Is 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
Neiberg. 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 Nyberg. I've entitled this message, If
Stones Could Speak. In Luke chapter 19, we read in
some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him,
Master, rebuke thy disciples. They were crying his praise at
this time, and they didn't like this. And they said, Master,
rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto
them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out. Now this is the last statement
regarding our Lord's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Now the
Lord knew that within just a few days he would be crucified. This is the last time he's going
into Jerusalem. And we read beginning in verse
29, and it came to pass, this is Luke 19, beginning in verse
29, and it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage
and Bethany at the mount called the Mount of Olives, he sent
two of his disciples, saying, go ye into the village over against
you, in the which at your entering you shall find a colt tied, whereon
yet never man set, loose him, and bring him hither. Now this
is what Zechariah said would take place. This is the actual
answering of the prophecy. We read in Zechariah 9, verse
9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. He's just, and having salvation,
lowly, and riding upon an ass. and upon a colt the fold of an
ass. Now, Zachariah tells us that
when the Lord comes, he's going to be riding on an ass. And I
love what Zachariah says. He says, thy king cometh unto
thee. And my response is, oh, king
of kings, come to me. You know, I can't come to him
unless he first comes to me. That's why I say, Lord, come
to me. And notice it says he's just.
His salvation is a just salvation. It's a righteous salvation. Thy
King cometh unto thee just and having salvation. And my marginal
reading says He comes saving Himself. You see, the Lord is
united to his people, eternally one with them. And when he saves
me, he saves himself because I am united to him. That's true
of every believer. We're one with Christ, united
to him. So when he saves the body, he's
saving his own body. He's saving himself. Now this
is a prophecy regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's go on
reading back on our text in Luke chapter and they went their way. and found even as he said unto
them, you know it's always that way, everything takes place just
as he said it would take place. And as they were loosing the
colt, the owners thereof said unto them, why loose ye the colt? I mean it belonged to them. So
they thought they didn't know this was the Lord's colt because
everyone, everyone and everything is his. The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof. And this was one of his creatures.
So Here's how they replied, and they said, the Lord hath need
of him. And they brought him to Jesus, and they cast their
garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon. And as he
went, they spread their clothes in the way. Now, why were they
so happy? Let's go on reading. And when
he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God
with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen. not
because of what they believed concerning him, but because of
the mighty works they'd seen. They were excited. They thought
he was going to Jerusalem to set up a kingship, an earthly
kingship. They thought he was going to
Jerusalem to deliver them from Roman bondage. And they thought
a king that can feed the multitudes, a king that can raise the dead,
that's the king we need, and he's going to restore Jerusalem
to its original place and throw off Roman bondage. And they were
so excited about this. And they were crying, Hosanna
to the king. And these same people, within
just a few days, would be crying, crucify him. When they saw that
the kingdom he was speaking of was not the kingdom they thought
of, But they say, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name
of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in
the highest. Oh, how they were praising Him.
And our Lord accepted their accolades. He didn't rebuke them. He didn't
stop them. They were telling the truth regarding Him, whether
they understood it or not. There was another time when people
tried to make him king. You can read about that back
in John chapter 6 when he fed 5,000 people. They tried to force
him to be king and he left because no man's going to make him king.
He is the king. No man makes him king. He is
the Lord. No man makes him Lord. Somebody
says, won't you make Jesus the Lord of your life? He is your
Lord, whether you know it or not, and you're in his hand,
and he can do with me and you whatsoever he's pleased to do.
He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But these people
were shouting his praises, and the Pharisees did not like this.
And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto
him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto
them, I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out. Can stones cry out? If he told them to, they could. Now, the Lord knew who he was. No, these people didn't. And
that's why he gave this description of himself. And to me, this is
one of the most awesome, majestic statements concerning the glory,
the excellency, the dignity, the greatness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, if these should hold
their peace in crying my praise, the stones would immediately
cry out. Now, I've entitled this message,
If Stones Could Speak. if stones could speak. And I wanna go back through the
Bible where we read about stones and see what these stones have
to say to us. These stones have something very
specific to say, if stones could speak. Now, the first thing I
thought of were the tables of stone written with the finger
of God, the 10 commandments. And we know what these stones
have to say. Thou shalt have no other God
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything. The commandment
regarding forbidding idolatry, making graven images or false
views of God. The third commandment, thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. He shall not
be held guiltless with taking the name of the Lord his God
in vain. God is of such majesty that to even say his name with
the Not having the proper amount of reverence is great sin. You
know, people say so quickly, using the Lord's name in vain.
