Blog Archives - Yuba-Sutter Grace Church

Every Objection Answered

12/31/2018

Whenever questions of God’s character or ways or His works arise in our hearts, or when objections arise from our minds or from others in opposition to the truth, we must ever remember how our Lord Jesus Christ answered all such questions and objections: “It is written” (Matt. 4:4, 6-7, 10). By the pen of the Apostle Paul, the Spirit of God raised and answered objections which naturally arise in our sinful hearts (Rom. 9:14, 19). He answered each objection with scripture. Why? For this most fundamental of all reasons: scripture is truth (Dan. 10:21; John 17:17). It is the final answer of God (Matt. 24:35; John 10:35). Faith is believing God’s word as a little child. That child who believes his father answers every mocking objector with, “But my daddy says…!”. May we reject our own tendencies to demand an answer from God to satisfy our sinful ignorance, but rather find our greatest delight and confidence in, “Thus saith the LORD.” May we, as dear children, believe our Father's word.

Rick Warta

"The LORD takes pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy" (Psalm 147:11).

12/31/2018

“He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Ps. 147:10-11).

The LORD takes no delight in the strength of men nor does He delight in the strong things that men trust. But He takes pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy!

Does our Lord and Savor delight to save sinners? Does the holy and just God of heaven and earth delight in mercy? Oh yes! He has given His word on it (Micah 7:18)! He delights in mercy, and therefore delights when a poor sinner seeks Him for His mercy, and waits upon Him in hope to show mercy (Luke 18:13)!

How many times in the NT can you find when Jesus turned away sick, foul, plagued, needy sinners who cried to Him!? Not one! But how many instances do you find where our Savior stooped and stopped and turned and went to a place or enter a house to heal or raise and save sinners while His enemies hounded Him, or when He was busy with other things? I can think of several: Bartimaeus is one. The woman with an issue of blood is another. The woman at the well is a third. The woman taken in adultery... Aren’t the Gospels full of such accounts of Jesus saving sin-sick, dying, even dead sinners (Matt. 8:17; 9:11-13; Isa. 53:4-5)?! Why? Why did He have such compassion on the foul and worthless and helpless? Because He delights in mercy! Because He takes delight in those that hope in His mercy! His meat and drink is to do the will of God (John 4:34). It is His delight!

What a blessed description the LORD gives here of our God and Savior, JESUS (Matt. 1:21)! What a word this is to trembling, sin-burdened souls (Isa. 55:1-3; Matt. 11:28; Rev. 22:17)! Who but a sinner taught by God will hope in God’s mercy from Christ (Psa. 25:11; 65:3)? David did. He said, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared” (Ps. 130:3-4)! David feared God with a healthy, holy, reverential awe because He knew the LORD as the one true God who is both just and forgives iniquity and transgression and sin for Christ’s sake (Ex. 34:7; Isa. 45:21-25; Eph. 4:32; 1 John 1:9).

The greatest revelation of God’s person is found in His words here: that He delights in mercy, that there is forgiveness from God for Christ's sake, that He takes delight in them that hope in His mercy (Ex. 33:18-19; 34:6-8)! Every NT epistle confirms and echoes this truth: “Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 1:2)!

God is gracious to sinners in Christ! That is the Gospel. Oh, what good news it is to this sinner. It makes me cling to Him all the more tightly (Acts 11:23). “What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him” (Hosea 14:8).

Rick Warta

If God has accepted our Sacrifice

12/16/2018

“Manoah [Samson’s father] said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these” (Judges 13:22-23).

Eeyore and Manoah had a lot in common. I am naturally inclined to think like Manoah. We cannot believe that God is gracious, so good in His grace that He saves us by His grace in spite of our sin for Christ’s sake alone, and receives us as Christ without any merit on our part. It’s just too much. The gift is too great. I am such a sinner. In sinful unbelief, our wicked heart will think, "Since I can’t bring something, I can’t imagine God would do all for me in Christ." But as God received the token sacrifice from Manoah and his wife, He has much more received Christ as our Sacrifice, the fulfillment of that token.

Christ, our High Priest, offered Himself as the Lamb of God for our sins (Heb. 9:12-15, 24-26). But like Manoah, we wonder if we shall perish for our sins. We fear that we have presumed to trust Christ for too much and without warrant. Yes, God has chosen and redeemed His people. But am I one of God’s elect? What reason do I have to think I can trust Christ to cover my sins and clothe me in His righteousness? What basis do I have to think He is all of my salvation? We must therefore give heed to the response of Manoah’s wife to his lament. It comes down to this: If Christ is the only answer you have, if all blessings from God to you are in Him and because of Him alone, then Manoah’s wife’s answer is the answer of scripture to you. If God has received Christ for us, we will not die.

