Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyvert. 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 Nyvert. I'm reading from Luke chapter
4, and I've entitled this message, Two Things I Know. Now, we'll begin reading in verse
16 of Luke chapter 4. And he came to Nazareth, where
he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it's written. And this is a quotation
from Isaiah chapter 61. Obviously they didn't have chapteral
divisions then, but he wrote the book and he knew exactly
where it was. And here it is. The spirit of
the Lord is upon me. because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord, which is a reference to the year
of jubilee spoken of in Leviticus chapter 25. And he closed the
book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. You could hear a pin
drop at this time because they knew exactly what he meant when
he said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He was saying that
scripture is speaking of me. Verse 21, and he began to say
unto them, this day is this scripture, the scripture that I just read,
this day Is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears? Two things I know. Here they are. I know that I
am a great sinner, and I know that He is a greater
Savior. Now, those are the two things
I know. I know I am a great sinner, and He is a greater Savior. Now, I know these things objectively. This is not something that I
figured out. This is what is taught in the
objective Word of God. The Word of God says that I am
a great sinner. I believe this because the Word
of God teaches it. There's none righteous, no, not
one. Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The heart is
desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. Who can know
it? This is what the Scripture tells me that I am. a great sinner. I know this objectively. I know
objectively that He is the great Savior. This is what the Bible
has to say about Him. I'm not just giving my opinions
when I say, I'm a great sinner and He's a great Savior. But
I know this subjectively too. I know in my own experience,
I'm a great sinner. And I know in my own experience
that He is a great Savior. Now, what do I mean by saying
I'm a great sinner? Somebody's thinking, well, what
does He do? Is He making some kind of personal confession of
sin? Well, here's what I'm not doing. I'm not talking about
those personal testimonies that religious people give when they
talk about how sinful they used to be. And then they name and
almost sensationalize the sins they used to commit to show you
what a glamorous life they used to have and what all they've
given up for Christ's sake. Now, I don't call that a testimony.
I call that a bragamony. That's all it is, a brachymoia.
I can't stand those personal testimonies that religious people
give like that. Well, what am I saying? Well,
first, what is sin? When I say I'm a great sinner,
first, we have to identify what sin is. And the scripture says
sin is the transgression of the law. Now, the Ten Commandments,
that's what that's a reference to. Sin is a transgression of
the law. I love the Ten Commandments.
Thou shalt have no other god before me. There's a commandment
against idolatry, the commandment concerning not taking his name
in vain, the commandment concerning remembering the Sabbath to keep
it holy, the commandment concerning honoring your father and mother,
The commandment, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery,
Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou
shalt not covet, the Ten Commandments, somebody says, I admit I'm a
sinner, but I try to put God first. And I don't have any idols
in my house. And I try to be reverent regarding
His name. And the Sabbath, well, that's
part of the Old Testament. It's not part of the New Testament.
And I try to honor my parents. And I certainly never killed
anybody. I have not committed sexual sin
in the sense that I've been faithful to my spouse. I try not to lie. I try not to steal. I try not
to covet. What kind of sinner are you if
you feel that way about yourself? You don't really understand what
sin is, because if you understand what sin is, you know that you
have not kept one of those commandments one time. All the Ten Commandments
have to say to you, is guilty as charged, there's never a time
when you can say, I've not broken that commandment. If you can,
it's because you don't understand what the commandments mean in
the first place. You don't understand the spirituality, the breadth,
the holiness of God's law. If you think you've kept one
commandment one time, you just haven't understood the commandments.
If you see yourself to be a sinner, you confess that you've not kept
one of those commandments one time. I think of when that man
asked the Lord, what is the greatest commandment in the law? And he
said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and
with all thy soul and with all thy strength. And the second
is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now,
if you have any understanding of that, you know, you're continually
breaking the greatest commandment. You've never, I've never loved
God with all my heart and soul and strength as I should, nor
have ever loved my neighbor as myself as I should. I am a great
sinner. What's a sinner? Peter understood
when he said, depart from me, O Lord. I'm a sinful man. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. Paul understood when he said, Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. The publican certainly understood.
God be merciful to me, the sinner. A sinner is one who all he does
is sin. He cannot not sin, and his sin's
all his fault. He knows that. He can't blame
his circumstances. He is no victim. His sin is all
his fault. He can't sit in judgment over
anybody concerning anything. He really believes that about
himself, and when he is judgmental, he knows it's pure hypocrisy.
A sinner is one who has no claims on God. If he passes me by and
lets me go to hell, just and holy is his name. And I said
I am a great sinner. Not I was a great sinner. I am
present tense right now while I'm talking to you. a great sinner."
Now, I'd like to look at a passage of Scripture in Romans chapter
7 that will illustrate and define what I'm
talking about when I say, I am, right now, present tense, while
I'm talking to you, a great sinner. Not I was, but I am right now. Now, Paul says in Romans 7, verse
14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,
sold under sin, a slave to sin. Now, somebody says, Paul is talking
about the way he was before God saved him. No, before God saved
him, he said, touching the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless.
