I did choose thee, Lord. 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 Nybert. I've entitled this morning's
message, Without Blame. How would you like to be somebody
who was without blame? Nothing to blame you for. Ephesians
chapter 1, beginning in verse 3. Paul says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. Now, who's the us? It's not all
men with that exception, but it's every believer, all the
elect of God. He hath blessed us. It's the
same us of whom Paul said in Romans 8, 31, if God be for us,
who can be against us? This is not a generic us, this
is talking about every single believer. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. We've already been blessed. The blessings we have, we've
always had in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, He saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. These spiritual
blessings are eternal. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And the first blessing
He mentions is election. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. What a blessing
it is to be elected by God, to be chosen. David said in Psalm
65, four, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes
to approach to thee. And the next blessing he mentioned
is being holy. According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy. Every believer is holy. And then
the third blessing he mentions is being without blame before
Him. According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. blameless, without fault, without
blemish, absolutely without blame, nothing to correct me for, nothing
to censor me for. Is there such a person, a blameless
person? Nobody's perfect. Is there a
person who is without fault before the throne of God, blameless, That is the description of all
of God's people. Without fault. Without blame. Nothing to blame them for. Nothing to be laid to their charge. Justified is the word. Justified. Now, how can that be? I am painfully
aware of my personal sin before God. I'm painfully aware of it. Like David said, my sin is ever
before me. I am a sinner. Not, I used to be a sinner. I
am a sinner right now. And you are as well, whether
you know it or not. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But I am a sinner, so how could
I, in any sense of the word, be said to be without blame? without fault, above reproach. How can that be said? Do you know only the gospel answers
that question? Blameless. My dear friend, you
can be blameless if God is pleased to do something for you. Now,
I'm not going to tell you something you can do to become blameless,
because there's nothing you can do to become blameless. You can't
get rid of your sin. But there is a way you can be
made blameless. This is God's work. This is not
man's work. Remember, salvation is not what you do for God, it's
what He does for you. Blameless. Now, to blame means
that the one blamed is the one who caused the bad thing to happen. That's the one who gets the blame. Now, the first time we read of
somebody blaming somebody is right after the fall of our first
parents in the garden. When God confronted Adam, his
answer to the Lord was, the woman that you gave me, she gave me
of the fruit, and I did eat. Now, Adam is blaming the Lord. He's saying, I've been set up. I'm a victim. This wouldn't have
happened if you hadn't given me this woman. I have been entrapped. I've been set up for failure.
Yes, I did eat, but I was set up. This is really not my fault.
This is your fault. If you wouldn't have given me
this woman, this would have never taken place. Therefore, I should
not be held responsible. I am not the one to blame." That's
the first time that happened, and it's still going on so powerfully
today. putting the blame somewhere other
than me, failing to see my own personal responsibility for my
sin. I couldn't help but think of
the story of Nathan when he came to confront David about his sin. David had committed murder. David had covered it up. David had committed adultery. David was guilty of a horrible
abuse of power in the way he did Bathsheba, and he remained
unrepentant, as far as you could tell, for over a year. There
didn't seem to be any remorse. And then Nathan, God's prophet,
comes to David, and he tells him a story. It's about a poor
man who had one little ewe lamb. It's the only lamb he had and
he loved it like a daughter. It sat at his table and ate. He loved this little ewe lamb.
And there was a wealthy man who had exceeding much herds and
flocks of sheep. He had everything. And a stranger
came through this man's, wealthy man's home and He was going to
put him up for the night and feed him, but he didn't want
to use one of his own lambs. So he went and took that man's
little lamb and killed it. And they had it for dinner tonight
with that stranger that night. Now, when Nathan told David about
this, David said, as the Lord liveth, surely this man will
die. I'm going to make sure he's dead. He's greatly to blame. He's greatly guilty. And Nathan
said to David, Thou art the man. We can see so clearly where others
need to be blamed, but we're so blind to where we need to
be blamed. And David saw that this actually
described him in his sin against God. And oh, how he took the
blame then. Read Psalm 51 and you'll see. But you see this so much in life,
we blame our upbringing. We blame our environment. We
blame our genetic makeup. We blame other people. And indeed,
these things play a role, but they do not remove blame or personal
responsibility from our own sin. Now, this is seen, this blame
is seen in a judgmental attitude toward others. Do you know any
time I sit in judgment on you, I'm saying you're to blame and
I'm not? That's all I'm saying. Any time
I sit in judgment on you. I love the passage of Scripture
in Romans 2.1 where Paul says, Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For thou that judgest
doest the same things. Whatever I'm judging you for,
I do. That's what the Bible says. Somebody says, that's not so.
