Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. 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. Our scripture for this morning
is found in the 16th chapter of the book of Mark. We read
in verse 15, chapter 16, And he said unto them, Now these
are the Lord's parting instructions to his disciples before he ascended
back to heaven. After His resurrection, He was
on the earth 40 days before His ascension, and these were His
last words to His disciples before His ascension. We read in verse
19 of this chapter, So then after the Lord had spoken unto them,
He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of
God. So hear what he says to his disciples. He said unto them, Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And I don't know of any more
terrifying words in all the scripture than that. He who says this is
not some red-faced, fundamentalist, hellfire and brimstone preacher
screaming at people. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Now he says to these men, these sinful men. In the previous verse,
he said, after he'd appeared unto the eleven as they sat at
meat, he upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of
heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after
he was risen. Now, these men were like all
men who have faith, they also had unbelief. You remember the
cry of the man, I believe, help thou mine unbelief? Well, these
men were like that. And the Lord upbraided them for
this unbelief. It was not right. But he still
says to them, these people who he had just upbraided, go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, this was before radio. This was before TV. This was
before the Internet. This is before there were trains,
planes, and automobiles. He says to this small group of
men, encompass the globe and preach the gospel to every creature. What an awesome task. These men were called upon to
go all over this globe to make sure everybody heard the gospel. Go and preach the gospel to every
creature. Now, the preaching of the gospel
is the ordained means of God for the ingathering of His elect. Somebody says, couldn't God save
someone without them hearing the gospel? Well, the question
is, does he save anyone without hearing the gospel? And the answer
to that question is no. You will not believe anything
you've never heard. You have to hear. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 1 Corinthians 1.21
says it pleased God. It pleased God. by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe." Now, he tells these men, go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel. Now, if the Lord has
saved me, if the Lord has saved you, we are like Paul, debtors
to all men, to preach the gospel to them that has saved us. And to not do so would be evil. If you know the way cancer could
be healed, and you withheld that information, it'd be evil, wouldn't
it? Now, everyone who God has saved is called upon to preach
the gospel. Now, the first thing that I would
notice about this statement is, Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel. Definite article, the gospel. There is only one gospel, the
gospel of God. And God uses the entire Bible
to declare his gospel from Genesis 1-1 through Revelation 22-21. And every verse of scripture
is used to teach us of the gospel. And we could go to thousands,
literally thousands of different places to define the gospel. But what I would like to do,
since we're in the book of Mark, is confine ourselves to Mark's
use of the term gospel. He's the one inspired by God
who penned these words given by the Lord Jesus, go into all
the world and preach the gospel. And he uses this word gospel
eight times in this gospel narrative. And I want to look briefly at
each one of them. When he says, go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now I love
the first mention of the word gospel in Mark is the first verse
of the first chapter. It reads like this, the beginning. of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. That word beginning is the origin. The origin, where the gospel
comes from. Now, understand this, the gospel
is as old as God. In other words, the gospel is
eternal. That is what John called it in
Revelation 14, 6, the everlasting gospel, the eternal gospel. It's the gospel that's old as
God. It's eternal. That's its origin,
God himself. Now, a gospel that is not eternal
is not the gospel of God. Remember this. God created the
universe for His Son to do what He did on the cross. This is
an eternal gospel. And Christ is called the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. The beginning of the
gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now the gospel is who He is. That's what determines the message.
The gospel is who He is. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. Now what that means is, He is
the uncreated, second person of the blessed Trinity. God the
Son, in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Colossians chapter two, verse nine. He said, you believe God,
believe also in me. Whatever you believe concerning
God, that's me. He's sovereign, He's all powerful,
He's all wise. He's immutable. He's independent. This is Jesus Christ. Every attribute
of the Godhead dwells in His body. Therefore, He's incapable
of failure. When you talk about the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're talking about one who cannot fail in
His intentions. Whatever He intends to do, He
does because of who He is. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Jesus means Savior. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He's Jesus Christ. Christ represents
His offices. He's God's prophet. He's the
Word of God. He brings God's Word to men. He's God's priest. A priest is
one who represents men to God. If he represents you to God,
You'll be saved. He's incapable of failure. He's
God's king. He's God's prophet, priest, and
king. He has the power to do whatsoever He is pleased to do. Now, the gospel is the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And I love the beginning, the
origin of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then in Mark chapter 1 verse
14, we read now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came
into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Now the gospel is the gospel
of the kingdom of God. Now this is a kingdom that knows
no boundaries. Let me read you a passage of
scripture from Daniel, chapter 4, beginning in verse 34. And
at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes into heaven,
and mine understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most
High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation. It knows no boundaries. And all
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he
doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand. Or
saying to him, what doest thou? This kingdom has no boundaries.