I don't know how many times I hear people say, oh my God, that's
taking the name of the Lord in vain. Using his name in a wrong
way is taking the name of the Lord in vain. He said, remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother,
that it might be well with thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house, thy neighbor's wife, thy neighbor's manservant, or maidservant,
or ox, or ass, or anything that's thy neighbor's, thou shalt not
covet. Now, what do these stones say? They give us a law that we cannot
keep. Now, regarding God's holy law,
the 10 commandments, I'm saying this of me, and I'm saying this
of you, we have not kept one commandment one time. Now, if someone can look at God's
holy law and think, well, I've at least partially kept that.
Well, there's no such thing as partial obedience. It's either
perfect obedience or it's disobedience. And regarding God's holy law,
hear what the apostle Paul said. He said, for we know that the
law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. And if you think
you've kept one commandment one time, You prove that you're ignorant
of what God's law actually demands, and you're ignorant of your own
personal sinfulness. Now what do these tables of stones
say to us? They tell us of a law that we
cannot keep. But do you know in that same
chapter, in Exodus chapter 20, we read of some other stones.
Some stones that are gathered for the altar for sacrifice. Within the very same chapter
where we're given the law that we cannot keep, we're given an
altar to slay an animal on, to show us there is a way of approach
to God, but it's on an altar, an altar of stone. Now, it's
interesting, there's two things said about this altar of stone
that God said to build because he knew we wouldn't keep the
law. He said there's not steps to this altar. There's not steps
to God. There's not A, B, C, there you're
at. No, there's not steps to God.
Christ is all. He's the only way. He's all the
way. There's not different steps that you go through. And if a
tool touched one of those stones, it was polluted. That's to tell
us that salvation comes holy by the sacrifice, and we give
no help. We give nothing. If we put any
of our works in there anywhere, it's polluted. It's no good.
That's what these stones say to us. And then I also thought
of the stones of David. You remember those five stones
that David picked up to slay Goliath with? He only used one
of them, but five, I read somewhere in numerology in the Bible, where
five is the number of grace. And if you look at the tabernacle,
all the things are divisible by five, all the numbers they
give. What does that stone represent
where David came running at the giant and sling the slang, however
you'd say it, and that stone, guided by an omnipotent hand,
crushed through the skull of the giant and killed him. Now,
most people look at that as a sports analogy. You hear it almost every
week, David versus Goliath. But the teaching of that, if
you read in the first part of the chapter, is where Goliath
said, Choose you a man and let him fight me. If I win, Israel
serves the Philistines. If he wins, we'll be your servants."
Now what this is referring to is salvation by a representative. If David won, all of Israel won. If Christ is successful, all
of Israel is successful. And this stone tells us of salvation
by a representative. I'm saved not by my own righteousness,
but by the righteousness of my representative. I don't have
a sin offering, but he made a sin offering for me. He does all
things for his people. That stone tells us of salvation
by a representative. Now, you don't have to look to
yourself in any way. Salvation comes by Christ and Christ only,
and that's what that stone tells us. And then I think of the stones
that were consumed by the fire that came down from heaven during
Elijah's day. Elijah said to the children of
Israel, how long halt ye between two opinions? If God be God,
serve him. If Baal be God, serve him. And then he looked at the prophets
of Baal and he said, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna each
have a sacrifice. And the God who answers by fire,
fire coming down from heaven, he'll be God. And they agreed
to do that. So they got together and the
prophets of Baal put their cow, their bull, whatever it was,
and cut it up and put it on the stone and start the altar and
started crying, oh Baal, hear us, Baal, hear us. Nothing happened. Elijah actually mocked him. Where
is your God? Is He asleep? Is He on a journey?
