Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
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Not I, but Christ!

2/27/2017

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Bildad, one of Job’s friends, and all false prophets, though they may rightly identify God as just, do not go far enough to say that He is so just, that only Christ and Him crucified can satisfy His justice and meet His every requirement (see Job chapters 8 and 9). They will say that man is a sinner, but they will not say that he is a lost, ruined, dead, helpless and hopeless sinner apart from the sovereign electing, redeeming, regenerating, keeping and presenting work of the triune God! They always fall back on the only truth they know: man is ultimately responsible to save himself, though they rarely use those words, that is the conclusion of their doctrine!

Man can ruin himself, but he cannot save himself. If I go to hell, it will be by my own will, because of my own sin. If, on the other hand, I possess a righteousness that God Himself accepts, if I obtain eternal life, it will be entirely by God's will, by Christ’s work, and will be given to me by the almighty life-giving work of the Spirit of God!

Romans 1:18-3:20 brings every man to just condemnation and utter helplessness before God. Then, to man in that condition, God reveals the Gospel of His grace with full and perfect atonement accomplished, redemption obtained, everlasting righteousness established, acceptance and justification before the all-seeing eye of God, untainted holiness and perfection in Christ (Rom. 3:21-ff)! Oh, glorious Gospel of Christ!

When faced with the impossible prospect of undoing your sin and guilt, of making God favorable towards you, of removing His wrath, of keeping His commandments, of glorifying Him, of standing before Him in judgment, when facing these essential yet ominous things, never for a moment think that you will cooperate or contribute or influence or do or be or experience anything, now or eventually, that comes from you that God will accept! But rather, abandon all that may be called yours just as you would run from the most feared enemy, or the most deadly disease, or the greatest deception, the most feared destruction, and the most loathsome filth and greatest sorrow! Abandon all that you can do, and look only and always, with satisfaction and trust and delight, to the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did!! “It is Christ that died” (Rom. 8:34)!! “He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him” (Heb. 7:25)!! “By Himself He purged our sins” (Heb. 1:3)! He alone is all my righteousness!! (Isa. 45:24; Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor 1:30). Let this truth be the balm that heals every wound, the comfort that brightens every sorrow and lifts up every downcast look! “IT IS CHRIST THAT DIED!”
Rick Warta
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Psalm 119:49

2/18/2017

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“Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope” (Ps. 119:49).

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Do you hear the supplication of the Psalmist in this prayer? Do you find yourself joining in prayer with him in your inner man as you read it? Do you take great comfort in knowing that you are kept because the Lord remembers and is faithful to His word (Luke 23:42; Ps. 106:4-ff)? The earnest supplication of the Psalmist reveals the only sure confidence of every believer. It is the word of God. The word of God is our only confidence and hope at all times. God breathed out His word through the Psalmist as a supplication from every child of God. The Psalmist is every believer (Rom. 15:4; 2 Cor. 1:20). It was the LORD who made him hope on His word. Believers lean for life and peace and joy and comfort and all their desire on this foundation. He trusted God’s word alone. In so doing, He trusted God our Savior alone. Though enemies within and without are numberless and powerful, though his own strength is weakness, He found comfort in what the Lord had said. His word was his standing. It persuaded him that the Lord Himself was all of his trust, all of his expectation, all of his hope. Having made him to thus hope, the Psalmist now, out of soul need and desire, makes supplication to his God and Savior, asking Him to do what He had said (2 Sam. 7:25; Ezek. 36:37; Ps. 106:4-8).

​God gave His word to His people. It is a mercy that He did so! He makes them hope in Him through it. Their reciprocal response is God-given precious faith, by the Spirit of Christ, which moves them to ask the Lord to remember His own word to them. It is His word. He makes it all their hope.


What a gracious and faithful work this is! The LORD Himself gave His own unalterable, unfailing word to His people. That word is Christ alone (John 5:39; Heb. 10:7; Luke 24:25-27). He is all of our salvation (Isa. 12; Luke 2:30)! He instructs us in His word. He persuades us of the truth of it (John 3:33; Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5)! He makes His word our only trust and stay, producing in us a longing for what He determined in His eternal will. He makes His word our confident expectation. In soul distress and supplications to Him, He draws out our trust in His word, to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph. 1:6,9,11-12). He holds us up by causing us to hang on His word. He upholds us by making His word our only confidence, comfort and hope. Indeed, our great God and Savior is faithful and gracious to us!

