Todd's Road Grace Church would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd Nyberg. 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.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, Paul makes this statement. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. Not a gospel, but the gospel. Now he goes on to describe the gospel. He said, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. It's the initial message you'd heard. It hadn't changed. I'm declaring this message to you again, which also you have received. and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you." My marginal reading says, if you hold fast that which I've preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.

The gospel. Now it took God from Genesis chapter one, verse one, to Revelation 22, 21, to declare his gospel. The Bible is the inspired word of God. Let me remind you of that. If any part of the Bible is not inspired, No part of it is inspired. We're not allowed to pick and choose which parts we think are inspired. Somebody says, how do you expect me to believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God? Well, you believe God created the universe from nothing. If God can create the universe from nothing, He who is omnipotent can inspire men to write a book and keep it preserved through the centuries. And if the Bible's not the word of God, that's my opinion and your opinion, but thank God for the scriptures.

God declares His gospel from Genesis 1-1 through Revelation 22-21. I'm thankful that there are some scriptures that give a summary of the whole message of Scripture in a very brief time. There are many of those in the Bible. but one of them is the passage of scripture I just read to you. Paul's declaration of the gospel. I love how he calls it the gospel which I preached unto you. Now that's very important. There's been no modifications. There's no process of evolution. There's no adaptations. What the gospel was when I first preached to you, it still is. The reason being, the gospel is the eternal gospel. It's called that in Revelation 14, verse 6, the everlasting The eternal gospel, now if my concept of the gospel begins in a manger when Christ was born, I'm missing it altogether. This is the eternal gospel, the gospel of God. Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. before there was ever a creation. Christ was called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And if he was slain from the foundation of the world, he was raised from the foundation of the world. And everything in time takes place because of its decree in eternity. This is the eternal gospel. Like its author, what it was, it is. what it is, it always will be the gospel of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the gospel of Christ.

Now, if the gospel I believe is not eternal. I don't believe in the gospel of the Bible. This is God's eternal purpose, the gospel of his son. Now, I love the names of the gospel in the scriptures. It's called the gospel of the kingdom. Now, by kingdom, it's not talking about a geographical kingdom. It's talking about the absolute reign of the king of the kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is his eternal kingdom, his absolute sovereignty. Did you know Jesus Christ is the sovereign of the universe? God the Son, he's the first cause of all things. He's the one who created, he's the one who controls everything that's taking place. He's the one, if you're saved, it's because he saved you, because salvation is in his hands. It's the gospel of the kingdom.

We read of the word of the gospel. The gospel has a content. Words from the scripture are used in the declaration of the gospel. It's called the truth of the gospel. The gospel is the truth. It's the absolute truth concerning the character of God, the character of man, salvation, the truth of the gospel. It's called the gospel of the grace of God. Now, how would I define grace? It's defined by every attribute of God. Whoever God is, that's His grace. Sovereign grace, eternal grace, just grace, all-powerful grace, all-wise grace. Immutable grace, independent grace, all the attributes of God you can use to describe His grace, the gospel of the grace of God.

It's called the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Now in the gospel, God gets all the glory. None goes to man. No one can say, I'm saved because I did this or because I did that. If you're saved, it's because God saved you. And He gets all the glory. He didn't save you in response to anything you've done. He did it for His glory. And let me give you one of the reasons why I love Him getting all the glory. First, because He deserves it all, but secondly, because if He doesn't get all the glory, that means salvation somehow depended upon something for me to do in order to be saved, and that's not good work. That's not good news to me. The only good news to me is that He did it all. That's what I rest in, the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, the gospel of your salvation. The gospel of peace, how God made my peace with God, we read of the mystery of the gospel. Oh, the gospel is so mysterious. What's meant by the mystery of the gospel? A mystery is something we would never have known had God not made it known in His Word. For instance, Would you know that one God is one God and three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, if it wasn't in the Bible? It's not something you'd say, well, here's what I think about God. No, that would never even enter our mind. But we read it in his word. We bow to it. This is who he is.

Moreover, brethren, Paul says, I'm declaring unto you the same message I first brought to you, the message which I preached to you. Now, remember we're in first Corinthians and we don't need to speculate about the message he first brought. He tells them the message he first brought in the first chapter or in the second chapter of first Corinthians. Let me read these words. And I want you to listen to these carefully. This is so important. Verse one, Paul said, and I, brethren, when I came to you, he's talking about his initial coming into Corinth when he first came. And I, brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. I didn't come with philosophy. I didn't come with dazzling oratory. declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Now, do you hear that? He said, I determined not to know anything among you, not to esteem anything as important, not to preach anything. But this one message, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that's how he entered Corinth, preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, nothing else is worth preaching.

