The Profit Of Believing

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Romans 4; Lord's Day 23
Psalters: 401, 84, 87, 190
  1. The profit of believing is that we are accounted to be righteous before God (Rom. 4:3 and Gal. 3:6).
    1. This is a righteousness God imputes (our state) to us.
      1. God, the Judge, declares one to be without sin in heart and life, and to be in harmony with His perfect Self.
      2. For any child of Adam to be righteousness, we must be made such by God.
    2. This is righteousness God grants us - an imparted, so we have the real life (our condition).
      1. This righteousness is imparted life, the Spirit breathing into us the new, heavenly life (John 3:36; 5:24).
      2. The present possession of this life means that we are heirs of eternal life.
    3. What a tremendous profit to receive the gift of righteousness in Christ.
  2. God enables believers consciously to appropriate this righteousness.
    1. Human nature constantly strives to be righteous before God because of works.
    2. God determined that the only way to appropriate His gift of righteousness is by means of His gift of faith.
      1. This faith is the exercise of the spiritual ability to hold for truth what God has revealed in His Word.
      2. The first thing faith sees is my guilt and my sin.
      3. Faith is the spiritual power God gives which unites the elect with Jesus.
    3. The experience of faith.
      1. Faith is reasonable, influencing the mind/intellect.
      2. Faith moves us to look away from self as the source of any righteousness, worth, or value.
      3. Faith embraces and appropriates Christ and His work.
  3. Faith is a certain assurance that I am righteous before God by grace alone.
    1. Harmonious peace with God is the experience of my righteousness by faith alone Romans 5:1).
    2. Faith’s confidence is in what God says in His Word, not what I experience, feel or think.
      1. Faith gives the answer to our conscience and the accusations of men, which are not the source of truth.
      2. We are still sinners, but God has most graciously declared us to be righteous in Christ.