Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. 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
Nyvert. I'm going to read a passage of
scripture from Luke, chapter six. I'd like to read the first
five verses. I've entitled this message, The
Lord of the Sabbath. Beginning in verse one of Luke,
chapter six, and it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the
first that he went through the cornfields and his disciples
plucked the ears of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their
hands. Now, this appeared to be work.
And on the Sabbath day, work was forbidden. There's a passage
of scripture in Numbers, chapter 15, where a man was found gathering
sticks on the Sabbath day. And they brought him to Moses
and Moses asked the Lord what to do about it. And they stoned
him with stones and killed him. And he died before the Lord for
gathering sticks. And the disciples seemed to be
breaking the Sabbath. They were making food. Verse
2, And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that
which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? You're breaking
the Sabbath. And Jesus answering them said,
Have you not read so much as this what David did when he himself
was in hunger and they which were with him? How he went into
the house of God and did eat and the show bread and gave also
to them which were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but
for the priests alone. He appeared to be breaking the
law. And he said unto them that the
Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day. Now, the Pharisees
had a great love for the Sabbath day. They had no idea what it
meant. They looked at it as a law they
could keep. And so they tried to keep it
and tried to enforce it on others. As a matter of fact, they made
new laws with regard to the Sabbath day. They had how many steps
you could walk on the Sabbath day. If you went one step over,
all of a sudden you're breaking the Sabbath. One wonders why
they didn't make an issue of other sins that they committed,
but I suppose they like to make an issue of this one because
they felt as though they kept it. Now, the Lord purposely chose
to do most of his miracles on the Sabbath day. I love the way
he did that. And they were constantly accusing
the Lord of breaking the Sabbath by doing miracles and works of
mercy on the Sabbath day. Now, what the Pharisees had done
was they'd made a work out of not working, they had no idea
what the Sabbath meant. And they made this accusation
against the Lord and against His disciples because they rubbed
ears of grain and seemingly worked on the Sabbath day. I love when
He said, have you not read? Of course they've read it. They've
read it many times, but they didn't know the meaning. of anything they read. Now, what
is the Sabbath? What's it all about? I'd like
to read from Exodus chapter 20 and the Ten Commandments. The
Sabbath is part of the Ten Commandments. Now, people talk about wanting
to post the commandments up in schools and courts and so on.
Well, the Ten Commandments are a holy law, but no one ever thinks
about the Sabbath with regard to the Ten Commandments. I wonder
why that is. It's because they don't understand
it. But if you break the Sabbath, you've broken all Ten Commandments.
And yet people never even mention anything about the Sabbath. But
listen to what the Lord says in Exodus chapter 20. This is
the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments. Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days thou shalt labor and
do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
nor thy maidservant, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that's within thy gates. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all
that in them is, and rested on the seventh day. Wherefore, the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Now, in Genesis
chapter 1, when the Lord had finished creation, We read in
verse 31, and God saw everything that he'd made, and behold, it
was very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. Thus, the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day,
God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh
day from all his work which he had made. Now, he didn't rest
because he was tired. He rested because he was finished. Verse 3, And God blessed the
seventh day, Sabbath, and sanctified it, because that in that day
he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Now, there are three words I
want to call your attention to in that passage of Scripture
I just read. Finished. Ended. and rest. The Sabbath was because God had
finished His work. There was nothing left to do. The Lord said from Calvary's
tree, it is finished. He didn't simply mean my part
was finished and my suffering's over. That's over with now. No,
it is finished. When he said it is finished,
the salvation of everybody he died for was accomplished. Accomplished completely outside
of their personal subjective experience. When he said it is
finished, my salvation was accomplished. Then it speaks of God ended His
work. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. and then rested. God rested. The believer rests
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There remaineth a rest for the
people of God, for he that's entered into his rest has ceased
from his own works, as God did from his. God was finished. There
wasn't anything to do. It was very good. The believer
rests in the Lord Jesus Christ, because there's nothing for him
to do. Salvation's not by works. It's by grace. Salvation's not
what I do, it's what He has done. And I rest in that, oh, the joy
of resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the next time we
read of the word rest in the Scripture is in Genesis chapter
8. Now, do you remember when Noah's
ark, the water was abating, and Noah first sent out a raven?