Now, how would that statement line up with the average religious organization? Most could not say that this is their only message. Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Look in chapter one, verse 17. He says, for Christ sent me. He's talking about when he came to Corinth. For Christ sent me not to baptize. Now I love to baptize people. It's a man's confession of Christ. We're confessing. My only hope is that I was in him when he lived. I was in him when he died. I was in him when he was raised.

But why is Paul saying, Christ sent me not to baptize? Is he saying that baptism is not important? Of course not. But he's saying, I'm not preaching to get results. He didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

Now, if a man's end is results, he'll accommodate the message to that end. He'll try to figure out a way how he can get the most results. Paul said, no, I didn't come to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

Not trying to package the gospel and trying to make it more attractive and more appealing to the flesh or less offensive to the flesh. I'm preaching the gospel of God as it was delivered to me. As a matter of fact, he said in verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 15, I declare unto you that which I also first received. how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

I'm only preaching to you what God gave to me. I'm not trying to dress it up. I'm not trying to make it more attractive. If I do, Paul says, that will make the cross of Christ of none effect. No one will be saved through that kind of preaching. If a man's trying to make the gospel more appealing and more relevant, no one is converted through that kind of preaching.

Four, Paul says in verse 18, the preaching of the cross. Now that is the message Paul brought, the preaching of the cross. Jesus Christ, listen to me, Please, Jesus Christ nailed to a cross, bleeding and dying and being raised from the dead. That is the whole counsel of God. You see, the cross is the display of every attribute of God. In the cross, I see God's sovereign purpose. I see God's power to put away sin. I see God's justice and holiness to punish sin. I see God's love and grace that He would give His Son as a payment for sin for sinners. Every attribute of God, I see the wisdom of God and how He's made a way to be just and yet justify ungodly people and make them perfectly just through what Christ did on the cross. The cross is the eternal purpose of God. The cross is the reason why the world was created. The cross is the reason why Adam fell. That was the purpose of the fall so that Christ would come to the cross and bleed and die and accomplish salvation. We'd know nothing of the mercy of God without the cross. We'd know nothing of the grace of God without the cross. The cross is the eternal purpose of God. The cross of Jesus Christ is the most God-like thing God ever did. The preaching of the cross. Why was there a cross? Because God's holy? Because man's sinful? Because man's sin has separated him from God? And there's no way that God can embrace a sinful man without the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So God gave His Son to die on the cross, to put away sin, Jesus Christ bore the sins of His people in His own body on the tree. Put those sins away. He suffered the full equivalent of hell, being forsaken by His Father And when he died, his father said, I'm satisfied with his sin payment. I'm satisfied with everybody he died for. When he was raised from the dead, everybody in him was raised with him, justified, accepted by the father. That's the word, the doctrine of the cross.

Look what he says in verse 18 for the preaching. The doctrine of the cross is to them to perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Now, later on in this chapter, he says in verse 22, for the Jews, the religious people, they require a sign. I need something I can see before I believe. I need to see some miracle performed before I can believe. And even religious people would say, I need to see something before I can believe I'm saved. I need to see where I've earned this victory over sin or whether I've changed, I've done this, I've done that. They're looking for evidences rather than believing that what Christ did is everything. I need to see something before I can believe.

The Jews, the religious people, they're looking for a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom. Now, these are the people who say, I need to find out a wise way to make this world a better place. I need to improve education. I need to improve the government. I need to improve healthcare. I need to improve the economy. We need wisdom to make this world a better place.

Paul says, but we preach Christ crucified. That's a summary of our message. We preach Christ crucified. In the building of the church of which I pastor, on the sign it says, we preach Christ crucified. That's our message. This is God's purpose. This is the way a sinner is saved. We preach Christ crucified.

Now to the Jews, these religious people who are looking for a sign, this is a stumbling block. You mean to tell me that you're saved only because of what He did and it has nothing to do with your works? You mean to tell me when He said, it is finished, your salvation was accomplished? That's exactly what I mean to tell you. Why, that'll destroy motive for obedience. If He's already done it all and doesn't leave anything for us to do, what motive do we have for good works? Why, I stumble at that. I don't believe that.

The Greeks say, wow, that's foolishness. What's that going to do to improve the economy? What's that going to do to improve education? What's that going to do to improve health care and make this world a better place? But unto them which are called, called by God, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God. and Christ, the wisdom of God.

Now that is the message that Paul came preaching at Corinth. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received. To as many as received him. To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name, which were born, which were birthed, not of blood. You're not saved because of some fleshly connection, because your mother and father were saved. Not of the will of the flesh. You're not saved because a bunch of men got together and prayed for you until you were saved, and they said, we're not gonna give the Lord any peace until he saves this person, and we pray until you're saved. Not by the will of man. You know, the very idea of free will is destroyed in the Bible. There's no such thing. You're not saved because you made a decision to be saved as an act of your free will. If you receive Christ and believe on his name, it's because you were born of God.

