Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We're located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside 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 toddroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I want to read Paul's prayer
for the Ephesians and what he said after that. Beginning in
verse 14, he said, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named. that He would grant you, according
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by
His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and heighth, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God." Now, those are some incredibly glorious
requests that he makes. And here's our text in verse
20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout
all ages, world without end. Now what I want to draw your
attention to first is now unto him that is able. Faith is believing his ability. If you want to know what faith
is, that's what it is. It's believing His ability, and there's an inseparable
connection between believing His ability and giving Him all
the glory. Notice in verse 21, it says,
unto Him be glory. this one who's able unto him
be glory in the church. Now, the church in chapter 2
of Ephesians is called the temple of God. The presence of God used
to dwell in the tabernacle, and then after that, the temple which
Solomon built. But in the New Testament, the
temple of God is the people of God. All that did was represent
the people of God. The people of God are the temple
of God. And David said in Psalm 29.9,
in his temple, doth everyone speak of his glory. Faith is believing his ability. There were two blind men that
had heard the Lord preach. And somehow they groped their
way into the place where he was and asked him for mercy. And
he asked these men this very simple question, do you believe
that I am able to do this? Do you believe, my dear friend,
that he is able to do this? to save you. I'm not asking you
if you believe that you're saved, if you believe that you are born
again. I'm not asking you about yourself.
I'm asking you what you think concerning Him. Do you believe
that He is able to save you? Well, you've got to know who
He is in order to believe that. Paul put it this way in 2 Timothy
1.12, I know whom I have believed. and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day. I know
whom I have believed, and everything we believe is predicated on who
He is. I know whom I have believed. He's God. He's man. He's the God-man. He's incapable
of failure. He's all-powerful. He's all-wise. He's the Son of God. He's God's
Christ. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded. I've been convinced of this.
I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
to Him against that day. Now, He's talking about the Day
of Judgment, and I'm persuaded that He is able to bring me and
caused me to be justified on the day of judgment. It doesn't
have anything to do with my works. It has wholly to do with me committing
the entire salvation of my soul to Him. You see, all my eggs
are in this basket. He does it all. When He said
it is finished, it was finished. I love the song, Jesus paid it
all, all the debt I owe. Some seem to think Jesus paid
a half the other half I owe, but no, that's not the case at
all. Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain, he washed it white as snow. I have committed the entire
salvation of my soul to him. If anything's expected of me,
I don't have any hope. I've committed it all to him, and I am persuaded
in his ability because of who he is. In Romans chapter four,
Verse 21, it was said of Abraham, he staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. that he was going to make him
a father of many nations, that the Christ would come through
him, the promised seed, that he would have a number of descendants
as many as the sands which are by the seashore and the stars
of heaven. And Abraham didn't have any evidence
other than the naked word of God. God said it, and Abraham
believed what God says. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. giving glory
to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform. His faith was in God's ability
to do what he said he would do. When the Lord appeared to Abraham
and told him of the one who's going to come once again. He
said, in a year, Sarah's going to be with child, and you're
going to have this child. You know what Sarah did? She
laughed. She said she didn't believe. And the Lord said, why'd
Sarah laugh? And she denied laughing right
in the presence of the Lord. And the Lord asked this question,
is anything too hard for the Lord? The answer is nothing is
too hard for the Lord. He is all-powerful, and He's
able to do whatever He says He's going to do. Now, our hope is
founded on His ability to do whatever He says to do. One of
the first things that came to my mind when I was thinking about
this was the rich young ruler. The Lord knew that this man was
eaten up with covetousness. This man was a self-righteous
man. He first comes up to the Lord, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And the Lord said, why callest thou me good? He
knew this man was coming to him as a man to another man. He didn't
know who he really was. And he said, you're good. I'd
like to reach your goodness. What can I do to reach that level?
He said, well, keep the law. And he named the commandments,
don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't kill, don't bear false
witness, honor your father and mother. And the man said, all
these were kept for my youth up. And he proved by that that
he didn't have any idea what God's law really meant. And so
the Lord met him where he was coming. He knew he was a man
eaten up with covetousness. And he said, go sell all you
have and give it to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven.
Come and follow me. And the man couldn't do it. And he went away
grieved. And the disciples looked at each
other, and this seemed to be such an outstanding young man. And he said, who then can be
saved? If this man can be saved, who
then can be saved? The Lord said, with men, it's
impossible. If any part of your salvation
is dependent upon you doing anything, you will not be saved. With men, it's impossible, but
not with God. For with God, all things are
possible. He is able to save. Listen to this scripture, Hebrews
7, verse 25. Wherefore, he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by him." Now, that's a
strong word. He is able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save me and you,
if he's pleased to do it. in such a way that I'll be perfect
without sin on Judgment Day. I won't even remember what it's
like to be a sinner. I'll be perfectly righteous.
