Yuba-Sutter Grace Church - Articles

Plead Christ alone

1/11/2025

“The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words” (Proverbs 15:26).

Every thought of the heart of the unbelieving man is an abomination to the LORD. But the believer in Christ pleads only the truth of Christ that God has revealed in the Gospel. Believers in Christ boast in Christ alone (Galatians 6:14; 1 Corinthians 1:31; Jeremiah 9:23-24). They loathe their own works and their own selves (Philippians 3:3; Titus 3:5; 2 Timothy 1:9; Romans 7:24-25). Such Christ-exalting words in the Gospel, held and believed in the heart, are spoken from a heart made humble by the sight of Christ. True humility is Christ-exalting (John 3:30; Galatians 2:20). It speaks the implanted Gospel from the heart of a believing sinner: "the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21). Such words are pleasant words both to God and to His people (Isaiah 52:7). Out of the abundance of the heart a man speaks from his mouth (Matthew 12:34). What we truly believe is what we confess and love to talk about in communion with Christ and with Christ’s people.

Faith in Christ by His Spirit

1/11/2025

Everything of Christ that I have in me, I have by the Holy Spirit given to me. Christ has given me His Spirit because He justified me by His blood (Galatians 3:13-14; Galatians 4:4-6; Romans 5:5-10; 8:1-4; John 6:63; 7:37-39; Titus 3:3-7)! And Christ died to justify God's elect (Romans 8:29-34). He finished that work (John 17:4; 19:28-30).

Moreover, all that the Spirit of God does in me, He gives me faith to look to Christ for, and persuades me that in Christ I have it against all evidence of sight and sense to the contrary. I receive all and stand upon Christ for all that His Gospel has told me is in Him for His people. The only valid basis for my faith is His word of command to believe Him for all (Acts 16:31; Isaiah 45:22-25; Colossians 2:9-10; Hebrews 10:19).

For example, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God (Romans 5:1-11). We have peace by Christ’s cross (Colossians 1:20). We have peace by Christ who is the propitiation to God for our sins (Ephesians 2:13-15; 1 John 4:10). We have peace in Christ’s reconciliation that He made by His blood (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Colossians 1:20-22; Ephesians 2:11-21; Isaiah 12:1-3; Psalm 85:1-10; Ezekiel 37:26). And by faith that is by Christ (Acts 3:16 — ‘the faith that is by Him’), we know this peace by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). Every grace given to us is based on our justification in Christ’s blood (Romans 3:24-8:34). Faith doesn't make God do anything. But faith enables me to enter into the truth with enjoyment of peace by the Holy Spirit of God. "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Romans 15:13).

God has justified all of His elect by the blood of Christ (Romans 5:9, 19). As long as God has known His people as His elect (Ephesians 1:4), no one has been able to lay one thing to their charge. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth" (Romans 8:33). How can this be?! Because our God and Father chose His people IN CHRIST from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-7). None can condemn one for whom Christ died (Romans 8:34). And all for whom Christ died are not only justified by His blood (Romans 5:9), but are given all things in Him (Ephesians 1:3; Romans 8:32; Colossians 2:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:30-31).

Therefore, by God-given faith, we see what God sees, because He has told us the truth that is in Jesus in the Gospel (Ephesians 4:21). Faith is that God-given spiritual sight that enables us to lay hold and lean the weight of our eternal souls on Christ, to stand in reliance on God's word concerning salvation and all spiritual blessings that are in Him alone (Ephesians 1:3-7).

Important questions

11/25/2024

Q: What does God require of me?

A: All that He provided in His Son. If God required that Christ should bear our sins and satisfy the justice of God to the fulfillment of His righteousness, then that is what God requires. Nothing less and nothing more than Christ crucified pleases God. Anything done to add to Christ only makes light of Him. God requires all that His eternal Son was made to be. He requires all that He gave Christ to do to the glory of God in the eternal salvation of His people. Since Christ died to do all that God requires of us, therefore, if anyone attempts by any other way to meet what God requires, that person opposes God against His expressly revealed will and work and glory. Such a person despises the wisdom and power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18, 24; Colossians 2:3). Such a person despises the offering of Christ. Such a person opposes the glory of God. Such a person is a worker of iniquity, and shall be commanded to depart from Christ forever (Matthew 7:21-23; Galatians 2:21).

Q: How can you or I meet what God requires of us?

A: If we have learned of God, we have learned that only Christ can and has met what God requires. As no man or angel could do one part of all that God requires, God therefore laid help on One who alone is mighty (Psalm 89:19). We have no strength. We fail at everything. More than that, we think sinfully when we think we can do what only Christ could do and did. Such a sinful mind denies God’s truth, opposes God’s will, despises God’s work, and seeks for itself glory that must be God’s alone. Though we can never meet what God requires, God has provided all that He requires in Christ alone, and has provided all in full in Him (Colossians 2:9-10; Romans 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30). Christ is all. Christ did everything. All that God requires is in Him, and in Him alone. You must believe Him whom God has sent (John 6:29). Believing Christ is the only way to agree with God about myself and about Himself. Believing Christ alone is the only way to give all credit and honor to Christ. All credit and honor is due to Christ. God is glorified in His Son. Therefore, believe in Christ. Do not trust your worth or labor or merit. Trust Christ’s work as all that God requires or ever could require. God has given His Son. Christ offered Himself to God for the sins of His people. That is all God requires. We can’t provide one part of it. Only believe.

