At Todd's Road Grace Church,
we'd 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. Paul said to the church at Thessalonica
in verse 9 of chapter 1, that they themselves show of us what
manner of entering in we had unto you. And he said in chapter
2, verse 1, For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance into you, that
it was not in vain. I want to try to speak on the
entrance of the gospel. In our experience, there is an
entering point, and Paul spoke to the Thessalonians about his
entrance into them with the gospel. that it was not in vain. Now
we first read about this in Acts chapter 17. I would like to read
these verses to you. This was on Paul's second missionary
journey. He left Philippi, and we read
in chapter 17 verse 1, now when they had passed through Amphipolis,
In Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the
Jews. Now, this is Paul's entering
in to this place. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the scriptures. Now, this is the only way evangelism
is to be done, preaching the Word of God. He reasoned with
them out of the scriptures. That's it, nothing else. He reasoned
with them out of the Scriptures. It's the Word of God, not man's
word, not man's arguments, not man's presentations, but the
Word of God. He reasoned with them out of
the Scriptures. And here's what he was reasoning
with out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered. He's talking about the Christ
of the Old Testament the promised Messiah, written of and promised
in the prophets, beginning actually in Genesis 3.15, where the seed
of woman shall bruise the serpent's head. That is the first prophecy
concerning the Christ. And when he's speaking to these
Jews, he's speaking of the promised Messiah, the Christ of the Old
Testament. Christ is the Greek word for
the Hebrew word, the Messiah. opening and alleging that Christ
must needs. There was an absolute necessity. Christ must needs have suffered
and risen again from the dead. It was absolutely necessary for
him to suffer. It was absolutely necessary for
him to die. It was absolutely necessary for
him to be risen from the dead. And this Jesus which I preach
to you, Jesus of Nazareth, is Christ, is God's Christ. Now, I want to focus just for
a moment on this word, it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. It was necessary for the Christ
to die. It was necessary for the Christ
to be risen from the dead. Now, there's a lot of preaching
using the name of Jesus and Christ and so on, but I hear very little,
if anything, about the necessity of His suffering, or the necessity
of His death, or the necessity of His resurrection. Now, I've
got a question for you. Why was it necessary for Christ
to suffer? Why was it necessary for Christ
to die? Why was it necessary for Christ
to be raised from the dead? I want you to go beyond just
the facts that it took place. Why did it take place? Why was
it necessary? Well, it was necessary for Christ
to suffer because God purposed it. Him being delivered by the
determinant counsel and for knowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. It was necessary because
this is the purpose of God. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world and the universe was created
for this to take place. God purposed this to take place. Why did he suffer? Why did he
die? because he was guilty. Now here
is the heart and soul of the gospel, the gospel of substitution. He was made sin. That's what
the scripture says. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, for
he hath made him to be sin. Christ Jesus was made sin. That means he was made guilty
of the commission of those sins, and the justice of God demanded
for him to suffer and to die. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. It was God's holiness and justice
that put Christ to death because that's exactly what he deserved
when he was made sin. Now, why was it necessary that
he be raised from the dead? Because he did what no mere man
could do. He satisfied God's justice. He made complete payment, and
the very justice of God demanded his resurrection. He saved his
people from their sins. That's why he must die. That's
why he must be raised because of the complete satisfaction
he made, the complete salvation. Scripture says he was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. When he
was raised from the dead, everybody he died for was justified. What
a, what a gospel, glorious gospel to preach. And that's the message
Paul brought to Thessalonica. And he was ran out of town for
preaching that message. The Jews stirred up people, The
Thessalonians, who thought they were losing money from it, stirred
up people. They accused him of preaching another king, one Jesus. So Paul had to leave town. And
he went to Berea. And from Berea, he went to Athens. And some, oh, three or four weeks
had passed. And he was thinking about what
God had done in Thessalonica. And he was wondering whether
it was real with him. And then he says in chapter three,
I'm going to get, I want to read that before I get back more into
his initial entering in. He said, for verily, when we
were with you, we told you before. that you should suffer tribulation,
even as it came to pass, as you know. For this cause, when I
could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some
means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor be in vain."
