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 Nyberg. I've entitled this morning's
message, How Can a Sinner Be Righteous? In Genesis chapter seven, verse
one. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation. How can God look at Noah and
say, thee have I seen righteous? How can he look at me? Or how
could he look at you and say, thee have I seen righteous before
me. Here's another way to ask that
question. How can someone who is guilty become not guilty? If you have committed the sin,
if you have committed the crime, Let's say you were caught in
the act of stealing something or murdering somebody. Now, if
the law looked you over, it would have to say guilty. How could
the law look at you and say he or she is innocent, not guilty? How can God be just? and justify the ungodly. Now that is the question of the
ages. I hope you'll listen very carefully. This is the very heart and soul
of the gospel. How a sinner, someone who is
guilty of the commission of sins, can be righteous? How can a sinner be righteous? How can the guilty be not guilty? Now, in verses eight and nine
of Genesis chapter six, God makes this testimony with regard to
Noah. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. These are the generations of
Noah. Noah was a just man. A righteous man is the word. And perfect in his generations
before the Lord. And Noah walked with God. Now when it says Noah was a perfect
man, That's the same word that is used with regard to the sacrificial
lamb. It had to be without blemish. That means Noah was without blemish
before God. Perfect before God. Without sin,
without guilt before God. The words actually translated
undefiled. And remember who's speaking here.
This is the Lord speaking to Noah when he said, thee have
I seen as righteous. And he speaks of a certain individual,
a particular individual, thee have I seen as righteous before
me. He says, come thou into the ark,
not go and do, Not go and get yourself better, or make yourself
ready, or quit doing this and start doing that. No, come thou,
right now, you're ready. Come thou into the ark, for thee
have I seen as righteous. Now God did not treat Noah as
if he were righteous, although he was not. Or he didn't call
him righteous, even though he was not. He didn't see him as
righteous, even though he was not. You see, God is the only
one who can truly see. You and I have jaded eyes. We have skewed views. But God
says, thee have I seen as righteous before me. God saw Noah as righteous for
this one singular reason. He was righteous. Now, I want
to read a verse of Scripture with regard to Noah. God said,
thee have I seen as righteous. Noah was a just man and perfect
before God. Yet in Genesis 9, verses 20 and
21, this is after Noah had left the ark, and Noah began to be
a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the
wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham the father of Canaan
saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without.
And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders
and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward
and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from
his wine and he knew what his younger son had done unto him. Now Noah This one who is righteous,
this one who is perfect, this one who is just in God's sight,
got drunk, passed out. And there he is in his tent,
in his nakedness. And nakedness always represents
some kind of sinful state. What was the first thing that
Adam and Eve knew after they ate of the fruit? They knew they
were naked. They now have this evil nature. Now here we have Noah, this special
man, this man whom God says is righteous, this man whom God
says is perfect, just. He now is laying drunken, naked,
passed out. Is he still righteous? How could
God call this man righteous? I mean, look at it. How could
God call this man righteous? Now, Noah, listen real carefully,
Noah was a sinner. He proved that by his actions.
He was a sinner just like me, and he was a sinner just like
you. Now, when I talk about me being
a sinner, somebody says, what are you preaching for? Well,
you don't have any understanding of the gospel, if you ask a question
like that. But I am a sinful man. Sinful. You are too, whether
you know it or not. but I am a sinful man. You know, I think it's interesting.
If you could look within my heart, you'd say, I'm not gonna listen
to that man preach anymore. If you could see the things that
go through my heart, you know, I'd do the same thing with you. That
shows what hypocrites we both are in thinking things like that. But here Noah is, drunk, passed
out in his tent, and there's nothing acceptable about that.
I'm not saying it's okay for anyone to conduct themselves
like that. but God still saw him as righteous and perfect. How can that be? It is, how can that be? Now, before we go on, I think
we need to do some defining of the terms. How can a sinner be
righteous? What's a sinner? We can answer
that question without determining what sin is. You can't know what
a sinner is if you don't know what sin is. Well, 1 John 3,
4 says sin is the transgression of the law. And I have no doubt
that he's referring to the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt have
no other God before me. The commandment against any form
of idolatry. The commandment concerning the
reverence of His name and not taking it in vain. The commandment
of the Sabbath and doing no work and resting. The commandment
concerning honoring your father and your mother. The commandment
concerning murder. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. All sexual sin is forbidden,
even in your heart. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not Covet. Sin is the transgression of the
law. Sin is to transgress, to fail
to obey the holy law of God. So what is a sinner? He's the
one who commits the sin. I've heard preachers say, God
loves the sinner, but he hates his sin. Now, wait a minute.
Wait a minute. God doesn't put sins into hell.
