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. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibbert. I'm preaching this morning from
Luke chapter 11, verses 31 and 32, and our subject is hearing
and repenting. Now this I know, if I ever hear
from God, if I ever hear with hearing ears the gift of his
grace so that I hear what is said in the message of the gospel
concerning God, concerning myself, concerning how he saves sinners
by Christ and by his free and sovereign grace, if I hear I
will repent. I will change my mind about everything. You see, with true hearing, there
always comes repentance. And wherever there is true repentance
before God, it comes because there has been hearing. He that
is of God heareth God's words. And if you and I are of God,
we will hear what God says. Now, I'm reading from Luke chapter
11, verses 31 and 32. These are the words of the Savior. And he says in verse 31, the
Queen of the South, speaking of the Queen of Sheba, shall
rise up in the judgment. And he's talking about Judgment
Day. That day when the secrets of men will be judged by Jesus
Christ. When all men to ever live will
have to give an account of themselves before God and they'll either
be saved or condemned. The Queen of the South shall
rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and
condemn them. The Lord says she is going to
accuse you all and condemn you all. for she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. You see, Solomon was the wisest
man to ever live, but the Lord says, I'm infinitely greater
than him. They heard, she came to hear
him, And here one who's greater than him is here, and you won't
hear me. And then in verse 32, we read,
the men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this
generation. That's talking about the men
that Jonah preached to. The men of Nineveh shall rise
up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it. These men who heard Jonah preach on judgment day will be
condemning you who do not believe me." Our Lord was saying to the
people that were listening to him at this time. For they repented
at the preaching of Jonas. And behold, a greater than Jonas
is here. Now Jonah was a true prophet
sent by God. He was what some would call the
peevish prophet or the disobedient prophet. You'll remember when
the Lord first came to him, he went and fled from the presence
of the Lord because he didn't want to preach to Nineveh. But
he ended up preaching to Nineveh, and they heard what he said and
repented. And the Lord says, Behold, a
greater than Jonas is here. Therefore, these men from Nineveh
will condemn you because they repented at the preaching of
Jonas, and you're not repenting concerning what I have to say."
Now, let's consider these two stories the Lord gives with regard
to the Queen of Sheba and Jonah. In 1 Kings 10, we read about
the Queen of Sheba coming to hear
the wisdom of Solomon. In verse 1, when the Queen of
Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord,
she came to prove him with hard questions. Now, somehow She heard
about the wisdom of Solomon. And it wasn't just his general
wisdom, but his wisdom concerning the name of the Lord. He knew
Jehovah. The name of the Lord is who He
is. It's the person behind the name.
And the Lord put it in this woman's heart to want to know Him. not
simply Solomon, but Solomon's God, the Lord, Jehovah, the God
of the earth, the creator of the universe, the one who rules. She wanted to know him, and she
knew Solomon knew him, so she came at a great distance, at
great cost, to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now what about the
wisdom of Solomon? Let's look at that in 1 Kings
chapter 3. This is where the Lord tells
us that he's the wisest man to ever live. In Gibeon, verse 5,
1 Kings chapter 3. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream by night and God said, ask what I shall
give thee. Now can you imagine the Lord
appearing to you and saying, what do you want? Tell me, I
will give it to you. Now let's look at Solomon's reply.
And Solomon said, Thou hast shown unto Thy servant David my father
great mercy, according as he walked before Thee in truth,
and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with Thee.
And Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that Thou hast
given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. Solomon
was talking about himself. He was the son of David. And
now, O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead
of David my father, and I am but a little child. That's how
he assessed himself, a little child. I know not how to go out
or come in. And thy servant is in the midst
of this thy people, which thou hast chosen, a great people that
cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Now here's what
he asks for. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart. And my marginal reading says
a hearing heart. I want to hear what God says,
don't you? The only way I'll ever have any wisdom is to hear
what he says." This is Solomon's request. He was given anything
he wants. He says, give me a hearing heart,
an understanding heart so I can hear and understand what you
say. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern
between good and bad. I want an understanding heart
so I can know the difference between good and bad. For who
is able to judge this so great a people? And the speech pleased
the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. The Lord was very
pleased with this. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked
this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither
hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine
enemies, but you've asked for thyself understanding to discern
judgment. That's what you've asked for.
