Covenant Grace Church

Practical Thoughts On Seeking Christ

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:14:27 +0000

In Song of Songs 3:1-5 we find the Bride longing for the One whom her soul loves. He’s absent. It’s night. She’s distressed because he’s not present with her. She’s been united to him (2:16 - My Beloved is mine and I am his) but she lacks the experience of that union. She lacks communion with him. So she seeks him but doesn’t find him. She seeks him in the city (the church) and still doesn’t find him. Finally the watchmen find her and she asks them where she can find him. She still doesn’t find him immediately but very soon after she leaves them she finds her Beloved, holds him fast, and takes him into her home. The soul that seeks by faith will find sweet satisfaction in Christ, our true reward

A good question I was asked after the sermon yesterday was what are some of the practical things we can do if we find ourselves in that spiritually dry, distant, discouraged, or depressed season? I’ll answer in the same order as the Bride’s experience: personally, corporately, and then the watchmen.

Personally, we cannot value fervent prayer highly enough. Jesus calls us to pray importunately. Be aggressively annoying in our prayers to the Lord in this manner. He gives the example of a woman who’s been wronged aggressively pursuing justice from an unjust judge. He eventually relents due to her importunity. How much more ought we to pursue God’s blessing given that he is the Just Judge? Perhaps we’ve cried out to the Lord and the darkness still persists, the rains haven’t broken upon our drought-stricken hearts. Keep crying out! The Lord’s perceived distance is to drive us to keep praying, not to give up. He will be found! Further, give yourself to the Word. But perhaps you might need to change how you read it. Seek Christ, first and foremost, as you read. If you’re in an OT book and it’s hard to see Jesus consider spending time in Luke or John so your view becomes a bit clearer. One of the factors that often leads to my dry seasons is a lack of meditation upon what I’ve read. When we open the Bible we’re hearing God’s words to his people. Take time with it. Whatever time you’re given, whether 5 minutes or 2 hours. Read, think about what you read, consider how it points you to Jesus, consider what commands it might be calling you to obey or sins you need to kill. Pray over it and ask the Spirit for help. It can often be helpful to write notes. It doesn’t have to be a commentary. It can be a simple thought the Lord is driving home. Consider reading good books by other godly Christians who have gone before you and experienced these things. A few to consider would be Spiritual Depression by Martin Lloyd-Jones, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs, and Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks.

Second, pursue Christ corporately. This means attending to the means of grace. Often neglect of these means leads to the dry seasons in our lives. And, believe it or not, we can even neglect these while we attend church. How? By not seeking Christ in them, by not beholding him and his grace, by not taking in what we’ve heard and applying it to our hearts, by not remembering or meditating on what we’ve heard, etc. If we come to the gathering expecting others to do all the work for us and we can merely consume then we will often miss what the Lord would have for us. Listen to your brothers & sisters sing. Does it draw you to love them more? Actively hear the Word preached. Your God is speaking to you! Are our hearts ready to listen? Am I ready to rejoice in the gospel and obey the law? Jesus serves us a spiritual feast at the Supper. Have we brought our sin to the Lord? Have we rejoiced in his forgiveness? Do we think about the unity of the body that partakes together? Does your church know how you’re doing? Ask for prayer from your fellow believers. Be like Naomi and express even the bitterness of your soul to the body. They love you and will seek your good.

Thirdly, let the watchmen find you. Your pastors keep watch over your souls, but if you don’t let them know how your soul is doing they can’t minister to it well. Tell us how you’re doing. Tell us how we can pray for you. Seek godly counsel on how to move forward. Know that your pastors are praying for you, care for you, and are ready to give you grace! Jesus isn’t ashamed of you and neither are his under shepherds.

Lastly, remember who your Beloved is. The Bride sought him so earnestly because he is the One whom her soul loves! Remember the One who bought you with his own blood, who knows all your sin and loves you anyway. He forgives you and redeems you. He isn’t found by external ritual but by the desires of the heart, by faith. Seek Christ personally in all your prayer and reading. Seek Christ corporately by seeing him in all parts of the gathered worship. Seek him in his watchmen. Ask how they can help you find Jesus! Jesus is our true reward and he loves to give himself to those who seek him by faith. He will satisfy your soul, no matter how long the night, and his presence will make every trial worth it.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear
It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds
And drives away our fear
It makes the wounded spirit whole
And calms the troubled breast
Tis manna to the hungry soul
And to the weary, rest
- John Newton

