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. I've entitled the message that
I want to bring this morning, Is My Gospel The Gospel? In Romans chapter 16, verse 25,
Paul said, Now to him that is of power to establish you according
to my gospel. Paul called the gospel my gospel. Now the fact that you're listening
this morning indicates that you have something called your gospel. I have what I call my gospel. Here is the question, is my gospel
the gospel? Is my gospel the gospel? the gospel that excludes all
other gospels. Paul warned us in Galatians 1,
6, and 7 of another gospel, which is not another, but there be
some that trouble you and would pervert or change the gospel
of Christ. Now, is my gospel the gospel,
or is my gospel another gospel? A gospel that will not save. Paul also said in Galatians chapter
one, verse 13, that the gospel which was preached of me was
not after man. It was not derived from any human
source. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Now I ask the question again,
is my gospel the gospel? And I pray that you'll ask yourself
that same question. Is your gospel the gospel? Now I want to answer that question
from Romans chapter 1, where Paul identifies the gospel. He says in verse 1 of Romans
chapter 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an
apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Now the gospel is the
gospel of God. It's not the gospel of Todd.
It's not the gospel of the Baptists, or the Catholics, or the Methodists,
or any other man-made denominations. It's not even the Reformed gospel. The gospel never needed reform.
It's the gospel of God. Now, what is the gospel of God? He goes on to tell us, it's the
gospel which he had promised to fore by his prophets in the
holy scriptures. It's the gospel revealed in the
scriptures. Now, let me remind you, the Bible
is the inspired, infallible word of God. The scripture says all
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's given to teach
us the gospel. This is God's revelation of the
gospel. It's the gospel of the scriptures. And look what he says next. It's
the gospel concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now the gospel is the gospel
concerning His Son. The gospel is not concerning
making America a Christian nation again. It never was a Christian
nation in the first place. It's not about some right-wing
or left-wing political agenda. It's not about affecting the
culture and changing it. That's not what the gospel is
about. The gospel is concerning His
Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. I love His name, Jesus. His name
means Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Jesus Christ. He's the Christ. He's God's anointed. That means He's God's prophet. He's God's priest. He's God's
king. And he is like no other prophet.
Every other prophet said, thus saith the Lord. He never said
that. He said, I say unto you. He's
God's priest. And he's like no other priest
because every other priest brought the blood of an animal sacrifice. He brings his own blood, blood
that has power to put away sin and power to save. He is the
priest who saves. He said to Peter, Peter, I pray
for you that your faith fail not. You know what? Peter's faith
did not fail. He said, Father, forgive them,
as the great high priest and everybody he prayed for, the
Father forgave. He's God's king, and he's like
no other king. All other kings have borrowed
power. Any power they have, it's given
to them of God. He has his own power inherently. He has omnipotence. He's the
omnipotent king that can make sure his will is always done. And he can cause all of his people
to live to believe, to persevere in the faith. He's Jesus Christ,
our Lord. He's the Lord. You know what
that means? That means He's the Lord of creation. He created
the world. He's the Lord of providence.
Everything that happens in time and space, He's in absolute control
of everything. There's nothing that happens
without His will. He is the Lord of salvation.
He is salvation. If I'm saved, it's because He
willed my salvation. If I'm saved, it's because He
saved me. The gospel is the gospel concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And look what he says next. And
he says, The gospel is the gospel of God. It's the gospel of scripture. It's the gospel concerning his
son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And in verse three, it tells
us he was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh
and declared to be the son of God with power, according to
the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Now, Jesus Christ, the son of
God, was the Son of David. The Word was made flesh. The eternal Son of God was made
flesh. He kept the law in the flesh. He put away sin in the flesh. He was raised from the dead in
the flesh. And He's declared to be The Son
of God. God the Son. Jesus Christ is
God. He's God the Son. And here is
what demonstrates to us He's God the Son. The Spirit of holiness. His holy life. The only holy man to ever live. And what else demonstrates who
He is, is His own resurrection from the dead. You see, when
he was raised from the dead, that means God was satisfied
with everything he did. If he wasn't, he would have left
him dead. Now, the difference between the gospel of God and
every other religious figure is Jesus Christ has an empty
tomb. Every other religious figure
is still in their tomb, but he has an empty tomb because he
was raised from the dead. Now, is my gospel the gospel. Let me give you some ways you
can know, and I won't spend much time on any of these, but I want
you to consider these so you can see if your gospel is the
gospel, the gospel of Paul. First, does my gospel line up
with the Old Testament scriptures? You know, most preachers don't
really much deal with the Old Testament scriptures unless they're
looking at them as a character study. Dare to be a Daniel. Don't
give in to temptation like Joseph. Be courageous like Moses. And they don't understand that
the Old Testament scriptures tell us the gospel. The New Testament
cannot be understood without the Old Testament. Now let me
give you one example. Does my gospel line up with the
Old Testament scriptures? Here's one example, the Passover. Do you remember when God told
the children of Israel to put the blood over the door of that
lamb? And he made this statement. And
here is the gospel. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Now, in some people's version
of the gospel, God would say, when I see your faith, I'll pass
over you. Or when I see your repentance,
I'll pass over you. Or when I see your good motives,
I'll pass over you. Or when I see your changed life,
I will pass over you. But that's not what this scripture
declares, the gospel of the Old Testament. God says, when I see
the blood, the blood of my dear son, I will pass over you. Listen to me, if Christ died
for you, God will pass over you. does your gospel line up with
the Old Testament scriptures? Secondly, does my gospel give
God all the glory in salvation? Very important point. Does my
gospel give all the glory to God in salvation? God himself
said, my glory I will not share with another. Does the gospel
I believe give God all the glory? Now let me give you an example
of a gospel that does not give God all the glory. If my salvation
is dependent upon my decision, my free will, my acceptance of
Christ, you know who gets the glory and salvation? Me. If I,
through my own efforts and through my works, through my diligence,
through my Bible reading, through my prayer, through my self-denial,
if I become more holy and less sinful, you know who gets the
glory? I do. If I'm given a higher reward
in heaven because of my personal obedience here on earth than
somebody else, and I get a higher reward than they do, you know
who gets the glory? I do. Now in the gospel, no man
gets any glory and all the glory goes to God because he does it
all. Thirdly, does my gospel give
the preeminence to Jesus Christ in all things? that he might have, Paul said
in Colossians 1, the preeminence in all things. Now, all that God is, is Jesus
Christ. He is all that God is, in Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And we give the preeminence to
Jesus Christ as God the Son, the second person of the blessed
Trinity. He is all in the Bible. This
book is truly a hymn book. It's concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said concerning the scriptures,
they are they all of them. They are they which testify of
me. He's all in our doctrine. We
believe in election chosen in him. We believe in justification
justified by him. We believe in redemption. He
redeemed us. We believe in preservation, preserved
in Christ Jesus. He is all in every doctrine. And I can't understand any doctrine
apart from the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He is most especially all in my salvation. All God requires
of me, He looks to His Son for. He is all. And you know, if you're
nothing, it's easy for Him to be all, isn't it? Colossians
3, verse 11 says, Christ is all in all. Now here's the fourth
statement. Is my gospel the gospel? Does
my gospel violate any of the attributes of God? The attributes
of God or who he is, as he's revealed in the word. He's holy,
he's absolutely sovereign, he's absolutely just, he's omniscient,
he's omnipotent, he's omnipresent, he's gracious, he's independent,
he's immutable, all of the attributes of God. Now, does my gospel violate
any of those attributes? If it does, it's not the gospel
of God. Now, let me give you an example. Most people preach
that God intends to save every individual, that Christ died
for every individual and paid for the sins of every individual. Now, do you realize that that
notion violates the attributes of God? It says God is unjust. He can punish for the same sin
twice. He can punish Christ for your sin and yet send you to
hell. That's a violation of the attributes of God. It's a violation
of His sovereignty. It makes your decision trump
His desire to save you. It's a denial of His immutability. It says God can love you and
then hate you and send you to hell. If my gospel violates any
of the attributes of God, it is not the gospel, the gospel
that excludes all other gospel. Fifth, does my gospel honor the
law? Does my gospel honor the Ten
Commandments? Does it give the reward for perfect
obedience and the punishment for disobedience? Yes, my gospel
does. My disobedience, my sins were
punished in the cross. I'm given Christ's righteousness
and I'm rewarded as one who has never sinned. Do we make void
the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now a gospel
that fails to honor the Law reward perfect obedience and punish
all sin is not the gospel of God. Oh, the gospel honors God's
holy law. Six, does my gospel meet the
sinner where he is? Dead in sins. Now that's where we are. And
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now if my gospel can't meet me
where I am, dead with no ability, with no ability to save myself,
with no ability to contribute to my salvation, it won't do
me any good. I think of the Good Samaritan.