Behold, I've done according to your words, lo, I've given thee
a wise heart and an understanding heart, so that there was none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like
unto thee. God says you're the wisest man,
the most understanding man to ever live. Nobody's been like
this before you, and nobody's going to rise up after you that's
going to have the wisdom and understanding you have. the Queen
of Sheba heard about this wisdom. Now, this wisdom is demonstrated
in 1 Kings 3, verse 16. As we go on down reading in this
chapter, perhaps you're familiar with this story, but this teaches
us something about what true wisdom is. And if you want to
know the wisdom of God, listen real carefully. Then came there
two women that were harlots unto the king and stood before him.
And this is after God had given him this wise heart. And they
had an issue, verse 17. And the one woman said, oh my
Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I was delivered
of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third
day after that I was delivered that this woman also delivered,
and we were together. There was no stranger with us
in the house, save we two in the house, two women and two
infants, newborn infants. And this woman's child died in
the night because she overlaid it. She laid on it and smothered
it to death. She didn't do it purposely, but
she did it in her sleep. And she arose at midnight and
took my son from beside me while thine handmaid slept, and laid
it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when
I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was
dead. But when I considered it in the
morning and looked upon him, behold, this was not my son which
I did bear." She knew who her son really was. And the other
woman said, "'Nay, but the living is my son, and the dead is thy
son.' And she said, "'No, but the dead is thy son, and the
living is my son.' Thus they spake before the king." Now you
see what the issue was. Both of them were claiming that
the living child was theirs. One was lying. One was telling
the truth. Then said the king, the one that
saith, this is my son that liveth and thy son is the dead and the
other saith, nay, but thy son is the dead and my son is the
living. And the king said, bring me a sword. And they brought
a sword before the king and the king said, divide the living
child in two and give half to the one and half to the other.
Now, what do you think the mother of the living child would say
to that? She'd say, no, give her the child.
She wouldn't want it divided and killed. Now let's go on reading. Then spake the woman whose the
living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her
son. And she said, oh, my lord, give her the living child, and
in no wise slay it. But the other said, let it be
neither mine nor thine. Divide it. That's fair. Let's
just cut it in half. Then the king answered and said,
Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it, she is the
mother thereof. And all of Israel heard of the
judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, for
they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment." Now,
here is the wisdom of God. The living truth cannot be divided. This living child represents
the gospel. The gospel is made of many truths,
which make the one truth, the truth of how God saves sinners.
And if you leave out any part of it, if you divide it, if you
separate it, if you make it to where it's not one, you no longer
have the truth. You have a dead child, one that
has no life, that cannot produce life. Now you think of the gospel.
I think of when Philip was preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch. The
Ethiopian eunuch was reading from Isaiah 53, where he didn't
understand whether the prophet was speaking of himself or somebody
else when he was speaking of the substitutionary death of
the Lord on the cross, where he was reading where he's led
as a lamb before shears is done, so he opened not his mouth. And
he asked Philip, of whom speaketh the prophet, himself or some
other man? And the scripture says, beginning at that same
scripture, Philip opened his mouth and preached unto him,
Jesus. He demonstrated to this man how
the Lord Jesus Christ is the one of whom the prophet spake,
who had laid down his life for his people. He began right there
where he didn't open his mouth, and he said, why didn't he open
his mouth? Why didn't he defend himself before Pilate and Herod? because he knew he was guilty. The sins of God's elect became
his. He became guilty of them. He
didn't try to defend himself because he knew he was bearing
guilt. The sins of his people became
his own. And he went throughout the scriptures from that point
to preach unto him Jesus. He told him who he was. He's
the second person of the Trinity. He's the God-man. He's the son
of God. He told him what he did. He died
on a cross. He lived a perfect life and he
died on a cross. And he told him why he died on
a cross. He died on a cross because he was a sin bearing substitute.
The sins of God's people became his sins. They were imputed to
him. He bore them and he suffered
and he died as a sin payment. And that perfect righteousness
that he worked out is given to his people. He preached unto
him Jesus, all the aspects of the Lord's death. He died a redeeming
death. He actually redeemed His people.
He died a justifying death. He made it to where all of His
people were just before God. And because of this, God the
Holy Spirit calls these people and they come to Christ and find
in Him they're all in salvation. You see, the Gospel is made of
many truths which make the truth. And if you leave one of these
truths out, you no longer have the truth. You no longer have
a living child if you suffer to be divided. Here's an example
of what I'm trying to say. There are two views of salvation.