And what is that “word on which Thou hast caused me to hope?” It is that Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Lord of glory, the Creator of all things, the worship of heaven’s host, the Upholder and Administrator of all things, has been made our sin-bearer (Heb. 1:1-8; Isa. 12:1-3; 53:4-12; Matt. 1:21; Luke 2:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24). He has taken away God’s just wrath against us (Ps. 85; 2 Cor. 5:19-21; Col. 1:21-22; Eph. 2:3-4). He made satisfaction for our sins (Ps. 85:10; Lev. 16:30; Heb. 1:3; 9:26; Isa. 53; Gal. 1:4; Titus 2:14). He fulfilled God’s righteous law for us (Isa. 42:6; 49:8; Matt. 3:15,17; 5:17; Heb. 10:5-7; John 19:30; Heb. 13:20; Matt. 26:28; Rom. 10:4). The word on which we hope is that Christ and His work is our only trust, all of our desire and all of our expectation for glory (2 Sam. 23:5; Php. 3:9-10; Rom. 8:1-4; 31-39; Col. 1:27). It is a bold thing to say so, but His own word gives us warrant. It even commands us to so lean upon Him (Isa. 45:22; Heb. 10:14-23; 1 John 3:23; Matt. 11:28; John 6:37)! He has applied His Gospel to our conscience with the hyssop of God-given faith, sprinkling us with the sin-atoning blood of His own dear Son as our atonement before God (Heb. 10:22; Rom. 5:11; Heb. 9:14; John 3:14-15; 6:63; Rom. 8:1-4; John 8:1-11; 1 John 1:7). Christ is now all of our salvation (Col. 2:9-10). We could not know or believe Him thus, had it not been revealed in His word. We could not trust Him had He not persuaded us that He saves great sinners with many and great sins (Ps. 25:11; 1 Tim. 1:15; Eph. 3:8; 1 Cor. 15:9-10; Rom. 7:13-25; Luke 7:42,47). I would never venture to trust Him had He not commanded me to do so, and persuaded me that He looks only to His Son and receives His people by what He finds in Him (Isa. 45:22; Rom. 10:4-13; John 3:14-15; 2 Cor. 5:19-21; Eph. 1:6-7; Col. 1:20-23). I could not legitimately hang the weight of my eternal soul on Christ alone had not Jesus, for His people, satisfied God for all their sins and fulfilled all of God’s law for them (Rom. 3:24-25; 4:25; 8:1-4; 1 Pet. 2:24; Col. 2:9-10; Jer. 23:5-6; Isa. 43:25-26; 45:21-25; 53:10-12; Heb. 10:14-18). That word on which our great God and Savior has caused me to hope is that He is able and will most assuredly save to the uttermost, for His name’s sake (Heb. 7:25; John 6:37-40). By His one offering, He has perfected forever all God gave to Him (Heb. 10:14; Jude 1:1). He will finish His own work (Php. 1:6; 2:12-13; Isa. 26:12). He will fulfill that perfection in me (Rom. 6:14; 8:29; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; Heb. 13:21; Jude 1:24; Eph. 5:25-27). He cannot fail (Isa. 42:4; Deut. 31:6; Heb. 13:5). Though my sin is great and my sins are many, though my understanding of spiritual things is limited to what little I know of Christ and Him crucified -- the salvation of His people to the glory of God -- yet my confidence and hope do not depend on my righteousness or my knowledge, or even the faith He has given to me, but on His word alone (1 Cor. 1:17-31; 2:2; 3:11). He has persuaded me that I am a great sinner and nothing at all, but that Jesus Christ is my all in all (Col. 2:9-10; 3:1-4,11; John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:3,6). He is my only standing. His word is as sure as He is God (Heb. 6:17-20; Ps. 138:2). His word is indistinguishable from His own Son. He is the “Word of God” (Rev. 19:13). Not one of His words can fall to the ground (1 Sam. 3:19).

I find no reason -- absolutely none -- in myself for confidence. But I find no reason to doubt -- absolutely none -- that God will keep His Word (Matt. 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33; Deut. 31:6; Isa. 46:9-11; Eph. 1:11)! The word on which He has caused me to hope reaches to this most precious promise: “He has said, ‘Not at all will I leave you, not at all will I forsake you,’ never” (Heb. 13:5, LITV)! He is very emphatic. He uses three negatives here to emphasize that He will not at all, will not forsake, will never leave His people (Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5). No! No!! No!!! He will not leave nor forsake His people! He will not fail them. This is His covenant that He made with them in Christ (Isa. 42:6; Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 1:3-7; 1 Cor. 15:22; Jer. 32:40; John 10:27-30; Matt. 28:20)!


John Gill delightfully draws out the force of these words on which we hope from his commentary on Heb. 13:5:

“He will not leave them to themselves, to their own corruptions, which would overpower them; nor to their own strength, which is but weakness; nor to their own wisdom, which is folly; nor to Satan, and his temptations, who is an over match for them; nor to the world, the frowns and flatteries of it, by which they might be drawn aside; nor will he leave them destitute of his presence; for though he sometimes hides his face, and withdraws himself, yet not wholly, nor finally; nor will he forsake the work of his own hands, in them, but will perform it until the day of Christ; he will not leave or forsake them, so as that they shall perish; he will not forsake them in life, nor at death, nor at judgment.”