He puts the one who committed them into hell. The sinner is
the one who commits the sin. And let me remind you, to break
one commandment one time is to break all of them all of the
time. Now, let me back that up with
scripture. James said in James 2, verse
10, for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend
in one point. is guilty of all. Somebody says,
that's too strict. Well, just because you say it's
too strict doesn't take away from the fact of the matter.
To break one commandment one time means you've broken them
all, all of the time. The sinner is the one who has
never kept one commandment one time. Would that be you? Somebody says, no, I've kept,
there are times when I don't lie. There's times when I don't
steal. I've never stole with you. You
might even think of commandments you've never broken. Well, if
that's the case. You're not a sinner in your own
mind. If you think that you can keep one commandment, you never
have really been taught by God that you're a sinner. A sinner
is somebody who has not kept one commandment one time. I've never done anything but
put everything before God. I've always created false ideas
of God that I feel more comfortable with. Every time I've used his
name, there's been a lack of reference. I failed to rest. I failed to honor authority.
I have murdered people in my heart. I've murdered their characters
by speaking evil of them to other people. I've committed sexual
sin in my heart constantly. I'm a thief. I've taken credit
where credit's not due. I'm a liar. I've not told the
truth. Covetous. That is me. Not the way I used
to be, but the way I am right now. Now somebody says, how can
you say that about yourself and stand up there and preach? Because
anybody that's taught of God knows that's so of them. John
put it this way in 1 John 8. He said, if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves. That's right now present tense.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We've lost
all credibility and the truth is not in us. And then in the
10th verse, he says, if we say we've not sinned with regard
to everything I do, including this sermon, including the most
generous gift I've ever given, including the best prayer I've
ever prayed, if I did it, it's sin. Now, you'd understand that
if you understood your own sinful nature. Even if I tell the truth,
I'm going to tell it in such a way as to make myself look
bad or look good, and you look bad. That's the sinner. It's
the motive. You can tell the truth with a
bad motive. And that is what the sinner is. He's somebody
who all he does is sin. A sinner is one that is a continual
lawbreaker, but God said of Noah, thee have I seen as righteous
before me. Well, somebody thinks, surely
he means relatively righteous. Relatively righteous. He wasn't
like that bunch described in chapter six, verse five, where
God said, and God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. Surely that wouldn't be like
Noah. Yeah, Noah was in that group, but Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Yes, that described Noah. Noah
was a continual lawbreaker. Yet God says, thee have I seen
as righteous. Now righteousness is keeping
God's law perfectly. God doesn't grade on the curve.
To be righteous before God. You must keep God's law perfectly. Righteousness is sinlessness.
You've never had a sinful thought. You've never had a sinful motive.
You've never had a sinful word. You've never had a sinful deed.
That is righteousness. Now, how can a sinful man like
Noah, like me, like you, be righteous without sin in the sight of God
who sees all? He's the only one who can see.
This whole book is about how that can be. If you want to understand
what the Bible's about, the Bible is about how a sinner can actually
be righteous before God through the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When that publican in the temple
cried, God be merciful to me, the sinner, you know what the
Lord said about him? He went down to his house, not
forgiven, Not shown mercy, but justified. Without sin. Sinless. By his own confession,
he's the sinner. Yet Christ says he went down
to his house justified. Righteous before the law. Not
the righteousness of a man before the law simply because he hadn't
been caught. but righteous before the law. Now, there are two kinds
of people in this world, and you and I are in one of these
two groups, the righteous and the wicked. It's the only kind
of people there are. There are righteous people and
there are wicked people. All of the righteous believe
themselves to be wicked. All the righteous believe themselves
to be continual lawbreakers. All the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous. All the wicked believe that there's
something they can do, some commandment that they do have the ability
to keep. Now, hear this. Thee have I seen as righteous. There is only one righteousness.
the righteousness of God. Psalm 71, 16, David said, I've
made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. Now I love the way the scripture
speaks of some things that belong only to God. One of those things
is righteousness. Daniel chapter nine, verse 17
says, righteousness belongeth unto thee. He's got a monopoly
on it. There's five things the scripture
says belong to the Lord. And I realize everything belongs
to him. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. But
we read in Psalm 62, 11, that power belongeth to the Lord.
