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"I AM the resurrection and the life"

4/22/2017

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Jesus spoke these words to Martha when Lazarus had already lain in the tomb four days and she and Mary were beside themselves with grief for their brother.  Martha poured out her grief to Jesus. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died” (John 11:21). She believed God would give Jesus whatever He asked. She even knew that God would raise her brother in the resurrection at the last day (Job 19:25). But these things were small comfort to her. She grieved. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick” (Prov. 13:12). Jesus’ words to Martha, therefore, are the comfort of every believer, in life and in death.

We may think of resurrection as merely raising our bodies from the dead, returning those chemicals and particles that once made up our body to formulate a new body. Or, like Martha, we might think of the resurrection as a great moment in future history when God will raise the dead from their graves. We may fall into the trap of wrapping ourselves around the axle of end-time events and sequences and even the date for the end of the world. But Jesus’ answer to His grieving loved one was none of these. And His answer to us in our grief, of whatever kind, is no different than His answer to Martha. His answer immediately breaks through our darkness by revealing Himself as the resurrection and the life.

You may remember those times as a child when your only comfort in trouble was your mother’s arms and words. I remember when our own children were babies. If the doctor had to perform a painful procedure on them, he would always be sure to have my wife press our little baby close to her bosom and speak her tender, comforting words. I remember a time the doctor had to snip the skin under my infant son’s tongue without anesthesia. As soon as the cut was made, my wife pressed her baby son’s face into her bosom and the voice that my son loved most spoke tenderly to him. Though my son was in pain, he found comfort at his mother’s breast and by his mother's voice. It was her touch and voice alone that comforted him.

Now, these words of Jesus are that medicine to our souls (Isa. 66:13). Our comfort is found in them because with them He presses our greatest need into His own bosom. We need Him! We are dead in sins (Eph. 2:4). “I am the resurrection and the life.” Our trials overwhelm us (2 Cor. 1:9-10; 4:7-12). “I am the resurrection and the life.” The world mocks the weakness of Gospel preaching and the weakness of the preacher (2 Cor. 13:4). “I am the resurrection and the life.” The body is dead because of sin (Rom. 8:10). “I am the resurrection and the life.” We have no spiritual light  (Isa. 50:11; John 1:4; 8:12). “I am the resurrection and the life.” Faith shrinks through coldness of heart (Isa. 45:22; John 3:14-15). “I am the resurrection and the life.”  No matter what the malady, no matter how great the grief, no matter how great the enemy, no matter how hopeless our case, no matter how weak our hearts and minds and bodies, no matter how strong the sin, to every trouble of soul the words from the God of all comfort come streaming from the river that flows from His throne to point us to Christ alone (Rev. 22:1), “I am the resurrection and the life.”

We may think, “I seem so dead; I need life.” Or, “I don’t know if God will accept me because I am so sinful, so full of unbelief; I need assurance.” Or, “I am confused about so many doctrines; I need to understand the truth.” Or, “I am so ignorant; I need wisdom.” Or, “I am so sinful, in myself; I need cleansing from sin, holiness and righteousness.” To these and so many other things that we lack, the Lord Jesus answers with Himself. “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.” “Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification (holiness) and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Our lack becomes the need for which the Spirit of God gives us faith to fill ourselves from Christ, in fellowship and communion with Him in all that He is to our souls (John 6:56). Every trouble (2 Cor. 1:9), our warfare with sin (Rom. 7:24-25; Gal. 5:17), even the failure of life itself (2 Cor. 4:7-12), all serve to lift up and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ to the eyes of our God-given faith in His person, in His relations to us, and in His saving work for us. He is the brightness of God's glory (Heb. 1:3). In Him dwelleth the fulness of all that God is (Col. 2:9-10). In the Gospel, by faith, we find that all that God is, He is to us in Christ, and we are complete in Him.

The apostle Paul found this to be his own experience, as all of Christ’s people learn in their own trials. “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us” (2 Cor. 1:9-10). He delivered us from so great a death. He is now delivering us from death. And we trust Him and are confident that He will yet deliver us.

