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 want to read a verse from the
Song of Moses after the deliverance from Egypt and the parting of
the Red Sea. He makes this statement in verse
11 of Exodus chapter 15. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee? glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Now, I have entitled this message,
The Exclusivity of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one is like Him. Who is like unto thee? Now, to exclude means to not
admit other things. They're excluded. Why would you
use this word with regard to Christ? Because there's nobody
like Him. There's no one you can compare
Him to. Any comparison that I would try to make would only bring
him down. That is why idolatry, idols,
are all wrong, because it's us trying to take God and humanize
Him, making Him like us. And that's a dangerous thing
to do. I don't want to do that, and I know you don't want to
do that either. Oh, who is like unto thee? No one and no thing,
there is nothing that can be compared to Him. Any comparison
we make will be a wrong comparison. Who is like unto me? No one and nothing. Now, I believe
that this could certainly be said of God the Father. No one's
like him. This could certainly be said
of God the Spirit. No one is like him, but I think
that this is a specific reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, God
the Son. Now, God is one God, in three
distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Somebody says, explain that to
me. There's no way I can explain that. Just believe it. It's what
God has revealed of Himself in His Word. We would never have
known this had not God made it known in His Word, but God has
made this known in His Word. When we baptize, we're to baptize
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But
when Moses writes this song of praise, he is speaking of the
second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, He only is God. Remember, we're going to try
to talk about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. He's Jesus,
the Savior. He's Christ, God's prophet, God's
priest, God's king. He is a prophet like no other
prophet, because every other prophet said, thus saith the
Lord. He said, I say unto you. He's
a priest like no other priest. Every other priest brought animal's
blood that could never put away sin. He brings to God his own
blood that actually puts away sin. He's a king like no other
king. Every other king has borrowed
power. He has inherent power in himself as the king of kings,
the son of God. Jesus Christ is God, and there
is no one like him. He only is God. Hear, O Israel,
the Lord thy God is one God, and anything you use to be a
likeness to Him is only bringing Him down. He only is eternal. Men are not. Angels are not. Demons are not. Matter is not. There's not always been matter.
There was a, this is me speaking in inability to understand really
eternity, but there was a time when there was nothing, but God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit rejoicing
in one another. He only is eternal. He never had a beginning. He
never began to be. He's always been. He's always
the great I am that I am. He only is independent. He has no needs. He didn't create
the universe because of a need. Creation didn't add to His essential
glory. He did it simply as an act of
His will. He's utterly and completely independent. He only decrees. This is talking
about the exclusivity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He only decrees. You know that passage of scripture
in Isaiah 9, 6, where it says, unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government should be upon his shoulder?
His name should be called Wonderful Counselor. Now that word, counsel,
does not mean he's somebody you can come and get good advice
from, like Dear Abby, or something like that. That's talking about
his counsel is his decrees. I will do all, I will perform
all my counsel. My counsel shall stand. He decrees
everything that happens in time. He's the only one who does this.
Everything that happens in time is His will being done. Now, I know that some people
would say, well, you're making Him the author of evil. I'm not
making Him the author of anything. He is God, and whatever He does
is right. And I shudder to think of anything
that's not under His control. He's the first cause of all things. In one decree, He decreed all
things, and He is in absolute sovereign control. He only is
sovereign, and He's sovereign over everything. You can't say,
well, He's sovereign everywhere but this place. No. I've even
heard people say, well, in His sovereignty, He decided to grant
us a free will, though that would mean He's no longer sovereign.
He only decrees. He only is omnipotent. He's all-powerful. He has the
power to do whatever He wills to do. He only is immutable. He cannot change. Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Oh, change and decay
in all around I see, but O thou that changest not, abide with
me. He only is omniscient. He's never
learned anything. He knows everything. He's never
taken by surprise. He never responds to anything.
He only is omniscient. He knows whom he foreknew. He also did predestinate. He's
the only one that can do that. Now, what a glorious person he
is. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord?"
