It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. 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. I've entitled the message for
this morning, A Single Eye or an Evil Eye. Do I have a single
eye or do I have an evil eye? Let me read the text from Luke
chapter 11, verses 33 through 36. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus, and He says, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it
in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick,
that they which come in may see the light. The light of the body
is the eye. Therefore, when thine eye is
single, thy whole body is full of light. But when thine eye
is evil, Thy whole body is full of darkness. Take heed, therefore,
that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole
body, therefore, be full of light, having no part dark, the whole
shall be full of light as when the bright shining of a candle
doth give thee light. Now imagine in the room you're
sitting in, or even if you're, well, wherever you're at, imagine
being in complete darkness, no light at all. What do you see? Nothing. Okay. Imagine being in a room full
of light. but you are completely blind. Your eye does not have the ability
to take in light. You're completely blind. I don't
mean legally blind, but completely blind. Nothing but darkness. What do you see? The same thing
that person who has no light sees. You see absolutely nothing. Now, what is necessary for sight? Two things. Number one, light.
If I do not have light, I cannot see. Number two, a seeing eye. You may have all the light in
the world, but if you don't have a seeing eye, you cannot see. Now, keep those things in mind
as we consider what the Savior is saying. He says in verse 33,
no man, when he has lighted a candle, put it in a secret place where
no one can see the light that it gives. He doesn't put it under
a bushel. to cover it up, but on a candlestick,
that they which come in may see the light." The purpose of light
is sight. That's why the candlestick is
lit. It's to give sight. The purpose
of light is so we can see. I love that verse of scripture
in 1 John 1, verse 5, where John says, God is light. And in him is no darkness at
all. If we say we have fellowship
with him, a lot of people make that claim. and walk in darkness,
walk in the darkness of salvation by works, walk in the darkness
of error and superstition. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth. God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. And it's only when he gives us
the light of who he is that we see him. We can't see God, we
can't know God, we can't understand anything about Him unless He
gives us light. Light concerning who He is from
His Word. And when He gives us light, we
see. Now, I've described God before
and I've heard people say to me, described Him from His Word,
from the light of His Word, and I've heard people say, well,
my God's not like that. Well, I know your God's not like that
because your God is not the God of the Bible. Everybody who sees
who God is sees the same thing concerning Him. He's holy. He's absolutely sovereign. He's
all-powerful. He's immutable. He's omnipresent. He's omniscient. All these glorious
attributes of God that He reveals regarding Himself in His Word.
If He gives you light to see who He is, you see. And it's
only in light of who He is that you see who you are. You see,
when you see who He is, you have to reach this conclusion about
yourself. I am darkness. I'm sinful. I'm so unlike Him. You're like
that Gadarene demonic who said, What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of the Most High? You're light, I'm darkness. You're good, I'm evil. You're
holy, I'm unclean. You're powerful, I'm weakness
incarnate. When you see who God is, you
see who you are. And it's only when you see who
you are that you're going to cry out to this God for mercy.
