I 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. In John chapter 12, verse 35,
Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you. Now he would shortly be dying. And he says to these people,
for a little while, just a short time, the light is with you.
Now, why did he say this? Well, they asked this question
in verse 34, who is this son of man? Who is this son of man
you're speaking of? You're speaking of yourself as
the son of man. Who is the son of man? And he
answered for just a little while longer, the light is with you. Now, there are a lot of ways
the Lord could have answered this question, who is the Son
of Man? He could have said the Son of
God, God the Son. He could have said the Creator
of the universe. He would have been giving the
proper answer because He is the Creator of the universe. Scripture
says all things were made by Him. He could have said the promised
seed of woman that would come and crush the serpent's head.
Not the seed of Adam, but the seed of woman, the virgin-born
birth of Christ. He could have said the lion of
the tribe of Judah that Jacob spoke of. He could have said
David's son and David's Lord. He could have said God manifest
in the flesh. He could have said, the Lord
God omnipotent that reigneth. And he would have given the right
answer to who the son of man is. He could have said, I am
that I am what God said to Moses from the bush. And he would have
been giving the right answer. Do you remember when they came
to arrest him? And he said, whom seek ye? And
they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they fell
backwards. You see, he is a great I am that
I am. But here's the word he gives
to tell who he is, the light. The light. Now, picture in your
mind walking into a dark room where you really can't see anything
anyway, and then the door's closed, and you're in utter darkness.
And there you sit. You don't know what's in that
room with you. You can't see. You may have some ideas, you
may guess, but you do not know what's in that room in the pitch
black until the light is turned on. And when the light is turned
on, you see. Now Christ is the light by whom
we see. We see who God is. We see who
we are. And we see how He saves in Him
the light. Now let me say some things about
light. I think these are very interesting. The Lord calls Himself
the light on numerous occasions. I am the light of the world.
And he used light, in a sense, as an illustration. But he called
himself the door, too. He's not a real door. And when
he calls himself light, this is given to, not that he can
be compared to anything, because he's utterly unique. There's
nobody like him. Let me say that as clearly as
I can. Somebody says, well, he's a very
Christ-like person. No, he's not. No one is like
him. He is utterly unique. He says there's none like me,
but he does use light. Now, light, I've read, is made
of two properties, particles and waves. Particles have mass,
volume, very small, albeit, but they have mass. Waves are energy. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ has
two natures. Like light has two parts, two
things make light, Christ has two natures. And this is what
makes Him utterly unique. He is fully God, just as if He
were not man at all. And he's fully man, the perfect
man, just as if he were not God at all, the God-man, Christ Jesus. Now, light is the source of food. You've no doubt heard of the
process of photosynthesis. I imagine we learned that in
grade school, how plants, the leaves of plants, convert the
energy of light into chemical energy. And really, that's the
source of food. through the light and the plants
converting that energy. Through that light, the plants
are able to give us oxygen, what we need, and take away what would
kill us, carbon dioxide. All those things are seen in
light, but I think the principal meaning of this, I am the light,
means he's the only light by whom we see. I love that scripture
in John 8, verse 12, where he said, I am the light of the world. Now, when he said this, it's
very important for us to consider what was said previously. He
looked at that woman. that was taken in adultery in
the very act. There wasn't any doubt as to
her guilt. And he said, woman, where are
those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. And he said, neither indeed do
I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Now, how
is it that he can not condemn her and be honest with the Word
of God, which says she should be condemned? How is it that
he can not condemn her? He is the light as to how that
can be. We're going to come back to that
in a moment. But he is the light as to how that can be. He is
the light of how God can look at me and say, I don't condemn
you because there's nothing to condemn you for. You stand without
guilt before me. And I know sure enough that I
am guilty and sinful, and yet he can say that to me and it'd
be real. How can that be? Well, he's the light as to how
that can be. The son of man is the light. Who is the son of man? Well,
a little while, the light is with you, light. In creation,
what came first? In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. And God said,
let there be light. First thing in creation. Now,
I think it's very interesting that the sun and the moon were
not created until the fourth day. But here we have Christ
as the light. Light be, light was. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4,
6, for God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When the New
Jerusalem is described, which is heaven, in Revelation 21,
23, we read, And the city had no need of the sun, neither of
the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. Christ is the light. Do you remember the story of
the transfiguration? When he went up on the mountain with
Peter and James and John, the scripture said he was transfigured
before then. At this time, his deity burst
through his humanity. I don't understand how that was,
but the scripture said his face did shine as the sun and his
raiment was white as light. In John chapter one, when John
is introducing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, in the
beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God as
a distinct person, and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined
in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Now, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Him was life. And what that means
is he has life in himself. He has no needs. He's not dependent
the way you and I are for life to continue. We have to have
air. We have to have food. We have
to have water. We have to have shelter. There's
all kinds of things we're dependent upon. We're totally dependent
creatures. He is utterly independent. He has no needs. He has life
in Himself. In Him was life. He's the source
of all life. If you have any life physical,
it's because He gave it to you. If you have spiritual life, it's
because He gave it to you. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. You know what that means? Here's the light I have. His
life is my life before God. That's why I'm accepted. He took
my sin, put it away. That's what He did on the cross.
