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 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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, The Whole Council of God. Now, there is such a thing
as the whole council of God. Paul said in Acts chapter 20,
verse 27, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the council
of God. Now, somebody says, how in the
world can you bring a message on the whole council of God in
a half an hour? Well, if you understand what
the whole counsel of God is, you'll know. Now, I hope this
will become evident by the end of this message. My text is found
in Genesis chapter three, and this is right after the fall
of our first parents in the garden. If you remember, after they fell,
they put together some aprons made of fib glyphs, trying to
make a covering for their sin. Now this represents the whole
gamut of salvation by works. Men trying to make a covering
for their sin. And have you ever thought about
fig leaves sewn together? There wouldn't be much substance
to that. It would tear apart quickly. And such is human righteousness. There's no substance to it. It can't really cover sin. The wise man said in Proverbs
28, 13, he that covereth his sin shall not prosper. And that's exactly what Adam
and Eve tried to do. And then we read in Genesis chapter
three, verse 21, unto Adam also and to his wife Did the Lord God make coats of
skins and clothed them? After Adam and Eve's attempt
to make a covering for themselves, we read where the Lord God did
make coats of skin. This was all His work. He didn't
give the raw material to Adam and Eve and say, now you make
the coat, I've provided what's needful. No, he made the coats
and he clothed Adam and Eve. Now for this to happen, there
had to be blood shedding. This was the first blood that
was shed. And how must Adam and Eve felt
when they saw this animal slain and the skins taken to make them
coats? Somebody usually thinks of the
blood of Abel, the first Christian martyr being the first blood
being shed, but no. It's the blood of this beast,
and I have no doubt that it was a lamb. A blood, a lamb was slain,
and coats were made from its skin to cover Adam and Eve. Now, I know that this was the
Lord Jesus Christ who did this. We read in verse 7, and the eyes
of them, this is Genesis 3, and the eyes of them both were opened.
And they knew they were naked. Now they had been naked before
this, but it wasn't an issue because they had not become dead
in trespasses and sins yet. But now that they've eaten of
the fruit, they know that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now I have no doubt that this
is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the voice of God. He is the word of God. And they heard him walking in
the garden in the cool of the day. Now, after he spoke to them
of this, he flew this animal, and I have no doubt When he slew
that lamb, he knew that was picturing what he himself would come and
do in 4,000 years as the lamb of God. Now, this is a story
that really never had a beginning. Christ is called in Revelation
chapter 13, verse eight, the Lamb slain, literally the Lamb
having been slain from the foundation of the world. You see, before
the fall, before Adam and Eve became sinners, the provision
had already been made by God. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. Now there are many implications
to that. The first one I think of is worship.
When I hear of this in my heart, I bow down and worship Him who
is in control of all things. You'll only worship an absolute
sovereign. If you can manipulate him, if
you can cause him and get him to do things, there's no worship. You only worship an absolute
sovereign. Now, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world tells me, and you, that the creation
of the universe, the fall of our first parents in the Garden
of Eden, and the ruin of our race was for this one event,
the slaying of the Lamb of God. All things were for this purpose,
the slaying of the Lamb of God. A preacher from the past made
a statement that I'll never forget. He said, if we confined our preaching
to nothing but the cross of Christ and never dealt with anything
else, it would prove to be a widening rather than a narrowing of our
ministry. And the scripture verifies this.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, I determine. not to know anything among you.
I don't care if you're right wing or left wing. I don't care
if you're pro-choice. I don't care if you're pro-life.
I'm not saying there's not a right and wrong, but he said, that
is not my purpose. That is not my mission. I don't
care if you're a Democrat or Republican. I determine not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is the only message. And if you and I ever see the
glory of the cross, we will, with Paul, make this determination. We'll determine not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, as the Lord slew this lamb
in the garden to cover our parrots, After the fall, he knew that
this lamb prefigured him. Now, the next big event we have
in Genesis is Noah's Ark. Noah made the Ark. Eight souls
were saved. After 40 days, the rain stopped. The Ark finally landed. Noah
got out of the ark, what's the first thing he did? He offered
sacrifice of every clean animal. And the scripture says that when
he offered that sacrifice, it came up as a sweet smelling savor,
a beautiful aroma to God. Those sacrifices of those animals
actually smelled good. It was pleasing to the living
God. Now somebody may be thinking,
that seems so primitive. Bloodshedding to appease an angry
God? Well, I hope you'll understand
and see the glory of this by the end of this message. Now
in Abraham, the next thing, big event we read of is God appearing
to Abraham. And when God appeared to Abraham,
he called upon the name of the Lord and built an altar for sacrifice. He knew there was no calling
upon the name of the Lord apart from this thing of sacrifice. Now, why is sacrifice necessary? God cannot be known. apart from
the sacrifice. Every attribute of God is fully
revealed in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Now, there's
a famous story with regard to Abraham in Genesis 22 that most
people know of. It's when God called upon Abraham
to offer up his only son as a burnt offering to him. He was calling
upon Abraham to offer up his son as a sacrifice. Now, if you
know the story, you know Abraham was willing to do it, and God
provided a substitute for that boy so he didn't have to sacrifice
his son. But let me read a passage of
scripture from Genesis chapter 22, verse 4. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. That's the mountain
that God said, offer up your son to me on. And Abraham was
obedient. He knew from verse five that
he would bring his son back alive, even though he sacrificed him.
