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 Nyberg. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Come Over and Help Us. My text is found in Acts
chapter 16, verse nine. It's what's known as the Macedonian
Call. And a vision appeared to Paul
in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. Now, where did this come from? If you look back in verse six,
now when they'd gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia
and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
God would not allow them to preach the gospel in Asia. After they
had come to Mysia, they had said to go to Bithynia, but the spirit
suffered them not. Once again, they were not allowed
to preach the gospel in these places. God, the Holy Spirit,
wouldn't let them go. Verse nine, and a vision appeared
to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. Now Paul knows a place where
he's called to preach because look at verse 10. And after he
had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia,
assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach
the gospel unto them. Now, what is the help they needed?
Well, probably a lot of things. Probably needed better education,
better health services, cleaner water, a lot of things they could
have needed. And I wouldn't say anything against
those, but that's not what Paul was going there for. The help
they needed was to hear the gospel preached. The greatest need that
you and I have is to hear the gospel preached. I think it's
very sobering that Paul went into these different places and
the Lord did not allow them to preach the gospel to those people.
Now the worst judgment that anyone can face is to have the Lord
not allow His gospel to be preached to them. That's the worst thing
that can happen to a man or woman. And do you know that most of
this world's population live and die having never heard the
gospel? There are places where the gospel
is not preached. What a blessing of God's grace
to be able to hear the gospel, and to be able to hear it with
hearing ears. There are those who hear the gospel, but they
don't have ears to hear it. There are stony ground hearers,
there are thorn choked hearers, there are wayside hearers. It
does nothing for them. They don't have ears to hear.
It's only the good ground hearer that has ears to hear. What a
blessing it is to have ears to hear the gospel. I'm so thankful
that I have been privileged to hear, even to preach the gospel. Not everyone has that privilege.
But here we read of Paul having a vision after he was turned
down from being able to preach these places. The Lord didn't
allow him to. Yet he's given a vision in the night about this
man in Macedonia. Now, Philippi was the chief city
in Macedonia. That's where they went to preach.
And in Acts chapter 16, we have the birth of the church at Philippi.
And we have three separate stories within this chapter. We have
the Lord opening a woman named Lydia's heart. Her heart was
closed to the gospel and the Lord opened it. And then we read
of a damsel that was possessed of a spirit of divination. She
was a soothsayer. She could tell the future. And
Paul cast the demon out of her. And because he did that, there's
some people that lost a lot of money, her masters, and they
had him thrown into prison. And that is where the Philippian
jailer heard the gospel. Thus, we have the birth of the
church at Philippi. Now, what is it that Paul was
called to do? Well, he went into the city of
Philippi with this one purpose, to preach the gospel. You know, Paul said to the church
at Corinth, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel. Not with wisdom of words, not
trying to dress it up or hide it, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect. But the need, this is what they
needed for help. Not better education, not better
economics, not better health. They needed to hear the gospel.
And I wish, I pray that the Lord would impress every one of us
with the great need of hearing the gospel. What a blessing it
was to this place that the Lord sent a gospel preacher. Now, Could God save without the preaching
of the gospel? Could God save without the preaching
of the gospel? With God, nothing shall be impossible. He could save a man, give him
a new heart, put the understanding of the gospel in him without
the preaching of the gospel. I have no doubt that God could
do that, but that's really the wrong question. The question
should not be, could God save without the preaching of the
gospel? The question is, does God save without the preaching
of the gospel? Totally different question. and
a totally different answer. According to the scriptures,
no. 1 Corinthians 1.21 says, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now, I would like to
turn to a passage in Romans 10 that says so much about the preaching
of the gospel. Verse 13, we have these words,
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. This is such a precious scripture.
Whosoever, I'm in that demographic. Whosoever, are you a whosoever? That's an easy, what if it said
good people or righteous people or holy people? What if it said
people who feel their sin enough? and people who are sorry enough
over their sin, or people who stop sinning. Oh, we'd be left
out. But this easy word to fit yourself
into, whosoever. And then we have this important
word, the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord. Now, the name of the Lord is
who He is. It's just not clearly articulating His name. It's knowing
the person behind the name. You can't call on somebody you
don't know. We call upon who He is. I call on His sovereignty
to save me. Lord, save me as an act of Your
will. I call upon His justice to save
me. Save me in a way that honors
Your justice. I call upon His mercy to save me. Have mercy
on me. Give me grace. We're calling
on all of His attributes. Save me by Your wisdom. who you
are, save me by who you are. That's the important name. And
then there's an easy word, shakal. Lord, save me, shakal. And then we have a sure word,
they shall be saved. That's God's promise. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now let's go on reading. How
then, he gets four hows, how then shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? You cannot call on an unrevealed
Christ. You won't call unless you believe. You have to know who he is. You
have to believe who he is. Until that happens, you'll never
call. How shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
The fact of the matter is they won't. Now here's the second
how. How shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? You can't. You can't believe
something you've never heard. If you've never heard the gospel,
it's impossible to believe it. You can't believe something you've
never heard. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word
of God. Now here's the third how. How
should they hear without a preacher? I've run across people who said,
well, I just figured out the gospel on my own. I was reading
the scriptures and it all became plain to me and I understood.