Q: How does the blood of Jesus wash us from our sins?

A: Christ’s blood washes us from our sins by making us clean in the sight of God. We are only clean if God says we are clean. We are only clean when we are holy in the sight of holiness above: holy in the sight of God. We are clean when God sees us without sin and as beautiful to Him as the holy obedience of His Son. Beauty to God is all that Christ did when He finished the work God gave Him to do by His love to God for sinners that compelled Him to bear their sins and offer Himself to God for them in fulfillment of God’s own righteousness (Romans 4:25; 5:9-10; 8:3-4, 33-34; Galatians 2:21; 3:21). We are clean before God when Christ puts His beauty on us, and God sees Christ’s obedience of love as our clothing by His free grace. We are clean before God when we are made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are clean before God only by God’s will and by His work. And Christ alone has fulfilled that will and accomplished that work.

“Thy beauty…was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 16:14).

Christ washed us from our sins by upholding God’s truth, saving us from our sins in righteousness (Daniel 9:16; Psalm 51:14). Christ washed us from our sins by bearing our sins as His own, by standing before God with them, by compensating God’s justice for them, by receiving us and forgiving us to the glory of God (Romans 15:7; Ephesians 4:32; 5:2). Christ makes us clean by removing any basis for every claim of any guilt on us in God’s own holy eye of truth and righteousness and justice. Christ makes us clean by removing every charge for God’s justice to condemn us. Christ makes us clean by taking away every reason why God would punish us for our rebellion and our failure to fulfill His holy law. Christ makes us clean by making us holy and without blame in the presence of God in all of His glory, and to His exceeding joy, in Himself, in love (Ephesians 1:4; Jude 1:24; Luke 15:18-24).

Trust & Treasure Christ Only

11/11/2020

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:4-6).

“Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly” (Proverbs 3:34).

The grace of God that brings salvation is THE treasure we must have and seek above all else. Our natural selves, our corrupt nature, is void of faith and therefore sees and seeks only what is in this world. We find a natural inclination towards the world’s pleasures, praise and possessions. We naturally view life by what our physical sense can know and our physical sight can see. But the grace that God gives brings another sight that sees what God sees and expects what God has promised. “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:6-8). And again, "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith" (Galatians 5:5).

The world and all that is in it is passing away (1 John 2:17). Scripture says we are fools if we put our trust in a man or in men (Proverbs 28:26). If we trust men and forsake the LORD, we are cursed (Jer. 17:5).

Thus, in our experience we find it to be true that "the spirit in us lusteth to envy." And therefore, we are so indebted and thankful that our God and Savior does not leave us to ourselves! He promises, "But He giveth more grace!"

God-given faith in Christ teaches us that the least grace of salvation is worth more than all that the world can give. To know I am a great sinner and nothing at all, and to know that in spite of all my failures, Jesus Christ is my all in all; so knowing with God-given persuasion, I seek to be found in Christ, with nothing but Christ before God, and with no other confidence or hope but Christ. I am persuaded that to know Christ in His saving grace, and to love Him, is worth more than worlds to realize!

To believe Christ as my all, and so come to God by Him at all times (John 14:6), is grace in the soul (John 6:37-45). It is to know God in His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is to possess eternal life (John 3:36; 1 John 5:11-13).

The smallest faith in Christ, the least spark of hope in Christ and the smallest true love to Christ, is the gift of God’s inestimable grace. God-given faith produces peace and joy and comfort in believing that Christ is my all in life and death and for all eternity (Romans 15:13). This is an inestimable treasure, which to have is to have all things, and which to be without, is to have nothing (Matt. 6:19-21; 13:44; Mark 8:36).

To be favored by God, to be made acceptable in Christ the Beloved with His people (Psalm 106:4-8; Eph. 1:6), is to have all things (1 Cor. 3:21-23; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 2:9-10).

To be remembered by Christ in His saving grace (Luke 23:40-43; Psalm 79:8-9), is to have the love and grace of the Son of God, the Lord of glory, and of God our Father. To be so loved by God the Father and His only begotten Son, is to have all things for all eternity (Rev. 1:5; Rom. 8:32-39).

With this grace I am content to live in this world, having nothing else but Christ (John 6:67-69).

Having Christ as my own Savior and Lord (John 20:28), belonging to Him (John 17:2-3), is to have all things in life and death and the world and the world to come, for Christ is all, and He is Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2; 2:9-18; 6:13-20; 11:8-16, 24-27).

Rick Warta

Christ glorious in the sight of His maidservants

10/25/2020

David said to Michal, “It was the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor” (2 Sam. 6:21-23).

The word “vile” is translated several ways in the KJV. One common use is “cursed.” For example, Goliath “cursed” David by his gods. And the word “base” is most often translated “humble” or “low.”