This is such a beautiful illustration. There was a man left in the ditch. The scripture says, half dead. Now somebody says, how can you
be half dead? Well, he was alive physically
still, but he was dead spiritually. And that describes every one
he saves. He comes to them dead in sins
and gives them life. The gospel comes where man is,
dead in sins, and gives him life. And a gospel that fails to do
this, a gospel that's dependent upon man's response and man's
free will, man's works, is not the gospel of God. Seventh, will
my gospel save the chief of sinners? Will my gospel save the chief
of sinners? Well, the first question is,
what is a sinner? A sinner is the man who commits
the sins. God doesn't send sins to hell. God sends the person who committed
those sins to hell. I've heard preachers say so many
times, God loves the sinner, but he hates his sin. Well, you're
not going to find that phrase in the Bible. Thou hatest all
workers of iniquity, the scripture says. Now, can't get past that. Will my gospel save the chief
of sinners? Now, let me tell you what a sinner
is. A sinner is somebody who all they do is sin. And they cannot not sin. And all of their sin is all of
their fault. They can't blame their circumstances. They can't blame their mom and
dad. They can't blame God. They can't
blame the devil. All their sin is all their fault. And someone who's a sinner really
believes that he can't sit in judgment on anybody for anything. I'm unqualified because of my
own personal sinfulness. And a real sinner believes that
he has no claim on God's mercy or grace. He's in the hands of
a sovereign God for God to do with him whatsoever he's pleased
to do. Now, the chief of sinners is the man who believes himself
to be the worst man alive. There's nobody more sinful than
I am. Can God's gospel save the chief
of sinners? Well, listen to this scripture,
1 Timothy 1.15. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying, and it's worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Eighth, does my gospel provide
all that God requires? Well, what does God require?
Perfect righteousness. He provides it. He gives me the
righteousness of His Son. He requires a new heart. He provides
it. A new heart will I give you.
He gives that new heart that believes the gospel, that loves
God. He requires faith and repentance. You will not be saved apart from
faith. You will not be saved apart from
repentance. He provides that faith and that
repentance as His gift. He requires for my sin to be
punished. He provides the punishment of
the sin in His own blessed Son. He desires me or He requires
me to be without sin. He provides that when He justifies
me before His holy law. All He requires, He provides. Will my gospel keep me saved? Will my gospel keep me saved. Jude 24 says, now unto him that's
able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. The Lord said,
I give unto my sheep eternal life. Now let me say this, if
I could fall away, I would fall away. But God preserves me in
Christ Jesus and His gospel, the gospel of God, keeps a man
saved. He can't lose his salvation because
God saved him. The gospel of God keeps a man
saved. Now, can I face death and judgment
with my gospel? There's therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8.1, if that's true, yes,
I confess death and judgment. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us
all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified them. Who is He
that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Yes, I can face God in judgment
with that gospel. Listen to this, in 1 John 4,
verse 17, we read, Herein is our love made perfect, that we
may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as He is,
so are we in this world. Is He holy? So am I. I'm united
to Him. Is He altogether perfect? So
am I in Him. Is He totally righteous? So am
I in Him. Oh, as He is. This is the promise
to every believer. As He is, so are we in this world
right now. With that, I can face judgment.
Will my gospel, the gospel I believe, will my gospel make me perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ? Romans 8.29 says, For
whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. John said in 1 John 3.2, We shall
be like him For we shall see Him as He is. Every believer
will spend eternity perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus
Christ. That's heaven being with Him
and being like Him. And last, does my gospel enable
me to rest. There remaineth a rest for the
people of God. This is what faith is. There
remaineth a rest for the people of God. For he that's entered
into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did
from his. When God finished the work of
creation, the scripture says, He rested. Why did He rest? It wasn't because He's tired,
but because the work was completed. There's nothing left to do. Will my gospel enable me to rest? Because there's nothing for me
to do. He did it all. He finished my salvation, and
I rest in who He is and what He did. Now, is my gospel the
gospel? Well, does it line up with the
Old Testament Scriptures? Does it give God all the glory?
Does my gospel give the preeminence to Jesus Christ? Does my gospel
violate any of the attributes of God? Does my gospel honor
God's holy law? Does my gospel meet the sinner
where he is? Will my gospel save the chief
of sinners? Does my gospel provide all that
God requires? Will my gospel keep me saved? Can I face death and judgment
with my gospel? And can I rest with my gospel? My answer to all those questions
is yes. Yes. If that's the case, my gospel
is the gospel of God. And it's my prayer that God will
cause your gospel to be His gospel, the gospel of the grace of God. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, write,
or look on our website, you can get a copy. This is Todd Nyberg,
amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send a request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com,
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen.