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“Blessed is that nation whose God is the LORD”

1/31/2017

Jesus Christ is the LORD, Jehovah(1). That blessed nation whose God is the Lord Jesus Christ, is the congregation of His saints, His sheep, those who believe Him, the Church of God(2). “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Pet. 2:9). “A peculiar people” means we are God’s inheritance, a people of His own special possession(3). Not only have we been given an inheritance in Christ(4), but we have been chosen to that inheritance before the foundation of the world(5). Christ is our inheritance(6), and we are His(7). The nation whose God is the Lord Jesus Christ is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him(8). The country we live in is a nation on earth. But it is not the nation whose God is the Lord. This nation’s God is not the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is King of kings and Lord of lords. He turns the king’s heart wherever it pleases Him(9). Let us therefore pray to our great God and Savior, “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up forever” (Ps. 28:9; John 6:39).

(1) Isa. 12:1-3; Matt. 1:21,23; Heb. 1:8; Php. 2:6-11; Col. 2:9
(2) John 10:27-29; John 17:2,6,9,11,24; Heb. 12:22-24
(3) Ex. 19:5-6
(4) Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:10
(5) 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:4,11 - obtained as by lot, by sovereign appointment
(6) Psa. 16:4; Eph. 1:3,11; Col. 2:10
(7) John 6:37; 10:27-29; 17:23; Deut. 32:9; Song 2:16; 6:3; Col. 1:16-18
(8) Eph. 1:3; 1 Cor. 3:21-23; Rom. 4:13; Heb. 11:10
(9) Prov. 21:1

Rick Warta

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Strength against sin

1/20/2017

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In 2 Chr. 17:12-19 there is a catalog of the mighty men who served king Jehoshaphat. They are called “men of war,” and “mighty men of valor” (2 Chr. 17:13). One of the captains of thousands is singled out from the rest as “Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the LORD” (2 Chr. 17:16). Each captain of thousands was over a large number of men. For example, of Amasiah, it is said, “with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valor” (v16). If we add up the number of the men of war given in this catalog, we see that Judah had a huge army! Jehoshaphat’s army consisted of 1,160,000 mighty men of war, men of valor. His army exceeded a million men! Such a huge number! And these are were men of war, men of valor!

A few observations can be quickly drawn:

Amasiah willingly offered himself unto the LORD. These captains were men who gave themselves -- not for personal fame and fortune, but to the LORD. No wonder they were men of valor!
Such an army must have been formidable. In v10 it says, “the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat” (2 Chr. 17:10). The army of the LORD is invincible against its enemies, because the LORD fights for Israel (Joshua 10:14,42).
These men served the LORD and their king, Jehoshaphat, and so served Judah, the LORD’s people.

From these, we can see corresponding Gospel truths:

Christ is our Captain (Heb. 2:10). There is but one Captain in the Lord’s army! It is Christ! It pleased God to make Him a perfect Captain through sufferings. He offered Himself willingly to the LORD (Isa. 53:12)! He won the victory over our enemies (Col. 2:14-15; Heb. 1:3; Ps. 45:3-6). Because He is mighty to save, because He defeated every enemy, God the Father divided to Him the spoil of the enemy (Isa. 53:12). He brought the Lord’s captives back from their captivity, the elect sons of God, who were held by their sin (Gal. 3:22; Matt. 1:21; Rom. 11:27), their unbelief (Rom. 11:27), satan (2 Tim. 2:26; Eph. 2:3; Acts 26:18), the condemnation of God’s law (Gal. 3:13; Rom. 8:1-4; Eph. 2:3), bondage to God’s law (Gal. 4:4-6; Rom. 8:1-4; Gal. 2:21; 3:21), the fear of death (Heb. 2:14).
We have no power against our sin. These men were men of war and men of valor. Yet, there is no man saved by the strength of a man or by an entire army of mighty men of valor (1 Sam. 2:9)! There is not one sin over which we, in ourselves, have any power! The entire million-strong, mighty men of war and valor in Jehoshaphat's army could not deliver any of God's elect from even on sin! God required His Son to die to put away every sin, to put away all sins. He left no sin for us, because we could not put away one sin! Against our sins and unbelief, we have no power apart from the redemption that is in Christ (Rom. 5:6). Before God and in our conscience, our sins are unconquerable and invincible. Only our Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, has power to put away our sins, to redeem us from the hand of all that hate us (Luke 1:68-79; Micah 7:18-20; Ps. 65:3)! How great must the power of sin over us be that none but Christ could defeat and subdue it! How evil must our sin be that God required His own Son to die in our nature to satisfy for it (Isa. 53:11), to subdue it (Micah 7:18-19), to deliver us from it (Ps. 49:7-8; Rom. 6:14; Psa. 119:34-37) “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me” (Ps. 119:133).
When we serve Christ, we serve the God of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). Jesus said, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1). When we see Christ, we see God (Matt. 11:25-27; John 1:17-18). When we know Christ, we know God (John 14:6-9). When we believe Christ, we believe God (Acts 3:16; 20:21; John 5:24-25). When we serve Christ, we serve God. Over a million mighty men of valor served the LORD and king Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat was honored to have it so. Yet it is every believer who receives honor by serving our great Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ!

