I did choose thee, Lord, O Lord
that could not be. 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 Nybert. I've entitled my message for
this morning, A Good Death Sentence. A good death sentence. And when I read my text, you'll
know why I have entitled it that. Beginning in verse 8 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 1, Paul writes to the church at Corinth, For we would
not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to
us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength,
insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence
of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us." A good death sentence. This message has nothing
to do with capital punishment, either for or against it. The
death sentence that I'm speaking of is the sentence that Paul
passed upon himself when he said, we have the sentence of death
in ourselves. Now, what a blessing, what a
blessing when someone is enabled by the Spirit of God to pass
this sentence of death on themselves. And without this taking place,
faith is impossible. I will not believe unless I have
this sentence of death passed upon myself. Now, Paul says in
verse 8, We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble
which came to us in Asia. You know, trouble comes to us.
I fear that we come to it too, but here Paul says it came to
us. Now, Paul tells us about something
that took place in Asia. Perhaps it was a series of trials.
We know he was stoned at Lystra and he was in a riot in Ephesus. Everywhere he went, he was persecuted,
hounded by the Jews from city to city. It also appears that
he was physically sick at this time, and he was also dealing
with that thorn in the flesh that he speaks of in this same
book. So he says concerning himself,
we were pressed, we were burdened down out of measure. beyond our
ability to cope, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even
of life. We saw no way out. We thought
this would end in our certain death. Now, somebody may say,
well, where's your faith, Paul? You're the one who wrote. And
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God. Where's your faith? If we knew ourselves as we ought
to know ourselves, we wouldn't ask somebody that question because
we see how easily we can sink into unbelief and fear. Paul says we were overcome with
fear and despair. We despaired even of life itself. And he says in verse nine, but
one of the best words in the Bible, but it's sometimes translated
nevertheless. But nevertheless, we have the
sentence of death in ourselves, a death sentence. And here's
what this death sentence brought us to, that we should not trust
in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the dead. We cannot trust ourselves Any
more than we can trust a dead man to raise himself to life. That's an utter impossibility. Only God can raise the dead. We have the sentence of death
in ourselves, not to trust in ourselves, but in God, which
raises the dead. Now, self-trust is a great evil
of which all men are liable to. It is the child of self-righteousness,
and it is a great evil because it brings upon a man the curse
of God. Jeremiah 17, 5 says, Thus saith
the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh the
flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. You
can't trust in yourselves and trust in the Lord. Philippians
chapter 3, verse 3, Paul said, We are the circumcision. which
worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. Now, what does Paul mean by the
flesh? Is he talking about our skin? No, he's talking about
fallen human nature, that sinful nature that we're all born with. We don't have any more confidence
in ourselves to do anything to save ourselves, any more than
we have confidence in a dead man's ability to raise himself
from the dead. Our confidence is in God who
raises the dead. Who's the only one who can raise
the dead? God himself. No mere man can
do that. Only God can do that. Now, if
you've died, graveyard dead, how much ability do you have
to raise yourself from the dead? Absolutely none. Now, what this
is speaking of is speaking of man's spiritual inability. Like our Lord said in John chapter
6 verse 44, no man can come to me except the Father which is
sent me. Draw him. All the Lord has to do is leave
us alone and we'll go to hell. Now do you believe that about
yourself? All God has to do is remove his
hand from you and leave you to yourself and you'll go to hell.
You don't have the ability to believe. You don't have the ability
to repent. You don't have the ability to
do anything spiritual any more than a dead man can raise himself
up to life. It's what the scripture calls
being dead in trespasses and sins. Well, can't we of our own
free will decide to live? That's preposterous. Of course you can't. Now, we
do what we want to do. Understand, when I'm talking
about no such thing as free will, we do what we want to do. But
our will is controlled by a sinful nature. Now, when I sin, I sin
not because I'm forced to. I do what I want to do. But my
nature is behind that. There's no such thing as free
will. Free will is a lie of the devil. It's forged by Satan himself. It's what he used with our first
parents in the garden. Remember when he said you'll
know good and evil? Right now you're nothing but
spiritual robots. But if you eat of this fruit,
you'll know the difference between good and evil, and you'll make
the choice of the good over the evil. And that's what will make
you like God. You'll have a glorious free will. Free will is anti-gospel. It's anti-Christ. It's against
the gospel. Now, while no man has any ability
to raise the dead, God does. We're brought to not trust in
ourselves. We have the sentence of death
in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God,
which raises the dead. Now, the Bible speaks of three
resurrections, the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
spiritual resurrection of the believer in the new birth and
the last physical resurrection when our Lord returns and the
dead in Christ shall be raised up. Now, in all of these resurrections,
it's completely the work of God, isn't it? How much do we contribute
in resurrection? Absolutely nothing. It is completely
the work of God. Now, the main thought, we had
the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves.