Jesus' answer to Martha revealed Himself in His person and saving work as the resurrection from death to life in Him. Death is the result of sin. Therefore, to be the resurrection and life to us, He must take our sins away. And this He did in His own person. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24). (Notice the “anaphoric” use of the successive personal pronouns in this verse. This is a grammatical tool used for emphasis. There is a triple emphasis on Christ: who, His, own self!)

With Jesus’ answer to Martha now in our heart, we change the form of our question from “What is life?” to “Who is life?” We no longer ask, “When is the end of the world,” but “Who is coming?” No longer, “When is the resurrection?” but “Who is the resurrection?” No longer with Pilate, “What is truth?” but “Who is truth?” We no longer seek to find righteousness in ourselves but look for it in our Savior alone (Ps. 68:20; Isa. 45:22). We no longer seek how we can be acceptable to God in ourselves, but cry with Paul to “be found in Him, not having my own righteousness” (Php. 3:9; Jer. 23:5-6)! “In whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily, and ye are complete in Him” (Col. 2:9-10).

Knowing that Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), that He is our Captain and Victor over sin and death, we cannot fail because our life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). “Though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof…” (Ps. 46:2-3), we will not fear. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1).

Moses, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Ps. 90:1-2). As long as God has had an elect people, we have belonged to Christ and been holy and blameless in Him (Rom. 8:33; Eph. 1:4). As long as God’s Son was His chosen One, the Lord’s Christ, He has been our Savior, King, High Priest and Prophet (Ps. 89:19). As long as He has been our Husband, we have been His Church. As long as Christ has loved His Bride, she has been one with Him. As long as He loved her, He gave Himself for her (Eph. 5:23-32; Rev. 13:8). As long as He has been our Redeemer, we have been His ransomed redeemed (1 Pet. 1:18-20; Acts 20:28). As long as He has been our Surety, He stood up for us, interposed Himself for us, and answered all charges against us to our Judge (Gen. 43:9; 44:32-34; Heb. 7:22; 1 John 2:1-2; Rom. 8:34). We know that we were eternally one with Christ for several reasons. First, because Jesus Christ was set up from everlasting as the Wisdom of God and His delight was then with His people, His inheritance (Prov. 8:22-31; Deut. 32:9; Eph. 1:18). And we know this because He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). If He was slain, He must have offered Himself. If He offered Himself, He must have been our High Priest by God's oath (Heb. 7; Ps. 110). If He gave Himself for us, He must have bore our sins in His own body on the tree in God’s eternal counsels and purpose. If He so gave Himself for us, He must have loved us with a love of delight from eternity and before our conversion. If His blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant, then He is our everlasting covenant Husband and we are His Bride; He our eternal representative Head, we His seed; He our eternal Surety, we those for whom He stood and pleaded Himself; He our eternal Redeemer, we His eternally redeemed; He Jehovah our salvation, we His people whom He saved from our sins (Isa. 12:1-3; Matt. 1:21). All that He is to us, He has been from eternity and will be for everlasting ages (Eph. 1:4-6; 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:1-2). If He is the same yesterday, today and forever, if He is eternal and cannot change, if He is the Alpha and Omega, then all that He is to God and all that He loved and hated, all that He is to His people, all that He purposed to do, He was and is and loved and hated and purposed and did from eternity.

Oh, dear trembling, faltering, frail believer, grieving over your sin and shame and your sense of deadness in yourself, look again to Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood (Rev. 1:5). Look to the Lamb of God (John 1:29; 3:15; Isa. 45:22; Heb. 12:2)! Look to Him bearing our sins on that cursed tree. Look to Him rising triumphant over sin and death. Look to Him who is in Himself the resurrection and the life! And so looking, find your all in Him. If resurrection is life from the dead, if the dead contribute nothing and the One who is the resurrection and the life performs and gives all that He requires, and if He has overcome sin and death in His own self, then your lack is but the evidence of your need and the occasion of your fellowship in His body and blood by faith (John 6:54,56). If you believe Him, if you find and take from Him, by faith in His Gospel (Isa. 55:1-3; Rev. 22:17), to be the One who glorified God (Heb. 1:3), the One who provided all that God requires of you, the One in whom is found all of your soul's need, then you have fellowship with the Son of God. He is in you by His Spirit, and you are in Him by eternal union; you partake of Him by faith (John 17:21-23). Take His body broken for you. Eat Him by faith. Take His blood shed for you. Drink Him by faith. He is the resurrection and the life. In doing so, you have communion with Him and He with you. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isa. 26:19; Rom. 6:10-11; 7:4; Gal. 2:20).
Rick Warta
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Give God His Due (Matt. 22:15-22)