The entire emphasis of the Gospel is to fix the eyes of our faith on Christ to see that He is almighty against our greatest enemies. If our enemies seem only little to us, we will not flee to Christ. If our sins are small and few, we will not need to trust Him who is almighty to deliver us. If our enemies are not horribly great and invincibly strong over us, we will not run to Christ and hide in Him who alone is our refuge and salvation (Ps. 62:1-ff)! Christ is the great Savior of great sinners (Ps. 25:11)! Because He is, there is no excuse for doubting! Our sin is great. He is greater than our sins. God gives us all things by grace alone in Him and because of Him. God’s own word commands us to look to Him, come to Him, believe Him, call upon Him, flee to Him for refuge, rest in Him and find our all in Him alone (Col. 2:9-10)! Lack of assurance is therefore directly proportional to our pride and self-righteousness, because we subconsciously think that if our sin seems under control to us, if we appear to make progress, if we can get sin under control or put it away by our reform or repentance or tears, then we allow ourselves to have confidence in Christ! But this is opposed to true faith and Gospel assurance! Assurance towards God is assurance in Christ alone (Heb. 10:14-23)! If we need more to give us assurance before God than Christ as our Captain, than His victory over sin and the curse and requirements of God’s law and death and satan and the world and our own flesh, then we woefully underestimate both the evil and strength of sin in our nature, and horribly misunderstand the strength and accomplishments of our Savior-Captain-Redeemer (Luke 1:68-79)! May God enable us to see our enemy as ferocious, yet more importantly, to see Christ as gloriously almighty and triumphant over every enemy!

Rick Warta

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Rewards

1/9/2017

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“Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore” (Matt. 19:27)?

Peter and the other disciples heard Jesus tell the rich, young ruler, “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matt. 19:21). Hard words for a rich man! Peter and the others had forsaken all and followed Jesus. If the rich, young ruler would have treasure in heaven, Peter wanted to know what he and the others should have. I would have thought the same thing, though I would not have so honestly expressed my thoughts. But our Lord continues, “28 Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life” (Matt. 19:28-29). What Jesus recognized in His reply was that the disciples had followed Him. Like the poor widow who cast two mites into the treasury, and in so doing cast in all her living, the disciples had very little to give on an absolute scale by comparison to the rich, young ruler. But they had this gift of God’s grace: they could not live without Christ! That is why they followed Him (John 6:68-69).

Remember when Jesus washed the disciple’s feet? Peter at first recoiled in refusal. But when Jesus said, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me” (John 13:8), Peter immediately reversed his reluctance in earnest appeal to Christ, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head” (John 13:9)! Christ had given the eleven what He gives to every believer: “take all that I have but give me Christ!” With Peter, every believer freely cries out, "Lord, if I have no part with you except you wash my feet, then wash me all over!" The disciples truly followed Jesus. What does it mean to follow Him? It means that by faith we look to Him for all things, and submit to Him as poor, needy, helpless sinners who find no comfort, no peace, no joy, no righteousness, no life, but what we find in Him! Disciples -- believing sinners -- cannot do without Christ. That is the work of grace that produces in them a reciprocating "work of faith and labor of love" (1 Thess. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:15; Gal. 5:6).

By His “verily, verily I say unto you,” Jesus solemnly affirmed that everyone, who for His sake forsakes all of the possessions and relations listed in v29, would receive an hundredfold in this life (Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30), and in the world to come, everlasting life. This is the amazing grace of God! The Lord requires of us what we cannot give. Then He gives us grace to receive what only He could do. And when we, by God-given grace, are enabled to lay hold on all that Christ is and has done in His redeeming work as our Mediator, forsaking all that is ours, then He rewards us for the grace that He gives! "With men this is impossible; but with God, all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26)!