And the raven never came back. You see, the raven was an unclean
bird. It could live off carrion, rotting
flesh. He was fine with it, like a vulture.
Then he sent out a dove, and the dove couldn't eat on that,
so the dove actually came back, and it couldn't find any rest
for the sole of its feet in the ark. Now, important picture. An unbeliever can feed off that
which is dead. That's all he wants. He doesn't
have to have the gospel. But a believer can only rest in the
ark of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a rest! Now, the Pharisees,
in all their effort to keep the Sabbath, didn't have any idea
what it meant. The thought of rest was foreign
to them, and they found their righteousness in what they thought
was their observance of this day. So, this came as a bombshell
to them when the Lord said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. If they
do this, if I say they can do it, they can do it because I
am the Lord of the Sabbath. Now, Jesus Christ is Lord. I love saying that. Jesus Christ
is Lord. The word Lord means having power. he has all power he said all
power is given to me he's called christ the wisdom of god and
the power of god the name of the lord jesus christ is the
power of god and he assumed that title he said to his disciples
you call me master and lord and you say well for so i am I don't
address the Master as Jesus. I address Him as the Lord. He's the Lord. I despise the
way religious people use His name, Jesus this and Jesus that.
If you know who He is, you'll be reverent when you use His
name. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's Lord because He is Lord. He's Lord of Lords. He's King
of Kings. He's the eternal Lord. He's always
been Lord. He is Lord right now, and He
always will be Lord. He's the Lord, and He's the Lord
because the Father made Him Lord. When I hear people say, won't
you make Jesus the Lord of your life? You can't make Him the
Lord. If you could make Him the Lord
of your life, that means you're His Lord. You can't make Him
the Lord of your life. He is Lord, and you're in His
hands. God's already made Him Lord.
God hath made this same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord
and Christ. He's the Lord because the Father
made Him Lord. Lordship means right, power, sovereignty. Now anybody who's
ever known the Lord Jesus Christ has known Him as the Lord. Now the thief understood this.
The thief was nailed to a cross, and that one beside him, seemingly
so helpless, nailed to a cross with a crown of thorns on his
head. Everybody had forsaken him. His friends had left him.
He heard him cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He saw this man seemingly in his greatest state of weakness,
and he said, Lord, you're the Lord. You're the king. You're the ruler. You're not
going to stay on this cross. You're going to come back as
a ruling, reigning king. He knew he was the Lord. He said,
and when you do, remember me. If you remember my name, all
is well. And the Lord said, Today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. He's the Lord. Thomas knew it. When the Lord
revealed Himself to him, he said, My Lord and my God. The leper understood this. When
he came into his presence, he fell down on his face and worshipped
him, saying, Lord. If you will, you can make me
clean. As to whether or not I'll be
clean, it's all up to you. It's in your sovereign will.
If you will, you can make me clean. You see Romans chapter
14 verse 9 says to this end, Christ both died, arose and revived,
that he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. He's
the Lord. I love to think about the Lordship
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord of creation. He
spake this world into existence by an act of His will. By His
Word, the universe came forth. There was nothing and He created
something from nothing because He is the Lord. Why? He is the Lord of all matter,
of all physical elements. Listen to this scripture. Verse,
in Luke chapter 19 beginning in verse 37, And when he came
that nigh, even down at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole
multitudes of the disciples began to rejoice, and praised God with
a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying,
Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace
in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from
among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. They shouldn't be saying such
things as this. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you
that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately
cry out. The stones are His. They know
who their Master is and they're going to give Him praise. You
see, He's Lord of all the physical universe. There's a raging storm. He says, peace, be still. And
there's a great calm. The storm obeys its master. He's Lord of the animal kingdom,
plant kingdom, whatever you want to say. He's Lord of it. I love
the way he said, throw your net into the sea. They throw the
net into the sea. They say, fish, get in the net.