God will not forget His word to His Son and to His people in Him (2 Cor. 1:20). Yet He speaks to us in the language of men, through a man, by His own Spirit, to comfort us by these words. “Remember the word on which Thou hast caused me to hope” (Ps. 119:49). It is to His glory that He causes us to thus lean on Him and supplicate to Him out of His word! He puts His word in our hearts and in our prayers. What would we have to pray were it not for His word! What would our confidence be, our hope, without His word?! Oh dearly beloved of the Lord (2 Thess. 2:13-14), pray that God would so hide His word concerning Christ in your heart, and make it your trust and desire and the supplications of your heart and your lips! When He does, He will glorify Himself in saving you for His great name’s sake, according to that word on which you trust and hope and pray (2 Sam. 7:25; Ps. 106:4-8; Ezek. 36:37; Rom. 10:17; Ezek. 20:9,14,22,44; Hosea 14:1-4,8; Ps. 80:17-19)!
Rick Warta
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Forget and leave your own; put on Christ

2/14/2017

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“Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him” (Ps. 45:10-11).

The Spirit of Christ speaks here to His beloved bride to look to Christ only. God the Father adopted and gave His children to Christ as His Bride before the foundation of the world (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 1:4-7; 5:25-ff). What love on the Father’s part! What a stoop on Christ’s part! And what a testimony from the Spirit of God to chosen sinners! She is Christ’s sister by adoption and His Bride by the espousals of His unalterable, everlasting love (Jer. 31:3; Heb. 13:8). He wanted her. So He gave Himself for her in eternal covenant engagements and at the cross (Ex. 21:2-6; Eph. 5:25; Gal. 2:20). He will have her! None will be lost (John 6:39)! And nothing given to Her before the world began will be lost (Eph. 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2).

Every believing sinner is here exhorted to incline his ear. What God says must become the whole truth about the way things are between me and God. What God thinks must become what we believe (1 Cor. 2:16). This is faith: when we receive the testimony of God by the operation of His Spirit of grace (Col. 2:12), when God sets to our seal that His testimony concerning Christ is true (John 3:33; Rom. 1:16). We must believe Christ. We must believe He has accomplished all of our salvation (Heb. 1:3; 9:12; 10:14). This is where faith starts. This is how faith lives and walks. And believing Christ crucified as all of my salvation, looking only to Him and for Him, is how faith will end in sight.

The Spirit of Christ tells every believer to forget his own people. What we are by nature is “flesh” (John 3:6). What we are by nature profits nothing (John 6:63; Php. 3:4-7). By nature, we are nothing but sin before God (Rom. 8:7). Therefore, we have no beauty in our father Adam's house to leave. When we leave all that we are, we leave the dunghill of our own righteousness. Our earth-born family cannot save us. We must be born of God (James 1:18; Titus 3:3-7; 1 Pet. 1:23). By nature we trust everything that is nothing and see no beauty in Christ. Our eyes are so blind that we cannot see the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2; John 8:12)! We must be taught of God to come to Christ (John 6:44-45). What is the lesson we are taught? “Forget thine own people and thy father’s house.” Abandon all that satisfies your flesh, especially the good things about yourself that you are striving to put in place by religious exercises, and find your all in Christ and Him crucified (Col. 2:9-10; Gal. 6:14)! Your natural man is from your father Adam. As Abraham, we must leave our "father’s house" and go to the land of eternal salvation that is in Christ alone (2 Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10)!

What will we find when we find our all in Christ? The greatest possible soul satisfaction of all! We will hear these words: “So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty!” When we are enabled by God-given faith to hate the garments we naturally hold fast, and flee for refuge and covering to Christ and His finished work, we are told that the Lord Jesus will greatly desire our beauty!?!? What? The King greatly desire thy beauty?! I am reluctant to write those words because I know there is only ugliness in me! Yet, sinners are taught by the Spirit of God to ask to be found in Christ alone! They are taught to forsake all that is their own to be found having only what they have in Christ (Php. 3:9)! As Ruth asked Boaz, “Spread thy skirt over thine handmaid” (Ruth 3:9; Ezek. 36:37; Rom. 5:17)! And when they are so enabled, they look upon what Christ looks upon for them: His righteousness! They trust Christ's righteousness alone as He accepts only His own (Ps. 71:16).

What beauty can a sinner have before God!? Only this: Christ’s own comeliness (Ezek. 16:14; Isa. 61:10; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; Php. 3:3-10)! He is altogether lovely! He has established for His people an everlasting righteousness (Dan. 9:24; Rom. 10:4)! As He looked at His work in creation to tell us the perfections of what He had done, even so and much more, in our everlasting salvation, we are told to hear His testimony. The King has provided clothing for His bride! And what a covering it is!! He has adorned her with His own comeliness! She is “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 33:16) because He is made to her “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:5-6)! “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength” (Isa. 45:24)!

We naturally shrink from taking such bold comfort to ourselves from God’s word. But that is not humility! To do less than receive God’s testimony concerning His Son is to attempt to come to God by my own contribution to the work of Christ. It is to seek or find something in myself as the ground of my confidence before God. But we are taught otherwise here! “Forget thine own people and father’s house.” Leave the rags of your righteousness that your father Adam’s nature loves and clings to, and see Christ as all in salvation, in confidence, in joy and glory (Isa. 8:13-14; Neh. 8:10; Gal. 6:14)! So shall the King desire thy beauty, for that beauty is His own beauty!
Rick Warta
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