B. D.: Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 2002; M. A.: Whitefield Theological Seminary, 2002; Evangelist of the Presbytery of Southern California; Organizing Pastor, Redeeming Grace Presbyterian Church (OPC), 2003-2006; currently Organizing Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (OPC), Pearl City, Hawaii.
Pastor Watson is a ministerial member of the Presbytery of Southern California of the OPC and a member of Redeemer’s overseeing session.
THE PASTOR’S TESTIMONY
At the age of 36, almost 37, the Lord began to exert great pressure of conviction on me for my many and heinous sins. I spent months in great torment of conscience. Even though I had made a profession of faith in a Baptist church at the age of seven, there was no evidence of saving faith in Christ: either of trust or love of Him, or of the obedience to Him which flows from faith. As an over-the-road truck driver, I left Mesa, AZ one day to go to Houston, TX, which was my regular route. I continued driving that night, tormented, hopeless and not knowing what to do about my life. However, I remembered my contact with Christianity as a child, so I found a Christian radio station and listened. I also found a tract on the dashboard of the truck which, by God’s providence, I had picked up in a truckstop weeks earlier and had forgotten. I realized that I would go to hell for my sins and in utter disgust with my sins and myself, I asked the Lord to save me, to take over my life. By the gracious work of the Spirit, I came to realize that Christ’s death had procured forgiveness for my sins, and by His grace, I believed in Jesus Christ alone to save me. I stopped the truck, got out on the side of the freeway at about 2 a.m. on June 7, 1994 and knelt in the dirt to pray, confessing my sins to the Lord of mercy. I was able to buy a Bible the next day in Houston. I began to read it with great hunger and delight, and with the conviction that I needed to believe and obey the Lord’s word. I confessed my sins to others, particularly my wife, and brought about fruit in keeping with repentance in my life. About two weeks later, I began attending a church near my home as often as my job would allow. When I could not be there on the Lord’s Day, I visited the pastor at his office each week. By God’s providence, it was a Reformed church (independent).
I began to learn more about the gospel and came to realize how Christ’s life, death, and resurrection had saved me. God granted me growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ and built me up in faith. I believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man (Jn. 1:1, 14; 10:30; Heb. 1:8; 2:14; etc.), the second Person of the Trinity. I believe that He came to save an elect people from their sins (Mt. 1:21; Eph. 1:4; etc.) as their federal Head and representative (Rom. 5:12 ff.). In His perfect, sinless life, He fulfilled the demands of obedience to God’s Law (Heb. 4:15; Mt. 3:15; Gal. 4:4-5; etc.). He suffered the full penalty due to His people for their sins according to the perfect justice of God, again in a representative capacity, i.e., as a Substitute for them. He suffered the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, the cursed death of the cross, was buried and remained under the power of death for a time (WSC Q. 27). I believe He was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, which give proof that He was vindicated and approved by the Father, that His sacrifice was absolutely effectual, that He Himself is the sinless Son of God (Acts 2:36; Rom. 1:4; etc.). I believe that His resurrection accomplished our spiritual newness of life in this world (Rom. 6:3-10; Eph. 2:1-6) and the resurrection of our bodies in glory when He returns to judge the world. I also believe that the salvation of God’s elect and the application of it to them is the work of the sovereign God alone. I believe that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and to God be the glory alone. I believe that the Bible alone is the authority for our faith and conduct. I am a Calvinist through and through, who loves the doctrines of grace, the Word of God, and the Triune God of all grace.