Steven R. Key is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. (An Address Delivered At The Annual Meeting Of The R.F.P.A., September, 1987) The subject I have chosen to consider with you this evening is “The Standard Bearer and Our Future;” or, if you wish, “The Standard Bearer and Our Youth,” for the youth are our future. You can gather from my choice of topics, that I consider The Standard Bearerto occupy an important place and to be in a position to play a significant role in the future well-being of our Protestant Reformed Churches in particular. In our...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin. With all the attacks upon the mind, it is absolutely essential that we “gird up the loins of our minds,” as the apostle Peter commands us in I Peter 1:13. That means that the foundation of our living and of our thinking must be grounded in clear views of divine truth. Doctrinal knowledge is generally given little value by most today. Perhaps youth tend to undervalue doctrinal knowledge more than anyone else. One reason for that is that youth tend to think in terms of the practical. They often...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin. We have considered the importance of right thinking, not just what is referred to today as “politically correct thinking,” but spiritually right thinking. It is extremely important that you, as Christian young people, are in the right spiritual frame of mind. It is important that you are established on the firm foundation of Bible truth. But there is another matter we must not overlook. If there is one thing Satan hates, it is firm conviction in the truth of God’s Word. He will use many means to try...

Rev. Key is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan. “The Protestant Reformed Churches believe that, in obedience to the command of Christ, the King of the church, to preach the blessed Gospel to all creatures, baptizing, and teaching them to observe all things which Christ has commanded, it is the explicit duty and sacred privilege of said churches to carry out this calling according to the measure of our God-given ability.” So reads the opening paragraph of the Constitution of the Mission Committee of the Protestant Reformed Churches. And with that conviction ten men serve on...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. The biblical concept of adoption is not usually included in a treatment of the order of salvation. It is a wonderful truth, however, that ought not be overlooked. We treat it now as a benefit of justification. Rooted in Election Our adoption by God is a wonder of grace rooted in sovereign election. So we are taught in Ephesians 1:4-5. God has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. It is striking in Ephesians 1:4-5that two different...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. We have seen that our salvation, which focuses on our justification with God, is entirely of grace, the gift of God. All boasting is excluded. We cannot even boast of our faith, as if faith is our work. It isn’t. Faith is not our act as a determined cause of our justification, but is the instrument and channel by which God unites us with Christ. Salvation is of the Lord, from beginning to end. He it is who quickens the dead. He alone is the one who calls...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. The Reformed faith insists upon the must of doing good works. That is biblical. It refuses, however, to attribute justification in any sense to those good works. That would be contrary to biblical teaching. For we have seen that righteousness is by faith only, not by the works of the law.   No Wage-Earners with God   It is impossible that our good works be a ground for our righteousness before God, in whole or in part. It is impossible, because you and I do not stand in...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. Having considered the amazing truth of justification as the divine wonder of grace in imputing the righteousness of Christ to our account (see Standard Bearer, February 1, 2003), we have yet to consider the manner in which we receive this astounding gift. Our Reformed confessions expound the Word of God in telling us that we are righteous before God “only by a true faith in Jesus Christ” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q & A 60, 61, 65). The Belgic Confession explicitly and carefully spells out that truth when it says...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. We have seen that justification is the act of God’s grace by which He imputes righteousness to the sinner. God justifies the ungodly! We are immediately faced with the question: How is this possible? We recognize that there must be a ground for that divine verdict that has proclaimed our righteousness. What is that ground? What is the basis for God’s declaring us righteous? That is an important question. The answer to that question will reflect upon the very being of God. The ground of our justification is...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. The truth that we now consider is the very bedrock of true Christianity. Justification is that truth that proclaims the glory of the sovereign God and the wonder of sovereign, particular grace in Christ Jesus. It sets before us the value of our religion. That God’s people are righteous before Him in Christ—that is the bedrock of true Christianity. Any so-called Christianity established on anything other than the perfect and imputed righteousness of Christ is a sham. It is nothing more than a sham. For without the perfect...