Now, about three or four weeks after he had been run out of
Thessalonica, he's in Athens. He sends Timothy to find out
if they still believed. He didn't know whether God was
in it or not. He was hoping he was. And so
he wrote this letter to the Thessalonians after Timothy brought back the
tidings that they had continued in the faith. And he reminded
them of his entrance into them. He said, for they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Now, what I would like for us
to do is look at this first chapter of 1 Thessalonians where he made
that statement. He says in verse 1, Paul and
Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians,
a very new church, less than a couple of months old as far
as their experience goes. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus
unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now their geographical location
was the city of Thessalonica. But their spiritual location
is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a place
to be in Christ. That means if I'm in Him, all
God sees when He sees me is His Son, Jesus Christ, and He is
well pleased. No wonder Paul said, oh, that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And he says to these new believers,
grace. unto you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the only thing that will
give a real sinner peace is to know that salvation really is
by grace, the free unmerited favor of God for Christ's sake. Now, he says in verse two, we
give thanks to God. He doesn't thank them. He thanks
God. We give thanks to God always
for you all. Making mention of you in our
prayers, we believe that God's done something for you and we
thank Him for that. Remembering, verse 3, without ceasing, your
work of faith and your labor of love and your patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. Now, he mentions three things
regarding these people, their work of faith, their labor of
love, and their patience of hope. Now do you remember when Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 13, 13, now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three. Now in every believer, you have
these three graces, faith, love, and hope. Faith in Christ, love
to Christ, hope in Christ, a confident expectation. It is only faith
that works. Nothing else works. It is only
love that labors. It's only a true hope in Christ
that patiently endures. Now, this is the threefold mark
of every true believer, faith, love, and hope. And then he makes this incredible
statement in verse four, knowing, brethren beloved, your election
of God." Now, he says to these new believers that he'd only
preached to weeks before, I know your election of God. Now, it's obvious that when he
first came there, he came preaching the holy truth of God's electing
grace. Now, let me say this. You can't
preach the gospel, not preach election. You cannot preach the
person and work of Christ and not preach election. You can't
preach the blood of Christ and not preach election. Election's
who God is. Election tells us that salvation's
of the Lord. It's God being God. It's God
choosing who would be saved. before time began. He said in
2 Thessalonians 2.13, his second letter to this church, But we
are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Now, I love the way he says he's
chosen you from the beginning. Not at the beginning. There's
never a time when the believer's not been chosen. I don't understand
that, but I believe it. Chosen from the foundation of
the world. And when God chooses someone
to salvation, here's what's going to happen. They will be sanctified
by God the Holy Spirit, regenerated, made new. And the evidence of
that will be the belief of the truth. Wherever there is election,
there is the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Nobody's going to wake up in
heaven and find out, well, I've been elect, but I didn't know
it. I never did believe the truth. I never was sanctified, but here
I am. No, it doesn't work that way. We're chosen through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. We're chosen unto salvation. And these people were taught
that, but yet Paul says to these people, and this is a remarkable
statement, I know your election of God. Now, the names of God's
elect, according to the scripture, are written down in the Lamb's
Book of Life, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Now, somebody says, does that mean there's a literal book with
all the names of the elect in them? It may mean that, but I
know this, it's a vast number of names that cannot be added
to or taken from. The Lamb's Book of Life, the
names of God's elect. Now, Paul had no access to that
book. Yet he says to these people,
I know your election of God. Now, how do you know, Paul? Well,
he goes on to tell us, four, our gospel. Now, I love the definite
article, the, the gospel. And I love the possession, our
gospel, my gospel. I love it when the gospel The
gospel is not subjective. It's objective truth. It is what
it is, according to the scriptures. But how I love when the gospel
becomes our gospel. It becomes good news to me. He says, for our gospel came
not unto you in word only. but in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance. Now that's how I know that you're
the elect of God. Our gospel came not unto you
in word only. Now he said in 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, for this cause we thank God without ceasing, because
when you received the word of God, which you heard of us, You
received it not as the Word of men, not as Paul's opinion, not
as a Baptist belief, or a Presbyterian belief, or a Catholic belief,
or a Methodist belief, or any other kind of man-made denomination
belief. You did not receive the Word
of God. as the word of men, man's thoughts
in their, in their creeds and in their catechisms and in their
confessions. You didn't receive it as the
word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which
affectually worketh in you that believe. Now that's what it is
to receive the word of God in power. by receiving it as God's
Word. He said, I know, brethren, beloved,
your election of God for our gospel came not to you in word
only, but also in power. Omnipotence caused you to believe. And he said, and in the Holy
Ghost. It's the omnipotence of the Holy
Spirit that birthed you into the kingdom of heaven. And then
he uses the word much assurance. Now, this is not talking about
assurance of personal salvation. You can have personal assurance
and still be lost. A lot of people do. This is not
talking about assurance of personal salvation. Now, there is such
a thing. You know, when I hear the gospel, when I look to Christ,
I have assurance that I'm saved. When I start looking within to
see if I have assurance, it leaves every time. The only assurance
there is is looking to Christ only. And when you look to Christ
only, you will have assurance. When you look somewhere else,
you won't have any assurance, because it won't be founded on
Christ then. You'll be looking to yourself
in some way, and you don't deserve, and I don't deserve assurance
for looking within. Assurance comes from looking
to Christ only. But he's not talking about assurance
of personal salvation. He's talking about full assurance
that this gospel I'm hearing is the gospel of God. the truth
as it is in Jesus. When you hear the gospel in power,
you know it's the gospel of God, not the gospel of men, but the
gospel of God. You're assured of that. This
is a gospel worthy of the character of God. This is a gospel that
lines up with all the attributes of God. I know this is the gospel. Now, Paul says, I know your election
of God because our gospel, when it came to you, It came to you,
not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as you know what manner of man we were
among you for your sake. Now, with regard to what Paul
is saying here, I don't want to hear somebody preach where
Christ didn't alter them, where He's not their life. Now, I realize
no man is sinless. Anybody that's real knows they're
nothing but sin in and of themselves. But I will not, don't have any
interest in listening to a man that's not sold out to Jesus
Christ and his gospel. That is his life. And Paul said,
for your sakes, you saw that's the way we conducted ourselves
among you, verse six, and you became followers of us. This
is how we know you're elect. You became followers of us and
of the Lord." Now, somebody says, I won't follow any man. Well,
if that man's following Christ, I will. He said, you became followers
of us and of the Lord. I think of what Paul said in
Hebrews 13, when he said, obey them that have the rule over
you whose faith follow, whose faith follow, considering the
end of their conversation, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today,
and forever." Now there's their faith. Jesus Christ the same. He did not used to be. He will
not will be. He is the same. He is always,
I am that I am. He never was, he never will be. And the end of any true preacher's
conversation is for him and you to rest in this, Jesus Christ
the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And so Paul says to
these people, you became followers of us. And Paul in another place
said, follow me as I follow Christ. You became followers of us and
of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction."
