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 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. Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy
1, verse 3, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when
I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they
teach no other doctrine. I've entitled this message, No
Other Doctrine. Now everything in this book we
call the Bible is the doctrine of Christ. It's the doctrine
of God. Doctrine is God's explanation
of Himself. It's God's declaration of Himself. The entire Bible is a book of
the doctrine of Christ. Now, sometimes people will speak
of doctrine in negative terms. They'll think dry doctrine. Well, there's no such thing as
dry doctrine. There's dry hearts that the doctrine
does nothing for and they perceive it as dry, but the problem is
not with the doctrine. The problem is with the person.
Dry doctrine, no a dry heart. And there are those who would
say, well, I don't want to hear doctrine. I've heard this on
numerous occasions. I don't want to hear doctrine.
I want to hear about Christ. Everything you say with regard
to the person of Christ is doctrine. You can't hear of Christ and
not hear doctrine. Now, Paul says to Timothy, I
want you to stay in Ephesus and charge some that they teach no
other doctrine. Now let's look at this chapter.
I think that we need to read almost the whole chapter going
verse by verse to see just what it is Paul meant, what he meant
by preaching no other doctrine. Well, he said in verse four,
neither give heed to fables, human fabrications that are not
true. What the Lord called the doctrines
and commandments of men. Not things God has said, but
what men have fabricated. Neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly
edifying, which is in faith, so do. Verse five, now the end,
the goal, the purpose, the reason of the commandment. And there
the word commandment is not the word that we generally use to,
say, describe the Ten Commandments. The word means the proclamation,
the declaration, the declaration of the doctrine of Christ, the
preaching of the gospel, the declaration of the gospel, the
proclamation of the gospel. It's a command from God. We're
commanded to believe, we're commanded to repent of anything contrary
to the gospel. He says, now the end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and
of faith unfeigned. Now here's the purpose of the
declaration of the gospel. Number one, Charity out of a
pure heart. Now, the law never produces love. It only produces resentment.
It only tells me I don't measure up and there's something I'm
lacking. And all that produces is resentment. But when I hear
the gospel, how I'm complete in Christ, that produces love
to God and love to men. And it comes from a pure heart.
That is the pure heart given in the new birth, the heart that
cannot sin. The Lord said, blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. It's only the pure in
heart that love. That's the new birth. That's
the new nature. That's the new heart that God
gives. Now that's the end of the gospel. charity out of a
pure heart. And next he says, and a good
conscience. Now what is a good conscience?
Somebody says, my conscience is clear. Well, the reason your
conscience is clear is because it's seared. If you had a conscience
working properly, you'd know that everything you do is sin,
as far as what you do. But a good conscience is a conscience
that has nothing to feel guilty about. And that is what the gospel
produces, justification. I stand before God having never
sinned, having nothing to feel guilty about. Now, as far as
feeling guilty, there's not a day that goes by that I don't feel
guilty about something. However, that doesn't change
the fact that I have nothing to feel guilty about because
I stand justified before God. Now, the third end of the commandment,
he says, is Faith unfeigned. Faith unfaked. I'm not faking. The only hope
I have is Christ. I'm not looking anywhere else
but who He is and what He did as everything God requires of
me. Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. This is no
act. Faith unfaked, from which, he goes on to say in verse six,
from which some having swerved, they have left this end of the
commandment being charity out of a pure heart and of a good
conscience and faith unfeigned. They've swerved from this, they've
erred from this and turned aside under vain jangling. empty words
that don't even make sense, desiring to be teachers of the law. understanding
neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. They say we're teachers
of the law, and they have no understanding of what they're
saying or the implications of what they are saying. And that
can be said of many preachers. They desire to be teachers of
the law, and they're clueless, and they don't understand the
implications of what they're saying. Now, Paul makes this
statement. We know that the law, and he's
talking about the Ten Commandments, We know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully. Knowing this, please listen to
these words. Maybe you've never considered this before, so please
listen. These are the words inspired by the Holy Spirit that Paul
says with regard to God's law. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man. A righteous man does not need
law. You don't put locks on your doors
to keep righteous men out. You put locks on your doors to
keep criminals and thieves out. A righteous man doesn't need
law for him to do what is right. Laws are for the wicked. Look what he says. Knowing this,
that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane. That word profane means you can
be bought. If the price is high enough,
you can be bought. for murderers of fathers and
murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for those that
defile themselves with mankind, homosexuals, for men-stealers,
human trafficking, for liars, for perjured persons, people
who will lie under oath, and any other thing that is contrary
to sound doctrine. Now, that's the person who needs
the law, persons described just like that. Now, when a man desires
to be under the law, don't trust him. The man who's a lawmonger,
here's what he is. He's a lawless, disobedient,
ungodly, sinful, unholy, profane, murdering, sex pervert, human
trafficking liar who lie under oath. That is the man who wants
to be under law. Verse 10, and if there be any
other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. And here's that word doctrine
again, sound doctrine. And he tells us what that sound
doctrine is. This is the doctrine of which he said to Timothy,
you charge some that they preach no other doctrine. Now, obviously,
some had tried to preach law, and all they did was demonstrate
that they had no understanding of the gospel when they did that.
Now, he says, you make sure that you preach no other doctrine,
nothing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Now, what is sound
doctrine? Well, let's go on reading, verse
11. Sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God. Sound doctrine is doctrine that
is according to the glorious gospel, or the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God. Now here is sound doctrine. Anything that's contrary to this
is unsound, is false, is erroneous, is poisoned. Here is sound doctrine,
the doctrine of the glory of the blessed God. Now in Exodus chapter 33, verse
18, Moses said, I beseech thee, he's speaking to God. He says,
I beseech thee, show me your glory. Now God answers this request. He said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before thee. And I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. Now here's sound doctrine. The
Lord's good. Everything he does is good. And
it's good because he does it. He doesn't do something because
it's good. It's good because he does it because he is good.
He has no law over his head he's trying to live up to. He is goodness
itself. Every attribute is good. His
holiness is good. His wrath is good. His justice
is good. His love is good. His sovereignty
is good. He's good all the time. The goodness
of God. I'll make all my goodness pass
before you. and I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord before you." Now, here's sound doctrine, his name. Now,
that's not talking about verbally articulating his name. His name
means the person behind the name, the attributes of the one behind
the name. When you think of someone you
know and call upon their name, there are certain characteristics
of that person you think of because you know them. God's name is
his attributes, his holiness, his sovereignty, his justice,
his immutability, his independence, his omnipotence, his omnipresence,
his omniscience. The attributes of God is the
person behind the name. I'll make all my goodness pass
before you. That's sound doctrine. I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before you. Anything you hear that's contrary
to the character of God is not sound doctrine. I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious." Now, God will be gracious. He delights
in being gracious. But notice He says, I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. It's sovereign mercy. Whenever
someone complains about election, how God saved some and chose
some and passed by others, they prove by that that they really
believe they have salvation coming to them. And if that's the case,
it's no longer grace. He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. Now that is the gospel that is
according to sound doctrine. the gospel of the glory of the
blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And if you and I
are believers, it's committed to our trust as well. Now, Paul goes on to say in verse
12, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now, here is sound
doctrine, giving all thanks and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody says, well, I at least
received Christ. Somebody else didn't. I need
to get some kind of credit for that, surely. I have a free will
and I exercise my will in a way the other person didn't. Surely
I can thank myself. Well, surely I had a little something
to do with it. No, if you're saved, you know
you had nothing to do with it. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
who has enabled me. I wouldn't do this, I wouldn't
be this, apart from Him. He enabled me. For that He counted me faithful.
He enabled me to be faithful. You know, it's required in the
stewards that a man be found faithful. Faithful to what God
says. I want to hear a man that's faithful to God. Not a man that's
trying to promote his own agenda, but someone that's faithful to
the Word of God. He counted me faithful. He enabled
me to be faithful and then counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry. Who was before? Now, Paul speaks
of his before. How long have you been saved?
Somebody says, well, ever since I can remember. Well, that's too long.
That's too long. Do you have a before? Look what
Paul says. Who was before? Before God saved
me, I was a blasphemer. and a persecutor and injurious. Now, Paul was very religious
before God saved him. He said in his own testimony,
touching the righteousness that was in the law, I was blameless.
He was very religious, very zealous, a Pharisee. Yet he says, everything
that came out of my religious mouth was blasphemy. All of it was wrong. And I was
a persecutor. I hated the gospel so much. I hated Jesus Christ so much
that I felt bound and obligated to persecute everyone who called
upon the name of the Lord because I thought they were contrary
to the God I worshiped. He was still real religious.
He thought he was serving God and being this way, but all he
was was a persecutor. And he said I was injurious. Insolent, uplifted with pride,
arrogant, using nothing but insulting speech. That was Paul's before. Who was before? A blasphemer,
and a persecutor, and injurious. But, in spite of all of that,
but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. But God intervened, I obtained
mercy." Now the word attain, obtained, is in the passive tense.
God simply had mercy on me. Here I was helplessly dead in
sins, injurious, a persecutor, a blasphemer, but God had mercy
on me because he delights in mercy. He said, I obtained mercy because
I did it ignorantly, in unbelief. Now he's not saying my guilt
was not so bad because I was just ignorant and unbelieving.
He was saying I was so desperately ignorant. I was so given over
to unbelief that the only way I could have mercy is for God
simply to show me mercy for Christ's sake. And what next? He said in verse 14, And the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant with faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus. Now here is sound doctrine. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became
poor. That's what happened on the cross.
He had been rich in praise, rich in the angels' adoration. He lost everything on the cross.
He was made sin, and He became poor that you, through His poverty,
might be rich. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
was exceeding abundant. with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. Now here's what God gave me.
Here is sound doctrine. Faith is the gift of God. 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. Faith is his gift. The love I
have to Christ is his gift. It's not something that was found
in my natural heart. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
for this gift of faith and love to him and love to men enough
to want to tell them the truth. Now, the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. Now in verse 15, Let me say this, if this is not
your favorite verse in all the Bible, it ought to be. And I
say that with regard to myself too. If this is not my favorite
verse in the Bible, it ought to be. Now listen to these words,
and this is my favorite verse, and this is sound doctrine. This
is a faithful saying. Now, what I'm getting ready to
say is something that had reached the status of a saying in the
early church. The early believers went around
saying this. It had reached the status of
a saying, an oft-repeated saying. This is a faithful saying. This can be relied on. You can count on this. This is
absolute truth. This is sound doctrine. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. That means you ought to receive
this. It means I ought to welcome this.
This is the best thing I've ever heard in all my life. This is
the doctrine of Christ. This is the doctrine of God.
This is the sound doctrine. Anything opposed to this is some
other doctrine that will lead away from God rather than to
God. Now, here it is. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am the chief, Christ. Now, don't look at that simply
as a surname. This speaks of his offices. He's
God's prophet. He's the Word of God. He's God's
priest. If he represents you before God,
you must be saved. He's God's king. He's the king
of kings. He's the Lord of lords. He's
the one whose will is done. Jesus. Savior. That's what His name means, Savior.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. Christ Jesus came into the world. He was, before He came, the eternal
Son of God. He came into the world. The Word
was made flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
the Creator. came into the world. The second
person of the Trinity came into the world, was made flesh. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save. He didn't come to condemn
the world, the world was already condemned. He didn't come to
make men savable if they do their part. He came to save. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. I hate that
preaching that makes Christ's salvation an offer. He didn't
offer to save anybody. He saved. When He said it is
finished, all of His people were saved. He is the saving Savior. He doesn't make salvation possible.
He saves because of who He is. He's incapable of failure. He's
the Son of God. He came into the world to save. Now what's it mean to be saved?
It means to be saved from the wrath of God, yes, but it also
means to be saved from my sins, to be saved from the power of
sin. There was a time when I was under
the complete dominion of sin and I couldn't believe, I couldn't
repent, but when he gave me a new nature, I can now do what I could
formerly not do. And I'm not going to be condemned
because I'm justified. And one of these days, I'm going
to be glorified, perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, worshiping
Him, saved from my sins. Who did He come to save? Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save, listen, sinners. Not good people, not righteous
people, sinners. Not believing sinners, not repentant
sinners, not sensible sinners. No adjective is used, just sinners. What's a sinner? It's the one
who commits the sin. I've heard preachers say, God
loves the sinner, but he hates his sin. You won't find that
in the Bible. God doesn't put sins into hell,
he puts the ones who committed them into hell. He came to save
sinners. What's a sinner? A sinner is
somebody who all they do is sin, and they know it. And they cannot
not sin. They can't have five seconds
of purity. They cannot not sin. And their sin is all their fault. They can't blame anybody except
themselves. They can't blame God. They can't
blame their circumstances. All their sin is all their fault. And because of their own personal
sinfulness, they're unable to sit in judgment toward anybody. for anything, because they know
they're sinners. And they have no claim on God.
If God left me to myself and sent me to hell, just and holy
is his name. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And listen to what Paul says,
of whom I am chief. Present tense, active voice. You know, I would be so discouraged
if Paul would have said, of whom I used to be chief before God
saved me. But that's not what he says. You know, I can't stand
to hear the testimony of X sinners. I used to be this way, and I
used to be that way. Paul doesn't talk that way. Of
whom I am the chief. Howbeit, for this cause, I obtain
mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should believe on him to life everlasting. I'm the chief of sinners, Christ
saved me, and I'm the pattern. If Christ saves you, he'll save
you as the chief of sinners, and you'll ascribe all to his
grace and his glory. That is sound doctrine. Any other doctrine is wrong doctrine. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, write,
email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying 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 todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen. Mm-hmm