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 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 this morning's
message, The Mission of the Son of Man. In this passage of scripture,
we're going to look at the Lord Jesus Christ gives, and I say
this reverently, but he gives his mission statement, the mission
of the Son of Man. In Luke chapter nine, verse 51,
we read, and it came to pass when the time was come that he
should be received up. He would go back to his father,
having finished the work that the father gave him to do. When
the time came for him to be received up, he steadfastly set his face
to go to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place that
he was going to be crucified. Why did Christ come? Well, Matthew
121 says, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save
His people from their sins. Now, how did He do this? First,
by keeping the law for them. Christ Jesus obeyed God's law
perfectly. He never sinned. You see, for me to be accepted
by God, I have to be without sin. and Christ is my righteousness
before God. He kept the law for me. But if he would have just kept
the law and gone back to heaven, it would do me no good. Not only
did he keep the law for me, but he came to die. He came to die
for his people. You see, God is just. God is
holy. Sin must be punished. And in
the Christ, On the cross, sin was punished. The sins of God's
elect became his sins so that he became guilty of them, and
he bore the full punishment, the full wrath and justice of
God against sin. He came for this purpose, and
he steadfastly set his face toward Jerusalem. He's the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, and he came to do what was determined
and already done in eternity. He came to die, and so he would
not be moved from his mission. He came to live, to keep the
law, and he came to die. I'm so thankful for the mission
of the Son of Man." Now, we're going to get more into what He
said it was in just a moment, but I want you to remember this.
What we see in the Lord Jesus Christ, the way He set His face
for Jerusalem, we see His willingness to save. Don't ever question
the willingness of Christ to save. If you come to him as a
sinner needing mercy, he'll receive you. He said, him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise, for no reason whatsoever cast away. Christ is willing to save. I think of that leper that came
to him. We read about him in Matthew chapter eight, there
came a leper and worshiped him saying, Lord, If you will, you
can make me clean. Now, he was positive about the
Lord's ability to make him clean, but he wasn't sure about his
willingness. But the scripture says in Jesus, moved with compassion,
reached forth his hand and touched him. No one else would, but the
Lord did. And he said, I will be thou clean. The Lord is willing to save. The Lord is willing to have mercy. He set his face steadfastly toward
Jerusalem, the place where he was going to die, because he,
first of all, in obedience to his father, but also because
of his willingness to save sinners. And we read in verse 52, and
he sent messengers before his face, and they went, and entered
into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him, and they
did not receive him, because his face was as though he would
go to Jerusalem." Now, the Samaritans had a long-standing feud with
the Jews. The Samaritans, you can read
about this in 2 Kings chapter 17, they were not truly Jews.
They were inhabitants of Babylon, and when the Jews were brought
out of Israel in captivity, the king of Assyria had these men
go inhabit the land, and they didn't practice the Jews' religion.
They kind of made kind of a hybrid religion, so the Jews despised
them, and the Samaritans despised the Jews. They had a feud between
one another. You might remember in John chapter
4, when the Lord came to that Samaritan woman, the woman at
the well, She said, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Why are you asking me for something
to drink? Now, the Lord sent some messengers to this Samaritan
village to let them know he's coming, and they refused to receive
him. Now, let's go on reading. Verse
54. And when his disciples, James
and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command
fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elijah
did? Now, James and John loved their
master, and they were greatly offended that these Samaritans
would not receive him. And they felt, this is not right.
We've got to do something about this. And they said to the Lord,
with a true zeal for his glory, they said, Lord, wilt thou that
we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
If you read in the life of Elijah, three times. A captain with 50
people came to him, and he commanded fire to come down from heaven
and consume them. And they were consumed. And James
and John thought they had a scriptural precedent for what they're doing.
This is wrong that they're not receiving you. We ought to go
ahead and get rid of them. Wilt thou that we command fire
to come down from heaven and consume them the way Elijah did?