Do you need to wake Him up? He mocked the prophets of Baal.
And they did this from morning till noon, and then when they
gave up, Elijah prayed to God that the fire might come down
from heaven. And we read in the scriptures where fire came down
from heaven after he had doused the sacrifice three times to
show this is no trickery. And it consumed the sacrifice. It licked up the water. It consumed
the stones, the dust. Everything was consumed. There
was nothing left. And what those stones tell us
of is an accepted sacrifice. God accepted what Christ did,
and God accepted who He did it for. And there's complete acceptance. I am accepted in the Beloved. God accepts me because He accepted
the sacrifice. He doesn't accept me because
I anything. He doesn't accept me because
I did this, or I stopped doing that, or I became this, or I
changed. No, he accepts me for this one
reason, the accepted sacrifice. And God can ask for no more,
and he can accept no less. Those consumed stones tell us
of the accepted sacrifice. And then, We read in Matthew
chapter 3 verse 9 of the Pharisees coming to John the Baptist to
be baptized. And they thought, well, we're
children of Abraham, surely we have some reason for this. And
John the Baptist said, we think not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham for our father, for I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children of Abraham. Now you
look at these stones he was referring to, and these stones tell us
that their all fleshly distinctions are useless. It won't do you
a bit of good to be a physical child of Abraham. All fleshly
distinctions are gone. No black, no white, no rich,
no poor. All fleshly distinctions are
gone. As a matter of fact, When it
says in Romans 3.23, for there's no difference for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, you take the most moral
man alive that has the highest pedigree, and you take the most
immoral man alive who is just the filth of the earth, and do
you know before God there's no difference between those two
men? That seemingly moral man is evil in God's sight. The immoral
man is evil in God's sight. He's of two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. All fleshly distinctions are
gone. You can't think that there's
anything in your flesh that can recommend you to God. Now the
next stones I want to mention are the stones that we read of
when Satan was tempting our Lord in the wilderness. The Lord had
been fasting for 40 days and the tempter comes to him. He
wants to tempt him to sin. He doesn't know it's not going
to work. This is the eternal son of God.
He can't sin. He's impeccable. He doesn't even
have the potential to sin so wholly as he, but he comes and
says to him, if you're the son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. Now, remember he was hungry.
Could he have made the stones bread? Of course he could have. He's God. Here's the point, we
can't. And for him to be my representative,
he had to be completely dependent upon his father for food. And
he could not do a miracle for himself because we cannot do
a miracle for ourself. And he was acting as the representative
of his people, but these stones would testify of the absolute
sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew no sin. He's the only holy man to ever
live. He never sinned in thought, in
word, in attitude, or deed. And that perfection, that perfect
life of the Lord Jesus Christ, that perfect righteousness before
the law of God belongs to every believer. That's the righteousness
I'm justified by. Oh, the stones testify of the
perfect life, the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in
John chapter eight, we read of some stones. Perhaps you remember
that woman who was taken in adultery in the very act. Some men brought
her to the Lord because they thought they had him trapped. They thought if he says, Condemner,
we'll say, what happened to your mercy? If he says, Stoner, we
can say, don't you have any respect for God's holy law? Because the
law says to stoner. And so they bring this woman
before the Lord. And he looked at them and he
said, he that's without sin among you. And I have no doubt that
he's talking about this sin, the same sin this woman committed. If they hadn't done it physically,
they'd done it in their heart, which is the same thing in God's
sight. The Lord said, whoso looketh after a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery already in his heart. To God, that is
the act. And the Lord said, whosoever
is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And they were convicted by their
own conscience. They weren't convicted by the Holy Spirit,
but they were convicted by their own conscience, and each one
of them went their way. They left. Now, what do these
stones tell us? Two things. These stones tell
us, first of all, that no man, I, you, no one else, we can't
sit in judgment on anybody. Romans 2.1 says, Thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for thou that judgest
doest the same thing. Now, you and I don't have any
way to look down our nose at anybody for anything because
we're guilty of whatever it is we're judging that person of,
and that's pure hypocrisy. But these stones also tell us
about the one who said, woman, where are those non-accusers?