Therefore, can we, in David, see our blessed, all-glorious Savior, who made Himself of no reputation, and yet for this, in the eyes of His Church, the “handmaidens of the servants in His kingdom,” is all-glorious for His humility and condescending stoop to take our sins, make them His own, and engage in the battle to gain His victory and ours over His enemies and ours: our sin, satan and this present evil world (Heb. 1:3; Gal. 1:4; Titus 2:14; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8; 8:1-11; Luke 1:68-75; Micah 7:18-20)? Do we see His majesty in all of this (Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12)? He is the One so loved, chosen, honored and exalted over all by our great God and Father, and by His conquest in death is made King and Lord over all things for the Church (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:12-18; John 17:19; Psalm 2:6-12; 89:27; Dan. 7:13-14; Acts 2:30-36; 1 Pet. 1:10-12; 3:22). Yet, despite Christ’s beauty in His shame and curse for our sakes, in Michal, we see the proud, self-righteous heart of that wife of flesh only. She was Saul’s daughter. She portrays Israel after flesh (John 3:6), the unbelieving thief on the cross (Luke 23:39), the unbelieving heart of natural man. By her, Christ is despised for the very act by which in the eyes of the Church He so gloriously triumphed when by Himself He purged our sins and brought the ark to Jerusalem, which is Christ and Him crucified, the basis of His reign at God’s right hand as Son of Man, and His honor in the sight of His saints before the onlooking universe (Php. 2:5-11).

How this event and Michal’s words to David makes me shudder to think, but for the grace of God, I would despise Christ in His work on the cross! Therefore I pray, “Lord, give me a heart to see and admire Christ crucified above all, as the believing thief on the cross did (Luke 23:40-43), as the Apostle Paul did (Gal. 6:14), as all of your redeemed do (Php. 3:3). And let me thus seeing, worship my Savior as Lord and King of all! Do not let my corrupt, legal nature gain the ascendancy to steer my thoughts of you into the ditch, but by your grace, with your people (Psalm 106:4-5), let me see Christ as all-glorious, triumphant, because He finished the work to save His sinful people, and reigns to save them to the uttermost. Let me see my own salvation in Him!

Consider also, in light of this, Isaiah 63:1-9, in which our Lord is foreseen trampling under foot those who trust their works, and the kingdom of satan to which they belong, all for His redeemed, those for whose sake He was afflicted in all their afflictions (Isaiah 63:9; Psalm 65:3).

Rick Warta

Two Scriptures That Explain Everything

9/12/2020

Acts 15:15-18 establishes that God’s work to save a people called by His name was set down in every detail before time began.

Ephesians 1:11 establishes that God is directed solely by His own will in all that He does. Nothing outside of Himself directs Him. His sole guide is the counsel of His own will. His counsel is the determination of His own eternal, unchanging mind.

I often hear the question raised in hymns, “What did God find in me that caused Him to love and choose and save me?” Oh dear weak child of faith! The answer is nothing! There was nothing in me, because God found reason in Himself alone. He determined all and does all for His own name’s sake, because that is who He is: “as his name is, so is he” (1 Sam. 25:25); “Thou shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21, 23). That is why God can save a sinner like me. That is why my salvation will not fail. That is why I am saved for all eternity. That is why I have hope at all. And that is why my hope is unshaken. There was nothing in us, neither good nor bad, that influenced God one way or another. Only God’s eternal will alone, uninfluenced by all that is outside of Himself, direct Him. I remember with great fondness what Spurgeon often quoted in his sermons: “What was there in us to merit esteem, or give the Creator delight? ‘Twas even so Father, we ever must sing, because it seemed good in Thy sight!”

All that God does in time, and all that He will do after time, He determined and set down before time by the immutable counsel of His own will.

Now, this solid rock of truth helps us to understand what took place before time. Is something done in time? Then God ordained it to be done before time. Is something foretold to be done after time is no more? Then God set that down too in His eternal counsel and will before time. Are only a specific people saved in heaven when time shall be no more? Then those individuals were chosen in Christ to salvation and given all things in Christ as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ before the world began (Eph. 1:3-7)! Are there only some loved for all eternity? Then God loved them as His own from everlasting ages (Jer. 31:3)? And He did so, not because of what He found in them, but because God is love (1 John 4:19); because the LORD would love His own in Christ (Deut. 7:7-8; Rom. 8:28-39). How did those people present in heaven at the end of time obtain that eternal blessing and happiness? Because, by the counsel of His own will and choice of them in Christ before time, God made them accepted in Christ His Beloved One and with all of His beloved ones. He redeemed them by the blood of His Son set up from eternity in the covenant of peace and grace as the Lamb of God (Ezek. 37:26; Rev. 5:9; 13:8)? Christ was foreordained for them before the foundation of the world to redeem them by His precious blood (Eph. 1:4-7; 1 Pet. 1:18-20). That is why He shed His blood to redeem them at the cross. And that is why they will sing when time shall be no more of Him who loved them and redeemed them by His own blood (Rev. 1:5; 5:9).

