Tis not that I did choose thee Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. 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. In Romans chapter 16, verse 19,
Paul said to the church at Rome, for your obedience is come abroad
unto all men, your obedience to the gospel. What a commendation.
And he goes on to say, I am glad therefore on your behalf, but
yet I would have you, this is what I want for you. He says
to this church at Rome, these people that he loved, I would
have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning
evil." I've entitled this message, Wisdom Concerning Good and Evil. Now, in the context of this passage
of Scripture, Paul is speaking of discernment. He's closing
this epistle, and he says in verse 17 of this chapter, Now
I beseech you, brethren, mark them, watch out and mark them
in your mind, mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them."
Now, it takes some discernment and some spiritual maturity to
be able to discern when something is contrary to the doctrine which
you have learned. Spiritual maturity is always
manifest with a sensitive ear. You hear the difference between
law and grace. You hear the difference between
faith and works. You've got some discernment.
Now, I have seen where people who were believers seem to lose
their ear. As a matter of fact, the writer
to the Hebrews says to the Hebrews, you've become dull in hearing.
You can't hear what you should be able to hear. And this happens
when someone leaves their first love or they become enwrapped
with the Laodicean spirit, lukewarm, thinking everything's okay when
it's not, saying, I'm rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing. And the Lord said, when you don't
know that you're wretched and poor and miserable and naked
and blind. Now, when that takes place, and it can happen to anybody,
it can happen to me, apart from the grace of God, it will happen
to me, apart from the grace of God. But when that takes place,
you lose your discernment and you can't really discern the
difference between good and evil. That's what the writer to the
Hebrews said when he said you become dull of hearing, you don't
have your senses exercised to know the difference between good
and evil. Good and evil, there is such
a thing. And true wisdom discerns the
difference between good and evil. Now, the natural man, And by
natural man, I mean the way you and I are born into this world.
We're born with a fallen, sinful nature. And the natural man,
the one who has not been born of the Spirit, the one who has
not been born from above, really doesn't know what's truly good
and doesn't really know what's truly evil. I think the best
illustration of this would be the rich young ruler. Now the
rich young ruler was a fine young man. He was a moral man. He was a good man, humanly speaking.
And he comes running to the Lord, and he said, good master. Now
he only believed Christ was a man, but he thought he was a good
man. Good master. He didn't know this was the Son
of God. good master. What good thing shall I do to
inherit eternal life?" And he is met with a rebuke from the
Lord. The Lord said, why are you calling
me good? There's none good but one only,
that is God. Now why did the Lord rebuke this
man for calling him good? Because the Lord knew He was
coming to him only as a man, a good man, no doubt, but a man. And the Lord said, there's only
one who's good and no man is good. There's only one who is
good. That is God. Now, just this man thinking that
he could do good in the first place tells us how ignorant he
was of true goodness. What good thing shall I do to
inherit eternal life?" If you knew anything about yourself,
rich young ruler, you wouldn't say something like that. You
would know with Paul that I know that in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. But this man was completely ignorant
of that. He had no understanding of this
thing of what is good. Now the world would have called
this a good man, a moral man, a righteous man, but he was blinded
by sin. And the Lord confronts him with
that. Why are you calling me good? You obviously don't know
anything about goodness. There's only one who's good.
That is God. Now, we read in Isaiah 5, verse
20, woe to them that call evil good, and that call good evil. Now, generally speaking, when
men use this passage of Scripture, they'll use it as a soapbox and
a platform to condemn people for doing things that they do
not agree with. I've heard people use this scripture
with regard to the Supreme Court, how they call good evil and evil
good, why they allow things like abortion and gay marriages and
so on. Now, understand. I don't agree with abortion. I don't agree with gay marriages. But I'm not going to get on a
soapbox about that because I don't agree with myself. I'm a sinner,
just like everybody else is. I can't look down my nose in
moral superiority at anybody. And as far as that goes, religious
people like to find a platform. They like to find a sin that
they think they don't commit. I don't commit that sin. I'm
not a homosexual, and therefore they'll attack homosexuals. I'm
against that. Listen, the Lord said in Matthew
11, woe to you, Capernaum. They did not repent of their
thoughts when he preached the gospel to them. They didn't repent
of all their wrong thoughts. He said it's going to be more
tolerable for Sodom. What is Sodom known for? Homosexuality. They're going to have it better
on judgment day than you will who've heard the truth and rejected
it. Now, men like to use this as
a soapbox, like I said, woe to them that call good evil and
evil good, but here's what the natural man does. He calls the
gospel of grace evil. Why? If I believe that, that
salvation has absolutely nothing to do with works in any way to
any degree, if I believe that, why'd sin all I want to? That
kind of teaching is evil. And then they'll call that which
is evil, salvation by works, salvation dependent upon what
you do, they'll say, that's good. That will promote good things.
