Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We're located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside 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 todroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibbert. I'm reading from Exodus chapter
34. In Exodus chapter 33, Moses had
requested to show me your glory. And God answered, I'll make all
my goodness pass before you, and I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord before you, And I'll have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And
we're picking up where the Lord is proclaiming his name to Moses. In verse six, and the Lord passed
by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful,
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. Now how can that be? How is it
that God can forgive iniquity and transgressions and sins,
which supposes guilt? If I've committed sin, if I've
committed iniquity, if I've transgressed God's law, I'm guilty. and yet
he says he will forgive iniquity and transgression and sin, and
then he says, I will by no means clear the guilty. Now, if you
would know who the Lord is, you're gonna have to understand how
this can be. This is the very heart and soul
of the gospel, and God cannot be known apart from this. I've entitled this message, God
Proclaims His Own Name, and that's what He's doing at this time.
He's giving a disclosure of Himself, things we wouldn't have known
concerning Him had He not made them known. Now, there are things
that we can know about God without any special revelation. We can
look at the creation, and we can use logic to deduce certain
things concerning God. I'd like to read a scripture
from Romans 1. We read, the invisible things of Him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen. being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse." Now, this renders every man without excuse
because of the knowledge they could have of God. When I look
at creation, I see somebody all-powerful made this. It couldn't have just
happened. There are atheists who think
that God didn't create the world. You didn't always believe that
way. Atheism is a leap in the dark. I know there are very intelligent
men and women who are atheists, but to believe in atheism is
intellectually indefensible. It's irrational. It's illogical. There's got to be a cause. Things don't just happen. There's
got to be a cause. And you can look at this creation
and know someone all-powerful, the divine being made this, and
he's eternal. Nobody made him. He never began
to be. You can deduce that from logic.
But can you find out whether God will forgive sin from that?
Can you find out whether He'll be merciful from that? The answer
is no. But still, every man is rendered
without excuse, because every man conceived from creation that
God is. He's all-powerful, and He-nobody
made Him. He made the universe, and nobody
made Him. That's not going to give me a
saving knowledge of God. I'm going to have to know more
than that. I'm going to have to experience more than that. I am so thankful that God has
given a book called the Bible where He reveals to us who He
is and what He's like. These are things we could have
never known without revelation. Now, He who has the power to
create the universe from nothing has the power to inspire men
to write a book and to keep it preserved through the centuries
without any error. That is the Word of God. Now,
if there's error in the Word of God, well, how can we know
what's true and what's not? If this is not the inspired Word
of God, it's a fairy tale and nothing more. But the Scripture
claims inspiration. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And in this book, God makes Himself
known. Now, God tells us who He is. and what he's like, and this
most important question, how can he by no means clear the
guilty and yet forgive those who are guilty? How can that
be? That is the most important question
you and I can possibly consider. How can God by no means clear
the guilty? He said, under no circumstances
will I ever clear anyone who is guilty, and yet forgive and
have mercy and have grace towards sinners. Now, let's pick up reading
in verse 6. And the Lord passed by before
him, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Now, the name of
the Lord, Jehovah, it means the self-existent one. This is how
he first made himself known to Moses, when Moses saw the fire,
the burning bush that could not be consumed. That fire did not
need the energy of the wood to keep going. It was utterly independent. That speaks of Jehovah, his absolute
independence. He's the self-existent one. He
doesn't need things like you and I do to exist. He is the
independent one. He said, if I were hungry, I
wouldn't tell you the cattle on a thousand hills are mine. And that wood could not be consumed
by the fire. That represents the perfect humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath of God, the fire of
God's wrath could not consume Him. He consumed the wrath. That's
why He was raised from the dead. I am that I am. Only God can say that. Jehovah,
I am that I am. No, we have to say, well, would
be, want to be, could be, should be, used to be, but not Him.
He's always the eternal I am that I am. Now, if you would
say, Todd, what are you like? I would say, well, I'm like about
7 billion other people. There's just not much difference
between one man and another. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There is no difference. Now I
realize we're all unique individuals, I believe that. Nobody's alike,
but we're very much alike. We're all fallen in our father
Adam, and we're all sinful, and we've all come short of the glory
of God. And we're pretty much alike,
but there's nobody like God. Nobody you can compare Him to.
I am that I am, the Lord Jehovah, the Lord God, El, the Almighty
One. God is all-powerful. That means all power belongs
to Him. I've heard people speak of powerful men. There's really
no such thing. Any power any man has is what God has delegated
to him, but power belongeth to the Lord. And He is all-powerful. He is the cause behind everything,
and whatever He wills, He has the power to make sure He has
it. When God is disclosing His name,
He says, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious." Now,
this is who He is-merciful and gracious. Now, there's only one
person or one type of person that's interested in this thing
of the mercy and grace of God-somebody who's guilty. somebody who's
sinful. And their sin is all their fault.
They can't blame their circumstances. They don't blame God's sovereignty.
They're sinful, guilty, as charged. What they need is mercy. What
they need is grace. Now, mercy is God not giving
you what you deserve. And grace is God giving you what
you do not deserve. Now, if you believe you're a
sinner, I know everybody doesn't really believe that about themselves,
even though they are. But if you believe that you're
a sinner, you know that you deserve to be cast off by God. You deserve
to be sent to hell because of your sins. And you're very interested
in this thing of having his mercy and his grace. Thank God he is
merciful. He is gracious. He delights to
show mercy. If you're someone who needs grace
and needs mercy. You'll have it. Now, if you're
somebody who says it's not fair for God to give His mercy to
some and pass by others, it's not fair for Him to elect some
and not elect everybody, well, you don't need mercy. You need
justice. And if that's what you want,
you'll get it from God. But I don't want to go there, do you? I don't
want justice. I want mercy, and I want grace. And we can't tell from the creation
that God is merciful and gracious, but we know from His Word that
He's merciful and He's gracious. Now, let's go on reading. Abundant, long-suffering, patient. You know, Peter tells us the
long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. And he said in II
Peter 3, 9, the Lord does not slack to usward, as some men
count long-suffering, but is long-suffering to usward. Every
believer, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. God is long-suffering toward
His people, abundant in goodness and truth. God's good. Everything about Him is good. Why, even His justice is good. Even his punishment of sin is
good. You say, well, how could that
be good? Well, if a very wicked man had killed many people and
murdered many people, and he was a serial killer, and he was
apprehended by the law, and the law put him to death. Many people
would say, that's a good thing. It's good that society doesn't
have to deal with this man anymore. You see, all the Lord does is
good. He is good, full of goodness. He defines the word, the Lord
is good. And he's full of truth, abundant
in truth. He is the truth. He's utterly
faithful. He's light. He is the truth. Anything contrary to him is not
the truth. And look what it says next. It
says, keeping mercy for thousands. Now, he's talking about covenantal
mercy. Notice he doesn't say he keeps
mercy for everybody, but he does keep mercy for thousands and
perhaps millions. I mean, there's going to be a
lot of people in heaven, 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and
thousands. And He keeps mercy. It's the covenantal mercy that
David spoke of when he said, although my house be not so with
God, yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant. ordered
in all things and sure. This is all my salvation and
all my desire, though we make it not to grow, keeping mercy."
He's not going to go back. He's determined to give these
people mercy, and He keeps mercy for these thousands. And look
what it says next in verse 7, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. Now I think it's interesting
the way sin is described quite often as iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Now, sin is our nature. We have a sinful nature. We're born sinners. We inherited
that from our father Adam. When he died, we died in him,
and we're born sinful. Have you ever noticed you never
have to teach a child to lie? It comes natural. You don't have
to teach a child to be selfish. It comes natural. We're born
that way. And our actions are called iniquity
and transgression. Transgression are the bad things
we do, breaking God's holy law. Iniquities are the good things
we do, the things that we think are good, yet they're unequal.
They're not something that God could accept. The Scripture says
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Now, thank the Lord. He does forgive. iniquity and transgression and
sins. David said, there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. Now, he does forgive
sin. That ought to encourage every
sinner. He does forgive iniquity and
transgression and sin. And then the next thing he says,
though, is I will by no means clear the
guilty." Now, how can both of those things be true? How can
He forgive iniquity and transgression and sins and will by no means
clear the guilty? Now, think with me. God is just. Let me repeat that. God is just. He is the judge of the earth,
and He judges sin. He condemns sin, and there will
be punishment for sin. Not one sin ever committed is
ever going to go unpunished. Now, somebody may think, well,
why does God have to be that way? Why can't He just forgive
sin and sweep it under the carpet and that's what He ought to do,
isn't it? He's God. Why can't He just do it that
way? Well, question. If someone murdered your child,
brutally murdered them, and they were arrested and brought before
the judge, and you're there waiting for his sentencing. And what
if the judge says, I am a merciful and gracious judge. I forgive
this man of his crime. He's free to go back out into
society. Would that be just? No, it would
not be just. A judge like that is corrupt. He's not doing his job. He should
be removed from his position if he would do something like
that. You see, sin must be punished. Take a drug cartel or the mafia
or somebody like that, they're not afraid of an unjust judge.
They can buy him off and get what they want. But who they
fear is an utterly righteous judge. Now God is an utterly
righteous judge, and He will by no means clear the guilty. Under no circumstances whatsoever
will he clear the guilty. Now, how can that be? This is only understood and realized
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'd like to read
a very familiar parable. It's called the Parable of the
Pharisee and the Publican from Luke chapter 18, beginning in
verse 9. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves, that they were righteous. Now that is what is known as
self-righteousness. If you have any personal righteousness
that you think could commend you to God, you are a self-righteous
person. And this is who this parable
is directed to, self-righteous people. He spake this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous
and despised others. Now, anytime you find a self-righteous
person, you'll find somebody that looks down on somebody else.
