I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. 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 8, verse 36, we read
these words. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. I've entitled this message, Free
Indeed. I love the way he says, verily,
verily, I say unto you, If the sun shall make you free, if I
make you free, you'll be free indeed, in reality, in point
of fact, as opposed to that which is pretended, fictitious, false
and conjectural, true freedom, real freedom. Now, what led the Lord to make
this statement? In verse 30 of this chapter,
as he spake these words, many believed on him. Now, this same group that believed
by the end of this chapter, Then they took up stones to cast at
him. They wanted to murder the Lord
Jesus Christ. These same people who it says
they believed. So whatever their faith was,
it was temporary. Verse 31, then said Jesus to
those Jews, which believed on him, if you continue in my word. Then are you my disciples indeed. Not simply to begin, but to continue
in his word, to continue believing the gospel, to continue looking
to Christ only as your salvation until your last breath. It is only those who continue
that are his disciples, indeed. And then he says in verse 32,
and you shall know the truth. Oh, I want to know the truth,
don't you? Here's the promise to those who continue in his
word, and you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make
you free. Now, it's not your knowledge
of the truth that makes you free, but the truth himself. You see, the truth is more than
a proposition. The truth is a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth,
the life. No man comes to the Father, but
by me." What a statement. He doesn't say, I'll show you
the way. He said, I am the way. He doesn't
say, I'll teach you the truth. He says, I am the truth. He doesn't
say, I'll give you life. He says, I am the life. You shall
know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now listen to these people's
response. Then they answered him, these people that the Lord
just makes this statement to. And they say, we be Abraham's
seed and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou you
shall be made free? I can't help but to think that
we're probably Roman soldiers marching back and forth around
them and they were under complete Roman dominion at that time. We've never been in bondage to
any man? I don't think so. Even as they spake, they were
in bondage to Caesar and to the Roman empire. But in the original,
the word man is not even in there. Let me read you Young's literal
translation. We've not been enslaved at any
time. We're free. What do you mean
you'll be made free? We're already free. How do you
make someone free or set someone free who's already free? Now,
we have a free will. People say that today. We have
a free will. We're free. We have a free will. We can do what we want to do.
Well, I would not disagree with the fact that everybody does
what they want to do. Whatever it is you do is what
you want to do. What I do is what I want to do. I'm not forced
to do things. I do what I want to. But to speak
of free will, we're free. We've never been in bondage at
any time. Your will and my will is controlled by our nature. Free will is a philosophical
absurdity. There is no such thing. God does not have a free will. God's will is controlled by his
nature. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, God cannot freely decide to lie. He cannot lie, the scripture
says. He cannot act in any way contrary
to His nature. His will is controlled by His
nature. Now, His will is all-powerful,
it's sovereign. His will is always done, but
He can't will to be wrong. He can't will to act unjustly. His will is controlled by His
nature, His holy nature. That's why His will is holy,
because He is holy. Now you take a tiger. A tiger
could eat grass if he wanted to, couldn't he? Would you stop
him? Of course not. But he won't do it. Why? It's
against his nature. The will of man is controlled
by his nature, governed by his nature. Now all men, according
to the scripture, This is not just my opinion, this is what
the scripture teaches. All men are by nature evil. I was born into this world with
an evil, sinful nature. I never had to be taught to lie,
it came natural to me. I never had to be taught to be
selfish, I was selfish by nature. You see, a man does not become
a thief when he steals. He steals because he's already
a thief in his heart. A man does not become a liar
when he tells a lie. He tells a lie because he's already
a liar in his heart. Now let me give you some scriptures
that back this up. Now remember, the Bible's the word of God.
If we don't go from what the scripture says, we're wasting
our time. But this is what God says in his word with regard
to man. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked. Now that word desperately means
incurably wicked. Who can know it? Genesis 6, 5
said, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. When God looks in my heart and
when God looks in your heart, all he sees is evil non-stop. Somebody says, that's hard to
take. Well, it may be, but it's what God's Word says. And if
I ever find out who God is and how He saves sinners, it'll be
easy to see that that's the truth with regard to me. You see, people
don't understand freedom until they first understand bondage.
It's only when you understand the bondage of your will to sin
that you'll understand what it means to be made free by the
Son. Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through
12, which is a quotation of Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeks after God. They've all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. Now that is because
we fell in Adam. When Adam fell and became dead
in sins, you and I fell in him. Now that's what the Bible teaches.
