Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neibert. 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 Neibert. I've entitled the message for
this morning, The True Apostles' Creed. I'm reading from Acts
chapter 15, verse 11. These are the words of Peter.
And he says, but we believe that through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they." The true apostles'
creed. A creed is a brief statement
of faith, or a confession that briefly states the core belief
in a formula, as it were. An example would be the Nicene
Creed. It is shared by Protestants and
Catholics alike. It's read in response of readings. Most people have it memorized,
I suppose, or sleepwalk through it during the responsive readings,
and everybody can use it. It was made with regard to the
Trinity, and no matter how different certain churches may be in their
belief, they can all give agreement with the creed, which lets us
know, to some extent, how vanilla it is. But everybody knows something
about creeds. I don't believe in the use of
any creed or any man-made document or formula. I don't believe in
confessions of faith. I think they're pointless. because
the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. All man-made
confessions of faith, no matter how accurate or close to the
truth they are, they're still made by men, uninspired men. So why would you want to look
to something that's uninspired by God man-made and not look
at what the Word of God says. Now, somebody says, well, the
Bible's a big book. Well, that's not an excuse because this big
book only has one message, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He
is not the central message. He's the only message. You search
the Scriptures, in them you think you have eternal life. They are
they which testify of me." Those are the words of the Lord. All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Peter said, Holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now, why would
you want a document, a man-made document that, well, here's what
we believe. No, we believe what the Bible
says. What's your creed? Christ is our creed. The Word
of God is our creed, not some man-made document. Now, what
was going on when Peter made this statement? This is very
important. This was during a time of conflict. It began in Acts chapter 15,
verse one. And certain men, which came down
from Judea, that is the church at Jerusalem, of which James
was the pastor. It was the first church in Jerusalem
after the resurrection of Christ. Perhaps thousands of members
by this time, because we know on the day of Pentecost, 3,000
people were converted. And certain men came, which came
down from Judea, this was speaking of the church of Jerusalem, taught
the brethren. They came to this Gentile church. Now, it was in Antioch. You have
the Jewish church in Jerusalem, the main Gentile church was in
Antioch. And these men from the church
in Jerusalem who had Jewish backgrounds, they came down and taught the
brethren and said, except you be circumcised. After the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. Now, these were people who professed
to believe the gospel, but they added something to Christ. You
cannot be saved except you first be circumcised. Then you can
be saved. You cannot be saved except you
first fill in the blank, whatever it is, that's salvation by works. If there's something you need
to do before you can be saved, that is salvation by works. I don't care what it is. But
these men came from this true church with error. Yes, it can
happen in any church and probably will happen in every church.
Satan is always at work seeking to sow error. And these men came
from the church of Jerusalem. Now look at Paul and Barnabas's
reaction to them. When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension. and disputation with them. They
said, no, that's not so. We don't believe that for a second.
That's not the gospel. This is error. This is wrong.
This is heresy. There was no small disputation
and dissension. They didn't just say, well, you
can believe your way and I can believe mine. No, they said, we can't
have this. This is wrong. They determined
that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to
Jerusalem and to the apostles and elders about this question.
Now, this doesn't mean Paul was going to go to Peter and John
and say, well, here's what they're saying, here's what we're saying,
which one is true? No, Paul had been taught the gospel directly
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, with regard to the gospel,
he believed, I neither received it of man, nor was I taught it,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He was brought into the
third heaven and taught the gospel directly by Christ. That's what
an apostle is. Apostle is someone who was taught
directly by Christ. There are only 12 apostles. Paul
took the place of Judas. When you hear somebody claiming
to be an apostle, they're phonies. We read of the 12 apostles of
the Lamb. Not 13, not 14, not 155. There
were only 12 apostles, and they were taught the gospel directly.
And Paul was not thinking, well, maybe I'm wrong. I'll go up and
see what Peter and John is saying and see whether I can be corrected.