Why? Because the King of Kings is
the King of this kingdom. Revelation chapter 17 verse 14
says regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, He's King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. And they that are with Him are
called, chosen, and faithful. They're called by His invincible,
irresistible grace. They're chosen by Him. He said,
you have not chosen me, but I've chosen you. And this choice was
made before time began. And every one of those people
who are called and chosen are faithful. They believe the gospel
and they can be believed. Every single one of them. And
then we read in Mark chapter one, verse 15, the very next
verse. The Lord is speaking and He says, the time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the
gospel. Repent of anything that is not
the gospel. The word repent means to change
your mind. Now you can write this down.
This is true of me and this is true of you. Everything we think
naturally of God is wrong. Repent. Repent of your wrong
thoughts of God. He said in Psalm 50, Thou thoughtest
I was altogether such a one as thyself. And here's what our
problem is. We think God's like we are. He's not. He's altogether
other. He's holy. He's separate. He is transcendent. He's God. He's in absolute control
of everything. He's gracious. He's independent. He's immutable. Change your mind
concerning the false concepts and ideas you have of God. Change
your mind about the false concepts you have of yourself. Every natural
man thinks he has some way of contributing to his salvation,
but the fact of the matter is you don't, and I don't. We're
dead in trespasses and sins. We really are evil. That's right. You are an evil person. I am an evil person. That's God's testimony. And God
saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You repent of those high thoughts
you have of yourself when you take your place before God as
a sinner. And oh, what repentance, what
change of mind is needed with regard to the forgiveness of
sins? Somebody says, what do you mean
by that? Let me tell you exactly what I mean by that. Everybody
naturally thinks that the forgiveness of sins is the end of salvation.
If I do this, if I stop doing that, if I become like this and
I stop being that way, if I change, if I do Fill in the blank. At the end, I'll receive the
forgiveness of sins. That's the message of salvation
by works. That's all it is. The gospel does not end with
the forgiveness of sins. The gospel begins with the full,
complete, free forgiveness of sins in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent ye. Change your mind and
believe the gospel. And then we read these words
in Mark chapter eight, beginning in verse 34. And when he called
the people unto him with his disciples, he said unto them,
whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life
for my sake and the gospels, there's the word, shall find
it. Now, if you seek to save your
life by anything you do, you'll lose it. Those are the Lord's
words. You will not be saved. If I do
not deny self, say deny all of self and salvation, take up my
cross, the confession of what the cross means, who God is,
how he saves sinners, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to
him only. I won't be saved. That's what
the Lord says. If I lose my life, I lose all hopes of self-salvation,
I'll be saved. If I deny myself all connection
with self, take up my cross, the confession of Christ, and
follow Him, I will be saved. And then we read in Mark chapter
10, verse 29. Verily I say unto you, there's no man that hath
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands for my sake, and the Gospels, that he
shall receive, there it is, the Gospels, he shall receive an
hundredfold down this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and
mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the
world to come, eternal life. Now, this is a Gospel where you
are willing, by the grace of God, to lose all these things
he said, and it's not a sacrifice. It's not a sacrifice. As a matter
of fact, you're the gainer for it. It is plus for you, not minus. And then the next passage where
the gospel is used is in Mark chapter 13, verse 10. And the gospel must first be
published among all nations. The gospel must first be published. Now this is a message that's
not to be shared. It's to be published. It's to
be proclaimed. It's not trying to manipulate
people. That's what most preaching is,
trying to manipulate people in order to get them to do what
you think they ought to do. That's not preaching the gospel. It's
publishing, it's declaring the actual content of the gospel,
and trusting God to take care of the results. Now listen to
me. I'm so sure that what I'm preaching is the gospel, that
I'm willing to preach it, declare it, and leave you alone with
God. I'm not going to try to manipulate
you. I'm not trying to sell anything to you. I know the only way you
will believe is for God to do a work of grace in your heart.