4/10/2017

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In one day, Jesus gave three parables against the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, rulers and elders of the people. On the same day, they attacked Him three times. The first attack came from the Pharisees and Herodians (Matt. 22:15-22). The second from the Sadducees (Matt. 22:23-33). The third came from the Pharisees (Matt. 22:34-40). These men opposed Christ. The root of their evil stemmed from their own proud self-righteousness (Rom. 9:33-10:4).

The parables
In Christ’s first parable (Matt. 21:28-32), He told of two sons. The father of the two told both of them to go work in his field. The first said, “I will not.” But later, he went. The second son said “I will sir.” But he did not go. Jesus likened the chief priests and elders (21:23) to the second son. As the second son failed to obey his father, the chief priests and elders failed to do the will of God. They failed to heed God’s warnings by John the Baptist (Matt. 3:7-12). They failed to “Behold the Lamb of God” John preached (John 1:29). Jesus drew the conclusion from the parable. He said tax collectors and harlots will enter heaven before these men. His parable reproved them for their willful unbelief and warned that while they remained hardened in their hearts against Him, they would perish in their sins. But His parable was full of grace to sinners. Those who appeared best to men were the worst of all; but those who appeared the worst to themselves and others, received grace in spite of their evident avarice and immorality!

In the second parable (Matt. 21:33-46) Jesus told of a powerful and wealthy landowner who set aside some of his land for a vineyard. He planted it and prepared all that was necessary to receive the fruit from it in due season. He then rented it out to caretakers (husbandmen), whom he charged to bring the fruits to him in due season. But the caretakers refused to give the landowner his due. They not only refused to give him the fruit from his vineyard,  they treated all of his servants he sent to them with mockery and violence, even killing some of them. At last the landowner sent his son. But they killed his only son, his only heir. Jesus compared the chief priests and Pharisees those murderous husbandmen in the parable (21:45). God gave His oracles, OT scripture, to the Jews (Rom. 3:2). But they did not see Christ in them (John 5:39-40). Their pride kept them from seeing their need of Christ and His salvation. They therefore did not preach Christ and Him crucified to the people. They preached themselves instead to take glory to themselves (2 Cor. 4:5). By failing to believe and preach Christ to God’s sheep, they failed to bring to God the fruit of His vineyard. When Jesus came, they envied Him, steeled their hearts against Him and hated Him without any cause found in Him (John 15:25). They were blind in their unbelief. Like the first parable, this second parable was a reproof and dire warning to these men and all like them, who fail to give God His due by believing Christ and preaching Christ to His sheep (21:41). For their failure, the Gospel was taken from the nation of Israel and given to the nation chosen by God in Christ. That nation is the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem. It is a holy nation, the Body of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:9; Heb. 12:24-26; Gal. 6:16). Again, this second parable foretold coming judgment on these men. Yet even in His pronouncement of God’s judgment against them for their evil, God’s mercy shines forth to His people (Hab. 3:2). The wicked hands that took and killed the Son of God fulfilled God’s eternal will (Acts 2:23). They meant it for evil, but God decreed it for the salvation of His people (Acts 4:27-28). Though they failed to preach Christ, salvation came to the Gentiles by their fall (Rom. 11:11, 33)!