He's not saying that at all. He was going to show that they
all believe the same thing. You see, what we're talking about
are not denominational distinctives. You know, denominations, purely
man-made. Baptist, Methodist, Catholic,
Presbyterian, it's purely man-made. And these denominational distinctives,
everybody that's in a denomination thinks their brand of Christianity
is a little bit better than the other fellas. Well, that's just
not in the Bible. It's purely man-made. So Paul
was going to show that his gospel is the gospel, and it's what
Peter and John would agree with. Verse three, and being brought
on their way by the church, they passed through the Nicaea and
Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused
great joy unto all the brethren, talking about how God was saving
these Gentiles. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
that's where these false teachers had come out of this church.
When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church
and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all the things
that God had done with them. Now whenever you're talking about
things that take place, you're talking about what God has done.
Not what you have done with God's help, but what God had done. But now he addresses the problem. There rose up certain of the
sect of the Pharisees which believed. Now, notice the language. The sect of the Pharisees which
believe. Why not believers? Why the sect
of the Pharisees which believe? Now this word sect is where we
get the word heresy from. And it means literally a choosing. Now, if you believe wrong, you
choose to believe wrong. If you believe the truth, you
don't choose to believe the truth. You believe it because it's true.
I don't choose to believe 2 plus 2 is 4. 2 plus 2 is 4. But I'd
have to choose to believe it's 3, and I'd have to choose to
believe it's 5. But these men were in a heretical
sect, the Pharisees, which believed. They said they believed the gospel.
But here's what they did. There rose up certain of the
sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful. There's
the key word. It was necessary to circumcise
them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Yes, salvation's
by grace. Yes, salvation's through faith,
but it's also necessary. for them to be circumcised, and
it's necessary for them to keep the Law of Moses, it's necessary
for them to keep the Ten Commandments. Now, what that is saying is Christ
plus. Not Christ alone, but Christ
plus. It's also a denial of any understanding
of the law in the first place. Because if you think you can
keep one commandment, you understand that you don't really understand
the commandments at all. All the commandments do is condemn. All they do is expose sin. Somebody says, well, we ought
to try to keep them. Well, try to, but you don't. You don't. You
can say all you want, but you don't. That's what the word of
God says. And they were saying, here's what you need to do. You
need to believe on Christ and you need to be circumcised and
you need to keep the commandments. Not Christ is all, Christ plus,
Christ and. Verse six, and the apostles and
elders came together for to consider the matter. Verse 7, and when
there had been much disputing. Now this seems shameful that
there was disputing over this issue. But there was, wherever
you got men, you got sin, wherever you got men, you got problems.
That's just the way it is. You know, somebody says, I'm
looking for the perfect church. Well, if you find it, don't join
it, you'd ruin it. There's nothing but sinful people in churches
with regard to every kind of error. There was disputing in
the Church of Jerusalem. There shouldn't have been, but
there was. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose
up. I think Peter said, I've had
it with this. I'm not listening to this any longer. Peter rose
up and said, men and brethren, you know how that a good while
ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth
would hear the word of the gospel and believe. Now he's talking
about what happened in Acts chapter 10 and 11. when he was sent to
Cornelius, the Gentile, to hear the gospel, and they believed,
and they saw, well, the Lord's granted repentance to the Gentiles
as well. They couldn't understand it,
but they almost, it's like, well, if it was up to me, it wouldn't
have been this way, but what could I do to withstand God? God's
saving Gentiles. They saw that, I suppose, for
the first time. Verse eight. And God, which knoweth
the hearts, bare them witness, these Gentiles, giving them the
Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us. And He put no difference
between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith in Christ.
There's no Jew or Gentile. There's no bond or free. There's
no male or female, there's no distinctions. We're all one in
Christ Jesus. There's not Gentile believers
and Jewish believers. There's believers. That's it.