He's got a monopoly on power. People talk about powerful men
and powerful women. There are no such thing. He only
has power and they're in the position he put them in doing
his will and his purpose. And then we read that mercy belongs
to him. It's up to him as to whether
or not he'll give it. We read that salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. And we read that vengeance belongeth
to the Lord. Vengeance is mine, I will repay,
saith the Lord. And as I've already quoted, righteousness
belongeth to the Lord. Now, I want to give you five
things the scripture teaches with regard to a sinner being
righteous before God. How can that be? Well, the first point is righteous
by union with Jesus Christ. In Matthew 3, verse 15, the Lord
said to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. Now there is a great group of
people, God's elect, a number that no man can number, that
are united with the Lord Jesus Christ. Both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. It's what baptism
depicts. When Christ lived, I lived. When
Christ died, I died. When Christ was raised, I was
raised. And if I am united to Him, when
He fulfilled all righteousness, I fulfilled all righteousness. As He is, John said in 1 John
4, 17, so are we in this world. Is He righteous? So is everyone
united to Him. Everything He did as an us. Behold,
I and the children which thou has given me. Christ is never
separate from his people. So if he is righteous, they are
too. My personal righteousness is
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And then there is righteousness
by imputation. Paul quotes David from Psalm
32 in Romans chapter four, when he makes this statement, and
I love this verse of scripture. Even as David also described
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, David wrote this after he
had committed that horrible crime of adultery with Bathsheba and
murdering her husband and trying to cover it up. Somebody says,
can a believer do something like that? If you ask a question like
that, you just show how ignorant you are of yourself. There's
no sin that a believer cannot commit but the sin against the
Holy Spirit. And David committed these horrible sins. What is
David's hope? that God did not charge Him with
those sins, but they were charged to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the very righteousness of Christ is charged to Him. And that's
what was going on on the cross, for He hath made Him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. How can a sinner be righteous?
For Christ to take that sinner's sins as his own and be punished
for them, and him to take his righteousness and give it to
me. My sin, charge to him. His righteousness, charge to
me. Now God can do that. Somebody
says, how can that be right? God can do it. Now if I took
on your sins, it wouldn't do you any good because I have sins
of my own. But when Christ took on your sins, he had a perfect
righteousness. And that's what he gives every
believer in its stead. Righteous by imputation. Thirdly, righteous by gift. Romans 5, verse 17 speaks of
the gift of righteousness. They that have received the abundance
of grace and gift of righteousness. Now, how can I know if he's given
me this gift? I can tell you how you can know,
you've received it. you receive the righteousness and merits
of Christ as your only righteousness before God, you receive it. And fourth, righteous by nature. Now, this is speaking of the
new nature given in the new birth, this holy nature. John says in 1 John 2, verse
29, if you know that he is righteous, you know everyone that doeth
righteousness. is born of Him." Now, it's only
the new nature that can do righteousness. Look in verse 9 of chapter 3,
"...whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." Somebody
says, well, that means he doesn't practice sin. Well, that's all
it says. It says he doesn't commit it. And it means exactly what
it says. That which is born of God, the
new nature, the holy nature given in the new birth, does not commit
sin. He goes on to say, he cannot
sin. He lacks the ability to sin because
his seed remaineth in him. Now here we have righteousness
by union, righteousness by imputation, righteousness by gift, and righteousness
by nature. Now, how can I know that I have
this righteousness? Here's the fifth point, and this
is so important, righteous by faith. To him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now that doesn't mean that faith
is a substitute for righteousness, not at all. The writer to the
Hebrews said that faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen. Now I cannot look at anything
and see that I'm united to Christ. I can't see my name written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. I can't see the role of election
in heaven. I can't see me being chosen in
Him before the foundation of the world. I can't see that eternal
union. Well, how do you know you have
it then? Faith is the evidence of things not seen. I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the living God. I am relying wholly on Him, and
that is the evidence that I'm truly united to Him. Oh, what's
the evidence that His righteousness was imputed to you? Faith is
the evidence of things not seen. I believe that Jesus Christ is
God the Son, and my only hope of salvation is the same hope
the thief had. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Well, how do you know that you
have the gift of righteousness? You can't see it, can you? How
do you know God gave it to you? How do you know you've received
it? Because I believe the gospel. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Now, I can't see that I have
a holy nature. Somebody says, well, which part's
holy and which part's not holy? Well, you can't see that. I've
had people kind of make fun, like you're having a good angel
on one shoulder and a bad angel on the other and kind of making
fun, which angel? No, every believer has two separate natures, the
one he was born with and the one he has when he's born again.
Now, what is the evidence that you have a holy nature? Can you
see holy actions? No, faith is the evidence that
I have a holy nature because I look to Christ only as everything
in my salvation. That is the evidence. That is how a sinful man can
be righteous. They're united eternally to Christ. Christ's righteousness is imputed
to them while their sin was given to Christ. They have been given
righteousness as a gift of grace. They have been born from above
and given righteous nature. And the evidence of all of this
is they believe the gospel. Now, if you believe that all
Christ is, in his word, is everything in your salvation, and you look
nowhere else, you, a sinner, have been declared by God as
righteous, just like Noah was. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write,
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to todd.nyberg
at gmail.com. or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.