About us
We are a gathering of believers united in our love for Christ, where all are welcome to come and join us for worship, where we hear the Word of God preached faithfully. We confess the Reformed Faith as outlined in the 1689 Baptist Confession, holding to holy scripture as the only certain rule of faith and practice and seeking to glorify God in the town of Ramsbottom.
IRBS UK Study Week, Acts and the Pauline Epistes with Dr Timothy Decker
IRBS UK is pleased to have Dr Timothy Decker to teach “Acts and the Pauline Epistes” September 23rd to 27th to the students here in the UK, and all visitors are welcome to join.
This course treats the genre, background, authorship, date, recipients and contents of Acts and the Pauline Epistles. It shows the relationship between the Gospel of Luke and Acts. It defines the function of both Acts and the Pauline Epistles within the New Testament and the entire canon of Scripture and introduces the student to the use of the Old Testament in these books.
Spaces are limited in order to facilitate discussion and personal engagement in the classes, so be sure to make your booking as soon as possible to secure your place.
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Featured Updates
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Supporting Angolan Ministry Trainee Joao Domingos
Joao writes: Grace and peace from our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.
It is with great joy that we write this newsletter to
extend our gratitude to Trinity Grace church family for
your prayers and for supporting my studies at IRBS.
Please find briefly what the Lord has been doing in our
family, studies, and Local church, and the future plans.
May this serve as an encouragement to continue
praying for us.
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IRBS Newsletter September 2024
Dr James Renihan writes: Many times when I have visited churches I have asked the question 'who will be the pastor for your grandchildren?' That inquiry is regularly on my mind. September has come, marking the beginning of a new semester for our faculty and students. This is a good time to remember our task--to bring the 'pattern of sound words' we have received and pass it on to faithful men who will be able to teach it to others (2 Timothy 1:13-2:2). We desire to be faithful to this task so that there will be a continual supply of well-trained men to serve the next generation. But how is this labor proceeding? The Lord has abundantly blessed our work. We have seen a continual increase in our student body, so that we now have the largest enrollment ever; our international presence is growing, for we now have students from five continents, and opportunities to develop new relationships seem to be arriving every week.
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Seminar In Dhonkal, Pakistan
Yesterday we went to Dhonkal, Wazirabad to conduct a
seminar on ''Christian Basics''. That seminar was
very successful. Around fifty people participated in
it. All the people who participated in this seminar
were very surprised. The pastor who organized the
seminar told us that the material was really nice
and every boys and girls must read this book. And
he also expressed that he is willing to organize
such seminars in the future as well.
All the participants who attended the seminar
which lasted for about two hours were very
impressed. At the end, food was served to all who
attended the seminar. After that we will conduct
seminars in other areas of Wazirabad. Remember
us in your prayers.
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Does Forgiveness Always Lead To Reconciliation?
Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian faith. Christ died to forgive our sins and to reconcile us to God. And Jesus taught that His disciples must forgive those who sin against them. He said, “if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt 6:15). Forgiveness is not an option for believers. Jesus said, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mk 11:25). Christians must forgive because they have been forgiven (Matt 18:21-25).
But there is a difference between forgiving a person and reconciling your relationship with that person.
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Did God Create Through Evolution?
For most of its history, the church has believed that God created everything that exists ex nihilo (out of nothing). The church affirmed this doctrine based primarily on the opening verse of Scripture: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God, who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, purposed to and did create a universe distinct from himself.
Other passages add to the foundation of this belief. For example, the psalmist attributes creation to the word and breath of God: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. . . . For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:6, 9). According to a traditional understanding of this passage, God the Father spoke the universe into existence through the Word (God the Son) and by his Breath (God the Holy Spirit). Creation was a mighty act of the triune God.
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GBC Kisumu: Teaching On Marriage
Tonny Karwa writes: In these past three months, we have sought to pay a
special attention to the subject of Christian Marriage. In
June, we held a men’s breakfast that gave us an
opportunity to address a group of men from various
churches within Kisumu. The Lord helped me to open up
Ephesians 5:25-33 to demonstrate what a husband’s love
for his wife should look like. One of the invitees
lamented, “we have never had such sessions in our
church, yet my marriage is calibrated with serious
perennial struggles.” Early last month, I had another opportunity to address a
small group of men from 1 Peter 3:7 over breakfast. We
had men from the word of faith movement attending.
One of the young men seeking to marry confessed his
fears, “Now that feminism has crept into the church and
influenced many sisters, I have been hesitant to get
married.” About three weeks ago, I had an opportunity to
lead a marriage workshop on “contentment in marriage.”
