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 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 Nyberg. I'm going to read the 16th verse
of John chapter 5, and this is what happened after the Lord
healed a man who'd been paralyzed for 38 years. And he said on
the Sabbath day, rise, take up your bed and walk. Now this is the response of the
religious, allegedly scriptural men of that day. Verse 16, And therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus and sought to slay him. They sought to murder him. They sought to bring his life
to an end because he had done these things on the Sabbath. Now, the Sabbath day was first
instituted right after the creation. The Lord blessed the seventh
day. The Lord sanctified the seventh
day because he had finished all of his work and it was very good. We read of that right after creation
when God gave the law. He said, remember the Sabbath
day. To keep it holy, you'll not do any work on the Sabbath
day. A Sabbath day was a day of rest. It was a day to not work. Now,
the Jews didn't understand the meaning of the Sabbath, because
in the New Testament, we read, there remaineth a rest for the
people of God. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 9 and
10, there remaineth literally a Sabbath of rest for the people
of God, for he that's entered into his rest hath ceased from
his own works as God did from his. The reason behind the Sabbath
is to teach us that salvation is not by our works. That's why works were forbidden. Salvation is not by our works,
but by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I remember when
I was a little boy, my grandfather would just, I remember he didn't
want us to play on Sundays. He didn't want us to go to the
pool. He thought it shouldn't be done, and I appreciate his
attitude, but that's not what the Sabbath is all about. Now,
these people were furious at the Lord. They sought to slay
him. They persecuted him because he
had done these things on the Sabbath. Why did they want him
dead? Well, they had no understanding
of the meaning of the Sabbath. They made it a work that they
thought they could earn God's acceptance. We'll only take so
many steps a day. We won't pick up anything. We
won't work. We won't cook. We will make sure
that we keep the Sabbath, and through keeping the Sabbath,
we feel like we can gain God's acceptance. and earn God's favor
by keeping this Sabbath. And when the Lord performed this
miracle on the Sabbath, he said to these people, your understanding
of the Sabbath is completely wrong and it is irrelevant and
worthless. And they were offended. They were offended. They were
deeply offended. The Lord was saying, what you
guys are doing doesn't even count. And they were offended. Now, if I would tell you that
your religion was not only utterly irrelevant, but evil, you'd be
offended, wouldn't you? If I said your religion is evil, you would be offended. Now we read in Galatians chapter
5 11 of the offense of the cross. Would you please, as the Lord
enables you, listen to what I'm getting ready to say very carefully. Today's Christianity seeks to
be non-offensive. And when I'm talking about being
offensive, understand I'm not talking about having an offensive
personality. I wouldn't want to offend you
by being rude and arrogant and thoughtless. That's not the kind
of offense I'm talking about, but today's Christianity does
not preach what Paul called the offense of the cross. They try not to offend, they
try to take the offense out of the message. They try an approach
that doesn't create offense and hostility and rejection. Now
why do they do this? because the true message of the
gospel is offensive to the natural man. Christ offended men when
he walked upon this earth, and he offends men now. Christ is hated by and offensive
to the natural man. And the same is true of his gospel. Christ and his gospel cannot
be separated, and the gospel of Christ is a message that offends
offends the natural man, the religious, the supposedly, allegedly
scriptural world hated Jesus Christ. And his life ended up
in them nailing him to a cross. Now the only people, other than
those who believed him, who did not hate him, were the people
who didn't have any idea who he was. because everybody who
knows who he is, who knows what his claims are, that is not a
believer, they hate him. Now, men don't hate the Jesus
they've manufactured. Men don't hate the Jesus who
can't do anything unless they let him. They have a free will
that they can control him and manipulate him and get him. Nobody's
afraid of that Jesus. The Jesus that wants to have
his way but can't unless we let him, nobody's offended by that
Jesus because there's nothing about him to fear. But the Christ
of the Bible, is the one men hate. Now he said to his disciples
in his last discourse, if the world hate you, you know it hated
me before it hated you. He that hateth me, hateth my
father also. They have both seen and hated
both me and my father. They hated me. without a cause. That's what the Lord said. And
these people demonstrated this at this time when they wanted
to put him to death because he'd done these things on the Sabbath
day. Now, why do men hate Jesus Christ? Good question, isn't it? Well,
I can answer that with one verse of Scripture. Here's why men
hate Jesus Christ. These are, this is Christ's word,
and he says in verse seven, John chapter seven, listen real carefully.
