Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. 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 Nybert. When the Apostle Paul wrote this
letter to Titus, he addressed him as Titus, mine own son, after
the common faith. Titus, this young man who preached
the gospel, he learned the gospel through Paul. That's why Paul
says to Titus, my known son, after the common faith. Now that word common means that
which is common to all as opposed to that which is peculiar to
the few. The common faith, the faith that
every believer without exception possesses. The common faith is
what every believer to ever live has believed. I believe that
Adam was a believer. If he was, this is the gospel
he believed. I know Abel was a believer because
we read by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain. And this is the gospel that Abel
believed. This is the gospel that every
believer believes. It's called the faith of God's
elect. in the first verse of this epistle. This is the faith that all of
God's elect possess. I love thinking about this. It
could be that the last of God's elect is walking upon this planet
right now and has not yet believed. But he will believe, and this
is the faith he will have, the common faith, the faith that
every believer possesses. This is the faith that all believers
have in common. Jude calls it the faith once
delivered to the saints. It knows no amendments. It knows
no revisions. There are no adaptations. This
is the faith once delivered to the saints. It's what Paul said
in Ephesians chapter 4 is the one faith. There are not two
faiths. There is only one faith. It's the faith that the newborn
believer possesses. Perhaps he's only been saved
for a second when God saved him, but it's what he believes. It's
the same faith that the believer who's believed for 50 years believes.
This common faith, the faith of God's elect, and it comes
from hearing The message, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. And the Gospel message is called
the faith. That is what those who have faith
hear when they're given grace to exercise saving faith. The faith. The Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's one message. And it's to be preached to all
men regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their character.
There's only one message. The faith once delivered to the
saints, and it's the same message for all men. There's not one
message for the educated and another for the uneducated. There's
not one message for the rich and another message for the poor. There's not one message for the
religiously moral and another message for the irreligiously
immoral. Everybody has the same message
delivered to them. You know, I've had people often
ask about our church, and they say, well, what do you have for
the young people? Well, the same thing we have for the old people,
the gospel. The one message, the common faith,
the same message for all. You see, the one faith has only
one object to that faith. And that object is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the common faith. Now, let me repeat, this by definition
means that which is common to all, as opposed to that which
is peculiar to the few. Now, people are different. I realize that. The Lord's made
us different. There are different ethnicities. There's only one race, the human
race. People talk about there's different races. No, there's
not. There's one race. We all came out of our father,
Adam. We all came from this one blood,
but the Lord has made different ethnicities Men, because of their
sinfulness, feel their ethnicity to be superior to some other
ethnicity, but that's foolishness. But there are different ethnicities,
different kinds of people, and in all these different ethnicities,
those who are saved have the same common faith, that which
is common to all as opposed to that which is peculiar to the
few. There are also differing degrees of the strength of faith.
We read of those who are strong in faith, and we read of those
who are weak in faith. but the strong and the weak have
the same faith, the common faith. All believers believe the same
thing because we've been taught by the same spirit and we've
been given the same gift of faith. Listen to this, Ephesians chapter
two, verses eight and nine says, for by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should
boast." Now, if you do have faith, you know it's the gift of God.
You know it's not because of you. You know it's not because
of some decision you made where you decided to believe. You know
it's the gift of God. You see, there was a time when
you didn't believe, and there was a time when you Didn't know
what it meant, what it would mean to believe. You'd think,
well, I'd believe if I knew what it meant, but I don't understand
it. As a matter of fact, you couldn't believe. You were unable
to believe because of your sinfulness, and then you found yourself believing. Now why did you find yourself
believing? Because God gave you this faith,
this common faith, the faith of God's elect, and all who believe
know this is true. You know the reason you believe
is because God has caused you to. Listen to this scripture.
James 1.18 says, of his own will begat he us through the word
of truth. Your faith came from God. Now, here's the big question.
I've been talking about the common faith that every believer possesses. It's the same thing. If you're
a believer and if I'm a believer, we believe the precise same thing. Now the big question, what is
the content of the faith that all believers believe? I want
to know so I can know if I have it. What is the content of this
common faith that every believer possesses? Well, the best way
we can answer that question is, what does a newborn believer
believe? Now, a newborn believer believes
the same thing that the believer who's believed 50 years believes.
But I'm sure that the believer who's believed 50 years has a
more mature faith and a greater understanding through the grace
of God. So what we need to know in knowing
what the common faith is, is what is it that the newborn believer
believes? That person who has just believed. Now, if we can see that, We can
find out what the content of this common faith is. Now, we have many examples of
newborn believers in the scripture. The first person I thought of
was the Apostle Paul. On the road to Damascus, he was
not a believer. He was going to kill Christians.
He was going to have Christians arrested. He was not a believer. But then the Lord appeared to
him in that great shining light, and he was a believer. Ananias
came to him and said, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour he looked upon
him, and here's what Ananias said to Paul, that God of our
fathers hath chosen thee, that thou should know his will, see
that just one, and hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt
be his witness to all men of what you've seen and what you've
heard. I think of the Roman centurion.