Scripture is the record of God’s eternal thoughts, His will, His truth and His purpose. Yet those thoughts and that purpose did not enter God’s mind when that scripture was given or written down at some point in time. Oh no! God’s word is true from the beginning. And everyone of His righteous judgments endure forever (Psalm 119:160). What is spoken and written in time was in God’s mind and heart and established already before time. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18). “Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11). “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Pet. 1:20).

We should not fret at slight differences in the words “from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18), “before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20) and “from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Indeed, we need not fret at all, because God always does all His thoughts (Isaiah 14:24; Psalm 33:11). And all that God does is always done according to His eternal counsel. He knows His own works from the beginning of the world. His chief work is that work of reconciliation by the redemption accomplished by the blood of His Son, which was ordained before the foundation of the world (2 Cor. 5:19-21). Therefore, “before the foundation of the world” must be all inclusive of all of God’s thoughts, decrees and will, because God is eternal (Deut. 33:27; Psalm 90:1-2; Micah 5:2), and does not change (Num. 23:19; Mal. 3:6; Heb. 1:8-12; 13:8), and does all of His will (Isaiah 14:24; 46:10; Psalm 135:6; 115:3; Eccl. 3:14).

From this we can conclude many things. Did God Anoint His Son to be the Prophet, Priest and King for the eternal salvation and blessing of His people, to save them from their sins, to act in all things as their Mediator between Himself and them in His person as God and man and by His saving work alone? Then we are certain from the explicit statements of scripture that this work and those for whom it was performed was established when God alone existed, when there was nothing outside of God, and therefore, when God was uninfluenced by all that He had not yet brought into being. Before creation and time, God laid out His specific works in eternal decrees according to His eternal, infinite, unchanging mind and will (Psalm 147:5). And this is all that God does at any time and for all eternity!

We can say much more from these two principles revealed in Acts 15:15-18, Eph. 1:11, and Psalm 90:1-2, 89, 160. Did God make a covenant of peace (Ezek. 37:26)? Is that peace between God and His people made by the blood of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:21; Rom. 5:9; Psalm 85:1-10; Heb. 7:3; Isaiah 9:6)? Is Christ the anointed one of God, the only begotten Son of the true and living God (Matt. 16:16)? Was He chosen to this office as God’s Anointed by God Himself (Heb. 5:5-6; Isaiah 42:1)? Was God’s choice of His Son to be Christ part of that covenant of peace (Psalm 89:3)? And is that covenant eternal and immutable (Heb. 6:11-20)? Then that covenant that that was revealed in scripture to Abraham was confirmed before time by God in Christ (Gal. 3:17). And in that covenant, Christ was chosen as Head of those given to Him to save to be His own and to give all covenant blessings of everlasting life and eternal glory (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8; Heb. 9:15; 2 Tim. 2:10). His people were chosen in Him (Eph. 1:4). He was ordained as God’s Anointed. All of this was done from everlasting, before time began, and established in the everlasting covenant of peace, a covenant of God’s grace to sinners, established and secured in the blood of Christ shed for them (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 13:20; Prov. 8:23; Psalm 119:160). That covenant with Christ was in Christ for His people. It was in God’s eternal mind and counsel and decree as an everlasting covenant (Ezek. 37:26; Heb. 13:20)? And as in that covenant Christ was set up from everlasting to be God’s Wisdom (Proverbs 8:14, 23), His power (1 Cor. 1:23-24), God’s righteousness (Rom. 3:21; 10:4) and as such, as Christ, was made of God our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

Did Christ love the Church and give Himself for it (Eph. 5:25)? Then He loved Her with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3; Gal. 2:20; John 13:3; Rev. 1:5). Then He gave Himself for Her from everlasting ages according to His everlasting covenant engagements and eternal transactions with His Father (Heb. 13:20; Matt. 26:28; Rev. 13:8; 1 Pet. 1:20; John 10:17-18; 17:2-3).

Did God command Christ to lay down His life for the sheep — His elect (John 10:17-18; 17:9, 20; Rev. 5:9)? Then He gave them to His Son as our Mediator, His Anointed. He gave them to Him with this command: to save them, to bring them again to Himself (Gen. 43:8-9; Heb. 7:22), and Shepherd them as His own (John 10:27-29; 17:9-10). Thus, the Son of God, the chosen of God, the Anointed of God, in love to His Father and to His people (Ex. 21:2-6), gave Himself for His Church, His Bride, in pledge to His Father in that covenant of peace before time began (Prov. 8:30-31; Hosea 12:12; Genesis 29:18-20).

Is the everlasting covenant in Christ’s blood the same as the covenant of peace by Christ’s blood (Heb. 13:20; 2 Sam. 23:5; Isaiah 55:3; Psalm 89:2-4, 28-29, 36; Dan. 4:3; Luke 1:33; 22:29)? Was Christ’s blood what God the Father required in that covenant to fulfill all that was necessary to save His people from their sins and make them holy and blameless before Him in love (Eph. 1:4; Matt. 26:28; Heb. 13:20)? And did God foreordain that Christ would shed His blood for the redemption of His people before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:18-20)?

