Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. 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. I'm going to be preaching this
morning from Luke chapter 22, but before I begin preaching,
I would like to invite you to our Sovereign Grace Bible Conference
beginning December 9th, 7 o'clock Friday evening. We'll be meeting
Friday evening at 7, Saturday morning at 10, Saturday evening
at 6, and Sunday morning at 10. And you're going to hear nine
different men preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. Now, by that, I'm talking about
the gospel. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace is the gospel. The gospel that declares God's
absolute sovereignty, man's deadness in sins, God electing a people
before time began, Christ dying for the elect and accomplishing
their salvation. The grace of the Holy Spirit
being invincible and irresistible and all of those people that
God elected Christ died for and God the Holy Spirit gives life
to will persevere in the faith all the way to the end. Now all of these men believe
the gospel of God's grace and we'd love to have you come out
and hear the gospel. We'll have a nursery for every
service. Luke chapter 22, I want to begin
reading in verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I
am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And
he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this
day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Now the Lord could see everything
that was going on in Peter's heart. We know from the other
accounts of this that Peter was in a state of pride and arrogance. He said, though all the rest
of the disciples will betray you, I'll never do it. I'll lay
down my life for thy sake." And I have no doubt that Peter meant
it, and he really believed he would. He was making this promise,
but he was lifting himself up above his brethren. Though the
rest of this bunch may do it, I will never do it. And the Lord
could see in his heart. This is an example of pride goes
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall. The Lord
knew exactly what was going on in Peter's heart, and he said,
Simon, Simon. I can feel the love and the compassion
in him repeating Simon's name. He loved Simon. He's somebody
that he was going to die for. He was one of his children. Simon,
Simon. He speaks his natural name rather
than his given name is Peter. You're going to act like Simon.
Simon, Simon, I know what's getting ready to happen. And then he
says, Satan hath desired to have you. Now that's literally Satan
has asked permission to have you. You see, Satan can't make
a move. without the permission of Jesus
Christ. Satan is a mighty being, but
he's not almighty, and he's under the thumb of the Lord Jesus Christ. And though he doesn't know it,
all he is doing is making Christ's will and purposes to come to
pass. Everything he does, he plots
against Christ. The great example of that is
the cross. He thought, I've defeated him.
I've defeated him. And he didn't know he delivered
the death blow to Satan through the cross. The prince of this
world has been judged. So Satan has plans and purposes,
but he's God's devil. Don't forget that. He can't make
a move without Christ. Now, Satan, there is a being
named Satan, Lucifer, the devil. the God of this world, the prince
of this world, the prince of the power of the spirit of the
air, the tempter, the accuser of the brethren. He's given these
names and he is a very mighty being. He masquerades as an angel
of light. That's what Paul tells us in
2 Corinthians 11, 13. He comes as an angel of light. He's not in a red suit with a
pitchfork and a pointed tail. He comes as a preacher. That's
his place of operation. It's the pulpit. He's not worried
about the people and spending their time in drunkenness and
reveling and so on. They're doing what they want
to do, but his main fear of operation is religion. He masquerades as
an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness,
human righteousness, but righteousness nonetheless. That's how he comes. And he had asked permission to
take Peter. Now, Satan, does not know invalidly
whether you or I are elect. And so he's going to do whatever
he can to cause us to fall away from Christ because he thinks
in doing that he's giving Christ a blow. And so he comes and asks
permission. I want to sift him as wheat. I know I can't do it unless you
let me. But I'm going to show you how
weak he is. You think he's a mighty apostle?
I'm going to get him to deny he even knows you, much like
Job. You remember how God said to
Satan, have you considered my servant Job? There's nobody like
him. That's when Satan said, well, you've got him hedged up
and he's got no problems in his life. You let me on him and I'll
show you what he's like. That's the same thing going on
here with Peter. Simon, Simon, Satan has desired
to have you that he may sift you as wheat. And we know that he did sift
Peter as wheat. He got Peter to deny that he
even knew Christ. And he denied him with oaths
and cursing and swearing. I know not the man. And he did
it even with Christ looking at him. Oh, how, Peter? He denied knowing His Redeemer. Before men He was afraid, before
a little maid. Satan has desired to have you
that he may sift you as wheat. And my friend, he can sift me
as wheat, he can sift you as wheat very easily. He's got a
lot to work with, with all of us. You know, even when Michael
the archangel was dealing with Satan, he said, the Lord will
rebuke thee. I don't want to have anything to do with you.
The Lord rebuke thee. And I don't want to have anything
to do with him either. But I know this, if he gets a hold of me
or you, he can turn us inside out because he's got plenty to
work with. You know, when he's called the
accuser of the brethren, making accusations night and day before
them over in Revelation 12, 10, you know what? Every accusation
he makes is true. If he makes an accusation against
you, it's true, isn't it? It's true. The issue is, has
Christ put away that sin? Because the accusations he's
making are true. But notice what the Lord says
to Peter. Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed
for you. Now let me ask you a question.
If Christ prays for you, can God the Father say no to him?
No. Whatever he asks for, he gets. He's equal with the Father. He's
never asked the Father for something and the Father said no to him.
He said, Peter, I have prayed for you. But what did he pray? He said, I prayed for you that
your faith fail not. He didn't say, I pray that you
won't be sifted as wheat. He didn't say, I pray that the
devil won't be able to touch you. He didn't say, I pray that
you won't fall. No, Peter needed these things. He was in a state of arrogance
and that fall would end up doing him good. But what did the Lord
pray? I've prayed for you that your
faith fail not. Now this is what is known as
the intercession of Christ. Christ's priestly prayers for
his people. First Corinthians 15.3 says that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And when he
says according to the scriptures, he's talking about the Old Testament
scriptures. I think it's sad the way many religious institutions
just dismiss the Old Testament Scriptures as the old Bible,
or they make it nothing but character studies, and they don't see the
gospel in it. But the Old Testament Scriptures are full of the gospel. And in the Old Testament, the
priest would slay the sacrifice, and he'd take the blood, and
he'd bring it in to the Holy of Holies, representing the very
presence of God. And he had the names of the 12
tribes of the children of Israel engraven on his breast and on
his shoulders. He came as a representative for
God's people interceding for them. Now, you can't separate
the sacrifice of Christ and the intercession of Christ. Listen
to the scripture. Who is he that condemneth? Romans
8, 34. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea rather, that's risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. There's a man in glory right
now making intercession for me, representing me before the Father.
There's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus. There is a man with blood pumping
through his veins who is God, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for me. It was his will
for me to be saved, and he's making sure his will comes to
pass. And when he prays for me, he
doesn't pray for me saying, oh, forgive him because he's sorry,
or forgive him because he won't do it again, or forgive him because
he No, His only plea is His own sacrifice. Forgive that man,
because I died for his sins. I gave him my righteousness,
and he stands complete. I John 2, verse 1 says, These
things write unto you, that you sin not. My dear friends, sin
in any form is never okay. We're to make it our resolve
to never sin again. Sin's against God, sin's a great
evil. Oh, I wish I could describe how
evil sin is, how evil my sin is. He said, these things write
I unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin. We have an
advocate with the Father, an intercessor with the Father,
a lawyer with the Father, and He's no crooked lawyer. It's
Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our
sins. You see, there's the sacrifice,
and there's the intercessor. We have an advocate with the
Father, and His advocacy is because of His propitiation. He put away
my sin. He took away God's reason to
be mad at me and to have anger toward me, because now I have
no sin, because He made propitiation for my sin. He put it away. Hebrews
chapter 7 verse 25 says, Wherefore he is able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them. Now the ground of Christ's intercession
is His sacrifice. Just like the high priest of
old took the blood of the sacrifice and brought it before the Lord.
Christ brings his own blood before the Lord and represents his people
as their great intercessor. And I want us to notice that
the Lord does not pray for Peter not to fall. He needed to fall. This was for
his good. He was going to be taught how
weak and sinful he was. And he was going to be taught
that he shouldn't try to exalt himself above his brethren. Now
this fall was for Peter's good. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. It was for his good, but he needed this fall.
