By Pastor Glem Melo

Today at Kagay-an Reformed Church:

BY GRACE ALONE, BELIEVERS ARE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS IN GOD’S COURT

“And [Abram] believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

1. The Lord judges His covenant people.

2. Not all members of the covenant are saved.

3. Only those who believe in the Lord are saved.

“Just as we understand that they to whom iniquity is imputed are guilty before God; so those to whom he imputes righteousness are approved by him as just persons; wherefore Abram was received into the number and rank of just persons, by the imputation of righteousness… Abram was justified by faith…” – John Calvin

“Christian believers know that, because they are ‘in Christ’, his righteousness is extended to them, as it was to Abram, faith being the link that causes them to be accepted and blessed in Christ, and granted the promises.” – Joyce Baldwin

“[M]en are justified before God by believing not by working… [T]hey obtain grace by faith because they are unable to deserve a reward by works.” – John Calvin

“Have we exercised that kind of saving faith in God? Have we trusted Him like that for our salvation? Have we trusted Him that Christ is who He says He is and that the promises of salvation are what He says they are. Have we rested in Him. And do we continue to trust Him when we run up against the trials of our own lives, or the minute that circumstances are adverse, do we desert the calls? Abram faces the hardest of trials, and because God is as real to him, or maybe we should say, more real to him than his trials, he continues to trust in God.” – Ligon Duncan