We could go on and on. There's no one to compare Him
to. Now, after this, Moses gives three statements regarding His
exclusivity. Look in verse 11 with me again.
I'm going to read the verse again. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like Thee, glorious in
holiness? fearful in praises. doing wonders. Who is like unto thee, glorious
in holiness? Now, that only describes Him. That can't be said of any creature.
Why, even the unfallen angels, the Scripture says He charges
His angels with falling. Well, how can He do that if they're
unfallen? Well, He knows that they would
fall if He didn't preserve them. They're mutable creatures. They're
capable of mutating, and only He is glorious in holiness. Now, the word holy, what's it
mean? It means other. It means separate. It means utterly unlike. me and you. That's what holiness
means. He is glorious in holiness. Now, the first time the word
holy is used in the Scripture is found in Exodus chapter 3.
It's when Moses sees that sight of the bush that burned and was
not consumed. Maybe he looked upon it a couple
hours later, he looked at it and it was still burning. He
thought, what is going on here? This bush, why is it not being
consumed? Why does it continue to burn?
And that's where the Lord spoke to him from that bush. And you'll
remember he said, take your shoes off your feet. The place you're
standing is holy ground. Now I want you to think of that
burning bush and maybe we can get some concept of God's holiness. That bush did not need the wood,
the energy that came from that wood to continue to burn. This
speaks of his utter independence. He has no needs. The bush would keep on burning
and it didn't need that wood. The energy of the wood is not
what kept that flame going. God has no needs. Christ has
no needs. He's utterly and completely independent. And let me say this. I want to say this to myself.
I want to say it to you. God doesn't need you. You need
Him. Christ doesn't need you. You need Him. Oh, I hope we'll all adopt that
attitude. He's glorious in holiness. He has no needs. But also, that bush, while it
didn't need the wood for the energy to continue to burn, the
bush couldn't be consumed. The Lord Jesus Christ could not
be consumed by the wrath of God. He was on the cross, and he cried
out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer
is given in that same psalm. That's a quotation from Psalm
22. When Christ said that from the cross, it's because God is
holy. He said, but thou art holy. God hates sin. God will not accept
sin. That's what His holiness is.
But Christ Jesus is such that He could not be consumed by the
wrath of God. Not only could He not be consumed
by the wrath of God, He consumed the wrath. When he died, the
wrath of God was swallowed up, and God now says, there's no
fury in me. He doesn't have anything to be
mad at in the believer because Christ consumed the wrath, and
now God can't be anything but pleased with his people. Only
he is glorious in holiness. That cannot describe any mere
creature. He is glorious in holiness. I think of when Joshua saw the
man with the drawn sword, and he said, are you for us or for
our adversaries? He said, neither. I'm the captain
of the Lord of hosts. God doesn't take sides. He's
the Lord. And when Joshua heard that, he
bowed down and said, what sayest thou to thy servant? And he said,
take your shoes off your feet. The place you're standing is
holy ground. He is glorious in holiness. Now, the second thing that is
said of him, No one is like Him. First of all, He's glorious in
holiness. And second, it says He's fearful
in praises. Fearful in praises. That can't be said of anyone
else or anything else. That can't be said of any creature.