Well, I don't believe you. You heard something. If you've
heard the gospel, you've heard a preacher in some form. I don't
know what necessarily form it is, but you didn't figure this
thing out. You see, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them to believe. Me and you, this book is a closed
book to us until God is pleased to open it to us. And that preacher
is not going to be enabled to preach the gospel unless God
has taught him the gospel and he preaches it to you. We can't
figure this thing out. How should they hear without
a preacher? The fact of the matter is they won't. And then he makes
this statement. How should they preach except
they be sent? Now there is such a thing as
a God-sent preacher. Not sent by seminaries, not sent
by denominations, not sent by particular churches, but God
sent. There was a man sent of God whose
name was John. And nobody can preach unless
God has sent them. And then he quotes a passage
from Isaiah 52 verse seven, how shall they preach except they
be sent as it is written. as it is written. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things." Now, this is what Paul did when he came into
Philippi. to help them, he preached the
gospel of peace. Now, I would like to read that
passage of scripture from Isaiah chapter 52, verse seven, and
we can learn a lot of what the gospel is from this one special
verse of scripture. Isaiah 52, verse seven says,
how beautiful. This is what Paul is quoting
in Romans chapter 10. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth
good tidings of good, that say unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Now here we have the gospel. Now first, let's consider about
these feet we read of. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. Not the face, but
the feet. What this is talking about is
the emphasis is not on the messenger himself. You know, some people
like preacher worship. They make an idol out of a preacher.
And some preachers like people making preacher worship. I realize
that it's a horrible thing, but people are like that. You know,
Paul, the apostle, said this about himself. He said this to
the Corinthians. He said, I ought to have been commended by you.
You know, they were always finding fault with him, questioning his
authority. He said, I ought to have been
commended by you. For in nothing am I behind the chiefest apostles,
though I be nothing." Paul understood he was nothing. And any true
preacher understands that in and of themselves, they are nothing. I think the story of Samson taking
the jawbone of an ass and slaying a thousand Philistines is a beautiful
picture of gospel preaching. It's the jawbone of an ass. Don't
worship a preacher. It's ridiculous. They're just
as weak, sinful as you are. They're men, sent by God, but
still men. Don't worship a preacher. How
beautiful are the feet of him that bring on the mountains,
the feet coming on the mountains speaks of God sending us his
gospel. That's what makes the feet beautiful,
God sending us his gospel. Now, what do they do? How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. That's what the gospel is. It's
good tidings. That's what gospel means, good
news. Good news. Now, you know as well
as I do that good news is relative. What is good news to one man
is not good news to another. If you come up to a man that's
a millionaire and say, I've got $10 for you, it's not going to
mean anything to him. But if you come up to a man who's
starving to death, $10 is the difference between life and death.
He can buy a meal with that money. It's relative. For instance,
if you preach salvation entirely by grace, that's good news to
somebody who can't be saved by their works, but it's not good
news to somebody who thinks they're being saved by their works. You're
taking away what they're hoping in. So the gospel is relative. Now listen to this statement.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is essentially and fundamentally
a sinner's religion. There isn't any other religion
like this. The gospel is for sinners. Not good people, not
righteous people, not people who can pull themselves up by
the bootstraps, not people who can do good, but sinners. Listen to this scripture. This
is a faithful saying. worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul
said, I am the chief. Not who I was, used to be the
chief before God saved me. He said, right now, present tense.
You know, the reason people don't understand that they're sinners
is they don't know God. If you know God, if you've been
given a holy nature, it's that holy nature that sees that you're
nothing but sin in and of yourself. Now, who's this good news to? Sinners. Not righteous people,
not good people, not people who have the power of free will,
not people who can save themselves. It's good news to sinners. Paul
said in Romans 5, verse 6, when we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Now, who's that good
news to? People without strength and people
who are ungodly. Now, these people find the message
of the gospel as good news. Oh, it's good news to know that
salvation has nothing to do with anything I can do, but it's wholly
to do with what Christ has done. You see, the message of law is
do. The message of the gospel is it's done. There's nothing
to do. Now, let's go on reading. How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings, that publisheth peace. Peace. Now, by nature, I'm at odds with
God. I'm God's enemy. The carnal mind
is enmity against God. That's the mind we're born with.
It's not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. There's
none that doeth good. No, not one. There's none righteous. No, not one. I am by nature God's
enemy. And in that sense, I'm in a war
that I can't possibly win. I can't defeat God. He's God. I need peace, and I can't make
my peace with God. I've heard so many people, have
you made your peace with God? How do you do that? I can't make
peace with God. I can't make my sin go away.
I can't change my sinful nature. I can't do anything to save myself.
