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"Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

9/30/2017

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“Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee: He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him“ (Deuteronomy 23:15-16). 

There are several kinds of slavery.  One form of slavery was common in the United States during the 1700-1800s: when a man was kidnapped and his freedom was taken from him.  Another kind of slavery was common in OT Israel: when a man, because of poverty, sold himself to pay his debt.  That man lost his right to freedom because of his debt. He became a lawfully imprisoned or enslaved debtor.

All men are lawfully enslaved to sin and the law (John 8:34; Gal. 3:13). Christ set free from sin and the law all who were given to Him by the Father. He paid God for the debt their sins earned, the wage of sin. God is holy and just and good. All debts must be paid. With God, there is no such thing as forgiveness without just payment.  Unjust forgiveness is an abomination to the LORD.  “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15). He will neither clear the guilty nor condemn the just (Ex. 34:7).  Yet God’s glory is seen by this: our Just God justifies the ungodly (Isa. 45:21; 1 Pet. 3:18; Rom. 4:5)! This He does by imputing to His Son the sins of the elect, who in themselves are ungodly.

The Son of God was eternally chosen and ordained to be the Surety for His people. He owned and paid their debt to God to obtain their redemption (Matt. 20:28; Rom. 11:27).  “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” Hebrews 9:15).

When one’s debt is paid, he is set free.  In the salvation of His people, Christ liberates the lawfully imprisoned debtor by payment of Himself in blood as the ransom to God for His people (Job 33:23-24). 

The chosen sinner is a lawfully imprisoned debtor. He is ungodly and unrighteous and shut up under God’s law (Gal. 3:22-24).  The ransom God required is Christ’s life poured out in blood.  “Without shedding of blood, there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 10:28).

Christ offered Himself to God.  It was God’s truth and justice that we offended. Sin is denying God His right to rule, denying His truth, rebelling against His holy, just and good law. Such offence separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). It brings God’s just wrath upon us (Eph. 2:3; 5:3-6; Col. 3:5-6). It was to God, therefore, that our debt must be paid. Christ crucified is the payment God required. His death made reconciliation for us to God (1 Sam. 29:4; 1 Chr. 29:14; Matt. 5:23-24; Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-21). He made up for the offence our sins had in God by bringing the satisfaction to God He required for our reconciliation (Ps. 85:10). God took the initiative. He removed His just wrath against us by providing Christ, chastising Him with beatings that the sins of all of God's elect deserved (Isa. 53:5; Rom. 8:32). God accepted Christ’s blood as the reconciling payment to His offended justice (Heb. 2:17). The prison in which we were lawfully kept was bondage to the the law and its curse.  Redemption is setting the lawfully imprisoned debtor free. It is the forgiveness of all of our sins for Christ’s sake, because He shed His blood (Eph. 1:7; 4:32).

Freedom was obtained when Christ died (Heb. 9:12). But in our experience, freedom comes when we believe (Heb. 9:14). Believing Christ crucified is the operation of God the Holy Spirit (Col. 2:12). It is the sprinkling of the blood of Christ on our conscience (1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Thess. 2:13).
​
All who look to Christ, come to Him.  They flee to Him for refuge.  We are under bondage. We are enslaved. God’s Gospel declares Christ to be the propitiation for our sins, the reconciliation to God for our offence, the complete payment of the ransom God required for our liberty (2 John 2:1-2; Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:21-22; Heb. 9:12). Hearing the Gospel, we run from our old master to Christ for refuge and safety (Php. 3:4-7; 2 Cor. 3:6-7, 9). Seeing that God took full responsibility to repair the damage our rebellious hostility did to His just, good and holy law; seeing that He made reconciliation for us in the death of His Son, that all of our sins have been taken away and perfect righteousness before God is found in Christ alone, we therefore flee to Christ to be found in Him. In so doing, we find God to be gloriously rich in grace!