The Lord did not pray that he wouldn't fall, but the Lord prayed
that his faith would fail not. Now, like I said, whatever the
Lord prays for, the Lord gets. He said, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world, but for them which you have given me, for
they are thine. When He said, Father, forgive
them, everybody He prayed for was forgiven. He didn't offer
some kind of generic prayer. Everyone He prayed for was forgiven. I think the most beautiful example
is the Roman centurion. That man who was presiding over
his death ends up seeing him cry out, it is finished, and
saying, surely this man was the Son of God. He was given saving
faith. He was forgiven. The Lord prayed
for him. The Father always answers his
prayer. He prayed for Peter that his
faith would fail not. Now, there is such a thing as
faith that fails. You know, the stony ground hears. They believed, but it was only
temporary. The thorn-choked hearers, they
believed, it was only temporary. I don't know how many people
I've seen come and go at the Todrick Grace Church. They come,
they say they believe, they're there, and they leave. Their
faith is temporary. They no longer have to hear the
gospel. They no longer have to be identified
with the gospel. The Lord looked at one group.
After he preached the message, 5,000 people from that time,
many of his disciples went back. and walked no more with him. They proved to be false disciples.
He said to the twelve, will you also go away? Peter answered,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God, and we believe and are sure of thy
words. Now, the Lord says, I've prayed
for you that your faith fail not. Peter may fail everywhere
else, As a matter of fact, he does fail everywhere else. And
all he's left with is faith. And that's a good thing to be
left with. Now, I don't have any doubt that after Peter's
fall, he didn't believe he was a disciple anymore. Because in
Mark chapter 16, verse 7, when the Lord was raised from the
dead, he said, you go tell my disciples and Peter. You make sure you tell Peter.
that I've risen from the dead and going before you. Peter didn't
believe he was a disciple anymore. Peter thought of the fact that
he denied the Lord, and he remembered the Lord's words, Whoso denieth
me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in
heaven. He thought, I've denied him before men. He's going to
deny me. I've had it. It's over for me. I'm not a disciple
anymore. Peter didn't believe anything good about himself.
All he could do was weep bitterly. He hated himself. He saw himself
as nothing but sin. He didn't see one thing about
him to commend himself to God. Oh, he was horrified at the state
of his soul. But you know what he never quit
believing? He never quit believing that Jesus was the Christ. Now,
Peter at this time might have thought, I couldn't be one of
God's elect. Christ didn't die for me. I wouldn't have done
that if he did. I couldn't be saved doing something
like that. But he never quit believing that
Jesus was the Christ. Now, I want you to listen to
this very carefully. Saving faith. is not believing
you're saved. You can believe you're saved
and not be. Saving faith is not believing
Christ died for your sins. All you got to do is believe
universal redemption, which is the false belief that Christ
died for everybody, and you'll believe that Christ died for
your sins. Saving faith is not believing you're one of the elect.
Saving faith is not believing that you've been born again.
Saving faith is not believing you're a Christian because your
life has changed so much. You used to be a godless wretch
and now you're religious and read the Bible and you've given
up certain outward sins and taken up some good things. None of
that is saving faith. Saving faith is believing that
Jesus is the Christ. Saving faith is believing that
Jesus is the uncreated Son of God, the second person of the
Blessed Trinity, He who cannot fail. When the Ethiopian eunuch
said to Philip, after hearing him preach the gospel, see here's
water, what hinders me from being baptized? He said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. And the eunuch replied, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He didn't say, I believe
I'm saved. He didn't say, I believe Christ died for my sins. He didn't
say, I believe I'm one of the elect. He didn't say, I believe
I've been born again. He didn't say, I believe I'm a Christian.
All of his faith had to do with Christ. I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ, God's anointed prophet, the word of God, God's priest,
who if he represents you, you must be saved. God's king, the
one who rules and reigns. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God." Do you believe that He's the Christ? Do you believe that He's the
Son of God? Do you believe that He's able
to save you with no help from you? Well, if you really do,
you've been born of God. That's what the Scripture says.
Now, Peter had all kinds of doubts about himself. and misgivings
about himself, but he still believed that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God, and his only hope of being saved was
Christ being pleased to save him. Now, he was very much like
that leper. When that leper came to Christ,
he came and worshipped him. He worshipped him for who he
was, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Peter knew that the only way
he would be clean was if Christ was pleased to make him clean. He couldn't say, Lord, I'm going
to accept your forgiveness. I'm going to let you forgive
me. I'm going to let you save me. I'm going to let you forgive me of
that sin. I'm going to let you have your way. Why, that's foolishness. Peter wouldn't have ever come
into the Lord's presence like that. Lord, if you will. That's my only hope, is your
will. I know you can. I don't know
about your willingness. If you will. My salvation is
totally up to you. I've blown it all. I have nothing. If you will, you can make me
clean. You see, you only come to God
as a sovereign. You don't come any other way.
Your salvation is up to him. Now, Peter's faith, while everything
else had failed, Peter's faith never failed in this sense. All
he had was Christ. And you know what, my dear friend?
All I have is Christ. I don't have anything else, nor
do I want anything else. All I have is Christ. What makes you think you have
a right to come into Heaven? My only right is if he brings
me in, if he makes me righteous, if he puts away my sins, if he
does something for me. I got to say with that thief,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Now, Peter's
faith didn't fail. He still believed that Jesus
was the Christ. He wasn't so sure whether he'd
saved him, but he, you know, you can, you can believe you're
saved and not be saved. You can believe you're saved
and not be saved, and you can believe you're not saved and be saved.
You see, what's your faith? Is your faith holy in Him? Holy
in Him, look at Him, that's where Peter was. That's where Peter
was. He knew Christ is all he had. Peter's faith didn't fail,
and it's because Christ prayed that his faith fail not. And
then the Lord says to Peter, and when thou art converted. Peter, I prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. When thou art converted, when
thou art turned is what the word means. Now conversion is not
regeneration. Regeneration happens once when
you're born from above and it's continual. Conversion is something
that I have happen every day. I'm turned. I turn and I turn
because I'm turned. Now, Peter was in a state of
pride and arrogance. Though the rest of this bunch
deny you, I'll never do it. He was turned from the posture
of the Pharisee Lord, I thank you that I'm not as other men
are. He turned from the posture of the Pharisee to the posture
of the publican. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. When thou art converted from
this state of arrogance, you know, in Matthew chapter 18,
we read where they were arguing over which of them would be the
greatest. And the Lord said to them, except you be converted,
EXCEPT YOU BE CONVERTED AND BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN, YOU WON'T
ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT, WHO'S
GOING TO BE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN? AND LORD SAID, YOU
CONTINUE IN THIS, YOU WON'T EVEN BE THERE EXCEPT YOU BE CONVERTED
AND BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN. NOW, PETER WAS TURNED. HE WAS TURNED. HE TURNED. HE
TURNED. HE TURNED BECAUSE HE WAS TURNED.
AND THE PSALMIST SAID, TURN US AGAIN, O GOD OF HEROS, CAUSE
THY FACE TO SHINE AND WE'LL BE SAVED. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? He
had to be turned again and again and again and again. Peter messed
up so many times. You know what, though? All of
his sins were paid for. He had Christ praying for him. Now, if Christ prays for you,
if He is sitting on a throne, representing you, praying for
you, interceding for you. Is there any way you can be anything
but saved? You see, Christ's intercession
is so effectual, it's seen in Peter. Peter, I prayed for you
that your faith fail not. When you're converted, strengthen
your brethren. Don't put your finger down on
them and your thumb down on them and exalt yourself above them,
but strengthen them. You know, when you are converted,
the brethren take on a new meaning to you. Oh, you love the brethren
and want to highly esteem the brethren, but Peter was in a
state of pride at this time. When you're converted, strengthen
your brethren. But to think of Christ praying
for me. That's my confidence, that there's
one in glory right now representing me, praying for me, and He will
not let me go. Praise His holy name. Now I want
to remind you about the Bible conference we're going to be
having. beginning on December 9th, Friday at 7 o'clock, Saturday
morning, 10, Saturday evening, 6, and Sunday morning at 10.
And we'll have nine speakers preaching the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace. And we'd love to have you come
out and meet with us. This is Todd Knipert, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon you have just heard,
send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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