It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The title of our message today
is, Tell Jesus. Herod beheaded John the Baptist
in prison. John's disciples came and took
up his body and buried him. Then they went and told Jesus. Matthew 14 verse 12 says, And
his disciples came and took up the body and buried it and went
and told Jesus. I would like to make two points
from this scripture. First, who Jesus is. Jesus Christ
is our great God and our savior. The gospel is about his glorious
person and successful work to save his people from their sins.
The second point is to tell him. We are to go to him at all times,
in every trouble, and pour out our hearts to him, believing
his word, trusting in his salvation. First, what is in a name? A name in scripture identifies
who a person is. For example, Abraham means father
of many nations. As his name is, so is he. He
is the father of all believers throughout the many nations of
the world, both Jews and Gentiles. All who believe Christ are called
Abraham's children, Galatians 3.29. Because the promises God
gave to him, he gave to Christ, and God's elect with him, they
are called the children of Abraham. Nabal's name in 1st Samuel 25,
25 told who he was. Abigail said of her husband Nabal,
Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, Nabal. For as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly
is with him. A name, therefore, gathers together
all that is to be understood of a person. Jesus is such a
name. In Old Testament scripture, God
names Himself. There are nine variations of
the name Jehovah by which God reveals Himself in the Old Testament.
Every one of these variants of Jehovah in scripture corresponds
to the truth God has revealed of His Son in the Gospel. Each
name reveals our divine Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout
the Old Testament, God uses the name Jehovah in a context and
in combination with another word to expand his revelation of himself. In each of these names we see
who God is by what he has done to save his people. Let's briefly
look at eight of these names. The first one occurs in Genesis
chapter 22. In Genesis 22 when Isaac asked his father Abraham
why there was no lamb for the burnt offering, Abraham said,
the Lord will see. The word translated will see
is Jehovah-Jireh. This name is explained in verse
8. My son, God will provide himself
a lamb. This is the gospel. Jesus Christ
is the Lamb of God. God the Father gave his son. He delivered him up to judgment
for his elect, Romans 8.32. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
for his people, the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. Galatians 2.20 Christ offered
himself to God. Hebrews 7.27 He is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13.8 The Gospel is
that God gave his Son for his people and Christ offered himself
to God. He is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of God's elect throughout the world. He is therefore Jehovah
Jireh. God will see to it. He will provide
Himself and provide Himself as the Lamb of God. The second name
of our Lord found in scripture is Jehovah Nisi, the Lord My
Banner. It occurs in Exodus 17.15. Moses upheld the rod of God. That rod represented the power
of God unto salvation, that is, the gospel of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, Romans 1.16. In Numbers 21.8, the brass serpent
is lifted up on a pole. The word for pole is nisi, or
banner. All who looked at the uplifted
serpent on the pole lived. Jesus said this was about himself.
He is the one God lifted up on the cross, bearing the curse
of God's law against his people. All who look to Him live. Paul
said that God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Our banner is what we glory in. As long as the gospel is held
up to the eyes of the believer, he triumphs over his flesh just
as Israel triumphed over Amalek in Exodus 17. But when we cannot
see Christ as our strength and deliverer in the gospel, we have
no power over the flesh. Christ is therefore the Lord
our banner, our boast, as our curse-bearing substitute, by
whom the curse for our sins is taken away, and by whom we overcome
our flesh in this body of death. The third name by which God reveals
himself is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. Jesus
Christ is the Great Physician. The whole, Jesus said, do not
need a physician, only the sick do. He came to save sinners,
sin-plagued, dying sinners. It is by His stripes that we
are healed. God's judgment is against His
people because of their sin. Christ bore their sins in His
own body. God punished him in their place. He bore the beating my sins deserved. It is by his stripes that we
are healed. God turns away from us the judgment
our sins deserved because he judged us for our sins in Christ. We are therefore healed. Jesus
Christ is the Lord that healeth thee. Jehovah Rapha. The fourth
name in scripture is Jehovah Shalom, the Lord my peace. In
Judges 6.24, Gideon saw the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He thought he would die for seeing his face, but the Lord said to
Gideon, Peace be unto thee. When he knew that God accepted
him, Gideon built an altar. He called the name of that altar
Jehovah Shalom. Christ is our altar. He offered
himself to God in his human nature on the altar of his divine nature. Ephesians 2.14 says Christ is
our peace. Colossians 1.20 says that he
