Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neibert. 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 Neibert. Our text for this morning is
found in Matthew chapter 23, and I have entitled this message,
The Questioned Are Asked a Question. The Questioners Are Asked a Question. Now, let me give you the setting
of this. The Pharisees, the scribes, the
Herodians, the lawyers were asking the Lord questions. This was
three days before his crucifixion. And they were seeking to trip
him up in asking these questions, trying to find some contradiction
in something he said. They were not asking these questions
genuinely wanting information. They were wanting to find some
kind of inconsistency in him that they could accuse him with. Now the first question was posed
by the Pharisees. And their question had something
to do with whether or not they should pay tribute money to Caesar. And they thought that they could
entrap the Lord with this question. If he said yes, we could say
it's wrong for us to contribute to a Gentile government and system. And if he says no, they knew
he would get in trouble with the Romans and he would be arrested.
And that's when he answered, render to Caesars the things
that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. Now
the second question came from a group called the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were talking about the end times, although they
didn't believe in a resurrection or heaven or hell, they were
still asking what happens on the resurrection. They gave that
story of seven brothers having the same wife. They died. The
other brother would marry her. Whose would she be in the resurrection? And then the third question came
from the scribe, what is the greatest commandment? What's
the most important commandment in the law? Once again, Matthew
says he said this, tending him, and he had an evil motive in
asking this question, but I want you to think about the issues
they brought up. What involvement should we have
in government? What involvement should the Christian
have in government? The second thing was the end
times, eschatology, what's going to happen on the end times. And
the third issue that they tried to bring up is the law. What
is the believer's relationship with the law? And these are three
things that are brought up even today. Ad nauseum, might I add. It's not right, but that's always
brought up. Now, the Lord After he had silenced
these men, as a matter of fact, after he answered their three
questions, no man dares to ask him a question after that. He
made them look like idiots with his answer. And now the one who
is questioned asks them a question. Now in Matthew chapter 22, beginning in verse 41, this is
after he's answered those three questions, while the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus asked them. Now he asks a question. And listen to the question very
carefully. He says, what think ye of Christ. Whose son is he? Now, he knew that they didn't
believe him to be the Christ, but they certainly believed in
the coming Christ. And he's talking about their
understanding of the Old Testament. And he says, what do you think
of Christ, the one the Old Testament promises? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of
David. That's what the scripture taught
was that the Christ was going to come to the lineage of David. Now they believed the Christ
was the son of David coming through his lineage, but they didn't
have any understanding that the Christ was to be the son of God. They had no understanding of
that. All they understood was the physical lineage of David.
And they were looking for a political savior that would come and deliver
Israel and put them in power once again. That's what they
were looking for. They didn't have any real spiritual understanding
of why Christ came. And then the Lord asked them,
after they answered that question, the son of David, he saith unto
them, how then doth David in spirit call him Lord? Saying, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David didn't call him Lord,
How is he his son? And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask any
more questions. Now here is the question of questions
to me and to you. What think ye of Christ? When God looks into your heart,
What are the thoughts that he sees concerning the Christ? Not what do you think about abortion? Not what do you think about same
sex marriages? Not what do you think about left-winged
or right-winged politics? not what do you think of any
of the issues facing our society today. Now you can certainly
have opinions on these things and even strong opinions. I'm
not speaking against that, but those things are not as important
as this. What do you think of Christ? I'm not asking you what you think
of your spiritual state, whether or not you're saved, whether
you're elect, whether you're born again, whether Christ died
for you. I'm not asking those questions as important as they
may be. But the question I am asking, and this is the most
important question, and really this answers all those other
questions. What do you think of Christ? Now, If you asked
a lot of people what they think of Christ, they have never heard
of him. They may be born in a country
where none of the Bible has ever been known anything about, and
they don't know what Christianity is, they're in some other religion,
and they perhaps do not have an opinion. Now, I know what
their opinion would be if they heard who he really is. They'd
say, I don't believe that. But still, there are a great
number of people who have never heard of him. To some people,
he's only a swear word used for vile speech. Some people would
consider him an important man, perhaps a great prophet from
the past, a great moral teacher, a historical figure. Some would
believe him to be very important. They'd say, well, I can't be
saved without him. I need him in order for me to
be saved. And there are some who would
go so far as to say, I believe he's all, but not in all things. I believe he's all in my justification
before God. I'm justified because of what
he did, but he's not all my sanctification. I'm sanctified by the things
that I do. I don't believe he's all in all
things. But there are some people who
believe He is all in all. Now I'm going to borrow the words
of the Apostle Paul. This is what Paul thought. This
is what I think, and this is what every other believer thinks. Now this passage is found in
Colossians chapter three. Paul is a spokesman for every
believer when he makes this statement beginning in chapter three, verse
nine, Paul says, lie not one to another. seeing that you put off the old
man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him, and
here's what that knowledge is, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew. They are not distinctions of
that nature. There's not Greek nor Jew. There's
not national or racial distinctions. There's neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision. There's not religious distinctions.