He woke up the morning of Christ's death thinking business as usual.
Another enemy of the state to crucify, that was what his job
was, to preside over the crucifixions of the enemies of the state of
Rome. And on the day that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified,
when he ordered the soldiers and told them what to do, he
wasn't a believer. By the time the Lord died, this
man said, surely this is the Son of God. He was a newborn
believer. What about the Ethiopian eunuch?
He has come to Jerusalem to worship. He doesn't know God. He's returning
from Jerusalem. He's in a chariot feeling just
as empty as he was when he came there. He's reading Isaiah the
prophet out of Isaiah chapter 53, not understanding what he
was reading. He knew God was in the Bible
and he knew he didn't know what it meant. He was reading and
the Lord sends Philip. Philip comes to him and says,
do you understand what you're reading? And his answer, how
can I? Except some man should guide
me. Oh, how different this man was.
If you'd ask the average person, do you understand what you're
reading? Of course I do. Here's what I think it means,
or here's what it means to me. But this man in his humility
said, how can I except some man should guide me? And Philip opened
his mouth at that same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
What about the Philippian jailer? I don't know that he even knew
there was a God when he was the Philippian jailer. Paul is thrown
into jail and Silas, he puts him in stocks. He hears him praying
at midnight. The earthquakes, the jails are
opened. He thinks the prisoners are all
going to escape. He gets ready to kill himself
and Paul says, do thyself no harm, we're all here. And he
comes in and he says to them, sirs, what must I do to be saved? I know I can't save myself. What
must I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Here we
have instances of newborn believers. But I believe the instance that
came to my mind that seemed most powerful of a newborn believer
was the thief on the cross. When the thief on the cross was
nailed to that cross, he did not believe. Mark chapter 15
verse 32 points that out when it says they both, both thieves
reviled the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're the Christ, save yourself
and us. Come down from the cross and
save us. They were reviling him. They were spewing out their venom
and contempt toward Christ. But something happened to one
of those thieves. During this time, he was nailed to the cross. One man said that this is the
greatest instance of saving faith in all of the scriptures. I don't
know that any man is capable of making that judgment, but
I wouldn't disagree with it. I know of no instance greater
of saving faith than in this man known as the thief on the
cross. The common faith, that which
every believer Now this thief on the cross, don't forget this,
faith cometh by hearing. While the thief was nailed to
the cross, he heard the seven sayings of the Savior on the
cross. He heard them all. He heard the
gospel message while he was hanging on that cross. He even saw the
Lord die. He was alive when the Lord died. You'll remember when
the soldiers came up to break the legs of the Lord, they saw
he was already dead, so they didn't bother to break his legs. Well, the thief saw that. He
saw the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he heard the seven
sayings of the Savior from the cross. So he heard the gospel.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now let's
see what it is the thief believed. Because if we can see what the
thief believed, we can see the common faith, the faith that
every believer believes. Now we read in Luke 23, verse
32, and there were also two other malfactors led with him to be
put to death. Now these men were both crucified
with Christ. They had the same physical pain
and agony Christ had when they were nailed to that cross. He was crucified between two
thieves, two criminals, two malefactors. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the malefactors. One on the right hand and the
other on the left. And like I said, we know from
Mark's account, they were both reviling him at this time. And
then verse 34, then said, Jesus' father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. Now, let me say this, everybody
that the Lord prayed for was forgiven. This was no generic
prayer. When he said, father, forgive
them, the father forgave them. And they parted his raiment and
cast lots. They stripped him of his seamless
robe and gambled for it. They didn't want to tear it because
it was worth something. The scripture said they would do this in Psalm
22. And the people stood beholding
and the rulers also with him derided him saying he saved others.
let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And
the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering vinegar
and saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And
a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek
and Latin and Hebrew. Greek, the language of the common
man. Latin, the language of the educated. Hebrew, the language
of the religious. And everybody was given the same
message. Jesus of Nazareth King of the
Jews. So here we have these three men
nailed to a cross, the King of the Jews, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and these two thieves. Now, they both began railing
in, but one turned strangely silent. You see, he heard something. And while he listened to his
other buddy, the other thief, maybe he had been in crimes with
him and they were together in what they did. He said to his
friend, hanging on that cross, Don't you know who this is you're
reviling? Don't you fear God seeing you're
in the same condemnation? That thief knew that Jesus Christ
was God. Now here is the first part of the common faith. Everybody that believes, believes
that Jesus Christ is God. God the Son, the second person
of the Blessed Trinity, the first essential of the common faith,
that which every believer believes without exception, they believe
that Jesus Christ is God. The God of the Bible. The Creator of the universe. God. the second person of the
Trinity. Now, if you would have asked
him if he understood the Trinity, I have no doubt he would have
said, what are you talking about? I've never heard of it. But he
knew that Jesus Christ was God, the God of the Bible. Colossians chapter 2 verses 9
and 10 says, "...in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily." That means He knew Jesus Christ was sovereign. That means
He knew Jesus Christ was all-powerful. That means He knew Jesus Christ
was all-wise. That means He knew Jesus Christ
was independent, that He had no needs, that He was in control
of everything. Jesus Christ is God. The God of the Bible. The Creator. The One who has all the attributes
of God because He is God. Equal to the Father because He
is God. God the Son. This man knew this
One crucified by Him was nobody less than God Himself. Now, if
He's not God, He can't save you. It's necessary for your salvation
and my salvation, for Him to be God. Because if He's not God,
He's just a man and He can't do anything for you. But He is
God over all, blessed forever. Jesus Christ is God. And so, The other answering rebuked him,
saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? Now, this is the next thing that
everybody believes who believes. They believe God is just in their
personal condemnation. Now, if I ever see who Jesus
Christ is, I'm going to have some idea who I am, and I'm going
to see that God would be just if he would pass me by and let
me go to hell without giving me mercy. I am in the same condemnation. God would be just if he passed
me by. Now, I might not like that. I
don't want to be passed by, and I might not even see my sinfulness
as I know I ought to, but believe it because the Bible says it.
