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"Forbid them not to come to me" (Matt. 19:14)

12/31/2016

“They brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:13-14).

In each of the Gospels, Jesus compares little children to those who enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:1-14; 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16, etc.). He says that unless we are converted and become as little children, we shall not enter heaven. Little children have an innate recognition of their inferior size, strength, understanding and abilities. From birth, they cry, their parents hear, come, and help them. They are comforted. These qualities and more help us understand what it means to be converted, to become as little children. We must see Christ as our all. Like little children, we must never consider God’s grace or our salvation to be the result of our strength, understanding or goodness: indeed, anything found in us. As little children look to their parents, we must look to Christ in humble trust. We call upon Christ because we are needy, because we cannot help ourselves, because we can find no comfort but His comfort, no wisdom in ourselves but His wisdom, no righteousness before God but His righteousness, and no strength but His strength. Oh, what a comfort to my soul that all I need is found in my Savior! He requires nothing from me, in fact, everything that may be called mine must be abandoned and I must come to God only by what is His. I marvel that I may approach God by His own word trusting I will be received because of Christ’s obedience, His satisfaction for sins, His faithfulness, His strength to save, and expectantly hope that I will be kept and brought to glory by His grace alone! Only in so doing will I be enabled, as a little child, to be awe-struck at the greatness of my Savior and His grace to me, a sinful, helpless, foolish man!

On this occasion in Mark 10, those who deeply cared for their children brought them to Christ. But the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw that His disciples turned them away, He was much displeased! I want to know what pleases the Lord, don’t you? We know that the LORD is near the brokenhearted. We know He saves such as are contrite in spirit (Ps. 34:18). We know He saves sinners (1 Tim. 1:15; Matt. 1:21; Rom. 5:6-11). We know the Lord loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7). And we know that the Lord Jesus desires children, and those made like little children, to come to Him. And, we know what displeased the Lord Jesus. He was much displeased when the disciples turned away those that brought little children to Him. Why was the Lord much displeased?

He was much displeased that of all people, His own disciples would think these little ones were of no concern to Him.
He was much displeased that those who are concerned for their little ones were turned away from Him.
He is much displeased that insignificant, weak, ignorant sinners, and those concerned for them, were turned away from coming and bringing sinners to Him.
He was much displeased that those who were unable to contribute, who could only be recipients of His grace, who were unable to serve, who must only be brought and placed in the kingdom of heaven, who could not bring themselves, who were unable to pay back Christ by gift or service or further His kingdom, were turned away from Him. This is the nature of grace. Grace rejoices to save the unworthy, to help the helpless, to give to those who cannot pay back.
He was much displeased that any would think He considered anything more important, that He would have higher interests, or greater concern, or spend His labor for something greater than saving sinners! From eternity, He made it His chief business to reconcile His people to Himself: little nobodies, ignorant and out of the way sinners.

Therefore, forbid them not! Not only forbid them not, but make this our chief aim and our life’s goal, to seek and to save lost sinners (Luke 15). May the Lord so enable me and you to not talk or teach above brokenhearted, fearful, timid, poor, needy souls, or little children, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!

Rick Warta

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"As the small dust of the balance"

12/13/2016

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“Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing” (Isa. 40:15).

For many years I worked at a company that designed, manufactured and sold electronic measuring instrumentation throughout the world. Measuring things is an exact science. It requires great care to quantify the uncertainty of measurement. In this verse, the LORD says that the nations are considered as “the small dust of the balance.” In other words, man is insignificant dust on the scales. man and his best works are insignificant compared to God and His righteousness (Isa. 64:6).

