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. Perhaps you've heard the hymn,
Rock of Ages, written by Augusta's top lady. But in that hymn, he
says, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed Be of sin the double cure. Save
me from its guilt and power. I've entitled this message, The
Double Cure. Save me from the guilt of sin. Save me from the power of sin. Now I'd like to try to give an
illustration. We're going to be looking at
Luke chapter 5, but I want to begin this message by giving
an illustration that shows us what our state is, me and you
and every other man. We're like a man that has been
sentenced to death on death row, guilty of crimes, and he's going
to be executed in 24 hours. And this man also has a bad heart
that is beyond repair. He needs a heart transplant or
he's going to die within 24 hours. Now, if you tell this man, you've
been pardoned. You don't have to be executed.
It won't do this man any good at all because he still needs
a heart transplant and he's going to die if he doesn't get that
heart transplant. If you tell this man you've been
given a heart, there's a heart donor, somebody's just died,
they can put his heart in you and you can be good as new. That
won't do that man any good at all because he's going to be
executed in 24 hours. This man needs deliverance from
guilt, pardon, and he needs a new heart. If he doesn't have both
of these things, he will not live. Now that is what the case
is with me and you because of our sin. We have the guilt of
sin. I deserve banishment from God's
presence. I'm guilty. But not only Do I
have the guilt of sin? I'm under the power of sin. I cannot deliver myself from
the power of sin. If you took away my guilt, I
still have a wicked heart. If you gave me a new heart, I
still have the guilt of sin. I have to be delivered from the
guilt of sin and I need to be delivered from the power of sin. And that's what Toplady meant
when he said, save me from its guilt and power, be of sin the
double cure. Now, what we're going to look
at, and I've entitled this message, The Double Cure, we're going
to look at the Lord's first parable. And in this parable, he gives
us what is the double cure for sin. This parable is so important. It's the first parable he ever
gave. His first miracle was changing the water into wine. And this
is the parable where, let me read it first, and then I'm gonna,
verse 36 of Luke chapter five. And he spake also a parable unto
them. No man putteth a piece of new garment upon an old. If
otherwise then both the new maketh a rent, the piece that was taken
out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new
wine into old bottles. Else the new wine will burst
the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But
new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved.
No man also, having drunk old wine, straightway desires new,
for he saith, The old is better. Now that is the first parable
of the Lord, and it's given in three parts. But let's see what
this parable was a response to. Beginning in verse 29 of this
same chapter, and this is what we considered last week, and
Levi, made a great feast in his own house, and there was a great
company of publicans and of others that sat down with him. But their
scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying,
Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus
answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Now these same people continue
their objections. And they said unto him, Why do
the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise
the disciples of the Pharisees? But thine eat and drink. They
seem much more dedicated. They pray a lot. They fast a
lot. One wonders, how do you know
they pray a lot? They must be letting you know. How do you
know they fast a lot? They must be disfiguring their
faces so they appear to men to fast. They must be praying on
the street corner so everybody can see what they're doing. And
the Lord forbids that kind of praying and that kind of fasting.
Whatever you do, don't do it to be seen of men. Evidently,
these men had a religion that had something to do with they
wanted to be seen of men. Everybody knew about their fasting.
Everybody knew about their praying. There's a problem with that.
But I love the way the Lord answers this objection. These men were
practicing comparative religion. Which one is the best? Which
one is the most strict? Which one practices the most
rigid asceticism? And look at the way the Lord
answers. Verse 34, and he said unto them,
can you make the children of the bride chamber fast while
the bridegroom is with them? He's saying, I'm here. Why would
they fast? They're with me. There's no reason
to fast. I'm here. I love that answer. But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken away from them. And then shall they
fast in those days. And then he gives this parable. And there are three parts to
this parable that I just read. And one deals with the problem
of guilt. The other part of this parable
deals with the problem of the power of sin. And the third part
of this parable gives the evidence that a man has that God has done
something about the guilt and the power of sin in him. Now, verse 36. Here's the parable. And he spake
also a parable unto them. No man putteth a piece of new
garment upon an old. If otherwise, then both the new
maketh a rent. And the piece that was taken
out of the new agreeth not with the old. No man does something
this foolish. You do not cut out a piece of
new, unshrunk, unmilled, unworked cloth and use it to patch up
a hole in a piece of an old, dry-rotted garment. Nobody does
that, except religious people. Religious people do it. Now,
the Lord says you don't do that because it wouldn't match. And that piece of new cloth,
when it's shrunk, when it's washed, it would end up making the hole
worse. The rent would be worse. And you would no longer have
a whole piece of new cloth. Now, the only people, as I said,
who do this are religious people. And here's what they do. they
try to take Christ's righteousness and use it to patch up the holes
in their own righteousness. They say, well, I do have issues.