I mean, there was a riot in Thessalonica over the gospel they preached.
But yet with the joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you became examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. And we know what
he meant by them being examples, because he goes on to say, Four,
from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia
and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were
to spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything. From you
sounded out, and that's where we get the word echo from. from
you sounded out the word of the Lord. I love what one man said
preaching is, it's saying back what God's already said. Sounding
out the word of the Lord. And Paul says, I didn't need
to tell somebody what you believe, they found out from your own
mouth. You became examples to all that believe. And I want you to believe. I don't
want simply to try to convince somebody of my position. I want
you to believe the gospel. I want you to love Christ. I
want you to follow him. I want you to believe his gospel. And these people, they were examples
to them to believe because from them sounded out the word of
the Lord. Timothy preached the word while
they were doing that, preaching the word of God. For from you
sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place. Your faith to God were to spread
abroad so that we need not speak anything. You speak for yourself. We don't have to convince anybody
about you. What you say stands on its own,
not with me trying to buttress it. Verse nine, and here was
the initial verse we looked at. For they themselves show us of
what mannering of entering in we had unto you. Well, what was
it? It says how you turn to God from
idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his
son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which
delivered us from the wrath to come. Now, here's the entering
in we had to you. When we entered in, here's how
God blessed it. You turn to God. Now, You turned
to God because He turned you to Himself. You didn't do this
on your own. He turned you and then you turned
to God. But you turned to God, and when you turn to God, you
turn from your idols. You didn't turn from your idols
and say, these are idols, I need to turn. I'm going to turn to
God. It didn't work that way at all. You turned to God and
then you saw your idols for what they were. Fake gods, false gods,
completely wrong conceptions of spiritual things. They were
wrong. When you turned to God, you saw
the wrongness of those things. You turn to God from idols to
serve the living and the true God, the God of the Bible, the
God of glory. the God of heaven, the God of
creation, the God of absolute sovereign control, the God of
immutability, the God that's independent, that has no needs,
the God of glory, the living and the true God. And here's
what you did in serving the living and true God. You waited for
his son from heaven, the one he raised from the dead. Even
Jesus, he raised him from the dead because he accomplished
salvation because he completely satisfied all the law's requirements. That's why God raised him from
the dead. He's the one who delivered us.
He delivered us complete salvation. He delivered us from the wrath
to come. There's therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Now, we're waiting for His Son.
And you know that's what I'm doing right now. I'm waiting
for His Son to return. He will return. He's promised. Every eye is going to see. Every
knee is going to bow. He is going to return. He said, behold, surely I come
quickly. And I look forward. I long for
his return. You know why? Because I'm going
to see him as he is. And when he returns, I'm going
to be made just like him. Therefore, I'm waiting. for his
return. I don't know when it's going
to be. I hope it's today. It might not be for 100 years.
I don't know. I have no idea when he'll return. but I'm waiting
for his return. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, oh, may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness
alone, faultless to stand before God's holy throne. I'm waiting
on his return. And the reason I can wait on
his return is I know that I'm accepted in the beloved. I know
that when he returns, he's not gonna see me in my sins. People
worry about the return of Christ. What if I'm committing some kind
of sin when He returns? Or what if I'm doing something
I shouldn't do? I'd rather be reading the Bible when He returns,
or preaching, or praying, or something like that. I can understand
people thinking that, but there's only one way I want to be found
in Christ. in Christ. And so I'm ready when He returns,
because I'm in Him, and I'm simply waiting for His return, waiting
for Him whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. Now there is, for all outside
of Christ, a wrath to come. May you and I be enabled to look
to Christ only. And in looking to Him only as
everything needed to make us accepted before God, there will
not be a wrath to come. But for all people outside of
Christ, there is a wrath to come. May God give you grace to look
to Christ only and call upon His name even. To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.neidert
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