I was walking our dog this morning, feeling the rays of the sun on my insignificance. I began to think how we might measure our insignificance. One way is to compare the amount of the sun’s energy incident on our bodies to the total energy output by the sun. I did a quick calculation. Assume the energy emitted by the sun is proportional to the area of any surface upon which its rays shine. If you follow this thinking, imagine a bubble enclosing the sun, having a radius equal to the average radius of earth’s orbit around the sun. You can calculate the surface area of such a sphere. If you then compare the surface area of that bubble to the area of the average person’s body on which the rays of the sun shine, you get a ratio of the energy falling upon one person to the total energy emitted by the sun. What that calculation shows is that the average man on earth receives less than 1 part in 20 billion trillion of the total energy that the sun continuously produces. It is difficult to gain a sense of such a small number. A comparison can be made to the national debt of the U.S. That sum is somewhere around 20 trillion dollars. If there were a billion nations owing as much as the U.S. owes, then man’s significance would be $1 in comparison to that $20 billion trillion dollar debt. It turns out that this is roughly twice as large as the ratio of the mass of one atom to the total mass of all the atoms in one half ounce of carbon-12. One atom is an indescribably small mass compared to one half-ounce of atoms. No one would consider the mass of one atom to add significant error in the measurement of one-half ounce of carbon-12! The ratio of the energy of the sun shining on one person standing on earth, compared to the total energy available from the sun at the same distance, in some sense represents the insignificance of man and his works compared to God and His righteousness. But when further compared to the entire universe, it gives a more staggeringly small insignificance. If you take the estimate that scientists give for the size of the universe, man’s significance literally shrinks to nothing. The nearest star is thought to be 4.3 light years from earth, which is about 25 trillion miles away. Travelling through space at 186,000 miles per second, it would take 4.3 years to reach that star! Clearly, there is a lot of empty space between the stars! One estimate says there are 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars in the milky way galaxy. Some say that the milky way galaxy, with its estimated 100 billion stars, is merely one of 3000 billion galaxies in the universe! (Don’t ask me how scientists come up with these numbers.) If you simply scale the number of stars in the milky way galaxy by 3000 billion galaxies, it means that there are 3*10^23 stars in the universe (0.3 septillion). That one half ounce of carbon back on our scales contains roughly twice as many atoms as stars thought to be in the universe. Our sun is but one of those stars. Recall, the energy output by our sun compared to the energy shining on you and me is merely one part in 20 billion trillion of the sun’s total energy. Factoring into this comparison scientist’s estimates for the number of stars in the universe, we find that man is a mere one part in 6 billion trillion trillion trillion, give or take. (That is a 6 followed by 45 zeroes.)

“As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him” (Ps. 103:11).

But the LORD says it much more simply. “The nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” What?! Are the very hairs of our head numbered? Stand amazed! Can the LORD meet our needs? Is anything too hard for Him (Gen. 18:14; Eph. 3:20)?! Scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke this universe into existence, that He now upholds it by His powerful word. He stretched out heaven: from the minuteness of the atom, to the unfathomable immensity of space. This incomprehensibly great God made Himself of no reputation to save an insignificant, sinful people. He forever took our nature into union with His own. He served His Father and saved His people from their sins. He now rules and intercedes for these, who in themselves are nothing (Gal. 6:3)! “Will God indeed (in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ) dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee” (1 Kings 8:27)! The universe is vast beyond all measure. Though creation cannot contain its Creator, the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in our Savior (Col. 2:9-10)! Believe it. Our Savior rules every atom in this universe, the space within every atom, the heavenly bodies and the space between the stars. Our great God made us joint-heirs with Him. He is our Mediator, our Surety (Heb. 1:2; 7:22; John 3:35; Col. 1:16).

Rick Warta

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Open thy mouth wide

12/12/2016

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"I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Ps. 81:10).

Two pictures come to mind when I read this verse. When I was 4 or 5 years old, my grandfather took me and my brother Stan to a grain elevator. An enormous dump truck brimming full of wheat, backed up, lifted its load, and for what seemed like four or five minutes, poured its contents over a grating inlay on the cement floor of the grain elevator. After the truck drove away, my brother and I walked over and looked down through that grating. To our great amazement, the entire truckload of grain had disappeared! The second picture that comes to mind is of the two robins that built their nest outside my office window this last summer. After a time, three hatchlings appeared bobbing and weaving in the nest. The mother and father birds spent the next couple of weeks wearying themselves to gather food for their little ones. The newborn chicks could do nothing for themselves. Even when the parents were away, the little hatchlings spent all their time in the nest with their mouths wide opened. As they grew in size, so did their obnoxious, unending demand for food. Even while the mother and father were gathering food from far, they propped open their mouths wide, waiting for groceries to appear in their parent's beak. When those groceries were delivered, they swallowed them down as the yawning grain elevator swallowed that entire truckload of grain! Little birds can’t gather for themselves. Those I have seen get out of the nest before they can fly usually die. This is the picture God paints in Psalm 81:10.

Our need is greater than the cavernous grain elevator. Yet we have no spiritual understanding or strength. We are unable to gather spiritual food. We cannot nourish ourselves. Unless God makes Himself known to us, we will perish as a wild hatchling without a mother and father. But God directs us to Christ! Don’t think about your wisdom. Don’t measure your strength. Don’t consider your faithfulness. Don’t stockpile your obedience. Don’t rely on your faith. Don’t inventory your love. Bring your diseased nothingness to Christ and find your everything in Him (Jer. 9:23-24; 1 Cor. 1:30-31)! Open the mouth of your faith wide to Christ crucified and ask the Spirit of God to fill your soul with Him! “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Our Lord says, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it” (Ps. 81:10)! The endless capacity of the grain elevator has stuck with me since childhood. Though my soul’s need seems vast beyond measure, the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ. My soul finds satisfaction as long as He alone is the object of my faith! “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Eph. 3:20-21).

