“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:17-18).
Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). Jesus fulfilled those words in His own sufferings. Of Christ it was preeminently said, “He trusted (He rolled upon) the LORD that He would deliver Him” (Ps. 22:8). Oh, blessed assurance, Christ was heard (Heb. 5:7)! Faith -- God-given faith, God-sustained faith -- glorifies God by believing God’s word against the fiercest storms and against the assault of the fiercest enemies, even against all evidence to the contrary, faith holds fast to God’s word. Such faith glorifies God because it is God’s own work (John 6:29; 2 Thess. 1:11). God always looks upon and delights in His own work. God’s work of faith in the hearts of His people points them to Christ. And it is to Christ alone that God looks for His people (Heb. 12:2; Ex. 12:13; John 3:14-15; Isa. 45:22-25; Rom. 10:4; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:6). God’s works shall all glorify Him. Before Peter entered that temptation in which he denied his Lord and Savior three times, Christ already prayed for him. He prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail (Luke 22:32). That is God’s work in His people. What do we learn from these things? We learn that there is never a time when God will forsake His own (Heb. 13:8) or deny Himself and those He loved in Christ from eternity (Rom. 8:33-34). And we learn this: there is never a time when we cannot look to Christ (Heb. 10:19; 4:15-16). Oh, blessed hope! Though in ourselves we do not rise even to the level of unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10), yet we can look away and see that Christ is altogether profitable, altogether lovely, that He alone is worthy and that He always pleases our God and Father for us, and therefore, we are pleasing to God in Him (Matt. 3:17; 17:5; Rev. 5:1-13; Rom. 5:19; 10:4; Heb. 10:5-18). Though our sins deserve punishment, though our own conscience finds good reason why God should deal with us as our sins deserve, yet faith reaches within the veil by the broken body and shed blood of our Savior (Heb. 10:20), and such faith comes to God, though a sinner, with empty cup and empty hand, and freely takes and drinks from the water of life that springs from the throne of God because of the blood of Christ (Rev. 22:17; Isa. 55:1-3). Faith comes with the precious promise that we can come at all times by the blood of Christ (Heb. 4:14-16; 10:19; 1 John 1:7-10; 2:1-2). In so coming, we find sweet assurance that it is well with our souls (Song 2:6; Isa. 40:1-2). Can God deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13)? Did He not say that we are one with Christ (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6-11; Eph. 5:30; Isa. 42:1-6; Rom. 5:12-21)! Can He deny His Son? Can He refuse the obedience of His own dear Son that led Him to shed His precious blood for sinners, who did all of His Father’s will from His heart with all of His soul and mind and strength? Will God the Father turn away from the pleadings of our Advocate, who pleads God’s eternal will, God’s everlasting love, and who answered justice with Himself, whose blood made satisfaction in heaven’s court? Has not the Spirit of God said that our God, “justifieth the ungodly” (Isa. 45:21-25; Rom. 3:26; 4:4-5)?! Has He not given us a sure and faithful testimony that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even great and the very chief of sinners (Ps. 25:11; 1 Tim. 1:15)?! Has He not said that with Him, nothing is impossible (Matt. 19:26; Luke 1:37)?! Does not the Spirit of God in this evil and late hour in earth’s history say, “Come” (Rev. 22:17)?! Does not our dear and blessed Savior command us to look to Him and be saved (Isa. 45:22)? Therefore, though all the circumstances of our lives suggest otherwise, though our own sin torments our conscience, yet there is a place of refuge and repose in the sweet promise of God. Every sinner is accepted in Christ, accepted even as God’s own Beloved Son (Eph. 1:6; John 17:23-24). Every believing sinner is as righteous as Christ is righteous, because he is in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). All in Christ have been made holy, perfected, are without blame, and have been forever found by God the Father in Christ, in love (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 5:19; 8:38-39; Heb. 10:10, 14; Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:20-22; Jude 1:24; Zep. 3:17). Therefore, in every trial, the confession of the afflicted, downcast soul, when given to see with eyes of faith that Christ is all in all of life and salvation is this: “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:18)! What a comfort, what rest, what joy, what precious faith that brings this cup of blessing from the spring of God’s grace and enables us to find Christ to be our all before God!
“Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:25)!
Rick Warta
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