Barbarians, Gideon, bond nor free. They're not social distinctions,
but here is the true knowledge that every
believer possesses when he's renewed by the Holy Spirit, Christ
is all, and or even in all. What think ye of Christ? Christ
is all in all. Now, what does that mean? He is all in all. Well, I could go on for a long
time talking about that just from what is said, Christ is
all. First of all, he's all in the
scriptures. He said in John chapter five,
verse 39, you search the scriptures in them, you think you have eternal
life and they are they which testify of me. Now everything
in the Old Testament, everything in the New Testament has one
message, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All the stories are
given to illustrate some aspect of the gospel, the sacrifices,
the ceremonies are given to illustrate His person and work, what He
accomplished. Every psalm speaks of him. All
the prophets speak of him. To him give all the prophets
witness. He is all in the scriptures. The Bible has one singular message
that excludes everything else. Christ is all. Christ is all
in the purpose of God. All things were made by him and
for him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. Christ is all in God's purpose. God does everything for the glory
of His dear Son. Jesus Christ is all that God
is. Now God is three persons. God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three persons,
the blessed Trinity. And we didn't figure this out.
It's what the scripture teaches. And all we're ever going to know
of God, the father and God, the spirit is God, the son. He's all that God is. And let me give you a scripture
to back that up. Colossians chapter two, verse nine says in him.
in the Lord Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Every attribute of God, all the
vast Omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, the wisdom, the
sovereignty of God, the immutability of God, everything that God is,
the incomprehensible, infinite God, dwells in the body of Jesus
Christ. He's all that God is. And listen to this very carefully.
He is all in salvation. He's all in every aspect of salvation. Now the Bible teaches that God
elected who would be saved before time began. There's no debating
of that. If you're gonna go with the scriptures, the Bible teaches
that God chose who would be saved before time began. And Christ
is all in that. What do I mean by that? God didn't
choose me because of anything in me. I was accepted in the
beloved. I was chosen in him. All of God's
salvation is in Christ, beginning in election, the believer's eternal
union with Him. He's all in my justification.
I'm justified by His righteousness. He's all in my sin payment. He
by Himself purged our sins. He's all in my regeneration.
He said, because I live, you shall live also. He's all in
my preservation. I'm preserved in Christ Jesus.
You see, every aspect of salvation in Christ is all in it. Christ
is all my subjective experience. Somebody says, what do you mean
by that? Well, I'm not looking to my faith. I'm looking to his
faith. I'm looking to his faithfulness. You know, everything that I do,
I always feel an inadequacy in it. When I confess my sin, I
always feel like it's not sincere enough. I always feel like I'm
not sorry enough. When I think of my faith, it's
always not strong enough. When I think of my love, it's
never great enough. But I look to His faithfulness. I look to His sorrow, because
when my sin became His sin, when God imputed it to Him and became
His, He said, I will be sorry for my sin. You know what it's
like to have someone apologize when they're not sincere, but
oh, how sincere He was before the Father. He was sorry for
the sin, it became his and he was truly sorry. I look to his
love to the Father. I look to him in everything in
my experience. Jesus Christ is all. He's all in all. What think ye of Christ was the
question. What do you think of Christ?
Whose son is he? Now they answered the son of
David. And they were correct. They were
correct. He did come through the lineage
of David, but they didn't realize that Christ is the Son of God. Not only the Son of David, but
the Son of God. But when they answered the Son
of David, they were half right. They left out the Son of God
part, but with regard to the Son of David, they were half
right. The very first verse in the New Testament, Matthew chapter
one, verse one says, the book of the generations of Jesus Christ,
the Son of David. When Paul defined the gospel
in Romans 1, he said, made of the seed of David according to
the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy
2, 8, remember that Jesus Christ was the seed of David, was raised
from the dead according to my gospel. Now, not many on earth
believed him to be the son of David when he was walking on
this earth. Not many did, but a few did. The two blind men said, thou
son of David, have mercy on us. The Syrophoenician woman, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. Bartimaeus said, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. Now I can tell whether or not
you and I really understand this thing of him being the son of
David. And here's when we understand, when we ask him for mercy. Now,
if we're not asking for mercy, what's asking for mercy? When
I ask for mercy, I say, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. If you give me what
I have come and I'll be sent to hell. What I need is mercy. Thou son of David have mercy
on me. When you understand that he's
the son of David, you go to him for mercy. And you know that's
what you need. And until you do that, you've
not really had an understanding of the son of David. If you do,
you'll come to him for mercy. Now, the Lord quotes a scripture
in Psalm 110 and is quoted very often in the New Testament. He
saith unto them, how then, after they answered halfway correct,
he's the son of David, he says, how then does David in spirit
call him Lord? This is a quotation from Psalm
110, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until
I make thy foes thy footstool. Now, the Lord is the Lord. He's the Lord of creation. He's
the Lord of providence. Everything that happens in time
is His will being done. He's the Lord of salvation. That
means if you're saved, it's because He saved you, not because you
did anything, because He saved you. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, he's David's Lord, and he's
David's son. How can that be? How could he be both David's
Lord and David's son? Where the Lord the Father said
to the Lord the Son, sit thou on my right hand, until I make
thy foes, thy enemies, thy footstool. Now, in Revelation 22, 16, the
Lord said, I am the root and the offspring of David. I'm David's creator, and I'm
David's offspring. Now that's how David said, the
Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make
thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord Jesus Christ came through
the lineage of David as God said he would. the promised seed,
but he's David's creator, and he's David's Lord. He is God
the Son. That's how David could say he's,
the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I
make thy foes thy footstool. And there's a scripture in 1
John chapter 4, where it says, whoso confesseth not that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, but that's the
spirit of Antichrist. Now, I want you to think about
this simple statement. This is so important. Jesus Christ, the
son of David, he's come in the flesh. Now, what does that mean?