Rick Warta

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Experience of Grace

12/1/2016

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Never think that it is sufficient for you to hear the Gospel to be saved. It is not. Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt. 22:14). The preaching of the cross is to some a savor of life to life, but to others, a savor of death to death (2 Cor. 2:16). God Himself must effectually call us from death to life, and give us faith by the operation of His grace (Col. 2:12-13). I don't say this to intimidate you. I don't say it to appear superior. I say it because it is true, and because we must ever be directed away from men and from self-complacency to Christ. We must believe Him. We must go to Him. We must call upon Him. God always presents salvation as a work of His own alone. When we hear what God requires of us, we must learn that it is not in us. This is a hard lesson, often repeated. And we must be brought to see that all God requires and demands of sinners is in Christ! We must be brought to depend upon Him to do for us, and to give to us what we must have: perfect righteousness, life, faith to believe Him, and every grace. God declares to us what we are: by nature, enemies of God, willfully ignorant, woefully and justly condemned (Eph. 2:1-3; Titus 3:3). And He discovers to us what we are not: we are bankrupt, naked, blind, filthy and shameful, having no righteousness. He then shows us Christ and tells us that He is for sinners all that God requires and demands from them (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 10:4). He tells us to come to Him through the blood of Christ (Heb. 10:19). He tells us to come as sinners and depend on His sovereign mercy in Christ (Luke 18:13; 1 Tim. 1:15). When He thus teaches us to look to His Son, we come, and we see that salvation is in Christ alone (John 6:44-45; Acts 4:12). Yet even in this, we can only stop depending on ourselves when He persuades us that Christ is all of our salvation (1 Cor. 1:30-31; Jer. 9:23-24; 23:5-6; Col. 2:9-10). This is the ongoing, life-long experience of grace (Col. 2:6; Eph. 3:16-17; Php. 3:3-11).

And yet there are dangers. We are tempted to try to accomplish what God alone must do. We must abandon all trust in our will and our experiences. We must quit trying to work up in ourselves something we think is presentable to God. We must never perform a service or follow a ceremony to produce peace and joy that can only be known in believing Christ. Another danger is that our progress becomes our focus. We may grow vainly confident by progress we think we have made. Or we may despair over our lack of perceived progress. But these dangers are averted by hearing the Gospel again and again with God-given faith (1 John 5:4). Faith always find its all, and terminates on, the Lord Jesus Christ alone. God lifts our eyes outward and upward to Christ, away from all that we are in our sin and corruption, and away from all that we lack in spiritual graces. In so lifting our eyes to Him, we see that all Christ is in His person and work, He is to God for us as our Mediator. In the Gospel, we see that all God is to us, He is to us in Christ (Col. 2:9-10). We therefore rest in Him and what He has done as our all (Heb. 4:10). Christ and Him crucified becomes our boast and confidence and coming to God. We come to God through Christ and in Christ. We come by Christ. But never apart from His saving work. We come by His blood. We come in His righteousness. How? On discovery of our guilt and corruptions, and knowing our inability to produce or come up with one thing of all that we must have, when from this foulness and emptiness we are given a sight of what He has done by Himself to atone, to justify, to bring His people in reconciled peace to God by His own blood -- then we cease from our own strivings and rest and rejoice that we are not hindered by our foul, guilty self, because He has put away our sins as far as the east is from the west by His atoning blood (Ps. 103:10-12; Isa. 43:25). "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" (Ps. 103:10). Why? Because, with regard to the sins of His people, Christ has propitiated God by the sacrifice of Himself. He has not only rendered full satisfaction, but by His perfect obedience has established our everlasting righteousness (Isa. 45:24-25; Dan. 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:30). In all of this, Christ becomes the object of our confidence, the ground of our coming, the boast of our joyous praise, because God has provided all for us in Him. And as sinners, we are called and given to come and to see and to find satisfaction in all that He is and has done (Rom. 15:9-13). Oh, wonderful God-wrought task! For me, what God's Son has earned! Washed in the precious blood of Christ, dressed in the righteousness of God's own dear Son, with God-given faith I look to Him, I come with borrowed words and live by a borrowed life, and lift my heart to Him in praise by unearnable grace (Ps. 107:2)!

Rick Warta

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"Forbid them not to come to me" (Matt. 19:14)

"As the small dust of the balance"

Open thy mouth wide

Experience of Grace

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"Forbid them not to come to me" (Matt. 19:14)

"As the small dust of the balance"

﻿Open thy mouth wide

Experience of Grace

Author

Archives

Categories

Open thy mouth wide