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. In Ephesians chapter 5, verse
8, Paul says to the Ephesians, you were sometimes darkness. Now, sometimes doesn't mean some
of the time, it means a fore time. Before, before God revealed
himself to you, you were darkness itself. But now, one of those
glorious buts of the scripture. But now, you are light in the
Lord. Walk as children of light. I want to preach upon this subject,
children of light. Now, let's think of this concept
of light and darkness. He says you were, before time,
darkness. Now if you're led into a room
that you've never been in before, that's completely dark, and somebody
sets you down, you have no idea as to what is in that room. You
are in the dark. You may Think things, but you
don't know because you are in darkness. You can't see what
is really there. But in that same room, turn the
light on, and what happens? You see everything that's there. Now, darkness represents ignorance. It's what you cannot see. Light represents knowledge. saving knowledge, what you can
see. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, Paul
said, God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness,
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, there was
a time when that meant nothing to me. I didn't see it, didn't
know it, didn't understand it. but I do now because I have been
given light. Now, in the first creation, what
came first? Light. Light. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form, and
void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit
of God brooded on the water God said, let there be light, and
there was light. Light be, light was. Light came first in the original
creation, and I feel quite sure that that's talking about the
uncreated life, the Lord Jesus Christ, because the sun and the
moon and the stars didn't take place until the fourth day of
creation. Light be. Now, in the new creation, what
takes place first? Light. You're given light to
see what you could not see before. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy
1, verses 15 and 16, this is a faithful saying, and it's worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Howbeit for this cause
I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern to them that should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. Now that's talking about me and
you if we're believers. Paul is the pattern. What's that mean? If I'm saved, I'm going to be
saved the same way Paul was, by grace. through faith. I'm going to see myself as the
chief of sinners and that Christ Jesus is everything in salvation.
I'm going to be saved the precise same way Paul was saved, and
this is also talking about Paul's experience. Now, I wasn't on
the road to Damascus the way Paul was, but what happened when
God saved Paul? What happened first? He saw a
great light, a great light, and he fell down. And when I'm saved,
it begins with light concerning who God is, light concerning
who I am. light concerning how God saves
sinners by Christ. There's no salvation apart from
light. That's what happens when someone
is saved by the grace of God. They're given light. Now, I want
to look at a few Scriptures with regard to this thing of light.
In John 1, verse 1, I love this passage of Scripture. In the
beginning was the Word, The Word was with God as a distinct person,
and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is God. The same was in the beginning
with God. was. That's speaking of His eternal
isness. He never had a beginning. He's
always been. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him. He's the Creator. All things
were made by Him and for Him, and He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. He's the
Creator. And listen to this verse. In
Him was life. He's the source of life. He Himself
is the life. If I'm saved, if I'm brought
into heaven, if I'm accepted by God, it will be because His
life is my life before God. His righteousness, His perfections
is my righteousness and perfection before God. I'm in Him. In Him
was life, and the life, He said, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. And the life was the light of men. Now, if I have any light,
I see His life is my ground of acceptance before God, His perfect
merits. His life was the light of men,
and if I don't see Him in this light, I'm in darkness. Verse
5, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not. Now, Christ is the light. He's the light of who God is.
I only see myself in His light. I see how God saves by Christ.
That's light. And this light shined in the
darkness and the darkness didn't comprehend it. Now, not only
does it take light to see, it takes a seeing eye. If I'm blind,
You can give me all the light in the world. It won't do me
any good. I have to be given a seeing eye. And this light,
this glorious light, when it shines in the darkness, the darkness
doesn't comprehend it. It can't lay hold of it. It doesn't
believe it. I'll preach the gospel. Somebody
says, I see. Somebody else says, well, that's
foolishness. Well, that's because you don't have any light. If
you have light, you'll see the light of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. In John chapter 3, we read these
words. Eighteen, he that believeth on
him is not condemned. Now do you hear that? If you
believe Christ, if you rely on Him, you will not be condemned.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
It's because you're justified. You see, if you believe, that's
evidence that God has justified you, cleared you of all guilt.
You stand perfect before God and you'll never be condemned.