He gives me His life. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. His life is my life before God. Now, this is the light I
have as to how God can accept me and embrace me, because the
life of Jesus Christ, His perfect life, is my life before God. Not my own life. but his. His righteousness is my righteousness
before God. In John chapter 3, the Lord said
in verse 18, he that believeth on him is not
condemned. Now do you hear that? If you
or I believe on Christ, we are not condemned. We stand before
God righteous. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. because he has not believed on
the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil, hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light,
lest his deed should be reproved or exposed. Now the reason men
hate the light, and they do, we all do by nature, we're all
born sinners, and we're born hating the light unless God gives
us new eyes to see and a new heart to receive. The reason
men hate the light is because it exposes all their deeds as
evil, even your good deeds, even your righteousness is as filthy
rags. And you don't see that until
you see the light. When you see the light, your deeds are exposed
as evil. And the natural man does not
want to do that because he thinks his deeds are gonna save him.
And what he's hoping in, he finds that is no good. That's why he
hates the light. But he that doeth truth. I love that phrase. He that doeth truth. Believing
the gospel is the doing of truth. He that doeth truth comes to
the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they're
wrought in God, that they're wrought by God. And this is true
in two senses, and these two senses cannot be separated. My
deeds are what he did. Those are my deeds, what he did,
what he worked, the perfect life he worked at. Those are my deeds.
And I'm not afraid to bring that to the light. If his righteousness
really is my personal righteousness before God, I'm not afraid to
bring that to the light. And it also says in Philippians
2.13, it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do
his good pleasure. Now, if my deeds are His working
in me, both to will and to do, His good pleasure, I can bring
that to the light. You see, if I don't understand
that Christ is salvation, I don't want to come to the light, because
I'm trusting in my deeds. But if I see that He is salvation,
I will bring that to the light joyously. In John 8, verse 12,
I've already referred to this, But it's when the Lord said,
I am the light of the world. Now, what had happened? There were some men who caught
a woman in adultery in the very act. I think that this was a
setup of some kind. And I also think, where's the
man? He was guilty, too. They didn't bring the man, but
they bring the woman. And she has been taken in adultery in
the very act. And they bring her before the
Lord. And they said, this woman was taken in adultery, in the
very act. I mean, there's no doubt about
her guilt. Now, the law says such should
be stoned. And that's what the law did say,
stoned, both the adulterer and the adulteress. But what sayest
thou? Now, what they thought was, we've
got him in a pickle. This woman was guilty. And if
he says, let her go, we can say, where's your respect for the
law? The law says stone her. If he says stoner, we can say,
well, I thought you were merciful. I thought you were gracious towards
sinners. They thought they had him in a pickle. And what says
thou? But you know what he did? He
stooped down and he started writing in the sand. He didn't answer
him. What was he writing? Well, I
know of two other places where the finger of God wrote something
down. He wrote down in the law, thou shalt not commit adultery. And the other time is when the
writing on the wall came to Belchazar in Daniel chapter five and said,
thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. And I think
what he was saying is, you all are guilty of this same sin.
Somebody says, I've never done that. Well, you've done it in
your heart. You've done it in your mind. And the Lord said
to look on a woman to lust after, hath committed adultery already
with her in his heart. So all these men were guilty,
and I think they were actually guilty of the physical act. And
then he stood up after writing in the stone and said, he that's
without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And they
began with shame to move away, being convicted by their own
conscience. And then the Lord looked at this
woman and he said, woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath
no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. He said,
neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. I am the light of the world.
Now, how could he say that if she was guilty? because he knew
that what he was doing was putting away her sin, so that she had
nothing to be guilty about. The only reason the Lord would
say, I don't condemn you, is because there's nothing to condemn
me for. Now, if I would commit a crime, a horrible crime, let's
say murder. And it was premeditated murder. I was thinking about what I was
doing before I did it, and I was caught. There was no doubt about
my action. I was guilty. And the judge would
say to me, I don't condemn you. What would that judge be? An
unjust judge. If we had judges like that who
would just let the guilty go free, we'd have to get them out.
They're unjust, corrupt judges. A just judge honors the law. Now, Christ honored the law when
He said, I don't condemn you, because He paid for this woman's
sin. and put it away, and made it
not to be, and gave her His very righteousness, so He could look
at her and say, I do not condemn thee. Now, Christ is the light
as to how that can be. You see, 1 John 3, 4 through
6 says, sin is the transgression of the law, and He was manifested
to take away our sins. And that's exactly what he did
because the scripture says, in him is no sin. Now I would like to look at one
final passage of scripture with regard to Christ being the light.