Because God had promised the seed is going to come through
Isaac of the promised Messiah, the promise of Genesis 3.15. The seed of woman that would
destroy the serpents, crush his head. And Abraham knew that God
had promised that. So he knew if he killed his son,
God would bring him back to life because God's word is always
going to take place. And Abraham said unto his young
men, abide ye here with the ass and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again to you. He knew they would come
again. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid
it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and
a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake
unto Abraham his father and said, my father. And he said, here
am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering? What a question. They knew they
were going up there for sacrifice. He didn't know he was the one
that was supposed to be sacrificed, but he asked this question, where
is the lamb? And my dear friend, that is a
question that you and I ought to ask with regard to everything
we hear in so far as preaching goes. Where is the lamb? If the lamb is not there, if
the lamb is not the foundation of what is being said, the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, the subject of the
eternities, if the lamb is not the foundation of that message,
it's a wrong message. Listen to Abraham's reply. And
Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering. Now, never forget this. There's
nothing you could provide that God would accept. He only accepts
what He provides, and He provides all He requires. You can't provide
anything that a holy God could accept. You can't give anything,
I can't give anything to God that He would find pleasing.
God is the one who does the providing. And God provides for Himself.
You see, for God to do something for me or you, He first has to
do something for Himself. He can't just up and accept you
or me the way we are. It would be offensive to His
justice. His law has to be honored. And
He made a way to be just and justify the ungodly. He provided
Himself for Himself the way through the Lamb of God to be just and
yet justify somebody like me or you. and God provides himself
as the Lamb. The Lamb of God is God the Lamb,
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We've seen that
he is God's purpose and he is God's provision. Now, some 400
years later, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the children of Israel, have been in Egyptian bondage, a nation
of slaves. God has sent nine plagues thus
far, and after each one of those plagues, he hardened Pharaoh's
heart so he wouldn't let the children of Israel go. Somebody
says, can God do that? He most certainly can. God's
God. And whatever he does is right, just, holy, and true.
And he hardened Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh would not let
the children of Israel go. And then the 10th plague. the
Passover, all the firstborn in the land of Egypt were to be
destroyed, all. Israel and Egypt and God said
you take a lamb without blemish and without spot Speaking of
the sinlessness the perfect obedience the perfect righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ and you slay that lamb and You take its
blood and put it on the lentils and the doorpost of the house
And you get in the house and you don't get out of the house
and I'm gonna come through Egypt when I see the blood I will pass
over you." Now, who had to see the blood? God said, when I see
the blood, not when you see it, but when I see the blood. What
was God looking for? When I see not your sincerity,
not your good works, not your religion, not your efforts, not
your striving to not sin anymore and live a good life. He didn't
say anything like that. He said, when I see the blood,
that's the one thing God was looking for, the blood of his
dear son. What will God do when he sees
the blood? When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. What if somebody was in one of
those houses with the blood over the door that had committed some
horrible crime that day? Would God still pass over them?
Anybody in the house with the blood over the door, God said,
I'll pass through in mercy. Oh, the Lamb of God. Now, when Moses was giving the
law in Exodus chapter 29, verse 39, there was a lamb to be offered
every morning. And every evening, every day,
year by year, continually, every day began and every day ended
with the blood of the Lamb. Now the blood of the Lamb, that's
everything in a believer's experience. It's everything in my acceptance.
It's everything in my motivation. It's everything in my comfort.