One view is that salvation is ultimately dependent upon man.
God's done his part, but man might not be saved anyway even
though God's done his part because man's got to do his part too.
The other view is salvation is completely dependent upon God,
not man doing his part, but God in Christ Jesus doing it all. We believe, at the Todd Road
Grace Church, we believe what is called the doctrine of grace. It's known by the acrostic TULIP,
total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. Some people call
that reform doctrine. Some people call it Calvinism.
I despise both of those terms. It's just the Bible. It's what
the Bible teaches, that men are dead in sins and cannot save
themselves God, because He's merciful and gracious, chose
a people, elected a people before time began to be saved. Christ
Jesus came in time as the representative of God's elect, His sheep, and
kept the law for them and died for them, paying for all their
sins. When He said it is finished, their sins were paid for. And
God, in grace, by God the Holy Spirit, invincibly and irresistibly
comes upon all those the Father elected, and Christ died, and
gives them hearing ears to hear the gospel. They believe, and
they repent, and by the grace of God, they're enabled to persevere
all the way to the end. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, Christ's death for His elect,
irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. Now, which one
of those are okay to leave out? If you divide any of them, you
no longer have the truth. They all stand or fall together. There's not one of them that
can be left out. Solomon demonstrated his wisdom
in refusing to let the truth be divided. Now let's go back
to the Queen of Sheba coming to him, and when the Queen of
Sheba heard of the famous Solomon concerning the name of the Lord,
she came to prove him with hard questions, questions like, how
could God love me? How could God be just and yet
justify somebody who's not just? How can God say, I'll by no means
clear the guilty and yet forgive those who are guilty? How can
those things be? You know, those are things some
people never consider, but she considered them. She came to
prove Solomon with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with
a very great train, with camels that bear spices, and very much
gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon,
she communed with him of all that was in her heart. She let
him know the truth of what was really in her heart. her need,
her ignorance, the depth of her depravity, how she was confused
and didn't know how God could have anything to do with her.
She was honest. And that's the way you come to
the Lord. Solomon is a type of Christ.
You come and tell him all that's in your heart. You don't come
as a religious phony. You don't come pretending to
be what you're not. You come in honesty, telling
him all that's in your heart. You express all your doubts,
all your fears, all your need. That's how she came. Verse 3,
And Solomon told her all her hard questions. He answered those
questions regarding how God saves sinners. And there was not anything
hid from the king which he told her not. He told her all the
truth. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all of Solomon's wisdom, And the house that he built,
this is a type of Christ. Solomon is such a type of Christ
here. And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants,
and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and their
cupbearers, and his assent by which he went up into the house
of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. I mean, she was
slain by this sight of Solomon. And if you and I ever see the
Lord Jesus Christ, there'll be no more spirit in us either.
We'll be slain by His sight. And she said to the king, it
was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts
and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words
until I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half
was not told to me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
the fame which I heard. Now she said, when I first heard,
I didn't believe. But when I saw for myself, when
you made yourself known to me, I believed and the half has never
been told. Happier thy men, happier these
thy servants, which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom.
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in me to set
thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel
forever. Therefore hath he made thee king to do judgment over
them." She came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. She came to hear
the gospel. That's what she came to do. She came to hear. She didn't come to tell him what
she believed. She didn't come to do anything
but to hear the words of the Lord. Now, I think it's very
interesting. She came to hear Solomon, and
Solomon While he was the wisest man to ever live, he proved that
man in his best state is altogether vanity. Because in 2 Kings 11,
it says, But King Solomon loved many strange women, together
with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites,
Edomites, Zidianites, and Hittites, of the nations concerning which
the Lord said unto the children of Israel, You shall not go into
them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they
will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon claimed to
these in love against the warning of Scripture. And he had seven
hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and
his wives turned away his heart. And it came to pass when Solomon
was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods,
and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was
the heart of David his father. Now Solomon, the wisest man to
ever live, proved himself that truly man at his best state.