made peace by the blood of his cross. Thus, Christ is our peace,
because he reconciled us to God in his own death. 2 Corinthians
5.21 says this, God hath made him sin, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Thus, Christ has
made peace in himself in his offering of himself to God for
his people. His offering made satisfaction
to God's justice. Therefore, he reconciled his
people to God by his sin-atoning death, which satisfied God in
justice and removed their sins in full remission and forgiveness. The fifth name in scripture is
Jehovah Ra'ah, the Lord my shepherd. Psalm 23.1 says, The Lord is
my shepherd, I shall not want. Jesus applied this to himself
in John 10 verses 11, 14, and 16. He said, I am the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the
good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. other sheep
I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd." In John 10,11 Jesus said that he is the good
shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. The sheep are God's
elect, the church. We see this in verses 14 and
16. In verse 14 Jesus said that he knows his sheep and his sheep
know him. Christ first knows his own, he
chooses them, then his sheep come to know him when the gospel
is preached and they believe it. Clearly this is true only
of the church. Then in verse 16 Jesus says that
there is one fold and one shepherd. He is the Lord my shepherd. There is only one shepherd. Christ
is the one shepherd of Psalm 23 and John 10. And there is
only one fold, the body of Christ. In this body, both Jews and Gentiles
make up one fold. Christ is the one shepherd of
all believers, Jews and Gentiles, throughout time. The sixth name
in scripture is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness, Jeremiah
23.6. Jesus stood in the place of his
people before God. In Matthew 20, verse 28, he said
of himself, The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, he
did not come to be served, but to minister, that is to serve,
and to give his life a ransom for many. The word for in that
verse means in the place of. Christ gave himself in the place
of his people. God received his sufferings under
the wrath of God with the sins of his people in their place.
And in Romans 5.19 we are told that, as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Christ obeyed God for his people,
in their place, as their covenant head. Just as Adam, by his sin
in the Garden of Eden, brought all of his children under the
guilt and condemnation of sin, so Christ brought righteousness
and justification on all of his people by his obedience to God
in their salvation. The Lord Jesus fulfilled God's
law in both punishment against sin and in obedience to God's
honor. His life of obedience and suffering
fulfilled the righteousness of God's law, but he did not act
for himself in this. He stood for the many. As he
fulfilled their obedience for them, he delivered them from
the darkness and prison of unbelief. All who believe Him are the righteousness
of God in Him. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ's obedience
unto death is the righteousness of His people before God. He
is Jehovah Tzidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. And the seventh
name we see in scripture is Jehovah Kodosh. In Exodus 31.13, God
told Moses that he is Jehovah, your sanctifier. As our high
priest in his prayer in John 17, Jesus said that he sanctified
himself, that his people would be sanctified. Jesus Christ sanctified
His people by offering Himself to God in their place and on
their behalf, according to the will of God. Christ could sanctify
His people because He is our High Priest, sharing our nature,
appointed to represent His people before God as our mediator, who
made atonement for our sins. When He sanctified Himself to
God, He sanctified all of His people with Him. He sanctified
himself in his obedience unto death. It was obedience to the
will of God. By it, he made all for whom he
died holy before God. By offering himself to wash them
of their sins, he set them apart for God's glory in their salvation. Hebrews 10.10 says, by which
will we are sanctified? By the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once. The next name we see in scripture
is Jehovah Sabaoth. Jehovah Sabaoth means Jehovah
of hosts, the Lord of elect angels and elect men, heaven's armies,
heaven's hosts. Hannah's husband in scripture,
Elkanah, went to worship Jehovah of hosts in 1st Samuel 1.3. Now in the New Testament it is
made abundantly clear that Jesus Christ is the sovereign creator
and upholder of all things. All things were made by Him and
for Him. He ruled heaven and had glory
with His Father before coming into the world. John 17 verse
5 and John 6, 62. And having finished the work
of our salvation by His obedience in His humiliations and sufferings
and death, He is now exalted again to His Father's throne.
As Elkanah came to worship Jehovah of hosts in 1st Samuel 1, 3,
so God's people worship Christ. Peter said in his sermon to Cornelius
and to his household, the word which God sent unto the children
of Israel preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. And this is just a condensed
summary of the entire gospel. Christ made peace. He is Lord
of all. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He is the Lord of hosts. Now,
do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ is all of these to you?