Then we can be sure God’s covenant with Christ for His elect people, His choice of His Son to be the one Mediator, His setting Him up as Christ (Prov. 8:23) in that covenant, for that people called by His name and known to Him, and Christ’s commission to act in His anointed offices of Prophet, Priest and King, was all done in the eternal, immutable counsel of God’s own will, established to everlasting ages. That is what was done before time. That is what has been declared to be done at the cross and throughout time. And this is what shall be made known to be done when time shall be no more (Matt. 6:9-13; Eph. 2:7)! This is what Christ did (John 17:4; 19:30; 10:17-18; Php. 2:5-8; Heb. 10:5-18; Psalm 40:6-8). This is what is written in the book sealed with seven seals and that is in the hand of Him who sits on the throne, which only Christ is worthy to take from His hand, open, reveal, and accomplish that will.

What did God determine before time? Everything that He would ever do since time began (Acts 15:18) Why does God do what He does? One reason only: His own sovereign will (Eph. 1:11). Who are they whom God will approve of in all of His holiness on the last day? It will be all He determined to approve by the blood of His Son, all He therefore approved before time by His eternal decrees to be fulfilled by Christ’s justifying righteousness of His own life sacrificed in obedience. And not one of all of those chosen in Christ as His own shall be disapproved or ashamed or be found missing from that great company on Christ’s right hand to whom He shall then say, “ Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34)!

If this is not so, then God is not God. If any speak against these things, then they belittle God and His Christ (Gal. 2:21). Let us have grace, therefore, to bow in worship and in worship give ourselves into the hands of Him whose will and work cannot fail, knowing that we are His workmanship, and that He has already done all His works in us as He set down in covenant and sealed with Christ’s own blood that cannot be shed in vain (Isaiah 26:12; Psalm 57:2; Php. 1:6, 12; Heb. 13:20-21)!

Rick Warta

The difference between a legalist and a believer

5/9/2020

A legalist looks to something in himself for reasons for confidence and assurance of salvation. A believer looks only to Christ for all. That’s the difference between a legalist and a believer. To all who look to something in themselves for confidence, hope or assurance before God, there will be eternal disappointment, shame and woe (Matt. 7:21-23)! But to all who look to Christ alone, though in themselves they are great sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), there will be no cause for shame, not the slightest reason for disappointment and eternal and exceeding joy with Christ in the presence of God (Jude 1:24). “For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (Rom. 10:11).

We are all prone in our old nature to think like legalists. When I think like a legalist, I look for something in myself. I look for something in myself to give me confidence, to give me assurance, to give me hope, to quiet my conscience, to substantiate my confession. But when I believe the Gospel, I look for everything in Christ. And I look no further (John 15; 2 John 1:9). When the Lord upholds the faith that He gives to me (Luke 22:32), I find nothing in myself but cause for fear and worry. Yes, I meant to put it that way. Let me say it again. When I believe Christ, I find nothing in myself but cause for fear and worry! But that faith that He gives does not stop there. By that same God-given faith by which I find nothing in myself but cause for guilt and shame and fear, I also find all in Christ that God requires of me, and has provided for me, and so I find all I need in His precious blood for a pure conscience, full assurance, confidence, rest, hope, and love (2 Cor. 5:14; 1 John 4:16-19; Rev. 1:5; 5:9-13). By God-given faith in Christ and His redeeming work, I see my all for all eternity, and will live in the presence of God in Christ with peace and joy. In Christ I find all I need in defense of my accusing conscience, in defense of satan’s accusations (Micah 7:7-9; Rev. 12:10-11), as a shield against every doubt and distress and failure and helplessness. I find certain hope for deliverance from all my sins (Psalm 65:3; Micah 7:18-19). In Christ alone, I find victory over my sin nature (Rom. 7:24-25; 5:9-10, 19-21; 6:14, 17; 8:37; 1 Cor. 15:54-57; Isaiah 54:17; Eph. 6:10-18)!

No man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 12:3; 1 John 5:1; Matt. 16:13-16). The evidence of saving grace in the heart is faith in Jesus as the Christ, the eternal Son of God, the only Savior of ungodly sinners (Acts 4:12). Such faith is uniquely and wholly God’s work (1 John 5:1, 5; John 6:29; Eph. 2:4-10). It is the gift of God’s grace (Acts 18:27; Eph. 2:8-10).

True faith is not concerned with me. Saving faith does not seek or find cause for confidence by what I have done or in what I am. Saving faith does not fear when all evidence in myself is lost, because saving faith looks away from my sin infected, curse-bitten self to Christ (Num. 21:4-9; John 3:14-15). Saving faith looks to Christ walking on the water, having endured the judgment of God that I deserved, and walking in every place my foot would slip (Matt. 14:25-30; Psalm 94:17-18; Hosea 13:14). He has overcome all. Nothing can overcome me in Him. Not sin, not life, not death, not things present, not things to come, not the grave, not this world, not the temptations of satan, not the weakness of my faith, not the weakness of my repentance, for my Savior’s footsteps have gone in all of these, and none of these could hold Him or prevent Him from giving me every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. He overcame all and emerged from all as Captain and conqueror. I am therefore more than a conqueror through Him that loved me and gave Himself for me (Rom. 8:37; Heb. 7:25; 13:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:54-57; Rom. 7:24-25; Rev. 12:10-11).

Saving faith is not concerned with what I am. It does not look for confidence in my sense of my own personal election. It does not look for confidence in my sense that Jesus died for me. Saving faith is concerned with only Christ. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God” (1 John 5:1). Saving faith is concerned only with who He is, in His offices as the Christ of God, what He finished and obtained for the eternal salvation of His people, where He is now, what He is doing to fulfill His eternal purpose to bring chosen, redeemed sinners to Himself by Himself. Saving faith does not ask, “How can I know if I am a Christian?” But faith takes God’s word that tells of Christ’s eternal Suretyship engagements, and brings His own letter in my hand of faith and presents it in prayer as my only coming, my only answer, my only defense and the expectation of my full acceptance in the presence of God with exceeding joy (Philemon 1:12, 17-18; Rom. 8:34; Gen. 43:8-9; 44:18-34; Jude 1:24-25). It's not about me at all; it's about what God thinks of Him. Here my faith rests!

If Christ’s one offering of Himself is not enough to make me holy and perfect before God, then nothing will, and I have no hope, for there is none but Christ appointed and anointed by God to save His people from their sins, and who is now accepted in full justification (Matt. 1:21; Heb. 5:1-2; Lev. 16:22, 30; Heb. 1:1-3; 10:10, 14; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 10:4; Jer. 23:5-6; Psalm 71:16; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rom. 4:25; Rom. 8:34).

Is it too much to expect of Christ that He alone is worthy, that He is able, that He can save the sinfulest, and so, even I may venture my eternal soul in glad and peaceful rest upon Him (Rev. 5)? I have no other hope but Him and His representative life and substitutionary death by the eternal will of God (Isaiah 54:17; 45:24-25; 1 John 2:1-2)!

Though in unbelief I often want to find something in myself, yet through it all, by God’s grace, I am brought to know that there is no other acceptance with God for me but acceptance that He has made in Christ and Him crucified, the Beloved of God in whom all of His beloved ones are accepted (Eph. 1:6; Heb. 10:14). This is why He is exalted as Lord of all, because He accomplished that work!

Therefore, I am assured that this persuasion -- that He is all-sufficient, that He has obtained eternal redemption for His people, that He has perfected them forever by His one offering, that He is therefore enough for God -- this persuasion concerning Him as my only hope, doesn't come from me (Eph. 2:8), but from God (Acts 3:26; 5:31; 26:18). And when I find this persuasion waning, I am again brought out of my idolatry from that wilderness of my own way to learn again and lean again on Christ as my all, to learn that any thought that He is less than all in my salvation means He is nothing in my salvation (Hosea 2:5-17; 14:4; Gal. 2:21).

Christ is not only my all before God, but He is all to God for all of His people. God exalted Him alone, and He alone is worthy of all honor, majesty, blessing, power, glory and praise (Rev. 5:9-13).

Oh, how I want to look to, believe upon, trust in, hope for and love Christ alone with pure, God-given faith! And yet, in this world, I know I shall always be in need and prayer and pursuit of help for my unbelief (Mark 9:24), and an increase of faith (Luke 17:5). Therefore, I am made to cry again and again, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?!” And yet in all of this distress of soul, I rejoice with this assurance, “I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25). With the backsliding Church I pray, “Turn us again, LORD God of hosts...Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man (Matt. 18:11; John 3:13; 6:62; 12:23-32) whom thou madest strong for thyself. So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.” (Psalm 80:17-19). In this unceasing struggle, I am instructed again that I must now and forever be found of God in Christ alone (Gen. 6:18; Ex. 12:13; Heb. 3:6, 14). I am made to cry, Oh, that I might “be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of my works [under a principle] of law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Php. 3:9). If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son(!), how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life (Rom. 5:10)! And so, I am ever brought back to lean on Christ alone (Col. 2:6-10). May the Lord be pleased to bring us and keep us here. “There is power in the blood!”

Rick Warta

A Eulogy for Don Fortner (1950-2020)

5/2/2020

Don and Shelby Fortner are dear to my wife and to me, and to all the saints in Marysville for their faithful labor in the Gospel of Christ. My wife and I met Don and Shelby 25 years ago. They came to our lunch table where we were sitting by ourselves in the back corner of the dining hall at the Mission Springs conference center in California.

Don had the heart of a lion for the truth of Christ, yet he was as gentle as a dove to poor and needy sinners.

He was a pastor of pastors, a leader among leaders, a man among men, because he loved to serve in the Gospel those who could never repay him.

He was loved by those who love Christ, and hated by those who love their works.

He was charged with antinomianism, yet he was the hardest working, faithful servant of Christ I have ever known.

Like John the Baptist, Don laid the axe to the root of those who trust their own works, as the Prodigal’s elder brother labored as a servant for a reward.

Ordinary people of no reputation loved Don. Theologians of high reputation refused to learn from him.

