Not that I did choose thee, Lord,
for, Lord, that could not be. 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 Mattawar 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've entitled the message for
this morning, The Three R's. Most people, when they think
of the three R's, they think of reading, writing, and arithmetic,
but that's not the three R's I'm speaking of, and I'll tell
you why I entitled that in a few moments. Our text is found in
1 Corinthians chapter 15. In verse 20, Paul says, but now
is Christ risen again from the dead. Now is Christ risen from
the dead. Now, in the previous verses,
he was talking about some people in the church of Corinth who
were denying the resurrection of Christ. And he gives some
of the dreadful implications of him not being raised from
the dead. If Christ was not raised from
the dead, that means our preaching is meaningless. And it means
our faith is in vain. And it means we're false witnesses
of God, liars. It means we still have our sins
on us. It means that those who have
died in the faith have perished. And it means we're of all men
most miserable. That is the summary of 1 Corinthians
15, verses 12 through 19, if Christ did not literally, actually
rise from the dead. But, he says in verse 20, now
is Christ risen from the dead? And he became the first fruits
of them that slept. He is the guarantee of the resurrection
of all of his people is what that means. Verse 21, for since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead. By man came death. Now, this is a reference to Adam.
eating the fruit. You remember God said in the
day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now, he did not die
physically that very day, but he did die spiritually. Moreover, by one man sin entered
the world and death by sin so that death passed upon all men
in that all sin. Now more on that in a moment.
He also says in verse 21, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead, which is speaking of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, the son of God,
the second person of the blessed Trinity. God manifest in the
flesh. The God-man was nailed to a cross. Now, for 33 years, he had lived
a perfect, sinless life. He never thought of sin. He never
committed a sin. The Scripture says he knew no
sin. He obeyed God's law perfectly. And at the end of this perfect
life. He was falsely accused, he was
beaten and tortured, he was nailed to a cross and he died. The God
man died, they put him in a tomb dead. He went into that tomb
with the sins of His people, but three days later, as His
lifeless body lay there, all of a sudden, He opened His eyes. He was raised from the dead. He took the napkin off of His
face, and He took the grave clothes off, and He walked out of that
tomb alive. He was dead, and He is alive. Now, in verse 22, Paul tells
us what all of this means, the fact that by man came death,
so by man came the resurrection of the dead. He says in verse
22, for as in Adam, all die. Even so, in the same manner,
just like everybody that Adam represented, they're going to
die. In the same manner, in Christ, everybody Christ represents,
all shall be made alive. Now, here we have the three R's. There was a preacher a couple
hundred years ago by the name of Roland Hill, and he made this
statement. He said, any message that does
not have the three R's is not a gospel message. Now, the three
R's are ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated
by the Holy Spirit. And all three of those are seen
in this verse of Scripture that I just read. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now, any message,
I don't care what the subject is. I don't care if you're talking
about repentance or faith or the second coming of Christ or
anything the Bible teaches. This has to be the foundation
of all that's said, or it is not a gospel message. Ruined
by the fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by the
Holy Spirit. Any message that does not have
this as its foundation is not a gospel message. It may be many
true things are said, but it's still not the gospel that's the
power of God into salvation. No eternal good comes out of
that kind of preaching. Any true message that God the
Holy Spirit has inspired has this as its foundation. Ruined
by the fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by the
Holy Spirit. Ruined by the fall, in Adam,
all die. Redeemed by the blood, in Christ,
all shall be made alive. and regenerated by the Holy Spirit,
they're made alive. There's life that was not there
before. Now, let's consider these three
things. First, ruined by the fall. Now, in Adam, all die. You know the story of the fall
of Adam. It's not mythical, it's not typical,
but it is an historical event. God created Adam. And Eve, and
he placed them in the garden, and he said, you may eat of all
the trees of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, you may not eat of it. And then he went on
to say, in the day you do eat thereof, in the day you do, he
didn't say if you do, when you do, in the day you eat, you shall
surely die. God said that. He told them ahead
of time. In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Genesis
chapter 2 verse 17. Now, you know the story. Satan
tempted Eve. She ate of the fruit. She gave
to Adam the fruit. He ate and they died. They didn't die physically, but
they died spiritually. That's demonstrated in their
attitude about nakedness. Before he ate of the fruit, they
were naked and they were not ashamed. They didn't have a sinful
nature that would have created all the problems that would arise
from that. But after that they ate of the
fruit, the scripture says they both knew they were naked and
they went and hid themselves. They had a different nature. Now, they ate of the fruit and
they died. Now, what happened in the garden?
