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 Nyberg. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Another King. The text is found in Acts chapter
17. We read, and Paul, as his manner
was, went in unto them in three days, Sabbath days, reasoned
with them out of the scriptures. opening and alleging that Christ
must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and
that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some
of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout
Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few,
but the Jews which believed not, moved with envy. took unto them
certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered in company,
and set all the city on an uproar. They started a riot, and they
assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out
to the people." That's where Paul and Silas had been staying.
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren
unto the rulers of the city, saying, crying, these that have
turned the world upside down, or come hither also, whom Jason
hath received. And these all do contrary to
the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled
the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these
things. What did they hear? There's another
king. One Jesus. Now this is the conclusion of
a mixture of Jews and Gentiles after hearing Paul preach. This is what they concluded from
Paul's message. There's another king. Caesar
is a king, a very powerful king, but there is one who is his king,
the king of kings, the Lord of lords. And Caesar is a king,
but the only reason he is a king is because the king put him in
that position and he is a pawn in the king's hand doing his
will. Jesus is Lord. I've heard preachers say, won't
you make Jesus the Lord of your life? That's impossible. He is
Lord. You don't make him Lord. I don't
make him Lord. He is Lord. Romans 14, 19 says,
he's Lord of the dead and the living. He's the Lord of the
dead. Somebody says, well, he's not
my Lord. Yeah, he is. Well, no, I won't have that.
That's where you're at. You're in his hand. Right now,
he's your Lord. He's the Lord of the believer.
Now, the believer loves his Lordship. The unbeliever hates his Lordship,
but he is Lord. He's the one of whom it said
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of
water, he turneth it wither, so ever he will. Caesar's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. The President of the United States'
heart is in the hand of the Lord. The President of Russia, of China,
whatever world leader you might want to speak of. Their heart
is in the hand of the Lord. And as the rivers of water, he
turneth it, whithersoever he will, all are his servants doing
his will, even though they do not know it. The Lord said, by
me, king's reign, and prince's decree, justice. that if someone would come into
the Tod's Road Grace Church and listen to the message the people
of the Tod's Road Grace Church stand for and preach, they would
come to this same conclusion. Why those folks are saying that
Jesus of Nazareth, the one who died on a cross, and was raised
from the dead, is the absolute sovereign king, ruling and reigning
over everything, everybody, and every event. The cause, the first
cause, the cause of the second cause, the cause of the tertiary
cause. His will is always done. He's the king of the universe.
He's that blessed and only potentate, the Lord of lords and the king
of kings. The only reason a king does anything
is because the king purposed it. He is the king. Now we read in verse eight, this troubled the people. They
were vexed. They were distressed. They didn't
really like this message. This troubled the people and
the rulers of the city when they heard these things. It did then and it does now. My dear friend, somebody is in
absolute control of you right now. the Lord Jesus Christ. Even the thoughts that are going
through your mind, He is in absolute control of. The preparations
of the heart and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
And that might be by way of grace. It might be by way of His judgment
upon you. But He controls everything. He controls the free and uncoerced
actions of men. And you are in His hand. I am
in His hand. And my salvation and your salvation
is not determined by us. It's determined by Him. Your eternal destiny, my friend,
is in His hand. Now, some folks, that makes them
mad. We'll not have this man reign
over us. Well, he is, whether you like it or not. And there
are some folks who find salvation in this message, that he saves
whom he will. Now, let's begin where Paul began
in Thessalonica. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in and to them and three days reasoned with them out of
the scriptures." He came to a temple in a place where the gospel had
not been preached, Thessalonica. He was not only an apostle, he
was a pioneer missionary. And he went into a place where
the gospel had not been preached, and he reasoned with them from
the scriptures. That's where he began. The scriptures, the
divine authoritative word. If we don't have the scriptures,
all we have is my opinion and your opinion, and those two opinions
are worthless. What say if the scripture is
the only issue? And here's how he reasoned from
the scriptures. opening and alleging that Christ
must needs have suffered and risen again. Now, everybody at
that time was looking for a Messiah. They were looking for a Christ.
When the Lord said, what think ye of Christ? He didn't mean
what think ye of me, but what you think ye of the Christ of
the Old Testament, whose son is he? Now, Paul is in the temple. He knows these people believe
in the coming Messiah. They were looking for a political
deliverer. And he lets them know that the Christ must need suffer,
and he must need rise from the dead. Now, question. Why must he suffer? because it
was God's purpose. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Why must he suffer? Because he
was guilty. He wasn't an innocent sufferer.