A Poem Of Our Rest In Christ

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 08:39:53 +0000

The Covenant of Peace
Our rest lost, we stood dismayed
Cursed and broken, ruined lives lay
Prophet, priest, and failed king
Adam, no longer in the land of Living

By your eternal Counsel
By your eternal will
You made a covenant of peace
By your death, death would cease

You came and our flesh took
Lived under law but sin forsook
You obeyed your Father's Word
Now exalted, You are Lord of lords

A bruised reed you did not break
Smoking flax you wouldn't forsake
You broke my chains and set me free
To live before you continually

Praise the Lord, O my soul
Praise the Lord!
Salvation earned, rest obtained
Your blood cleanses every stain.

Christ's Presence In Our Gathering

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:18:09 +0000

Is there a person, famous or otherwise, that would be on your bucket list to meet? If you got a chance to meet that person and they offered to spend time with you and answer any questions you had, what would you do to make sure that meeting happened?

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is a promise Jesus makes to his church, a promise repeated by the apostles. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18 that as the church gathers to execute the keys of the kingdom and discipline the unrepentant believer that he is with us, even if only two or three of us are there. This gives the church confidence to do what Jesus calls us to even when it might be very costly.

But that’s not the only time Jesus said this. Before he ascended to heaven Jesus gathered his disciples and told them that he would be with them, even to the ends of the earth. And this is particularly true when the church is going into the world to make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them. Paul also tells the Thessalonian church that the Lord of peace, Jesus himself, was with them and would give them peace at all times and in every way.

Over and over, throughout the New Testament, we see that Jesus gathers with his body, especially when they are gathered together in worship and under the Word. So this leads to one simple question we should all ask ourselves: Do you realize Jesus is present in a special way with his church when they gather for worship on the Lord’s Day? Jesus is present with you in a powerful, gracious way when you gather with God’s people to worship.

What does this mean? It means, first, that Jesus is there spiritually with us to give us his peace. The first thing Jesus did after his resurrection was gather with his disciples in the upper room and declare his peace to them. Then he met with them the next Sunday and said, again, “peace be to you.” Jesus is our Emmanuel, God with us, and he is our peace. He made peace between us and God on the cross and reconciled us to himself. He makes peace between us as he forgives our sins and we forgive one another. The peace of God is and should be powerfully present in the body of Christ as we worship because Jesus is there. This is one of the ways we receive the grace of God in communion because Jesus has made us one body by his broken body.

Second, it means Jesus is there to give us his grace. God has told us how we are to approach him — in spirit and in truth. We’re to worship him the way he’s called us to, so that we might receive grace from him and not glorify man or any other pragmatic means. We glorify God as we come to him as he commands. And he’s designed it so that we receive grace through those means. We’re transformed as we sit under the word and receive it with humble hearts. We’re transformed as we ask God in prayer to forgive us and make us more like Jesus. We’re changed from one degree of glory to the next as we lift up voices straight from our hearts in joyful singing as we teach one another through the songs we sing. We find refreshing streams of mercy as the Word of God rains down on the people of God because Jesus is there with us!

Third, it means Jesus is there to see his Name glorified and proclaim his Name to us and then through us to the world around us. We don’t gather to receive an emotional high and then get stirred up to share the gospel on Monday. We gather to receive Christ and then give Christ to others, both inside the church and outside in the world.

We preach Christ and him crucified and Jesus blesses this preaching by giving us more and more of himself. How should this affect how we view worship on Sunday morning?

It should give us a heart that longs to be there more than anywhere else on earth. Where else could we find the words of eternal life? Where else could we go to be near our Lord in the most powerful way? What other means of discipleship could ever top this?
It should lead us to approach Sunday with preparation and expectation. We prepare our hearts through prayer and then we expect God to meet with us and feed us because he promised to. He’s our faithful God and he gives us good things!
It should lead us to take what we’ve heard and experienced on Sunday and carry that through the week. How did we hear the Word on Sunday? How can I apply this to my life on Monday? Meditate richly on the things we’ve heard and pray for God to make them applicable in our lives.
It should lead us to gather frequently with other believers outside of the gathering so we can continue to build each other up, speak words of life to one another, reflect on what God has done and is teaching us through the Word we’ve heard, and urge one another to press on and keep gathering even though all the world and every attack of Satan is aimed at keeping us from the gathering or destroying it’s efficacy in our lives.
Lastly, it should lead us to joy that Jesus is so gracious to us that he would give us himself despite our sin and weakness and frailty. We’ve all sinned and we all come into the Lord’s Day worship full of dread, shame, apathy, etc. But Jesus says “come” and invites you to partake of his grace so you can be strengthened, established, uplifted, and know the infinitely immense love of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Why We Lament