Fearful in praises, to be feared. to be revered, to be awed by,
fearful in praises. There is no fear that does not
express itself by a heartfelt praise and reverential awe. He's fearful in praises. You know, people glibly say,
praise the Lord a lot. We ought to be fearful whenever
we even use His name. Fearful in praises. What is the
fear of God? You have the fear of God when
you're afraid to look anywhere but Christ. That's when you fear
God. When you're afraid to stand before
God on your own, all you have is Christ. That's when you fear
God. He's fearful in praises. The psalmist said, "'Praise waiteth
for thee, O Lord.'" And my marginal reading says, "'Praise is silent
before thee.'" You know, I really believe the loudest praise is
in silence before God. You know, a lot of times in a
religious service, there'll be all kinds of noise and people
clapping and yelling. If God's there, there's fear. and their silence. Let everything
that hath breath, the breath of life, praise the Lord." This
one we're speaking of, there's nobody like Him. He's fearful
in praises. And then next, it says, doing
wonders. No one else can be described
like this, doing wonders. And I want to try to talk some
about the wonders that he has done. This is the same word that
is used in creation. Let us make man in our own image. That's one of his doing of wonders,
his wonders of creation. Now, think about the doing of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing that I think
of when I think of the doing of the Lord Jesus Christ, I think
of this even before creation. I think of Him being the Lamb
having been slain from the foundation of the world. I know that that
concept is impossible to understand. We can only believe it. But He's
called in Revelation 13, 8, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And before time began, He stood
as a surety of His people by being the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He's called in Hebrews 7, 22,
the surety of a better covenant. Now, what's a surety? When I
was a young boy, I can remember the first, I wasn't a young boy,
I was a teenager, I remember the first loan I got. It was
to buy a 1967 Mustang, green Mustang fastback, probably my
favorite all-time car. But I had to go to the bank to
try to get a loan and they said, well, how can you get any security
on it? You know, we can't give you a
loan." And he said, you'll have to get a cosigner. So my grandfather
cosigned that loan for me, first loan I ever got, and he took
full responsibility. If I don't pay it, he'll pay
it. But the Lord Jesus Christ surety
ship is better than that. You think, that's good. This
is a lot better. I didn't pay anything. When He stood as my
surety, He took complete responsibility for my salvation before I was
even born. And He's called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And He stood as my guarantee
of salvation before time ever began." Now, what a great thing
that is. That's infinitely great, isn't it? That He would stand
assuredly and bear the complete responsibility of the salvation
of all of His people. Listen to this Scripture. 2 Timothy
1.9 says, He saved us, and He called us with a holy calling
Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which were given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now, this is so important. Notice
the order. He saved us, and He called us. What came first, the saving or
the calling? The saving. He saved us. He completely saved
us. Saved in Him before time began.
As He stood as my surety, He saved us. And then He called
us. With a holy calling. Not according to our works. It
wasn't in response to something we've done. But according to
His own purpose and grace which were given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Oh, what a wonder. What a wonder
when He became flesh. A virgin shall be with child,
and his name shall be called Immanuel, God with us." To think
of Christ becoming flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. What a wonder that is, that God
became man, the God-man. That's something that can't be
understood. You can only believe it. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. I think of the Holy
Spirit coming upon the Virgin Mary and conceiving that what
the Holy Spirit called that holy thing, the Lord Jesus Christ. The God-man was in his mother's
womb for nine months, and he was born in a cow stable. It's
so glorious, this glory. The Word was made flesh. Unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Oh, the Word being
made flesh. I love to think of what Simeon
said after he'd been born for eight days, and they took him
in to have him circumcised. And Simeon said, now let us thou
thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
When he saw that child, he knew he was the Christ, and he knew
this is God's salvation. He lived 30 years in obscurity. No one knew he was God the Son,
except Mary and Joseph. I don't know that they ever tried
to explain that to his other brothers and sisters, but he
lived 30 years in obscurity. And I think when he was beginning
to begin his public ministry, He was baptized, came to John
the Baptist, and John the Baptist baptized him, and the scripture
says the heavens were opened, and a voice came from heaven,
this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. And he goes
to be tempted of the devil, and he totally defeated him. The
devil couldn't make him sin. You know, the Lord isn't capable
of sin. He's impeccable. If He was capable
of sin, that would be a denial of His immutability. But He's
immutable. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He perfectly
kept God's law. Satan tempted Him. He answered
every temptation with an, It is written, showing His reverence
for the Scriptures. He knew it was His Word. He revered
the Scripture because it was His own Word. He, through God
the Holy Spirit, is the author of Scripture. And oh, how He
honored the doing of wonders after His public ministry. I
love to think of the miracles He would do. He brought matter
into existence that was not there before. Only God could do that.