is altogether vanity. We see this in Solomon's conduct. And the same thing will happen
to me, and the same thing will happen to you, apart from the
restraining grace of God. But the Lord says, she became
at a great distance just to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And she
heard, I'm here infinitely greater than Solomon. and you're not
hearing me, she will rise up in judgment and condemn you,
because behold, a greater than Solomon is here. She came to
hear, and here you have this opportunity of hearing me, the
very words of God, and you reject what I say. Oh, may God give
me these hearing ears." Now, let's briefly consider what he
says about Jonah. He said, the people of Nineveh
repented at the preaching of Jonah. They heard what he had
to say, and they repented. And behold, a greater than Jonah
is here. Now at the first of the book
of Jonah, we read, now the word of the Lord came into Jonah,
the son of Amite, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before
me. And you know the story. Jonah
ran. He didn't want to do this. Jonah
had all kinds of issues. As a matter of fact, after the
Lord saved the Ninevites from his preaching, he was upset at
the Lord because it made him look bad. Because he said, the
Lord is going to destroy this place in 40 days. They repented. The Lord had mercy on them. And
Jonah was upset about it. So we see that Jonah had some
kind of issues. He was just a man, but he was
a prophet and he told the truth. Now, you know the story. He's
a great type of Christ. He ran and went from the presence
of the Lord and got in a boat, and the Lord sent a storm because
of that, and they saw that the storm was because of Jonah. They
cast lots. It came to Jonah. He said, I'm
guilty. I've ran from the Lord, and this
storm is happening because I'm here. You throw me overboard,
and there'll be a great call. and they threw him overboard,
and there was a great calm." He pictures the Lord Jesus Christ
there. Christ had the sins of his people, and when he died,
there was a great calm. God accepted what he did. Jonah
was in the whale's belly for three days, and it spit him out.
The Lord was in the heart of the earth for three days, and
he was raised from the dead, the sign of Jonah, the prophet,
the gospel. Christ lived, died, and was raised
from the dead. But at any rate, we read in chapter
3, after Jonah was spit back out by the fish on dry land,
and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
arise, go into Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it
the preaching that I bid thee." Now, that's the content of true
preaching, preaching what God says to preach from His Word.
It's not man's programs and man's traditions and man's thoughts.
It's what God says in His Word, and that's exactly what Jonah
did at this time. Now we read in verse 3, so Jonah
rose and went into Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now
Nineveh was an exceeding great city, a three days journey, and
Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried
and said, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Verse 5, so the people of Nineveh believed God. They believed God
was just, They believed that God was righteous. They believed
they were sinful. They believed God would, in fact,
come in 40 days and destroy that place. They believed themselves
to be guilty and should be destroyed. They believed the preaching of
Jonah. They believed God through His
preaching. And they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth,
from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For the
word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne,
and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth,
and sat in ashes. You see the true humbling of
themselves before God when they heard of this message of judgment.
And He caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither
man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not
feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with
sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. For what? Mercy. Oh Lord, if you judge us righteous
and holy is your name, but oh, that you would have mercy on
us, that you'd not give us what we deserve, that you'd give us
what we don't deserve, your grace. Oh, being like the leper crying
for mercy, like the Syrophoenician woman crying for mercy, like
blind Bartimaeus, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Yea, let them turn everyone from
his evil way, the way of Wickedness, yeah, that's certainly included,
but the way of salvation by works. Let every man turn from that
and from the violence that's in their hands. Violence is when
you try to impose your will on somebody else and you use whatever
means it takes. It's the imposing of the will
is what violence is. I'm going to get what I want
in whatever way I've got to get it. And he says, let every man
turn from his evil way and from the violence of their hands.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from
his fierce anger that we perish not? They repented at the preaching
of Jonas. They changed their mind regarding
their way. They said, we thought it was
a right way and it's a wrong way. They change their mind concerning
the imposing of their will upon people. Our will is what gets
us in trouble. Oh, be pleased to have mercy
on us. Now, when you repent, you change
your mind. about your way. You find out
it's wrong. You change your mind about God. You bow to who he is and his
word. You change your mind about yourself. You see that you're
nothing but sin and in and of yourself. You change your mind
about salvation. You see it's God's to give or
God's to withhold. And you cry for mercy. You don't cry for justice. You
cry for mercy. Oh, have mercy on me. And God saw their works, that
they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil
that he said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. Now, if you and I here were hearing
ears, we will repent. We'll change our mind, and we'll
look to Christ only. This woman came to hear Sheba,
and she heard. And the Ninevites heard and repented. May God give you and I the grace
to do the same thing, to hear the truth with hearing ears and
to repent. 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 Kniper praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer.
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