The group discussions turned out to be so profitable. We
invited our contacts from other churches and the
attendance was encouraging.
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Signposts To God
Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins was once asked what he would say to God if he encountered Him after he died. Dawkins quoted what Bertrand Russell is reputed to have said when asked the same question: “Sir, why did you take such pains to hide yourself?”
I think I can understand why some might echo that sentiment. After all, God is invisible; we can’t perceive Him directly with our physical senses. Yet the signs of His existence—indeed, of His goodness and greatness—are everywhere. The Apostle Paul was right when telling a first-century pagan audience that God has always given evidence of His existence through the good things He has done, such as “rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). God has put up signposts everywhere to help us find our way to Him. One is the natural world. When we look at nature, there are many signs that, because of the tragic events in Eden, it is fallen and ‘groaning’ (Romans 8:20–22). But we see in abundance order, design, complexity, variety, and great beauty. All this points to a Creator who is wise, imaginative, delightful, and immensely powerful.
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The Sabbath As A Creation Ordinance
It is of no small importance that Exodus grounds the Fourth Commandment upon God’s example in creation. Chantry offers this reason for referring back to creation: “God’s written fourth commandment recalls the first historic observance of the Sabbath in order to stir up our own compliance with Sabbath-keeping.”
Using the text of Genesis 2 as a guide, this post will examine three creation narrative observations, followed by a discussion of whether God’s rest should be viewed as descriptive or prescriptive.
First, six days of work followed by a Sabbath day of rest imitates God’s own pattern (Gen. 2:2). Ryken puts it simply: “We are called to work and rest because we serve a working and resting God.” Frame, borrowing from Meredith Kline’s work, offers three categories in which to classify the rest of God: consummation, enthronement, and consecration.
God’s rest on the seventh day is the consummation of His creative work: “As a celebration of the finishing of the world-temple, the Sabbath proclaims the name of the creator to be Consummator.” The Sabbath rest of God, foreshadowing Christ’s future rest at the Father’s right hand, also demonstrates Divine enthronement: “God created the heaven and the earth to be his cosmic palace and accordingly his resting is an occupying of his palace, a royal session. The dawning of the Sabbath witnesses a new enthronement of Elohim.”
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Pastoral Counselling & The Means Of Grace
In the latest Broken Wharfe podcast, John-Mark sits down with Ryan Davidson, a pastor and professor in Pastoral Theology from the State of Virginia, to discuss the subject of the body and soul, the task of pastoral counselling, and the reformed doctrine of the means of grace. They delve into how physiological and neurological conditions might impact our spiritual lives and how pastors ought to be confident in applying the Word of God, whilst being sensitive to the impact that physiological conditions have upon the human mind. How are we to think about mental illness as Christians? Why are the means of grace so fundamental to every believer, whatever their situation? How does the fact that we are composed of both body and soul impact our Christian lives? These questions are discussed, alongside many others...
Ryan Davidson is author of "Green Pastures: The Ordinary Means of Grace", you can purchase the book in Hardback, Paperback or Kindle on Amazon or on our website brokenwharfe.com.
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The Beauty Of Duty
On occasion, public speakers, including preachers of the gospel, will belittle “duty” as if it is an inferior motivation for action or compliance to standards. Delight is seen as a superior motivation while duty is—Well, if I have to do it, OK—synonymous with begrudging action. One brings his wife flowers because it is his delight to do so, for he is delighted with her. If he gives her flowers presenting them to her out of a sense of duty, this is connoted as a lackluster action deserving scorn. But this tendency to diminish the excellence of a sense of duty is misguided. It is a moral error. The husband’s duty is to love his wife as his own body, for he who loves his wife loves himself (Ephesians 5:28; Genesis 2:22, 23). To treat one’s wife tenderly, to look to her desires and happiness, to bring her flowers, to live with her according to knowledge is to love her, to delight in her, and at the same time to do one’s duty.
The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)
In 2011 we made the decision to officially adopt the Second London Baptist Confession (1689) as our confession of faith. We exhort you to read it.
What's on?
There is always something going on here at Trinity Grace Church, learn more on our ‘What’s on’ page.
Resources
Here you can find a vast array of helpful, encouraging and edifying resources to further your understanding of the Christian faith.
Churches & Organisations
Here you can find the Churches and organisations we support as a fellowship. We support these works with resources which God has blessed us with and prayer for the glory of God.
Overseas / Missions
Trinity Grace Church has supported overseas missionary ministries for many years. We first began our involvement in the early 1970s and since then have expanded our gospel outreach to a needy world. We believe it is the responsibility of local churches to engage in this ministry, and we have rejoiced to play our part in the building of God’s kingdom throughout the world.