He was guilty because of the sins of God's elect became his
sins. He bore them in his own body
on the tree and he became guilty of those sins and the just, holy,
just law of God demanded his death. That's why he suffered. He must be raised from the dead
because his sufferings completely satisfied God's justice. The
debt is paid. Everybody he died for is justified. He must be raised from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. So he was opening and alleging
that Christ, the Old Testament Messiah that everybody's looking
for, must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead
and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. Jesus of
Nazareth is the Christ. He is the one who lived, who
died, who was raised from the dead. He is the one who's God's
prophet, God's priest, God's king. He is the Christ. And some of them believe. You see, when the Gospels preach,
there's always gonna be some people who believe. And it's
literally, we're persuaded. They were persuaded by God himself,
that's why they believed. And they consorted with Paul
and Silas, and the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and the chief
women, not a few. But the Jews which believe not.
There's always gonna be some people that do not believe, that
do not love the message of the Gospel. The Jews, which believed
not, moved with envy. They saw these great crowds professing
faith in Christ, and they didn't have the understanding that Paul
was not the cause of this, God was. Paul was just an instrument.
They wanted to think, I'm being used by God. I have this influence
and power over people. So they were moved with envy
when they saw these people believe. What a base, wicked desire to
be envious of somebody, but they were. They were moved with envy
and they took under them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort,
unprincipled, wicked men, and they got a riot. going, and assaulted
the house of Jason, brought them out to the people. When they
found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren." They got
Paul and Silas out of there, and they drew Jason and certain
of the brethren, saying, "'These that have turned the world upside
down have come thither also.'" You know, I love that. You know,
the gospel does turn our way of thinking upside down. It's
as natural for us to believe that salvation is by works as
it is to believe. And the gospel lets us know salvation
doesn't have anything to do with anything we do. It has wholly
to do with what Christ has done. It's as natural as it is to breathe
to believe that you're going to be saved by your own righteousness.
And the gospel tells us that we're saved by somebody else's
righteousness. I think of the Beatitudes. We
think blessed are the rich. The Lord says, blessed are the
poor. Now, he's talking about poor in spirit, those who have
nothing to recommend themselves to God, but he said, blessed
are the poor. We think blessed are the happy. He says, blessed
are they that mourn, that mourn over sin. We think blessed are
the go-getters and the aggressive. He says, blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth. We think, hate your enemies.
He says, love your enemies. We think, curse them to curse
you. He says, bless them to curse you. We think, do evil to them
that hate us. He says, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you. Everything about the gospel is
just the opposite of the way we naturally think. We believe
in free will, naturally, and the gospel says there's no such
thing. God's will is always done. I mean, it turns our whole way
of thinking upside down, and they knew that. They said, these
that have turned the world upside down have come hither also. They've destroyed the status
quo. They say all we believe is false, all of our philosophies
and maxims are wrong. They've turned everything upside
down, and they've come here also, and here's what they're saying.
It says, Jason hath received, and these all do contrary to
the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king. Now that's what they heard. There is another king. Yes, Caesar's a king, but he
has one who is his king, the one who is king. of kings and
Lord of lords. Now, during the time of the Caesars,
this began with Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar began the belief
that the Caesar was divinely sanctioned, God's appointment. And it came to the place where
you had to say, Caesar is Lord. you're required to say, Caesar
is Lord. Now, they didn't care what you
believed, you could hold to your gods, you could hold to your
religion, you could hold to your beliefs, as long as you said,
Caesar is Lord. That was known all over the Roman
Empire, Caesar is Lord. And when they heard Paul preaching,
They found that Caesar was not really Lord. Jesus Christ is
Lord. He is Caesar's Lord. The only reason Caesar is in
place is because Jesus Christ put him there to perform his
will. Caesar's no different than Sennacherib,
where God said, I'm gonna put my hook in your nose and lead
you in whatever way I see fit. And that's precisely what he
did. You remember Pilate? When Pilate said to the Lord,
don't you know I have power to crucify you and I have power
to release you? The Lord said, you could have
no power at all over me, except it be given thee from above.
You see, the Lord has a monopoly on all power. He said, all power
in heaven and earth is given to me. Power belongeth to me.