Everything is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have
that famous prophecy in Isaiah 53. regarding the Lamb of God. Let me read it to you and make
a comment upon it. We read in verse six, all we
like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. All we like sheep have gone astray. He was oppressed, he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears his dung, so openeth
not, he openeth not his mouth. Now you'll remember when Christ
was accused, he didn't open his mouth. He didn't say, I didn't
do this. He kept his mouth closed, just
like this prophecy concerning the lamb of God would keep his
mouth closed. Why? Because he knew he was guilty. You see, the sins of God's elect
became his sins. And he became guilty of the commission
of those sins. When his mouth was not opened,
he was saying, guilty as charged. This is what he was doing as
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now, Some 700 years
later, after that prophecy was made that he would keep his mouth
closed and wouldn't try to justify himself, he stood guilty before
the law. Some 700 years later, when John
the Baptist was preaching, he said, behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world. What an announcement
concerning the Lamb of God. Here's what He does. He takes
away the sin of the world. 1 John 3, verse 5 says, He was
manifested to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He came to take away sins, to
make it to where they were no more. Listen to me, if the Lord
Jesus Christ has taken away your sin, you don't have any sin.
You stand before God without guilt. You stand before God perfectly
righteous. Now, three years after this,
Christ is slain on the Passover day. I love to, pain and love
to think of Him being nailed to the cross. Then lifting that
cross up in the stand, there he hangs, the Lamb of God. Just
as John said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sin of the world. He's nailed to the cross. He
says, Father, forgive them. And everybody he prayed for were
forgiven. He said, woman, behold thy son
and behold thy mother. He said to the thief on the cross,
today thou shall be with me in paradise. He said, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, he knew the answer to that
because God is holy and he had been made sin. He said, I thirst. He said, it is finished. Sin was taken away. He said,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And the moment he
died, justification was accomplished. Hebrews 9, verse 12 says, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Everybody he died for. Now let
me bring this out. When Jesus Christ was dying on
Calvary's tree, he wasn't making salvation available if you do
something. He accomplished salvation for
everybody he died for. Now in Revelation chapter five,
I love the book of Revelation. We have seven different visions
given from different perspectives throughout this book. And we
have the last vision early in the book in chapter five. It's
given several other times, but let me read this passage to you.
Verse one, and I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne
a book written within and on the backside sealed with seven
seals. Front side and backside, no room
for anything else to be written. Now this represents the decree
of God. All the decrees involved in the
decree of God that he made before time began. And I saw a strong
angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open
the book, and to loose the seals thereof, and no man, not Peter,
not Paul, not Moses, not Abraham, not David, not Solomon, not the
beloved disciple John, no man, In heaven nor in earth, neither
unto the earth was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and
to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the
elders saith unto me, Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe
of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven
seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain. Now this is
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ still bearing the scars
that he received when he was crucified. This is not talking
about a lamb with its throat slit standing up. This is talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, living with
the scars of his death. It says, having seven horns representing
his omnipotence, seven eyes, which represents his omniscience. And the scripture says in verse
seven, he came and took the book. He didn't ask for it. He took
it as being equal with that One that sat on the throne, equal
to the Father because He is God, God the Son. He came because
of what He did, and He took the book out of the right hand of
Him that sat upon the throne, And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and four and 20 elders fell down before the
Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of
odors, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang
a new song. Here is the eternal song. Now this began in eternity
past, and it will be continued forever in eternity future. Here it is, and it's always new.
I love the way he calls it a new song. You know, a song is popular
for a while and then we get tired of it. Not this song. They sang
a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation and has made us under our God. kings and priests, and
we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and
the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000,
and thousands and thousands sang with a loud voice, worthy is
the Lamb. Somebody may be thinking, where
do I fit in in all this? Paul put it this way in Galatians
chapter 2 verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. When the lamb was slain, I was
slain. When he was nailed to the tree,
I was nailed to the tree. And my sins were punished. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yes, because
Christ was raised from the dead, I was too, and I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I have is not from
me, it's his life. Him living in me, Christ in you,
the hope of glory. The life that I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I don't live
off my own faith, I live off His faith. I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Now where do I fit in, in all
of this? I'm crucified with Christ. The
one who loved me and gave Himself for me. I understand why Paul
said in Galatians chapter 6 verse 14, God forbid that I should
glory, that I should have confidence in, that I should trust anything. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. All I glory in. All I glory in is the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's all I have confidence
in. I don't have confidence in my works. I don't have confidence
in my religion. I have confidence in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me. I see its vanity and I enter
the world. The world is not gonna love that
one who glories only in the cross. This is the whole counsel of
God. And if I don't see the Lamb of
God as the whole counsel of God, it's because I just haven't seen
the message of Scripture. May God make this real to me
and you. This is Todd Nybert. 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 a request to todd.neibert at
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