In the third parable, Jesus addressed the Pharisees again, and all, who like them, stubbornly hold to their self-righteous, damning pride. In the third parable, a king made a marriage for his son. He called those who had been called before to the wedding feast. They refused to come. He sent his servants to call them again. One man went to his farm. That man preferred his own works and the fruit of his work to the King, to His Son, to the Son’s Bride, to their marriage, and to the King's fully prepared wedding feast! A second man went to his merchandise. He loved and trusted his riches over the abundance graciously provided in the wedding feast! He too despised the King, His Son and His Son’s wedding. Others called by the King became violently enraged. They took and killed the King’s servants. In this parable, the Pharisees correspond to those who refused to come. When Christ came into the world, when He took the body God prepared for Him (Heb. 10:5-7), when He came to do the will of God, when He finished that work, all was then prepared. The Gospel corresponds to the wedding feast. God commands all to believe the Gospel (Rom. 16:25-26). In it, God has fully prepared all that He requires for chosen sinners (Isa. 55:1-3; John 6:35-57; 4:10; 7:37-38; Rev. 22:17). But these men refused to come in faith and feast on Christ to the glory of God. They failed to give God the glory due His name. They despised God’s offering of His Son: which the slain oxen and fatlings pointed to in the parable. They despised His Son’s marriage: the glorious salvation of chosen sinners in Christ and their eternal union to Him.

The attacks
On the same day that Jesus gave these three parables, the Pharisees joined in league with the Herodians to entrap Him (Matt. 22:15-22). They ignored the three warnings of judgment Christ pronounced on them. Rather than seeking counsel from Him how they might be turned from their wickedness (2 Tim. 2:25; Acts 3:25-26), they took counsel together against Him how they might take and kill Him (22:15). In the first attack, they attempted to entrap Christ. They asked Him if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. The Pharisees opposed taxes. They thought if Jesus answered “Yes,” He would alienate the people from Himself, pushing God’s sheep into their devilish arms. The Herodians were those who joined politics to religion. They approved of taxes because Herod benefited from Roman rule. They thought if Jesus answered “No,” they could arrest Him for rebellion and sedition. On the other hand, if He refused to answer, both groups could accuse Him of deceitfully avoiding a direct question, or at the very least, of ignorance. In any case they thought they had Him. But Jesus answered with the wisdom of God, because He is the Wisdom of God (John 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 1:24). He held up a coin. He asked them whose image was on the coin. They said, “Caesar’s.” He said, “Render (give) to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). In His answer, Jesus builds on the three parables He had just given. There are several lessons we can learn from this encounter.

The lessons
First, The Pharisees failed to give God His due. They raised a question about something that was not an issue. They loved to keep things on a superficial level. They ignored heart matters. They thought to catch Christ in their trap, but He exposed their wickedness. What wickedness did He expose? That they failed to give to God what belonged to God. We can summarize all of their failures from the three parables as this: they failed to submit to Jesus Christ. They failed to believe His word against themselves. They failed to believe His word about Himself. They failed to turn from their proud, willful self-righteousness and submit to His righteousness and His rule (Rom. 9:33-10:4,9). In them we see the greatest evil in the heart of man. It is the evil of self-righteous pride (Prov. 8:13; 26:12; 27:22). They refused to believe Christ. May God deliver us from this great evil (Luke 18:13)!

Second, in the three attacks recorded in Matt. 22, for that matter in all of the attacks on the Lord Jesus Christ, He gloriously triumphed over His enemies! His wisdom astounded even His enemies (22:22), just as every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Php. 2:6-11). They were taken in their own trap. He takes the wise in their own craftiness (Job 5:13). They surrounded Him like bees, but in the name of the LORD, He destroyed them (Ps. 118:11-12). Their attacks became His victory for His people. With every attack, we see His wisdom and understand His grace in the Gospel of our salvation. Though they would eventually take and kill Him, in that most heinous act, Christ gloriously triumphed to the eternal salvation of His people and the glory of God. His heel was bruised, but He bruised satan’s head. “He spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly” (Col. 2:14-15). Sin was put to death (Rom. 5:21; 6:11; 1 Cor. 15:55-57). He overcame the world (John 16:33; Gal. 1:4). He saved His people with an eternal salvation (Isa. 45:17; Heb. 5:9; 9:12). And out of this He will destroy death and the grave (Hosea 13:14). This lesson is the main lesson taught throughout the Gospels. No enemy can stand before Christ. His victory and triumph is the victory and triumph of His people. He appears more glorious in every conflict to the adoring wonder and awe of His people. His victory is the defeat of our every enemy (Isa. 54:17; Micah 7:18-20; Rom. 8:35-37; 1 Cor. 15:56-57; Rom. 6:14,17; 7:4; Gal. 1:4; 3:13; Titus 2:14; Heb. 10:14-19)!