He is the Lamb of God who offered Himself to God with the sins
of His people. Do you believe Him? Do you trust
that in Christ's offering alone, God received full payment for
all of the wrong your sins did to His justice and that He suffered
for the punishment your sins deserved? Are you bowed in worship
persuaded that God commands you to look to Him alone as everything
in salvation and as sovereign Lord of all? Do you look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, as everything in your salvation,
knowing that God received all from Him that He requires of
you, and that if God requires anything more than what He received
from Christ, you cannot give one thing, and are without hope
deserving the wrath of God? Is Christ all of your glory and
boast? When you see that He is all of
your salvation, do you praise and thank the Lord Jesus Christ,
that one so high and holy and almighty would be so gracious
as to be made sin and accursed for you? Is Christ crucified
your only boast before God? Is seeing Him as all of your
salvation and your only strength in battle, your only peace and
joy before God? Do you see that by the beating
Christ took under the wrath of God, He has made peace for you
to God and has removed the plague from God against you because
of your sin? Do you see that His stripes are
your healing and your peace? Is Christ the Lord all of your
peace? When troubles and doubts arise
that would shake your confidence and instill fear, do you flee
for refuge to Him who made peace by His blood? Do you know that
if Christ is your shepherd, you have all things and have no lack
before God? Is the Lord Jesus Christ your
shepherd? Do you see that your only righteousness
before God is the obedience of Christ to His Father in His life
and His obedience under suffering even unto death? Do you see that
He stood in the place of His people and that all that He did
was for their benefit and blessing? Is the Lord your only righteousness
before God and men? Psalm 71 16 says, I will make
mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. Do you see
that all that makes you holy to God is the offering of Christ? Is the Lord Jesus Christ your
sanctifier? And do you see that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the absolute sovereign ruler of heaven and
earth, that He is gracious to whom He will be gracious, and
saves by His own work alone, with no consideration of anything
in me or any contribution from me? Do you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Lord of hosts? Now, all these names of Jehovah
are comprehended and summarized in one name. That name is Jesus. As explained in 1 Samuel 25,
25, a name in scripture identifies who a person is. Just so. As his name is, so is he. Jesus
is His name, for He accomplished full and complete salvation for
His people. He saved His people from their
sins. God Himself defines this name
for us. Matthew 1.21 says, His name shall
be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. The name Jesus is at once the
name of highest honor, and the name of greatest endearment to
every believer. Psalm 9 verse 10 says, they that
know thy name shall put their trust in thee. If you know Jesus
Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel, as the One who made satisfaction
to God for the sins of His people, who removed their sins from them
by full remission of their debt and with full forgiveness from
God, based on what God finds in His Son alone, And if you
believe that you can only be saved if you are saved by His
righteousness only, with no help from yourself or any other, then
you will put your trust in Him. In the New Covenant, God promised
that all of His people would know the Lord. How do they all
know the Lord? They know Him in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They all hear His voice. His
voice is the truth of the gospel revealed by God as true to me. If you are Christ's sheep, you
will hear and believe the gospel. If I know the Lord Jesus Christ
according to the truth of the gospel, then I know Him as the
one who saved me from my sins. Hebrews 8, verse 10 says, They
shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the LORD? For all shall know me, from the
least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Do you see that this is the issue?
What does God think of His Son? What did God receive from His
Son? Is God satisfied with His Son? Do you think what God thinks
about Christ? Do we think the same thing as
He does? If we do, then we believe the
record God gave of His Son, 1 John 5.10. If not, then we have not
yet believed the truth. The gospel is that God has made
known His glory in the salvation of His people by the obedience
unto death of His Son. It is how God rescued His people
from their fall in willful rebellion, that He saved them in spite of
their unbelief and lawlessness and helplessness in these, and
that He laid all of the work and cost for their salvation
on Himself in Christ. It is that he received from Christ
full compensation and honor to his righteous law. The gospel
is that sinners who are only deserving of God's wrath are
saved by Christ alone. The gospel is about the grace
of God who does all to have his people and never looks for one
thing from them, but gives all to them because he willed to
do so in grace and because on the ground of Christ's obedience
it magnifies his justice and his mercy and all of his perfections
to the highest possible extent. In Christ crucified we see the
glory of God. Now Matthew 4 verse 12 says that
John the Baptist's disciples went and told Jesus. They went
to him who is Lord of all, who purged all of the sins of all
of God's elect, and who did so by himself, Hebrews 1.3. They
went to Jesus, the one who alone saves his people from their sins.