There's no distinctions, no difference, no high class, low class, no
privileged and the common people, no clergy and laity. I think
that's one of the most abominable things. There's God's clergy
and there's lay people. That's ridiculous. The Bible
doesn't teach anything like that. all are one in Christ Jesus. Then Peter asks this poignant
question, Now therefore, Why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon
the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear?" Now, Peter is saying, you don't keep the law. You can't bear that yoke. Why
in the world are you telling the Gentiles to? It is pure hypocrisy. telling them, you need to keep
the law. Well, the people who were saying
they didn't keep the law, all they did was break the law. And
for them to try to impose that on other people was an act of
pure hypocrisy. He says, why are you tempting
God to put a yoke on the disciples, which we can't bear, and our
fathers couldn't bear. And then he gives this statement,
but we believe. Who believes? The we is ever
believer. Everybody who believes. Everybody
for whom Christ died. All of the elect of God. We believe. You know, that's, I like this
scriptural we. We know. Who's the we? We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God to them who are called
according to his purpose. Well, it's everybody who knows
that. We know. We know. Somebody says,
I don't know that. I do. We believe. This is Peter speaking as the
representative of every believer to ever live Old Testament and
New Testament alike. We believe. Not just this is
what we've been taught, we believe this. We're All of our hope is
found right here. This is our creed. This is our
statement of faith, as it were. We believe that through the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Not they'll be saved like us.
we will be saved like they are. Now in this brief statement,
Peter emphatically stated what we do not believe. When he said
we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved, he says that he does not believe in any way
salvation by works, salvation by free will. Salvation by rituals
and ceremonies. Salvation by birth. No, we believe
that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved. Now this statement altogether
excludes any form of salvation by works. If there is anything
you need to do before you can be saved, You believe in salvation
by works. You don't believe this creed.
We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved. Now, think about this. He could have said, we believe
that by the grace of God we'll be saved. And that would have
been true. He could have said, we believe that through the grace
of the Father, we will be saved. That would be true. He could
have said, we believe that through the grace of the Holy Spirit,
the life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit will be saved. That
would be true. But that's not what he said.
He said, we believe that it's by the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ that we shall be saved, even as they. Now, shall be saved,
we believe that by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved. Shall be saved is not in the
future tense, in the original. It's spoken in a way that can
accurately be said, we believe that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we've been saved, we're being saved, and
we shall be saved. All three of those are true in
the way this is spoken in the original. Salvation in three
tenses, and we believe it's through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we shall be saved. I love that scripture. In 2 Corinthians
8, verse 9, Paul said, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, Yet for your sakes, he became
poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. Now when we think
of the riches of Christ, though he was rich. That's talking about
a whole lot more than material possessions. It's true, everything
belongs to him. This is his world. Everything
belongs to him. And he's got the riches of creative
power as far as that goes. If he wanted more, he could certainly
create it. But this is talking about the richness of his relationship
with his father, the richness of his communion with his father,
the richness of his righteousness before his father. Oh, he was
rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. Now, not only did he become materially
poor, he was when he walked upon this earth. He was a street person.
He didn't have a home. He didn't have a place to go
home like you and I do. He was a street person going different
places. All he had of any value was the
robe he wore. He didn't have any property.
He didn't have any He didn't have any material influence. But oh, how poor he became in
this sense. He who was righteous was made
sin. He became poor in righteousness.
He became sin. separated from his father, forsaken
by his father, no longer had the smile of his father. You
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that you, through his poverty,
might be rich." The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord. You know
what that means? He's Lord of creation. He's the
one who created the universe. That means He's Lord of providence. Everything that's happening is
His will being done. There's nothing that falls outside
of that umbrella. He is in absolute control of
everything, every event, and everybody. He's your Lord. Somebody says, well, I don't.
