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've entitled this morning's
message, Grace Words. Grace Words. We read in verse 22 of Luke chapter
4, And all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth. And that word gracious
is the word that's generally translated simply grace. By grace, you are saved. They heard these grace words. And would to God that we would
hear grace words that proceed from His mouth. In Luke chapter
9, verse 11, we read these words. He healed them. that had need
of healing. He said in Matthew chapter 9,
the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. And the
word sick there means literally evilly sick. I wonder if there's
anyone listening that needs the Lord to do something for them,
to do something about their sin. And I want you to listen carefully
as we consider these grace words. Now, the Lord had just returned
to Nazareth. He had been tempted of the devil.
You can read about it in Luke chapter 4. And the devil was
defeated. The devil could find no way to
tempt him to sin. I believe in the impeccability
of Christ. He wasn't capable of sin. He's God. God's not capable
of sin. I've heard people say, well,
if that's the case, what is the merit in Him not giving in to
temptation? Well, I don't know. But He's
God. He's holy. And He said regarding
Satan, he hath found nothing in me, nothing he can get hold
of. and he returns in the power of the Spirit. His fame has gone
everywhere, and he's coming back to Nazareth, his hometown, and
you can bet there's a buzz going on, excited about this hometown
boy coming back famous. And we read in verse 16, 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 is written." And he quotes from
Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 through 3, but here's
what he said as his hometown crowd is listening. He gives
a prophecy concerning the Messiah. Verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath 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, crushed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,
the year of jubilee. And he closed the book, and he
gave it again to the minister and sat down. and the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him." I bet
you could have heard a pin drop at that time because they knew
exactly what he meant when he said, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. Now, before we go on, let's consider
these grace words. These grace words were not grace
words to everybody. As a matter of fact, at the end
of this story, beginning in verse 28, ìAnd all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up and thrust him out of the city, and led him under the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong.î Now, these temple-goers turned into a lynch
mob at this time. They wanted to kill the Lord
Jesus Christ for these grace words that He spoke. So who sees
these as grace words? Well, there are six descriptions.
You have to be poor. You have to be brokenhearted. You have to be locked up, a captive. You have to be blind. You have
to be crushed, totally disabled, and you have to be a slave. Now,
that is the person who will find these words to be grace words. You're poor. You have nothing
to recommend you to God, not a thing. If it would only take
a nickel's worth of merit, You couldn't come up with it because
you do not have any. You don't have anything you can
bring to God. You can't say, I've stopped this sin or conquered
this sin or I've changed my life. No, you are bankrupt. You are poor. You have nothing
to recommend you to God. Then we read of being brokenhearted.
And this is not talking about the broken heart of a romance
or your children breaking your heart. This is talking about
a heart that's broke, a heart that's no good. It's broken. It doesn't work. It's desperately
wicked, deceitful above all things, as Jeremiah says. It answers
to the description God gives in Genesis 6, verse 5, and 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. You're a captive You're in a
prison cell, and you can't get out. There's nothing you can
do to get out. You can't decide to walk out.
It's locked up. People talk about free will.
You know there's no such thing. You are imprisoned to your sin,
blind. You cannot see anything about
you. That would cause God to look
your way in mercy or favor. You are smitten through, bruised,
crushed. That's talking about inability.
Nothing works. You can't do anything. Everything
you do is sin. You're totally depraved and totally
unable. You've been sold as a slave.
That's what the year of Jubilee is all about, when someone was
sold as a slave and set free. You're a slave to sin. You're
like Gomer being auctioned off, sold as a slave. Somebody says,
I'm not like that. I'm just not like that. I'm sorry,
but these will not be words of grace to you then. You will not
hear these words as word of grace, and there's no Savior sent for
you. But if you're poor, if you're
brokenhearted, If you're a captive, if you're blind, if you're totally
disabled, if you're a slave to sin, these words will be words
of grace to you. Now, the Lord said, the Spirit
of the Lord is upon me. God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto him. He hath anointed me. Now, that's where the word Christ
comes from, where the Hebrew word Messiah comes from. The Messiah is God's prophet,
the very Word of God, God's priest. If he brings you to God, you're
brought to God, God's king, the one who rules over everything. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel. the good news to the poor. Now, what is good news for someone
who has nothing, nothing to recommend them to God? Well, tell them
that the gospel is absolutely free. You do not need anything
to recommend you. You do not bring anything to
God, thinking that that will make God look your way in favor. The gospel is absolutely free. The only requirement is to have
nothing. If you have anything, you are
disqualified. It's only the man who has nothing
that can hear the gospel as gospel. Now, let not conscience make
you linger, nor fitness fondly dream. The only fitness he requireth
is to have a need of him. Oh, how I need him! Now, every aspect of the gospel
is of free grace. Now, what is meant by grace?
People, religious people, use the term all the time. If you
ask them if they believe in salvation by grace, they would say, yes,
I believe in salvation by grace. Well, what does grace mean? Paul
said in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved, through
faith, And that not of yourselves, that faith, it's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Grace means that salvation has
nothing to do with your works. Do you hear that? Grace means
that salvation does not have anything to do with anything
you do or you don't do. Do you believe that? It's so. Grace really is free. Paul said, if by grace it's no
more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be works,
don't call it grace, because that's not grace. Now, God's
grace refuses to be assisted by your works. It won't do it. Grace is either absolutely free
of all influence by us, or it's not grace at all. Listen to this Scripture. Romans
5, verse 20, Moreover, the law entered, that the offense might
abound. But where sin abounded, Would
that describe you? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so in the same manner might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, the gospel to
a poor person is that salvation is utterly free. It doesn't have
anything to do with your works. Now, he sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Now, a broken heart is beyond
repair. It's beyond reform. I hear preachers
say frequently, ask Jesus into your heart. You know that phrase is not found
in Scripture. Somebody says, it sounds like a good phrase.
Well, it's not found in the scripture. And really what you and I need
to do is ask him to give us a new heart. Like David said, create
in me a clean heart, oh God. Your heart is broken. It is evil. It won't do you any good. You
need, and I need, a new heart. a new heart that believes the
gospel, that sees me for what I am, that sees God for who He
is. He sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives. Now, if you're in a jail cell,
captive, the only hope you have, you don't have the ability to
break out of that, the only hope you have is for someone to come
along and set you free. Somebody's going to have to rescue
you. Somebody's going to have to open
the door for you and bring you out. If the Son shall make you free. Not if the Son shall offer you
freedom, because that puts it in your hands. If the Son shall
make you free. This is what Christ does. He
puts away your sin. He gives you righteousness. He
makes you free before God. He makes you perfectly accepted
before God. Stand fast in the liberty, the
freedom wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled
again in that yoke of bondage. Salvation by works. Now, that
word deliverance, deliverance for the captives, it's the same
word that's translated forgiveness. Now, listen to this real carefully. does not end with the forgiveness
of sins. If you do this, this, and this,
and stop doing that, that, that, and change this, you will be
forgiven. That's not what the Bible teaches.
Salvation doesn't end with the forgiveness of sins after you
do whatever it is you're supposed to do to get it. Salvation begins
with the full, free, complete, frank forgiveness of sins. When you hear the gospel, you
find out you've been forgiven. You were forgiven for Christ's
sake. You were forgiven because He
put away your sins. And the captive, that person
who can't do anything to save themselves, they're in jail. People talk about free will.
There's never been a bigger lie. There's no such thing as free
will. You are captive. I am captive to an evil nature
by choice, by practice, by birth, and unless Christ comes and rescues
me. I can't get out of my cell. And then it says, in these grace
words, the recovering of sight to the blind. I'm made to see. I'm given eyes to see. how that
Christ is all in my salvation, and that all God requires of
me, He looks to His Son for. And I see. I see. I see how God
can accept me for Christ's sake. I see how God can love me for
Christ's sake. I see that all of salvation is
in Him. Now, when I'm blind, I can't
see any reason why God would accept me. If you can find a
reason God will accept you, you really are blind. You've never
seen who God is. You've never seen who you are.
But if you cannot see a reason why God would look down in favor
upon you, here's good news. He's going to give you sight
to see how God, for Christ's sake, can do something for you
by His grace. And then He's going to set at
liberty them that are bruised or crushed crushed to smithereens,
and you can't do it. You're totally disabled. Like
the Scripture says, where the Lord says in John 6, 44, no man
can come to me. He lacks the ability to come
to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. Now, to
everybody who's crushed, you're going to be drawn by the Father
to Christ. If you think you don't need that,
you won't have it. But if you're crushed, you're
going to be drawn to Christ. All these grace words. And then
he said in verse 9, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, that is what is known as
the year of jubilee. You read about it in the book
of Leviticus. Every 50 years, a silver trumpet
would shout out the ushering in of the year of jubilee. And
in this 50th year, every 50 years, What you lost was restored. If you were in debt, that debt
was canceled, wiped out. If you were a slave, you were
set free. And the land was given a year's
rest, the year of jubilee. I love to think about this, but
something that's very interesting. While God called upon this to
happen every 50 years, we don't have one instance in the Scripture
where it ever was observed. And I imagine the people who
would be losers by it would want it to be prevented. I don't want
somebody who owes me money to not owe me anymore. I don't want
to have to give back what I bought that somebody lost. I don't want
my slaves to be set free. I don't want the land to be given
rest. I can't earn money. And I guarantee
you these people stop this. But look what our Lord says.