Save me by your grace. Save me by your son. God is light. And in him is no darkness at
all. Now, I love the way Christ calls
himself in John 8, verse 12, the light of the world. He said,
I am the light of the world. And he said this directly after
he said to that woman who was taken in adultery. In the very
act, there wasn't any question about her guilt. He said, woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Now Christ is the light as to
how a holy God cannot condemn a sinful creature. And the only
way he can not condemn someone is if there's nothing there to
condemn. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ made it for that woman
because of his death, because of his life, death, his work,
personal work of Christ. He made it to where she had no
guilt. There was no reason to condemn
her. And Christ is the light as to
how that can be. Now, what was the first thing
in the first creation? Do you remember? God said, let
there be light. Paul in 1st Timothy 1.16 calls
himself the pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him
to life everlasting. If you're saved, if I'm saved,
we're going to follow the pattern of Paul. And what was the first
thing in Paul's conversion experience? A great light come from heaven. And it wasn't until Paul saw
the light that he was blinded. He thought he could see before
then. But I think of what our Lord said in John chapter 9, for judgment I'm coming to the
world that they would see not might see, and that they would
see might be made blind. There's someone who cannot see. I cannot see why God would look
in favor on me. I can't see why he would have
mercy on me. That's the person Christ came
to save. That person who says, well, I can see why he saved
me. I did this. I did that. I am this way. I'm
better than that. That's the person Christ says,
you may be made blind. Christ came to give sight to
those who cannot see. And he came to blind those who
claim they can see. And let's go on reading verse
34. Now the purpose of light, it's not to hide it. It's for
sight. So we can see who God is and
we can see who we are. And then he says in verse 34,
the light of the body is the eye. The only way light can come
into the body and light comes through the eye to enable us
to see, the light of the body is the eye. Therefore, when thine
eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light. But when
thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. The instrument that lets light
into the body is the seeing eye. We not only see by light, but
we have to have a seeing eye. And what gives the light of God
into the soul, the eye of the soul, is faith. By faith we see. Paul said, we walk by faith and
not by sight. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, what do I mean
by that? What does the Bible mean by that?
with a great glorious truth that this Bible teaches is how God
can be just and justify the ungodly through Christ. That's the central
truth of the scripture, justification by what Christ did. Christ made
everybody he lived for and died for just in God's sight, without
sin, without guilt, perfect. Now, by sight, I can't see that
regarding myself. If I look at myself, I sure don't
see perfection. All I see is sin. That's what I see by sight. But
by faith, I believe that what the Lord Jesus Christ did is
all that's needed to make me without fault before God, holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight." Now, I don't see
that by my sight. I see that by faith. Faith is
the eye of the soul. If your eye be single, the Lord
says, your whole body is full of light. There's no darkness
there at all. But if your eye is evil, Your
whole body is full of darkness. There's no light at all. Now,
the word single means simple, simple. The Thinai is simple,
single. It only has one object. I can't
have two objects to my faith. You know, when the children of
Israel were called upon to look to that brazen serpent that represented
Christ crucified, Christ on the cross, they weren't told to look
at the pole. They weren't told to look at
Moses. handling the pole. They weren't told to look at
the snakes coming at them and try to find out ways to prevent
the snakes from getting to them. They weren't told to look at
their wounds where the snakes had bitten them. They were told
to look one place, to that serpent hanging on a pole. And God's
people are told to look one place, Christ only, not Christ and,
Christ only. That is what simplicity is. We read in II Corinthians 11.3
of the simplicity, the onlyness, the singleness of Christ. If thine I be single. Not complex,
not double, but single. Now religion is anything but
single. It's anything but simple. It's
very complex. There's so many choices to be
made in religion. Well, which religion do I choose
of the seven great religions of the world or the sub-religions
under them? Even in, quote, Christianity,
there's so many denominations, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Lutheran, Catholic, Pentecostal, go on and on down the line, so
many denominations, Church of Christ, Christian Church, hundreds
of denominations, each one of which claims to have a closer
hold of the truth. Now, may I say to you that in
the Bible there's no such thing as denominations. All denominations
are wrong. They're not found in the Bible.
Is Christ divided? No, he's not. But within religion,
Christian religion and so on, you have so many choices to make.
What do I choose? What kind of Bible should I use? Which kind of translation? What
style of worship should we follow? Should we follow traditional
or contemporary in more of a rock and roll style? What kind of
theology? Should we have reformed theology?
Should it be Arminian? Should it be Wesleyan? Should
it be Pelagian? What kind of theology do we select? Which way do we observe the ordinances? Baptism? Is it baptism by immersion
or baptism by sprinkling? And when we take the Lord's table,
should we use wine or grape juice? Bread or unleavened bread? All
these choices involved. And it's not simple in any way. You see, when a choice is involved,
it's complex. I don't want to be given a choice.
As a matter of fact, you don't choose to believe. You only believe
when you have no choice. And let me repeat that. Faith
is not a choice. You don't choose to believe.
