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 Nyvert. I want to speak to you upon this
subject. What a real sinner needs. I'm reading from the 40th Psalm,
beginning in verse 11, when David says, withhold not thou thy tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed
me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I
am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs
of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord,
to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Now this 40th psalm is quoted
in Hebrews chapter 10 as the very words of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In verse 6 of this psalm we read,
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou
opened. burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required? Then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it's written of me. I delight to do thy will,
O God. Now, these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In verse one, the psalmist David
said, I waited patiently for the Lord. Now, who's the only
one to ever do that? the Lord Jesus Christ. So every
word is the word of Christ. So how could these be the words
of Christ when he says, for innumerable evils have compassed me about,
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I'm not able
to look up. They're more than the hairs of
my head, therefore my heart faileth me. Now how could that be said
to be the word of Christ? Because he never sinned. He did
no sin. He knew no sin. He's the only
perfect, holy man to ever live. He obeyed God's law perfectly. But this shows the reality of
His substitutionary work for His people. He took my sins and
my sorrows and he made them his very own. He bore the burden
to Calvary and suffered and died alone. So truly did he stand
in my place as the sinner's substitute that my sin actually became his
sin. Now that's how real this work
is. Do I understand that completely?
Of course I don't. But how thankful I am that he
became the sinner's substitute. He truly is the friend of sinners. But that being said, these are
also the words of David. And this is David's confession
of sin. He says in verse 11, withhold
not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Now, if you're a
sinner, What you need is mercy. And that's what David's asking
for, mercy. And now understand this, when your sin is all your
fault, you can't blame anybody else, it's all your fault. What
you need is mercy. And that's what David's asking
for. Oh, withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord.
Then he says, let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually
preserve me. If you're a sinner, not only
do you need mercy, you need to be preserved because you'll fall
away for sure if he doesn't keep you. You realize that you need
God's mercy and you need to be preserved. Now look what he says
about his sin. He says in verse 12, for innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. Now, an unbeliever could never
feel this way about his sin. You see an unbeliever doesn't
really understand what sin is. Only a believer has a true understanding
of sin. God has made himself known, and
the only way I'm gonna have any knowledge of what sin is, is
by having a knowledge, an understanding of God himself, where he reveals
himself to me. And when he reveals himself to
me, I can't see anything about myself but my sin, when he shows
himself to me, because he's holy. Now look at the numerical value
David puts on his sin, innumerable. Innumerable, innumerable evils
have compassed me about. They had a presence of compassing
him about. Everywhere he looked, everywhere
he turned, there they were. He said, they've taken hold upon
me. They've got a vice grip upon me. They paralyzed me to the
point where I can't even look up. Now, somebody in this state,
this confession of sin David gives, David the man after God's
own heart, somebody in this state, what do they need? What do they need? That's what
I want us to consider, what a real sinner needs. Notice he says
in verse 13, be pleased, oh Lord, to deliver me. Now, a real sinner
knows this, They're in God's hands, and the only hope they
have is that it would be His sovereign will, that it would
be His good pleasure to do something for them. Now, I know that. I can't do anything about my
sin, and the only thing that can be done for me is for God
to be pleased to do something for me. That's what He's asking. Oh, be pleased, let it be your
pleasure, let it be your will to help me. to do something for
me. Now, my sin's all my fault. I've
got no excuses. It's all my fault. And what I
need is for you to do something for me. Be pleased to deliver
me, O Lord. Make haste to help me is what
David prayed. Now, God is And he that cometh to God must
believe that he is. We believe in his isness and
this glorious divine being tells us in his word what pleases him. And I want to know what pleases
him because I know that the only hope I have and the only hope
any sinner has is for him to be pleased to do something for
me. Now, what is it that God is pleased
with? Well, I know that He's pleased
by everything He does. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in earth and sea and in all deep places. David
said, Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased. And the scripture says it pleased
the Father that in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, should all
fullness dwell. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we first find
out what God is pleased with when we go to the Mount of Transfiguration. I love that story. The Lord takes
Peter and James and John up on top of a mountain, and the scripture
says he was transfigured before them. His face shined like the
sun, and his raiment was white as light. And Moses and Elijah
appeared with him on the mount as James and Peter and John watched. And Luke 9.31 tells us they spake
of the decease which he would accomplish. But at this time
his divinity literally burst through his humanity and they
saw something of his glory. And Peter had to speak. Peter
said, Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let us make three
tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. And then a cloud overshadowed
them and a voice came from the cloud, the voice of the father. And here's what he said. He said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. hear ye Him." Now here is what
a real sinner needs. I need to be found in Christ
because all of God's good pleasure, all of God's favor is in His
Son. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. So I need to be found in Christ
because I know that's where the pleasure of the Father is. He
can't be pleased with me. He's holy. He can't be pleased
with me in my sinfulness. So the only way he can be pleased
with me, the only way, the only hope I have is that I would be
found in Christ. Now, what does it mean to be
in Christ? Well, what does it mean to be in Adam? When Adam
ate of the fruit, the scripture said, I did too. I was in him
and I was guilty of his sin. When he did it, I did it. Now,
if I'm in Christ, that means whatever he does, I do. When
he kept the law, I did. When he pleased the father, the
father was pleased with him. The father was pleased with me
in him. In Christ is, oh, that's the
only hope I have is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul
put it this way in Philippians chapter three, verse nine. Oh,
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, what that means is when
God sees me, if he finds me in Christ, all he sees is Christ. That's what a real sinner needs.
If you're a real sinner, you know that the only hope you have
is for God the Father to see you in His Son. And if you're seen independent
of His Son in any way, He's gotta send you to hell. You know that
if you're a real sinner. Now if you're not a real sinner
or don't believe yourself to be a real sinner, you don't see
this. But if you see your guilt before
God, if you have innumerable evils encompassing you about
and your iniquities have taken hold upon you so that you can't
look up, if you see yourself that way, what you need is to
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God is pleased within. In 1 Samuel 12, verse 22, we
read these words, for the Lord will not forsake his people for
his great namesake, for it pleased the Lord to make you his people. Now, here's what I need. I need for the Lord to be pleased
to make me his people. Now that was done in eternal
election. Ephesians 1.4 says, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Now what that means is, is I need to be elected. Now what is election? I need it. I'm not gonna, I'm
not trying to argue about this. I want to tell you what I need.
Election is God's choice of his people before time began. Now, this choice he made of his
people wasn't him foreseeing that they would believe and choosing
them on account of that. The reason he chose us is because
we were in Christ. eternally united to him. I don't
understand that, but it's so. Every believer has always been
in Christ, has always been chosen in Christ, has always been accepted
in Christ, and God didn't choose me because of any goodness in
me. Romans 9, 11 says, 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." Now,
I need God to choose me. I need Him to choose me. I don't
want to argue with elections, say, how can it be fair for Him
to choose one and pass by the other, because I know if He gives
me what's fair, He'll send me to hell. I need God to elect
me, to choose me, to make me His people. If He doesn't, there's
no hope for this sinner. I need election. It's amazing
to me that preachers who claim to preach the gospel, most of
them don't ever touch this glorious doctrine of election. But I'll
tell you what, I need it. I'm going to preach it. But more
than that, I need him to freely choose me for Christ's sake.
If he doesn't, it's over for me. And then in Isaiah, chapter
53, verse 10, we read these words. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased the Lord to bruise,
to crush him. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. He shall see his seed He shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Now, it pleased the Father to
crush, bruise Christ. Why? Because he made his soul
an offering for sin. You see, the sins of God's elect
were placed in Christ, who his own self bare our sins in his
own body on the tree. And he became guilty of those
sins, and God's wrath came down upon him. Now here is what I
need. I need the Father to take my
sins off of me and put them in His blessed Son as my substitute,
and put them away. I can't just up and remove my
sins. God's gotta do it. He's gotta
lift my sins off of me and place them in His Son, and His Son
bear my iniquity and put them away. Now, I'm thankful it says
it pleased the Father to bruise Him. God was pleased And that
doesn't mean he got some kind of morbid satisfaction out of
it. It means this was his good pleasure, this was his good will.
It pleased the father to take the sins of his people and place
them on his son and punish his son as their substitute. Now,
I need God to do that for me. I need him to take my sin away.
There's nothing I can do about it. I can't make him go away.
I need him to take my sin and charge it to Christ and Christ
to take my place and be crushed in my place. That's what I need.
That's what a real sinner needs. I need God to do something for
me. I need him to be pleased to do something for me. I need
God to be pleased to bruise him in my stead. Do you need that? Do you need the death of Christ
if you're a real sinner? You do. Now, not only do I need
my sins to be punished in Christ, I also need to have a perfect
righteousness. God is holy and he cannot accept
sin. I need a righteousness. Now listen
to this scripture. Isaiah chapter 42 verse 21 says,
the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He shall
magnify the law and make it honorable. A real sinner needs the righteousness
of Christ. Not only do I need my sins paid
for and forgiven, I need the righteousness of Jesus Christ
himself. That is the only righteousness
that God is pleased with because it's the only righteousness there
is, the righteousness of Christ. And I need to have his righteousness
so that all God sees is perfect righteousness. And then we read
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I need to hear the preaching
of the gospel. I need to hear God's message
because it says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. I need to hear the preaching
of the gospel. I need to hear when we were yet
without strength in due time. Christ died for the ungodly. I need to hear, this is a faithful
saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom Paul said, I'm the chief. I need
to hear thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. I need to hear the gospel. Not only do I need to hear the
gospel, and I mean the gospel of God, the gospel how He saved
sinners by Christ. I need to have faith to believe. Now we read in Hebrews chapter
11 regarding Enoch, beginning in verse 6. Verse five, by faith Enoch was
translated that he should not see death and was not found because
God had translated him. And here's a man who never died.