It means, first of all, he was before he came. He is the eternal, uncreated
Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. And that begetting
does not refer to an event in time, but it's a fact irrespective
of time. He's the eternal Son. And the
Eternal Son came in the flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God became flesh. The Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, the Eternal Son of God. came
in the flesh, bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh. He was not
the descendant of Adam. If that would have been the case,
he would have had sinful flesh. He came through Mary, but he
had no human father because he didn't have, he didn't inherit
their sinful nature. He came in the flesh. And listen
to this, he did what he came to do. The son of David, the
son of God, the son of Mary, came for this purpose. Matthew
1, verse 21, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And that is exactly, precisely
what he did. He came to save, not everybody. If He came to save everybody,
everybody would be saved. But there is a place called hell.
And that place is populated. He didn't come to save everybody.
He came to save His people. And He came to save His people
from their sins. He came to save them from the
penalty of their sins. That's what the Bible calls justification. I stand before God without guilt.
There's nothing to condemn me for. He came to save His people
from the power of their sins. When I was born into this world,
sin had complete power and dominion over me. I couldn't believe. I couldn't repent. I was dead
in trespasses and sins. And He gave me a new nature.
That's what the new birth is. I can now do what I could not
formerly do. I can believe. I can repent. I can love God because I have
a new nature. And one of these days, I'm gonna
be saved from the presence of sin. I'm not gonna be a sinner
anymore. In my experience, I'll be perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save, not offer salvation, not make it available,
not make it possible. He shall save his people from
their sins. He did it. When he said, it is
finished, the salvation of every one of his people was accomplished. He is the son of David. He's David's Lord. He's David's
son. He's the God-man who came in
the flesh and accomplished salvation. Now this Christ was not the Christ
they were looking for. They were looking for a political
messiah, a political deliverer who would liberate them from
Roman government tyranny and bondage. And they thought Israel
will once again be the top dogs. But that's not why Christ came.
He didn't come to bring a political kingdom. He said, my kingdom
is not of this world. Now what do you think of Christ?
Whose son is he? The son of David? Well, yes,
he's the son of David, but how did, why did David say in spirit,
the Lord said to my Lord, sit down in my right hand till I
make thy enemies thy footstool. How could he be both David's
son and David's Lord? Because he's the God man. And
he came in the flesh and did precisely what he intended on
doing. And you know what the scripture
says in Mark's account? It says, the common people, after
all of this, the common people heard him gladly. Now, who are
these common people? Were they just the ordinary Joes?
No, that's not what that means at all. The common people are
the people who were not Pharisees, who were not Sadducees, who were
not Herodians, and who were not scribes. The Pharisees, the word
means, Separate. Separate from others. They thought
they did something to separate themselves from others. They
believed in salvation by works. The Sadducees means righteous.
They believed themselves to be righteous. Herodians, they were
a group that wanted to put Herod into power, but what the word
means is fair in appearance. And then the scribes were the
ones who were the experts in the law. They could understand
the law, so they thought. Who are ordinary people? People
who know that the only way they can be saved is for God to do
something for them. They don't separate themselves.
God must do something for them. They're people who genuinely
believe that they have no personal righteousness, like the Sadducees.
They must be saved by the righteousness of Christ. They're people who
are not concerned about outward appearance. They want a new heart,
not just look good on the outside, but they want something done
for them on the inside, where it's not just about appearance.
And they are people who cannot understand any of the gospel
unless God is pleased to reveal it. They're completely dependent
upon revelation. Now these are the ordinary people
who heard him gladly because this is the type of person who
needs to be saved by grace, to be saved by Christ. Someone who can't do something
to separate themselves and recommend themselves to God. Someone who
has no personal righteousness. Someone who needs something done
for them on the inside. and someone who's completely
dependent upon revelation, God revealing himself to them. The
common people, bless God, heard him gladly. Now we have this
message on DVD, CD, if you call the church, write or email, we'll
send you a copy, and we'd like to invite you to services at
Todd's Road Grace Church. Our morning Bible study begins
at 9.45, morning worship, 10.30, and Sunday evenings, six. This
is Todd Nyberg praying that God will be pleased to make Himself
known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. 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.