The Lord says, woe to them that call evil good and that call
good evil. Now, what is good? I want to have some wisdom in
this thing of goodness. What is good? Well, the Lord's already told
us God is good. Oh, I want to have some wisdom
with regard to this. God is good. The Lord said, there's none good
but one only, that is God. There's none of Adam's fallen
race that's good. There's not a just man alive
that sinneth not and doeth good. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one, the scripture says. God only is good. He's originally good. He's essentially
good, He's infinitely good, He's immutably good, and He's eternally
good. He's always been good, and He
always will be good. He is the highest good, and His
goodness refers to the perfections of His nature. Now you take any
attribute of God. Let's talk about His sovereignty.
What does sovereign mean? If you're sovereign, that means
no one controls you. That means you're in absolute
control. Now, there's only one sovereign,
and that is God. He controls everybody and everything,
and His will is always done. Right now, you're in His hands. I'm in His hands. And His will
is always done. Now that is good because God
is good. Whatever he does is good. His
sovereign will, his sovereign purpose, it's all good because
he is good. When we talk about God's justice,
he said, I'll by no means clear the guilty. Justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. When we talk about God's absolute
justice, how he will punish all sin, that's good. because God
is good. Well, when we talk about God's
wrath, it's a good wrath because it's His wrath. It's right, it's
just. What about His mercy? Oh, what
goodness, His mercy, His love, His grace, His free favor, whatever
attribute we talk about concerning the character of God, if we talk
about His immutability. The fact that he cannot change,
that's good. When we talk about his power,
he's all powerful. Whatever he wills, he has the
power to bring to pass. But it's a good power. I've heard
that statement, power corrupts and absolute power will corrupt
absolutely. No, it won't. God has absolute
power and he's perfectly holy and perfectly pure. He's good.
Every attribute of God is good. good, and everything that emanates
from God or comes from God is good. His decrees that He made
before time began, you know everything that happens in time, He purposed
in eternity, and it's all good. His creation, what was it He
said after He created the heavens and the earth? And He looked
and behold, it was very good. Oh, the creation speaks of the
goodness of God and the power of God. His laws are good. You know, if everybody kept his
law perfectly, this place would be a paradise. If everybody loved
God with all their heart and all their soul and all their
might and they loved their neighbors themselves, well, there would
be no sin. This would be a paradise. His providence is good. All things work together for
good. to them that love God, to them
who are thee called according to His purpose. Oh, how good
is His salvation! When Moses said, I beseech you,
show me thy glory, the context was the children of Israel had
committed a great sin. They had made a golden calf and
said, these be thy gods who brought you out of Egypt. And they forgot
God. They forgot Moses. They had committed
a great sin. And Moses is praying for these
people at this time. And during the course of this
prayer, in Exodus chapter 33, verse 18, he says, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. And here's the Lord's answer.
I'll make all my goodness to pass before thee. and I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy." Now, what is God's goodness? It's His capacity to
save someone as sinful as the children of Israel, who turned
their back on God and bowed down before a golden calf, his goodness
is seen in his capacity to save someone as sinful and helpless
and undeserving as me. God is good. He delights in mercy. He can save whom He will. But thank God He does save. That is His goodness. His salvation is a good salvation. God gave His Son because He's
good. That was his purpose in giving
his son because he's good and he's going to manifest his goodness
in saving a great multitude of sinners for Christ's sake. Now, all who love him believe
that all he is and that all he does is good. We might not understand
everything he's doing, but we know he does. And we know anything
he does is good because he does it. Now, I realize the natural
man finds fault with God. They object to God's way of saving. They don't like the fact that
he elected a people and Christ died for the elect and God the
Holy Spirit calls them invincibly and irresistibly. The natural
man doesn't like that, but God's people do. They worship Him for
who He is, they worship Him for His goodness, for how He saves
by Christ, and they adore Him. It's called worship. Now, God
is good. The gospel is good. What is good? I want to have some true wisdom
concerning what's good. Like I said, the natural man
doesn't know what is good. This can only come by revelation.
This can only come by the grace of God. What is good? God is
good. The gospel is good. The gospel
means the good news. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings
of good things. Now the gospel, what God does
for the sinner in Christ, the gospel. Now understand this.