He didn't understand what sin was until God saved him. And
then he begins to have some understanding of what sin really is. And he
saw what his relationship with sin was. He said in verse 15,
for that which I do, and these are all in the present, for that
which I do, I allow not, I don't approve of it, for what I would,
that do I not, but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that
which I would not, I consented unto the law that it's good.
Now it's no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in
me. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Now Paul didn't know that
when he wasn't saved. It's when God saved him that
he became to know this. For to will is present with me,
I would never sin again. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now, if I do that which I would
not, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man,
but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members, O wretched man that I am." Not that I used to be,
but that I am right now, present tense, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death. He's talking about his sinful
nature that he's still possessed. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, so then with my mind I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin." Now, in our text, the Lord
gives a five-fold description of what the sinner is when he
tells who he came to save. The first description is poor. He came to preach the gospel
to the poor. A poor person is someone who
has nothing to bring to the table. Nothing, nothing that God could
accept. And then they're described as
brokenhearted or broken. This speaks of the inability
of the sinner. He's broken. He's broken. He
can't work. He can't function. He can't do
what he needs to do. He cannot. and then speaks of
captives. He came to preach deliverance
to the captives. If you're captured, you can't just up and walk out.
If you're in a prison cell with the door locked, if you could
walk out, you're not captured, are you? But the sinner sees
himself captivated to his evil nature. That's what Paul said.
He talked about being brought into captivity to the law of
sin, which is in my members. He speaks of RECOVERING OF SIGHT
TO THE BLIND, THE NATURAL MAN IS BLIND. HE CANNOT SEE. HE CAN'T SEE THE GOSPEL. AND
THIS PERSON CAN'T SEE ONE REASON IN THEM THAT WOULD MAKE GOD SHOW
THEM FAVOR. TO SET AT LIBERTY THEM THAT ARE BRUISED, CRUSHED
IS THE WORD. BEYOND REFORM, IRREPAIRABLE. MY HEART CAN'T BE REPAIRED. I
HAVE TO BE GIVEN A NEW HEART. I CAN'T PATCH UP MY RIGHTEOUSNESS.
I HAVE TO BE GIVEN A RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO
DO WITH ME. That is the case of the sinner. Now, somebody
says, how did you get that way? Well, let me tell you something.
You're that way too, whether you know it or not. But I was
born this way. I didn't become this way when
I sinned. A man doesn't become a sinner
when he sins. He sins because he's already
a sinner. I was born this way. David said I was shaped in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. The wicked are estranged
from the womb. They go about as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. You see, every believer, or every
man, I should say, has inherited Adam's evil nature. That's why
I'm born that way. I have inherited the sinful nature
that Adam was made to have when he broke God's law. He became
dead in trespasses and sins. So I was born this way, but here's
what is so evil about me being born this way. I'm also this
way by choice. My sin is my fault. I'm this
way by choice. That's what is so evil about
this condition. I'm this way by choice. I can't
blame God's sovereignty. I can't blame Adam. I'm this
way by choice. And I am this way by practice. I am a great sinner. Now, here's what I mean by all
this. The rich young ruler came to
the Lord and said, ìWhat good thing shall I do to inherit eternal
life?î And the Lord met him. On the ground he came, ìKeep
the commandments.î He says, ìAll these have I kept from my youth
up.î He didnít understand that he hadnít kept one of them. He
really believed he had. And the Lord met him once again
where he was. He knew this was a man eaten
up with covetousness, and he said, Go sell all you have and
give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. Come
follow me. And the man couldn't comply with the command. He went
away grieved because he had much possessions. And When the disciples
watched this young man leave, the Lord had said, how hardly
shall rich men enter the kingdom of heaven. And they watched this
man leave who seemingly had so much going for him. They said,
who then can be saved? And the Lord replied with men,
it is impossible. I'm a great sinner. With me,
If it's up to me in any way to be saved, I cannot be saved because
with men it is impossible. Now, I'm a great sinner. I know
that from what the Scripture teaches. Genesis 6, 5, God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
I know that's what the Scripture teaches, and I know it by my
own experience. I know it subjectively. Paul said, I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. This is not exaggeration. This really is me. I know I am
a great sinner, but here's the second thing I know. He is a
greater Savior. Now, that is true because of
who He is. He is God. He's God manifest in the flesh. Now, this can be illustrated
by when he told Peter. You can read this in the last
verse of John chapter 13 and the first verse of John chapter
14. He told Peter, you're going to
deny me three times. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God? believe also
in me." Now, remember that chapteral division was not in the original. You're going to deny me three
times. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Do you believe God is all powerful?