I'm better than so-and-so. I may not be perfect, but I'm
better than that person, and I'm better than that person.
At least I'm not as bad as that person. There's always a looking
down and judging of others. Now, let's go on reading. Two
men. went up into the temple to pray. Now, these two men are representative
men. You and I are in one of these
two men. Two men went up to the temple
to pray. The one, a Pharisee, and the
other, a publican. The word Pharisee means a separated
one. The Pharisee believes that there's
something he does that separates him from other men. He believes
there's something in him that makes him different and better
than other men. The Pharisee was a strict moral
legalist. He strove to keep God's law,
and he was out to make sure others did too in his own mind. The
Pharisee. And the other man was a publican,
a tax collector. one who worked for the Roman
government, and he was the most despised man in his day. He would up the taxes and keep
a portion to himself, and he ripped off so many people, and
he was a hated man. He was an immoral man. He was
a wicked man, this publican. So here we have the Pharisee
and the publican who've gone into the temple to pray. Verse
11, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Don't miss
that. He thought he was praying to God, but he wasn't. He was
praying to himself. His prayer got no further than
the ceiling because of what he was granting his prayer on. He
wasn't coming in Christ's name. He was coming in his own righteousness
name. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee. He gave God the credit.
He wasn't going to say, I'm giving myself the credit. God, I thank
Thee that I am not as other men are. extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. Now, what this man demonstrates
is an utter ignorance of the law of God. If he had any understanding
of the law of God, he would know that he is, in fact, an extortioner
and unjust and an adulterer. And he'd know that he's just
as bad, probably worse, than this publican. If he had an understanding
of the law, But this man comes in his own righteousness, and
he thanks God for how good he is. Now, what he claimed wasn't
true. He really was unjust. He really
was an extortioner. He really was an adulterer in
his heart. But he thought he wasn't because he was ignorant
of the character of God. He said, I fast twice in the
week. I give tithes of all I possess. I've got some kind of resume.
And the public, verse 13, standing afar off, he didn't feel like
he could come to the front. He stood afar off and would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. He felt so unworthy and
so ashamed of who He was and what He was guilty of. He wouldn't
so much as lift up His eyes to heaven, but smoked upon His breast. He knew His heart was the problem.
You know, I've heard people talk about Well, they may do very
bad things, but they've got a good heart. No, they don't. No, they
don't. This man understood this. He
knew his heart was the problem. He knew he had a bad heart. And
what did he cry? God, be merciful to me, thee,
sinner. This man believed himself to
be the worst man alive. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now look what the Lord says.
He says, I tell you, I love it when the Lord says that. You
know, the Lord never did say, thus sayeth the Lord. He never said
that. He said, I say unto you, this is his authority. You see,
he's a God man. This is who he is. I say unto
you that this man went down to his house, this sinner, who cried
out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He went down to his
house. He didn't say forgiven. He didn't say shown mercy. He
said, justified, justified rather than the other. Now, the whole
Bible is given to make that known, how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. Now, how is it that this sinner
by his own confession can be justified, because if you're
justified, that means you have no guilt. That means you stand
without fault before God. That means you stand righteous
before God. That means you've never sinned. Now, this man said,
I'm the sinner, and yet God said, you justified. Christ said that.
That was his testimony. How can that be? Christ Jesus agreed to be a surety
for a great number of people before time began, the elect. And he came in time and took
upon him flesh, and in the flesh he kept the law perfectly. He never sinned. He never sinned. And remember, he came to save
those people. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. If you'll remember in Gethsemane's
garden, he said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless
not my will, but thine be done. It was God's will, His Father's
will, for Him to take the sins of His people to Himself. Even
though He had no personal guilt, God can take the sins of His
people and make them His sins so that He's guilty of them.
And when he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? It's because he was forsaken
by his father because of sin. The sins of all his people became
his sin. He became guilty of it. The soul
that sinned shall surely die. Christ died, and the only reason
he died was because of sin. But his death was not like my
death and your death, because he never sinned in his person.
He made complete satisfaction for that sin. The law says, I'm
satisfied. Now, hell's eternal because it's
never satisfied with the death of a sinner. But the law could
say with regard to him, I am satisfied. He was delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification, that perfect
righteousness that he worked out just as my sin became, literally,
His sin, His righteousness literally becomes my righteousness, so
I stand justified before God. Listen to this scripture, 2 Corinthians
521, for He hath made Him to be sin. That's what was going
on in Calvary's tree. Who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now, if you look
to Christ as your only righteousness before God, and you know the
only way you can be saved is by Him justifying you through
His work alone, and you trust Him only as all God requires,
you'll find that He did this for you. Now, we have this message
on DVD, CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Knipert praying
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to tod.nybert at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.