I see that. And I do commit sins. There are
bad things I do. But I can use the righteousness
of Christ to patch up those holes. And so I'll have a fine garment
to be brought into heaven with, Christ's righteousness patching
up the fallacies and the holes in my own. I know I need a robe
of righteousness to be accepted by God. Mine is not perfect,
so I can have Christ to make up for all my deficiencies. Now,
there is a huge problem with that. There's no agreement between
Christ's perfect righteousness and what you call your own righteousness. No agreement at all. They don't
match. They're opposed to one another.
You see, according to Isaiah 64, 6, our righteousnesses-not
even talking about our sins now-our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. Would you want to take the beautiful,
pure, white, clean linen of Christ and use it to cut it up and use
it to patch up holes in your filthy rags? And that's what
the Scripture calls our righteousnesses. You see, there's only two kinds
of righteousness-self-righteousness and Christ-righteousness. And
here's the the truth about our self-righteousness. It's got the word righteous in
it, but it's not righteous. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. You and I, in and of ourselves,
are nothing but sin. We've never had a pure motive
about anything we've ever done. We've had self-serving. That's
who we are-sinful. And there is no agreement between
the righteousness and merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and
my garment that has holes in it. That's not what I need. I
need a righteous garment made only of the righteousness of
Christ. I don't want to approach God
in any other way but His righteousness and His merit. I won't dare come
any other way. My righteousness is nothing but
filthy rags. I can only have His righteousness. Now do you see the picture our
Lord is showing? You don't use His perfect righteousness, to
help out the fallacies in your righteousness, you need His righteousness
only. And the fact of the matter is,
His righteousness is the only righteousness there is. David
said in Psalm 71, 16, I may mention Him, thy righteousness, even
thine only. The righteousness and merits
of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness there is. Now, this is what the
Bible calls justification. I remember reading of the sinner
beating on his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Well, there was somebody else
there at that time, the Pharisee, and he said, God, I thank Thee
that I'm not as others are. And he started talking about
the things that he did and that he didn't do. And the Lord said
that parable was addressed to those who believe themselves
to be righteous. And the Pharisee congratulated
himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. I fast
twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess.
I'm not an adulterer. I don't exhort. I'm not an unjust
man. I'm not like that publican. And
the publican beats on his breast and says, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. And Christ says, I say unto you,
this man went down to his house justified. Now what does justification
mean? Justification means you've never
sinned. It means you are perfect before
the law of God. It means you are righteous before
God. Now how could that man, beating
on his breast, crying, God be merciful to me, the sinner, how
can he be counted righteous? That's the gospel. You see, the
sins of God's elect became the sins of Christ. He took them
and bore them in his own body on the tree. When he talked about
that cup that he was going to drink, it was the sins of his
people. They became his sins, and he
paid for them. He put them away. And his righteousness,
the only righteousness there is, just as their sins became
his, his righteousness becomes theirs. So they stand before
God without guilt. Now that's that perfect righteousness,
that's that glorious covering that every believer has. We don't
want to use Christ's righteousness as a patch to patch up the holes
in our own. No, we want a garment made only
of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I love in Revelation
chapter 19, 8, for it It says, to her was granted that she should
be clothed in fine linen, clean and white. This is the righteousness
of the saints. Well, it's not their righteous
works. It's the righteousness of Christ,
which is the righteousness of the saints. I've heard people
say, well, that's the righteous deeds of the saints. Do you have
any deeds that are fine linen, clean and white? I don't, and
neither do you. But Christ's righteousness is
that perfect, fine linen, clean and white. My hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name."
Now that's the first part of the parable. You don't take that
new cloth and use it to patch up holes in an old. Nobody does
that but religious people. They try it, but it will not
work. Now here is the second part of
the parable. No man putteth new wine into
old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottles and be
spilled, and the bottles shall perish. No man takes new wine that's
still going through the process of fermentation. The gases expand. No man takes this new wine and
put it in old wine skins. It's not glass bottles, it's
wine skins. If they're old, they're dry,
they don't have any elasticity, and the process of fermentation
will make them burst, and you'll lose the wine and the wine skins. Now this has to do with, remember
the first I was talking about the guilt of sin. This first
part of the parable deals with the guilt of sin, having his
righteousness only being justified before God. But this parable
is dealing with the power of sin. No man takes new wine and
puts it into old wine skins because that won't do any good. Through the process of fermentation,
that old wine skin will burst. You lose the wine, you lose the
wine skins. You put new wine into new wine
skins. And that way, both are preserved. Now, my heart, is beyond repair. You can't pour the grace of God
into this old heart of mine. It will not hold it. Now understand, remember the
hymn, save me from its guilt and power. My heart is such that
it's beyond repair and yours is too. Genesis chapter 6 verse
5 says, 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. Jeremiah 17 9 says the heart
is desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. Who can know
it? I don't need help for this old
heart. I need a new heart. that was
not there before. It's called regeneration. It's called being born again. God said, a new heart will I
give you. You see, my old heart, God doesn't
take His grace and enable my old heart to believe, to repent,
to love. No, my old heart is completely
evil. He puts a new heart there that
was not there before, like the heart transplant. You don't take
the wine of his grace and put it into old wineskins. They'll burst. God doesn't put
his spirit, his grace, the gifts of the gospel into an old heart. The old heart's no good. It won't
hold them. He gives a new heart. And that
way, both are preserved. Now, this is the heart that believes.