He that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. The name of God is His attributes. It's who He is. He's holy. He's sovereign. He's all-powerful. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. You can't go anywhere where He's
not. He's immutable. He's independent. You could go
on and on. His name is His attributes. You see, just using the audible
name doesn't mean you know the person. It's the person behind
the name, the name of the only begotten. And this begetting
is not an event of time, but a fact irrespective of time. He's the sole being and representative
of the one who sent him. He's the only begotten Son of
God. And what a crime it is to not
believe on his name. Verse 19, and this is the condemnation. that light is coming to the world,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. That's talking about
all their deeds. That's not just talking about
the bad things. That's also talking about the good things, their
deeds, period. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light,
Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved
or exposed. And what the light of the gospel
teaches us, all of our deeds are bad, and we need Christ. We need a righteousness better
than one we can produce. Oh, if you ever see that you're
a sinner, how you're gonna need the Savior. But, he says in verse
21, he that doeth truth cometh to the light. that His deeds
may be made manifested, that they are wrought in God, wrought
by God. Now, I'm not ashamed to bring
what He has done to the light. I don't want to bring anything
I've done to the light. It'll just be exposed as sinful. best things. But I'm not afraid to bring the
righteousness that He worked out as my perfect righteousness
before God. I'm not afraid to bring the faith
that He worked in me. You see, faith is the gift of
God. It's not the product of human free will. It's the gift
of God that He gives to the elect. And if I have faith, He gave
it to me. I'm not afraid to bring the repentance He gave to me.
I'm not afraid to bring the love He worked in my heart. All my
Everything I bring is what He has done, and I'm not afraid
to bring that to the light. Now, let's look at another passage
of Scripture in John chapter 8 that I think is so interesting.
In verse 12 of John chapter 8, Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. Now the word then is very
significant because it means it depends on what had taken
place before then. Then, after this event took place,
then he said, I am the light of the world. I am the light
as to how this can be so. Now let's see what took place.
Verse one of chapter eight, and Jesus went into the Mount of
Olives and early in the morning, he came again into the temple
and all the people came unto him and he sat down and taught
them. You can imagine this. And the
scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in
the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken
in adultery. In the very act, there's eyewitnesses
that this woman is guilty of this sin. Now, one wonders, why
wasn't the man brought in? I think this could have been
some kind of entrapment. They were trying to figure out a way
to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ, and they thought they'd come
up with something that would do the trick. Now, Moses, in
the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayeth
thou? This, they said, tempting him
that they might have to accuse him. They thought we've got the
Lord Jesus Christ in a place where he can't give a right answer.
If he says, let her go, we could say, where's your respect for
the law? If he says, stone her, we could
say, where's your compassion towards sinners that you talk
about? They thought they had the Lord in a position that he
could not reply to and come out okay. And I love what the Lord
did. But Jesus stooped down and with
his finger wrote he on the ground as though he didn't hear. I can
just see the way, well I try to think of the way the Lord
just, are you listening to us? No. No. And he was writing on
the ground. Now, in the Old Testament, there's
two times the finger of God is said to write. The first time
is the law, the Ten Commandments. That's when the Lord said, Thou
shalt not commit adultery. And another time is found in
Daniel chapter 5, where that finger wrote on the wall to Belshazzar. Thou art weighed in the balances
and found wanting." I don't know that that's what the Lord wrote,
but only two times the Lord wrote with the finger of God, and that's
what it said. Thou shalt not commit adultery,
and thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. So when they
continued asking, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he
that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone
at her. And I have no doubt he was talking
about this sin. I have no doubt that these men
had committed this sin. And if you haven't committed
it physically, my dear friend, you have committed it in your
heart. Because the Lord said, Whoso looketh on a woman and
lusteth after in his heart hath committed adultery with her already. They were guilty of this sin. And after he did that again,
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard,
being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus was
left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had
lifted up himself We read of two stoops, and he lifted up
himself again, and this is highly representative of the two stoops
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stooped when he became a man.
What a stoop, the eternal God becoming man. And oh, how he
stooped when he was made sin on Calvary's tree. He was made
to bear the sins of his people in his own body on the tree,
and all the filth and vileness of sin, he was made to be. What
a stoop. And now he lifts up himself,
and he's speaking to this woman on resurrection ground. What
the resurrection accomplished. And he said unto her, Woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? And
she said, no man, Lord. You see, there's nothing to condemn
her for, because the Lord bore that sin and put it away, and
there's nothing to condemn her for. That's why no one can bring
anything against her. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified Him. Who is He
that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God. Now,
the reason There's no condemnation to a believer because there's
nothing to condemn them for. They have no sin. Christ put
it away. It's gone. They have a perfect righteousness.
She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
I am the light of the world. I am the light as to how holy
God can look at me and see no sin, because there is no sin.
