At Todd's Road Grace Church,
we'd 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. In Job chapter 25, verse 4, Bildad
asks this question, How can he be clean, which is born of woman? Now my goal in this message is
to answer that question from the Word of God. How can I be
clean before God? How can you be clean? In 1 John 1, verse 6, well actually
I'd like to start in verse 5, this then is the message, which
we've heard of Him, and declare unto you that God is light, and
in Him is no darkness at all. Now this is a reference to His
holiness, His purity. This is the attribute of all
of his attributes, his holiness. He has a holy love, a holy sovereignty,
a holy justice, a holy whatever it is about him is holy. That's what this is a reference
to, God's utter purity. And John says in verse six, 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. We have fellowship with God.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all
sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now that's how someone can be
clean before God, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, first we need to understand,
who is the us? When John says the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanseth us from all sin, who is the us? It's the
same us that Paul spoke of when he said, if God be for us, who
can be against us? Now, when he made that statement,
he began by saying, for whom he did foreknow, them he also
did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say to these things
if God be for us? Who can be against us? The us
doesn't mean all men without exception. Now, the same is true
of this verse when it says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. Now I could accurately say that
this is a reference to God's elect. This is a reference to
those for whom Christ died. This is a reference to those
who have been born of the Spirit. I would be saying the truth and
saying all those things, but look what our text says. It says
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 the us are those who walk
in the light. Now what does that mean? Let's
go back to verse six for just a moment. If we say that we have
fellowship with him. Many people make that claim.
I have fellowship with God. I pray and he hears me, he speaks
with me, I walk with him, I seek to be pleasing to him, I have
fellowship with God. Many, many make that claim. As
a matter of fact, the Lord said many on that day will say to
me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out devils
in your name and in your name done many wonderful works? And
then will I say to them, depart from me, ye that work iniquity,
I never knew you. In verse six, if we say we have
fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
the truth. Now, if you're thinking what John means is if we say
we have fellowship with him and in secret, we secretly practice
sin and do things that are wrong. Well, we ought not secretly practice
sin, and we ought not do things that are wrong, but that's not
what John's talking about. When he's talking about walking
in darkness, he's talking about walking in the darkness of salvation
by works, of religious error, the darkness of trying to please
God, not understanding that Christ is the one who pleases God, and
what pleases Him is me simply being found in Him, that all
God requires of me, He looks to Christ for, the light of the
gospel, the light of salvation by grace. Now, if we say we have
fellowship with Him, and yet walk in darkness, error, superstition,
we lie. We're just telling a lie. We
don't have fellowship with God, and we certainly don't have the truth
in us. But if we walk in the light,
the light of how God saves sinners. The Lord said in John chapter
8 verse 12, I am the light of the world. And he said that right
after that woman who was taken in adultery in the very act was
brought before him. And the Pharisee said, Moses,
this woman was caught in the very act. And Moses said, such
a one should be stoned. What sayest thou? And they thought
they had the Lord in a position where he couldn't win. If he
says, stoner, we can say, where's your mercy, where's your grace?
If he says, let her go, we can say, where's your respect for
the law? They thought they had the Lord entrapped. And the Lord
stooped down, and they kept asking and kept asking, and he rose
up and said, he that's without sin among you, let him cast the
first stone. And they all with shame began
to leave. And the Lord looked at that woman
after all of her accusers had left. He said, Woman, where are
those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. He said, Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Now the reason he could say,
neither do I condemn thee, is because he had removed the reason
for condemnation. His blood was a payment for her
sin. God is now satisfied. That's
what that means. He is the light as to how God,
a holy God, can accept and embrace an unholy man like me. Christ
is the light of that. Now, if we walk in the light
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
Actual fellowship with God, fellowship with the Father, fellowship with
the Son, fellowship, communion with the Holy Spirit. You see,
the gospel is God making a people who are fit for fellowship with
him. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says he's
made unto us, God made him unto us. Of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto you, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now, I'm now, if that's the case,
if Christ has made to me wisdom, and if he's made to me righteousness,
he's my personal righteousness before God. Sanctification, he
is my holiness before God. Redemption, he is the full deliverance. If he's made that to me, and
the Bible says he is to every believer, then I am fit for fellowship
with the infinite, living, and true God. And I can have fellowship
with God that an angel, an unfallen angel, could never have. Now
we love those beings, the angels of God, but they don't know what
it is to be forgiven. They don't know what it is to
trust Christ for salvation. They're not partakers of the
divine nature the way a believer is. They've never been placed
in a position where their falling is impossible like a believer
is. They can't have the same fellowship
with God the Christian does. Being unfallen, they're not jealous.
But they couldn't have the same fellowship with God that a saved
sinner does. We have fellowship with God. Every believer. We love Him as
He is. We admire Him. We have something
in common. I've got something in common,
totally in common with God. Listen to this. God looks to
Christ for everything that He requires of me. I do the same thing. I look to
Christ for everything God requires of me. I'm a partaker of the
divine nature, according to 2 Peter 1.4. When a believer is born
again, he's given a divine nature. No, he's not God, but he is given
a divine nature. Peter actually said, partakers
of the divine nature. And we're in agreement. God knows
his Son is all. Every believer knows his son
is all. God knows his son is altogether lovely. Every believer
sees Christ as the altogether lovely one. Fellowship with God
in the trinity of his sacred persons. Now that is the us who
is cleansed by the blood. Who is the us that have the blood
of Christ cleansing them from all sin? They and only they who
walk in the light as he is in the light. Now, you can't take
a promise to yourself in the scripture unless you fit the
character of the one the promise is made to. And let me repeat
that. Now, I want to make a statement to try to illustrate what I'm
talking about. You can't take a promise to yourself
in the scripture unless you fit the character of the one the
promise is made to. First Timothy 1.15, this is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Do you fit that character? the
chief of sinners. You believe yourself to be a
sinner by nature, choice and practice. You believe that you
cannot not sin, you can't be pure. You believe that you can't
look down your nose at anybody. You believe yourself to be the
very chief of sinners and you know you have no claims on God.
You don't have a sense of entitlement before him. You know your sin
is your problem. Does that describe you? Somebody says, no, I make
mistakes, but I'm not that bad. Well, okay, but you cut your
own throat because this promise is only to sinners. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am the chief.
If you see yourself as a sinner, I can guarantee you Christ came
to save you. That's the only people he saves
are sinners. The opening chapter of the Bible says, Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Oh, thank the Lord that he came
to save sinners. The us of the blood cleanses
us are only those who walk in the light and have fellowship
with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are six things
I see in the New Testament were said to be cleansed by. First,
there is the will of Christ. A leper came to Christ and worshiped
him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. I can't
make myself clean, and you don't have to. It's in your sovereign
prerogative. But if you will, you can make
me clean. God said to Peter, what God has
cleansed, call not thou common. He cleansed us, what God has
cleansed. I tell you you're clean, God
cleans you, but it's only through the blood. When the Lord said
to that leper, I will be thou clean, there's one reason he
made him clean, because of the blood. Peter spoke in Acts chapter
15, verse nine, of how that God put no difference between us
and them, purifying or cleansing their hearts by faith. But that
faith is faith in his blood. Romans 3, 24, faith in his blood. The Lord said, now are you clean
through the word I've spoken to you. What word? He that is
washed is clean every whit. He that is washed in my blood.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If that's true, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But it's not our confession of sin that cleanses us. It's the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want to make seven statements
regarding the greatness of this statement. The blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And this is for
those who walk in the light of the gospel. This is for those
who have fellowship with God through the gospel. It's not
for everybody. It's only for those who believe the gospel.
But listen to these statements regarding cleansing. How can
I be clean? Well, it's the blood of Jesus
Christ that cleanseth us from all sin. First, I want us to
consider the greatness of this statement. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, first of all,
the greatness is seen in the greatness of the sin. Now, how
bad is my sin and your sin? The only way we can see how bad
my sin and your sin is, is by seeing Christ forsaken by His
Father. When my sin became his sin, God
forsook his son. He could have no communion or
fellowship with his son. That's how bad sin is. Even if
it's in God's only begotten and well-beloved son, transferred
to him and the sins of the elect given to him, but he actually
became guilty of them and God turned his back on him. That's
how bad sin is. You think of the greatness of
the love that gave him. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have eternal life. And you think of the greatness
of the effect that this has on the believer. Paul, the Apostle
Paul said, God forbid, and this is the man God used to expand
the gospel more than anybody else. I don't believe there's
ever been a greater man than the Apostle Paul, and yet he
says in Galatians 6, verse 14, God forbid. that I should glory, that I should
rejoice in, that I should have confidence in anything save the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's all I have confidence
in, who He is and what He did, Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
and God forbid that I should glory in anything else. Now that's
the effect this has on everybody who's cleansed by it, that glory
only in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want you
to think of the solitariness of this statement. The solitariness
of this statement. What do you mean by that? Nothing
is said about ceremonies, nothing is said about sacraments, nothing
is said about baptism, nothing is said about works, good or
bad, nothing is said about emotions, nothing is said about our feelings
or our experience, nothing is said about anything cooperating
with the blood to make it work. Nothing is said of our faith.
Nothing is said of our repentance. It is the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. When God passed through the land
of Egypt to destroy the firstborn, there was one thing that he was
looking for. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. He didn't say, when I see your
sorrow or your tears of repentance. He didn't say, when I see your
faith. He didn't say, when I see your sincerity or good intentions. He said, when I see the blood.
That's all he was looking for. And I love to think about this.