No, I haven't made my peace with God. Here's the hope of the gospel. He made my peace with God. Colossians chapter 1 verse 20
says, having made peace through the blood of his cross. He made my peace with God. He took the reason for God to
be angry with me away because he removed my sin. When he said
it is finished, the sins of all God's elect were put away. They were made not to be. He bore the punishment and now
everyone of God's elect, everyone who believes the gospel is justified. He was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification, therefore being justified by
faith we have peace with God. Now listen to me, if you're a
believer, you stand before God sinless, having never sinned. That's what justification is.
How can that be? Can only be if Christ bore that
sin. The scripture says he bore our sins in his own body on the
tree. That's what he did. And his righteousness is given
to every believer. He never sinned. The believer
has never sinned because they possess his righteousness. Now
that's peace. The peace of knowing that everything God requires
of me, He looks to Christ for. Everything God requires of me,
I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.14 says, He is our
peace. Now, this is what Paul was preaching
in Philippi. Publishing peace. Now, let's see what he says next. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publishes
peace, that brings good tidings of good. Now, the Lord is good. Everything about him is good.
His sovereignty is a good sovereignty. His holiness is a good holiness.
His wrath is a good wrath. His justice is a good justice.
Independence is a good independence. All of his attributes, the Lord
is good. He's not some capricious, ill-wishing
person trying to set booby traps to trap you. He's good. Whatever he does is good. His
gospel is good. You know, people hear of the
sovereignty of God and they act like he's unfair. Well, it's
not fair that he doesn't save everybody. Now, when you make
a statement like that, you're saying you're more fair than
God. You're sitting in judgment on God. The fact of the matter
is, if God was not sovereign in salvation, nobody would be
saved, but we'd all be damned. But thank God He's good. This
is His capacity to show mercy. His capacity is to forgive. God
is good. Listen, if you come to Him, you'll
be received. Somebody says, I wasn't received, and I came to him.
No, I don't believe that for a second. You didn't come to
him, because if you did, you would be received. Because he
said, him that cometh in me, I will in no wise cast out. The Lord is good. Now, how beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publishes
peace, that bringeth good tidings good, that saith unto Zion. It's something they say. Somebody
that doesn't say this has never been called to preach the gospel.
They're not sent of God. If they don't say this and they
say anything contrary to this, they're false prophets. My dear
friend, there is such a thing as a false prophet. There are
a whole lot of them. There are a whole lot of antichrists, according
to the scriptures, coming with a false message. But here's what
the beautiful feet that are sent from God say. They say unto Zion,
thy God reigneth. Now that is good news. That's what gives peace. Thy
God. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He's the God of Zion. That's
the church. That's every believer. This is where they're saying
this, to Zion. Now we say to the heathen, too, because it
says, say ye to the heathen, the Lord reigneth. I love to
talk about God's reign. He controls everybody and everything.
You know, you may not believe He's Lord, but He is your Lord,
whether you know it or not. And you're in His hands. He can
do with you whatever He's pleased to do. Somebody says, I don't
believe it. He's even in control of that. He has complete control
over you, even the thoughts that are going through your mind.
Your salvation is in His hand because He is the Lord. He's
the Lord of the dead and the living. He's the Lord of those
dead in sins. He's the Lord of those who live in Christ. Say
unto Zion, thy God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of glory,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, thy
God. I am my beloved's and he is mine. Say unto Zion, thy God
reigneth. Now, this is seen in three areas.
Number one, he reigned in salvation. Now, to say he reigns says he's
the cause. If he reigns, that means his
will is always done. Now, the reason there is a creation,
the reason there's a universe, the reason there's time and space
is because he willed it. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. I don't believe evolution for
a second. I don't believe in the Big Bang Theory. I believe
God created the universe. Something had to cause all of
this. What was the Big Bang? Well,
who caused the Big Bang? If that was so, who caused the
Big Bang? God created the universe. He created it as He said He did
in the scriptures. In creation, He reigns. Secondly, He reigns in providence. That's everything that happens
in time. Everything. Everything that takes place today,
everything that took place yesterday, everything that will take place
tomorrow, is all according to His purpose and decree. He controls everything. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Everything that
happens, He is the first cause of. Now, I know a lot of people
will say, well, are you saying he's the cause of evil? Well,
I know this. There wouldn't be any such thing
as evil unless he permitted it and caused it and let it be.
He's God. I don't understand all that.
You know, I don't. People talk about the problem
with evil. Well, it's not a problem in the sense that God's in control
of it. So it's not a problem. I don't understand. And he brings
good out of evil. I think of what Joseph said to
his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And the good God always brings
good out of evil. That's who He is. Now, do I understand
all how it gets there? No. But I know He's in control
of everything. All things work together for
good. to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. And my dear friend,
he reigns in salvation. You know what that means? That
means salvation's in his hand. That means if you're saved, it's
because he saved you. It is he that saved us and not
we ourselves. Salvation is all by his grace. And that ought to give you reason
to hope. You can come as a sinner, and
you'll be received, because salvation is up the Lord. He said in John
6, verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise, for no reason at
all, cast out. Oh, may the Lord give us grace
to call on His name. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. And we'd like to invite you to
services at Todd's Road Grace Church. We'll begin at 1030 this
morning. And we pray that God will be pleased to make Himself
known to you. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.neidert at gmail.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen.