Do James and Paul contradict one another on the subject of justification? Paul writes, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28). God justifies the believing sinner on the basis of “the righteousness of God without the law” (Rom. 3:21). In Galatians he is equally emphatic: “A man is not justified by the works of the law … by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:16). Moreover, Paul proves the doctrine of justification by appealing to the example of Abraham: “if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God” (Rom. 4:2). About Abraham Paul writes, “but to him that worketh not but believeth …” (Rom. 4:5) and points out that Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised! (Rom. 4:10).

If there is one "sacred cow" in the modern church it is "freewill." Amost every person I meet in the modern church assumes that 1) man has freewill, 2) that man can use his freewill to choose salvation, 3) that God is a perfect gentleman who would never force salvation on man.

If you know anything about the Reformation of the Church in the 16th Century you will have heard of "Justification by faith alone." The Reformers (Martin Luther, John Calvin and others) taught that we are justified before God by faith alone without works.

Justification depicts God as the Judge and sinners as defendants or the accused.

Many people believe that God has a balance or a set of scales in heaven. Into one side, He places our bad works; and into the other side, He places our evil works. If our good works outweigh our evil works, we will go to heaven. If our evil works outweigh our good works, we will not go to heaven, at least not immediately.
But that is not what the Bible, which is God's Word, teaches.

What is a good work according to the Bible?

The average person thinks he is going to heaven because he is "a good person." But what does that mean, and how "good" does a person need to be to go to heaven?

Jesus was asked once by a rich young ruler, in Mark, chapter 10, "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17).

Jesus had a surprising response, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God" (Mark 10:18).

The LRF runs an adult reformed doctrine class in which we work through the Essentials of Reformed Doctrine catechism booklet published by the PRCA.

Below you will find the lesson outlines based on Lesson 23.

Each lesson outline comes as a handy PDF formatted to be printed as a single double-sided page with narrow margins. Download the attachments below.

The LRF runs an adult reformed doctrine class in which we work through the Essentials of Reformed Doctrine catechism booklet published by the PRCA.

Below you will find the lesson outlines based on Lesson 22.

Each lesson outline comes as a handy PDF formatted to be printed as a single double-sided page with narrow margins. Download the attachments below.

The LRF runs an adult reformed doctrine class in which we work through the Essentials of Reformed Doctrine catechism booklet published by the PRCA.

Below you will find the lesson outlines based on Lesson 21.

Each lesson outline comes as a handy PDF formatted to be printed as a single double-sided page with narrow margins. Download the attachments below.

The LRF runs a catechism class for children in which bible history is taught for the first few years following the catechism material developed by the PRCA. The LRF has just finished going through Old Testament History for Juniors and New Testament History for Juniors, and we publish here the lesson outline plans developed and used by our pastor to teach these lessons.

Each lesson outline comes as a handy PDF formatted to be printed as a single double-sided page with narrow margins. Download the attachment below.

The LRF runs an adult reformed doctrine class in which we work through the Essentials of Reformed Doctrine catechism booklet published by the PRCA. Below you will find the lesson outlines based on Lesson 20.

Each lesson outline comes as a handy PDF formatted to be printed as a single double-sided page with narrow margins. Download the attachments below.