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 13:50:52 +0000

Songs shape story. They shape our affections and teach us about all aspects of life. This is why so many of the songs of Scripture are songs of lament. Lament is the response of a regenerate heart to the realities of sin, sorrow, and suffering. Lament teaches us about the reality of life lived in a curse-broken world. And lament lifts our eyes to the only hope we truly have.

We lament for a number of reasons. First, lament arises from honest engagement with a cursed world. Because of Adam’s and our sin our world has been submitted to “futility“ (Rom. 8). We experience relational pain, thorns, thistles, and even death. As we encounter disease and disability, failure and fear, even death itself, how should we respond? We cry out to God “how long, O Lord!” Or “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The pains of this life are directly connected to sin and separation from God. God created the world very good, we ruined it, and now we bear its thorns. Lament lifts our eyes to the blessed realm of heaven and the one who submitted the world to futility “in hope” of the glory that awaits the sons and daughters of God. We cry out to the one who bore the curse for us so that now while we might feel its effects, we won’t suffer its end. We will forever live with God!

Second, we lament when we honestly engage with our sin. When we see our sin for what it is we cry out like David “against you and you only have I sinned” and “if you should mark iniquities who could stand?” Sin’s a rottenness in our bones. It festers and kills. So will we hide like Adam and slowly die inside? Or will we expose it before the Lord and lament? Lament allows us to mourn our sin and receive God’s comfort. Those who repent and seek God’s forgiveness find it to be true that “blessed is the one whose iniquity has been forgiven“ against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Lament teaches us that while sin brings death, there is one who bore our sin for us so that we might be made righteous in him. Jesus gives us his righteousness and we are justified before God! Lament lifts our eyes to the cross and empty tomb and gives us a hope that could never be found in ourselves or the world.

Third, lament comes as we engage the enemy. Satan is a roaring lion seeking those whom he may devour. He especially hates the children of God and seeks to bring us down to the dust like him. He brings suffering, oppression, depression, sorrow, and pain. He tempts us with the goods of earth to set our affections on that which will pass away. Who can save us from such a powerful enemy? Only God who is our shield, our glory, and the lifter of our heads (Ps. 3). Though our enemy surrounds and seeks our life, lament lifts our eyes to heaven where our life is hidden with Christ. It reminds us of Christ’s victorious descent into the grave where he proclaimed the victory of the cross and disarmed the powers and principalities. Lament reminds us of Satan’s end and leads us into the safe harbor of Christ’s love for us. He is our refuge, our strength, strong tower, fortress, the Rock upon which we stand and are safe.

Christians are a lamenting people because we are a hopeful people. Lament sings of the reality of this world and all its pain and sorrow but reminds us that this world isn’t our home or hope. We have a hope that won’t put us to shame. And so our lips are loosed and we mourn in hope because our God comforts us.

You Shall Not Covet

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 08:42:17 +0000

Sin separates us from God and man. This is spiritual death. When Adam sinned in the Garden, man died spiritually and was corrupted and defiled in his being, separated from God, and at odds with his fellow image bearers, even to the point of murder. We see this all too clearly in the 10th commandment.

Exodus 20:17 (ESV): “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Coveting is dissatisfaction with what God has given us, idolatry of the things of earth, and the hatred of others because we want the good gifts God has given them rather than rejoicing with them over God’s goodness to them. We need life and healing. This is why we confess our sins together as a church. James 5 tells us to confess to one another so that we might be healed. This healing comes from Jesus who is the Tree of Life for us with healing in his leaves.

A Prayer of Confession

You are the giver of all good gifts O Lord. You are generous and beneficent. We have no lack because there is no lack in you and you have given us everything out of the overflow of your glory and grace. You are love.

But we have neglected your love, grace, and good gifts. We have worshipped the things of earth thinking they could satisfy us when only you could. We have looked at the good gifts you’ve given others - financially, relationally, their talents and abilities, their life circumstances, everything - and rather than rejoice with them we have craved them for ourselves. We are never satisfied, wanting more and more. We fill up Amazon wish lists, rack up crippling credit card debt, and compare our lives with social media lies always wanting more.