Third, the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified answers every question (Rom. 8:34). In Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees in Matt. 22:21, He condemned their failure. They failed to obey God just as the second son failed to do his father’s will. They failed to see Christ. They failed to preach Christ crucified for the faith and the salvation of God’s people, just as the murderous husbandmen failed to give the landowner the fruit of his vineyard in the second parable. And they failed to honor the great King of heaven by believing the Gospel of God’s free grace to the honor of God’s dear and most glorious Son. They are reprobate (Rom. 9:22). They only grew worse and worse (2 Tim. 3:13). Just as all who stubbornly hold to their self-righteousness, they were deceived and they deceived others. Christ exposed their evil. But His answer was also full of grace. “Give to God what is God’s.” How is this answer full of grace? Because, the Gospel alone reveals how man can give God what belongs to Him!

“
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” (1 Chr. 16:29; Ps. 29:2).

We must give God the glory due His name. But all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23)! We have failed to give glory to God! How then can a sinner give God the glory due His name? Though every man has failed to give God His due, Christ did not fail! He said, “
I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). Christ alone, in His life and by His death, glorified His Father. Yet He did not live for Himself. He did not die for Himself. He lived a representative life and died a substitutionary death for His people by the will of God (Heb. 10:5-18).

According to 1 Chr. 16:29, we must also bring an offering. But what shall that offering be? “
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul” (Micah 6:7)? No! Christ offered Himself (Heb. 7:27; 9:14,26)! “He gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (Eph. 5:2)! In all of these and more, we see that of all that we must give to God, all that is His due, all that He requires of His people, He must give Himself! What God requires, God must provide. He gave His Son. Abraham said it: “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb” (Gen. 22:8; 1 John 4:9-10)! What God required, He has received from Christ. The Gospel declares it! All things are now ready! Come to the feast (John 7:37-38; Rev. 22:17)! Whatever God provides, God accepts with great delight! He is well-pleased with Christ (Matt. 17:5; Eph. 5:2; Isa. 53:10; 49:5). This is the Gospel in a nutshell. All that is due to God, God has provided for His people in the Lord Jesus Christ and received from Him to His great delight (Col. 2:9-10; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 5:2)! What He provided in Christ, He has received from Christ. All is now done (John 19:30)! How can we give to God the things that are God’s? How can we worship Him in the beauty of holiness? “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). We worship God if we worship Him by faith in Christ, for salvation is in Christ (John 4:22-24)! “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD” (Ps. 1116:12-13)!


In the second attack on Jesus in Matt. 22, the Sadducees try to disprove the resurrection. By their attack, we see the greatest victory of all. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead! He is crowned, victorious! He reigns over all to save His people and give them the spoils of His victory (Isa. 53:12; Rom. 8:17). Oh wonderful God-wrought task! For me, what God’s Son hath earned! Though in all that I am I failed to do one thing of all that He requires, yet He has accomplished all for me in His Son (John 3:21; Isa. 26:12)!
Rick Warta
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Lessons from God's Wedding Feast For His Son

4/1/2017

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Jesus gave a parable in Matthew 22:1-14 that condemns unbelieving Jews (vv. 1-8) and unbelieving Gentiles (vv. 11-13) while extolling the wisdom, grace and love of God to His people in Christ. There are several lessons we can learn from this parable.
  1. ​Nothing is more important to God, to Christ and to His people, than God’s eternal purpose of love to glorify Himself in Christ by the marriage of His Son to His people (2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:4; 3:11). It was because the Lord Jesus Christ loved the Church, His Bride, those given to Him by God the Father in eternal election, that He gave Himself for them as a sacrifice to God, a sacrifice to God's great delight, by which Christ made them holy and blameless before God in love (Gen. 2:22-23; John 3:27-36; 10:29; Eph. 1:4; 5:2; Isa. 53:10; Heb. 10:5-18).

