Todd's Road Grace Church would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at 9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services. For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert.

I want to preach upon this subject, Christ manifesting himself. Oh, how I need Christ to manifest himself to me. If he doesn't manifest himself to me, I won't see him, I won't know him. This is my desperate need, and this is your desperate need for Christ to manifest Himself, to make Himself known to you.

In John 15, verse 22, we read these words by Judas, not Iscariot. I think it's very important to know that this was not Judas Iscariot speaking. You know, he said, Lord, how is it you'll manifest yourself to us? Judas Iscariot never called him Lord. He called him master, but not one time did he call him Lord. So let's remember who is speaking. This is actually Thaddeus. Judas, not Iscariot. Now let's read these words. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord.

How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not to the world? Now, for me to understand how the Lord's going to answer, because he does answer, verse 23 says, Jesus answered and said, He answered this question that Judas not Iscariot presented, but I first want us to consider what does Judas mean when he says, how will you manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Who is meant by us? Who is meant by the world? Now, when he says, how is it that you'll manifest yourself to us? Is he merely speaking of the 12 apostles?

Well, they're certainly included in the us, but the us he's speaking of is the us the Lord was speaking of. When he said in Matthew chapter three, verse 15, thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now understand this, everything the Lord did, he did as an us. When he kept the law, he did it for this group called us. Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now if I'm in this group, us, that means when he fulfilled all righteousness, I fulfilled all righteousness.

This us is the same us spoken of by Paul when he said, if God be for us, who can be against us? How is it that you'll manifest yourself to us? Now, who is Paul talking about when he says, if God be for us, who can be against us. Now, examine the context. In the previous verse, he said, and we know, that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to his purpose. The us is those who love God, those who are the called, according to his purpose. God is a God of purpose.

He goes on to say, for whom he did foreknow. Them He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified.

Now what shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, those He foreknew, those He predestinated, those He called, those He justified, those He glorified. Who can be against us? The us is the whole company of God's elect, His chosen, those for whom Christ died, those that God the Holy Spirit has regenerated and made them to be born from above, born again. That's the us. being spoken of by Judas, not Iscariot. He refers to every believer, all of the elect.

Now, what's your response to this? Do you think, well, how's it fair for God to just choose some and not choose others? How's it fair for it not to be everybody? Or do you say, I want to be one of these people? I want to be included in this group designated as us. How is it that thou will manifest thyself to us and not to the world? Now, who does he mean by the world? All who are not included in the us.

Listen to this scripture from John chapter 17, verse nine. These are the words of our Lord. He says, I pray for them, the us. I pray not for the world. but for them which you have given me. That's the us, the elect. Well, who's the world? Everybody that's not in this group called the us, the world that has no love for God, the world that hates God. How is it that you'll manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Well, let's listen to his answer.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, if he manifests himself to you or me, we will love him. Now there are two kinds of people in this world, those who love Jesus the Christ and those who have no love for Him. That's the only two kinds of people in this world there are. Those who love Christ, those who do not love Him. Now, if I love Him, it's because He has manifested Himself to me. You see all that he manifests himself to, here's the response. They love him. Now, if I love him, there was a time when I didn't love him.

Romans chapter eight, verse seven says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. There was a time when I had no love for God, no love for Christ. As a matter of fact, I had enmity toward Him. Now, if somebody says, I've never felt enmity toward God, well, you've not felt enmity toward your conception of God, your false conception of God.

But anytime God is revealed, the first thing He reveals is you're in trouble because you've been guilty of hating Him. You've been guilty of being an enmity with Him. I can remember my own experience. I remember when I first heard of election. God choosing who would be saved. Do you know my heart rose out in anger against him?

Well, that means I don't have any control on this thing. That means God doesn't have to save me. I hated him for that. And that's when I found out that I was guilty of hating God. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. John 15, 25 says, they hated me without a cause.

And the only way I can love him is if He gives me a new heart, a new birth, a new creation that can love Him. And when He gives me this new heart, this clean heart, this pure heart, He manifests Himself to me and I now love who He is. Now the most striking example of what I'm talking about is the thief on the cross. When he was nailed to that cross, he had no love for Jesus Christ.

He was railing on him with the other thief that was nailed on the other side. They were cursing him. They were making fun of him. And all of a sudden he stopped. And he says to his fellow thief, as his fellow thief continues to rail, don't you fear God? Don't you know that that one hanging beside you is God himself? You're in the same condemnation and we're getting the due reward of our deeds. God's giving us exactly what we deserve.

But this man has done nothing amiss. He knew that Jesus Christ was God. He knew that Jesus Christ was man. And he knew that Jesus Christ had done nothing amiss. And then he looked at that one hanging beside him on the cross and said, Lord, he knew he was Lord. How did he know? He had manifested Himself to him. He knew that one nail-doo tree was the Lord of glory, the Lord over all.

He said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You're not going to stay on my cross. You're going to be raised from the dead, and you're going to come back as a mighty reigning king. My hope, my only hope, is that you'll remember me when you return.

Now, how is it that he knew all this? Christ manifested himself to him, and something that's not written about the thief, but I know is so, he loved the Lord Jesus Christ. If a man love me, if he loves him, it's because Christ manifested himself to that man. Now look what else the Lord says, if a man love me, He will keep my words. Christ manifests Himself. If He manifests Himself to me or you, we'll love Him. And that love will be seen in keeping His words. His words are words of Spirit and life. You can't separate Christ from what He said. There's a lot of folks who say, I believe Jesus, but they don't pay any attention to anything He ever said. Oh, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, in John chapter six, after that great sermon at Capernaum, when he preached the gospel to them, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can be expected to listen to such teaching? The Lord said, does this offend you? Are you offended by what has been said? Uh, He said, the words that I speak unto you, that you're offended by, their spirit and their life. And that crowd left him at that time, and he looked at the 12, and he said, will you also go away? Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ. The Son of the Living God.

Now, if I love Him, I will love His words. I'll guard over them. I'll keep them. All of my hope is founded in what He has said. When He said it is finished, oh, I'm listening to what He said. And I found all of my hope in that statement. He accomplished my salvation for me. Look what else he says.

If a man loved me, he'll keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him eternally. You know, when the Lord said to Zacchaeus, make haste, come down today, I must abide at thy house, that's to abide for good. What a glorious thing to thank everyone the Lord's manifested himself to. Isaiah 57, 15, thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabits this eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell, I abide in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble. Now, if He manifests Himself to you, He stays with you. He abides with you. He loves you. Verse 24, He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings or my words. They're inconsequential to Him. And the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. Every word I speak is the word of the Father.

Now, these things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you. Now, remember, he's answering Judas's question. How is it that you'll manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Well, look what he says next, but the comforter. Now, this is how he manifests himself through the comforter, the Holy Spirit.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you. Now, how is it that he'll manifest himself? through God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, coming to you and giving you a new heart to receive, to adore, to believe on Him. Now the Holy Ghost is a person, just as much a person as God the Father and God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And we know that no one will love God apart from God first loving him and the Holy Spirit coming and giving him a new heart. That's where love to Christ comes from. And I love the way God the Holy Spirit is called the comforter.

He comforts with the gospel. You know, the gospel is a message of comfort to those who have no righteousness. It's a message of comfort to those who have nothing but sin that can't save themselves. It's a message of comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, his people, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. It's already won. Her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

Now the Holy Spirit comes with the comfort of the gospel and he is how the Lord manifests himself. You're given a new heart by God the Holy Spirit to believe on him. Look what he says with regard to God, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He shall teach you all things. Now, if I had been taught by God, I know they shall all be taught of God. Every man that had heard and learned of the Father comes to me. When God the Holy Spirit teaches you, He teaches you who He is, He teaches you who God is. He teaches you who you are. He teaches you who Christ is and how Christ is salvation. And when He teaches you, you learn. I've heard people saying, God's trying to teach me something. No, He doesn't try to do anything. He teaches, and when He teaches, You know.

That's how He manifests Himself to you, by giving you God the Holy Spirit to give you a new heart. It's the Spirit that quickens, that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. To as many as received Him, to them gave you the power to become the sons of God, even to them which were born, birthed, not of blood. not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God.

He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Now, how is it that he'll manifest himself to us and not to the world? Well, first of all, by manifesting himself and causing us to love him. Secondly, by giving us the Holy Spirit. Now here's the third mark that he mentions. How is it that you'll manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

He says in verse 27, peace, I leave with you. My peace, I given to you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. When he manifests himself, there is a peace that he leaves with us after he leaves. A peace that he calls my peace, I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Now, there is a peace the world calls peace. I think it can be summarized by what the prophet said with regard to the false prophets, and this is what the Lord said through the prophet. They cry, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Have you made your peace with God? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Have you invited Him into your heart? Have you let Him be Lord of your life? Have you asked Him in? Then you have peace. Have you prayed the sinner's prayer and repeated the prayer after the soul winner spoke to you? Then you have peace. Have you made your decision for Christ? Peace, there's peace.

That's what the false prophet cries. Peace, peace, when there is no peace. No true ground of peace. You know, I suppose the cow before it's slaughtered has peace, but it doesn't have a ground of peace. Now listen to this statement very carefully. Any peace that you derive from anything other than the Lord's final words from the cross, it is finished. is a false peace. If you have peace because you can look upon anything in you and think, well, I must have peace because I did this or I stopped doing that or I began to do this and I'm different, I'm changed, I'm looking at my changed life. I used to be this way and now I'm that way. If you derive peace from that, it is a false peace that won't stand on Judgment Day. The only peace that will stand on Judgment Day is His peace, the peace that He accomplished.

Now, Christ is called the Prince of Peace. He's called Jehovah our Lord. Peace. And I love Acts 10, verse 36, when Peter summarized all true preaching like this. Peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. Now, this is the peace that he's speaking of when he says, my peace I give to you. Peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. Now what is meant by peace by Jesus Christ? It means He's the author of peace.

Colossians 1.20 says, having made peace by the blood of His cross.

Now when Jesus Christ was nailed to that cross, Why was he nailed to the cross? The scripture says, who bear our sins in his own body on the tree. all the sins of all of God's elect, he bore in his own body on the tree. And when he was dying on the tree, it wasn't the innocent dying, it was the guilty dying, because he became guilty of the sins that every believer to ever live has committed.

They all were made to meet on him. And he made peace by satisfying the demands of God's law against them. Now listen to me, when he died, all sin was put away for everybody he died for. Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Not Jesus paid a half the other half I owe. Jesus paid it all. That's what every believer can say.

This is the piece of justification. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, have you ever understood, have I understood this thing of justification? You know, I've heard preachers describe justifications.

If I'm justified, that's just as if I've never sinned. You know, I don't get any comfort from that because if I'm just as if I never sinned, that means I've still sinned. If I'm justified by God, that means I never sinned. That's what justification is. I've never sinned. I stand before God as one who has never sinned, one who has a perfect standing before his holy law.

Somebody says, how can that be? Because I'm conscious of me being a sinner and sinning. How can that be? Because Jesus Christ bore my sins. When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. My sins are gone. He put them away. And he gave me his perfect righteousness.

And I now stand before God, according to Colossians 1.22, holy. and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Now, if that's true, and it is, it's true of everybody Christ died for, they're holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the very sight of God. I have peace. All that God requires of me, I have.

In Genesis 6, verse 5, speaking of Noah's generation and speaking of all mankind, God said, and God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But you know what he said about Noah? He said, with regard to Noah, thee have I seen as righteous before me in this generation. That same generation that he described as every imagination, the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. That's what Noah was by nature, but God said, I never saw Noah like that. How can that be? Because Noah was seen in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Noah was never seen independent of Jesus Christ.

And that's why God can say to him, Thee have I seen as righteous before me. And that's what God says to every single believer. Thee have I seen. And how God sees things is how they are. You and I, we don't really see things how they are. We're deceived by so many things. God sees things as they are.

And he says to Noah and every other believer, thee have I seen as righteous before me in this generation. And if God sees me righteous, because Jesus Christ is my righteousness, because he put away my sin, and everything he requires of me, he looks to his son for, and I'm complete in him. I'm lacking nothing in him. That being the case, I have peace, the peace that Christ gives, not as the world gives, the false peace, but the peace that Christ gives. Now, how is it you'll manifest yourself? By making yourself known, by your Holy Spirit, and by the peace which I give, may the Lord manifest himself to each one of us. To receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.neibert at gmail.com, or you may write or call the church at the information provided on the screen.