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
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 Nimer. In Galatians chapter 5, verse
5, Paul the Apostle made this statement, For we through the
Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For we as opposed to those who
are circumcised. Remember, he said in verse 2,
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace." Now, when Paul speaks of circumcision,
he's not talking about the physical act of circumcision. He's talking
about what circumcision represents. Circumcision represents law. If you believe that salvation,
your personal salvation, is dependent upon you doing anything, you
believe in circumcision. That's what circumcision represents,
salvation by works. If you have time, after this
message, go back into Acts chapter 15 and read the first 11 verses,
and there you'll see where this issue became an issue. There
were Jews who believed, said it's also needful for someone
to be circumcised and keep the law. Faith in Christ wasn't enough. Something else had to be added
to that. Now, circumcision represents salvation ultimately dependent
upon something you do. And if you believe in circumcision,
Paul says Christ will profit you nothing. He's profited millions,
but he won't profit you a thing if you believe in circumcision. And so when he says for we, he's
talking about we who do not believe in circumcision. Now, when Paul
says we, it's evident he doesn't mean all men without exception.
If I said we're having dinner at my house tonight, no one would
think that I mean all men without exception are having dinner at
my house tonight. There is a specific group, an
exact number that's inherent in the word we. Now, exactly
who is the we Paul speaks of when he says, for we, by the
Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith? Let me
give you a volley of scriptures with the word we in it. Romans
8.28 says, And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are called according to his
purpose." We know. Somebody says, I don't know that. Well, Paul says, we do. And he's
speaking as the spokesman of every believer to ever live,
even all of the company of God's elect. We know that all things
work together for good. James 3.2 says, in many things,
we offend all. Well, who's the we there? Everybody
who believes that in many things we offend. In many things we
offend all. That's the assessment of every
believer toward himself. In John 1.16, we read, of his
fullness have all we received. Well, everyone who received of
his fullness. If you didn't receive it, he
never gave it. You see, God never gives an unrequited gift. Every
gift he gives, people receive. In John 6, 69, Peter said, we
believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. In Acts chapter 4, 20, we read,
we cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard. This
we is all who've seen and heard something. He says, we can't
help but to speak that. Acts 15, 11 says, we believe that
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved.
Do you believe that? Then you're in that group, we.
1 Corinthians 1, 22 and 23, for the Jews require a sign and the
Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. That's our message. Unto the
Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto
them which are called Christ, the power of God, the wisdom
of God. Every we sees Christ as the very
power and wisdom of God. In II Corinthians 4.13, Paul
said, we have the same spirit of faith as it's written. I spoke,
therefore I believe. We also believe, therefore we
speak. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, 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 you see, this
we represents every believer. Paul said in Philippians 3, For
we are the circumcision, we're the true Jews, which worship
God in the spirit. rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. In 1 John 4, 6, John said, we
are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. And he that's not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of air. Now, I'm of God. If you're of
God, you'll hear this message. You'll believe it. If you're
not of God, you'll reject this message. Those were John's words
then. They're my words now. They're
the words of every gospel preacher. In 1 John 4, 17, herein is our
love made perfect that we may have boldness on the day of judgment.