I'll stand without fault before the very throne of God. He's
able to save you that much. I think of the leper in Matthew
chapter 8. This was a man, according to
Luke's account, who was full of leprosy. And this leper came
to the Lord, and he worshipped." Now, this is what is going to
have to be settled first. Worship. Is the Lord worthy of
worship without reference to what He does or does not do for
you? Well, this leper understood who
He was, and he worshipped, saying, He knew that Christ is the Lord,
the Lord of creation. He created the universe, the
Lord of providence. He's the one who controls all
things, the Lord of salvation. And he demonstrates how he believed
that, Lord, if you will. My salvation is totally up to
your will. Can you imagine this leper coming
up to the Lord of glory and saying, Lord, I will that you do this?
You don't talk to the Lord that way. And this man didn't either.
He didn't say, Lord, I will that you do this. The only one who
can speak that way to the Father is Christ Himself. This man came
saying, Lord, if you will. He knew that his salvation was
entirely up to Christ. Lord, if you will, you can. You have the ability to make
me clean. I can't make myself clean. I
can't wash myself up. I can't do anything about my
sin, but if you will, You can make me clean." And the Lord
said, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately,
his leprosy was cleansed. In Romans 16, 25, Paul said,
now unto him that is able to establish you according to my
gospel, to set you on the foundation. Do you believe he's able to do
that? To ground you on Christ? not only to make you clean, but
to lay you down on the foundation. Acts 20.32 says, And now, brethren,
I commend you to God in the word of His grace, which is able to
build you up. Not only does He ground you on
the foundation, He's able to cause you to grow in grace in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians
9, verse 8, God is able to make all grace abound toward you.
Do you believe He's able to do that, that He can make all His
grace, all His free favor abound toward you? Listen to this scripture. Moreover, the law-this is Romans
5, 20 and 21-moreover, the law entered that the offense might
abound. Now, if you have any understanding
of God's law, all it does is show you that you are a sinner,
that you abound with sin, that it comes out of your pores, that
you break every commandment. You haven't kept one commandment
one time. Now, if you say, I don't see
that with regard to myself, well, you've never really understood
the law. You've never seen it as it really is. You've had a
warped view of the law, and you've got it down to a standard that
you think you're okay with, but you haven't learned what the
law means yet. But listen to this scripture.
Moreover, the law entered that sin might abound, but where sin
abounded. Are you someplace where sin abounds?
You see that that's all you do. You're guilty before God. Your
motives are bad. Your actions are bad. You're
just bad. You're a place where sin abounds.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. that as sin hath reigned unto
death, now this is how much of a reign sin has over that one
where sin abounds, how much power do you have to stop death? Absolutely
no power. that hath sin hath reigned unto
death, in the same manner even so might grace reign." Now, this
is reigning grace, grace that does not take no for an answer,
grace that saves, not grace that makes salvation available, but
that saves. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness." This is righteous grace. You see, the gospel is
a thing of righteousness. It reveals the righteousness
of God, His righteous character. It reveals His righteousness
in condemning, but it also reveals His righteousness in salvation,
how He's made a way to be just and justify the ungodly. Oh,
He's able to make all grace abound toward you. Listen to this Scripture.
Jude 24, "...now unto him that's able to keep you from falling."
Now, if He doesn't keep you from falling, you will fall. And you will fall away if He
doesn't keep you from falling away. That goes from anything
from just not going to church anymore to becoming a monster
in iniquity. Unto him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you, he's able to do this, to
present you faultless before his presence with exceeding joy. Now what a thought. He's able
to keep me from falling, to cause me to persevere all the way to
the end, and to present me faultless, without fault, without sin. You
know, I'm not afraid of Judgment Day. And let me tell you why
I'm not afraid of Judgment Day, because I don't have any sins
to be judged for. Christ put them away, and He gave me His
righteousness, and I am without fault before God. Now, and that's
only through His ability. I realize that. That is only
through His ability. He's able to do that. Do you
believe that Jesus Christ is able to do that for you? That
He is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before His throne? We read in Colossians 1.22 that
He will present every believer holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in the very sight of God. I believe He can do that for
me. I believe in His ability. This
is not about what I believe about myself. This is about what I
believe concerning Him. And Paul goes on to say, now
unto him that's able, to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or
think. Come, my soul, thy soup prepare. Jesus loves to answer prayer. He himself has bid thee pray,
therefore will not say thee nay. Thou art coming to a king, large
petitions with thee bring, for his grace and power are such
that none can ever ask too much. Now unto him that's able to do
exceedingly above all we ask or think according to the power
that worketh in us. Now every believer has the mighty
power of God working in him. And this is more power than was
used to create the world. Paul called it the power that
raised Christ from the dead. That's the power working in a
believer. You see, if you're a believer, God has birthed you
into His kingdom. He's made you a new creature
in Christ Jesus. If you're a believer, it's the result of the power
of God. If you have faith, it's the gift
of His power. If you have repentance, if you
persevere, it's because of His mighty power. Oh, nobody really
understands just how much power it took to save him. It took
omnipotence, and it takes omnipotence to keep you. This is not talking
about some power in your life where you start saying, look
at me, I've got this victory over sin, I've got that victory
over sin. I'm talking about an infinitely greater power than
that. I'm talking about the power of God in Christ Jesus, kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Now, he says
in verse 21, After talking about His ability to do exceedingly,
abundantly above all we ask or even think, now He says, unto
Him be glory. In the church, by Jesus Christ,
throughout ages, world without end. Amen. And maybe you remember
at the first of this message, I said there's an inseparable
connection between His ability and Him getting all the glory. There's an inseparable connection
between His ability, His omnipotence, and Him getting all the glory. There's a hymn I love. The third
verse says, Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, only thou
art holy, there is none beside thee. perfect in power and love
and purity. Now, men can't see His glory,
I realize that, but there is a group that can see His glory,
the church. The church. Unto Him be glory
in the church. To every member of the church,
this is all important, Him getting the glory. Psalm 29, verse 11,
in His temple, doth everyone speak of His glory. Now here is why the glory of
God is so important to every believer. Number one, because
all glory goes to God. He deserves all the glory. He
did it all. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. He did it all, salvations of
the Lord. He gets all the glory. He does
it all. I'm not saved partly by what Christ did and partly
by what I do. I'm saved wholly by what He did. Hebrews 1.3 says when He by Himself
purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Father.