Now, false religion makes the act of reception. Well, you've got to receive Christ, or if you don't receive him, you won't be saved. Well, that's true. But if you don't receive him, he was never given. You understand that? All He's given to receive Him. They hear the Gospel. They believe the Gospel. They receive the Gospel. You've received this Gospel. You didn't reject it. You received it. All to whom Christ has given, they receive Him. We love him, John says, because he first loved us. You received the gospel. And then he says next, wherein you stand. Your standing is in the gospel that you received. Your standing is in the gospel that I preached to you at first. That's your standing.

Now, what is meant by standing? Well, let me read a verse from the Psalms. Psalm 24 verse 3, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? Remember, he's talking about standing. Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn to God deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Who is going to stand before the Lord? Only one person, that one who has clean hands and a pure heart. who has never lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."

Now, I know one person that can describe Jesus Christ, but he's not the only one that describes Everyone in him, because if I'm in him, if he has clean hands, I have clean hands. If he has a pure heart, I have a pure heart. If he's never lifted up his soul to vanity, I've never lifted up my soul to vanity. If he's never sworn deceitfully, I've never sworn deceitfully. You see, that righteousness that he worked out is my standing before God. I stand before God accepted, complete in Christ, because his righteousness is my righteousness before God.

I stand in the gospel, and it's the gospel for which I've taken a stand. Some translations call it that. We take our stand in the gospel. This is not up for debate. This is non-negotiable, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want to be tolerant. I want to be compromising in many areas, and well, we should be. but not with the gospel. There's one way that God saves sinners, that's by Christ crucified, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we take our stand there. Like Martin Luther said, here I stand, I can do no other.

And then he says next in verse two, with regard to this gospel, by which you are saved. This is the saving gospel. There is no salvation apart from the gospel of God, the eternal gospel, the gospel that I preach. That's the gospel by which you are saved. We even read of the gospel of your salvation. Now listen to me. I've been saved by what Christ did. So I said, what do you mean by saved? Does it simply mean you won't go to hell when you die? Well, I won't go to hell when I die. I'll go to heaven. But the Lord said, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. I've been saved from my sin by what he has done. Saved. Listen to me. I was saved before time began. So was every other believer. Second Timothy 1.9 says, he saved us and called us. What came first, the saving or the calling? The saving. He saved us. He called us. not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. I was saved. I was saved when Christ said, it is finished. What's finished? Salvation. He came to save His people from their sins, and that's what He did.

I was saved when I heard the gospel. I wasn't saved in my experience before hearing the gospel. But I was saved when I heard and believed the gospel and I trusted Jesus Christ as my righteousness before God. I was saved. Saved from my sins. And you know what? Right now, I'm being saved. I'm looking to Christ right now by the grace of God. I'm not looking to a past experience. I'm not looking to something I hope to do in the future. Right now, I'm looking to Christ only as all that God requires of me. And I'm resting. And one of these days I'll be plumb saved when I'm saved to sin no more. I love what the hymn writer said when he said, when I stand before thy throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart. Then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe.

The gospel has saved me. He says, by which also you are saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you. My marginal reading says, if you hold fast to what I've preached unto you, if you don't let go. Now, I have a firm hold on the gospel for this one reason. He has a firm hold upon me. His mighty hand will not let me go. And that's why I continue in the gospel, looking to Christ only.

Now, let me tell you, Perseverance is not staying religious. There's a lot of people who are gonna stay religious until their dying breath, and they're gonna wake up in hell understanding for the first time they never knew Jesus Christ, and they never knew what it was to trust Him and not in their own works. Here's what perseverance is. It's persevering all the way to the end, looking to Christ only, not Christ and. Not Christ and my works, not Christ and my experience, Christ only as everything in my salvation. You see, the straight gate is so narrow that if you have anything other than Christ, you can't get through. And the narrow way is so narrow that if you have anything other than Christ, you can't walk along that narrow road. At all times, the believer looks to Christ only, plus nothing, minus nothing.

Now, if you continue, is what he's saying. I want to read a passage of scripture from Colossians chapter one. Paul says every believer is holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God's sight because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear those words, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable if you continue in the faith grounded and settled. and be not moved from the hope of the gospel." The hope that what Christ did is everything in salvation. And he says, if you don't do these things, you believed in vain. Your faith, whatever it was, was not saving faith. You look to Christ alone or your faith, whatever it is, is vain faith.

May the Lord enable us to hear, to believe, to receive, to rejoice in and continue in the gospel of His grace.

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