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 the message I would
like to bring this morning, Things That God Cannot Do. I'm reading from the book of
Titus, and I want to read the first and second verses. Paul,
a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to
the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth,
which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life. which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. Now all of my hope of salvation
is predicated on this statement, God cannot lie. Things God cannot do. Now, perhaps someone is uncomfortable
with that title because they do not want to limit God. Doesn't the scripture say, with
God, all things are possible? I don't want to put a limitation
on God and talk about the things that God cannot do. Well, there are things he can't
do. Thank God. One's mentioned in
our text. He cannot lie. He lacks the ability
to lie. when he speaks its absolute truth. And this promise that he made,
he who cannot lie, was made before the world began, before time
began. And Paul is basing his hope of
eternal life on something that God cannot do. He is incapable of lying. Now lying comes so easy to us. A man doesn't become a liar when
he tells a lie. He tells a lie because he's already
a liar. The scripture says the wicked
were estranged from the womb. They'd go about as soon as they'd
be born speaking lies. That is the fallen nature of
man. We don't have to be taught to
lie. You don't have to teach your children to lie. It comes
natural to them. Scripture says all men are liars.
But God cannot lie. All of his promises must come
to pass because God cannot lie. All of his threats. must come
to pass because God cannot lie. He cannot act contrary to who
he is. He cannot act contrary to what
this book says. This book tells us who he is.
This book tells us what he has done. and will do. 2 Timothy
3.16 says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. All scripture. Now, here's a
presupposition we have to begin with. The Bible is the word of
God, and the Bible tells us who God is and what his character
is. Now, the reason God cannot lie
is because he cannot act contrary to who he is. He cannot act contrary to his
attributes or his character. The attributes of God is His
character. God is holy. That means He's other. He's not like me and you. He's not like anything in this
created universe. He is separate. Now, to speak
of His holiness as His moral purity is actually a diminishing
of what His holiness is. You see, He doesn't do something
because it's right. It's right because He does it. He has no law over His head. He's the lawgiver. He is holy. Holy and reverend is His name. He cannot not be holy. He cannot
not be who He is. God is sovereign. He cannot not
be sovereign. Now, what does that mean, God
is sovereign? That means He's the first cause
behind everything. He's all-powerful. He has the
power to make sure His will always comes to pass, and His will always
does come to pass. His will cannot not come to pass
because God is absolutely sovereign. I think of hearing a preacher
one time say God was sovereign all the time except for once
when he relinquished his sovereignty and let men do what they wanted
to do when they nailed Christ to a cross. Now, when men nailed
Christ to a cross, the scripture says they did whatsoever God's
hand and counsel determined before to be done. Acts 4, verse 27. When that man pierced the Lord
with a spear, it's because that's what God's hand and counsel determined
before to be done. God is absolutely Sovereign in
all things. His love is a sovereign love. He cannot not love because he
is love. He loves his elect with an everlasting
love. He said, behold, I've loved you
with an everlasting love, a love that had no beginning, a love
that will have no end. God cannot not love because that's
Who He is. If He could stop loving someone,
that means He would change. And if He would change, that
means He would no longer be immutable. But God is immutable. He cannot change. He said, I
am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. God cannot sin. He cannot do
that which is evil. And that is why we believe in
what is called the impeccability of Jesus Christ. He could not
sin. I have heard people say, well,
is it even an issue that whether he could or couldn't sin as long
as we know he didn't sin? Yes, it is an issue because if
he could have sinned, that would mean he is not immutable. If
he's not immutable, that would mean he's not God. He could not
sin. He knew no sin. Now, God is absolutely just. He cannot not be just. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of His throne. Now, why does He say, I'll by
no means clear the guilty? And he said that, Acts 34 7.
I will by no means, under no circumstance, clear someone who
is guilty of sin. Why is that? Because God is just,
shall not the judge of the earth do right. God is independent. He is the only independent being. He has no needs. Oh, you and
I are so needy. We're so dependent. We're completely
dependent upon Him who is absolutely independent. Now, that is why
He cannot need me. or why he does not need me or
you to do something before he can do something for us. You
see, he's utterly independent. He has no needs outside of himself. God is omniscient. He knows everything. He's never learned anything.
He knows all things. He's all wise. God is omniscient. God is omnipresent. There is
no place where He is not. He's not bound by space or time. He doesn't dwell in the universe.
The universe dwells in the palm of His hand because God is omnipresent. God is faithful. He cannot not be faithful. I
love that scripture. If we deny Him, He remains faithful. I don't know if we believe not.
He remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. He's utterly
faithful at all times. God is incapable of failure.
