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 Nyberg. I've entitled the message for
this morning, A Message to Sinners. A Message to Sinners. Now, does that pique your interest? A Message to Sinners. Are you
a sinner? Now, before we can answer that
question, we have to know what sin is. What is sin? I can't know what a sinner is
until I know what sin is. There are several definitions
of sin in the scriptures, but I think one of the easiest to
understand is sin is the transgression of the law, 1 John 3, verse 4. Sin is the transgression of the
law, and that is a reference to what is known as the Ten Commandments. A sinner is a lawbreaker. A sinner is one who transgresses
the law. Now let me speak for just a couple
of minutes about God's holy law. A sinner is someone who breaks
the first commandment. He puts a small g-god before
the living God. A sinner is someone who breaks
the second commandment. He's an idolater. He's made false
images and had false ideas of God to suit his own corrupt taste,
not liking the way God is in the Bible. Thirdly, a sinner
is irreverent. He's someone who's taken God's
name in vain and failed to have the proper reverence for the
living God. Fourth, a sinner is a Sabbath
breaker. A sinner knows nothing of rest,
doesn't know what it is to rest in Christ. Fifth, a sinner is
someone who's failed to honor his parents. Not only has he
failed to honor his parents, he's failed to honor any authority
that God has put into place. Six, a sinner is someone who
murders people. He might not have murdered them
physically, but he's murdered their character by maligning
their character or false innuendo or even by silence. Seventh,
a sinner is someone who is guilty of adultery, of sexual sin. If he hadn't done it physically,
he's done it in his mind, and that's the same thing according
to the Lord. Eighth, a sinner is a thief. He takes what does
not belong to him. He robs. He's a thief. Ninth, a sinner is a liar. He's
someone who does not tell the truth. And tenth, a sinner is
covetous. A sinner is a greedy person. Now that's how the scripture
would describe a sinner. A sinner has not kept one commandment
one time, nor is he able to do so. A real sinner knows that
he can't look down his nose at anybody. And a real sinner knows
that he has no claims whatsoever on God Almighty because of the
greatness of his sin. He is a law breaker. Now, would that be you? That person I just described,
would that be you? Do you say no? I'm sorry, I don't
have a gospel for you. You see, Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. That's the only kind of people
he came to save. If that doesn't describe you,
he didn't come for you. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, I pray to God that he will
deliver you. from this self-deceiving web
you've enwrapped yourself in, trying to manufacture a righteousness
of your own, which in reality is not true. Oh, would to God
that He would teach you and me that we're sinners. You see, it is only sinners that
Christ Jesus came to save. And like I said, this is a message
to sinners. Now, if you are a sinner, if
you are a lawbreaker, if you are an evil person, this message
is for you. It's how God can accept you. You realize this foolishness
of you accepting Jesus is nothing more than foolishness. That's
not the issue. The issue is not, will you accept Jesus? Will he
accept you? Will he have mercy on you? Does
he have a reason to have favor toward you? That's the issue.
Not will you accept him, but will he accept you? Now, I wanna
tell you how a holy God, a God who hates sin, a righteous God,
can accept you, how he can accept me, how he can accept a sinner,
how God can be just, absolutely just, and yet justify somebody
like me or you. A message for sinners. Now my
text is found in Romans chapter 10, and I'd like to read verses
5 and 6 first of Romans chapter 10. For Moses describeth the
righteousness which is of the law, that's the Ten Commandments
I just gave. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. Now notice he speaks of the righteousness
which is of the law. what I was just talking about,
the Ten Commandments, and the righteousness which is of faith. Now, what is required in this
righteousness of the law? It can be summarized by this
one little word, do. Do. It's not enough to know the
law. It's not enough to admire the
law. It's not enough to try to keep
the law. To try to keep it is to break
it. The only thing the law accepts
is do, do, do. Let me read a passage of scripture
to you from Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 25. And behold,
a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, What
is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering
said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength,
and thy neighbor as thyself. And I feel that he felt quite
good about himself by giving such a correct answer. And here's
how the Lord replied to him. And he said unto him, Thou hast
answered right. This do. this do, and thou shalt
live." It's not enough to know. It's
not enough to desire. A sincere effort is not even
an option. The Scripture says, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. This is called in Romans
2.7, a patient continuance in well-doing. God is righteous. He will accept nothing less than
perfect righteousness. He won't lower the terms. He
won't negotiate with sinners. He will accept nothing less than
perfect righteousness. Law righteousness is impossible
for law breakers. All you have to do is sin one
time. And James 2, verse 10 says, for
whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point
is guilty of all. Now that's what the word of God
says. So law righteousness is unattainable for a law breaker. Now he says in verse 6, but the
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Now the righteousness of faith
brings a different language. It has something different to
say. And what is the righteousness
of faith? In Romans chapter 4, verse 5, we read, To him that
worketh not, did you hear that? To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now the righteousness of faith
is the great doctrine of justification by Christ. This truth is utterly
unique to the scripture. It's not found in any other kind
of religion. The doctrine of justification
by Christ. His righteousness justifying
the believer. Now this is the theme of scripture.
