An Introduction to TRBC

By Pastor Timothy R. Stout

The living God created the universe and the life that is in it. He created it in such a way that it demonstrates His person–including attributes such as wisdom, power, eternity, and holiness. He personally gives internal testimony of this to every person, though people have the freedom to suppress the testimony if they choose to do so. Unfortunately, many do.  

God created man in His image and as He did so, also gave him the responsibility and capacity to rule over the earth. God created man with unique qualities, including intelligence, will, insight, planning capacity, spiritual awareness, emotional depth, capacity to appreciate beauty, sense of justice, and, once created, perpetual existence. God may have given animals a very, very limited capacity for some of these qualities, but not all of them–animals are vastly inferior to man in what they have. It is impossible for random, unguided evolutionary processes to invent how to give man these qualities. Rather, they are a testimony of the creative power of God. Because man was created in God’s image, God gives human life value and views how a person treats other people as how the person actually feels about God in his heart.

God created the first man, Adam, and fashioned Eve from him to be a helper to him. In God’s eyes, both man and woman come from the same initial creative event and have the same intrinsic value and the same hope of eternal life and the same potential blessings in eternity. He has created them for different roles and purposes at this time, but gives them the same innate value.

Since the creation of man, God has had servants among men who recognize Him and serve Him. Many societies today serve other gods who are not gods, although there is only one living, Creator God. Many people in our society today hate the living God and want to suppress truth about Him. They want to remove all reference to Him in our schools and in government. They reject His standards of personal morality. However, there is nothing new in this; people in earlier days did the same thing. That is why most cultures of the world no longer know God. Their ancient forefathers knew Him, but did not want to, and successfully wiped out the personal knowledge of Him. This is what ungodly men want for us, too. God has permitted men to do this. In doing so, He allows rebellious men to demonstrate just how awful sin is and why God is righteous in judging it. At some point in time, God’s purposes in the temporary allowance of sin will have been served. A new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells will be established and inhabited by those who have been reconciled with God. Those who have rejected the knowledge of God will suffer eternal judgment in the Lake of Fire.  

However, throughout man’s entire history, God has always had a remnant which has remained faithful to Him. He has always been willing to receive any and all who are willing to come to Him on His terms. This is still true today, for any and all who are willing to hear.

The problem is sin. Eve was tempted by Satan soon after her creation.  Satan promised her that God would not judge her, that she would be like God and could determine for herself what is right and wrong. All she had to do was eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately, all the things Satan told her were lies. In truth she would be punished for her sins, she would never be like God, and she did not have authority to discern for herself what is good and evil. Yet, Satan’s promises appealed to her and without Satan providing any proof of the legitimacy of his claims, he convinced her to eat and she ate. Her husband Adam followed after her and also ate. As a result, mankind was plunged into a horrible spiritual darkness which still affects us today. We know God exists, we know we have sinned, and we know that we are accountable to Him for our sin. However, we do not want to know this and suppress the truth, because truth sensitizes our conscience and makes us feel guilty when we do the things we want to do for the sake of our personal gratification. Our flesh does not care about consequences, particularly to other people–it only wants to be gratified. So, our flesh hates our conscience as it seeks to restrain us from doing all that we would like to do. Our conscience can condemn us for sins committed, but cannot give us eternal life. It teaches us of our need for God’s forgiveness, but cannot provide it.

Jesus Christ is God’s only provision to remove the barrier of sin between us and God. He alone bore our sins in His body on the cross. He alone rose from the dead to give eternal life to those who receive Him as Savior. He freely gives forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who come to Him as their Lord, relying on Him and His work on the cross to forgive them their sins and to give them a new nature worthy of coming freely into the presence of God.

The gift of salvation is available to all who will receive it on God’s terms. Eternal blessings beyond our comprehension are promised by God to those who receive His gift. He gives us a taste, a “down payment” of this gift by the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell within a true believer and make him a “new man.” The internal presence of love, joy, and peace as we live out an intimate relationship with the living God provide a down payment and a foretaste of the promised eternal blessings. However, apart from Christ, the sins we have already committed demonstrate that we are by nature cut off from God. We store up God’s wrath for ourselves as the penalty for our sins. If we die without having received the forgiveness of sins offered us through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are destined for eternal judgment in a Lake of Fire. Angels keep a log of everything we do and the severity of the judgment depends on what we have done. God will be absolutely fair and just in His judgment.

At TRBC, we strive to teach and preach the entire counsel of Scripture. Some things may be more appealing than others, but everything God gave us is for our good and needs to be understood and received. If you are looking for a church whose primary goal is to be faithful to God and not just please men, we urge you to consider The Rock Baptist Church.