I am. I'm God. Do you believe God is
eternal? Of course you do. He never had
a beginning. That's me. I am God. Do you believe
God is absolutely just? Do you believe God is sovereign
and in control of everything? Do you believe God really is
gracious and merciful and delights in mercy? Whatever you know from
the Word of God concerning God, it's true concerning me. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is man. Jesus Christ is the God-man,
and He is able to save somebody like me or you. Your sinfulness,
my sinfulness, cannot prevent Him from being able to save me,
if that's what His intention is. Just as I cannot save myself,
He cannot not save me. That's what a greater Savior
He is. He came for this purpose. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I'm a sinner. He came to save me. Are you a sinner? Are you a great
sinner, like the one I've described in this message? If you are,
you know, there was a time you didn't know that. You know it
now. And let me say this, He came
to save you. You see, His greatness is seen
in what He did. as the Savior. Way back before time began, he
was called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
He stood as a surety. A surety is someone who takes
complete responsibility for the debts of somebody else. He stood
as a surety for those the Father gave him, the elect. He took
complete responsibility for my salvation before time began as
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now, in time, he
came, born of a woman, born of a virgin, and in the flesh, he
kept the Ten Commandments, God's holy law, perfectly. He never sinned. He worked out
a perfect righteousness. And in the flesh, he died. Because the sins of the elect
became his sins, so that he became guilty of them. His righteousness
becomes their righteousness, their sin become his sin, and
he dies under the wrath of God as the sin-bearing substitute. And what a great Savior he is. Because of who He is and what
He did, He cannot fail to save. Oh, He's a greater Savior. Now,
everything God requires of the sinner, He looks to His Son for. How does that sound to you? Now,
let's think about what He said to these people. He said, the
Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. Are you poor? You have nothing
to bring to the table? Nothing is required. Everything
God requires of you, He looks to Christ for. He's the mighty
Savior of sinners. It says, He hath sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, the broken, Can't be saved. You can't save
yourself. You're broken. You don't work.
What you do is broken things, you throw them away. He came to heal
the brokenhearted. And he does so by his word, speak
the word only and my servant shall be healed. That means if
he wills your healing, you're healed. And the scripture says,
by whose stripes you were healed. His death on Calvary's tree completed
the salvation of all these broken sinners. He has come to save
and made them to be without fault before God. He came to heal the
brokenhearted and to preach deliverance to the captives. people who are
captive. They know there's no such thing
as free will. Their will is controlled by an evil nature, and there's
nothing they can do to save themselves. They're captive. Well, he came
to liberate the captives. What I thought of was Barabbas
in the jail cell, waiting for his execution. He doesn't know
anything about the Christ. He hears the soldiers coming
to get him, and he's filled with a sense of dread. They open the
gate and say, you've been set free. Somebody took your place. That is deliverance for the captives. The Lord Jesus took their place,
bore their sins, and put them away, and recovering of sight
to the blind. You're now made to see how God
can have mercy on you for Christ's sake. You understand it doesn't
have anything to do with you. You look away from yourself and
you look to Christ and you understand how God can accept you for Christ's
sake because of what Christ did, because of who he is and what
he did. And then we read where he came
to set at liberty them that are crushed beyond repair. And that
word set at liberty is the same word that's generally translated
forgive. You see, the gospel doesn't end
with the forgiveness of sins. If you do this, this, this, and
this, you'll be forgiven. No, no. The gospel begins with
the full, free, complete forgiveness of sins. And then he said this,
made this statement in verse 19 to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. Now this is the year of jubilee.
It happened every 50 years in Israel. It was supposed to happen
every 50 years. On the 50th year, all your debts
were canceled. If you were a slave, you were
set free. Whatever you lost through inability
to pay was restored. and the land was given a year's
rest. Now, what is interesting is that
there isn't any instance in the Old Testament where this glorious
year of jubilee was literally observed. And I can understand
that. I can understand the people who
had money owed to them, they didn't want this to happen because
they would be losers from it. The only people who would rejoice
in this are the people who would be gained from it, the people
who would be losers by it. So they thought they wouldn't
have been, but they still thought they would. They didn't want
this to take place. So when the Lord looks at this
crowd, he says, this day is this scripture, the year of jubilee
fulfilled in your ears. All debts cancelled. You know, that means something
if you're a great sinner. All debts cancelled. Slaves set free. What you lost is restored. Nothing to do but rest. Now, here is the objective truth. I'm a great sinner. It's what
Scripture teaches. And He's a great Savior. It's
what the Scripture teaches. And here's the subjective truth,
true to my experience. I am a great sinner, and he is
a greater savior. And I trust him to save me. And I trust him to do it all. Now, I realize that some will
hear this and say, well, you're not giving anybody any reason
to obey. You haven't heard, then. You
haven't heard. There's nothing more liberating
and there's nothing that makes someone want to serve the Lord
more than when they know that He has done it all and there's
nothing required of Him. May God reveal His gospel to
me and to you. 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. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
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