Christ says, I'm the light of that. I'm how that can be. And the only way you're going
to see how God can accept a sinner is through my light. I am the
light of the world. Now, you were before, Paul says
to the Ephesians, darkness. your darkness itself, and now
are ye light in the Lord." Now, that phrase, in the Lord, is
so important. All of God's salvation is in
Christ. That light is in the Lord. I
know what Paul meant when he said, oh, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith. That's the only way I want to
be found in the Lord. When God comes looking for me,
I want to be found in one place, and it's not preaching or reading
the Bible or praying. It's in Christ. That's the only
place of safety. That's the only place of security.
That's the only place of salvation. That's the only place of light
in the Lord. You were in darkness, total ignorance
concerning the character of God, total ignorance concerning yourself
and your own sinfulness, totally ignorant of how God saves sinners
by Christ. You were in darkness, but now
you're light. in the Lord. He says, walk as
children of light. Now, how would I go about doing
that? Well, in 1 John chapter 1, we
read in verse 6, if we say we have fellowship with Him and
walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk
in the light, as He is in the light, We have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. If we say we have fellowship
with Him, a lot of people make that claim. I have fellowship
with God. I talk to Him. He speaks to me.
He hears me. I pray. He answers my prayer.
I have fellowship with God. I walk with God. If we say we
have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, John says we
lie and do not the truth. Now, most people, when they think
of that, they think, well, if we claim to be Christians and
have contradictory, sinful lives in the dark that nobody else
knows about, if we claim to be Christians and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. What that's talking about is
walking in the darkness of salvation by works. Now, we ought not sin
in the dark. I'm not saying there's anything
okay with that, but that's not what this passage is talking
about. It's not talking about you claim to be a Christian,
but yet you practice secret sin that nobody knows about. As far
as that goes, do you have sins that you're still committing?
Sure you do, sure you do. Does that make them okay? No,
but if that's what that means, you're in trouble, and I am too,
because everybody has way, oh, the sinfulness of our lives. It's not talking about having
this straight life, so you walk the walk and talk the talk. It's
talking about walking in the darkness of salvation by works. It's utterly dark. There's no
hope in that message. It's darkness. Now, if we say
we have fellowship with Him and believe in salvation by works
in any way, we lie. We don't really have any fellowship
with Him. We don't know Him. And we do not the truth. We've lost
all credibility. But if we walk in the light,
the light of how God saves, the light of Christ. We have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. It doesn't say we quit sinning.
It says the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Now, excuse
me, let's look at this passage from the very first verse. That which was from the beginning, excuse me, that which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled
of the word of the life, for the life was manifested. We've
seen and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life. which
was with the Father and was manifest unto us. That which we have seen
and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things
write we unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the
message. which we've heard of him, and
declaring to you that God is light." Now, here we have the
most glorious concept of light. God is light. James says, he is the father
of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is holy. He's immutable. He's all-powerful. He's all-wise. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere
at once. He's absolutely independent. He's sovereign. He's altogether
glorious. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. Now, if we say-here's where I've
already quoted-if we say that we have fellowship with Him and
walk in darkness, We lie and do not the truth. But if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. Now look in verse 8. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. And
there the word sin is a noun. He's talking about a sinful nature.
At no time can I say, I have no sin, because I still have
a sinful nature that I will carry with me until I die. I don't become a sinner when
I sin. I sin because I'm already a sinner.
I have a sinful nature. And for someone to say, I have
no sin, they're deceiving themselves. And you can't believe anything
they say. If somebody makes that claim, believe me, they're a
liar if they make a claim like that. And then in verse 10, if
we say we've not sinned, And there the word is a verb. So with regard to anything I
do, I don't care if it's this sermon I'm preaching, I don't
care what it is, if I do it, it's sin, it's a sin. Everything
I do is a sin because I'm doing it. If we say we've not sinned,
and that's in the present, right now, what I'm doing right now
even, if we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar because he
says we have. And his word is not in us. But
look what John says, and this is what children of the light
do. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now,
to confess sin doesn't simply mean to articulate them before
God. You don't know what they all are anyway. It means you
take sides with God against yourself. You speak the same thing God
says with regard to your sin. You take sides with God against
yourself. Have you ever done that? If we
confess our sins, He is faithful, faithful because He determined
He was going to give us this confession. He's just, His absolute
justice declares the necessity of our sins being put away because
of the blood of Christ. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. Now that is walking in the light,
walking in the light of the gospel. walking in the light of how God
can look at a sinner and see no sin because of the person
and work of His dear Son. May God give us all grace to
walk in the light as He is in the light. And that is how we'll
have fellowship, one with another. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send a request to todd.neibert at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
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