  2. The Gospel is a feast to which all men are called to come, eat and drink. The Gospel is a feast because in it Christ is set forth crucified for our eternal salvation and life. God prepared this feast. When Christ fulfilled God's will, the feast was made ready. In all of the OT sacrifices, God directed us to the one sacrifice of His Son. When Christ offered Himself to God, He finished the work God gave Him to do. All things were then made ready, fully prepared. The oxen and fatlings killed in the parable correspond to all of the OT sacrifices that were fulfilled in the death of Christ (Heb. 1:3; 9:26; Heb. 10:1-19).

    The Gospel is a feast of fat things because Christ is held up to the view of dying sinners, whose souls are hungry and thirsty (Isa. 25:6; Isa. 55:1-3; John 4:10; 6:35-58; 7:37-38; Rev. 22:17). They find in Christ an overflowing, incomprehensible abundance of mercy and grace and blessings from God.

    The Gospel declares the riches of God's grace. As the King in the parable provided all things, so God the Father, of His own will and at His own expense, provided all things for His people in Christ (Eph. 1:6,9,18; 2:7; 3:6-21).

    Christ crucified for the salvation and eternal glory of His people is the feast to which all men are outwardly called, and to which God’s elect are inwardly and effectually called (John 6:44-45). All of God's people live upon Christ and will eternally drink and eat of Him, now by faith, and when we see Him, by sight (1 John 1:1-2; Rev. 7:17; 22:1-4,17).


  3. It is God who has provided all things for us in Christ. We have nothing. In ourselves we are only sinners. We have no understanding. We have no righteousness. We have no faith. We are blind, beggars, naked, hungry, miserable, wretched, and even dead in our sins (Rev. 3:17; Eph. 2:1-3). We are not to bring, nor to even imagine that we are to bring, anything. But we are to come and look to Christ and call upon Him for all. What do you need of all that God requires of you? What do you lack in yourself? Whatever it is, God has provided it in Christ! God has nothing for men and receives nothing from men outside of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He has provided all in Him (Col. 2:9-10). There is not only no lack in Christ, but there is an abundance in Him that cannot be exhausted (Eph. 3:8; Col. 2:3; 2 Pet. 1:3).

    What one thing would give you assurance before God? If you think or look to find it in yourself, you will never rest or joy in Christ. We can only be assured of God’s love and our eternal salvation as we see that Christ and Him crucified is all of our salvation, apart from and in spite of all that we are in ourselves (Luke 2:30; Isa. 45:22; 65:1; John 1:29; 3:14-15; Matt. 11:28-30; Heb. 12:2; Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:21).


  4. All men by nature disregard, disrespect and show contempt for God the King and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In our unbelief, we do not believe God's testimony of Himself (Rom. 1:18-28). We do not believe God's testimony of ourselves (Rom. 3:9-20; Rev. 3:17; Isa. 64:6; Ps. 14:2-3; Gen. 6:5; Eccl. 7:20,29; Rom. 8:7; 7:24). We do not believe God's testimony of His Son (John 1:10-11). Our unbelief is the root of all sin (John 16:8-11; Heb. 3:12-19; 4:1-11). Therefore, the first work of the Spirit of God is to convince us of our sin because we do not believe on His Son (John 16:8-11; 20:28,31).

  5. The man who went to his farm delighted more in his own work, the sweat of his brow, and the fruit of his own works as did Cain who brought an offering of his own work to the Lord. The man who went to his merchandise loved the world and the things of the world and had no interest in the King, His Son, the Son's Bride or His marriage and the feast (1 John 2:15-17).

  6. The Jews envied, hated and crucified the Lord of glory, the Prince of Life. But this also was the will of God (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28; Isa. 6:9-12). Willful unbelief is evidence of God leaving a man to himself. Though God bears long with the reprobate, He will judge them (Rom. 9:22). When Jesus gave the three parables in Matt. 21:28-32; Matt. 21:33-46 and 22:1-14, the Jews, rather than taking counsel from Him how they might be turned from their unbelief, took counsel among themselves how they might entrap, take and kill Him (Matt. 22:15-ff).

  7. Jesus drew the main teaching of this parable when He said, "Many are called, but few are chosen." Unless the Lord reserved to Himself a remnant, a seed, a Bride, a people for His Son out of this world, none would be saved (Isa. 1:9; 6:13; Rom. 9:29).