It was impossible for the rich, young ruler to forsake his possessions and follow Christ. But to enter the kingdom of heaven, as one preacher put it, we must be stripped, utterly naked! Jesus made it clear, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26). Christ accomplished our salvation by His life and death. We are saved by His obedience in all things, culminating in His offering Himself to God for His people (Matt. 5:17; 20:28; John 10:15,17-18; 17:4; 19:30; Rom. 5:19; Php. 2:5-8). This work of Christ for us saved all of His people from all of their sins and justified them before God, without any contribution from us, having accomplished all entirely outside of, and apart from, our own personal experience (Rom. 3:24). But the application of this accomplished work for us requires something else that is impossible to us: it requires bringing us down, humbling us, revealing something to us of our poverty of spirit (Matt. 5:3; Ps. 34:18). And that work in us causes us to cry out of the blindness (Matt. 20:30-31) and captivity (Matt. 17:15; Ps. 64:3; Luke 1:71; Eph. 4:8) and shame and filth (Ps. 51) of our sin to the Lord Jesus Christ to save us for His name’s sake alone. There is no other reason than the perfections of His nature that can be found to move Him to do so! Only then can we see that our salvation must be entirely worked out by Christ alone!

Now, the realization of this, the persuasion of it in our souls, is grace in this life, which is worth worlds to realize! As Peter could not bear the thought of having no part with Christ, as he, like Paul, “counted all things loss” and “but dung” to win Christ (Php. 3:7-9), so every believer will say from the low bottom of his heart, “I would trade all the wealth of this world and repudiate the esteem of all men in it for grace from God to know in my soul that Christ is my all, and enjoy the joy and peace in believing, Him” (Rom. 15:13)! The cry of God-given faith is: “Take the world, but give me Jesus!” This is following Christ. And that is what Jesus took note of in His reply.

It is clear, then, that in this life the believer’s treasure is Christ dwelling in me by faith (Col. 1:27). Paul prayed this blessing on all who would believe on Christ through the Gospel He preached. “16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19). The reward of Christ, therefore, can only be a reward of His grace! He calls us to follow Him. He inclines us with irresistible grace to do so. He rewards that grace which He gives with grace to know Him and possess peace and joy in believing (Isa. 26:1-3). Christ thus dwells in our hearts by faith! And in this, we are filled with all the fulness of God! God is our God! We are His people (Heb. 8:11)! “My beloved is mine, and I am His” (Song 2:16; 6:3). “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance” (Ps. 16:5). “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee” (Ps. 73:25)! “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15:1).

And yet there is a reward to come! That reward is called “eternal inheritance” (Heb. 9:15), “eternal life” (1 John 2:25), and “eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10). And we know that “this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). Now, if Christ is our inheritance; if this is eternal life; if God gives every believer all things with His dear Son (Rom. 8:32); then we know assuredly that every reward, whether in this life or in the next, is a reward of our inheritance in Christ, a reward of pure grace (Eph. 1:11)! What?! Can we ever think to first give to God that it may be given to us in return (Rom. 11:35-36)?! Perish the thought!! What one thing of all that God, by His grace, gives, can we ever think to earn by something we do or contribute or in which we participate?! Repentance? Forgiveness of sins? These are the gift of our reigning Savior (Acts 5:31)! Righteousness? This is the gift of God’s grace (Rom. 5:17)! Faith? This too is the gift of His grace and cannot originate in us (Eph. 2:8)! Eternal life? It is the gift of God (Rom. 6:23)! Would we dare say that our adoption as sons of God is somehow owing to our will or our work (John 1:12-13; 1 John 5:1; Eph. 1:4-6)?! Back, back, O foul thought and wicked heart to suggest such a thing! Or, could any think to merit the gift of the indwelling Spirit of God Himself!? O, how sinfully lifted up these proud hearts of ours can be! And what of the gift of God’s own dear Son, given up to filth and shame and cursing and death under the wrath of God?! No! We could never earn one thing from God. On the contrary! We owe an eternal, infinite debt, and yet we have “nothing to pay” (Luke 7:42)! Any thought, therefore, of earning rewards must be crushed as the vile offspring of the serpent! Only a covetous, envious, proud, idolatrous heart would imagine a relative greatness for himself in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 20:26-28)! Gracious Father, save us from this evil propensity to think that our thoughts or words or labor should earn us anything from you! May we rather be forgiven of the wickedness of our heart for ever thinking we should receive anything but what you have graciously and freely given in our Lord and Savior, your only begotten Son, in whom alone you are well pleased (Matt. 17:5)!

Rick Warta

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I Come To Do Thy Will O God (Heb. 10:7)

1/7/2017

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“5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:5-7).

“When He cometh into the world…” Jesus spoke these words when He came into the world, at His conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. Christ was born of a woman according to OT prophecy (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14; Gal. 4:4-5). But He did not begin to be at conception or at birth. The prophet Micah said that the One born in Bethlehem would be eternal God: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

Why did the eternal, immutable, all-wise, almighty, omnipresent God come into the world as a baby in the womb of a virgin?! Solomon exclaimed in prophetic amazement, “Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built” (2 Chr. 6:18)! The Creator of all forever took into union with Himself the nature of a man by conception of the Spirit of God in the womb of the virgin Mary! He humbled Himself (Php. 2:5-8)! He made Himself of no reputation! But why?