This is the heart that repents. This is the heart that loves.
There's nothing but sin in the natural man's heart. It is incapable
of faith. The Lord said, no man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him. It's incapable
of love. Oh, it can love itself. It can
love its buddies. But I'm talking about love for
God, for who He is, and love for God's people. It's incapable
of that. God must give a new heart. And that's exactly what he does
in regeneration. I love what the Lord said to Lazarus. Lazarus,
come forth. He that was dead, but he's not
dead anymore. He's been given a new heart. He that was dead came forth. Matthew, follow me. You know what Matthew did? He rose up, forsook all, and
followed Him. Why? Because this was the call
of invincible, irresistible grace. And he'd been given a new heart
to hear, respond, and believe the gospel. Now, here are the
first two parts of the parable. be of sin the double
cure, save me from its guilt and power, the new cloth, not
patching up old cloth. No, I'm given a completely new
cloth, a perfect righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.
And I'm given a new heart to receive the grace of God. Now,
what is the evidence that God has done this for me? What is
the evidence that God has given me the righteousness of Christ?
And what is the evidence that God has given me this new heart? Well, here's the third part of
the parable. Verse 39. No man also having drunk old
wine, straightway desireth new. For he saith, the old is better. What is the evidence that I've
been justified? What is the evidence I've been
regenerated? Amazingly, I've read a lot of
commentaries on this passage of Scripture, and what about
everybody I've read has said is that you can't expect somebody
to respond to the gospel immediately. They're used to this old line,
and you just can't expect them to all of a sudden start desiring
new. And it just takes a long time for people to believe new
things and so on. Well, that's ridiculous. What
about Matthew? Matthew, follow me. Well, he
can't be expected to follow you immediately. He's been a tax
collector all of his life. He needs to leave this gradually.
That's not what it means. When he said, follow me, Matthew
rose, forsook all, and followed him. What this is talking about
is old wine tastes a whole lot better than new wine. It's more
expensive and it tastes better than new wine. It just does. And if you've ever tasted old
wine, you're not gonna want the new wine anymore because you
say the old is better. Now, I don't know what a teetotaler
does with these. Of course drunkenness is wrong,
but there's not anything wrong with drinking wine. It's good
the Lord drank wine. And for people to forbid that
is just ridiculous. You're not going to get that
from the scripture. The Lord uses wine in this parable. Old wine is better than new wine. And if you've ever drunk the
old wine of grace, You know, the New Testament is a lot older
than the Old Testament. The New Testament is from the
foundation of the world. Christ being the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. It's eternal. It's eternal. It's
the old wine. You ever taste this old wine
of the gospel? You're not going to want the
new wine of works. You don't want to have anything
to do with it. You say the old wine is better. I love what David
said in 2 Samuel 23, verse 5, where his dying word, he says,
although my house be not so with God. Yet hath he made with me
an everlasting covenant." Now that's talking about the covenant
that was made before the foundation of the world when God gave Christ
a people. And Christ became responsible
for the salvation of those people. He agreed to be their surety.
And when he agreed to be their surety in this eternal covenant,
everything God required of all the elect, he looked to Christ
for. And David was rejoicing in this on his dying bed. He
said, although my house be not so with God, his house was a
mess. His own house was a mess. He was dying. He was old. He
was a sinful man. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire. I don't want anything else, though
he maketh it not to grow." Now, he is saying, in no uncertain
terms, the old is better. If you ever taste grace, you'll
never want works. If you want works, you've never
tasted grace. I love the old is better. The evidence that God has dealt
with the guilt of your sin and justified you. And the evidence
that God has given you a new heart dealing with the power
of sin, a heart that believes, that repents, that loves, that
walks with Christ. The evidence that he's done these
things for you is because you believe the gospel. You say the
old is better. You know, gospel is better than
all. Grace is better than works. God's will is better than man's
will. God's I will and you shall is
better than God will if you will. Christ's righteousness only is
better than a patchwork righteousness A new heart is better than an
improved heart. The old is better. Now this word is also, better
is also translated gracious, kind, easy. The gospel is gracious. The gospel
is kind. The gospel is easy. Now it wasn't
easy For Christ, in the sense that he had to suffer and put
away your sin, but grace is so glorious. Have you ever seen
that the old is better? May God give you and me the grace
to taste the wine of the gospel and say, the old is better. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Niber praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. Amen. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to
todd.niber at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.