  8. In the face of unbelief, God's grace shines forth. In spite of our sin, Christ saved us from our sins and will save us to the uttermost by Himself (Rom. 5:6-11; Heb. 7:25). Rulers and elders and scribes and outwardly moral men proved themselves unworthy of eternal life, while greedy, cheating tax-collectors and openly immoral harlots believed the glad tidings that John the Baptist, the servant of God, preached: “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29; Matt. 21:32)! When the murderous husbandmen killed the Son, it fulfilled God's purpose to save His people by offering Him up under the weight of their sins in an answer of full satisfaction and delight to His justice (Matt. 21:38-39; Acts 2:23; Gen. 50:20; Isa. 53:10; Eph. 5:2). When those murderous husbandmen killed God's Son, the Gospel was taken from the nation of Israel and given to the Church, that chosen, holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9; Matt. 21:38-43). When those first called refused to come and killed God's servants, the prophets and apostles and finally God's own Son (Matt. 22:6; 23:34-35), then the Gospel was sent by Christ's apostles throughout the world to gather in His elect from every nation under heaven (Rom. 11:11-15; Rev. 5:9; Mark 16:15).

  9. We will appear before God in the Day of Judgment. Many will attempt to appear, that is, to give a defense by their own righteousness (Matt. 7:21-23). But we must appear before God in the righteousness of Christ alone or we will be eternally cast into hell (Matt. 22:11-13; Isa. 61:10; 1 Cor. 1:30; Jer. 23:5-6; 33:16; 1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:9-10; 2 Cor. 5:21; 2 Pet. 1:1; Ps. 71:16). Christ must answer for us or we will have no answer (Rom. 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2). All who attempt to come any other way will be put to shame in the nakedness of their sin and self-righteousness (Acts 4:11-12; John 6:14; Rom. 10:1-4; Matt. 7:21-23; Rom. 10:11).
    ​

  10. The righteousness of Christ is a gift given to all of God’s elect (Rom. 5:17,19; Rev. 19:8; Isa. 61:10). It is not something we put on ourselves. God credits it to us. God-given faith (Acts 13:48; Eph. 2:8-9; Acts 16:14) enables us to see and rest in Christ's righteousness made ours by God's sovereign act of electing, redeeming grace (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Cor. 1:30-31).

  11. Preaching the Gospel to all men and commanding all men to repent and believe the Gospel is compared in the parable to the call of the King’s servants to all to come to the feast (Acts 17:24; Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:18-20).

  12. More than merely an outward, external call is required to bring men to life and faith in Christ (to the feast), and to clothe them in Christ's righteousness (having on a wedding garment).

  13. We wear the wedding garment of Christ's righteousness as a covering because Christ established everlasting righteousness for us outside of our personal experience, outside of our contributions of any kind, without any works on our part. Christ established everlasting righteousness for His people before they believed, before they heard the Gospel (Heb. 10:14-18). We put Christ on by faith (Eph. 4:24; Rom. 13:14). But our righteousness is not our faith, but Christ's finished work. His work was accomplished in history, outside of our personal history. Our standing before God is Him as He fulfilled and magnified God’s law (Isa. 42:6) and answered God’s justice (Gal. 3:13; John 3:14-15; 2 Cor. 5:21). All who look to Christ have been called internally (John 6:37-40; 44-45). All who refuse to come, who refuse to submit to His righteousness (Rom. 10:1-3), who reject the call to come to Christ in the Gospel, who come uncovered before the King in their own rags, have only been called outwardly and externally called (John 6:44-45; 37-40; 16:8-11; Acts 2:21,39; 1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 10:13; Joel 2:32).

  14. It is God’s inward call of grace, by His Spirit, that gives life and faith (John 3:8,14-15; Eph. 2:1-4, 8-9; John 6:44-45, 63; 2 Cor. 3:3,6; 6:17; 12:13).
    ​
  15. Many are called, but few are chosen. The foundation and spring of all blessings is God’s eternal election of His people in Christ (Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; Luke 10:20; Php. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27; 22:19)
Rick Warta
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