But you O Lord possess heaven and earth and yet you took on flesh, becoming lower than a servant, dying as a criminal, to wash us and cleanse us from our sins and give us a glory that truly satisfies. You cleansed us and satisfied us with your love, grace, and glory. Thank you for the cross and for your grace. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Every Sunday when we gather together we not only confess our sin; we also are assured of God's pardon for those who come to Christ in faith and confess their sin to him. God is so good and gracious and loving that he promises that those who look to Christ in faith will be healed of their sins, cleansed from their unrighteousness, and brought back into communion with God. Just like when the Israelites who were bitten by the fiery serpents of judgment looked to the bronze serpent on a pole and were healed, we also when we look to Christ are made whole and healed, but this time forever.

Hebrews 9:11–15 (ESV): 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

A Legal Heart

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:16:00 +0000

Psalm 1:2

but his delight is in the law of the LORD,and on his law he meditates day and night.

This verse is a familiar one to many of us. Psalm 1 describes the “blessed man” who avoids the ways of sinners, meditates on the law of God, and is like a tree planted by streams of water that bears its fruit in its season. And this is contrasted with the way of the wicked who, at the end of their lives, aren’t known by God but destroyed.

I wonder, though, how we hear this verse, especially as it relates to regular or daily Bible reading and devotion. If your heart is anything like mine, I imagine you might hear the verse like this:

“The blessed man is the one who meditates on God’s word. He’s righteous. Therefore, if I read my Bible every day and night then I’ll become like the blessed man and be righteous like him.”

This might take different forms for all of us or different struggles, but every one of us has to wrestle with a legal heart. We read verses like these and think that the path to blessed righteousness lies somewhere in what we can do. But we miss the point of the psalm. The blessed man meditates on the law of God not to become righteous, but because he already is righteous and blessed. In other words, it flows from his blessedness rather than for it.

This is one of the hardest things for legal hearts to understand. We need to be made righteous in Christ first, the truly Blessed Man who accomplished all for us, before we can “do” what the righteous and blessed do. The desire to meditate day and night on the law of God and do what God commands us to do and avoid the ways of the wicked flows from a heart changed by the grace of God.

What will drive us to gather with God’s people week in and week out? What will motivate us to wake up and open God’s word and think about it as we lay our heads down at night? What will give rise to love and good deeds toward the body of Christ and our neighbors? Only the grace of God can motivate us. Only the grace of God can transform us day by day into the image of Christ.

We are blessed because we are in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone. Compare Psalm 1 with Ephesians 1. We already are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places because of God’s loving election, because of what Jesus accomplished for us, and by the Spirit’s work in our lives, not because of what we’ve done. So when you read the commands of God let them drive you to Christ who is your Blessed Hope and then live as you’ve been called.

Sunday Liturgy - March 26

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Our liturgy is designed to show us the glory of God and invite us to worship and adore him. We then move to confession of sin as his glory reveals our lack. And we confess our sin in the sure hope of his forgiveness as we are assured of his pardon through his word. We then confess what we believe together as a church before we move to the proclamation of the Word through the Word preached. After the Word is preached we observe the Lord’s Supper, a visible word or sign of the gospel we just heard, and then we end in a closing word of Benediction, or good word.

Adoration

Prayer of Invocation

Scriptural Call to Worship

Psalm 23

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Confession

Reading of the Law – The 7th Commandment

Assurance of Pardon – I Corinthians 6:11

I Stand Amazed

The Second London Baptist Confession 2.1
Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right

Proclamation

Scripture Reading – Exodus 12:29-51

Pastoral Prayer

The Preaching of God’s Word
I Peter 1:17-21

Expiation

Communion
Here Is Love

Benediction

Numbers 6:24-26

Gloria Patri

CGC And The Sabbath

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 21:50:00 +0000

Covenant Grace Church is a Reformed (or Particular) Baptist church. This means that we subscribe fully to the system of truths set forth in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, often called the 1689. However, among the doctrines set forth in the 1689, we, the pastors of CGC, find it necessary to clarify and explain our stance on the last paragraph of chapter 22 on the Sabbath. We fully agree with the first seven paragraphs of this chapter but we do take exception to the specific language and terminology of the eighth.