In those houses where the blood was over the door, I have no
doubt that some felt confidence. They weren't afraid of any kind
of judgment. coming their way, and there were others that thought,
I'm scared. What am I going to do? Do you
know the ones that were scared were just as secure and just
as safe as the ones who were completely confident, and the
reason was all God was looking for was the blood. Not your side
of the blood, but my side of the blood. You see, the blood
is what God's looking for, not your works, nothing you do, just
the blood. And that's what I mean by the
solitariness of his work. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow. That
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. And I don't want us to fail to
see the completeness of this statement. The completeness,
not only the solitariness of it and the greatness of it, but
the completeness of it. What do you mean by that? The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. All sin. Past sin, present sin,
and future sin. Sins we confess, sins we're ignorant
of. Sins of omission, sins of commission. Omission means not doing what
we know we should do. Commission means doing what we
know we shouldn't do. All sin. Sins of practice, sin of nature,
all sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We don't sing Jesus paid a half
the other half I owe. We sing Jesus paid it all, all
the dead I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. All sin, sins you don't know
about, all sin is cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
that makes you clean before God. And I want us to notice the presentness
of this statement. What do you mean by that? Well,
notice the language. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Cleanseth. This word is in the
present active tense. Right now, presently, actively,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, is cleansing me from all
sin. You see, there's never a time
that goes by when I don't need cleanse. from my sin. Let me
show you that. If you go on reading down in
this same chapter, John says, if we say we have no sin, and
there he's talking about a sinful nature. At all times, while I'm
talking to you right now, I'm aware of a sinful nature. Paul said, O wretched man that
I am, not that I was, but that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death. What I hate, I do. What I want
to do, I don't do. That's what he said there in
Romans chapter 7. John says, if we say that we have no sin
right now, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And
then he says in verse 10, if we say we've not sinned, and
they're the words of verb, and he's talking about actions, no
matter what they are. When's the last time you sinned?
Just now, just now. If I did it, that makes it a
sin. The scripture says the plowing of the wicked is sin. And I've
sinned when I've been preaching to you. I've sinned. Well, if
somebody says, why do you expect me to listen to you? Because
I'm just like you are. Sinner by nature, choice, and practice.
I've sinned. I'm not giving an excuse for
it, but I'm giving the truth. If somebody says, I have not
sinned, they make him a liar, because he says, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And his word is not innocent. We make a claim like that. So
you see the presentness of my sin. My sins are ever before
me. Paul didn't say Christ came into
the world to save sinners of whom I used to be chief, but
who I am chief. You see the presentness of that,
so I always presently, right now, need the blood of Christ
to cleanse me from my sin. Yesterday's sin, cleanseth. Today's sin, cleanseth. Tomorrow's sin, cleanseth. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. And even after they're saved
to sin no more, they will still only be kept by the blood and
the song in heaven is worthy is the lamb that was slain. What
presentness there is, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth
us from all sin. And note the certainty of this
statement. not perhaps the blood of Jesus
Christ will cleanse us from all sin, or I hope the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, will cleanse us from all sin, but the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. No exceptions
to this rule. If Christ died for you, you must
be saved. You're clean before God, cleansed
in eternity, cleansed in time, and cleanse when time is no more,
and this is no potential cleansing here. It's not the blood of Christ,
God's Son, will cleanse us from all sin if we blank, fill in
the blank. If we do this, if we do that.
No, it's just a complete statement. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin, and I see such divinity in this
statement. This is the Word of God. This
is something only God could say. I know John said it, inspired
by the Holy Spirit, but there's such divinity in this statement. It's marked with divinity. This
is the very Word of God. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And finally, I see the wisdom,
the divine wisdom in this statement. Now it's through the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ that God has made a way to be just perfectly
righteous, and yet justify ungodly, sinful people. And yet His justice
and law is magnified and honored. It's called justification. That's what the blood does. It
justifies everybody that Christ died for. You see, my sins became
His sins. And he became guilty of those
sins. When God punished him and forsook
him, it was not because he was not guilty in just bearing somebody
else's sins. He was guilty. He was getting
exactly what he deserved as the sinner's substitute. My sins
became his sins. He took my sins and my sorrows.
He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. And now, Because he bore my sins,
he can give me his righteousness so that I stand perfectly justified
before God. What wisdom that God has made
a way to be just and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. And this way of saving, being
cleansed by the blood of Christ, makes it to where we don't have
anything we can glory in. and all the glory goes to Him. I can't say I'm saved because
I did anything. The only reason I can say I'm
saved is because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleansed
us from all sin. And thirdly, I see the wisdom
of this. First, because it's made a way
for God to be just and justify the ungodly. Second, because
it's a way that secures God giving all the glory and salvation.
And thirdly, this puts a man in a better place than he was
before he ever sinned. You see, when Adam was in the
garden before the fall, he was liable to fall, and he DID fall. It was all part of God's purpose.
Now that my sin has been cleansed by the blood of Christ, I can't
be cast off. I am eternally secure through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I like what John says in
chapter 2 about this. He says, these things, my little
children, these things write unto you that you sin not. Now
what I'm saying doesn't excuse sin. It doesn't encourage sin.
The gospel doesn't encourage sin any more than the law does,
which is not at all. These things write I unto you,
that you sin not, and if any man sin, and you will, if you're
a believer, you will. Listen to this. We have an advocate. We have a lawyer with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the one who represents
us and all is well. Yes, my friend, you can be clean
before God, clean through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you call on his name, and
ask Him to cleanse you like that leopard did. I guarantee you
He will. There's nobody who's ever asked
Him to be clean that He turned away. This is Todd Knopfler,
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
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