He was brought straight up into heaven. For he had this testimony
that he pleased God. Now, most folks when they read
something like that, they thought, well, Enoch was so holy, he never
had to die, he just walked up into heaven because he pleased
God. But let's go on reading. But without faith, It is impossible
to please God. Now, I need faith. Not only do I need to hear, I
need to believe. I need to be given faith. Faith
is the gift of God. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So
I need to be given faith. I need to believe. Oh, may God
give me the grace to believe the gospel, to really believe
that all I need is what Christ did and to rest completely in
him. I need faith. And if I can't
come to Christ with faith, I'm going to come to Christ for faith.
Lord, give me faith. Give me the grace to simply trust
you like a little child and to trust your gospel and to really
believe that what your son did is all that's needed to make
me perfect and acceptable before you. David said, Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me. I need it to be the pleasure
of the Lord to deliver me. I think of what the leper said.
The leper bowed before him in worship saying, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. He understood that the only way
he could be clean, the only way he could be saved is if the Lord
was pleased to will it to take place. I need him to be pleased
to deliver me, oh Lord, Be pleased to deliver me. And then he said,
make haste to help me. I need his help. Oh, how I need
his help. A real sinner needs his help. Now what is meant by that? The Syrophoenician woman came
to the Lord. And she said, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me for my daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. And the scripture says he answered
her, not a word. He didn't even respond to her.
And she continued to cry though, because if you see you're a real
sinner, you see the only hope you have is Christ and you won't
be turned away. Even if you're not answered, you'll keep crying.
That's what she did. And then the Lord said, I'm not
sent, but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I didn't
come to save everybody. And you know, the Lord didn't
come to save everybody. He didn't come to make men savable. He
came to save his people from their sins. He said, I've only
come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And you know
what her response was? Then came she and worshiped him
saying, Lord, Help me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. Lord, help me. Now that's worship. She didn't
say it's unfair for you to only come to save some people. And
it didn't keep her from him. She didn't give up and say, well,
I must not be one of them. I'll go on my way. No, she kept
crying after hearing that and saying, Lord, help me. And then
he said, It's not right to take the children's bread and cast
it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, that's
the truth. But I still need your help. Even
the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
I don't expect a place setting with the children, but I'd be
all so thankful for any crumbs of mercy that fall my way. And
he replied, oh woman, great is thy faith. I need His help. Now, if you're somebody like
David, if you're a real sinner, by real sinner, I mean somebody
who really believes they're a sinner. They cannot not sin. They cannot
make themselves holy. Everything they do is sin. They
have no claims on God. They can't look down their nose
in judgment upon anybody because of the way they know they are.
Now, if you're a real sinner, like David was. If you say with
David, innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me like a vice grip, so I can't even
look up. They're more than the hairs of
my head, therefore my heart, that's where my big problem is,
my heart fails me. Now, if that's who you are, somebody
that has to say, be pleased, oh Lord, to deliver me, here
is what you need. First of all, you need to be
found in Christ so that all God sees when he sees you is his
blessed son. You need him to make you his
people. You need him to choose you. Remember the words of our Lord,
you have not chosen me, but I've chosen you, John 15, 16. You
need Him to freely choose you by His grace. And if you're a
real sinner, What you need is you need the Lord to take your
sins from you and put them on his son and bear them away and
make satisfaction for him. That's what you need. You can't
do anything about your sin. You can't stop it. You can't
make it leave. You can't make it less guilty. It's there. And if it's there,
the only hope you have is for the Lord to remove those sins
and place them on his son where his son puts them away. And if
you're a real sinner, not only do you need your sins removed,
you need to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You see, His
righteousness is the only righteousness there is. It's the only righteousness
God can accept. And you need to have the righteousness
of Christ. And if you're a real sinner and
He died for you, you have the righteousness of Christ because
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." If you're a real
sinner, you need to hear the gospel preached. You need to
hear the good news from heaven. And if you're a real sinner,
you need to have faith to believe the gospel. You need to be given
faith. You know without faith it is impossible to please God. And if you're a real sinner,
you need Him to be pleased to deliver you and to help you. That's what a real sinner needs. Now, we have this message on
CD and DVD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. 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 on the screen.