Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. 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 message, Who
is Israel? The text is found in Acts chapter
5, verse 31. Him, speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince
and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins." Who is Israel? Christ is exalted to give Israel
repentance and to give Israel the remission of sins. Now, who
is Israel? Is this talking about the nation
of Israel? There is a country in the Middle
East called Israel. The capital is now Jerusalem. It's just been changed to that
and recognized that recently. And there are some people who
have said that this is going to usher in the second coming
of Christ. And they even say that a temple will be rebuilt
and that Christ will reign from Jerusalem, this nation. Who is
Jerusalem? Who is Israel? Now, Christ did
not give repentance to all of the nation of Israel. Christ
did not forgive the sins of every national Israelite. So this is
not talking about the nation of Israel. Israel is the true
Jew. Israel is the believer. Israel is every man who is granted
repentance and who has given the forgiveness of sins. Israel,
after the flesh, is the nation that God singled out for His
salvation. Now, you can't read the Old Testament
and fail to see that God did for this tiny nation what He
did not do for other nations. Israel, made up of the descendants
of Abraham, the Hebrew, Abraham the Jew, Israel, the children
of Israel, the nation of Israel that went from a group of 70
people when they went out to eat, when they went down to Egypt,
to several million when they came out of Egypt 430 years later,
and became actually a very powerful nation through the reign of David
and Solomon. At that time, they became a very
powerful nation. And during the time of our Lord,
they were under Roman rule, a very insignificant nation as far as
the world goes without power. And they're a nation right now
in the Middle East with all the other nations against them. Israel,
And there's no doubt that according to the scriptures, God did something
for them that he didn't do for the Gentiles. You can't read
the Old Testament and fail that. Now where does this word Israel
come from? If you read Genesis chapter 32,
you read about Jacob. He was the grandson of Abraham,
and he was the one who had the 12 patriarchs. He was fleeing
from his brother. Actually, he was going to meet
his brother once again, and he was scared to death as to what
was going to happen to him. And there met him that night
an angel. And we know from the end of the
chapter that it was the Lord Jesus because he said, I've seen
God face to face and lived. It was what is called a theophany.
Christ did not become incarnate at that time. I don't understand
how this happened, but there were several instances of Christ
appearing in the Old Testament, and this is one of them. And
he wrestled Jacob to the ground. He was going to bring Jacob to
a certain point. He wrestled him to the ground.
And Jacob, when he was wrestled to the ground, his thigh out
of joint, and he was going to walk with a limp for the rest
of his life after this encounter, he said, I will not let you go
except you bless me. I have to have your blessing.
And the angel of the Lord said, what's your name? Now, he wasn't
asking him this because he didn't know. This was to get a confession
from Jacob. What's your name? Jacob. Cheat? swindler, fraud, heel,
supplanter. Do you remember what his brother
Esau said? He said, well, as he named Jacob for these two
times as he supplanted me, he took my birthright and he took
my blessing, and he did so by deception. When God says, what's
your name? Jacob. cheater, fraud. He was confessing who he was. And the angel said, you'll no
longer be called Jacob, you'll be called Israel. For as a prince,
thou has power with God and have prevailed. Now that's the first
time Israel is mentioned. It means a prince with God. And quite often when God is speaking
to the Israelites. He says in the very same verse,
he calls them Jacob and Israel. Jacob, who you are in the flesh,
Israel, who you are in the spirit. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee. That's what
God said. Now, the nation of Israel, Abraham and his descendants,
are given to represent spiritual Israel. Christ and His people. And when our text says Christ
gives to Israel repentance and remission of sins, He's not talking
about that nation in the Middle East. He's talking about spiritual
Israel, all of God's people. Paul said in Romans 2, 28, He
is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Now, did you hear that? He's
not a Jew. which is one outwardly. That is not a true Jewish person. Paul spoke in 1 Corinthians 10,
verse 18, of Israel after the flesh. There is a fleshly nation,
Israel, but Christ has not given them repentance nor the remission
of sins. Listen to this scripture in Romans
9, verse 6. It's not as though the word of
God has taken none effect, for they are not all Israel, which
are of Israel. Just because you live in Israel
doesn't make you a true Israelite. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, fleshly Israel, people who were born of this
ethnic race, the Jews, They which are the children of the flesh,
these are not the children of God. But the children of the
promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise,
at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
her father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. Israel is the elect. The children of the promise are
the elect. That is who God grants repentance
to. That's who God gives forgiveness
to. Israel are those individuals
that Christ came to save. Do you remember when the Syro-Phoenician
woman in Matthew chapter 15 came to Christ and cried for mercy? The scripture says the answer
is not a word. But that didn't stop her. She continued to cry. And then the Lord made this statement,
I'm only sent for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Christ
only came for Israel, the spiritual Israel, the true believers, the
promised seed. This is the same Israel of which
Paul said in Romans 11, 26, so all Israel shall be saved. Now, if he's talking about the
nation of Israel, physical Jews, he was wrong. And the Bible is
not true. But he was talking about spiritual
Israel, and all of Israel shall be saved. So remember, Israel
in the New Testament, it's not talking about just the nation
of the Jews, it's talking about spiritual Israel. I think of
what the Lord said to the woman at the well, salvation is of
the Jews, and truly it is. Only true spiritual Jews are
saved. The Christian is the true Israelite,
the true Jew, the true Hebrew. Salvation is of the Jews. Now, dare I consider myself to
be a Jew? Now what I want to do is I want
to give you eight scriptures, excuse me, six scriptures by
which you can identify whether or not you are a true Jew. And the first is found in Hebrews
8, verse 10. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel. Who makes this covenant
with? Not everybody, just the house
of Israel. For this is the covenant that
I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws, plural, into their mind and write them in
their hearts. And I will be to them God, and
they shall be to me a people. Now, who is the true Israelite? Who is the true Jew? that one
that God has put His laws in their heart and written them
in their minds. Now, this is not talking about
the Ten Commandments. Romans chapter 2 verses 14 and
15 state clearly that the Ten Commandments are written in the
heart of people who have never even read the Ten Commandments.
People know by nature that murder is sin and stealing is sin and
adultery is sin, and lying is sin, and coveting is sin. The law is written in the heart
of even the unbeliever. He knows the difference between
right and wrong. When people say we need to be
taught to live, you already know how to live. God's law is written
in your heart. Now, the laws he's speaking of
are those spiritual laws that are written in the heart of the
house of Israel. It's what Paul called the law
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. Now, in the New Testament, we
read of six different laws. that are in the heart of all
true Israelites. And if you have one, you have
them all. And if there's one you don't have, you don't have
any of them. The first is called in Romans 7.23, the law of sin. If you're a Jew, If you're of
the house of Israel, you see that in and of yourselves, you
are nothing but sin. And you can't escape that. It's
only the true Jew that knows this. And then we read in Romans
9.31 of the law of righteousness. If you're a true Jew, you can't
be satisfied with anything short of a perfect righteousness before
the holy law of God. You don't have confidence in
anything else. You can only have confidence in the righteousness
of Christ as your only righteousness before God. And then we read
in Romans 3.27 of the law of faith. If you are a true Jew,
you cannot not believe the gospel. It's impossible for you to not
believe the gospel. Now, that's not saying it's impossible
for you to not believe that you're not saved, because you may struggle
with assurance. But I tell you this, if you're
a true Jew, you know that Christ is the gospel, and you cannot
not believe that He is the eternal Son of God, the second person
of the Trinity, the only way of salvation. And then in James
2, verse 12, we read of the law of liberty. If you're a true
Jew, you have to have liberty. You can't be brought under law.
You can't stand it. You can't stand to hear that
there's anything you need to do to be saved. There's no liberty
in that. The only liberty and freedom
there is is in stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made you free. If the Son make you free, you'll
be free indeed. Don't be entangled in that yoke
of bondage. A true Jew cannot handle bondage. And then we read in James 2.8
of the law of love. It's the nature of the believer
to love God and to love all of his attributes and to love his
way of salvation and love his people. And then we read in Galatians
1 or 6.1 of the law of Christ. If a man be overtaken in a fault,
you with your spirits will restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,
considering yourself, lest you also be tempted, knowing that
if you're put in his position, you'll do worse. Bear ye one
another's burdens, put up with one another, and so fulfill the
law of Christ. And the second scripture I want
to give is found in John chapter 1, verse 47, when the Lord comes
up on Nathanael. And he says, Behold, an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile, no deceit. A true Israelite is
someone who has no guile. Now what is meant by that? I
was listening to a man preached from this passage of Scripture,
and he used it to say, God's people are never hypocrites.
They're honest people, and they never pretend. You can't say
that about God's people. They have no guile. They're not
hypocrites. Now, when I heard that, I thought,
well, what do you do with where the Lord is talking to his disciples?
And he says, judge not that you be not judged. And when he says,
don't say to your brother, let me take the splinter out of your
own eye when you've got a beam in your own, thou hypocrite.
He's talking to believers. Thou hypocrite. First take the
beam, the log out of your own eye. Now, I know that anytime
that I have a critical, judgmental attitude towards somebody else,
and I wish I didn't ever have it, but I always do, it's wrong
as it can be, it's evil on my part, but anytime I judge anybody
for anything, my conscience says to me, hypocrite, you're a hypocrite. what you are in reality is worse
than what they are. You should not be standing in
judgment against them. So when it says of the Israelite,
they have no gal, What that means is they're honest before God.
They come before God, not in deceit, but in honesty, confessing
they are nothing but sin. And that's the way, that's only
the result of having a new nature. You know, a natural man doesn't
understand anything about sin. He thinks it's all behavioral.
He doesn't understand what a sinful nature is. But if you've got
a holy nature, a new nature, you've got a nature that has
no guile, that's honest before God. David said in Psalm 32,
1 and 2, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Now in Romans chapter 2, this
is the third scripture. Romans chapter 2, verse 28. For
he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. There aren't many
different ways to take that. The true Jew is one inwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly. And his circumcision is that
of the heart. in the Spirit and not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." Now, the true
Jew is someone God praises. And the reason God praises the
true Jew is because the true Jew is His work. He can only
praise that which is equal to Himself. And this is His work,
where He's given a new heart, a circumcised heart, Not a changed
heart. Somebody says, my heart's been
changed. Well, my old heart's just as bad as it ever was. And
if you have any honesty, yours is too. I don't have a changed
heart. It keeps getting better and better.
But I do have a new heart, a circumcised heart that is in the spirit and
not in the letter. Now, what does that mean? The
spirit of the law is keep it and be saved. I mean, the letter
of the law is keep this and be saved. The spirit of the law
is the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. All the law does is expose me
as being a sinner. The spirit of the law is work,
or I mean, the letter of the law is work. The spirit of the
law is grace. The letter of the law is do and
live. The spirit of the law is live
and do. The letter of the law is, well,
I see it in black and white, it teaches that men are dead
in sins. I agree with that, I see it. The spirit of the law is
I see that I am dead in sins and totally depraved. The letter
of the law is just seeing the Bible teach us something. The
spirit of the law is seeing the necessity of it. It's one thing
to believe that God elected the people. It's another thing to
believe you need God to choose you. It's one thing to believe
that Christ's death was successful. It's another thing to believe
that you need his successful death or you won't be saved.
It's one thing to believe salvation's by grace. The Bible sees it.
I see it written. It's another thing to need salvation
by grace. That's the letter and the Spirit.
And notice what he says about the letter. The letter killeth,
but the Spirit maketh alive. Now, that is the true Jew, not
one that's one outwardly, not one who has physical circumcision,
but one who is one inwardly. His circumcision is that of the
heart and the spirit and not of the letter. Now, Galatians
chapter six is the next one I want to look at, verse 16. Galatians chapter six, verse
16. As many as walk according to
this rule, peace on them and mercy and upon the Israel of
God. Now, true Israel are people who
walk according to this rule. What rule, Paul? Well, in verse
14, he said, but God forbid that I should glory. Now remember,
Paul is the man God used more than any other man to expound
the gospel. Paul was taken into the third heavens and taught
the gospel directly by Christ. Paul was used to found many of
the New Testament churches. He was used to write scripture.