Has no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. He said,
neither indeed do I condemn thee. These stones tell us how there
is one who can find us not guilty." He said, there's nothing to condemn
you for. You see, the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ so effectually puts away sin that there's no reason
for the condemnation of anybody that Christ has died for, anybody
that looks to Christ only. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, to them who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit. Oh, thank God for these stones. And then we read of the six water
pots of stone in John chapter 2. And if you'll remember what
took place, this was the first miracle. And what took place
in those water pots of stone was the changing of the water
into wine. It didn't become Water that looked
like wine, smelled like wine, or tasted like wine. It was literally
water made wine. It was made to be what it was
not before. And that testifies of what our
Lord did on Calvary's tree. He was made to be what he was
not, sin. For he hath made him to be sin,
who knew no sin, that we might be made to be what we were not,
righteous. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made, listen to this, don't
miss this, the righteousness of God. in him. Every believer is the very righteousness
of God and that's what that stone testifies of. How Christ was
made to be what he was not, sin, that we might be made to be what
we were not, the very righteousness of God. And then I think of the
stone over the grave of Lazarus. You remember Lazarus had been
in the grave four days Decay, the process of decay had already
been taking place. He reached the point where he
was stinking. I mean, he was graveyard dead.
And Christ said, roll ye away the stone. And when they rolled
away the stone, he said, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth. Now, if you ever hear from God,
if you ever hear from Christ, This is what's going to happen
to you. You being dead in trespasses and sins, with no ability to
call on God, no ability to believe, you're dead. He'll say to you,
live, and you'll live. and you'll have spiritual life.
This is speaking of the invincible, irresistible call of grace. When
he said, Lazarus, come forth, could Lazarus say no? Absolutely
not. He that was dead came forth. And then in Gethsemane's garden,
the scripture speaks of him being about a stone cast away from
his disciples. However long you could throw
a stone, and there were many stones in Gethsemane. And that's
where he prayed, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me, the very thought of bearing the sins of his people,
suffering the wrath of God. If it be possible, let this cup
pass. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And at that
time, Luke tells us, he sweat great drops of blood. And those
stones could testify of something we could never really understand,
the spiritual sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he
really was made sin and he was really forsaken by his father.
And we can only talk about it, we can't really enter into it.
There's no way any man can. But here's my favorite stone,
the stone that was over the sepulcher of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
we read in Matthew chapter 27 beginning in verse 62. Now the
next day that followed, the day of the preparation, the chief
priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we
remember that this deceiver said while he was yet alive, after
three days I'll rise again. You know, I think it's curious.
He told that to the disciples. Why weren't they there waiting?
they didn't believe. But these men remembered the
Lord said this, and they said, Command therefore that the sepulchre
be made sure unto the third day, lest his disciples come by night
and steal him away, and say unto the people, He's risen from the
dead, so the last hour shall be worse than the first. Pilate
said unto them, You have a watch, Go your way, make it as sure
as you can. Make it as sure as you are able. Now, were they able to keep this
stone from being removed? Absolutely not. So they went
and made the sepulchre sure, setting the stone sealing the
stone and setting a watch. But you know what happened? An
earthquake came and the stone was rolled away and the Lord
Jesus came walking out of that tomb. Now what does the resurrection
mean? What does the resurrection tell
us when that stone was rolled away and the Lord came walking
out of that tomb? He was delivered, Paul tells
us in Romans 4.25, for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Do you know what justification
means? It's better than being forgiven. It's being not guilty. It means you've never done anything
wrong, and you've always done that which was right. Now, so
powerful was the work of Christ when he died, all the sins of
everybody he died for were absolutely put away. They're gone. They
are no more. and everybody he died for is
perfectly justified. They stand just before God without
sin, without iniquity, perfectly righteous. Oh, how powerful is
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, they were
shouting his praises. Master, rebuke thy disciples.
And the Lord replied, I say unto you, If these should hold their
peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And the stones truly
have something to say to us, don't they? Now, we'd like to
invite you to services at Todd's Road Grace Church. Our services
begin at 1030 this morning, and we'd like to see you come and
hear the gospel. And 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 Nybert. praying
that God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's
our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at todsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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