He controlled the weather. Only God could do that. He raised
the dead. Only God could do that. He healed
the sick, gave sight to the blind. He did what only God could do. And in doing all that, He also
worked out a perfect righteousness before His Father. He believed
Him completely. He never sinned in His private
life, in His public life. He never sinned, working out
a perfect righteousness. Now, I love to think when they
came to arrest Him. You know, the Lord came to die.
He came to die. He knew that's why He was coming.
He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and
He had to come into this world to die as the sin-bearing substitute.
He knew that. But when they come to arrest
Him, He says, Whom seek ye? Or they say to Him, Whom? He
says to them, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And you know what happened next?
They fell backwards. they fell backwards at the power
of His I Am. That's the I Am of Exodus chapter
3, I Am that I Am. The Lord said in John 8, 24,
if you believe not that I Am, you'll die in your sins. But
what our Lord was doing at that time, He was letting these people
know, I'm in control of this. I'm not a victim. I'm not in
your hands. You're in mine. I am doing my
will. Oh, the power of the Lord Jesus
Christ, even at that time. Oh, how great He was to think
of Him dying. Him allowing Himself to be nailed
to the cross as the sin-bearing substitute, and dying. That is mysterious. How could
the God-man die? I don't know, but He did. As
somebody says, God can't die. Amen, I believe that. Man can't
ever satisfy a God. Amen, I believe that. But the
God-man did both. How glorious he was in his death. As a matter of fact, do you know
death? Talk about him doing wonders. He's the only one who gave death
permission to come and take him. That's how glorious he is. Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. He allowed death to come and
take him at that time. And how glorious this death is
in the sense that what it accomplished. Luke 9, 31, when Moses and Elijah
are speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration,
they speak of the decease which he should accomplish. Well, what
did he accomplish by that death? You know, the Scripture points
out that when He died, He never saw decay. His body never saw
corruption. You know why? Now, when you and
I die, we're going to start decaying. As soon as we die, we're going
to start decaying. We're going to see corruption.
Not him. Why? Because in his death, he
completely satisfied all the demands of God's law for the
sinner. And he put away that sin, and
he made it to where every believer is justified before God. Now,
you want to talk about great. the doing of wonders. Here's
what he accomplished by his life and by his death. Now, his life
wouldn't do me any good unless he died as well, but here's what
he accomplished, these doing of wonders. When he died, I was
perfectly accepted by God, seen by God to be holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. And let me remind you this, how
God sees things is how they really are. If I am wholly unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight, I am wholly and unblameable and
unreprovable, and that's the heritage of every believer. This
is the great things He did. There's nobody like Him, that
He can actually accomplish the complete salvation of His people
and make us perfect in God's sight. And when we talk about
the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, do you know He has the exclusive
right to forgive sin? All your sins are forgiven if
He forgives them. Now, you can't come up to him
and demand forgiveness. I'm going to let you forgive
me. I'm asking for it. You need to do it. You don't
do that with human beings. If somebody comes up and says,
you need to forgive me, you're going to be in trouble if you
don't. You're going to be wrong. You're not a Christian if you don't forgive me. I'm
going to have a hard time forgiving them, you know, just with that
kind of attitude. And no, when someone humbles
themselves and say, please forgive, of course you're going to forgive.
But to think of people thinking, well, forgiveness is in my hands.
No, it's in his hands. He has the exclusive right to
forgive, and I love it when He said to that man brought to Him
on that mat, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. can forgive your sin. And when he forgives your sin,
he makes it to where you do not have any sin. That's his kind of forgiveness.
You know, if someone sins against me, I'll have a tendency to remember
it. I wish I didn't, but I do. But he says there are sins and
iniquities I'll remember no more. How? Because there's nothing
there to remember. He put them away. Oh, the great
things that He has done. Who is like unto thee? Glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to todd.neidler
at gmail.com or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.