- The 5 solas of the Reformation (saved by grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, according to Scripture alone).
- The Christian's relationship to the law/commandments of God.
- The growth of the Reformed movement into the mid 1500's.
- The further Reforming of worship, Church government, and practiced, according to Scripture.
- The meaning of Reformed in the 1600's, encompassing the Puritans.
- The Puritan's teaching on law, grace, and the covenant.
- The definition of covenant ("a bond in blood sovereignly administered) and how both the Old Testament and New Testament show one covenant God gives to His people, including Jew and Gentile united together in Christ by faith.
- The first message of the Gospel/covenant promise in Genesis 3:15
- The lost sheep of Israel including people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, according to God's promises to Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations.
- All who are in Christ are true children of Abraham, and the promised seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ, and all who are savingly in/united to Christ.
- Jews and Gentiles alike one people of God, united in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
- Christ fulfilling the covenant of works for us, extending to His people the covenant of grace.
- Where Adam failed, Christ the last Adam prevailed (Romans 5), in perfect obedience/righteousness in His life to the Father, so He could go to the cross as the spotless/righteous lamb of God, atoning for the sin of all His people.
- Reformed distinctive that Christ saves every single person for whom He died.
- Salvation offered to all, but Christ atones/redeems only those whom He has chosen/elected from before the foundation of the world, which is His bride, the Church.
- You must be born again/regenerated/receive the new birth by the Holy Spirit so that you then are convicted of sin, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
- Many churches today go astray, saying that man saves himself by his own free will power to produce saving faith. But Reformed churches rightly believe that faith itself is a gift from God, not of our works/power, so that none may boast (Eph. 2:8-10).
- The Reformed faith humbles man and elevates God, in His good pleasure and grace saving His people from their sinful estate.
- God's word alone is infallible/inerrant, our church not led by a Pope or council/synod.
- Church is not led by "whisperings" of the Holy Spirit, private revelations, but the final and complete Word of God/Bible alone, as Christ in these last days has spoken to us by His Son as revealed in His Word (Hebrews 1:1-3).
- The Holy Spirit helps us understand Scripture as we study it, and convicts us and the world of sin, m righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7-11)
- God's sovereign saving grace has bearing on how we worship the Lord at Heritage -- not through images and idols, not through secular forms of concerts/man-centered entertainment.
- We are worshiping the Holy, Triune God on the Lord's Day, Sunday, the Day Christ rose from the dead and commanded us to worship with Him.
- Our focus in worship is God-ward, not man-ward, for God's presence is special/nearer as the body of Christ gathers in His name, as His temple in which He indwells, in worship on Sundays.
- We gather not to be entertained, but to worship the Holy Lord as He has proscribed in Scripture. To that end, we sing Psalms, God's songbook in Scripture, and hymns which are based on the Psalms and rooted in the theology of the Bible.
- Modern Evangelical worship/singing/praise is full of emotionalism, feelings not rooted in the Word of God. True worship is emotional, but emotions flowing from the truth of God's Word being understood.
- Many sermons in churches today are sermonettes for Christianettes, that is, shallow and short.
- The dialogue in worship between God & His people, where He summons us to worship and we respond with songs of praise, confession of sin, adoration of Him, etc. We have a liturgy/order of worship rooted in the Old and New Testaments.
- Expositional preaching, explaining the biblical meaning of the text and making applications to the congregation from Scripture's meaning, not picking a topic apart from Scripture and forcing Scripture text to fit our topics.
- Worship focused on the Word of God and His covenant to us, which includes believers and their children. Our children are baptized because God has promised to be God to us and our children (Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:39)
- Biblical masculinity & femininity. Gen. 1:26-27 shows maleness and femaleness each bear the image of God, and rebelling against our maleness/femaleness in home, church, or society is rebellion against God and His image in each of us as males & females.
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