And Paul said, God forbid that I should glory in any of that.
All I can glory in is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. All
I have confidence in is who Christ is and what he did. And that's
my salvation, who Christ is and what he did, where he is now.
I have glory in nothing else but what Christ accomplished
on the cross. And then he went on to say in
verse 15, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails anything
nor uncircumcision, what you do or what you don't do, but
a new creation. Paul understood that the work
of Christ in him was the creative work of God. And this I know
about creation. Man doesn't have anything to
do with it. to what God does by himself. Christ's work on
the cross is his work for you, this new creation, his work in
you. As many as walk according to
this rule, mercy on them and peace upon the Israel of God. That's the true Israel that walks
according to this rule. And then in Philippians chapter
three, we've got two more. Philippians chapter three, Paul
says, for we are the circumcision. Philippians chapter three, verse
three. We're the true Jews. We're the people who have true
circumcision, not just a physical ritual, but the circumcision
of the heart. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. Now here's what the true Jew
does. He worships God in the spirit. He knows that the only
way he can worship is by the Spirit of God and in the Spirit
of God. And it's only that new Spirit
that he's given, birthed by the Spirit, that really worships
God. And he worships God for who he is. He worships him for
all of his excellent attributes. He loves God exactly as he is,
in his holiness, in his sovereignty, in his justice, in his mercy,
whatever attribute you want to talk about. The true Jew worships
God for who He is. And you know what people do who
worship God for who He is? They rejoice in Christ Jesus. Every worshiper rejoices." Now,
that's not just talking about being happy. That's the same
word Paul used, glory or boast. He boasts, he glories, he rests
only in Christ Jesus. All I have confidence in is Christ
and Christ alone. And my Desire is that of Paul,
O that I may win Christ and be found in him. The only confidence
I have is that God sees me in Christ. Not that God sees me
as a preacher or God sees the greatness of my faith or my repentance
or sincerity or change life. My only confidence is that God
sees me in Christ. And I have confidence in nothing
else. I worship God in the Spirit if
I'm a true Jew. And folks who worship God in
the Spirit rejoice only in Christ. And what people who rejoice only
in Christ, the next thing he says is, I have no confidence
in the flesh. I have no confidence in anything
I do. I have no confidence in anything
in my flesh. I have no confidence in anything
in your flesh. All I have confidence in is Christ
alone. I'm looking to Him as all of
my salvation, and I'm not looking anywhere else. I'm resting in
Him, and I have absolutely no confidence in anything that has
anything to do with my flesh. No confidence in the flesh. Now
that's the true Jew. The true Jew is the one who worships
God in the spirit, rejoices in Christ Jesus, and has no confidence
in the flesh. Now the last scripture I would
mention is the accusation written over the head of Christ when
he was hanging on the tree. Do you remember what it was?
This is Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Now, the physical Jews, the nation
of Jews, didn't like this. They said, take that down. Don't
say he is the King of the Jews, but say he said he's the King
of the Jews. And Pilate said, what I've written
stays written. Do you remember when Nathanael
was speaking to Christ and Christ made Himself known to him? He
said, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel. is that one who embraces Christ
as his King. He loves the kingship of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he willingly embraces his kingship. He is
Lord of lords and King of kings, and the true Jew knows that and
rejoices in it. Now, I think of what Peter said. when he was concluding his great
message on Pentecost. In Acts 2, verse 36, he said,
Let all of the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath
made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now all of the house of Israel
knows this assuredly. There's no doubt about this,
that God has made the Lord Jesus Christ both Lord, sovereign dictator
of the universe, the controller of all things, and the Christ,
God's prophet, God's priest, and God's king. God has made
him this way. Somebody says, won't you make
Jesus Lord of your life? You can't do that. He is Lord
of your life. You are in his hands. He is God's
Christ. And every true Jew knows this. The true Jew, Israel, is everyone
who knows and believes that Christ Jesus is both Lord and Christ. 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
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