They get in the net. It draws up. They came because he had
them do it. You see, he's Lord. He's Lord of angels. They do
His bidding. Whatever He tells them to do,
that's exactly what they do. He's Lord of demons. Even Satan
himself is God's devil and he can't make a move without God's
permission. Why the demons said, suffers to go into the herd of
swine, they couldn't go in unless He gave them permission to leave.
And he suffered and he allowed it. They couldn't do a thing
without Him. He's the Lord of unbelievers.
I think of when the people came to arrest Him. He said, Whom
seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And the scripture says they went
backwards at the power of his name. And our Lord was demonstrating
at this time that he was no victim. He was in control of everything
that was taking place. I am. He's the Lord. When Pilate said to him, speak
a sound not to me. Don't you know that I have power
to crucify you and I have power to release you? He said, you
could have no power at all over me, except it be given thee from
above. You see, he is Lord and he is
Lord of believers. Every believer says with Thomas
of old, my Lord and my God. He's not Savior and Lord, He's
Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord. And He
is most especially Lord of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. What do I mean he's Lord of salvation? What does the Bible mean by him
being Lord of salvation? That means salvation is entirely
in his hands. Your and my eternal destiny is
up to him. We have no control in this thing
of salvation. He can save us if He's pleased,
or He can pass us by and let us go to hell if He's pleased,
and whatever He does is right. There's nothing you can do to
get Him to save you. You're in His sovereign hands. He can do with you whatever He's
pleased to do. He can harden your heart like
Pharaoh's and let you go to hell, or He can save you like He did
with the Apostle Paul when He knocked him off of a horse and
brought him to the dust and made him to know who He was. He can
do whatever He's pleased to do. You have no control. I have no
control in this. Now, what's my response to that?
Do I just say, well, there's nothing I can do. I'll just give
up. No, I say, Lord, save me. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, the Scripture says, shall be saved. The name
of the Lord. Now, when I'm calling on His
name, that doesn't simply mean that I'm saying His name audibly. His name is who He is. His name
is His attributes. His name is His characteristics.
His name is His holiness, His sovereignty, His justice, His
grace, His wisdom. It's who He is. When I call on His name, I say,
Lord, save me by Your will. Will my salvation. You can do
that. If You will, You can make me clean. Lord, save me by Your
justice. Lord, make it to where You're
just and I'm just. Only You can do that through
the Gospel. Save me by Your wisdom. Save me in a way that You're
so wise that You can be just and yet justify the ungodly.
Save me by Your holiness. All that You are, I'm calling
upon Your name to save me. Whosoever shall call upon the
Lord shall be saved. Now, this is God's great end
in all things, the Lordship of His Son. We read in Philippians
chapter 2, For God hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Do you know every tongue is going to confess? some willingly, joyously,
some because they're made to. But every tongue is going to
confess, including Satan, every tongue is going to confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. That's God's great end. He's the Lord of lords and He's
the King of kings. When Peter was preaching In Cornelius
home, he said the word which God sent to the children of Israel
preaching peace by Jesus Christ He is Lord of all Jesus Christ
is Lord and He's Lord of the Sabbath not only the Sabbath
day but the Sabbath rest Do I believe in the perpetuity of the Sabbath?
Oh, yes. The Scripture says there remaineth a rest, a rest for
the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. the Sabbath of rest, the Lord
is the Lord of that rest. Now I'd like to read a passage
of scripture beginning in Matthew chapter 11 verse 25. We read,
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent. Who hid them? God did. Who did
He hide them from? The wise and the prudent in their
own eyes. And in the context, the things
He hid were the things of rest. If you do not rest in Christ,
God has hidden Himself from you. When He makes Himself known to
somebody, they're made to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord says, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you've hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes. And here's why. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. That's the only reason
that's needed. If it's good in God's sight,
it's good. And we say to whatever He does,
Amen. Now look what the Lord says in
verse 27 of Matthew chapter 11. All things are delivered unto
Me of My Father. Everything has been delivered
into My hand. I'm in absolute control. You know what that means, beloved?