It's what the Bible says. Present active voice. Whatever
you're judging somebody else for, you're guilty of the same
thing. It's base hypocrisy. But I'm looking at something. I'm different. I'm not doing
that. I'm not like that. That's putting
the blame somewhere else rather than yourself. It's such a self-righteous
attitude. And then you see men blaming
God, sitting in judgment on God. I love that passage of Scripture
in Romans 9, where Paul speaks of election. He says, For the
children, being not yet born, either having done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it's written, this
is God speaking, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Paul anticipated this objection. Somebody's going to say, God's
not fair. It's not fair for him to love Jacob. And it's not fair
for him to not love Esau as well. Well, if God gave them both what they
deserved, neither one would be loved, would they? But whatever
God does is right and fair. No man has the right to sit in
judgment on God and look at what he does and say, I don't agree
with that. That's not the way I do it. When he said, even for
this same purpose regarding Pharaoh, have I raised you up that I might
show my power in you and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens? What's man's
reply? Well, why does he yet find fault
then? How can He hold me responsible
if He either hardens my heart or He shows me mercy and I don't
have anything to do with it? Then I'm totally in His hands
and His will is always done. Why does He yet find fault? How
can He hold me responsible? That doesn't seem right. I love
Paul's answer. Nay, O man, but who are you to
reply against God? You do not have, I do not have
the ability to reply against God. This thing of judging God
is absolutely ridiculous. Did you know that you will never
ask for mercy until all your sin is all your fault? Now, when all your sin is all
your fault, and you have nobody else to blame, that's when you're
going to say, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And if you can't say that, you'll
say the same thing the Pharisee did. God, I thank thee that I'm
not as other men are. And you're going to compare yourself
to somebody else, and you're going to blame them, and you're
going to come out looking good, and God's going to send you to
hell. Actually, that works. It's only the one who cried out,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner, that went down to his house justified.
That means he went down to his house without blame. Now, that
gives us a touch of what we're looking at. He went down to his
house with nothing to blame him for, nothing to censor him for,
nothing to judge him for. He went down to his house without
sin. In John chapter 9, the Lord makes
this statement after giving sight to the blind man. He said in
John chapter 9, beginning in verse 39, And Jesus said, For
judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not
might see, and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind
also? Jesus saith unto them, if you were blind, you should
have no sin. You'd have nothing to be blamed
for if you were blind. But you say, we see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. Now, if you are blind, And you
can't see any reason why God would look in mercy upon you.
You can't find one reason in yourself that God would look
your way in favor. You know what? You have no sin. Christ has borne it and put it
away and it's gone. And you're going to find that
out. I can say to everyone, I don't care who you are, if you can't
find one reason in yourself, you can't see anything in yourself
as to why God would look in favor on you, Christ died for you.
He's put away your sin, and you have no sin. Now, if you can
see why God would have favor on you, because I fill in the
blank, whatever it might be, you're yet in your sins, and
you don't have a Savior. Now, if you put all the blame
on yourself, Paul said, if we judge ourselves, we would not
be judged. If you put all the blame on yourself
and come into God's presence through Christ suing for mercy,
you'll be received. But if you come boasting in your
own works in some way, you will be rejected. Now, how can God
take someone who is filled with faults, who is unjust, and make
them just? How can He take someone who is
so blameworthy and make them to be without blame? That's a
good question, isn't it? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Romans chapter 3 answers that
question. We read beginning in verse 19,
now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law. you're under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. Now, I love the way the Bible
doesn't try to prove God's existence. Everybody knows by nature that
somebody created this and nobody created him. Everybody knows
that by nature. There's no such thing truly as
an atheist. Now, you might have convinced
yourself that there's no God, but you haven't always been that
way. You had to turn the lights off and reject what truth you
had and what light you had, but you weren't born this way. Atheism,
I'm sure there are very intelligent people that are atheists, but
it's intellectually indefensible. Everything's got to have a cause.
You know there's a God. The question is not, is there
a God? The question is, what is my stake
before Him? Guilty. That every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. Guilty because of my sin. And my sin is all my fault. When my mouth is stopped, that
means I don't have any excuses. The blame all goes to me. Now listen to this verse again.
Now we know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. That is my
state before this holy God. Now, question, is there anything
I can do about it? Is there anything I can do to
change that state? Is there anything I can do to make this better? Let's
go on reading. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. No, there isn't anything you
can do to make it better. All the law does is expose me
and you as sinners. People like to put up the Ten
Commandments in a public place. Do you know that all that does
is condemn you? Every one of those commandments, you've not
kept one of them one time. And most people don't understand
the law because they don't realize that all it does is condemn them.
They try to keep it, and they don't realize it's given to show
me my sinfulness. By the works of the law, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His
sight. You can't be saved by what you do. By the law is the
knowledge of sin. Does that mean there's no hope?
Does that mean I just gotta give up? No, listen to this, verse
21, but now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. The righteousness of God, don't
miss that, the righteousness of God without you doing anything
is manifested. being witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets. How do I know this is true, that
there's a righteousness that I can have of God that doesn't
have anything to do with me doing anything? How can I know it's
true? It's witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. It's what the
Scriptures have always taught, Old Testament and New Testament.