His large voice echoes still in my memory. It speaks of God’s sovereign grace for the salvation and comfort of sin-laden sinners, against the cries and opposition of proud-hearted, will-worshipping legalists.

I cherish his superlative writing skill, his keen observations, his organization and his ability in a single pass, to capture the greatest Gospel truths in commentary and in lyrics with poetic meter.

I remember and admire the grace given to him in his tireless love for Christ, his love for Christ's Gospel and his love for Christ's people.

He was a gift from Christ on His exalted throne to His blood-bought Church (Eph. 4:7-16).

I remember his ability to tenderly woo trembling sinners to trust Christ, and his fearless warning to all who would not trust only Christ.

Don preached as if I was always lost, warning of judgment to come; and he preached as if I was just saved, squeezing out Gospel milk for newborn babes.

Don said so many things I will remember. He said so many more things I wish I could remember.

Don was like the cherubim, who continuously look in satisfaction to the blood sprinkled on the mercyseat in the presence of God, in admiration and worship of the Lamb of God who sprinkled His blood there for helpless sinners.

Don saw Christ as God's mercyseat. He saw Christ as the propitiation to God for our sins (Rom. 3:25). He worshipped God in thankful admiration at the atonement He made for the transgressions of His elect people in the blood of His only begotten Son, when our sins were taken from us, laid on Him, and made Christ’s own (Isa. 53; 2 Cor. 5:21).

And Don was like the cherubim who guarded the way to the Tree of Life, lest any sinner attempt to approach God without the blood of God's dear Son, without a sin-atoning Mediator, without an Advocate and without an Intercessor.

Don was my teacher, my preacher and my pastor. I am honored to call him my dear friend.

Soon, we will join him in the bosom of our Savior, and there, we shall together lean upon His breast. There we will forever worship Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.

Then we shall be satisfied in eternal, joyful delights, which can only be seen now through a veil, but then, with Don, we shall see Christ face to face, without sin, dressed in the beauty of Christ’s own righteousness (Isaiah 45:24-25; 54:17).

May our great God and Savior grant grace to Don’s beloved wife Shelby and the saints in the congregation where Don served for 40 years, who have been so much used by God in the ministry of the Gospel. May Christ grant all of us grace to know Christ, and be found in Him, dressed in His righteousness who reigns on heaven's throne, where Don now praises Him in unspotted, unfettered, unending praise.

Rick Warta

Christ known in the Gospel

4/25/2020

“But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).

By the “name” of the LORD is not meant any particular name of His that He records in scripture. But it is God's way of speaking of His own self, of His person in all of His perfections: His nature and character. This is brought out in 1 Sam. 25:25: "as is his name, so is he." The name of the LORD is what we may know of Him. “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right” (Prov. 20:11). And how does God make His name know to us? How does He make Himself known to us in all of His perfections? How does He make known the holiness of His love, wisdom, truth, power, justice, mercy and grace? How does He make His glory known? It is in His Son (Heb. 1:3)! “No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:14-18). “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus Christ in His person and work as Son of God and Mediator, is the truth of how God can be just and justify the ungodly in the most resplendent revelation of His truth and grace, of His justice and righteousness! The glory of God is seen in the truth of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:3; John 12:27-33; 17:1-5)! To know God, we must know Him in Jesus Christ. And how do we know the Lord Jesus Christ? It is only through the Gospel of His grace. The Gospel tells of His person as Son of God: of the eternal, uncreated Creator and absolute sovereign Lord God of heaven and earth. The Gospel reveals His office and nature as Son of Man: the One Mediator between God and men: the cheerful humility of His descent from heaven to save His people from their sins, and of His voluntary humiliation in His sufferings, and the glory of His person as both Son of God and Son of Man in His exaltation to heaven's throne because as the Lamb of God, He redeemed us from our sins by His own blood (Heb. 1:3; Jer. 17:12; Rev. 1:5; 5:9). Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the exact image of His Father, is made known in the Gospel (2 Cor. 4:6). And how do we know the One Mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5; 3:16)? It is only through the sovereign work of the Spirit of God, by the revelation of Christ's person and His saving work in the Gospel of His grace to sinners (John 3:3-15)! The LORD JESUS sent Paul to make Himself known to His people by His Gospel! And the declaration of the Gospel of Christ, is the declaration of our great God and Savior, the revelation of His person in His perfections by His saving work for sinners to the glory of God!

Thus we see Jesus in Acts 9:15, sitting as Lord and Mediator on His exalted throne, telling Ananias that He chose Paul to bear His name, that is, to preach His Gospel to Gentiles, to kings and to the children of Israel:— to make known His glories to His Church, God’s elect from among Jews and Gentiles, kings and beggars, wherever they be found in all the world (John 10:16).

“Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:13-15).

"They that know Thy name shall put their trust in Thee" (Psalm 9:10).

Rick Warta

"Of thine own have we given thee" (1 Chr. 29:14)

3/14/2020

“...All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee...” (1 Chr. 29:14).