And what did they do? They told him all that had happened. When you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you come to him. Believing Christ is coming to
Christ. John 6.35 These disciples of Jesus came to Jesus. They
had heard John tell them who Jesus is and what he came to
do. Now they went to him and told him all. About Jesus, John
the Baptist said, He is the Son of God. He is from heaven. He
is above all. God the Father has put all things
into His hand. John also said, He is Christ,
the Bridegroom. He has the Bride, the Church,
the people of God. He is Creator and Husband of
God's people. He is the Lamb of God. He takes
away the sins of God's elect throughout the whole world, both
Jews and Gentiles. He must increase. Isaiah 2, verse
11 says the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And John
himself said, I must decrease. John was the greatest prophet,
yet it must be Christ who increases, while he must decrease. John
was imprisoned. Now he is martyred for Christ's
sake. He decreased in life and finally in death. But this was
John's teaching and his delight. Christ must increase in the eyes
of his people. John's mission was therefore
perfected when his disciples came to Jesus. They did what
he taught them. They learned of Christ and now
they followed him. John died. He decreased. Christ, the Lamb of God, accomplished
salvation for his people. He increased. He is the King
of Glory. What a joy John had for his disciples
in this. How they must have loved John
for sending them to Christ in his last act of martyrdom. What
do we tell Jesus? There is no better advice that
a preacher can give than what these disciples did. Go to Jesus. Tell Him. Tell Him all that you
are not. Ask Him to show you all that
He is. Psalm 55, 22 says, Cast thy burden
upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. What do we tell Him? We tell
Him of all our anxious concerns. Philippians 4, 6-7 says, Be careful
for nothing, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. And the peace of God, which passes
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. And we tell Him all of our fears,
our sorrows, and our needs. Psalm 55 verses 16-17 says, As
for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening
and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and He
shall hear my voice. We tell Him about all of our
enemies and our weakness against them. We tell Him that we don't
know what to do. We look to Him and tell Him that
our eyes are upon Him waiting for His salvation. In 2 Chronicles
20, verse 12, Jehoshaphat prayed to God against the enemies of
Judah and Jerusalem. He said, O our God, wilt thou
not judge them? For we have no might against
this great company that comes against us. Neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon thee. and we tell him of his
glorious triumphs that he has given and promised in the Gospel.
In 2 Chronicles 20, the Prophet told Jehoshaphat in verse 17,
You shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves,
stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. And we
tell the Lord that our sins prevail against us. Psalm 65 verse 3
says, Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions,
thou shalt purge them away. We tell the Lord Jesus Christ
that there is no God like Him who has cast our sins into the
depths of the sea of His judgment. Micah 17, verses 18-19 say, Who
is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passes
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth
not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will
turn again. He will have compassion upon
us. He will subdue our iniquities
and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. We hear him tell how he accomplished
our warfare over sin. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 2 says,
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. We thank Him that
He has delivered us from the dominion of our own unbelief.
In Romans 6.17 it says, But God be thanked that you were the
servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Obedience from the heart
is faith. The form of doctrine is the gospel,
and we believe it. And we tell the Lord Jesus that
our sinful flesh, what we are in ourselves, is nothing but
sin, but that we look to Him as everything in our salvation. In Romans 7, verses 24-25, Paul
said, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. And
we tell him that we have destroyed ourselves by our sin, but that
our only help is in him. Hosea 13.9 says, O Israel, thou
hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. And we tell
him what he has told us to do and say in coming to him. Hosea
14 verse 1 and 2, O Israel. In all of these verses, we tell
the Lord Jesus Christ what He has told us in the Gospel. In
short, we tell Christ all. We cast every burden upon Him
and in so doing, we are saved. Psalm 50 verse 15, call upon
me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify
me. May God bring us to come to Jesus
Christ as he is revealed in the gospel and in coming tell him
all that we are not and tell him all that he says he is to
us and in so telling trust him and find salvation and perfect
peace in him. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.