How could that be? Because as he is, so are we in
the world. Is he perfect before God? So
are we if we're in Him. Now, have I made my point? For
we, as opposed to all who are circumcised, Paul says in our
text, for we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Everyone in this group entitled
we has some understanding of the necessity of the work of
the Spirit of God in them. Now, the reason they have some
understanding of the necessity of the work of the Spirit of
God in them is they really believe in the doctrine of man's complete
deadness and sins and total depravity as a result of Adam's fall. I
really believe that anything that comes from me is sin. There's nothing to it. I can't
come up with faith, I can't come up with repentance, I can't come
up with love, because I really believe the scriptural testimony
concerning me that we're dead in trespasses and sins, and the
only way I can do anything, including believe the gospel, is if God
the Holy Spirit performs a miraculous work of grace in me, called the
new birth. It's called regeneration. I understand
that the only way I can believe on Christ, the only way I can
love Christ, the only way I can really love you with the love
that the scripture speaks of, is if God the Holy Spirit works
in me. You see, God is spirit, and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit. by the Holy Spirit
and in truth. There's no worship of God apart
from the truth. And we have an understanding
that it is only through the Spirit that we can wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. In other words, we see the utter
necessity of the life-giving work of the Spirit of God. We
know that anything that comes from our flesh is no good. Now, we through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. We wait for the hope
of righteousness. In Romans 8, verses 24 and 25,
the Apostle Paul said this, "'For we are saved by hope, but hope
that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for it? If I can see it, I don't need
hope. I've got sight. But if we hope
for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it. Now we read here of we through
the Spirit waiting for the hope, something that's not seen, the
hope of righteousness. Now what is righteousness? We're
waiting for the hope of righteousness. In answering that question, let
me say at the outset that if you believe that you have any
personal righteousness that God could accept or be pleased with,
then you are absolutely ignorant of what righteousness is in the
first place. Now let me repeat that. If you
believe that you have any personal righteousness that God could
be pleased with, or accept. You demonstrate by that you are
completely ignorant of what righteousness is. You are like those people
Paul spoke of in Romans 10, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. Now, if you or I have any understanding
of righteousness, we know that we have absolutely no personal
righteousness at all. Now, I hope we live moral lives. We should. I hope you're faithful
to your spouse all the way to the end. I hope you pay all your
bills faithfully. I hope you're a hard worker at
work and don't rob your employer of time. I hope you're a good
person in that sense. But a lost man can be all those
things. This does not have anything to
do with having a righteousness before God. As a matter of fact,
Romans 3.10 says there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeketh after God. They've all together gone
out of the way. They've together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Isaiah said in Isaiah
64.6, our righteousnesses. or as filthy rags. Now that's
how God views my righteousness and yours. Now I said last Sunday
on that message on what think ye of Christ, what a man thinks
about Christ is seen in what he thinks about himself, while
what a man believes about righteousness is clearly seen by what he thinks
about his own personal righteousness. If I have any understanding of
righteousness, here's my cry. I cry with Paul in Philippians
3.9, O that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Now, righteousness is a righteousness
that a thrice holy God can be pleased with. the God who the
heavens are not clean in His sight, and the angels He charges
with folly. A righteousness is a righteousness
that that God, the holy, immaculate, absolute God can be pleased with. It's perfection. Nothing short
will It's perfect righteousness without sin where God Himself
can find no fault, and the only righteousness like that is the
righteousness of God Himself, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You see, only God's righteousness
can satisfy God. the righteousness of God without
the law, without my works. And that's the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Now, we're waiting. We're waiting
for the hope of righteousness. We're waiting. Now, I can't look
at my works or my conduct and my attitude and say, yes, I'm
righteous. I can't do that by looking within.
But I hope I am. I have, as a matter of fact,
a confident expectation that on judgment day I will hear these
words, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And the reason
I will hear those words, well done, thou good and faithful
servant, is because Christ Jesus the Lord will hear that said
from his father, well done. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. And I meant him. So that whatever
he did, I did. If he did well, I did well. If He kept the law, I kept the
law because I am in Him. He is my hope of salvation. That's what baptism depicts.
When a man is baptized, and remember baptism is immersion under the
water. It's not for babies. It's not for unbelievers. It's
for believers. It's not sprinkling. It's being
immersed under the water. Coming back up, what I say in
baptism, I say, when Christ lived, I lived. When he kept the law,
I kept the law. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he was raised from the dead,
just like when you come up out of the water, when he was raised
from the dead, I was raised. Christ is my salvation. Now, I have a hope that when
God looks me over, He will see no sin, but only perfect righteousness. And if God sees me that way,
there is a reason God sees me that way, because I really am
perfectly righteous in my Redeemer. Colossians 2.22 says He's going
to present us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Now that is the believer's hope
of righteousness. Now I have a hope. The fact that
I have a hope means it's not something I can see. I can't
look at my life and say, yep, I'm righteous, but I still have
a hope that I am because I'm waiting on my Redeemer who has
made me righteous. I say once again, I can't see
myself as wholly unblameable and unreprovable, but I know
that I am. First Peter 3, 15, Peter says,
ought be ready always to give every man that asks you a reason
for the hope that's in you. Now I'm going to give you a reason
for the hope that's in me. Now remember, I have a hope.
That when I stand before God on Judgment Day, there will be
no sin, nothing but perfect righteousness being justified by God Himself. Now let me give you the reason
for that hope. The reason I have that hope is
because that Christ Jesus stood as my surety before time began. Hebrews 7.22 says he's the surety
of a better covenant. And at that time, he took complete
responsibility for my salvation. He said, all that the Father
giveth me, this is talking about a transaction that took place
before the world began. Eternal election. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. Not they might, they shall. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. And when Christ agreed to be
my surety, God the Father looked to him for everything he requires
of me." You see, my salvation began and was actually accomplished
before I was ever born. Hebrews 4.3 says the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. Christ is called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God doesn't dwell
in time. There's not a yesterday, today, and tomorrow with Him.
Everything's in the eternal now, and Christ has always been the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That is my hope. And my hope is that when Christ
became flesh, He kept God's holy law. for me. You know, he said
to John the Baptist, after he came to John the Baptist to be
baptized, and John said, I have need to be baptized in thee,
comest thou to me? He said, suffer to be so now, for thus it becometh
us, me and you, and all of God's people, all of the elect, to
fulfill all righteousness. Everything Jesus Christ did,
He did as an us. And my hope is that Christ died
for me so effectually He put away my sins and blotted them
out that God says their sins and their iniquities I will remember
no more. Listen to this scripture from
Jeremiah chapter 50 verse 20. In those days And in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none. Now, if there's any to find,
God's gonna find it. But it says, there shall be none,
and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will
pardon them whom I reserve. Now, I have this hope. that all
that God requires of me, he looks to Jesus Christ for. That means
I have everything that God requires of me. I love what Judas said
to Jacob when he stood as the surety of Benjamin. He said,
of my hand shalt thou require of him. If I bring him not before
thee, and set Him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever."
Now that's what Christ said to His Father concerning me. That's
the hope I have that everything that God requires of me, He looks
to His Son for. For we, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness. Now, this waiting is that of
confident expectation. We wait because we know it'll
come to pass. As I said, I believe I'm righteous,
and I'm waiting for the time when I will experience it. As David said in Psalm 1715,
as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. But we, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith." By faith. Now, here's our closing thoughts. Somebody says, this is some mighty
big talk and some mighty big claims. thinking that you're
righteous before God, that you have no sin, that when you hear
your name called on judgment day, there will be no sin against
you. And you can't look at yourself
and prove that that's the case because you still see yourself
as a sinner, yet you wait for the hope of righteousness, being
fully convinced that you will be found righteous on judgment
day. What makes you think that? Well, let me give you my reason.
And it's not my reason, it's the Bible's reason. For we, through
the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Hebrews 11.1 says, Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Romans 4.5 says, To him that
worketh not, but believeth. on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness." Now somebody says, can you tell
me what faith is? I want to have this faith that
makes me have this hope of being perfectly righteous before God.
Can you tell me what faith is? Well, I can tell you what the
Bible says faith is. In II Timothy 1.12, Paul makes
this statement that I think is the most comprehensive statement
concerning what faith is. He said in II Timothy 1.12, For
I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." Now,
according to that verse of Scripture, faith is made of these three
things, knowledge, belief, and committal. You don't have saving
faith where you don't have these three things, knowledge, belief,
and committal. Now you can't believe what you
don't know any more than you can come back from a place where
you've never been. There's no faith without knowledge. Paul
said, I know. And notice what he said next.
He didn't say, I know what I have believed. He said, I know whom
I have believed. You see, it's knowledge of a
person, and what we believe will be completely predicated upon
who we believe. You see, if you believe Him,
you can't believe He could possibly fail in what He's done, because
you believe He's the Almighty God, the God-man. I know whom
I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able. You see, not only do we know
the what, the content of the gospel, the person of the gospel,
we really believe that He is able. We know whom we believed
and we're persuaded, we're convinced, we really believe that He is
able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that
day. Now, I know whom I believed and I'm convinced He is able
to save me with absolutely no help from me. I believe that
He did it all. He's able to save me like Abraham
staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded
that what He had promised He was able also to perform. I believe that Jesus Christ is
able to save me because of who He is and what He did with no
help, with no contribution for me. Hebrews 1.3 says, He by Himself
purged us of our sins. The Lord said to the two blind
men, do you believe that I'm able to do this? They answered,
yea, Lord. There's knowledge and there's
belief. We believe he's able, but don't
miss this. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed to
him against that day. Now, when people have savings
account for their retirement, they diversify. They put some
funds in one place and some funds in another to cover all their
bases. Maybe if this one doesn't perform
well, that one will. Or if that one does poorly, this
one will do better. They diversify. Now saving faith
is not like that at all. Saving faith does not diversify.
Saving faith looks to Christ only. If who He is and what He
did is not enough to save me, I won't be saved because He is
all I have. I've put all my eggs in that
one basket, Christ alone. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, email
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