But in God, which raises the dead, the main thought is we
have no strength or ability, and we're completely dependent
upon God to do that which is impossible for us to do. What is impossible for us, raising
the dead, is possible with God. He does it. If you have never
had the death sentence passed upon yourself, you're not going
to like this message. Because it's going to take away
what you're hoping in. You're hoping in something you
do. And this message will say, you can't do anything. But if
you've had the death sentence passed upon you, if you've passed
it upon yourself, this message is going to come as good news
to you. Now, I have three passages of
Scripture I want us to consider, thinking of man's inability and
God's ability The first passage is found in Matthew chapter 18,
and this is the story of the rich young ruler. Beginning in
Matthew chapter 19, I'm sorry, verse 16, we read, And behold,
one came and said unto him, Good master, what good things shall
I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. Now, why does the Lord Jesus
correct him? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
knew that he was coming to him as a man, not as God, but as
a man. And that's why he corrects him.
He says, why are you calling me good? There's only one good,
and that is God. But if thou will enter into life,
keep the commandments. And he saith unto him, which
Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness,
honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt love thy neighbors
thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these have I kept
from my youth up. Now this man shows how blind
he was that he thought he kept the commandments. He says, All
these have I kept from my youth up. But while I was reading that
list of the commandments, one I left out, or one the Lord left
out, covetousness. Thou shalt not covet the last
of the ten commandments. He didn't mention that. Now let's
go on reading. Jesus said unto him that thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow
me. But this man was eaten up with covetousness. But when the
young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he
had great possessions Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily
I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom
of heaven. Again I say unto you, it's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God. When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed,
saying, Who then can be saved? If this promising young man that
was so moral and so exact in his life and so seemingly sincere,
if he can't be saved, who then can be saved? Notice how our
Lord answers, But Jesus beheld them, and said
unto them, With men this is impossible. With men salvation is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. With men salvation is impossible. If it's up to man, Salvation,
a right standing before God, a right relationship with God
is utterly impossible. All God has to do is leave us
alone and we will not be saved. If any aspect of salvation is
dependent upon us, no one will be saved. With men, it's impossible. All that stuff about free will,
you can decide to be saved. No, you can't. You're chained
to an evil nature. You're dead in sins. If God doesn't
have mercy on me and you, we'll go to hell. If He doesn't do
something for us, we'll go to hell. There's nothing we can
do to be saved. We can't believe. We can't repent. We can guess as to what it means,
but we can't do it. We can't give ourselves the new
birth. You know, we're totally dependent upon Him to raise us
from the dead spiritually. With men, salvation is an utter
impossibility if God leaves me to myself. I'll split hell wide
open, and I know that that is so. And until I see this, with
men salvation is impossible. Until I see this, I'm living
a lie. Who then can be saved? With men
it is impossible. Now, someone may think, but preacher,
you're not giving us any hope. Not in the flesh I'm not. Because
in the flesh there is no hope. With men. This is impossible. It's not going to happen. But
he didn't finish. But not with God. For with God,
all things are possible. Now, with that in mind, I'd like
to look at a passage of scripture from Luke chapter 1. This is
when the angel is speaking to Mary, beginning in verse 30.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast
found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb. Now, remember, she's a virgin.
She's never known a man. Thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall
be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his
kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall this be? Seeing I know not a man. Now that's a good question. How
can a virgin have a baby? How can this be? And the angel
answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth,
she also hath conceived a son in her old age, and this is the
sixth month with her who is called Barad, for with God nothing shall
be impossible." How can a virgin have a child. Humanly speaking,
she can't. Under no scenario, can she? With God, nothing shall be impossible. That which is impossible for
me is possible with God. With God, nothing shall be impossible. God became flesh. In the flesh,
he kept his own holy law. In the flesh, the God-man died. How do you explain that? How
did the God-man die? I don't know, but he did. And
in the flesh, he was raised from the dead, having accomplished
everything he set out to do, because with God, nothing shall
be impossible. We don't trust in ourselves,
but in God who raises the dead. Now, because of this, because
that God was born of a virgin. The Lord Jesus Christ was born
of a virgin because that happened. Because of this, a sinful man
can be justified. A guilty man can be not guilty. A dead sinner can be born from
above, born again. A believing sinner will be perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ. A man can be saved. Now, Who
then can be saved? With men it's impossible, but
not with God, for with God all things are possible. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. With God all things are possible. Now let's go back for a moment
to the Lord Jesus Christ dying. God was manifest in the flesh. That's who Jesus Christ is. He's
God. Manifest in the flesh. The eternal creator. born of
a virgin, and he lives a perfect life. He never sins. He never sins in thought, in
word, or in deed. The only holy man to ever live. He never sinned. Yet, He's nailed to a cross. Yet, in Gethsemane's garden,
He sweats, as it were, great drops of blood, overcome by what
was getting ready, what had already begun to take place. suffering
the wrath of God. Now, there's one reason for death.