By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so that death passed upon all men, and that all sin, by one
man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Now, that's just
what the Bible teaches. David said, behold, I was shaped
in an iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. The wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go about as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. We were never in bondage at any
time. Yeah, you were. You were in bondage to sin. The scripture says we were by
nature children of wrath. Notice that word by nature. By
nature, that's the way we were born. Children of wrath, that
doesn't just mean ill-tempered. That means people who get mad
at God when they hear about who He is. They hear of His absolute
sovereign control, and they say, that's not fair. They hear of
His justice, they say, He's too harsh. How could a good God let
this happen? How could a loving God let this
happen? Always standing in judgment on God and criticizing God. Wrathful children. We were by
nature. children of wrath, just like
everybody else. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. That's the fleshly mind. It's
enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. Now the proof of this is the
cross. When men were allowed to do what
they wanted to do with God, what they do, they nailed him to a
tree. Now, we be Abraham's seed. We've never been in bondage at
any time. How sayest thou, you shall be
made free? What is this? We're already free. Now look at the way the Lord
replies to them. Verse 34, Jesus answered them, verily I say unto
you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant, is the slave
of sin. Sin. If you commit sin, you're
enslaved to sin. And here's proof. You can't stop
sinning. Everything you do is a sin. I'm
talking about myself too. I'm not trying to talk like I'm
speaking down to somebody. I know this is true with regard
to myself. I cannot stop sinning. Somebody says, well, are you
saved? Yes, I am. But my old man, my natural man, and particularly
this is talking about the way you are before you're saved,
you understand something about salvation after God saves you.
But before God saves you, all you do is sin. You cannot not
sin. There's no rehab you can go through,
like some kind of addiction. And what a horrible thing it
is to be addicted to something. and I feel pity for anybody that
is, but there's no rehab for this addiction. You're addicted
to sin. I'm addicted to sin. I cannot
not sin. I can't pull myself up by the
bootstraps. I can't make myself better. I
am a slave to sin. You talk about freedom, you talk
about free will, it's a delusion. All men by nature, by birth,
by choice, by practice, are enslaved to sin. And if you weren't, you
could stop sinning. And the fact of the matter is,
you cannot do it. You can't go five seconds with
a totally pure mind. As soon as you try it, all kinds
of wicked things will be in your imagination. You and I, by nature,
by birth, by choice, and by practice, are the slaves of sin. Now, let's go on with what the
Lord says in verse 35. He says, the slave abideth not
in the house forever. Who does? But the Son abideth
forever. The Son of God, He abides forever. If the Son therefore shall make
you free, You should be free indeed. Not just in speech, boasting
of your free will and your power over your surroundings. No, you'll
be free indeed in reality. Now, what in the world does that
mean? If the sun shall make you free.
Now I know this, the only way I can be free is if the sun makes
me free. I can't make myself free. Think of two jail cells. One, the man's in the cell, and
the door's unlocked. He can go out anytime he wants.
But the other cell, the door, the jail door is locked, and
he cannot get out. Now, the one guy, he can get
out. He's not enslaved. He can walk out whenever he wants.
But if the other man with the door locked, he cannot get out. He's in the jail house, the cell
of sin. Now, how can he be delivered? He can't get himself out. He
can't pick the lock. There he is. And then we read
these words by the Lord. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed. Paul said in Galatians 5, verse
1, you stand fast. He's speaking to every believer.
He says, stand fast in the liberty, the freedom wherewith Christ
hath made us free and be not entangled again in that yoke
of bondage. Now, he talked about being the slave of sin. If you commit sin, you're the
slave of sin. Now, on the very opening page
of the New Testament, we read these words. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus. This is when the angel announced
the birth of the Lord Jesus to Joseph. Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Now, here's what I need to be
saved from, my sins. And here we have the promise,
he shall save, who? His people. Not everybody, his
people, the elect of God. Those whom he died for, those
whom the Holy Spirit gives life to, his people. He shall save
his people from their sins. Somebody says, isn't everybody
his people? No, they're not. But let me say this. If you want
to be saved by His grace, He will save you. So don't say,
well, that means there's no salvation for me. If you want to be saved
on His terms, He'll save you. This doesn't shut anybody out
of the kingdom of heaven. It brings people in who would
have otherwise been damned. He saves His people. If He didn't
save His people, no one would be saved. All would be damned.
But thank God, He saves a great multitude which no man can number.
called his people. And he shall save his people
from their sins. Now, my sin demands that I be
condemned. God's just. The wages of sin
is death. Christ took that condemnation
for me. That's why He died on the cross.
He wasn't a martyr. He wasn't a victim. He went there
willingly as the substitute for sinners and the sacrifice for
sin. The sins of His people were placed
upon Him. He became guilty of them and
He was punished for them. And now, there's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. I've been saved from the penalty
of sin, from the damning power and the condemnation of sin.
I've been saved from the power of sin. Galatians 6.14 says,
Sin shall not have dominion over you. It shall not have lordship
over you, for you're not under the law. but under grace. Now before the Lord saved me,
I could not believe. I could not repent. I could not
love. All I could do is sin. Faith was impossible. Repentance
was impossible. Love is impossible for a man
dead in trespasses and sins. But when God gave me life, life
from the dead, being born from above, I can now do what I formerly
could not do. I can believe the gospel. I can
repent, change my mind. I can love God. There was a time
when I couldn't do that. Somebody says, well, I've never
been that way. If you feel that way about yourself, that's because
you're under the complete dominion and domination of sin. You can't even see it. When God
saves somebody, they see what I'm talking about. I've been
saved from the dominion of sin. I can now look to Christ. And
one of these days, I'm gonna be saved from the very presence
of sin. When I awake in His likeness,
when I'm raised from the dead, perfectly conformed to His image. Now that is salvation from sin. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. Oh, freedom. Freedom is not owing
anything. I stand before God without guilt. I stand before God having never
sinned because God justified me. I stand before God justified,
perfect, righteous. There's nothing to condemn me
for. I owe nothing. And I get to do what I want to
do. You know, most people's religion is a very unhappy thing. It's
people doing what they really don't want to do. But no, my
want to is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. My want to is to
preach his gospel. My want to is to be with his
people. You get to do what you want to. Vacation. What do you think of
when vacation? Well, that's the time I get to
do what I want to. If you're a believer, your want to has
changed, and you want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. No debts,
and you're doing what you want to. Paul put it this way in Galatians
chapter five, verse one. Stand fast. Don't let anybody
move you. Stand fast in the liberty. Oh, what words, the glorious
liberty of the children of God. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free. You see, he made me free. When
he said, it is finished, my freedom was accomplished. All my debts
were paid. The reason I'm going to be born
again, it's not because I made a decision to be born again,
but because Christ died for me and gave me a spirit and gave
me life. You stand fast in the liberty
where with Christ, it's made us free and be not entangled
again in that yoke of bondage. Now, what's he talking about?
In the context in Galatians chapter five, when he made that statement,
stand fast in the liberty where the Christ has made us free.
He said in chapter four, tell me you the desire to be under
law. Do you not hear the law? And then he takes us to Genesis
chapter 16. And Genesis chapter 16 is, there's
no more significant chapter in all the word of God than Genesis
chapter 16. Now, if I was reading the chapter,
I wouldn't get this out of it, but Paul under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, tells us that Genesis chapter 16 is an
allegory concerning the two covenants, the covenant of works and the
covenant of grace. Now let's go on reading. Verse
22, Galatians chapter 4. For it's written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. Now
let me tell you the story. God has promised Abraham and
Sarah a son, and he's promised that the Messiah will come through
that son. Years pass, still no son. Sarah comes up with a brilliant
idea in Genesis chapter 16. She says, obviously God's promise
is not going to come to pass unless we do something. We need
to do something in order to make God's promise come to pass. You
go into my maidservant, a young woman, a young Egyptian woman
named Hagar. You have a child with her, we'll
make it mine, and we will enable God's promise to come to pass.
Abraham said, okay, I'll do it. They had Ishmael. Ishmael, there
was nothing supernatural about his birth, and he's never acknowledged
by God to be a son. You remember when God appeared
to Abraham in Genesis 22 and said, take now thy son, thy only
son, Isaac. Ishmael is never acknowledged
by God to be a son. Now for it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by bondmaid, the other by free woman. But
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. He of the
free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory, for these
are the two covenants. Now here is the covenant of law,
you doing your part. That's what Sarah said to Abraham,
we need to do our part or God's promise won't come to pass. Most
of the preaching I hear is nothing more than that. Jesus Christ
died for you, God loves you, God wants to save you, but you
can't be saved unless you do your part. My dear friend, that's
salvation by law. That works. That is not the truth. Now, Isaac was born of promise
because God promised, and his birth was a supernatural birth.
Sarah had already gone through menopause. She was 90 years old.
It was impossible for her to bear a child. Now, here are the
two covenants. Salvation depended upon what
you do. Salvation depended upon what
God does. Which one do you want? Do you
desire to be under the law? Do you desire for salvation to
be dependent upon you in any way to any degree? I don't. I want my salvation to be totally
dependent upon what Jesus Christ does for me and I trust him only
as everything in my salvation. Now, Paul says you stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and don't be
entangled again with that yoke of bondage, do's and don'ts.
You need to do this, you need to not do that. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit
you nothing. Now, he's not talking about physical
circumcision. He's talking about the keeping of the law, represented
by circumcision. If you think your salvation is
dependent upon anything that you do, Christ shall profit you
nothing. For I testify again to every
man that circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole law.
If you want to go the law route, that means you have to keep every
commandment perfectly into the day you die without one sin,
without one bad thought, without one bad motive. He says in verse
four, for Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever
you are justified by law, You've fallen from grace. You've left
grace. If you think your salvation is
not all of grace, it's not of grace. You've left grace. You've
fallen from grace. Paul says, for we, this is speaking
of every believer, we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ, neither
circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. If the Son shall make you free
by what He did, you're free indeed in reality. Do you trust what
He did only? as all that God requires of you. And you don't look to your works
in any way. You look only to His work. Now that's what it is to trust
the Son. And that's the evidence that
He's made you free. If He's made you free, you will
stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and
be not entangled in that yoke of bondage. Now we have this
message on DVD and CD. If you call the church right
or look at our website, you can get a copy of this message. This
is Todd Nyberg praying that God will be pleased to make Himself
known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To receive a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.neiber at
gmail.com or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.