well as to those who come as adults to trust in Christ.
Jesus Christ will return to earth, visibly and bodily, at a time when He is not expected, to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
The Gospel of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ must be published to all the world as a witness before Jesus Christ returns.
For more information about the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) go to:
http://www.pcanet.org/
The Purpose of Grace Presbyterian Church
Our Purpose Declared:
The Purpose of Grace Presbyterian Church (GPC) is to glorify God by gathering and growing His people in accordance with His word.
Our Purpose Defined:
To glorify God: The church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual institution that exists for God, for those who are lost, and for those who have been found. The chief end of man, and of the church, is to “glorify God and to enjoy Him forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism #1). We have been saved “to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:12, 14). All that we do is to be done “to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31). In Him we live and move and have our being, and from Him and through Him and to Him are all things; therefore to Him belongs the glory forever (Acts 17:28; Rom. 11:36).
By gathering His people: For His own glory God the Father gave a people to the Lord Jesus Christ, choosing them in the Son before time began to be conformed to the image of the Son (Eph. 1:4; Rom. 8:29; John 6:35-40; 17:2, 6, 9; Titus 1:2). When God draws us to Christ, He draws us into the church. He does not immediately take us home to heaven, but leaves us on earth in order that He might use us to gather to Himself all of His elect. He has His sheep in every tribe, tongue, nation and people (John 10:16; Acts 18:10; Rev. 5:9; 7:9), and He has sent His church into the world to make disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:18-20). We are called to be a blessing and a holy priesthood to the nations, a light to the world, seeking the welfare of the nations by serving them and speaking to them the word of the gospel so that they too might trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of their sin, and glorify our Father in heaven (Gen. 12:1-3; Exo. 19:3-6; I Peter 2:9-12; Jer. 29:7; I Cor. 10:32-33; Matt. 5:13-16; Matt. 20:28 with John 17:18; Rom. 10:14-15; Phil. 2:14-16; I Thess. 2:8).
By growing His people: The lost sheep, found by Christ, are united together into a body of sinners who are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We are struggling together to lay hold of that for which Jesus has laid hold of us (Luke 15; Eph. 4:4; Rom. 4:5; Phil. 3:1-21). Each one of us is given gifts for the sake of the whole church (I Cor. 12; Eph. 4:7; Rom. 12:4-8), that we might play our part in building up the whole body of Christ (Eph. 4:7-16; Col. 2:19; I Cor. 10:24; 14:12; Phil. 2:1-11; Heb. 3:12-14; I Pet. 4:10-12). “Not one of us lives for himself,” but for the Lord and for the sake of the church, “pursuing the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (Rom. 14:7, 19). It is through our ministry to one another that we all “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Pet. 3:18).
In accordance with His word: Our church lives by and under the word of King Jesus. All that we need for life and godliness is found in the great and precious promises He has made to us in His word, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament (II Pet. 1:3-4; 1:21; II Tim. 3:16-17; Deut. 8:3). The word is our only rule of faith and practice. It is the chief means by which God converts the unconverted and grows His people (I Peter 1:23-2:3). It must inform and structure all our ministry. It is indeed the lamp for our feet and the light for our path, for “the word of our God stands forever” (Ps. 119:105; Isaiah 40:8).