Now remember, we're talking about what God can't do. He can't fail. I think of what the Lord said,
what was said of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 121. It says, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. Not he'll attempt to save his
people from their sins, or he'll make salvation available for
those people, but it says he shall save his people from their
sins. He is incapable of failure. Now all of the gospel is predicated
on this glorious statement, God cannot lie. Oh, I'm so thankful
for the things that God cannot do. Now I want to give you some
things from the Bible that God cannot do. I hope you'll give
me your ear and listen very carefully. What God cannot do. First, God cannot accept anything
short of absolute perfection. Let me repeat that. God cannot He lacks the ability
to accept anything short of absolute perfection. Leviticus 22, 21
says it shall be perfect to be accepted. God will not and cannot
accept anything short of absolute perfection. Habakkuk 1.3 says,
thou art a purer eyes to behold evil, and canst not look upon
iniquity. Now that's the God of the Bible.
He cannot accept anything short of perfection. We read in Psalm
24, verse one, the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. the world and they that dwell
therein. For he hath founded it upon the
seas and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? Here's the answer. He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart. clean on the outside, pure on
the inside, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity. nor
sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Now who is it that God will accept?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Someone who is
perfect. Now somebody says, how can that
be because nobody's perfect? Jesus Christ is perfect. And
everybody in him is perfect. And we're going to see how that
is as we go on considering what God cannot do. Now, here's the
second thing that God cannot do. God cannot clear a guilty
sinner. He said in Exodus 34, verse 7,
I will by no means clear the guilty. He cannot clear the guilty. If he did, that would deny all
of his attributes. It would make him an unjust judge. Now, what would you think of
a judge who cleared guilty criminals? You know what you'd say of that
judge? You'd say they are an unjust, corrupt judge if they
clear someone who's guilty. You know, a criminal doesn't
have to be afraid of an unjust judge. He can be bought. A criminal
is afraid of an absolutely just judge who will by no means, under
no circumstances, ever clear a guilty sinner. That's who God
is, shall not the judge of the earth do right. Now, don't leave me. God has made
a way to be just and justify the ungodly. That's what the
scripture is all about. It tells how God can not clear
the guilty and yet save guilty sinners through the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But understand this with regard
to God's character. He said, I will by no means under
no circumstances clear someone who is guilty. Here's the third
statement. God cannot save a sinner at the
expense of His justice. Now I want you to think about
that. God cannot. He lacks the ability to save
a sinner at the expense of His justice. He cannot pardon sin
without the punishment. sin. All sin must be punished. And that's what was taking place
on the cross, both the punishment of sin and the pardon of sin. And listen to this scripture
from 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. There's not a more important
verse of the scripture in all the Word of God. It says in 2
Corinthians 5 verse 21, For he hath made him to be sin, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Now Jesus Christ knew no sin.
You and I know sin. We're used to it. Jesus Christ
did not know what it was to be a sinner. He knew no sin. He never had a wrong thought.
He never had a wrong motive. He never had a wrong action,
holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners, higher
than the heavens. He knew no sin, but God the Father
made him to be sin. Now, somebody says, how could
that be? Well, God took the sins of His people and He took them
off of them and put them in His Son, and Christ was made to be
sin. In other words, He was made to
be guilty of the commission of those sins, although He never
sinned in His person. Yet the Bible tells us that God
the Father made Him to be sin. I think of Psalm 40 where it's
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. You can read it quoted in Hebrews
10 as the very words of Christ. And He said, From the cross mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I'm not able to look
up. He didn't say Todd's iniquities
that were imputed to me. My sin became his sin, for he
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we, everybody
he was made sin for, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. You see, sin was punished in
Him, and every believer is made the very righteousness of God. That perfect righteousness that
Jesus Christ worked out is given to the believer. It's called
substitution. He took my place. He accomplished my salvation. There was one time a missionary
that was trying to see if he was getting to the people he
was preaching to. And he said, did you understand
what I said? And a man replied, he die or
me die. He died, me no die. That is the
gospel, Jesus Christ, perfect, substitutionary, satisfying death. Could God have saved a sinner
without the cross? Well, when Christ cried, if it
be possible, Let this cup pass from me." And that's the cup
of the sins of the elect that he was going to drink, that the
Father gave him. He said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. But it was not possible. Christ
was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's when he
said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Now, if there
was another way that God could save sinners, he would have answered
the prayer of his son and he would have done it some other
way that was not in such a horrible fashion for him, but it was not
possible. And here's something else God
cannot do. He cannot save a sinner at the expense of his justice.