Now, look at the Lord's answer, verse 55. But he turned and rebuked
them. and said, you know not what manner
of spirit you are of. Now, this is a warning to all
of us. We can be very passionate about
something seemingly out of a zeal for Christ's glory and for Christ's
honor and not realize we're in a totally wrong spirit. The Lord said to His disciples,
James and John, you know not what manner of spirit you are
of. You don't know what's activating
this kind of emotion and feeling, but it's not the Holy Spirit.
You know not what manner of spirit you are of. This has nothing
to do with the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. You see, the
fruit of the Spirit is love. joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. And this attitude
of James and John had nothing to do with the fruit of God the
Holy Spirit when they wanted fire to come down and consume
these men. Now, I hope we will ask ourselves
this question, what manner of spirit am I? I want to ask myself
that question every day. May the Lord deliver me from
always trying to vindicate myself and justify myself and call fire
down from heaven against my enemies and the people that disagree
with me. That's what James and John did. And the Lord rebuked
them and said, you know not what manner of spirit you are of.
And these men actually thought they had a scriptural justification
for acting the way they did. They said, Elijah did this. We
have a precedent in scripture doing this. So we ought to do
it too. Now may the Lord deliver us from
this manner of spirit. But out of this bad spirit, the
Lord gives us his mission statement. Once again, in verse 55 and verse
56, but he turned and rebuked them and said, you know not what
manner of spirit you are of, for the son of man is not come
to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Now here we have the
mission of the son of man. He says he has not come to destroy
men's lives, but to save them. Now, I love the way the Lord
calls himself the Son of Man. Do you know that's the title
he gave to himself more than any other title? He called himself
the Son of Man. Really, that's his title of humiliation
in some respects. You see, if he would have said,
I'm the mighty God, it would have been true. If he would have
said, I'm the Prince of Peace, it would have been true. If he
would have said, I'm the Son of God, now listen to this scripture,
Isaiah 9, 6, spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given. That son wasn't born, the son
is eternal. Unto us a child is born, speaking
of the incarnation of Christ, but unto us a son is given. And
the government shall be upon his shoulders. He reigns and
rules, and his name shall be called Wonderful. Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This is the Son who was given.
And he could have used any of those titles to describe himself,
but he calls himself the Son of Man. I don't know of anything
more glorious than the fact that God became a man. He remained God. He never quit
being God. But God the Son became a man. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Christ Jesus is the Son of Man. Now, why did he call himself
the Son of Man? Because he loves being a man. You know, there was a time before
his incarnation when he was not a man, but he took upon him flesh,
he made that condescension, and he loves being a man. And the reason he became a man
was to save men. He loves saving men. He delights
in mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ loves saving
men. Isn't that wonderful to think
about? God was manifest in the flesh for this purpose. He didn't
come to condemn men. He came to save men. Now, John 3, verse 17 says, For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, You
see, the world was already condemned. He didn't come to destroy men
because men already were destroyed. He came to save. For God sent
not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved. You see, we were already condemned.
Now, what does the Bible mean by that? First of all, we were
condemned in Adam. 1 Corinthians 15.22 says, In
Adam all die. Now, when Adam sinned against
God, I was held responsible for what He did, because I was in
Him. Whatever He did, I did. As by
one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, in that all have sinned. When He took that fruit,
you and I did too, and we were condemned by what He did." Now,
that's what the Scripture teaches. Now, somebody might be thinking,
well, how could it be fair for God to hold me responsible for
something that somebody else did. Well, okay, let's say he
doesn't do that and he leaves you on your own. How have you
fared? If he didn't condemn you for
Adam's sin, you'd be condemned for your own sin because you
sinned. And here's the good news about this. that we were condemned
by somebody else's sin. If we can be condemned for Adam's
sin, somebody else's sin, we can also be saved because of
somebody else's obedience. You see, the gospel is in this.