The law did not allow the one to whom a slave fled for refuge to return that slave to his master (Deut. 23:15-16)! Christ is our refuge. We flee to Him by faith in Him, that He accomplished our redemption and reconciled us to God by His death. We seek safety in Him from the law and its curse. He will not turn us away. He will not return us to our old master. We were indebted, lawfully imprisoned slaves to God’s law by our sin debt. We were enemies in our minds and by wicked works. Yet Christ paid our ransom with His own life.  He reconciled us to God. Christ, by His blood, removed God’s wrath (Rom. 5:9). God-given faith in His blood removes our hostility (2 Cor. 5:20). In place of hostility there is peace. We love our new Master! He will not cast out any who comes to Him! He will save all that the Father has given Him (John 6:37-39; 10:15-18, 27-29; 17:2, 12).
Rick Warta
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Watch and Pray

9/29/2017

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"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matthew 26:41).
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Jesus spoke these words to His disciples when He was in Gethsemane, suffering the sorrow of death in His soul before any man laid hands on Him. Christ’s words to Peter, James and John are for us too. What did He tell them to do that they might not enter into temptation? He said, “Watch and pray.” Would you escape the tempter’s snare? Would you stand in faith? Would you overcome by faith in Christ crucified, risen and reigning? Jesus said, “Watch and pray.” Prayer is the believing soul breathing out its fears and needs and praise to God. Faith in Christ is God’s gift by which we know and rely on Christ crucified as all of our salvation. Faith moves us to come to God by Jesus’ blood and righteousness alone, never trusting what we are or what we have done. Faith teaches us never to hide, as Adam hid behind the trees when he heard the voice of God and knew he was naked. Faith puts Christ on, and comes to God clothed in His righteousness alone, trusting Him, forsaking all other trusts. “F.A.I.T.H: Forsaking All I Trust Him.” Faith looks to Jesus bearing our sins, cursed by God in our place, and takes God’s word in heart and conscience, and comes to Him, even, and especially, when the guilt of our sin-laden conscience would drive us from Him (Matt. 11:28-30; Gal. 3:13; Heb. 2:17-18; 4:14-16; 10:14-23). We cry to the Lord to save us according to His righteousness (Dan. 9:16; Rom. 3:24; Ps. 34:17), according to the propitiating blood of Christ that He received at His hand for chosen sinners. With the Psalmist we cry, “Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation” (Ps. 106:4).

Yet in these words of Christ, we have a preventive medicine, a shield and guard against temptation. Oh, how I need to avoid temptation! Experience has taught me over and again that when I am tempted, I fall. Therefore, I take this exhortation of Christ’s to my bosom as His promise that I can go to Him for grace to keep me from falling before I fall, to hold me up that I might be kept safe (Ps. 119:117).

Prayer is a wondrous thing (Php. 4:6-7). God is sovereign. He does His eternal will in every circumstance of our lives. He never changes. Yet He has told us to pray. We understand from this that God not only ordains the end He purposes, but the means by which He will accomplish that purpose. He determined to save His people by the death of His Son (Acts 2:23). And He has determined to give that salvation to them through faith (Eph. 2:8-9); faith which He gives; faith that sees Christ and is persuaded He is all to God for me, and all for me in all things, especially all in my salvation (
Col. 2:9-10; 3:11; Isa. 12:2). And He has ordained that this God-given faith breathe out its poverty of soul to God in prayer (1 Sam. 2:1-10), and come to Him, looking to Christ at all times, depending on Him to deliver me from my own sin, from satan, from this world, from death, from the just condemnation of His law that my sins deserve, and to save me to the uttermost to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Oh, how I want a heart like my Savior’s! He prayed, “Thy will be done” (Matt. 6:42)! Let us therefore go to Him when we lie down, when we awake at midnight, when we rise up at morn, when we go along the way, that we might be delivered from temptation before it comes, delivered from the temptation we now feel, and delivered from all iniquity by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through this God-given faith in Him who was crucified to answer and fulfill God’s holy law. And may we plead for deliverance from this old man, which we received from Adam, our Adam-nature, this wretched man that I am (Rom. 7:24-25)! Pray to be kept from falling, and presented in Christ without fault before the presence of His glory (Jude 1:24; Ps. 94:17-18)!