And because of that, God cannot send a man to hell for whom Christ
died. And do you hear that? God cannot
send a man to hell for whom Christ died. Now most of what goes on
under the name of Christianity says this, God loves everybody. Jesus Christ died savingly for
everybody and made a sufficient payment for their sins for them
to be saved. He paid for your sins, He died
for your sins, but You might go to hell anyway if you don't
accept Him as your personal Savior. It's true, He paid for your sins,
but if you don't do what you're supposed to do, you'll have to
go to hell anyway. Even though God paid for those
sins, you're gonna have to pay for them in hell. Now, let me
tell you what that does. That makes God unjust to think
that He could punish sin and then punish it again. If a man
is put in prison for five years and he gets out, having paid
his debt to the law and his debt to society, can the judge turn
around and say, well, I think you're going to go back to prison
even though you've already been there. I'm going to put you back there
again. No, it doesn't work that way. It cannot work that way. You see, if God punished your
sins in Christ, if Jesus Christ died for you, you must be saved. The payment has been made. We
don't sing, Jesus paid a half, the other half I owe, but Jesus
paid it all, all the debt I owe. And if Christ died for me, I
can't be anything but saved. Now, to say that Jesus Christ
made salvation available, He intended to save everybody, but
there's some people who won't be saved, means He failed in
His intentions. That's calling Jesus Christ to
failure. And He cannot fail. You see, He said, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven not to do my
own will, but the will of Him that sent me, and this is the
Father's will which has sent me, that of all which He hath
given me." I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day." If God sends somebody to hell that Christ died for,
God would be unjust and Christ would be a failure, but thank
God that is not possible. If Jesus Christ died for you,
you must be saved. God cannot reject anyone who
believes the gospel. And that's the next thing that
God cannot do. He cannot reject anyone who believes
the gospel. Now, somebody may be thinking,
well, what if I'm not one of the elect? What if Christ didn't
die for me? He could reject me even though
I do believe the gospel, couldn't he? Oh, no. Oh, no. That's not
so at all. As far as that goes, it's not
my job or your job to try to figure out whether or not we're
elect or whether or not Christ died for us. Our responsibility
is to believe the gospel. It's true. Believe the gospel
because it's true. The Philippian jailer said, sirs,
what must I do to be saved? And Paul and Barnabas answered,
or Paul and Silas answered, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. If you trust Christ only, if
you believe the gospel message that what he did is enough to
make you perfect before God, you're saved. God cannot reject
someone who believes the gospel. If he did that, he would be dishonoring
his own character. Now, he would lose more than
I would if he rejected me when I believed the gospel. He would
lose his honor and his truthfulness and his faithfulness. God cannot
reject anyone who believes the gospel. God cannot, listen to
this, I've got two more, very briefly. God cannot bring a man
into heaven with hell still in his heart. Do you know if you
even have the potential to sin? If you died and were brought
into heaven and even had the potential to sin, You'd ruin
it. You wouldn't be allowed in. But this is what the Lord did
when He gave every believer the new birth or a new heart. He
says in 1 John 3, verse 9, That's what the new birth is,
being born of God, being born again. Whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin. For his seed, the seed of God,
remains in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Now this is talking about the
new nature that every believer possesses that they were given
when they were born of God. Now they cannot sin because they're
born of God. Now God can't let somebody into
heaven who even has the potential to sin, but thank God every believer
being born of God has a holy nature that cannot sin. Last, God cannot be worshiped. apart from spirit and truth."
Those are the words of the Lord. God is spirit and they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There is no worship
of God apart from spirit and truth. Now, a natural man is
unable to worship God because he's dead in sins. He must be
given spiritual life. God the Holy Spirit must give
him life to where he now has a spiritual nature. I've heard
people say, well, I'm a spiritual person. Well, you're not if you
haven't been born again. Only those who have been born from
above have this spiritual nature. And it's only this spiritual
nature that God is birthed in a man that can worship God. Now,
what is the evidence of a spiritual nature? The truth. There is no
worshiping God apart from the truth of who God is and the truth
of how He saves sinners by Christ's work on the cross. Those two
things go together. Spirit and truth. The truth of
the gospel. There can be no worship of the
living God apart from spirit and truth. As a matter of fact,
Paul called it in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, the sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Those two things cannot be separated. God is spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and truth. Now it's true that
faith has something to do with believing his ability. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. Oh, he believed in his ability.
But part of believing his ability is believing in what he is unable
to do. and all of my salvation is predicated
in this glorious statement, God cannot lie. All my salvation
is based upon this, God's character. He cannot lie. He cannot clear
the guilty. He cannot send somebody to hell
that his son died for. He can't reject someone who believes
the gospel. Oh, all of our hope is based
not only in what God can do, but what God cannot. Thank God for who He is. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.neibert at gmail.com
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