In Adam, all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But first of all, we were condemned,
already condemned, born into this world condemned because
of Adam's sin, but not only that, we're condemned by our own personal
practice. Our own sin against God, all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're sinned
by our practice, we're condemned, we sin by our practice, we're
condemned by the justice of God. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. Now the Lord Jesus Christ did
not come to condemn. He came to save. Now, I'd like
to read a passage of scripture from John 6, verse 38. The Lord
clearly tells us in this passage of scripture why He came. In
John 6, verse 38, He says, For I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me. that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day." Now, in no uncertain or unclear terms, the Lord tells
us why he came. I came to do the will of him
that sent me, and here's what it is, that of all which he hath
given me, speaking of the elect, I should lose nothing. I won't
lose one of them, but I'll raise them up at the last day. And
this is the will of Him that sent me, that everybody that
sees me, they see me as everything in salvation, and they believe
on me, they'll have everlasting life. Now, whatever Christ came to do, that's
what He did. whatever his intentions were
because of who he is. You see, he cannot fail. He's
the Son of God. He's all-powerful. His will can't
be trumped. Whatever it was he intended to
do, that's exactly what he did. Now, there are basically two
views of Christ's intentions that men preach. One view, and
this is what most people preach, one view is that it was the intent
of the Lord Jesus Christ to save everybody. He came here to give
everybody a chance. He died for everybody's sin and
made a sin payment for everybody. But as to whether or not you're
saved, it's up to whether or not you accept what He did. And
if you accept what He did, you will be saved. Salvation is ultimately
conditioned upon your acceptance of what He did, and not what
He did for you. Because under that view, He can
die for you, and He can pay for your sins, and you wind up in
hell anyway. And He can die for you and pay
for your sins, and you might be saved, but it's because of
what you did, not because of what He did, but what you did.
That's the view most people hold that Christ's intention was to
save everybody. And the other view, and it's
the right view, it's the scriptural view, is that He came to save
the elect. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Christ loved the church and gave
Himself for it. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He didn't lay down his life for
goats. He laid down his life for the sheep, his elect. Now, if Christ did come with
the intention of making salvation possible for everybody and saving
everybody and paying for everybody's sin, then he failed in his intention. That's just the fact of the matter.
If he came trying to save everybody, then he failed in his intention. And not only that, if he paid
for everybody's sins, and some people end up in hell anyway,
that would make God unjust because the same sin is being paid for
twice. He paid for it on the cross, and then somebody else
has to pay for that same sin that Christ paid for on the cross
in hell? Why, that would be unjust. That'd
be wrong. Now, thank God the Bible teaches
that His intention was to save His people from their sins. Let
me quote that scripture again. Matthew 121, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Now this is what I need saved
from. I need saved from my sins. Sure, I need to save from all
kinds of other things, but the main thing I need to save from
is my sins. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Now, here's
how Christ saves His people from their sins. First, by paying
for their sins. You see, I'm not going to be
condemned because the justice of God has already been satisfied
against me. Christ bore the condemnation
of my sin, and I will never have to be condemned. held accountable
for my personal sins because my Redeemer was held accountable
for my personal sins. They became His. He paid for
them. And now I am justified. I love justification. It doesn't
mean just as if I never sinned. It means I never sinned. And
that's the truth because Christ put my sin away. It's gone. I've
been saved from the condemnation of sin. And I've been saved from
the power of sin. Now, somebody may hear that and
think, well, it seems like sin still, I hope I'm saved, but
it seems like sin's got a lot of power in me. Well, it does. You still have the flesh. But
if you're a believer. You have a new nature, a holy
nature that's greater than your old nature. There was a time
when you could not believe, and you do now. Why? Because you've
been saved from the power of your sins. There was a time when
you could not repent, and you're in a continual state of repentance
now. Why? Because you've been saved from
the power of your sins. Not only am I saved, from the
condemnation of sin. Not only am I saved from the
power of sin, but I'm saved from the very presence of sin. In
this sense, is sin present with Christ? No, in him is no sin. If I'm in him, I have no sin
and I'm gonna realize that in the fullness of it in glory.