unto the Lord." And Caesar is under the dominion of Jesus Christ. You say, well, he doesn't believe
in Jesus Christ. He's still Christ's pawn doing Christ's will. You see, the whole Roman Empire
was established so the gospel could be spread. All the infrastructure,
all the roads, it made it to where the gospel could be spread. God put Caesar in place for God's
will to be done. He is the King of Kings. He is
the Lord of Lords. The King is the one who reigns. Absolute sovereignty in control
of the free and uncoerced actions of men. He's the cause. He's
the cause of the secondary cause. He's the cause of the tertiary
cause, the third cause. Whatever cause there is, He is
the cause. It's said of Him, by Him, all
things consist. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. You see, He's the King of Providence. That means everything that takes
place, everything that takes place is his will being done. Somebody says, you talking about
the bad things? I'm saying everything. Now, how can he let this suffering
take place? He brings good out of evil. But
I know this, if He's not in control of everything, He's not in control
of anything. But He's in control of all things,
just like He spake the world into existence. He's the King. He's the Lord of creation. He's
the one who said, let us make man in our own image. He's the
one who created the universe. He's the Lord of salvation. I
love the way that leper came up to him and said, Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. He said, I will. You see, salvation
is according to his will. I will be thou clean. Sorry, Caesar. You may be a king,
but you're a pawn in the hand of the king of kings and the
Lord of Lords. Now, Christ was born. King of the Jews. Remember when the wise men came,
they said, where is he that's born King of the Jews? Now this is what upset Herod
so much. This is why he wanted all males under two years old
to be put to death, because he wanted to stop the king from
growing up to become the king, but that's not something he could
stop. You see, he's God's king. Yet have I set my king on my
holy hill of Zion, and no man can defeat God's king. Early
in his public ministry, his disciples saw it. Thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of Israel. Now, there are only two responses
to his kingship. One is, we'll not have this man
reign over us. Oh, but you have no choice. He
does reign over you. And somebody else says, Lord,
reign over me. Cause me to do thy will, be my
king. Cause me to follow you. Two responses. But he's the king
of both. I think it's interesting in John
chapter six, he had fed 5,000 people, not counting the women
and children, and they decided, we're gonna make him king. And
they tried to make him king by force, and he left them. You
know why he left them? Because he already was king.
Nobody's gonna make him king. He already was king. He's not
king by human vote. He's king by divine decree. He is God's King. When he rode into Jerusalem on
a donkey, Matthew tells us, all this was done that it might be
fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, tell ye the
daughter of Zion, behold, thy King cometh to thee, meek and
sitting on an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Now, this
is interesting. Men were okay with him providing
for people. They liked it. Men were okay
with him healing people. Everybody likes to be healed
if you're sick. They were happy for the people who were healed.
Men were even okay with his miracles. Look at the miracles he can do. But you know where men rejected
him? As a mighty king. What was it that was written
over his cross as his accusation? Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews. How did they mock him? All hail
King of the Jews. But listen to this. He is King. He was born King. He lived as a king. Now, the
king, remember, his will is always done. He had perfect control
of himself. He never sinned. Think how easily it is you and
I sin. Think how, what little control we have. No control apart
from restraining grace, but he had complete control of himself. He lived as a king and everything
that happened was only his will being done. When he died, he
died as a mighty king. Why death couldn't even come
to him until he gave it permission. He's the only one who willingly
died. Somebody says, what about somebody
commit suicide? Well, everybody's going to die
one way or the other. But he's the only one who had
the choice between death and life and chose death. And death
couldn't even take him until he gave it permission. He gave
up the ghost. It didn't happen until he said
it could. He was raised from the dead as a mighty king. Oh,
what kingly authority when he gave himself life from the dead.
When He ascended back to the Father, He ascended as a mighty
reigning King. Psalm 24, the Ascension Psalm. Lift up your heads, ye gates,
lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
will come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts. You see, when He ascended back
to heaven, He ascended with the whole company of the elect in
Him and with Him. Oh, the King of glory. Right
now, He reigns as King. And in heaven, he is recognized
as king. And when he comes back on judgment
day, when the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the
holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divided his sheep from the goats. Then shall the King." Oh, on
Judgment Day, everybody's gonna know he's King. The language
of heaven toward the Lamb is great and marvelous are thy works,
Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou
King of saints. Who shall not fear thee and glorify
thy name? For thou only art holy, and all
nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments
are made manifest. Now that is the language of heaven. But did you know that with all
of his people here on earth, the language is the same? All of his people without exception,
know Him to be Lord of lords and King of kings. All who know
Him have this high view of Him. And if I don't view Him in this
light, there's one reason. I don't know Him. He's never
been revealed to me. Everyone that He reveals Himself
to, they know He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Now, let me
show you this from the man who no doubt had the minimum amount
of understanding, yet as we see, it's going to be the maximum.
The thief on the cross. He went up on the cross, an unbeliever,
cursing Christ. God revealed Himself to him and
he said to his buddy, don't you fear God? He knew who he was,
the God of glory. Seeing you're in the same condemnation,
for we indeed justly, we receive the due reward of our deeds.
We're getting exactly what we deserve. But this man hath done
nothing amiss. He believed in the sinlessness
of Jesus Christ. And then he looked at that one
hanging on that tree, seemingly so helpless, and said, Lord,
He believed him to be Lord. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. He knew he was going to return
successfully as a mighty reigning king. Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. You see, this man knew who the
Lord was. And isn't that what faith is?
You know Him. He knew if all the Lord did was
remember him, nothing else would need to be said. If the Lord
remembers me, I'm saved. If the Lord simply says he's
one of mine, with his kingly authority, I am saved. And then the king said to him,
today, and this is the language of a king, today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. Only the King can give those
words. And they were afraid when they
heard Paul preach. Here was their conclusion. He's
telling us that there is another king. And indeed there is. The Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of kings, and the Lord of lords. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to reveal himself to you. That's our prayer.
To receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your
request to todd.neibert at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.