It means you're in His hand. means I'm in His hand. That's
a good place to be. All things are delivered into
me of my Father. He has all authority. He has
all control. He has all right. All things
are delivered into His hand. He's the Lord. Oh, I'm so happy
He is, but He's the Lord. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knows the Son but the Father. Now, I'm so great, our Lord says. And only He can say this. If
a mere man said this, it would be arrogant. But He's saying,
I'm so great. I'm so incomprehensible. I'm
so altogether glorious that nobody can know me but the Father Himself. Now, we know Him, but not like
the Father does, because we're so... My dog would know me, but
not very well. He's so altogether glorious,
so vast. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in His body. No one can truly know Him but
the Father. Neither knows any man the Father
save the Son. I'm the only one who can actually
know the Father. To know Him as I know myself
because we're one. That's how He knows the Father.
He's one with the Father. He said, I and my Father are
one. He's in the Father, and the Father's
in Him. He knows the Father. No man can
know Me but the Father, neither can any man know the Father but
Me. And look what He says next. And
He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Now, if God the Son
reveals God to you, if He reveals the Gospel to you, you'll understand. You see, the gospel only comes
by revelation. It doesn't come by education.
Can thou, by searching, find out God? The answer is no. The
only way you and I can know the living God is if He is pleased
to reveal Himself. And thank God He does reveal
Himself to His people. He reveals Himself to all who
seek Him. He reveals Himself to all who call upon His name.
He reveals Himself to all who come like that leopard did. Now
let's go on reading. He says in verse 48, Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Now the law says, go and do. The Lord Jesus Christ says, come
to me. Who's He direct to come? All
that labor and are heavy laden, beat down and burdened, burdened
by sin. Burdened by responsibility in
that sin. And burdened by the inability
to do anything about that sin. Oh, burdened by sin. Weary and
heavy laden. He says, come to me and I will
give you rest. Oh, what a rest this is. The
rest of not working. The rest of not having to work
and earn God's favor. The rest of knowing that all
God requires of me, I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. The rest
of knowing that I'm complete in Him. Nothing lacking. Nothing
else is needed. Nothing to do. Rest. Resting
in Him who finished the work. Resting because Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. There's nothing for me to do. It's done. Salvation is not found
in the word do. Salvation is found in the word
done. It is finished. He says come
to me and I will give you rest. Now he's willing. And he's able. Come unto me and I will give
you rest. Not working. The rest of knowing
all that God requires you have. Look what he says next. He says
in verse 29, take my yoke upon you. Now there's the yoke of
the law. Galatians 5, 1, stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ is made us free and be not entangled
again in the yoke of bondage, the yoke of salvation by works.
What a heavy, terrible burden that is. But this is the yoke
of grace. This is the yoke of mercy. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Notice he doesn't say learn
about me. He says learn of me for I am
meek and lowly in heart. This one who's the Lord. I love
this about his character. This one who is the Lord is meek
and lowly in heart. You know, sinners could come
into his presence and not feel threatened and not feel judged
and not feel condemned. He says, come unto me, I'll give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest,
rest unto your souls. Oh, the rest. Do you know anything
about rest? Not being so stressed out, have
I done enough? Have I believed enough? The rest
of knowing there's nothing to do, that Jesus Christ the Lord
has done it all. That He actually put away sin. And in Him is no sin. And if
you're in Him, you have no sin. And you simply rest in who He
is and what He did. He said, My yoke is easy, and
it is easy. It's kind and gracious. And my
burden is light. Oh, the rest of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, he is the Lord of the Sabbath. May God give you and I the grace
to rest. Rest in Him. That's what faith
is. That's a description of faith. It's resting. You only rest when
the job is finished. And now you rest, entering the
joy of your Lord. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, if you
write or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniford
praying that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you.
Amen.