And then the gospel is mentioned like this with regard to that
woman who gave that alabaster box of ointment, and the Lord
said, Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall
be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath
done shall be spoken of. as a memorial of her. Now what
did she do? She broke that costly alabaster box of ointment and
poured it upon the Lord. And she was criticized. Why was
this waste made? This could have been sold for
much and given to the poor. And the Lord said, Let her alone,
why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work
on me." Do you know only the gospel will do that? The law
will never cause somebody to do something solely for him.
There's always some other motive. I'm doing this to earn a higher
reward or to keep from suffering this loss or make things better
for myself. Law never causes anyone to do
anything out of love, but the gospel does. And the Lord finally
says in this 16th chapter to his disciples, go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall
be damned. He that believeth, the gospel
is a message to be believed. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, His faith is counted
for righteousness. Now let me tell you something
you can't do at the same time. You can't work and believe. You're
doing one or the other. If you're working, you're not
believing. If you're believing, You're not
seeking to attain salvation by your works. This is the work
of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. What hinders me from being baptized? If you believe with all your
heart, you may. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. This is a message to be believed.
You actually rely upon Jesus Christ the Lord as all God requires
of you. You're not looking for anything
else. You look to Christ alone as all
God requires of you. He that believeth and is baptized,
the same shall be saved. Now, this is very important.
He that believeth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. Now, listen carefully. The act
of baptism does not save. You're not born again by going
under the waters of baptism. The act of baptism never saved
anyone. The thief on the cross wasn't
baptized. You say, has anybody been saved who hadn't been baptized?
The thief on the cross was never baptized. And he was saved. The Lord said unto him, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. But that does not take away from
the importance of baptism. Here's a reason to be baptized.
He commands you to if you believe the gospel. Is anything else
needed? He commands you to. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved tells us what the requirement for baptism is. You believe. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. You know, there are so many people
who practice what's called infant baptism. They baptize babies. A baby cannot believe. That is
not baptism. And it could be that you went
through some kind of ceremony called baptism when you didn't
know the gospel, never even heard the gospel. That's not baptism
either. You may have gone through that
ceremony 20 times, and it's still not baptism. It's only baptism
if you believe the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized,
the same shall be saved. But look at these next words,
and I don't know of any more terrifying words in all the word
of God than these. He that believeth not. Now all
the world is divided into two classes. He that believes and
he that believes not. And the Lord said, he that believeth
not shall be damned. That means he shall spend eternity
in hell. And these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, unbelief is the greatest
sin. Now, if I told you I'm guilty
of a terrible sin, the first thing you would think of would
not be unbelief. You'd be thinking of something evil that I've done.
Well, I am guilty of the greatest of evils, unbelief. You see, unbelief calls God a
liar. Unbelief fails to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember when the Lord said,
when He has come, He will convince the world of sin, of righteousness,
of judgment, of sin, because they believe not on Me. When you're convicted of unbelief,
that's when you find out, I'm an unbeliever. I'm an unbeliever. I'm someone who's failed to trust
Christ. And to not trust Christ is to say that what he did was
unnecessary. I can make it to heaven on my
own. He didn't have to come and suffer and bleed and die. It
was unnecessary. Unbelief sees no glory in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unbelief thinks, I can come into
God's presence in my works. And it's spitting in God's face. It's saying what you did in sending
your son really was not necessary. I can make it on my own. It's
wicked pride and self-righteousness to practice this thing of unbelief. Now I realize, I love what the
man in Mark chapter nine said, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Now, an unbeliever has nothing
but unbelief. A believer has belief. He does
believe the gospel, but he always has his old nature seeking to
make him look somewhere other than Christ. And I love that
cry, Lord, I believe, I do, I believe the gospel. I believe that all
God requires of me, he looks to his son for, and I'm resting
in him. Help thou mine unbelief, that part of me that continually
wants to look to myself and look to my works as evidence as to
whether or not I'm saved, rather than looking to Christ alone.
Now, these are the words of the Lord. Go preach the gospel, the
gospel, the gospel of God to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. he that believeth not shall be
damned." May God give us grace to believe the gospel. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.neidert at gmail.com,
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