What happened? First of all, God's purpose. When Adam ate of that fruit,
he was fulfilling the purpose of God. Now let me ask you a
question. Could God have prevented Adam
from sinning against him? Could he? Well, he said to Abimelech
in Genesis chapter 20, I withheld thee from sinning against me. Now, God has the power to keep
someone from sin. And He said to Adam, in the day
you do eat, you shall surely die. This was all a part of God's
purpose and plan. Now, somebody says, are you saying
that God is the author of evil? No, I'm not saying that. But
I'm saying this is part of God's purpose and plan. And if He does
it, it's good. If Adam never fell, what would
we ever know of grace? What would we ever know of the
mercy of God? What would we ever know of the
love of God that He'd give His Son for fallen men? Oh, God is
glorified in all this. Now, you're saying God's the
author of evil? No, I'm not saying that, but
I'm saying there wouldn't be evil unless God permitted it. God
is God. He's in control. And the reason
Adam fell was because it was all a part of the purpose and
plan of God Almighty. What happened when Adam ate of
that fruit? He died spiritually. Now, think
of this thing of death. A dead person cannot perform
the functions of spiritual life. A physically dead person cannot
perform the functions of physical life. Play a beautiful piece
of music to a dead person. He can't hear. Put something
really sweet to the taste in his mouth. He can't taste it.
Show him a beautiful portrait. He can't see. He's dead. Rub his back to make him feel
better. It doesn't do anything for him. He can't feel. He's
dead in trespasses and sins. He cannot perform the functions
of physical life. Well, a man who is spiritually
dead cannot perform the functions of spiritual life. He cannot
believe. It's not that he will not, although
he won't, he can't. Our Lord said in John chapter
6 verse 44, no man can come to me except the Father which has
sent me drawing. He cannot understand the gospel.
He cannot see any beauty in Christ. He can't smell the sweet savor
of his love. He can't feel the warmth of his
grace. He's dead in sins, completely
dead, unable to do anything to save himself. Now, most people
believe that when Adam fell, he fell and he became a sinner
and he did that which was bad, but he still retained the ability
to choose the good over the evil. He still has a free will and
he can choose to accept Christ as his personal savior and be
saved. Or if he chooses to reject Christ,
then he'll be lost. But salvation is ultimately in
his hands. Now, my dear friends, that is
just not so. Adam is dead. Adam is dead in
trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2, 1 says, And you
have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin, ruined
by the fall. Beyond recovery, there's absolutely
nothing Adam can do to save himself. In Adam, all die. Now, this death expresses itself
in enmity toward God. What do I mean by that? Well,
Romans chapter 8 verses 7 and 8 says the carnal mind is enmity
against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. That's the carnal mind. It is
enmity. It doesn't even say it's an enmity.
It says it's enmity itself. The fleshly mind, the fallen
nature, fallen sinful nature hates God. And somebody says,
I don't hate God. I've never hated God. Well, men
are not conscious of their hatred of God until they hear the gospel.
And that's when they become conscious of their hatred of God. For instance,
God, listen real carefully, God is absolutely sovereign. That
means His will is sovereign over your will. That means you are
in His hands, and it's utterly and entirely up to Him as to
whether or not you'll be saved. There's nothing you can do to
save yourself. God can save you if He's pleased, or He can pass
you by if He's pleased, and whatever He does is just and right. According to the Bible, men are
dead in sins, unable to save themselves. According to the
Bible, God sovereignly selected before time began who He would
save. It's called election. He chose
who would be saved, a particular number of people known as the
elect that the purpose of God according to election might stand,
not of works but of Him that calleth. Christ Jesus, when He
came into this world, He represented only the elect. He said, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you've given me, for they are thine. He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. He put away the sins of his people. He didn't represent all men.
He represented God's elect. Now in time, God the Holy Spirit
comes invincibly and irresistibly and gives those people that the
Father elected and the Son died for spiritual life. He says,
live, and they live, and they're preserved. Now that's the truth.
Somebody says, I don't like that. Well, I know you don't, but you're
expressing your dislike of God. You're expressing your enmity
toward God if you don't love this. Because if you see that
you're a sinner, totally dependent upon God to do something for
you, you'll love this. It'll come as good news for you.
But if you dislike this, what it means is you really dislike
God and His way of salvation. Now notice it says in Adam, all
die. When Adam died, you and I died. You see what Adam did, he did
as a representative man, all men sinned in him. It's not like
he sinned and that sin was charged to our account, although we didn't
commit it. No, the scripture says, when he sinned, you and
I sinned. By one man, sin entered the world
and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men and that
all sinned. If you were in Adam's place,
if I was in Adam's place, we'd do the same thing. Adam is a
representative man. When he died, all died. And his sinful nature is passed
on to us, ruined by the fall. And somebody once said, if you're
wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. What we believe about
the fall of Adam will determine what we believe about everything
else. Now, the second point, the second
R, ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood. For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive." Now, the
first question I want you to consider, in Adam all die, and
in Christ shall all be made alive. Is the all in Christ the same
all that's in Adam? In Adam all die, and so in Christ
shall all be made alive? No. The all in Christ are those
the Father gave Him. He looked at the Pharisees in
John chapter 6. He said, you've seen me and believe not. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I'll in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing. but raises up again at the last
day. Now, the all in Christ are everybody
Christ represented. Christ did what He did as a representative
man. All in Adam die, all in Christ
shall be made alive. Now, Jesus Christ, while hanging
on the cross, died. He died. The God-man died. He stopped breathing. His heart
quit beating. They took Him down dead. They put him in a tomb,
and three days later, on a Sunday morning, he walked out alive. Now, what took place in all that?
Christ living, Christ dying, Christ being raised from the
dead. Well, first of all, the purpose of God was being fulfilled. Same first point as the last
point. God's will was being done. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, but the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world had to come in time to be slain. Peter said, Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God you have taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and
slain. That doesn't get us off the hook, but it was all a part
of God's purpose. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Acts 4.27 says that everything
that they did, they did according to His eternal counsel. And whatever
He determined before to be done is what was done to the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's will was being done. What
was happening? The Scriptures were being fulfilled.
I love that passage in Acts chapter 13 where Paul is preaching. And
he says, And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him,
they took Him down. But God raised him from the dead.
What was happening in the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of Christ? The guilty was being punished. Now somebody says, well, sin
was being punished when Christ died. How do you punish sin?
You don't punish sin, you punish the one who committed the sin.
You punish the sinner. When someone is arrested and
put in prison, they don't put their crime in prison, they put
the individual that committed the crime in prison. You don't
punish sin, you don't punish crime, you punish the one who
committed the crime. Now Christ Jesus the Lord, Never
sinned. He lived a perfect life. He never
committed a sin. Even when He was on the cross,
made sin in His person, He never committed a sin. But the sins
of God's elect became His sin. God took My sin off Me, and He
placed it upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Who His own self, bear
our sin, in his own body on the tree. My sin became his sin so
that he was guilty of it. Why didn't he defend himself
when he was before Pilate and Ananias? Why didn't he speak
up? If I wasn't guilty, I'd defend
myself. He didn't open His mouth because
He knew He was guilty. He was really guilty. The reason
God forsook Him on the cross is because He deserved to be
forsaken. My sin became His sin. And just as truly as my sin became
His sin, His righteousness becomes my righteousness. II Corinthians
5.21 says, For He had made Him to be sin. Who knew no sin? He never sinned. But God made
him to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He bore not simply the punishment
of sin, but the sin itself. And He put that sin away. What happened when Christ lived,
died, was buried, and was raised from the dead? Complete satisfaction
for sin was made. Listen to me real carefully.
The scripture points out that his body never went through the
process of decay. Thou will not suffer thy holy one to see corruption.