He closed the book, he gave it again to the minister, and sat
down, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened on him. And he began to say unto them this day, Is
this Scripture fulfilled in your ears? I am the one upon whom
the Spirit of the Lord is come to anoint me. I am the year of
jubilee. This Scripture is fulfilled in
your very ears." Verse 22, and all bear Him witness. and wondered
at the grace words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said,
Is not this Joseph's son? We know him. We saw him grow
up here. We know his mom and dad. We know
his brothers and sisters. We know his acquaintances. From
whence come this man these words of wisdom? Is not this Joseph's
son? Is not this the carpenter's son?
And he said unto them, You will surely say unto me this proverb,
Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also hear in our country. Let us see some
miracles. And he said, verse 24, No prophet
is accepted in his own country. You can't see me as that prophet. You can't see me as that Christ.
Now, these people believed in Christ. They believed in the
coming Christ. They just didn't believe it was
Him. This is Joseph's son. This is the carpenter. We know
Him. They could not believe that He
was who He said He was. And here's how He deals with
this attitude of unbelief with regard to Him. Let me read these
three verses. But I tell you the truth. You
who don't believe me, you who are saying, is not this the carpenter?
Is not this Joseph's son? You can't believe these words
are regarding me. But I tell you a truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout the land. Now you think of three years
and six months without rain. And there were a lot of widows
in Israel at that time who were suffering under that judgment
of God. But unto none of them was Elijah
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, a Gentile city, unto
a woman that was a widow. All these widows in Israel were
passed by. and a Gentile widow had Elijah
sent to her. Verse 27, And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile, a Gentile
general. All these lepers were in Israel.
God did not send His prophet to heal any of them. He sent
him to heal a Gentile. Now, there are two words I want
to emphasize in those three verses, the word sent and the word cleansed. He was not sent by God to any
of the Gentile widows. Now, Christ was not sent but
for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's what He said.
He didn't come to save everybody. He came to save His people, and
I know this. If He's not sent for me, I can't be saved. And what about this word cleansing?
Oh, He didn't cleanse anybody but Naaman. I need to be cleansed. I need to have my sins washed
away. I need to be made pure before
God. I must have these things, and
if He doesn't cleanse me, I won't be cleansed. I won't be clean.
I won't be holy before God." Now, these people were hoping
in what they did. And when salvation was taken
out of their hands, you're totally dependent upon God to send somebody
to rescue you, his blessed son. And if he passes you by, you're
not going to be saved. You're totally dependent upon
Christ to cleanse you, and if He doesn't cleanse you, you won't
be cleansed. Now, what was the response of
the people? They became furious. Verse 28,
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the
city, and led him under the brow of the hill, whereon their city
was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But it wasn't
his time yet. but he passing through the midst
of them went his way." Now, mercy. Grace words. Mercy. Sovereign
mercy. That's what the Lord was talking
about. Sovereign mercy. God having mercy on whom he will
have mercy. I hope this story will give us
some understanding of this thing of mercy. This is a true story.
There was a king in France and he gave a member of his cabinet
the ability to and the right and the power to show mercy on
a galley slave, someone who'd been sentenced to rowing the
oars in the bottom of a boat. What a horrible way of living. That's what happened to prisoners.
And he said, you can have mercy on any galley slave you want
to have mercy on. So he went in and came to a man
who had been sentenced to 10 years of this being a galley
slave. And he said, why are you here?
And he said, I've been treated unfairly. My crime did not warrant
this. And he thought, well, this man
doesn't need mercy, he needs justice. He came to another man,
and this man admitted what he did, but his circumstances were
such that anybody under his circumstances would have done this. And so
the man thought, again, this man doesn't need mercy. He needs
justice. And he came to another man who
said, I've been falsely accused. I didn't do what I've been accused
of. And he said, well, here's another
man that doesn't need mercy. He needs justice. And he came
to another man who admitted his guilt, but there have been so
many people who have done much worse than him. And he thought,
once again, this man doesn't need mercy. He needs justice. And then he came to a man and
said, why are you here? And he said, I'm guilty. I deserve
to be here. As a matter of fact, I deserve
worse. If I was executed, it would be right. I'm amazed. I haven't even been executed.
And the man thought, here is a man who needs mercy. I've got
a friend who was pleading for his son during
his prison sentence. And he said to the judge, would
you have mercy on him? The judge replied, he doesn't
deserve mercy. And my friend replied, if he
deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. Oh, may I hear these words of
our Lord Jesus Christ as grace words. They are grace words.
If you're poor, broken-hearted, a captive, blind, crushed, and
a slave, these are grace words to you. And we have this message
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