Unbelief instills fear. Faith in Christ brings peace and joy (Rom. 15:13; Isa. 26:1-3). Have I failed to do my part? Have I therefore presumed to rely on Christ without warrant? Have I ventured too much on Him to do all for me? What about this present cold, hard heart? What about my sin? What about my ignorance? What about even my unbelief? Haven’t I disqualified myself by these things? If we consider ourselves in some way, the answer is, yes, we have. We have disqualified ourselves. That’s the whole point of God’s law (Rom. 3:9-19)! Faith therefore looks to Christ only in honor of God's righteousness. By His accepted sacrifice of Himself, faith takes comfort from Christ by the words of Manoah’s wife: If God has accepted our sacrifice, He has accepted us because of our sacrifice. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).

If God has drawn us to Christ, if by God-given faith we come to Him and call on Him and find in Him our only and all-sufficient cleansing and covering for all our sins; if we find His obedience that fulfilled God’s law to be our only and all-sufficient righteousness, then we have come for grace and all blessings from Him. He Himself has said that He will not cast out any so made desperate, so drawn, so coming to take from Him (Matt. 11:12; John 6:37; Rom. 8:34). How could Christ cast out one given to Him by His Father? How could He cast out one drawn by His Spirit of grace? How could He cast out one for whom He died?

Did Jesus scold the woman who sneaked in the press behind Him to touch the hem of His garment, that she might be made whole by His garments of salvation (Isa. 61:10)? No! He commended her faith. It was His work (John 6:29; Acts 3:16; Heb. 12:2). He always commends His own work (Gen. 1:31). Scripture encourages sinners of the worst sort: ruined, spent, helpless, needy, who have nothing and have suffered much for a long time without relief under sin’s tyranny and the burden of God’s law, who only grow worse; to them He gives the warrant of His command to look to Christ (Mark 5:24-34; Isa. 45:22), to come to Him (Matt. 11:28; Isa. 55:1-3), to see in Him and freely take of Him all that God requires of me, and find all blessings promised to Him to be promised blessings to sinners in Him (Rev. 22:17; Rom. 3:19-21; Eph. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:20).

God’s law directs us away from ourselves. God’s grace directs us to Christ crucified to see our Savior in Him, and to see our God in Him, and in so seeing, to find our rest because He is our all (Rom. 3:19-21; Gal. 3:22-24; Col. 2:9-10; Eph. 1:22-23).

When once God has begun a good work in us to draw us to Christ, He will not fail to complete that work (Php. 1:6). He will surely give all things to those He draws to Christ. He will cause us to look away from all that may be called ours and find our all in Christ who came from glory to this world to bear our sins and lay down His life for chosen sinners. He will direct us to Christ whom God raised from the dead because of our justification (Rom. 4:25). He will direct us to His throne to see the risen, exalted Christ seated there, and so see that throne as a throne of grace. Christ who offered Himself for us is now seated there at God’s right hand to intercede for us that He might save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him (Heb. 7:25).

If we have been so taught of God, then we must look away from the ruin of our lives, the failure of our obedience, the sin of our heart, the corruption of our nature and motives, and especially all works done by us or produced in us, away from all that we are and all that we are not to Christ crucified, risen, forever reigning and now interceding to bring us to Himself (Rom. 8:34; John 17:24).

God’s law -- all that God requires and demands of us -- unmasks what we are in ourselves. It confines us as a straight jacket constrains a mad man. That is for our good that we might see our only hope is Christ, in what God thinks of His Son. Grace instructs us to trust God to think on Christ as all for me. Grace teaches us that God received us when He received His Son from the dead (Rom. 4:25; Eph. 2:1-6; Gal. 3:22-24; Heb. 7:25; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 5:6-10). Grace teaches us that God treated Christ as we deserved to be treated for our sins that He might treat us as Christ deserves to be treated for His obedience in death (2 Cor. 5:21).

Like Manoah, our conscience may tell us we deserve to die. But as Manoah’s wife, the Gospel from God’s own word points us to God’s offering of His Son, of God’s acceptance of Christ as our Sacrifice, offered to cleanse us of our sins, to clothe us in His righteousness, and in that perfect way, to bring us to God (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18). The great transaction is done! God has justified us in His Son! No condemnation can now be laid to the charge of one for whom Christ has paid (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:34)! O trembling soul of mine! Hear God’s word to you! If God has accepted our Sacrifice, and has shown us Himself in Christ our Lord by these things, then He has been pleased to justify us by His blood. He will save us from the wrath to come through Him (Rom. 5:9-10; 2 Cor. 1:10)!