The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify
of it, that the works thereof are evil. Now there's why the
world is offended by Christ. There's why the world hates Christ. He said, I testify of it, that
the works thereof are evil. Now, he's not only talking about
things like pornography and greed and crimes against humanity and
theft and deception, all that is included, but he is talking
about all the works of humanity. He's talking about even our religious
deeds. He's talking about even our supposed
good works and our efforts, so we think, to gain God's favor. He says they are all evil. Now that's what men are offended
by. What Christ has to say with regard
to our character. We are all inherently, intrinsically,
completely, incurably evil. You believe that about yourself?
That's Christ's testimony with regard to me and you. Evil. Not good. Evil. And our religion is nothing
more than an extension of our wickedness. Now that's why they
sought to slay him. He was saying their religion
was no good. He was doing these things on
the Sabbath day, disregarding their religion. They thought
being disrespectful toward them. and they sought to slay him because
of what he had to say about them. Now, you go on reading in this
book, in John 6, verse 44, the Lord said, no man can come to
me. No man is able to come to me,
except the Father which has sent me draw him. Now what the Lord is saying is
you, this is with regard to every man, no man because of our inherent
wickedness has the ability to come to Christ. If God leaves
me to myself, if he leaves you to yourself, we will go to hell. We will not come to Christ. Listen to this passage of scripture
in John chapter eight. I'm gonna read a fairly lengthy
passage of scripture, but it describes what Christ has to
say about men. Verse 30. As he spake these words, many
believed on him, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed
on him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples
indeed. It's only as you continue in
my word. And you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be
Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. Now wait
a minute. They were in bondage to the Romans
at that time. They were their slaves paying
them taxes. But here they make this claim.
We've never been in bondage to any man. How sayest thou you
shall be made free? Jesus answered them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever commit the sin is the slave of
sin. If you sin, That's because you
are the slave of sin. Now, I'm sure they were very
offended by that. And the servant abideth not in the house forever,
but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's
seed, but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place
in you. That's what he's referring to. I speak that which I've seen
with my father, and you do that which you've seen of your father.
They answered and said to him, Abraham's our father. Jesus saith
unto him, if you were Abraham's children, you'd do the works
of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that hath told you the truth which I've heard of God.
This did not Abraham. You do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be
not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Jesus saith unto them, if God
were your father, you'd love me. If you don't love me, God's
not your father. If God were your father, you'd
love me for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came
out of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? even because you cannot hear
my word. You lack the ability to hear
my word." Now look what he says. He says in verse 44, you are
of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you
will do He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not
in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he's a liar, and the father
of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces me of
sin, and if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He
that's of God heareth God's words. You therefore hear them not.
because you are not of God. Then answered the Jews and said,
say we not well, thou art the Samaritan and hast a devil. They said, you're demon possessed,
speaking like this. As a matter of fact, at the end
of this chapter, we read, then they took up stones to cast at
him. They tried to kill him after this message. Then they took
up stones to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out
of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by." Now, what can we take from this speech of our Lord? that we're so sinful that we
can't come to Christ, we can't hear his word, we can't believe
because we are completely under the power by nature of sin. Now do you hear that? You and
I. I'm not just talking down at
somebody, I'm talking about myself too. You and I are born into
this world so completely sinful and depraved that unless God
is pleased to do something for us and stop us, we will not be
saved. We can't be fixed. Listen to
this scripture, Genesis 6 verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's me. That's you. We're all totally depraved. And this is what offends men.
This is what offends men. This is why people were so offended
at Christ. We're all totally depraved and unable to do anything
to save ourselves. When the scripture gives an analogy
of our condition, it says we're dead in trespasses and sins,
dead. You can't respond to the gospel.
You can't hear the gospel. All a dead man can do is stink,
dead, in trespasses and sins. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. Neither indeed can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. Every man by nature is incurably
evil, unable to do anything to save themselves. Now that's God's
testimony with regard to me and you. And do you know this is
a distinctly Christian doctrine. All other religions have men
doing something in order to please God. They don't say you cannot
do anything that would ever please God. They give you something
to do, the false gospel. gives you something you must
do before God can save you. You must do this. You must do
that before you can be saved. That is a false gospel. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's none righteous. There's
none that understands. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. Are you offended by this? Are you offended by this? This is what Christ says. This
is not the preacher's opinion. This is what Christ says. Are
you offended by this? I think of when the Lord was
speaking to his disciples. They asked him to teach them
to pray. And at the end of that passage in Luke chapter 11 he
said to his disciples he wasn't speaking to unbelievers at this
time he says to his disciples if you then being evil know how
to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly
father give the holy spirit to them that ask him but he said
to his disciples if you then being evil. Now, I am, everybody is, essentially
Naturally, I don't care how moral you may be on the outside, everybody
is evil. The people who do not believe
this about themselves are offended. The people who do believe this
about themselves, they just know it's so. They know it's so. If you then being evil, everybody
who is saved knows this about themself, everybody who is not
saved is offended by this. Christ's estimation of man. Do you believe you're evil? You know, the only way you're
going to see that you are is by saying who he is. If you ever
see who he is, you'll know this is so about yourself. And if
you never see who he is, you'll continue to be offended by this. Are you a sinner? And I mean
that in the scriptural term. Are you a sinner? I'm not asking
you if you're a good person. Are you a sinner? Are you somebody
that all you do is sin and it's sin because you did it? You cannot
not sin. You've got an evil nature that's
always there, always breathing upon you. Sin. You can't look
down your nose in moral superiority at any human being alive, because
you know you are the sinner. You have no claims on God, and
your sin is all your fault. You can't blame anybody else.
It's all your fault. If God passed you by, just and
holy is his name. Are you a sinner? Now, I want to remind you Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He didn't come
to save good people. You see, the gospel is a sinner's
religion. Everything else is good people's
religion. The gospel is a sinner's religion.
I've heard people say, well, he's a good Christian. That's
an oxymoron. If you're a Christian, by your
own admission, you're a bad person needing the grace of God. You're
an evil person needing His mercy. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart
is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know
it? Now, what's a person like this
need? I want to wrap this up by saying,
what's a person like this need? This is Christ's testimony. I
know men are offended by it. But there's somebody that's not
offended by it. What does this person need? Well, first of all,
I need God to choose me. It's what the scripture calls
election. God choosing his people before
time began. Now this is essential for the
salvation of the sinner. No sinner will ever be saved
unless God first chooses them to be saved. I need this. I know if he doesn't choose me,
there's no hope for me. Now let me say this about election.
There are many people deny it. You can't even believe in grace
if you don't believe in election. Did you know that? And election,
let me say this, it doesn't keep people from being saved. Somebody
says, oh, I want to be saved, but I can't because I'm not elect.
Never happened. Never happened. Election doesn't
keep people from being saved, but God's choice of his people
before time began saved people who would have otherwise been
damned. Thank God for election. And it is absolutely essential
for my salvation. Secondly, for me to be saved,
I must have Christ live for me and die for me in such a way
that my salvation is an utter necessity. Now let me bring out
what that means. The only hope I have of being
saved is Christ dying for me and paying for my sins. And if
you tell me that He can die for a sinner and that sinner winds
up in hell anyway because he didn't do his part. I know what's
going to happen to me. I won't be saved. The fact of
the matter is, when Jesus Christ said, it is finished, the salvation
of everybody he died for was finished, accomplished. And I need this. I need the Father to elect me,
I need the Son to redeem me, and I need God the Holy Spirit
to give me a new heart that was not there before, because my
heart's bad. You know, I hear preachers say,
give Jesus your heart or invite Jesus into your heart. Why would
he want to go in your heart? I wouldn't be asking him to come
into my heart. I'd be asking him for a new one. Give me a
new heart. That's what David said. He said,
created me a clean heart. God said, a new heart will I
give you. I need to give him to give me something that was
not there before. a new heart that believes, that
loves Him. And for me to be saved, I must
persevere all the way to the end, looking to Christ as all
in my salvation. I'm not offended by hearing that
I'm nothing but evil, because I know it's so. What I need is
God to elect me, Christ to die for me, God the Holy Spirit to
give me a new life and enable me to persevere all the way to
the end. Now, these are the words of the
Lord Jesus. He said this in John 6, verse
37. I don't have a more favorite
verse than this. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. He's speaking of election, the
Father giving. All that the Father giving, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. If I'm one of the
elect, I'm going to come to Christ. But listen to this promise. Him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. If you come to Christ, he will
not cast you out, but he will receive you completely no matter
how bad you are. And here's why. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. of whom I am the chief. Now we have this message on CD
and DVD. If you call the church right,
or you can get it off the website, you can get a copy. This is Todd
Niebuhr, praying God will be pleased to make himself known
to you. Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send a request to todd.niebuhr at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen. Hmm.