And I would dare say that most churches or institutions which
are called churches would say, we believe in justification.
But here's the difference. There is a difference. They say,
well, I believe God justifies sinners. And why does he do it? That's the issue. How does he
do it? I believe most people would say,
well, God justifies sinners in response to what they do. If
they believe, if they repent, if they get their life straightened
out, if they read the Bible, if they seek him, if they do
all these things, then God rewards them with justification. Now
that is justification by works. If any part of your justification
is dependent upon you doing something, I did this, therefore God justified
me, that is justification by works. Now, let's read what Paul
says. He says in verse 6, but the righteousness
of faith speaketh on this wise. First, it tells us what not to
say. Now, that's interesting, isn't
it? He begins with a negative, and the reason he does is because
everything we think naturally is wrong. We're born thinking
wrong. We're born with wrong thoughts
of God, with wrong thoughts of ourselves. So he begins by telling
us what not to say. Say not in your heart, and this
is a quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 30, when Moses was speaking. Say not in your heart, who shall
ascend into heaven? That is, bring Christ down from
above. Now you can't ascend into heaven,
you know that. This is something that's unattainable
for you. And then Paul gives his comment
on it. He says, let us not, who shall
say ascend into heaven, that is bring Christ down from above.
What can I do to get Christ to save me? He said, don't say that. Don't say that because you're
putting the emphasis once again on what you do. Who is able to
ascend into heaven? That is bring Christ down from
above. Don't say that. That works. That's all it is. What can I
do to get Christ to do something for me? Verse seven, or don't
say this. Who shall descend into the deep?
That is to bring up Christ again from the dead. Don't say, what
can I do to make his death work for me? You know, most people,
you may be one of them, believe that Jesus Christ died for everybody
and made salvation available for everybody, but your salvation
is not dependent upon him dying for you, but what you do with
that death. You've got to do something in
order to make his death effective for you. Now that is salvation
by works. That's all it is. It's putting
the final vote, the final deciding act in your hand. Salvation is
ultimately dependent upon you. Paul says, quit talking like
that. That's the righteousness of faith speaks on this wise. First, what not to say, don't
say, what can I do to get Christ to do something for me? Or what
can I do to make what he did effective for me? Strike that
from your thinking. That is salvation by works. Verse 8. But what saith it? It tells us what not to say.
Don't say, what can I do to get Christ to respond to me? But
here's what it tells us to say. What saith it? The word, listen
to this, is nigh thee. Now forget the salvation by works
altogether. Now remember, I'm speaking to
sinners. May some sinner hear me. I'm speaking to myself, I'm
a sinner. I'm not speaking down to sinners. I'm speaking to,
you know, somebody said preaching the gospel is one beggar telling
another beggar, well, he got bread. Well, that's what I'm
doing. I'm telling, this is one beggar telling another beggar
where he got bread. This is how God accepts sinners. And oh, that is so interesting
to me. I want to understand this. Now he says, What saitheth the
word is nigh thee? It's not way off up into heaven
or it's not down in the deep, places that are unattainable
for you to get to. It's near you. It's very near. It's in thy mouth and in thy
heart that is the word of faith which we preach. That word is
in your mouth and in your heart. If you're a sinner, it's real
close. Now, if you're not a sinner, none of this makes sense to you.
You don't understand. But if you're a sinner, if you're a
lawbreaker, if all you do is sin, sin's your nature, sin's
your name, you're a sinner by nature, by choice, and by practice,
you can't claim anything but that with regard to yourself.
Now, if that's you, Listen to me, the word of salvation is
very near. It's in your heart and it's in
your mouth right now, the word of faith, Paul says, which we
preach. Now what is that word? He says
in verse nine, that if thou, I don't care how sinful you are,
I don't care how evil you are, if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Now what's
this all about? If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now let's consider
this word confession. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus. Now that doesn't mean just repeating
something that somebody said to you. You know this thing of
repeat this prayer after me and that's so contrary to the scriptures. This thing of confession has
something to do with pleading guilty. When you confess, you
plead guilty, don't you? Now, the word confession means
to speak the same thing. It's agreement. It's agreement
with God. It's agreement with what God
says about me. It's agreement with what God
says about himself. It's agreement with what God
says concerning salvation. It's a change of mind. I didn't
used to agree with God. I do now. I do now. It's what
every believer believes. Do you know believers all believe
the same thing? You know, this stuff of different branches of
Christianity. You got this denomination, that
denomination. They believe this and they believe
that. But where are you going to get that in the scripture?
Where are you going to get any denomination in the scripture?
It's not there. True believers, true Christians
all believe the precise same thing. They confess the same
thing. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus. First, you confess with your
mouth what you already believe in your heart, that He's the
Lord. Now that word Lord means having
power. You believe that He has all power. You believe that He's in absolute
control of everything. You believe everything that takes
place in time, in history, is nothing less than His will being
done. He's the Lord. That means He
absolutely exercises sovereign control. He's Lord of creation. He spake the world into existence.