I'm not a Christian. Well, He's still your Lord, because Scripture
says He's Lord both of the dead and the living. You are in His
hands, and it's up to Him as to what's going to happen to
me and what's going to happen to you. He's the Lord of providence, and He's
the Lord of salvation. That means if you're saved, He's
the one who saves you. Salvation is of the Lord. You
are in His hands. He's Jesus. That means He's the
Savior. Thou should call His name Jesus.
for he shall save his people from their sins. Now, when Moses
came to the promised land, he couldn't bring them in because
of his sin, really. Because when he got mad and smoked
the rock twice, God said, you're not going to bring them in. And
the reason is the law can never bring anybody into the promised
land. Moses represents the law. A man named Joshua, That's the
Hebrew word for the Greek word Jesus. Jesus, Joshua, was the
one who brought them into the promised land. And only the Lord
Jesus can bring a sinner into heaven. He's the Christ. That's his offices, prophet,
priest, and king. He's the only prophet who never
said, thus saith the Lord. He said, I say unto you. He's
the priest who didn't bring the blood of other animals. He brought
his own precious blood into the presence of the Father, the saving,
powerful blood of Christ. And he's the king. That means he's the one whose
will is always done. He's not a paper king who doesn't
really have any authority. He said, all power is given to
me. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we shall be saved by the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know that Christ stood
as the surety? before time began for the salvation
of all of his people. Revelation chapter 13, verse
8, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Before time began, he was the Lamb slain. And he stood as a
surety for the elect. He was like Judah representing
Benjamin, of my hand shall thou require him. If I bring him not,
before thee and said him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. Christ took full responsibility
for the salvation of everybody he came into this world for.
He's the great surety. And he came into this world.
I love to think in John chapter six, when he said, I came down
from heaven. Now if I said to you, I came
down from heaven, you'd know I was crazy. I mean, what do
you mean you came down from heaven? But when Christ said I came down
from heaven, He did. There was a time when He inhabited
eternity, and He came down from heaven and was made flesh as
the surety of His people. The Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And in the flesh He kept the
law for me perfectly. And in the flesh, he died for
me." The God-man actually died. The only reason for death is
sin. And my sin became his sin, so
that he actually came guilty of the commission of it. And
when God forsook him, it's because that's exactly what he deserved,
because he became guilty before God. The word was made flesh
in the flesh. He kept the law in the flesh.
He died. He satisfied God's justice. Now, the reason hell is eternal
is because no sinner can satisfy the justice of God. If you murdered
my daughter and then offered me $10 million and said, would
this satisfy you? No, no, it won't. The only thing
that can satisfy that is justice being satisfied and my daughter
being brought back to life. Now, Christ did that. He satisfied
the justice of God. He made it so God is satisfied
with everybody he died for. And when he was raised from the
dead, every single one of his people were justified. He was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Now, we believe that through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Now, I've already alluded to
this. We've been saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We've been saved. I mean, it's a completed act.
He saved us. Not he made us savable, not he
made salvation available, he saved us. When he said it is
finished, all of the elect were saved. All who believe were saved,
were being saved. Preaching of crosses to them
that perish foolishness, but unto us which are being saved. It's the power of God. I'm being
saved. I'm not plumb saved yet. I'm
still a sinner. And I still need His grace. I call upon His name.
Lord, save me. I didn't pray that prayer once.
I pray it every day. Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sins. We're being
saved, and we shall be saved. through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Every believer will be presented without fault
before the very throne of God, perfectly conformed to the image
of Christ. We shall be saved. All my sins
will be put away. I'll stand before God in judgment,
perfect and complete. We shall be saved. We'll persevere
all the way to the end, and we shall be saved. And I love the
way Peter says this. He says, we believe that through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. He doesn't say those Gentiles
will be saved the way us Jews will. He says us Jews will be
saved like the Gentiles. The only way a Gentile can be
saved is by grace. That's the only way. And the only way a Jew can be
saved is by grace. Now, this is the true apostles'
creed. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they. I would like to invite your services
at Todd's Road Grace Church. Our services begin at 10.30 this
morning, six Sunday evenings, seven Wednesday evenings, nursery
provided. We'd love to have you come and
hear the gospel. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer,
amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send a request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com,
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen.