I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 Nyberg. Have you ever heard of the church
being the body of Christ? The scripture says it is. What
in the world does that mean? The church being the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the writer to the Hebrews
says in Hebrews chapter 13, verse three, to the people he's writing
to, Remember them that are in bonds, that are in prison, as
bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves
also in the body. Now, the writer says to these
people, someone who has been imprisoned for preaching the
gospel of Christ, you be in the cell with them. And if someone
is suffering adversity, You make sure you're suffering the same
adversity as being in their bodies. Now, this is the great mystery
of the church being the body of Christ here on earth. Now that's just mysterious, but
it's what the scripture teaches. Now let me remind you, the Bible
claims to be the word of God. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Now it's either the word of God
or it's the word of man. It's not a mixture. It's either
the word of God or the word of man. The Bible claims to be the
word of God. I have no doubt that it is. Every
word God breathed. And the things contained in the
scripture are things we would have never even have suspected
had not God made them known. For instance, could you know
that God is one God and three distinct persons, God, the father,
God, the son, and God, the Holy spirit without the word of God
teaching this, we would never have known this. And we would
never have known that the church is the body of Christ here on
earth. Had not God made this glorious,
mysterious truth known in his word. You are the body of Christ, Paul
said to the Corinthians. You are. This is not a metaphor. You are. the body of Christ and
members in particular. And that's why he says to those
who are imprisoned or with regard to those who are imprisoned or
suffering adversity, you're with them in the precise same body. Now think of what the Lord said
to Saul of Tarsus when he made himself known to him on the road
to Damascus. He said, Saul, Saul. Now remember
Saul hated Christ. He wanted to stamp out his name.
He consented under the death of Stephen, the preacher of the
gospel. He had letters from the chief priests to gather anyone
who professed to know Christ and believe Christ and have them
imprisoned. He hated the name of Jesus Christ. And when the Lord met him on
the road to Damascus, he said, Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou
me?" Now, Paul couldn't persecute Christ. He's the Son of God.
He's in heaven. He's glorified. He's all-powerful. Paul would have no power in this,
but yet the Lord says, Why persecutest thou me? He doesn't say, why
do you persecute my disciples? He said, why are you persecuting
me? Because the disciples cannot be separated from the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in Ephesians 4.4, there
is one body. I think of what the Lord says
on judgment day to the sheep and the goats. He says to the
sheep, in as much as you've done it to the least of these, my
brethren, you did it to me. And he says to the goats, in
as much as you did it not to the least of these, my brethren,
you did it not unto me. This is the reality of union
with Jesus Christ. And this is what every believer
has. This is not the heritage of every man, but it is the heritage
of every believer. Hebrews 2, verse 11 says, both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one. One with Christ. 1 John 4, 17
says, as he is. So are we in this world. This is a reference to every
believer, this thing of being union in union, vitally united,
eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ so that I can never
be separated from him. What's done to me is done to
him by his own words. I think of what Paul said. He said, bonds and afflictions
were waiting for me. in every city I go to." Wherever
he went, he knew there would be trouble. He knew he would
be beaten, whipped, imprisoned. And that is what the writer of
the Hebrews is talking about when he talks about, remember
those that are bound, imprisoned for preaching the gospel, imprisoned
for believing the gospel. Remember them that are bound
as being bound with them. Now, one thing that comes to
my mind when I think of that is this reminds me that the world
hates Jesus Christ. Now, you may be listening and
think, I don't hate Jesus Christ. Well, have you heard the gospel?
You find out what men think about Jesus Christ when they hear the
gospel of His grace, how He saved sinners by Christ only. Human works do not count. They
have nothing to do with it. Salvation is in Christ. It's
by grace. It's in Him, all according to
Him. Now, people that are normally
very nice people, good neighbors, when they hear the gospel, that's
when they get angry. Now, why do men hate Jesus Christ?
Let me give you two reasons. Number one, because men are evil.
I was born into this world, evil. You were born into this world,
evil. The carnal mind, Romans 8, 7,
the carnal mind is enmity against God. Now maybe not the God of
their imagination, but the God of the Bible. the absolutely
sovereign God who saves whom he will and passes by whom he
will, who's in control of all things, that God the carnal mind
is at enmity with. Paul goes on to say, It's not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So that they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Now, the reason men hate the
gospel is number one, because they hate God, they hate Jesus
Christ. But number two, the reason men
hate his gospel is because his gospel negates what they're hoping
in. You see, all of us by nature
have some kind of hope in our works. We hope that our good
works will outweigh our bad works. We have some kind of hope that
some kind of experience we had way back in the past would prove
to us we're Christians. Our hope is this, I believe I'm
saved because I, fill in the blank. If you say you believe
you're saved because you did anything, The scripture excludes
you from the kingdom of heaven. The only people who are saved
are the people who are saved by His grace. I think of what Paul said with
regard to the gospel, where is boasting then? What can you boast
in? And say, well, I'm saved because
I did this, or I quit doing that, or I changed. Paul says boasting
is excluded. By what? Law of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you know what that means? Think about that statement. This
is the Apostle Paul speaking. God forbid that I should glory,
that I should hope in, that I should boast in, that I should trust
in, that I should rest in anything, Save the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the God men hate, the God
of the Bible, believers love. And the gospel men hate. Everybody
that the Lord has saved, they love that gospel because he is
called the savior of the body. Now the body of Christ is all
of those who are in him. I've already touched on this
in hymn by union. An eternal union where God has
never seen me separate from Jesus Christ even before the foundation
of the world. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world and before time began, the only
hope I had was in the Lamb slain. His precious saving blood, His
work in the behalf of His people. Listen to this scripture, Ephesians
chapter one, verse four says, according as he hath chosen us.
in Him before the foundation of the world." Now, that's God's
electing mercy. He chose who would be saved before
the foundation of the world. And this choice was not some
kind of arbitrary choice where He said, well, I think I'll save
that one and pass that one by. No, all of God's elect are eternally
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't think of election and
not think of being in the Lord Jesus Christ. chosen in Him,
accepted in Him, redeemed by Him, Forgiven in Him, and this is
God's doing, of Him are you in Christ Jesus. You didn't get
yourself in there. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. The body of Christ are those
who are in Him. Now, I think of a couple of things
that illustrate this in the New Testament. The Lord had the mother
of James and John come up to him and say, grant that these
my two sons can sit on thy right hand and on thy left when you
come back in your kingdom. And he said to the boys with
his mother, with their mother listening on, James and John,
he said, are you able to drink of the cup that I drink of and
to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with? Now,
when he was saying, are you able to drink of that cup, he's talking
about that cup of sin that he had to drink in Gethsemane's
garden when he took upon himself the sins of his people. Are you
able to drink of that cup? Are you able to be baptized with
the baptism that I'm baptized with? Now, he wasn't talking
about water baptism. He was talking about that baptism
of fire that Luke 12 speaks of when he would experience the
wrath of God as the sinner's substitute. And you know what
these young men said at that time? We're able, we're up to
it. They were so ignorant when they
said that. They didn't know what they were saying. But the Lord
said, instead of rebuking them, He said, you shall indeed drink
of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism
that I'm baptized with. How is that? Because they were
in Him. In the beloved, I went to the
tree. Everything he experienced, every
believer experienced. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. When Christ was crucified, I was. When he died, I died. When he was raised from the dead,
I was raised from the dead. I think of what he said to John
the Baptist. He comes to John the Baptist to be baptized and
John the Baptist said, I need to be baptized of thee, comest
thou to me? He said, suffered to be so now for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. He fulfilled righteousness for
a great number of people called us. If God be for us, who can
be against us. When Christ fulfilled all righteousness,
Todd Nybert, everybody in Christ fulfilled all righteousness.
He kept the law for me, all those who are in the body. Now, I want
to read a passage of scripture to you from Psalm 40 that is
so glorious about how Christ in his own body bore our sins
to where they became his. Now, this is not talking about
the sins of all men with that exception. Listen to me carefully.
When Jesus Christ died, he died for the elect. He died for those
who he was going to give the grace to believe to. If there is a place called hell
and he died for everybody, And some of those people he died
for go to hell. That means his death was meaningless.
And I can't believe the Bible doesn't teach anything like that.
His death is successful, but he bore the sins of his people
on the tree. Now in Psalm 40, he says, verse
six, now this was quoted in Hebrews 10 as being the words of Christ.
Sacrifice an offering that it's not desire. Mine ears hast thou
opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come. In the
volume of the book it's written of me. I delight to do thy will,
O God. Now that's quoted in Hebrews
chapter 10 as the very words of Christ. Now let's... He's
speaking. As a matter of fact, in the Psalms,
he's always the one who's speaking. Yes, David speaks or whoever
wrote it, but the first application is him speaking. Now, look what
he says in verse 11 of this same Psalm where he's speaking. Withhold
not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. Four. Innumerable evils have
compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me."
Now notice what he says. He doesn't say Todd's iniquities
that were imputed to me. He said, mine iniquity. You see,
when Jesus Christ drank of that cup and took my sin in His own
body, He never committed sin in Himself. You know that, and
I know that. He, holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. But when He was made sin, He
became guilty of the commission of the sins that I committed.
Now, somebody says, How can that be? I don't know, but it is. With God, nothing shall be impossible.
God took my sins and made them to be the sins of his son, and
he bore them in on his own body and put them away. He made satisfaction
for them before the law, and his perfect righteousness is
given to me and everyone else in him. All who trust him only
as their salvation. They have his righteousness as
their personal righteousness before God. The church is his
body. I want to read you some scriptures
from Ephesians chapter one. We read beginning in verse 22. And he has put all things under
his feet. Lord's in control of everything.
Everything is under his feet. Governments, kingdoms, individuals,
demons, Satan himself. All things are under his feet.
That means he's the sovereign Lord of all. Oh, I love the Lordship
of Jesus Christ. He is Lord. and all things are
under his feet. And gave him to be the head over
all things to the church which is his body. The fullness of him that filleth
all in all. The church, each member of the
church is his body, his fullness, his completeness. He would be
incomplete without any member of his church. That's why they
all must be saved. If one of his members be lost, there would
be an amputated Christ. And I say that with fear and
trembling, but that's never gonna be. He is whole. He is entire. He's complete. Ephesians chapter four, verse
four, there is one body. That's the church of Jesus Christ.
His body, there is one body. You know, this lets us know something
about the ridiculous nature of divisions and denominations and
so on in the church. You have these different denominations.
There's one body. There's not many. There's one. body. Verses 11 and 12 of Ephesians
chapter 4. He gave some apostles and some
prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Look in verse 14 of
Ephesians chapter four, that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love may grow up
into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ from
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supply is according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part maketh the increase of the body into
the edifying of itself in love. The church is the body of Jesus
Christ, all those who are in him. We read in Ephesians 5,
verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as
Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body.
In this same chapter, he says in verse 28, so ought men to
love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife,
loveth himself. Now, he goes on to say in this
passage, with regard to this glorious truth he's teaching
us with regard to marriage in Ephesians 5, 22 through 33, he
says, I speak a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ
and the church. Now, when Christ loved the church,
he was loving his own body. He was loving himself. Oh, The church, the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to show you a passage
of scripture in second Corinthians chapter five that used to trouble
me so much when I would read it. And when I've come to understand
what it means, I love this passage of scripture. Second Corinthians
chapter five, verse 10. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. that everyone may receive the
things done in his body according to that he has done, whether
it be good or bad. Now, have you done anything bad
in your body? Well, if you have any honesty,
you know, you have done many things bad and wicked and evil
in your body. You've committed far more sins
than you're even aware of. And so have I. And yet this passage
of scripture says, if you've done bad things in your body,
you're going to be judged accordingly. Now here is the hope of the believer,
I am in the body of Christ and everything he did in his body
was good. So everything I've done in my
body, the body of Christ is good because I've done what he has
done. Now understand this, this is
the great doctrine of justification, Christ justifying the believer. Justification does not mean that
God sees me as sinful but treats me as if I were not sinful. That's
the way most people view that. He sees what you are, but he
doesn't treat you that way. No, if Christ justified you,
if Christ put your sins away and gave you his righteousness,
you stand before God as having never done anything but that
which is perfect in your body. Now, if you've done anything
bad in your body, which everybody outside of Christ, that's all
they've done is bad, you will receive accordingly. But, oh,
in Christ, I've done nothing but that which is good. What a mysterious, glorious thing
it is to be in his body. If I had time, we'd go into 1
Corinthians 12, where Paul talks about the body taking care of
itself, the finger, all the significance of every member of the body of
Christ. But I want us to leave thinking, I
want to leave you thinking about this. The church is the body
of Jesus Christ. The church. Now the church is
seen in two senses in the scripture. Number one is the universal church. The one church called the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
This is comprised of all of God's elect. Every believer to ever
live. That's the universal church. Husbands love your wives as Christ
also loved the church. Feed the church of God which
he purchased with his own blood. This is the church in its universal
nature. But the church is also a local
assembly. The Lord said where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst. Now the church, the local church,
is made of wheat and tares. is made of believers, there are
unbelievers there, there always will be. Wherever you've got
men, you've got believers and unbelievers in what is called
the church. And the Lord said this with regard
to the church, there will be wheat and tares and don't try
tearing out the tares because what you'll do is end up tearing
out the wheat. We don't have enough sense to
know who is his and who is not as far as what we can see. In
some cases, I suppose we could, but still the Lord said, don't
try to rip out the tears, the church. My life is The church. Now my life is Christ, but my
life is his church. That's the people I want to be
identified with. This is his sheep. This is his
body. This is his temple. How important
is the church? Now I'm not talking about everything
that goes on under the name of the church. Most of what goes
on under Christianity is an abomination. It's not the church. You know,
I even hate to tell people out in the community that I'm a preacher,
because I know what they'll think. They're going to go, oh, well,
then think the same thing I think. Now, I love true preachers of
the gospel, but as far as these professional religionists, I
don't want to have anything to do to be identified with that,
but I want to be identified with the body of Jesus Christ. I want to cast my lot with them.
I want to be a part of His church so that if any of them are thrown
in jail, for preaching the gospel. I'm right there with them. I'm
right there with them. The gospel that they're thrown
in jail for, that's the gospel I believe too. And I'm right
there with them in the body. And when somebody's suffering
adversity in the body, I'm suffering adversity too. If they're exalted,
I'm exalted. If they're recognized, I'm recognized. If they're forgotten, I'm forgotten. I am right there with them. Oh, how we love the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ because the church is His body. The fullness of Him that filleth
all in all If you're a believer and you're not identified with
the church that preaches the gospel, you should be. This is
Todd Nyberg praying that God will take this message and make
it a blessing to your heart for Christ's sake. To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.nyberg
at gmail.com or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.