Even, verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe. Now, one
of the reasons I love the King James Version is it's just a
better translation. And notice it says, and if you
don't have a King James Version, yours won't say this. It says,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Any other version will say, by
faith in Christ, and that confounds what the meaning is. I'm not
saved by my faith in Christ. I'm saved by the faith, the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. I'm saved because of His faithfulness
to His Father in obeying God's law for me. I'm saved because
of His faithfulness in offering Himself up as the sin-bearing
substitute and putting away sin, taking my sins in His own body
on the tree and putting them away, and He's the one who never
doubted God. Even when he was forsaken by
God, he quit, never quit believing God. Somebody had to have perfect
faith. He did. That's the faith I'm
saved by, the faith of Jesus Christ. And to say faith in Christ,
it's to completely change the meaning of that. That's why I
love the King James Version. There are other good things and
other versions, but I don't think anything is comparable to the
King James Version. And we're saved by the faith
of Christ. Well, who's this for? It's given
to all them that believe. unto all and upon all them that
believe." They believe the gospel. They believe the Word of God. What is it exactly that they
believe? Well, let's go on reading. There's no difference between
Jew and Gentile, between moral and immoral, between powerful
and not powerful, between Black and white, between whatever,
between the most moral man and the most immoral man, there's
really no difference. Men are men. Vanity. Sinful. Evil. People talk about
powerful men. There's no such thing as powerful
men. Power belongeth unto the Lord. And wherever man's at,
God's put him there and He can remove him real quick if that's
His will. Power belongeth unto the Lord.
And there's really no difference between men. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. But here's what they believe. Being justified. This is how
somebody that's guilty can no longer be blamed. Being justified. Now, the only way you can be
justified is if God, the judge, pronounces you justified. This
is not something you accept. The judge never looks and says,
well, do you accept this justification or do you reject it? No, that's
ridiculous. It's what, if you're justified,
the judge declares you to be justified, not guilty. Now, how can he do that when
I am guilty? Well, first, freely. freely by
His grace. It's an act of God's grace through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. It's through the redeeming
work of Christ on the cross. This is why He came. He came
to make people without blame, without fault, by bearing their
sins and putting them away. Go on reading in verse 25. Whom
God has set forth or foreordained, or purpose. This has always been
God's purpose. Christ is called in Revelation
13, ain't the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?
This has always been God's purpose, to make a people like the Lord
Jesus Christ, without blame, faultless, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation A sin-removing sacrifice is what the word means.
The reason I'm without blame is because my sin's been removed
by the blood of Christ, and there's nothing to blame me for. I stand
without guilt before God, whom God set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. Now, I am relying on the blood
of Christ as all that's needed to make me, right now and eternally,
without blame before God. And what does that do? That declares
His righteousness. You see, God is righteous in
forgiving my sins, because those sins were paid for, and they
were put away, and I have the very righteousness of God. That
means I am without blame. That means I'm without fault. To declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness.
that he might be just, and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Now, because of that, every believer, everybody that Christ died for,
is without blame before God. Now, this word, without blame,
is found seven times in the New Testament. Two times, it's with
reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the other five times, it's
with reference to the believer. Now the only reason I'm without
blame is because God chose me to this before time began. That's
the scripture we just read. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him. And then the cause of my
being without blame is because of the blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ removed the blame. Listen to this passage of Scripture
from Colossians 1, 20 through 22, and having made peace through
the blood of His cross. by Him to reconcile all things
to Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven or things under the earth.
And you, the before time, were aliens and enemies in your mind
by wicked works. Yet now hath He reconciled in
the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable. before God." That describes every
believer. Why, this is the beauty of the
church. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved also the church
and gave himself for it that he might cleanse it with the
washing of the water by the word that he might present it to himself
a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing
that it should be holy and without blemish. That's the word, without
blemish. This is the beauty of the church. Every believer is
his beautiful bride. And we read in Jude 24, now unto
him that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before his throne with exceeding joy. I love the word exceeding
joy. God the Father has exceeding
joy in His blameless ones. God the Son has exceeding joy
in making these ones He loves, His bride, blameless. And what
exceeding joy does every believer have in being counted blameless
by God? And the last time that we read
about it is in Revelation chapter 14, speaking of the 144,000.
Now, remember this, the 144,000 represents all of God's people.
It's not some special group as some religions try to make it
out to be. It's just a representative number
of all of God's people, all who were redeemed from the earth.
And we read regarding these people, these are they which are not
defiled, Romans 14, I mean, Revelation 14, 5, these are they which were
not defiled with women, they're virgins, they're they which follow
the Lamb, wheresoever he goeth, they were redeemed from the earth,
in their mouth was found no guile, and they are without fault before
the throne of God. That describes every believer,
and it describes you. If you look to Christ only, that's
all you have to make you perfect before God. This is Todd Kniper,
praying that God will be pleased to make himself known to you.
That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
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