He's Lord of Providence. He controls everything that happens
in time. And most especially, He's Lord
of salvation. That means if you're saved, He's
the one who saves you. Your salvation is in His hands. He's not in your hands. You're
in His hands. Somebody says, won't you make
Jesus Lord of your life? That's impossible, my friend.
You can't make Him Lord. He is Lord. God hath made this
same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. You believe He's the Lord. He's the absolute sovereign of
the universe. You believe the same thing the
thief did. When the thief was hanging on that cross, he knew
he's the Lord. He said, Lord, remember me when
you come in your kingdom. You're the Lord. You're in absolute
sovereign control, and you're not gonna be remaining on that
cross. You're gonna come back as a mighty
reigning king. Remember me. You believe the
same thing that leper did. He said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. He knew he was the Lord, and
he knew if the Lord willed it, he had the ability to make him
completely clean. He's the Lord. If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth, the Lord, Jesus. Oh, how I love his name. It's not a meaningless name.
Jesus means Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Now, it's the
Old Testament word, Joshua. Moses could not bring the children
of Israel into the Promised Land. Only Joshua could. Jesus Christ the Lord. If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. publicly confess what you believe
in your heart. And look what it says next. If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God raised him from the dead. Now, that
means more than you believe that it happened, but you have some
reliance. It's not just a, I give a sin
to that happening. Here's what you're relying on.
that God raised him from the dead. Now you have some understanding
as to why he died in the first place. There's only one reason
for death, sin. Jesus Christ never sinned, yet
he died. What's that all about? The sins
of God's elect became His sin. He died as a substitute for sinners. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree, the scripture says. He We believe in our heart that
God raised Him from the dead because we believe in our heart
that God was completely satisfied with what He did. God said, I
can ask no more. What he did paid the debt. It paid the penalty. I could
ask no more. God raised him from the dead.
Romans 4.25 says he was delivered for our offenses and he was raised
again for our justification. And that's what we believe in
our heart that God raised him from the dead because he was
completely satisfied with what he did. Now listen to this verse
again. It says in verse nine that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. I don't care how sinful you are.
Here's the promise. Thou shalt be saved. And then
he says in verse 10, four, with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. Now, does that mean your mind
doesn't believe and it's just some kind of something in the
heart that takes place, but you don't even know what's going
on in your head? It's some kind of ooey-gooey nebulous thing
that you can't really explain, it's just, you feel it in your
heart? No, it doesn't mean that. Now, the heart in the scripture
represents the whole man. It represents the understanding.
It represents the affections. It represents the will, the desire. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Now, this is the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. This is not law righteousness.
You already know if righteousness comes by the law, it's over for
you. You already know that because you're a sinner. But oh sinner,
listen. There is a righteousness that
has nothing to do with anything that you do. Do you find that
attractive? It's the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. It's His law-keeping. It's His
perfect obedience. It's the only righteousness there
is. David said in Psalm 71, 16, I've
made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. Why? Because
his righteousness is the only righteousness there is. Our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, the scripture says. Now, with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness. Now, what that means is I understand
that the only righteousness I have is the righteousness and merits
of Jesus Christ. I understand that. Not only do
I understand it, I love it. I don't want it to be any other
way. I love this. I love being saved by the righteousness of
Christ. I'd a whole lot rather be saved by His righteousness
than my own. This is what I desire. This is
what I want. 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. With the heart man
believeth. unto righteousness." Now, with
all my heart, I believe that the righteousness of Christ is
the only righteousness there is. And this is not something
I'm going to remain quiet about. With the mouth, confession is
made unto salvation. Now, that doesn't mean you walk
down to the front of the church and confess to everybody that
you're saved. That's not what confession is. You confess, I'm saved only by
the righteousness of Christ. You plead guilty to it, even
if it costs you something. This is your confession. You
know, a believer's confession, more than anything else, is baptism.
They were baptized confessing their sins. Now that doesn't
mean they got up in front of everybody and told everybody
all the bad things they did. I know they do that in some religious
groups, and that's horrible. You ought not be telling other
people what you do. You really shouldn't. I mean, confess your
sin before God, but don't confess it to a man. It's ridiculous,
and you're only bringing them down with you. Don't do that.
Baptism is my confession of sin. I confess by baptism that I am
so sinful. that the only way I can be saved
is by what baptism represents. When Christ kept the law, I was
in Him. When He died, I was in Him. When He was raised from the dead,
I was in Him. And that is my only hope of being
saved, that what Christ did, He did for me. He kept the law
for me. He paid for my sins on Calvary's
tree. That's why he died. He took what
I deserve. And when he was raised from the
dead because I was in him, united to him, I was raised too. And somebody may say, well, how
do you know he did that for you? Faith. It's not because I can
see any goodness or righteousness in myself, because I believe
the gospel. I'm relying on him. That's how
I know that what he did, he did for me. I believe the gospel. Now sinner, there is a way that
God can accept you as sinful as you are and give you a perfect
righteousness, the righteousness of faith. Believe the gospel. And you'll know that righteousness,
His righteousness, is yours. Now we have this message on DVD,
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