Why is that? You know, when Lazarus died,
his body went through the process of decay and his own sister said
he's been dead four days. By now he stinks. He was decaying. He was rotting. What happens
to dead people? But that didn't happen to the Lord Jesus. His
body, His physical dead body, never went through the process
of decay. Why? Because the second He died, complete
satisfaction was made. Hebrews 10.14 says, Wherefore,
by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. God was satisfied. His justice
was satisfied. His law was honored. Complete
satisfaction was made and God was reconciled Romans chapter
5 verse 10 says if when we were enemies We were reconciled to
God by the death of his son much more being reconciled will be
saved by his life God has no reason to be mad My sin is taken
away. God has no reason to be at odds
with me. He sees nothing but that which
He's pleased with because of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, some making was going
on. Some real making. In Christ shall
all be made alive. On the cross, he made everybody
he represented to be what they were not before. They were sinful.
He makes them the very righteousness of God. Ruined by the fall and
redeemed by the blood. A redemption that actually redeems. An atonement that actually atones. Redeemed by the blood. And the
third point is regenerated. By God, the Holy Spirit, in Christ
shall all be made alive. They were dead, dead in trespasses
and sins, graveyard dead, unable to save themselves, but God gives
life. They're born from above. They're
birthed into the kingdom of heaven. Now, Solitarsus, he's on his
way to Damascus to kill Christians. He was the one who held the coat
of Stephen while he was stoned. He hated Jesus Christ with a
passion. He hated everybody who believed
him. And he thought he was serving God. He thought he ought to do
everything contrary to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
something happened to him. He was met with a blinding light,
fell to the ground, and his life began. Now what happened? God gave him life. You see, spiritual life is called
a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature, a new creation. He's something he was not before.
God doesn't change the old heart. God doesn't improve the old heart. He places a new heart within,
a new heart that only He... It's a creation. It's a creation.
Life from the dead, being born again. Now, what happens when
that takes place? Well, it's God's will being done once again.
When Adam fell, when Adam was ruined, it was God's will being
done. When Christ redeemed, it was God's will being done. And
when God the Holy Spirit gives life, it's God's will being done. James 1.18 says, Of His own will
began He us with the word of truth. There's spiritual life. We were dead. We couldn't believe.
We couldn't repent. We had no love for God. We had
no Love for His gospel? We didn't understand. We were
dead in trespasses and sins. And then God gave life. And now
I can do what I could not do. I can come to Christ. I'm doing
it right now. I can believe. I'm doing it right
now. I can repent. I'm in a state of repentance
right now. I can love God. I'm loving Him
right now for who He is. I've been given spiritual life. And when you're given spiritual
life, you're now on the Lord's side. You're not on man's side,
you're on the Lord's side. You're in agreement with Him.
You even take sides with Him against yourself. Whatever He
says, you agree with. You are on the Lord's side and
in regeneration. Not only is God reconciled to
us, we are reconciled to God. Now, before regeneration, before
this new life, we're at odds with God. We dislike God. We dislike his attributes. We
dislike his way of saving because we're looking to ourself in some
way. But when God gives us a new spirit, we are reconciled to
God. There is an unconditional surrender. There is faith for the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's repentance toward God.
There is a love to his people. There is a hatred of sin. We
are reconciled to God. We're not mad at him. We see
him as all together lovely. Oh, what a change when a man
is given a new heart. Now, these are the three Rs.
Ruined by the fall. Redeemed by the blood and regenerated
by God, the Holy Spirit. And if this is not the foundation
of what is being preached, the gospel is not being preached.
That's a big claim, but it's so. I challenge you to search
the scriptures to see if this is not so. Now, we'd like to
invite you to services at Todd's Road Grace Church. You'll hear
the gospel. You'll hear the truth. That's
our only draw. And that's plenty, isn't it? You'll hear the truth.
Our Bible study begins this morning at 9.45. The morning worship
is at 10.30 and this evening at 6 o'clock. We have this message
on DVD and CD. If you call the church right
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.
Amen. "'Tis not that I did choose thee, Lord, for Lord, that could
not be. 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.