Rick Warta

"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word" (Ps. 119:67).

12/16/2018

The LORD finds us, not in the way of truth, not living by faith on Christ, but going astray. No one can claim they kept the word of the LORD until the LORD afflicted them. The LORD has chosen His people in the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48:10). Though we are dead in sins, salvation begins with chastisement. God’s affliction prepares our hearts. Then His Spirit of grace draws us to Christ crucified by Gospel preaching (John 6:44-45; Rom. 10:16-17). Though we are long plagued, unclean before God’s law, have spent all and suffered much by all of our efforts and the prescriptions of men in false religion -- by the providence of our God and by the operations of His grace, we hear of Jesus (Mark 5:27). Until God’s law convinces us of guilt and helplessness under the law, we are indifferent to the sweet sound of the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ (Ps. 32:3; Matt. 11:28; Luke 4:18-19). By God's affliction on my conscience and by acts of His providence, He makes my heart soft. Under affliction, the Gospel makes Christ altogether lovely to helpless, burdened, lost sinners. To hear Him say, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest...” is to see His face revealed in His grace (2 Cor. 3:18).

I did not start in the truth of Christ. I was not in the way of life until I was afflicted. I was ignorant of Him. I was ignorant of God’s word. I did not believe God or Christ or His word. My way was to go astray. I did not live by faith on Christ. How did the Lord turn me? Affliction is a necessary ingredient. Where was that rod applied? To my heart. What did that accomplish? It made my foolish heart believe His Son when He spoke from the Gospel, that Christ accomplished my salvation, that He was my all. This is the way of God with men. He plows the ground. The heart is made soft by affliction. The word declares Christ to that weary one, long-plagued, long-burdened, sorely helpless, needing to be rescued (Luke 15:14-20; 18:13). Then the glad news of the Gospel of Christ crucified is sent by the messengers of peace (Isa. 52:13)! God looks upon Him for me! He provided, He offered, He accepted Christ for sinners! And He afflicts those for whom Christ died and declares Christ to be the well-pleasing Surety of my soul. Salvation in Christ becomes my song. He is God. He is Man. He reigns on heaven’s throne with all authority and power and honor. He sovereignly calls and brings His own. It seems too good to be true, that God would look to His Son as my Substitute and answer His law in Christ’s answer of Himself. Until I was afflicted I went astray. But now I have believed His Son, I have believed the Gospel. This is God’s work of grace (John 6:29; Acts 18:27; Eph. 2:8-10)!

Rick Warta

The Idol of Man's Personal Liberty

12/16/2018

Today many say, “Don’t judge me!" So the guilty sinner cries. "It’s wrong to say it’s wrong,” they claim, because man's freedom is paramount, even to the denial of God's sovereign rule. To judge others in this day has become the most intolerable offense (Gen. 19:9). And men quote the Bible to defend their wickedness: “Judge not!” But when Jesus said, "Judge not lest ye be judged," He did mean we are to use His words to defend ourselves. Nor did He mean we are not to decry sin, not point out certain sins. No. The Bible does not say it’s wrong to say it’s wrong. The Bible says it’s wrong not to say it’s wrong (Acts 17:24-31; Romans 1:18-3:19; Titus 3:3; Eph. 2:1-3; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Col. 3:5-9; Eph. 4:17-22; 2 Pet. 2:4-10; Jude 3-16).

Men today claim personal freedom. Liberty, they say, is the one inalienable, God-given right. It is the sacrosanct law that is above all laws. It is a God-given right and therefore, all sinful behavior is above all criticism.

The claim of liberty as an inalienable right is written in the United States Declaration of Independence. “Liberty”, according to that document, is a right that governments must protect. “Liberty”, they say, must not be restrained by human laws, but must be protected by them because God has given it as an inalienable right to men. Personal freedom, they claim, must not be violated. No matter what anyone says, say they, my freedom to do as I please must not be challenged, as long as my liberty does not take away another man’s freedom. So goes the theory. But in practice, wicked men do take away the freedom of others when it affords them more personal liberty. They do this whenever they try to silence the truth that exposes them as evil.