Now, you may choose to believe error. No question about that
if you believe error. If you believe that which is
contrary to what God's Word says, you chose to believe that, but
you don't choose to believe. You believe because you have
no choice. You have no other options. You must believe. You're not given a choice between
two things. There's only one thing to believe
when you believe. if thine eye be single." You
see, God is single. He's not made of parts which
make up the whole. Now, He's vast. He's incomprehensible,
but He's simple. He's single. He's not made up
of a bunch of parts that make up the whole. And really, in
the gospel, we have a single message. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
2.2, I determine not to know anything among you. save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified." Do you see where that's the only
message? That anything that detracts from that is wrong. That that's
all we should be preaching is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is everything. We have a
single reason for not being condemned. Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. No other reason is needed. We have a single reason for forgiveness. Ephesians 4.32 says, Be kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. He didn't forgive you because
you said you're sorry. He didn't forgive you because you promised
you'd never do it again or because you would do all these great
things for him and turn over a new leaf. The only reason for
forgiveness is for Christ's sake. We have a single cause of salvation. by grace are you saved. We have a single reason for being
elect. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
If you're an elect sinner, it's because God chose you in Him. We have a single righteousness,
His Their righteousness, said God in Isaiah, their righteousness
is of me. The only righteousness there
is, is the righteousness and merits, the law keeping of Jesus
Christ. We have a single reason for being
accepted by God. Ephesians 1.6 says, He hath made
us accepted in the beloved. We have a single ground of assurance.
Paul said, this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. of whom
I am the chief. Well, I'm a sinner. That means
He came to save me. I am a sinner. That means He came to save me.
And He didn't come to make my salvation potential or offer
it to me. He came to save me, and that's exactly what He did.
My ground of assurance is that He came to save sinners, and
He accomplished it. We have a single object of faith.
Christ only. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. No two objects of faith, Christ
only. We have a single view of the
old man. Paul said, I know that in me
that's in my flesh dwells no good thing, nothing but sin.
We have a single view of the new man. He which is born of
God doth not commit sin. There's no sin, there's no darkness
in the new man. We have a single reason to serve
him. Because we love Him. That's what
we want to do. We have a single motive, His
glory. We have a single satisfaction.
Psalm 1715, David said, As for me, I'll be satisfied when I
awake with thy likeness. That's the only time we'll be
satisfied is being perfectly conformed to the image of His
Son. And we have a single hope with regard to Judgment Day.
John said in 1 John 4, 17, Herein is our love made perfect, so
that we may have boldness on the day of judgment. For as he
is, so are we in this world right now. Is he perfect before God?
So is every believer. Is he holy before God? So is
every believer. That's our boldness on judgment
day. Now if your eye is single, Your
whole body is full of light, no darkness at all. You see there's nothing dark
about the salvation that's in Christ Jesus. Now if you're honest,
you would say there's a lot of dark things about you. And everybody
you know, everybody without exception you know, there are dark things
about them, dark. But if God has saved you, He
has wiped out all of that darkness by the blood of His Son. Now,
that does not mean that in your experience you feel sinless,
but it does mean this. All the sin that weighs you down,
that feels so dark, has been put away, cleansed away. It is there no longer. Let me read you a passage of
scripture from Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 20. It says, In those
days and that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none. None. It's not there. How can that
be? because Christ put it away. It is gone and God's salvation
is a clean, light, clear salvation. There's no darkness in it at
all. That's what justification is.
If I'm justified, I have a brand new history, a history of always
having done that which is right and never having done that which
is wrong. That's what justification is. Oh, what a glorious salvation
is his. This is what makes me want to
jump for joy, this new history every believer has. We have a
single faith. It looks to Christ only. But the Lord says in verse 34,
when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Now, what is this evil eye? This
evil eye is anything that's not single. It's the introduction
of the little word, and. Christ, and. The scriptures,
and. Grace, and. Faith, and. Scripture's and is always the
addition of something that the Scripture doesn't teach. For
instance, most people believe that free will is a given. God
loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, God wants to save
everybody, but it's up to man's will as to whether or not he'll
accept or reject salvation. Salvation ultimately rests in
man's will, the choice he makes, the decision he makes. That's
not taught in the scripture. That's a lie. There's no truth
to it at all. That's the addition of something.