He did it by Himself with no help from me, with no help from
you. All of salvation. He bears all the glory of salvation. We give Him the glory because
He deserves all the glory, but let me give you another reason
why we want Him to have all the glory. If any glory goes to man,
that means some aspect of salvation is by man's works. And if that's
the case, I'm in trouble. I'm toast. I can't bear that
burden of, well, you get just a little bit of glory. That means
there's a little something I've got to do in order to save myself.
And if that's the case, I'm in trouble and you're in trouble.
But know in this thing of salvation, he gets all the glory. unto him be glory in the church."
Now, what is the church? It's not what most people would
describe it, who may even be church members. The church means
a called-out assembly. If you're a church member, And
I'm talking about a member of the true church. I'm not talking
about a member of this church or that local church, but I'm
talking about the general assembly and church of the firstborn whose
names are written in heaven. That's the role I want to be
on. That, the Lamb's Book of Life
written in the Lamb's Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Now, this church is a called
out assembly. He called every member to himself. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power
of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Second, Timothy
1.9, he saved us and called us. with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
were given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And this
call is the call of the gospel. How do I know if He's called
me? Well, you'll call on Him if He's called you. you'll believe
the gospel. I love that scripture, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you're
called, that means you'll call. You'll call on his name to save
you, and his name represents all of his attributes, his holiness,
his righteousness, his power, his wisdom. When you call on
his name, you're calling on everything he is to save you. Now, the church is the bride
of Christ. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22
through 33 demonstrates that the church is his bride, his
precious bride. What a privilege to be the bride
of Christ. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having wrought a
spot or wrinkle or any such thing that should be holy and without
blemish. That's what he did on Calvary Street to make his bride
beautiful. And he says to his bride, thou
art all fair, my love, there's no spot in thee. What a privilege
to be in the bride of Christ. It's his purchased possession. Acts 20, 28, feed the church
of God, which he purchased with his own blood. If you're in the
church, he purchased you. with his own blood. You've been
bought with a price. You belong to him. Ephesians
1, 22, and 23 says the church is his body. It's his body. And that's why when Christ said
it, as much as you've done to the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it to me. That was literal. Because I'm
so united to Christ, every believer is so united to Christ, that
we are his body. We're called his temple. Now, listen real carefully. I'm
glad you're watching this TV program. But if you could go
to a church and hear the gospel, it would be much more important
than this, because that's where the Lord promises His presence. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Public
worship You know, people talk, well, I don't have time. This
is all I have time to do. You better make time to go to
public worship. This is where the Lord speaks
to his people. This is where the Lord meets
with his people. I hope you'll come to worship. public worship at the Todd's
Road Grace Church. You'll hear the gospel preached,
you'll hear Christ exalted, and Christ still walks among the
seven golden candlesticks. And coming to hear the gospel,
gathering with God's people, is so important. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now, most things that
go on under the name of churches, I wouldn't go to them, I mean,
there are circuses, there are entertainment centers, there
are places to supposedly make your life better and all that
kind of stuff, and it's just wrong. It's just wrong. Most
institutions that call themselves churches, they're not really
churches. They're human tradition, human religion, but there is
A church, the church. And a church is anywhere where
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of God's grace is preached. And in the church, this is what's
so special about the church, the true church, His body, His
bride, His people. Unto Him be glory in the church. Here are the people who give
Him all the glory. Everyone in His church, in His
temple, does everyone speak of His glory. I'd like to invite
you to services at the Todd's Road Grace Church. 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. Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to tod.nybert at gmail.com,
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen.