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. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Ownership. Verse 1 of Psalm 24, The earth
is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof the world, and they that
dwell therein. Ownership. I like to think that
I own a quarter acre lot on Millbrook Drive in Lexington, Kentucky. Some people own a whole lot more
than that, so they think. And there are some who own nothing
but the clothes on their back, so they think. There are basically two philosophies
of ownership in the civilized world today. I know in centuries
past there have been other philosophies, the feudal system of the Middle
Ages, but today the two philosophies among civilized countries would
be capitalism and communism. Capitalism is driven by private
ownership, my stuff. And communism says the government
owns everything. And then there are those who
try to blend the two. But did you know in reality,
all are wrong. There is no private ownership.
There is no government ownership. There's one who owns all things. The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. You, my dear friend, and I'm
also speaking of myself, we're God's property. We're on God's
earth, breathing God's air, We're tenants subject to immediate
eviction upon death whenever God wills it. The earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. I think of what the Lord said
to that group of people who felt like they had been wrong. You
know the parable of the vineyard where the Lord hired people at
six o'clock in the morning, and he hired people at nine o'clock
in the morning, and he hired people at noon, he hired people
at three, and he hired people at five p.m. When the time came
to be paid, the men who worked 12 hours automatically assumed
they'd be getting more. But when they saw they got the
same thing as the men who worked one hour, they murmured, this
is not fair. And I understand them feeling
that way. I probably would have been one
of the ones murmuring too, and you would as well. But you know
how the Lord answered this? Can I not do what I will? with my own." You see, everything
is His own, and He doesn't owe us an explanation for what He
does. We are to bow to what He does
as best it all belongs to Him. He's God. He's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's God the Holy Spirit. Can
He not do what He will with his own. If he wills to be gracious
to that person that worked only one hour, is that a reason to
complain against him? No, that's just because of the
greatness of his grace. He does what he wills with his
own, which is everything. Pilate said to the Lord, when
the Lord wouldn't answer him, he said, Speakest thou not to
me Does thou not know that I have power to crucify thee, and I
have power to release thee? The Lord looked at him and said,
Thou couldst have no power at all over me, except it be given
thee from above. You see, nobody has any power
over Christ because Christ has all power. He has a monopoly on it. And
you and I do not have any power. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Any power any man has, it's simply
because God has put him in that position. That man has no power. Now, I don't want to be crude,
but when I hear men and women being spoken of as powerful men
and women, I want to throw up. There's no such thing as a powerful
man. There's no such thing as a powerful
woman. Power belongeth unto the Lord. He has a monopoly on it. Now, no man Listen real carefully. I'm talking about myself. I'm
talking about you. No man has any ownership of anything. It's all the Lord's. And no man has any power, any
ability. Now, if you love the Lord, You
love that, and you know it so. If you have no love for the Lord,
this irritates you and angers you. But it's still true. No
man has any ownership. Everything belongs to the Lord. This is my Father's world. And no man has any power. Pilate thought he had power.
I think of those men who came to arrest the Lord Jesus. They
thought they had power. He said, whom seek ye? They said,
Jesus of Nazareth. He replied, I am. And they fell
backwards. The Lord was letting them know
at this time they had no power. The only reason they were arresting
him is because he was permitting it to happen. Now, what I would
like to do is look at the scriptures that speak of what belongs to
the Lord. And the first scripture I want
to quote is found in Psalm 3 verse 8, salvation belongeth to the
Lord. Salvation belongeth to the Lord. Now there is such a thing as
salvation. Let me ask you a question. Do
you need to be saved? Saved from what, you may think?
Well, first of all, saved from God. You see, He's the one you
and I have sinned against, and He's the one who has power to
cast into hell. I need to be saved from God,
and I need to be saved from myself. If the Lord leaves me to myself,
I'll go to hell. I need to be saved from myself.
I need to be saved from my sins. Thank God He does save from sin. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. But I need to
be saved. There's nothing that I can do
to save myself. I don't have any power to save
myself. I don't have anything that I
can bring to God to pay Him for my salvation or to recommend
me to His salvation because all I have is sin. Now, would that
describe you? You don't have anything? You
don't have anything to bring to the table? Salvation belongs to God, and
He saves people just like that. You need not despair. As a matter of fact, that's the
only type of person He does save. People who cannot save themselves
and can't make a move towards God, they're totally dependent
upon Him saving them. Salvation belongeth to God. Now, if you can't save yourself,
here's good news. God saves, and that's the only
kind of people He saves, people who can't save themselves. When
we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. That's who He saves, people without
strength and people who are ungodly. Somebody says, I'm not like that.
Well, then I can't give you any assurance that God will do anything
for you. But everybody who's without strength and ungodly,
that's who God saves. Second scripture is Psalm 62,
verse 11. God has spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto the Lord. Omnipotence. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Oh, the mighty power of God. We have no power, but he has
all power. Jude said, now unto him that
is able, that's speaking of his ability and his power, of him
now and to him who is able to keep you from falling and to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. Now, I want you to think of that
power, the power to keep me from falling away, kept by the power
of God through faith and to salvation, and the power to actually present
me faultless. So when God sees me, there is
no sin. There is no guilt. I stand perfect
in Christ Jesus. Now that is the power of God
Almighty. I love that passage of scripture
with regard to the cross. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved.
It's the power of God. Now the cross of Christ, is the
power of God. Now, His cross made my sin to
not be. I have no sin. He put it away. It's gone. It can't rise up to
condemn me on Judgment Day because it's not there. I'm justified. That's the power of His cross.
And His power, the power of His cross, makes me holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in the very sight of God. Now that's power.
The power of the cross. And the psalmist said in the
very next verse, Also to thee, Lord, belongeth mercy. To the
Lord belongs mercy. The Lord delights in mercy. That's what the scripture says.
He delighteth in mercy. Oh, the Lord delights in showing
mercy to sinners, not giving them what they actually deserve. And let me say this, His mercy
is sovereign mercy. What do you mean by that? He
said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And whom He
will, He hardens. His mercy is sovereign mercy. He gives His mercy to whomsoever
He's pleased to give it, and He also withholds His mercy and
hardens men. Just like he did Pharaoh, he
said to Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee
up, that I might show my power in thee, my authority, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. He hardened Pharaoh's
heart. Somebody says, well, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Yeah,
but it says more than that, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. God
is God. He's not running for God. He
is God in absolute control over everybody and everything. And
the mercy that he delights in is sovereign mercy. Now, if there's
somebody that's thinking that's not fair for him to have mercy
on some and then not have mercy on others, that's not fair. Now,
as soon as I make that objection, I've left mercy and I've turned
to the realm of merit. God giving me what is fair. And
my dear friend, If you want to meet God on those grounds, he'll
meet you there, what you deserve, and it won't be good. The only
hope you or I have is mercy, sheer, free mercy. And if you don't want mercy,
he also said this, if you say, well, that's unfair, this thing
of mercy, he says, recompense and vengeance belong to me. God said that. Recompense and
vengeance belong to me. Now God will meet you on the
ground you want. If you want to come on the ground
of pure mercy, without your works, God will meet you there. If you
want to come on the ground of what you deserve, God will meet
you there too. And it won't be good if you come
that way. Oh, thank God to him belongs mercy. And then Daniel
said, in Daniel chapter nine, verse seven, righteousness belongeth
unto thee. Salvation belongs to God. Power belongs to God. Mercy belongs
to God. Vengeance belongs to God. You see, this is who God is.
He's going to punish sin. He's a holy, righteous God. Vengeance
belongs to God, but I love what Daniel says, righteousness. belongs
to God. Daniel 9, verse 7. And that is
exactly why David said in Psalm 71, 16, I've made mention of
thy righteousness, even thine only. Now listen to this real
carefully. The only righteousness there
is, is the righteousness of God. And the scripture says regarding
man, this is in Psalm 14, this is in Psalm 53, this is in Romans
chapter 3, there is none righteous, no, not one. You know what that means? It
means me and you are not righteous. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeketh after God. They've all gone out of
the way. They've together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. And God saw the wickedness of
man, that's talking about me and you, was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. There's only one righteousness,
and it doesn't reside in me or you. righteousness. God requires perfect
righteousness. The only perfect righteousness
there is is the righteousness of God. And listen to this, God
gives that righteousness to men and women so that it actually
becomes theirs. Now, have you understood what
Isaiah meant when he said, our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags? And that word is literally, minstrels
rags. That is what God the Holy Spirit
calls human righteousness. The greatest oxymoron in the
world, the greatest contradiction in terms in the world is self-righteousness. There is no such thing as righteousness
that comes from me or you. Righteousness belongeth to the
Lord. Listen to this. He gives that
righteousness so that every believer who possesses his righteousness
has the very righteousness of God. That's what they'll be judged
by on Judgment Day. Listen to this scripture. 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21 says, For he hath made him to be sin. What a mysterious, glorious statement. He, God the Father, hath made
him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin. Peter said, who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Now, Jesus Christ
never sinned in his own person. holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. But the sins of God's elect were
made to be his sins, so that he became guilty of the commission
of those sins. For he hath made him to be sin,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God. in Him. Now, if you're saved,
if I'm saved, if we stand just before God, it'll be because
we have the very righteousness of God as our personal righteousness. Paul put it this way in Philippians
3, 9. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, I don't want to have anything to do with that, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. God said in the book of Isaiah,
their righteousness is of me. Now, every believer possesses
the righteousness which God has given to them. Righteousness
belongeth unto thee. And David said in Psalm 47, eight,
the shields of the earth belong to the Lord. Now that same word
shield is quoted by David in Psalm 7, 10, like this, my defense
is of God, my defense, my protection. God said to Abraham, I am thy
shield. and by exceeding great reward. Now, if God is my shield, if
God is my protection, listen to this scripture, Romans 8,
31. If God be for us, who can be against us? No one or no thing. If God is my shield, if God is
my defense, And then we read in Genesis chapter 40 verse 8
where Joseph said, interpretation belongs to God. Interpretation
belongs to God. And you know what that means?