It's found in first John chapter five. We read in verse five,
this then is the message that catches my attention. This, then,
is the message. Let me hear what it is. This,
then, is the message that God is light, and in Him is no darkness
at all. He has no dark side. Now, there's no being other than
Him of which this can be said. You have a dark side. I have
a dark side. Men are sinful. God has no dark
side. He's altogether holy, immaculate,
perfect, pure. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. If we say, verse 6, if we say
we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie,
and do not the truth. Now, there are a lot of people
who will make this claim, I fellowship with God, I walk with God, He
walks with me, I pray to Him, He hears me, He speaks to me,
I have fellowship with God, I'm in a good place with God, I have
fellowship with God. Now, if I make that claim, a
lot of people make that claim, I have fellowship with God. If
we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. Now, the darkness he is talking
about is the darkness of man's religion, salvation by works. If I believe in salvation by
works, If I believe my salvation is some way dependent upon something
I do, I demonstrate two things that I'm utterly in the dark
about. I'm utterly in the dark with regard to God's character.
If I think there's anything that I can do that could obligate
Him to save me, I demonstrate by that I have no idea of who
He is. I have no idea of His righteousness
and His holiness. And I secondly demonstrate I'm
in the dark with regard to myself, my own sinfulness. If I saw myself
for what I am and who I am, I would know I cannot be saved by my
works. But that man who claims to have
fellowship with God, and yet he walks in darkness. What does the scripture say about
this man? We lie. It's all a lie. All of our claims of fellowship
with God are nothing more than a lie. They're not true. They're
not real. And that man does not do the truth. He is not being
honest on any level. We lie and do not the truth.
But, John says, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, if we walk in the light,
The light of how God can accept us in the Beloved. The light
of how God can put away our sin and make us perfect before God.
The light of the righteousness of Jesus Christ being my righteousness
before God. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in the light
that no man can approach to. He dwells in the light of His
Father. And we walk in the light of Christ being our light as
to how God can accept us. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. You know, when
I'm around somebody that I feel judged by, they're judging me,
they're thinking that they're holier than I am, they're being
critical of me and judgmental of me, and I'm not living up
to their standards, I don't have fellowship with that person.
but someone who sees Christ as all in their salvation. Someone
who sees salvation as by grace only and not by works. I have
fellowship with that person. And look at this promise, the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now, I need cleanse daily. I
walk through this world daily and get my feet dirty in this
world daily, but I'm cleansed daily, continually by the blood
of Christ. Now he goes on to say in verse
eight, this is all part of this. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. Now, here the word sin is a noun. He's not talking about sins. He's talking about a sinful nature. Now, if I would say to you, I
do not have a sinful nature right now while I'm talking to you,
if I would make such a claim, The scripture says, I've deceived
myself and the truth is not in me. I've lost all credibility. I am a liar if I make that claim. Now he says in verse nine, if
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we confess our sins. Now,
what's that mean? Does that mean you have to confess
every sin you commit? Well, that's impossible because
most of the sins you've committed, you don't even know you've committed
them. And there's not enough hours in the day for you to confess
all your sins. What this word confession means
is agreement. You agree with what God says
about your sins. You take sides with God against
yourself. If we confess our sins, oh, have
you ever taken sides with God against yourself, guilty as charged? Have mercy on me. If we confess
our sins, Scripture says He is faithful and just. to forgive our sins. You see,
if you confess your sins, He's faithful because He's the one
who determined you do it in the first place. And He's just in
forgiving your sins because the blood of Christ justly put them
away. You're given the righteousness
of Christ. God is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins
and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Oh, what a blessed thing the
gospel is. If we say we've not sinned, verse
10. If we say we've not sinned. Now there the word sin is a verb. It's not a noun, it's a verb.
Now with regard to anything I do, including this sermon I'm preaching,
if I say, well there was no sin in that sermon, well yeah there
was because I have this sinful nature and that makes everything
I do sin. If I did it, it's sin. You take
the best gift, the most generous gift I've ever given, there was
enough sin in it start hell, everything. I'm aware of that.
David said, my sin is ever before me. I was shaped in an iniquity
and sin did my mother conceive me. Now, if I say I've not sinned,
I make him a liar because he says I have and his word is not
in us. Now, the Lord said, when they
said, who is this son of man? The light. Walk while you have
the light. He is the light of who God is. All we'll ever see of God is
Jesus Christ. He's the light of who we are.
We see our own sinfulness in His light. He is the light as
to how a holy, just, righteous God can accept me and save me
for Christ's sake. He is the light of the world. Now, the Lord says, while you
have the light, walk in the light, that you may be children of the
light, Darkness is coming. So while you have the light,
the light of who Christ is, believe on Him right now by the grace
of God without delay, because He is the light of the world. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.neibert at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
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