Christ died. They took him down from the cross,
dead. There's one reason for death,
and only one reason. The wages of sin is death. You see, the sins of the elect
became His. Matthew 121, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people, His people,
from their sins. How does he do that? Their sins
became his. Now, this is what the Bible calls
imputation. God took the sins of his people. God's got the authority to do
this. I don't have the authority to do it. I can't take my sins
and place them upon Christ, but God can. He's God. With God,
nothing shall be impossible. He took the sins of his people
and placed them upon the Lord Jesus Christ so that Christ bore
our sins in his own body. on the tree. The Scripture says,
He made him to be sin. All that sin is, He was made
to be. Do I understand that? Of course
not, but I believe it. All that sin is, He was made
to be. Now somebody may think, does
that mean while He was on the cross He started sinning and started committing
sins? No, it doesn't mean that. He never sinned in His person,
but what is worse, He was made sin. That's why he was sweating
great drops of blood in Gethsemane's garden before he experienced
any of the physical pain of the cross. It's being made sin, being
loathsome before God, so that he actually became guilty before
God. God did not treat him as if he
were guilty, but he wasn't really guilty. He was really guilty. That's what imputation means.
My sin became His to the point that He Himself was actually
guilty of it. You see, if He wasn't guilty
of it, it would be wrong for God to punish Him. But He was
actually guilty of my sin when God imputed it to Him, and God
takes His righteousness, His perfect righteousness, and imputes
it to everybody He died for. Why was He raised? Because sin
was put away. Now, we had the sentence of death
in ourselves. Though we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God, which raises the dead. Now, because Christ was raised
from the dead, that which is impossible for me is done. Now, let me tell you what's impossible
for me. It's impossible for me to be
holy. It is impossible for me to be
sinless. It's impossible for me to be
holy. But that which is impossible
for me is possible with Him. He makes me holy. He makes me perfect. He makes
me just. That which is impossible for
me is possible for Him. For with God, all things are
possible. It's impossible for me to not
be sinful. It's impossible for me to not
sin. But in Christ, I am without sin. That which is impossible for
me is possible. Because with God, nothing shall
be impossible. We're made to be what we're not,
holy. And we're made to not be what
we are, sinful, through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
that possible? With God, nothing shall be impossible. That's why Paul said in Romans
chapter 6, 11, to every believer, you reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin. Now, would God say you're dead
to sin if you weren't dead to sin? No. You reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed to sin because you are dead to sin. Sin has
nothing to say to you. If you're in Christ, if He died
for you, that sin's put away and you stand before God perfect,
that which is impossible for me is possible with God. If a virgin bears a child, a
sinner can be perfect before God. Now, the last passage of
scripture I want to look at is in Mark, chapter nine, beginning
in verse 14. And when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them and the scribes questioning
and straightway all the people and they beheld him were greatly
amazed. And running to him, saluted him. And he asked the scribes,
What question ye with him? And one of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth and gnashes with his teeth and
pines away. And I spake to thy disciples that they should cast
him out, and they could not. He answered him and saith, O
faithless, Generation, how long shall I be with you? How long
shall I suffer you? Bring him to me. And they brought
him unto him, and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear
him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming. And he
asked the Father, How long is it ago since this came unto him?
And he said, Of a child, and oft times it hath cast him into
the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou can't
do anything. Have compassion on us and help
us. Now, this man in his ignorance
said the wrong thing. If thou can't do anything, does
he know who he's talking to? This is God the Son. This is
the creator of the universe. This is the absolute sovereign
of the universe who controls everything. If thou can't do... He can do all things. He's God. With God, nothing shall be impossible. But this man says, if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said
unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. Now, you look at the honor the
Lord places upon faith. I want to quote some scriptures.
How many times did he say, thy faith hath saved thee? Thy faith hath made thee whole. If you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, remove hence
to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be
impossible to you. By faith the elders obtained
a good report. Why does the Lord place such
honor upon faith? I can answer that question. Because
faith puts all the honor on Him. That's why the Lord puts such
a great emphasis on this thing of faith. Faith is not faith
in yourself. It's faith in Him. Somebody says,
I have self-confidence. I don't have any self-confidence.
I have Christ confidence. I have confidence in Him. Paul
put it this way in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12, I know whom
I have believed. Now, what you believe is determined
by who you believe. I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed
to Him against that day I believe in my inability, but I believe
in His ability. I believe He's able to save me
with no help from me. Jude put it this way, in Jude
verse 24, Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless before the throne of His glory
with exceeding joy, He is able to take me, sinful as I am in
and of myself, and present me faultless before the throne of
His glory. I believe in His ability. Now, have you ever had the sentence
of death in yourself? Death sentence. You don't look
for a thing out of yourself. You don't have to look to yourself
because you're nothing in and of yourself but dead. You can't
help in your salvation any more than a dead corpse. dead in and
of yourself, dead in trespasses and sins. Well, if you've had
this sentence of death in yourself, you've learned to trust in God
who raises the dead. You say, Lord, with that man
who said, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. He replied, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I always
have unbelief with me because I always had this sinful nature,
but Lord, I believe. To request a copy of the sermon
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