So what does CGC believe about the Sabbath. First, we should note that we fully agree with the theology of 22.7 in the confession:

As it is the law of nature, that in general a proportion of time, by God's appointment, be set apart for the worship of God, so by his Word, in a positive moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men, in all ages, he has particularly appointed one day in seven for a sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's Day: and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished.

There are some important things to take note of here:

The command to set aside one day of the week for the worship of God is according to the law of nature. We typically think of the Sabbath as part of the 10 commandments. And so it is. But the 10 commandments didn’t create the Sabbath command. It codified it and set down specific rules and ways in which it should be observed. The command itself comes from the very creation of the world when God finished his work of creation and “rested” on the seventh day.
The Sabbath is a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment. Positive means that the day itself, the seventh day, isn’t part of the moral law but is given by express command of God. If God were to change that day it wouldn’t change the morality or binding nature of the commandment. Moral means that it is the duty of all men in all places at all times to seek the Lord and worship him one day every week. Just as it is a moral commandment to not take the Lord’s name in vain or to honor our father and mother, it is also a moral commandment to worship the Lord weekly. And it is perpetual. This means that the command didn’t cease when the people to whom God gave the command (ethnic Israel) and the covenant under which it was given ceased.
The command to worship on the last day of the week was to honor the Lord as the creator of all things and as the creator of the people of Israel (the Exodus is a type of creation). However, when Jesus rose from the dead he finished his work of new creation and rested from his works (Heb. 4:10). After this work the church in the New Testament no longer sought to gather on the last day of the week but on the first in remembrance and celebration of the resurrection and new creation work of Christ. This day is referred to as the Lord’s Day throughout the New Testament and refers to his dominion and ownership over that specific day (Matt. 12:8).

Practically, this means that we hold the Sunday gathering of the people of God as obedience to God’s moral law and command and should be prioritized by his people in all times and places. However, we would take exception to some of the language of the eighth paragraph:

The sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering their common affairs aforehand, do not only observe a holy rest all day, from their own works, words and thoughts, about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

As the pastors of Covenant Grace Church we believe that the Sabbath, this new first day of the week given to us by Christ, should be kept holy by his people. We should approach the worship of God with preparation and reverence. We should enter this day with rejoicing as we look back on the rest from our works accomplished by Christ and the rest we will enter into in the presence of God and in the New Heavens and New Earth. We also believe that one of the primary purposes for the Lord’s Day after the gathered worship of the saints is to seek to do good to others out of love for God and neighbor (Is. 58:13-14). This takes the shape of what the confession calls duties of necessity and mercy. As Matt. 12 sets forth we should seek to help both man and beast in their distress and to meet the immediate needs of those around us (including hunger). Sundays are a day for worship, rest in Christ, and mercy to others.

So what do we disagree with in this paragraph? Simply stated we disagree with the categorical language employed in it. The confession demands a fast from worldly employment and recreation and from being engaged with our own works, words, and thoughts. We believe this language binds the consciences of God’s people beyond the requirements of the Word of God.

The theocratic nation under which this command was given is no more. This means that we may work for people who do not permit us to rest from our employment on this day. Thus, the gathered worship of the people of God (unless providentially hindered) fulfills this command. A person hasn’t sinned against God if their employer requires them to return to work after worship or doesn’t allow them to take that day off. However, it should be noted that if a person is able to take time for the worship of God and chooses not to they may have made an idol out of something else.
Worldly recreation and enjoyment can be done to the glory of God with the people of God. Throwing a frisbee or taking a hike does not mean a person has ceased from the worship of God. Taking a nap can, and should, be an act of worship.
The purpose of the command is that we would cease from our works, worship Jesus, gather with his people, and seek to love one another out of love for God. If this is being done from the heart the external actions are of lower importance.

The point of the Sabbath is to point us to Christ’s fulfillment of it. He obeyed the law, he suffered the penalty we deserved, he was buried and suffered death. And he finished his work and rose from the dead conquering death itself so that we could have rest in him. We need to see more fully our own personal weakness. We are in desperate need of rest. God has given us one day a week to worship the God who gives us rest and to seek our rest in him knowing there is a final rest coming, and then there will be unending Sabbath. So seek the rest to come, set your minds on Christ, gather with God’s people as often as you can on that day, and rejoice in the Savior who came to give us rest.