We have no power against the enemy of our sin and satan, the world, death and the just condemnation our sins deserve (2 Chr. 20:12). All of our salvation from sin and all strength over our enemy is in our almighty Captain, who was crucified to satisfy God and fulfill the righteousness of God, and give that righteousness to us as our very own (Heb. 2:10; 2 Cor. 12:9-10; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 5:17; Jer. 23:6; 33:16; 1 Cor. 1:30)! He now sits on heaven’s throne (Heb. 8:1). He cannot fail (Isa. 42:4; Heb. 13:8). He has told us what we must do. “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” He has told us our flesh is weak indeed. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). We need His Spirit of grace at all times (Zech. 4:6). If Christ Himself prayed to be delivered from the trials He underwent in doing the will of God, how much more should we, who are but dust and ashes, 
cry to our God and Savior (Gen. 18:27)? This is His command and promise to His dear sheep, “Watch and pray.” We are not only weak, but ignorant. We don’t know what to pray as we ought (Rom. 8:26-27, 34). But as with every command, let us go to our God in prayer, asking Him for grace to do what He says we must do, to save us according to His will, according to His righteousness, according to our great need, according to His word (Hosea 13:9). He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6; Luke 18:1-8, 13-14). May God give us faith to do so!
Rick Warta
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Wash one another's feet

9/8/2017

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The very night Jesus gave unleavened bread to His disciples and said, “Take. Eat. This is my body broken for you,” and then the cup, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood;” and after singing a hymn together; while the atmosphere in that room was still dripping with joy for the intimate communion of Christ with His eleven disciples, Jesus said, “This night, all of you shall be offended because of me.”

It is hard to imagine the mixture of emotions those words produced in the heart of those disciples who so ardently loved their Lord; loved Him as the Son of God, the Christ of God, who forgave them so much and showed them such loving humility! At that time, none of them could believe they would be offended in Him! Yet, to a man, all of them would desert and forsake Him. From this mountain peak of joy in communion with Christ, they would slip. They would fail in their loyalty to Him! They would doubt Him. They would be untrue to Him while He suffered the smiting sword of God’s justice for their sins! Failing Him was the furthest thing from their minds during that supper. Yet, He who called the world out of nothing and upholds it too, who cannot lie, foretold the fall of His disciples (Heb. 1:2-3; Titus 1:2).

We don’t see it when we read the account in Matt. 26 and Mark 14. But when we read Luke 22:24-27 and John 13:1-17, we see two things. First, the disciples argued about which of them was the greatest. Second, Jesus taught them by word and example that He who is the greatest must be servant of all. Christ, the King of glory, took the place of a servant to wash the dirt from their feet (Php. 2:5-11). In a few hours, He would wash their sins from before God by His own blood (1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5). Washing their feet was certainly the lesser stoop. But it was, nevertheless, an incalculable stoop for the Son of God to take our nature and in our nature wash our feet (John 13:3-4)!

It is clear that the subject of John 13 is the eternal love of Christ for His own (John 13:1-2; Jer. 31:3; Eph. 5:25-27; 1 Pet. 1:20). He demonstrated His love by example. He washed their sins and washed their feet too! The overall context is this: the disciples argued about their greatness relative to one another. Christ took the lowest place among them. He taught them to follow Him in this, to do for one another as He did to them. He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). He then told them of their soon coming downfall. All of them would forsake Him. And Peter, the apparent leader, would fall the hardest.

Now, doesn’t Christ’s example of humility, demonstrated by washing His disciples’ feet, with His command to love as He loved, teach us to receive one another as Christ received us to the glory of God (Rom. 15:7)?! Doesn’t it teach us that we are to bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:1-2)? And doesn’t it teach us that our brother’s burdens which we are to bear primarily have to do with our brother’s faults and falls (Gal. 6:1-2)?

Believers believe Christ. Believing Him, they love Him. There is nothing more painful to one whom Christ loves and who loves Christ than the knowledge of his own falls in the light of His Master’s love! Nevertheless, Jesus anticipates their fall. Before they fell, He washes their feet. Washing their feet did not take away their sins. From their sins they were clean every whit by His precious blood (John 13:10; 1 John 1:7). But it does cleanse the conscience with fresh application of Christ’s atoning blood and love (Gal. 2:20). Before Peter fell, our Lord said, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:32). Then He added, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:32). What strength can we give our fallen brother but the comfort with which we have been comforted of the Lord (2 Cor. 1:2-4; Rom. 5:6-10; 8:34)?