But, to say, as men claim today, that God gives men the right to do whatever they please, is to say no less than what those God condemned did in OT times: “Every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Gen. 18:20; Judges 17:6; Hosea 9:11). They rejected Christ as their Judge and they therefore never sought Him as their Savior.

This claim of personal, God-given liberty is nothing less than idolatry. It places man’s freedom on the throne. It produces lawlessness. God has given the duty to governments to punish evil doers and to protect people from harm inflicted by them, to keep the peace (1 Pet. 2:14). But when man’s laws remove God’s laws, then men are in league as hostile combatants against God, just as those who built Babel and its tower. But the child of God says, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)!

Are we to focus our attention and efforts on pointing out the sins of others? No. But we are to declare the Gospel to sinners. And how can we declare the Gospel without pointing out man’s great sin against God?! How can we declare the Gospel to the glory of God without pointing out what God by grace removed from His people at the price of the blood of His only begotten Son? How can we declare the Gospel if we do not declare how God exalted His Son because He gained the victory over sin’s reign unto death if we say nothing about sin (Rom. 5:21; Eph. 1:20-22)? How can we declare the Gospel if we do not declare how Jesus Christ was exalted to give a change of mind to those He saves, giving them a soul-cleansing sight of Christ and Him crucified, risen, reigning and interceding (Acts 5:31; Heb. 9:14)? If we can’t say what sin is, how can we talk about the faithful sayings of the Gospel, how Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief (1 Tim. 1:12-15; Rom. 3:19-20; 1 Cor. 15:1-4)?

We must point out what sin is, and that our sin comes from within us, out of our evil heart (Mark 7:21-23). We must point out that we are full of sin, and that our evident sins affirm this fact in agreement with God’s law. Our problem is that our sins are greatly evil and arise from our evil heart. Both our sins and our heart is against a holy God. We have offended God and are an offense to God (Titus 3:3)! Salvation is great because God in Christ has dealt with the great and many sins of His people in the suffering and death of our one and only great Savior (Ps. 25:11)!

If we deny that sin is sin, then we deny God’s right to be God; we deny His right to judge! If we deny that sin is sin, then we seek to remove God from His throne, because sin is transgression of God’s law, and is therefore against God (1 John 3:4; Ps. 51:4; Luke 15:18). If we deny that sin is sin, then we deny God’s justice under which, and in satisfaction to which, He crucified His Son! To do that is to accuse God of pouring out His wrath upon His Son for nothing! To deny that sin is sin and that we are sinners, is to deny that God is God. If we deny that our sin is sin, we hold ourselves to be righteous apart from Christ and deny our need of a Savior in opposition our own salvation! To claim liberty of God’s rule is to exclude ourselves from God’s salvation in Christ (Luke 15:18; 2 Tim. 2:25).

Neither the constitution of the United States, nor the current interpretation of that constitution defines sin against God. “Liberty” is not an inalienable, God-given right to sinners to do as they please. But our unavoidable personal accountability to the one holy and true God is. Sin, contrary to popular demand, is not violating sinful man’s personal liberty as the one law above all criticism. Claiming personal liberty as the one great protected right of man is opposition to God-given restraint and God's sovereign rule.

Men are presently opposing all prohibitions to publicly do and promote whatever they imagine to do and approve (John 3:20). Like the men of Sodom, they impose the thoughts of their corrupt minds and licentious lifestyles on others. Present laws give corrupt public school educators the right to indoctrinate young children to accept whatever men approve, even though what they approve is offensive to God. The highest courts of our government uphold this wickedness because they promote the lie that offending man is a great offense against God. Imagine that! Men exalt their right to liberty over God's right to be God!

But personal “liberty” is meant to underscore our unavoidable accountability to God. True liberty does not remove our accountability to God and replace it with accountability to man. True liberty is not serving sin. Only Christ by His grace can set us free from our sins and our sin (John 8:32). He sets the lawful captives free from sin, from satan, from death and from the justice and wrath of God by laying the axe of His sin-atoning death to the root: to our sins (Ps. 65:3; Isa. 49:24-25).

May we be ever thankful for the love of God our heavenly Father that He faithfully afflicts us on the inside, to show us His glory in Christ our only Savior (Luke 2:30; Isa. 45:21; Acts 4:12). We must not resist God’s condemning law. It exposes our guilt. It reveals our corruptions. It tells us the truth about ourselves. We must repair to Christ for salvation from our sins and the judgment we deserve. We must be reconciled to God by His sin-atoning death (Ps. 119:67; Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Luke 15:18; 18:13; Isa. 6:5; 2).

Rick Warta