When my flesh is gone, when I die and my old nature is put away
and I'll never sin again, I won't even remember what it's like
to be a sinner. That's how truly Christ saves his people from
their sins. Now, here's the question I wanna
ask. Am I one of his people? I want you to ask that question,
too. Are you one of his people? I shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. Am I sheep? There are sheep and
there are goats. Which one am I? A sheep never
becomes a goat, and a goat never becomes a sheep. You remember
that passage of scripture in Matthew, chapter 25, when all
the world is before the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment, and
he separates them. from one another as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats. There are sheep on his right
hand, there are goats on his left. Now, dare I believe that
I am somebody that Christ Jesus came to save? Dare I believe
that my sins are forgiven? Dare I believe that I'm one of
his people? Dare I believe that he died for
me? How can I know? Well, the Lord
said he didn't come to destroy men's lives, but he came to save. Now, I want to read another scripture
that's very similar to that. In Luke 19, verse 10, we read,
for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was
lost. Now, you can know whether Christ
came to save you. You can know whether Christ died
for you. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. Now what does that mean? That
which was lost? You know, every man born into
this world is lost. He's not saved. We're born sinners. Scripture teaches that. Every
man is born into this world and lost. But not every man is saved. All men were lost in Adam. All
men are lost by practice. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God and forfeited any right to call God our Father
because we've sinned against Him. All men are lost by practice. But that doesn't mean all men
are saved. There is a heaven where there's a great population
and there is a place called hell where men are at even now. Although
all men are lost by their practice, not all men are saved. You know,
there's some men who are lost to society. We put them in jail. We have to keep them off the
streets because of the crimes they would commit against society.
And we say they're lost to society. They are. But just because you're
lost to society doesn't mean you're saved. And yet the Lord
said, He came to seek and save that which was lost. You know,
there are people who are even lost to their families. They
have lived such wicked lives that their families have to remove
themselves from them. And they're lost to their families. And yet, is that what the Lord
meant when He said He came to seek and to save that which was
lost? What does the Lord mean when He says the Son of Man came
to seek and to save that which was lost? That means lost to
all hopes of self-salvation. That means that if God doesn't
do something for me, if he doesn't intervene, I'll go to hell. That's what it means. I can't
do anything to save myself. I'm lost. If salvation is in
any way dependent upon me, it's all over for me. I'm lost. I'm lost to all hopes of self-salvation. 1 Timothy 1.15, I suppose this
is my favorite verse of scripture. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world. Here's his mission. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save who? Sinners. Paul says, of whom I
am the chief. I'm the worst man to ever live,
Paul says. And he didn't say whom I was
the chief, but whom I am the chief. Now, what's that mean? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Well, what's a sinner? A sinner's
the one who commits the sin. Now remember, God doesn't put
sins in hell. God puts the ones who committed
those sins in hell. I've heard preachers say God
loves the sinner, but he hates his sin. Now that's humanizing
God. I can understand where we love
somebody and perhaps hate what they do when they do wrong. I
understand that, but God's not like us. He's altogether other.
He's other. He's not like any, he's not like
us. And He hates sin and the sinner
that commits the sin, and He puts that sinner into hell. The
scripture says, Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. I know He
hated Esau. The scripture says that. But
there is mercy and there is grace for everyone who is a sinner.
Now, my question is, are you a sinner? A sinner is somebody
who all they do is sin. They cannot not sin. They can't
look down their nose at anybody in judgment because they know
that they're worse. And they have absolutely no claims
on God. I can't say, Lord, save me because
I did this, or save me because I did that. No, I am a sinner. Now, if you are a sinner, like
I just described, Christ died for you. And the Son of Man came
to save you. He came to save every sinner. If you're a sinner, Christ died
for you. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's
who He came for. Why did Christ come? He came
not to condemn, but to save. 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.