That means this book we call the Bible is a closed book to
you and I unless He Himself makes it known to us. We are shut up
to revelation. I can't figure this out. You
can't figure this out. You can read and study for the
rest of your life and you'll never have any understanding
of this book unless He opens your understanding. Then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures."
Now, this is good news to you if you know you can't figure
it out. I love what the Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip. When Philip
said, do you understand what you're reading? He said, how
can I except some man should guide me. I don't understand
this book unless I'm taught and interpretation belongs to the
Lord. The only way you and I will truly
understand the meaning of this book is if God is pleased to
teach us. And then we read in Deuteronomy
29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord. But the things that
are revealed belong to us and to our children to do the words
of the prophecy of this book. Now the secret things belong
to the Lord. Everything that you and I cannot
understand, or grasp, or make sense of, or see, He does. Oh, He's all-wise, all-powerful,
and everything He's doing, whether I understand it or not, He understands,
and it belongs to Him. He's God. He's in control of
everybody and everything. And if I don't understand it,
that's okay. He does. The secret things belong
to the Lord. And I love thinking of this.
The Lord's too wise to err. He's too kind to be cruel, and
he's too powerful for his will to not be done. And everything
that's in secret, he knows it belongs to him. But the things
that are revealed belong to us and our children. Now let me
try to illustrate this. It is revealed in the scripture.
that there is a book called the Lamb's Book of Life with the
names of all of the elect in that book. Old Testament and
New Testament, that's taught in both places. The Lamb's Book
of Life with the names of God's elect written in it. God has an elect people that
he chose before the foundation of the world. But you know what? I don't have any access to that
book. Now if I did, I know what I'd do. I'd look up N's, and
then I'd look up N-I, and I'd see if my name is in there, but
I have no access to that book. Now here's the point. Yes, God's
got to elect people. But it's not your business to
figure out whether or not you're one of the elect. You're called
upon to believe Christ. Not to figure out whether you're
one of the elect. That's one of the secret things
that belong to the Lord. When you believe, you'll find
out. But if your point is to try to figure out if you're one
of the elect, you're wrong in doing it. It's none of your business.
The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things that are
revealed Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. There's something that's revealed.
Call on his name and he'll save you. Don't say, well, I got to
figure out why I'm one of the elect. No, you don't. You call on his
name and he will save you. The secret things belong to the
Lord, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to
our children. And then the Lord said, Render
to Caesars. Remember when they said, should
we pay tax? He took a coin and said, whose
image is on it? And they said, Caesar's. He said,
you render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And you render
to God the things that are God's. Now I'm saying to everybody listening,
God's got a claim on you. You render to God the things
that are God's. Render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar's, but you render to God the things that are God.
And here's my closing statement. If you're a believer, you have
everything. You own everything. Christ is
all. He is yours. I am my Beloved's
and He is mine. If you're a believer, He owns
you. You've been bought with a price,
but it's just as true. He is yours. Christ is all, and
He is yours. What a blessed possession, what
a blessed portion every believer has, the Lord Jesus Christ and
all that is in Him. Now, we have this message on
DVD, CD, and if you call the church, write or email, we'll
send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your request
to todd.nyberg at gmail.com, or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.