Sovereign Grace Bible Church believes and confesses in accordance with Scripture that:
1. There is one true and living God who exists eternally in three distinct persons as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God in three persons, Blessed Trinity. God is infinitely holy and separate from His creation and yet upholds and providentially cares for His creation. He is sovereign and has decreed all that comes to pass in accordance with His purpose and for the glory of His name. God is loving, unchanging, all powerful, all knowing, present everywhere at one and the same time, faithful, righteous, patient, gracious and merciful.
Gen. 1:1, 26; Deut. 6:4; Isa. 45:5–7; 1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Thess. 1:9; Matt. 28:19–20; 2 Cor. 13:14; Ex. 15:11; Isa. 6:3; Ps. 104; Matt. 5:45; Acts 14:17; Dan.4:34-35; Rom.11:36; Eph. 1:11; I Jn. 4:8; Mal. 3:6; Jas. 1:17; Ex. 34:6; Ps.139
2. The Bible is the Word of God written being breathed out by God and is accurate in all that it reveals. By the Bible, we mean the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. These alone make up the Canon of Scripture and include the following:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1,2&3 John, Jude, and Revelation.
3. God has revealed Himself in all that He has created. He has specially revealed Himself in His Word, the Bible and in His Son our Savior Jesus Christ.
Ps.19:1–6; Rom.1:19–20; Jn.1:1–3, 18; Heb.1:1–3
4. The teaching of the Bible is our only authority. It pertains to what we believe and what we practice, in order that we, under the blessing of God, may profit by its teaching, being reproved, corrected, trained in righteousness, and be equipped for every good work.
Ps.19:7–14; Isa. 8:20;2 Tim. 3:16–17; 2 Pet. 1:20–21
5. Jesus Christ is eternally the Son of God and is equal with God and possesses the fullness of God. He came into the world having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He is fully God and fully Man possessing two distinct natures in His one person. Christ perfectly obeyed the will of God and was without sin. He willingly went to the cross and laid down His life as a propitiatory sacrifice satisfying God’s justice and appeasing His holy wrath by which means our sins are forgiven, covered over, and we are declared to be right with God (justified). Jesus Christ was raised from the dead literally and physically. He ascended to the right hand of God where He remains as the High Priest of all who have believed in Him. He will return with power and great glory to establish His kingdom, take His people to be with Him forever, and to judge the world in righteousness.
Jn.1:1-2, 18; Jn.5:18; Rom.9:5; Phil. 2:6; Col.1:19; Col. 2:9; Titus 2:13; Heb.1:3; Lk. 1:30 –33; Rom.5:18–19; 2 Cor. 5:21; Jn.10:15–18; Isa. 53; Rom.3:21–26; Rom.4:24–25; 1Cor.15:12–20; Lk.24:51; Acts 1:9; Heb.4:14–16; Heb.7:24–25; Mk.13:26–27
6. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the sacred Trinity and was sent by God the Father and the Son to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who convicts sinners and calls them by means of His Word to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit of God who empowers the preaching of the Word of God and enables believers to live their lives to the glory of God.
Jn.14:16–17, 26; Jn.15:26; Rom.8:16; Jn.16:8, 14; Acts 5:3–9; Acts 1:8; Rom.8:9–16
7. God created man in His own image. He created them male and female. Our first parents were without sin, but by their deliberate disobedience to the will of God, sinned and died spiritually and became subject to physical death and were in danger of eternal death, losing also their fellowship with God. The sin of the first man was imputed to all his descendants so that the entire human race in every age and in every place has been plunged into sin and death. Men and women are born in sin and are dead in trespasses and sins so that all their faculties are corrupted by sin. All mankind is by nature the object of God’s holy wrath. It is only by means of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that anyone can be forgiven their sins and be reconciled to God.
Gen. 1:26–27; Gen. 2:16–17; Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12; Rom.6:23; Ps. 51:5;
Eph. 2:1–3; Jn. 3:3–8; Rom. 5:6–11; Acts 5:31; Acts 13:38–39;
Acts 26:15–18; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:13–14
8. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. Jesus Christ by His perfect obedience to the will of God, and by His propitiatory sacrifice for sin has enabled God to be just and the justifier of all who would believe in Him. Those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, repented of their sins, and have believed in Jesus Christ are declared to be right with God (justified) and are free of condemnation. All those also who are thus united to Jesus Christ by faith receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. They are also kept by God and nothing in heaven or earth can separate them from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Isa. 53; Rom. 3:21–26; Rom. 5:1–2; Rom. 8:1, 31–39; Eph. 2:4–10; Titus 3:4–7; Acts 2:38; Jn. 10:27–29
9. The church is a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We were once not a people, but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. All these blessings belong to all the people of God in every place and in every age by the grace of God and in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water by the word.
Jn.15:16,19; Eph.1:3–6; 1 Pet.2:9–10; Eph. 5:25b–26
10. Jesus Christ has given two ordinances (sacraments) and only two to His church. These are baptism by water and the Lord’s Supper. Neither of these two ordinances are a means of salvation.
Matt.28:19; Acts 2:38; Lk.22:19–20; 1 Cor.11:23–26
11. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded His church to be His witness by means of the proclamation of the gospel. The gospel reveals the necessity of the death of Christ for sinners; His burial; and His literal, physical resurrection from the dead, and that repentance unto the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations in His name.
Matt. 28:18–20; Mk. 16:15; Lk. 24:45–48; Jn. 20:21; Acts 1:8
12. The bodily resurrection of the believer and the unbeliever. The believer shall be given a body like unto the glorious body of Christ and shall dwell with everlasting joy in Christ’s presence. The unbeliever shall be judged by Christ and sent away into everlasting conscious punishment.
1 Cor.15:50–57; Phil. 3:20–21; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Matt. 10:28; Acts 24:15;
Jn. 5:22, 27; Rev. 20:11–15.