The gospel is not what you do for God. It's what He does for
you. It's the declaration of the good
news of Christ Jesus. Now there is only one thing that
will prevent a man from seeing the gospel as good. You know
what that one thing is? Somebody says, well, it's his
sinfulness. No, it's his righteousness. It's his self-righteousness. If you are self-righteous, If
I am self-righteous, we will not hear the gospel as good news,
because we're trusting in our own righteousness. And the gospel
takes away the hope of a man being saved by his own righteousness,
but a sinner Now a sinner is someone who cannot do anything
to save themselves. A sinner is someone who is evil. A sinner is someone who deserves
to be damned. A sinner is someone who cannot
perform a good work. A sinner is somebody who all
they do is sin. A sinner is someone who has no
claims on God because of his sinfulness. If God passed him
by, he'd be absolutely just. A sinner is someone who can't
look down their nose in moral superiority at anyone. They believe
themselves to be the chief of sinners. Now, a sinner will hear
every part of the gospel as good news. It is good news that Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that before there
was ever a sinner, there's a Savior. It's good news that God elected
a people not based upon some foreseen merit He saw in them,
but simply because He would, because He's gracious, because
He's good. It's good news that Christ came
here. and worked out a perfect righteousness
that he gives to everybody he died for. It's good news that
his death redeemed. It wasn't making redemption possible. He redeemed. He put away the
sin of everybody that he died for. It's good news that this
is the great work of justification. How God makes it to where I've
never sinned. How can that be? Well, God can
do that. God made it to where I've never sinned. Well, how
did He do that? My sin was given to Christ. He put it away. His
righteousness is given to me, so that every believer is literally
the righteousness of God in Him. II Corinthians 5.21. for he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him." Now, all the truths
of the gospel, the gospel is made of many truths which make
one truth, and if you leave out one of those truths, you no longer
have the truth. But all of the truths of the
gospel, everybody who sees themselves as a sinner, they find the gospel
to be good news. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Not when I see your faith, your
repentance, your tears, your intentions. When I see the blood,
I will pass over you. You know what that is? That is
good news. The news of what God has done
for the sinner in Christ Jesus. Now not only is his work for
us good, his work in us is good. In Philippians chapter 1, verse
6, Paul said, knowing this, that he which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it into the day of Jesus Christ. Now what this is a reference
to is the work of the new birth, the work of regeneration. Now everybody that God elected,
everybody that Christ died for, God the Holy Spirit gives them
a new heart. This is God's work in regeneration. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. And these people are given a
holy nature, a nature that cannot sin, a new creature, a new creation
in Christ Jesus. That which is born of God is
good, isn't it? This is the good work begun in
every believer. Now, we still have the old nature,
and it's foolish to deny that. We still have the old nature,
but thank God we have the new nature, and they that have begun
this good work in you, seen in the good ground here. How did
that good ground here become a good ground here? God made
him that way. And we read of him receiving
the word in an honest and a good heart. This is the heart given
in the new birth, and the only honesty there is, really, is
seeing I'm nothing but sinful. If I claim anything else, I'm
not being honest. Now that's the good heart given
in the new birth. It's the new man that owns the sinfulness
of the old man. You know, someone without a new
nature can't even see sin. They look at it strictly as behavioral,
and they don't see the filthiness of their heart. It takes a new
man to see that. And oh, this work is good. It's
going to be carried on throughout eternity. What is good? All the things God gives. If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them
that ask him? Oh, all the glorious good things
He gives. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. And cometh down from the Father
of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. All
He gives in salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the good hope, faith,
repentance, whatever He gives, it's all good. You know what
else is good? Everything else in His providence. Romans 8, verse 28, Paul said,
and we know that all things work together for good to them who
love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Now,
health is good. We all want health. But did you
know sickness is good too? Because if you're sick, the Lord
sent it for your good and his glory if you belong to him. Now,
I realize the natural man will just be fearful and complain
and say, why me with regard to sickness? Why didn't it happen
to somebody else? But the believer knows his heavenly father sent
that sickness. Bad times, adversity, prosperity,
doesn't matter what you're talking about, everything for a believer
is good. I like what one man said, ever
since I heard the good news, I've never heard bad news. Everything in God's providence
is good. Now, I'd like to read a scripture
from Micah chapter 6, where Micah says in verse 8, he hath showed
thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of
thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God." Now, that's what's good, to do justly. Somebody says, well, I always
try to do the right thing. No, you don't. That's not true. What does the scripture say?
Not to try to do the right thing, but to do justly, where all my
actions are just, and that can only be understood in light of
justification. If I'm justified, All my actions
before God are just, because it's the works of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the righteousness of Christ being mine. In Christ,
I've never sinned. What is good? To love mercy,
to love being saved by mercy, and to love being merciful. I
love being saved by mercy, not by my works, but by God's mercy.
And I love to be a merciful man, having experienced God's mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God. What is humility? A just estimate
of yourself. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. You don't give your flesh any
credit. That is what is good. And I'm just going to spend a
moment on knowing the difference that you may be wise concerning
good and simple concerning evil. Now the word is literally unmixed. Now I realize that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. I can't ever get away from
that. But I want to be unmixed in this. Christ is all. He's not 99%. He's all. He's all that God is. He's all
to God. He's all in the book. He's all
in the Bible. He's all in my salvation. He's
all. And Paul warned of those who
are corrupted from the simplicity, the simplicity that's in Christ. He only is my salvation. He only
is my righteousness. I don't want to mix anything
with him. He is all. He's all that I have. I don't
have Him and anything else. He's all that I have. He's all
that I want. And He's all that I need. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, and you are complete in Him. And I wouldn't have no other
motive but His glory. Any other motive is a wrong motive. Paul said, I would have you wise
concerning that which is good and simple. The word two times
is translated harmless. Harmless. Harmless concerning
evil. Now, if I'm not, I'm harmful
to myself and I'm harmful to others. May God enable me and
you to be wise concerning that which is good and simple concerning
that which is evil. 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 Kniper 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
church at the information provided on the screen.