That's the scripture. And Christ and is something in
addition to Christ. Somebody says, well, if I believe
Christ can die for something, here's what I'm saying. If I
believe Christ can die for somebody and they wind up in hell anyway,
then I must believe there's something in addition to what he did that
will land me into heaven. That's Christ and. Grace and
is grace if. God will give you grace if you
do this or if you don't do that. That's conditional grace and
that's not grace at all. If it's grace if, it's not grace
period. Faith and is, yes, we're saved
by faith only, but it's our works that make us more holy and more
pleasing to God or less pleasing to God. And it's our works which
will determine what kind of position we have in glory, whether a mansion
on top of the hill or maybe a shack down in the slums of heaven.
Yes, we believe in faith only, but it's our works that determine
these things. That's not faith only. That's
a denial of the gospel. Now, an evil eye, seeks to take
some of the credit in salvation. That's the bottom line. When
God created the world, I don't know if there were any angels
that have been created yet. It could have been he created
them all at the same time, I don't know. But it could be that the
angelic beings were created before the creation of the world. Now
let's say when God was creating the world, maybe the mightiest
angel would say to him, let me assist you in this. Can you imagine
the arrogance of that? God having the assistance in
creation by a created being. Why? That's ludicrous. But it's
not as ludicrous as someone thinking that they get to take some of
the credit in salvation. That's so. Darkness always tries
to take some of the credit in salvation. Darkness can't say
what David did, not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. If I make
anything I do with what Christ has done, I pollute his work. You know, I think it's very interesting
in the giving of the law, the Ten Commandments found in Exodus
chapter 20. If you go on reading in Exodus
chapter 20, He talks about building an altar. And he says, if you
put your hand on it and touch it with your tool, you've polluted
it. It's no good. If you put your
works to it, you've polluted it. If you make steps going up
to it, it's no good. There's not steps to God. There's
one step to God, what Christ did, bringing you into his presence. Now, if you believe, You have
anything to do with salvation. You're under the law. and you're
under its curse. It's either all of grace or all
of works. It's either Christ getting all
the glory or man getting all the glory. But there is no mixture. There's nothing complex. Now,
the Lord says in verse 35, take heed therefore that the light
which is in thee be not darkness. We can take good things and turn
them into darkness. Baptism is a good thing. But
it's darkness if men think they're saved by going down under the
water, and their sins were washed away by that act. The Lord's table is a good thing,
but it becomes a bad thing when men think that eating it and
drinking it is eating and drinking the body and blood of the Lord,
and through that sin is put away the mass. It becomes a bad thing. Good works are good, unless you
think you're saved by them. Good doctrine is good. Accurate
doctrine is good. Unless you trust your doctrine
to save you rather than the one of whom the doctrine speaks.
Unless you think you're saved because of something you understand
or grasp. The means of grace are good.
Always a blessed thing to come to hear the gospel. But they
become dark if you think they have something to do with your
salvation. I mean, we could go on and on. take heed that the
light that's in you be not darkness freedom from the law is good
but oh it's a bad thing if you use that as an excuse for your
sin take heed that the light that be in you be not darkness
verse 36 if the whole body therefore be full of light having no part
dark Now, the only way your body can be full of light and have
no part dark is if you're justified. Justified by what Christ did
so that when God sees you, he sees no darkness at all. All he sees is his son. If you have no darkness at all,
that means you are, as Colossians 1 chapter 1 verse 22 says, holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Now, if that's
what you are, no darkness at all, the whole shall be full
of light. as when the bright shining of
a candle doth give thee light. Oh, the light of the gospel,
the light of how God can be just and punish all sin and yet justify
somebody like me or you. What precious light that is. Do you have a single eye or an
evil eye? 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 Nyberg 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 toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.