Therefore, see the grace and love of Christ our Savior in how He lived and suffered and died and rose and now lives for us! See that He did all of this for us when we were without strength, ungodly, sinners, even enemies of God (Rom. 5:6-10; Heb. 7:25)! Shall we not follow Christ in love if we love those whom He loves by bearing their burdens, not judging with critical heart and eye and thought and word, nor even deed, but by seeking their restoration to fresh views of Christ in renewed faith?

Consider yourself. Consider the pit of idolatry and sin and shame and the sentence of condemnation and death out of which you were digged (Eph. 2:1-6; Titus 3:3-7; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). Consider Christ the Rock out of which you were hewn (Isa. 51:1; Ps. 62:1-2). In so doing, lower yourself. Take off those things in your mind that distinguish you from your brother. Don’t expose and humiliate the filth of your brother, but wash your fallen brother’s feet by telling him again the “old, old story of Jesus and His love.” Look to Christ and call on Him to deliver you with your brother, lest you also be overtaken by the ignorance and pride of your sinful nature (Gal. 6:1-2; Acts 15:9-11; 1 Thess. 5:9-11). As the disciples discovered so painfully, we all fall. Their fall teaches us our weakness. It teaches us how Christ knows our every sin before we sin. It teaches us that Christ upholds our faith. It teaches us we are as helpless now as when we first believed (John 3:14-15). It teaches us the weakness of our brethren. These things humble us. We therefore ought to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) for ourselves and our brethren, “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually” (Ps. 119:117; 1 Thess. 5:17; Luke 18:1-8). Gracious Lord, “deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13)! Uphold in us your precious gift of faith, a gift of pure grace (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 11:6)!
Rick Warta
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The Lord's Table

9/4/2017

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What is the Lord’s Table?
  • It is the Savior given, and the Savior who gave.
What did my Savior give?
  • His body broken;
  • His blood, the price paid.
Why did He so selflessly offer Himself in love?
  • To make atonement to God.
  • To save this sinner.
What did His offering do for God?
  • Mercy and Truth have met together,
    Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other (Ps. 85:10).
Can I, a sinner, now eat at this table?
  • (John 3:14-15; Num. 21:6-9) To everyone, who, as a guilty, helplessly, deservedly dying sinner, looks in faith to Christ crucified as all of their life and whose life Christ forever is,
  • He now says, “Take. Eat. This is my body, broken for you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Matt. 26:27-28; Mark 14:22-23; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:24-25; Heb. 13:20).
This is the cup of blessing which we bless (1 Cor. 10:16)
  • Shed for me?! Oh! Blessed union with Christ I see (John 6:56)!
  • Eternal Salvation and blessings in Christ! Most sovereign, most gracious, most loving and free!
Why do we do this?
  • Because He said, “This do…” (1 Cor. 11:24-25).
  • To remember Him who gave Himself as my sin-bearing substitute to God, to satisfy God, to fulfill and magnify His law, to fulfill all covenant conditions and put His everlasting covenant into force, to save His Church, to present her to Himself with incomprehensible joy, to have her, to make His glory known by His salvation of her. He remembered His covenant for me (Luke 1:72). Now, I, who am a great sinner and nothing at all, remember Jesus Christ my blessed Mediator as my all in all.
  • To declare by virtue of my covenant union with Christ, that He lived and died and now lives for me (Rom. 5:10; Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 3:16-19). He is all my salvation. He is all my life. All my desire and every blessing is in Him (2 Sam. 23:5; Ps. 73:25; Eph. 1:3). The administration of His kingdom is according to His everlasting covenant, put into force by His blood (Heb. 9:15; Matt. 26:28; Eph. 1:10).
A Savior given; a Savior who gave.
His body broken; His blood, the price paid.
To save this sinner, atonement to God.
Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace,
Kissed each other; He now says, Take and Eat.
This is my body, broken for you;
This cup, the New Testament in my blood,
Shed for me?! Bless'd union with Christ I see!
Eternal Salvation, all blessings in Christ!
Grace unfathomable, most loving,
Most sovereign, most rich and all free
Rick Warta
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    Pastor Rick Warta

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