This man saw God's justice in his condemnation. Now, when I
hear people objecting to the gospel, Well, how could it be
fair for God to elect some and not elect everybody? How could
it be fair for Jesus Christ to die only for the elect and not
for everybody else? When I hear these objections,
I see and hear the objection of somebody who doesn't really
believe that God would be just in condemning them. They think
that that would be unfair for God to do that. But if I ever
really see who he is, I'll see who I am. I'll see my own sinfulness,
and I'll see that he would be utterly just to pass me by. The next thing he says in verse
41, And we indeed justly, for we receive the due rewards of
our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss. They see
that not only is Jesus Christ God, He's man. He is the God-man. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And as man, He did nothing amiss. He is the perfect man. He never committed a sin. Now
let me remind you, if He did sin, He can't do anything for
me or you. But He did no sin. He is the perfect man. Somebody
may think, how did He know that He had never done anything amiss
if He'd only known Him a few hours? Because He knew who He
was. If you know who Jesus Christ
is, you know He's incapable of committing a sin. He's immutable. If he could sin, he would change.
He's the God of glory, the God of holiness, the perfect man,
Christ Jesus. He hath done nothing amiss. You know that he's the man who
never sinned. Now look what he says in verse
42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
Remember me when you come into your kingdom. This man believed
in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm sure some people laughed
at him when he called him Lord. You're calling this one hanging
on this tree so helplessly Lord. How could you say something like
that when he's so helpless when he's so dying? The thief knew. He's the Lord. He's the Lord
of creation. He spake the world into existence.
He's the Lord of providence. He's in control of everything
that's being taken place right now. He's the Lord of salvation. My salvation is utterly in His
hand. He believed in the Lordship of
Jesus Christ. Not only did He believe in the
Lordship of Jesus Christ, He believed in the resurrection
of Christ. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. You're not going to stay on this cross. You're
not going to stay dead. You're going to be raised from
the dead and you're going to come back as a mighty reigning
king. He believed in the resurrection
of Christ. And he believed in the absolute certainty of the
success of Christ. He said, remember me when you
come back as a mighty reigning king. Whatever you intended to
do, you do because of who you are. You must be successful. You're going to come back as
a mighty reigning king in your kingdom. Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. This man understood that the
only way he could be saved is if this one hanging on the cross
represented him. I can't represent myself. I can't
come into God's presence. Oh, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. The only hope that I have of
being saved is if you represent me before the Father and you
remember me and own me as one of yours, somebody that you died
for. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And the Lord's answer to him,
Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. This man's ground
of assurance is the same ground that every other believer has,
the word of Christ. What he said, I wouldn't believe
I'd be in paradise unless he said I was because of what he
did for me. Our only ground of assurance
is the word of Christ. Now let me ask you, do you believe
that Jesus Christ is God? Do you believe that he would
be just if he passed you by and sent you to hell? Would he still
be just? Would he still be worthy of worship? Do you believe that
Jesus Christ is man? The God-man, this glorious, mysterious
second person of the Trinity, the God-man. Do you believe as
man He never sinned? He never sinned in thought, word,
or deed. He is the man Christ Jesus who
is incapable of sin. I've heard people say, well,
He could have sinned. No, He couldn't have. No, He
couldn't have. He's the impeccable Christ Jesus,
and He is Lord. Do you believe He really is Lord,
Lord of all, Lord of creation, Lord of providence, Lord of salvation? Do you believe that He didn't
stay dead on that cross, but He was raised from the dead,
having accomplished what the Father sent Him to do, that this
man is incapable of failure. If He died for you, you must
be saved. If He paid for your sins, they're
put away, they're gone. It's because of who He is that
you have this hope of salvation. He's incapable of failure. Do
you believe that if He represents you before the Father, you must
be saved? Are you relying only on His Word? Now, my dear friends, if your
answer to those questions is yes, you have the common faith,
the faith that all believers have in common. If you object
to this, well, you don't have the common faith. Every believer
believes the same thing, the common faith, that which is common
to all as opposed to that which is peculiar to the few. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your request
to todd.neibert at gmail.com, or you may write or call the
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