What do We Believe?

Introduction

By God's grace, we are a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, committed to the Biblical Gospel of God's sovereign grace.

Sinners are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, which is in Jesus Christ! The Bible alone is God's inerrant Word, and so our final authority in faith, worship, and practice!

We believe in the everlasting covenant of grace, in which Jesus Christ fulfilled all righteousness for those who trust in Him as their only Mediator with God. His active and passive obedience is imputed to all who put their faith in Him alone as Savior! His death is our propitiation, our atoning sacrifice that paid the full penalty of God's wrath demanded by God's holy Law on sinners.

We believe in the importance of the covenant family in the visible church, and so in the inclusion of our covenant children in that church, with the appropriate sign and seal of that inclusion (i.e., baptism in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).

Please join us as we worship the one true God, who is a Holy Trinity. We come to the Father through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We believe that the public worship of this one true God on the Lord's Day (the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath) is our most exalted purpose and highest duty as human beings. This is what we were redeemed for.

To obtain a Bible study demonstrating this as our highest purpose, request "Worship: Our Highest Duty"; send your request to info@firstchurchofmerrimack.org.

What We Believe

The First Church of Merrimack receives and adopts the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms as an excellent summary of our beliefs and they are the standards to which all the officers in our church subscribe.

In the great commission, Jesus commanded His apostles, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20) Such discipleship is exemplified for us in the book of Acts, "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:41-42). We continue to disciple in this way of instructing the Lord's people in the apostles' doctrine (Bible Studies and expository preaching each Lord's Day), by the administration of the sacraments, and by other times of regular prayer and fellowship with God's people.

Worship

Here are sermons that were preached in regard to our order of worship: "Order of Worship (Part 1)" and "Order of Worship (Part 2)"

From Our Church Bylaws

Article I

Name

This Church, founded September 5, 1771, and incorporated March 29, 1935, shall be called the First Church of Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Article II

Faith, Polity, and Fellowship

Believing that the Bible alone is the infallible word of God, we affirm that it alone is our final authority for faith and practice (II Timothy 3:16-17). We also affirm the right of the individual to study and interpret the Bible for himself (Acts 17:11), in accordance with that infallible rule of Bible interpretation commonly called "The Analogy of Faith" (Matthew 22:29, 31-32).This rule teaches us that the Bible is its own interpreter, as we understand the more difficult texts in the light of the more clear texts. By the "Bible" we mean the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments.

We believe in the one true and living God in three Persons, of one essence, power and eternity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). The holy, triune God is the sole Creator of all things, and the only Redeemer of the elect (Genesis 1:1, I Timothy 2:3). God the Father, Whom no man has seen nor can see, so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 1:18, 3:16). God the Son is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word and Lamb of God, Who as the true and living God became a true Man without sin (Matthew 1:20, 23), uniting in One Person two distinct natures (the divine and the human). For our sins He died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice (I John 2:2), and literally and physically rose again victorious over sin, Hell, Satan and death (I Corinthians 15). He will come again, literally and physically (Acts 1:11), to glorify His saints and to destroy His enemies (II Thessalonians 1:6-10). God the Holy Spirit is that Person of the Godhead Who applies the redemptive work of the Son and the love of the Father to His elect (John 3:1-8; Titus 3:5). He does this by working faith and repentance in their hearts, and so uniting them to Christ by effectually calling them (Ephesians 2:8-10; I Corinthians 1:22-24) by means of the Holy Scriptures (I Peter 1:23-25).

The purpose of the church is to glorify God (I Corinthians 6:20), to build up itself in the faith and love of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16), and to proclaim to all the world the Gospel of Justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (Matthew 28:19-20). The government of this church is vested solely in its members as outlined in these By-Laws below, but while holding to the autonomy of the local church and its independence of all ecclesiastical control, we cherish the fellowship of churches of like doctrine and practice (I Timothy 1:3; Revelation 2:2, 14-16).

We agree to maintain the institution of the church and the purity of the biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:20), to submit ourselves to the orderly administration of the affairs of the church (Hebrews 13:17), and to walk together in brotherly love (Hebrews 13:1).