The answer comes in grand summary from Psalm 40:6-8. It is repeated here by fulfillment in Hebrews 10:5-7. He came to do the everlasting will of God! It was the will of God the Father. He purposed it. Before the foundation of the world, He decreed that His Son, the Lamb of God, would be slain to redeem His people from their sins (1 Pet. 1:19-20; Rev. 13:8). He commanded Him to lay down His life for those He gave to Him in eternal election. These are His sheep (John 10:15-18). And it was the will of God the Son. He said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:8). "He poured out His soul to death" (Isa. 53:12)! It was also the will of God the Holy Spirit. He told of Christ’s coming. He conceived His human nature in Mary’s womb. By the eternal Spirit, Christ offered Himself to God, thereby obtaining eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12). Thus, the Son of God became a servant in every way that a servant is a servant. He alone whose right it is to rule made obedience His rule of life. He came to do the will of God!

The next question that comes to mind is, “What was that will that He came to do?!” The answer is clear. It was to fulfill every condition God required in the everlasting covenant of His grace. All that God promised in the everlasting covenant to His people, He made to them in Christ their covenant Head (Isa. 42:6; 49:8; 2 Sam. 23:5). He committed to fulfill those promises on condition that Christ do His will. That will was to satisfy every demand of His justice and fulfill all righteousness in the place and on behalf of His people to the glory of God (John 17:1-4)! Their eternal inheritance depended on Christ doing the will of God (Heb. 9:15). This was His life’s work and His accomplishment in His death. On coming into the world, Jesus said, “I come to do thy will O my God” At age 12, Jesus told Mary and Joseph, “I must be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). He told His disciples, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work” (John 4:34). He told the Pharisees, “The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me” (John 5:36). In John 6 Jesus said, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 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 6:38-40). In John 10:17-18, Jesus said His Father’s commandment was that He lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:15,17-18). Then, in John 11:49-52, Caiphas the high priest prophesied to say that it was expedient that one man should die for the people and that the entire nation not perish. In John 12:27-32, facing the agony of the cross, Jesus asked, “What, shall I say, Father save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour!” In John 17:4 the Son of God said in prayer to His Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). And finally in John 19, “he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:28-30).

In all of these repeated references by our Lord we see that by His coming and living and doing and dying, He finished the will of God. Christ came to serve His Father as one man for all of His people in His life and in His death (Matt. 20:28). His blood put the everlasting covenant into force (Heb. 13:20; Matt. 26:28). He fulfilled every condition in His death! Every spiritual blessing is therefore now given to His people (Isa. 53:12; Eph. 1:3; Rom. 8:32; 11:27; Heb. 10:14-18). God has fulfilled His promise.

In our father Adam, we broke the covenant of works. And by our own personal disobedience, we broke God's law, the covenant of works that God gave at Sinai. Our personal suffering cannot satisfy the demands of God’s law. In our own person, we cannot meet the requirements of the law for obedience and we cannot satisfy its demands in our punishment. But thanks be to God, before the world began, He appointed His Son to be the Champion and Head and Father of His people in the everlasting covenant of grace (1 Sam. 7:8-9; Isa. 9:6; Heb. 7:10,22; Rom. 5:12-21; Heb. 9:15; 13:20)! Christ is "the everlasting Father" (Isa. 9:6) who from eternity stood and answered God for all His children (Heb. 2:13). God promised in the everlasting covenant to remember the sins and iniquities of His people no more (Heb. 10:15-17; Rom. 11:27). To fulfill this, the LORD laid the full weight of His will on His Son in our nature, both to honor His law and to satisfy His justice (Isa. 53; Isa. 12:1-3; Rom. 5:19-21; 10:4; Php. 2:5-8; Matt. 5:17). When Christ came into the world, He undertook to do this will in the body God prepared for Him. It was in this body that He fulfilled that covenant. He was made of a woman, made under the law (Gal. 4:4-5). At the last supper, He said to His disciples, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood” (Matt. 26:28). His death put the everlasting covenant into force, “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:20). His blood made satisfaction to God’s justice for the sins of His people (Heb. 9:12; Isa. 53:11). His offering perfected His people forever in justifying redemption (Heb. 9:12; 10:14). It is this blood applied by the Spirit of God in God-given faith that purges our conscience from all sin (Heb. 9:14). It is this blood that made redemption for the transgression under the first testament, the covenant of works, the law of God (Heb. 9:15). And it is by His obedience unto death that He established everlasting righteousness for His people (Rom. 10:4; Dan. 9:24).

May God give you and me the persuasion of saving faith to lay hold on Christ as our all in salvation!

Rick Warta

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“Blessed is that nation whose God is the LORD”

Strength against sin

Rewards

I Come To Do Thy Will O God (Heb. 10:7)

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