Hannah was unable to bear children; she was barren (1 Sam. 1:2, 5-6). She asked the LORD for a son. She promised to lend him back to the LORD as long as he lived (1 Samuel 1:28; Exodus 13:2; Nehemiah 10:36). The LORD granted her request. Hannah called his name, “Samuel,” for she said, “I have asked him of the LORD” (1 Sam. 1:20). Hence, “Samuel” means “asked of the LORD.”

There was another man whose name meant “asked.” It was king “Saul.” The difference between Samuel and king Saul is that Hannah asked the LORD for Samuel, that she might give her firstborn to the LORD all the days of his life. But things were much different with king Saul. The people asked for Saul because they rejected God. They rejected His word and rejected His rule (1 Samuel 10). The people rejected the LORD and Samuel His prophet. Their request arose from their sinful hearts. They wanted a king like all the nations around them. They wanted a man, not the LORD, to rule over them! (Let us not make the same mistake when we go to the polling booth!)

The LORD told Samuel: “Hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them” (1 Sam. 8:9). The LORD told Samuel to give the people what they wanted. But He told Samuel to solemnly protest against the people for their sinful request. Samuel protested. The people insisted. And true to His word and purpose, the LORD granted the people the king they wanted.

There is a big lesson here. The LORD granted two different kinds of requests: one arising from God's operations of grace in the heart of His afflicted daughter, \according to His revealed will; the other arising from the ungodly, sinful desire of unbelieving sinners. Hannah's request was good. She asked the LORD to remember her, to look on her affliction, and to give to her that she might have to give back to the LORD from what was His own, what He gives out of His goodness. The people's request was sinful. The people did not trust the LORD. They trusted men (Jer. 17:5). They wanted a king -- not after God's heart -- but like themselves. God granted both requests. God’s prophet protested against the people in warning them what their sinful request would bring. But they rejected the words of the prophet. And God — as He told Samuel He would — gave them what they wanted!

God will give us what we truly want. We will not want what God wants unless He makes His desire our desire. Unless and until the LORD puts His desire — what He wants — in our hearts, we will ask out of our flesh, for ourselves, to promote ourselves, to consume our requests upon our own lusts, to trust anything other than the LORD the Giver, who gives us all things in Christ and for Christ’s sake alone. The difference in these two requests and God's answer to each case makes me cry out to the LORD. I want Him to do His will. I do not trust my own desires. I want Him to give me His desires, His will, what pleases Him. And what is that? It is that He would save me to the uttermost, that He would not leave me to my sin and my sinful desires under the condemnation I deserve!

Hannah’s request was the result of God’s operations in her heart. We can only ask the LORD’s will if He prepares our heart to do so. When He does, it will be to bring about His good will, according to His eternal purpose, for our eternal good, to conform us to His Son, and all for His glory (Rom. 8:28-29).

“LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear” (Psalm 10:7).

Thus, every account recorded in scripture of a sinner pleading with a God-given eye to Christ crucified, pleading that the LORD would save them and give them mercy in Christ; every time such an account is given, it shows the LORD’s work to prepare the heart of His people to cry to Him out of their affliction, out of their desperate need, out of their helplessness, when they are stranded by God's mercy on the Rock Christ to trust Christ only. The LORD works in His people to draw them to ask Him to remember them for Christ’s sake alone, and deliver them from their sins with an eternal salvation.

Think of Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). Think of the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43). Think of king David (Psalm 51). Think of the Publican (Luke 18:13). Think of all those who were afflicted by God's grace to turn them from their sin to Himself in Christ (Psalm 107:17-21; Psalm 90:3; Psalm 80; Jer. 31:18-19; Acts 5:31; 2 Tim. 2:25; Matt. 9:11-13; Psalm 50:15; Rom. 10:9-13). When the LORD works in us to accomplish His will, He will make His desire our desire and make His word our heart's prayer to ask according to His will.

“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).

“Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips” (Hosea 14:1-2).

Jesus said, “And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).

Thus, our desire to see and believe Christ is a desire God must plant, maintain and increase. May we therefore have grace to ask our sovereign God to give us Christ and glorify Himself in our eternal salvation! May the LORD put it in our heart to come to Him, trusting the blood and righteousness of Jesus at all times, asking Him to give us the desire of His will, promised in His word, that will which we need most, to see and believe Christ, to be given by grace what will glorify Him, that we might have to return to Him out of His goodness to us with thanksgiving, in faithfulness, as Hannah did (1 Sam. 1:27-28)! The Lord teaches us that we must go to Him to ask of Him all that He asks of us. Jesus taught this lesson in His words to the woman at the well of Samaria, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water" (John 4:10)!

Jesus Christ is God’s gift to His elect (2 Cor. 9:15; John 4:10). The LORD grants us faith in Christ that we might worship Him and return to Him His goodness to us. Do you want the LORD to save you? Do you want to be delivered from your wretched man? Do you want a heart that beats with His? Do you want Him to give you to desire His will? Do you want Him to give His word to you that you may have warrant and words to ask? Oh, dearly beloved, let us ask Him!

“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good [thing]” (Psalm 34:10).

“Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”( James 1:17).

Rick Warta