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 Nyvert. In Acts chapter 14, we read where
the Lord used Paul to perform a miracle. We read in verse 8,
and there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet,
being a cripple from his mother's womb. who never had walked. The same heard Paul speak. He heard Paul preaching the gospel. The same heard Paul speak, who
steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith
to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. This man who was a cripple from
his mother's womb, when he heard the command of Paul, stand upright
and walk, this man who had been laying there all of his life
literally leaped up. There wasn't a gradual process
of him gaining strength. He leaped up and he walked. Now I know that this has been
used by what are called faith healers. They say if you have
the faith, you can be healed. And if you're not healed, it's
because you didn't have the faith like this cripple at Lystra did. Now, my dear friends, that's
foolishness. That's all it is. For one thing, men do not have
the power they had in the New Testament to perform these miracles. If somebody says, prove that
to me. Well, Acts chapter eight says,
when they saw that by the laying on of the apostles' hands, the
Holy Ghost was given. It's only the 12 apostles that
could transfer these miraculous gifts. And when they died, nobody
else was able to transfer these gifts. Now somebody says, don't
they have those miracles today? No, they don't. And if a man
claims to have these miracles, he's a phony and he's a fraud.
That's all there is to it. I make no apology for saying
that. Because if a man did have miracle
working power, why isn't he going into a hospital and healing people
that are laying in intensive care with horrible diseases?
Because they can't do it. They're phonies. And when they
say, well, it's because you didn't have faith to be healed, no,
you just missed it all together. Now, that being said, let's consider
this miracle because this miracle gives us a beautiful type of
the gospel. It tells us what happens when
God saves a sinner. Now, I think it's very interesting
where it says, When Paul saw that he had faith to be healed,
that word healed is the same word that's generally translated
saved. It's this word, by grace are
you saved. Same word. So you could just
as easily translate this faith to be saved. This physical miracle
that took place, and indeed it did take place, gives us a picture
of what happens when God saves a sinner. Now, the first thing
that I would notice is God's sovereignty in salvation. The scripture says, a certain
man at Lystra, a certain man. God only saves certain men. God's salvation is not generic.
God's salvation is not universal. He doesn't save everybody. God's
salvation is not potential. God will save you if. God's salvation
is not an offer. It's not offered to you up for
your acceptance or rejection. That's not the way it works.
God's salvation is certain. He saves everybody He intends
to save. Now, there may have been other
cripples at Lystra, but he only intended to save this one cripple. Now, every elect sinner is a
certain man that he came to save. Listen to this scripture. 2 Thessalonians
2.13, but we're 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 that describes every certain
man that God saves, someone He chose to save before the foundation
of the world. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Now, this certain man is described
in four ways in our text. And there said a certain man
at Lystra, it says he was impotent in his feet, being a cripple. Third, from his mother's womb. And fourth, he never had walked. This was the state of this man.
This was the state, illustrates the state of the natural man. And everybody that is a certain
sinner he came to save will fit this description. First of all,
the man was impotent in his feet. Now that word impotent means
powerless. Powerless, not weak, but powerless. As a matter of fact, this word
is used 10 times in the New Testament and seven times is translated
impossible. When the rich young ruler left
the Lord Jesus, after the Lord said to sell all you have, give
to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, come and follow me,
he was very sorrowful and he left. And the 12 looked at this
man leaving and they said, who then can be saved? If this man
cannot be saved, who then can be saved? And the Lord said,
with men, it is impossible. Salvation is impossible if it's
just left up to man because he is powerless. If salvation is
Dependent upon me being able to do something, I will not be
saved. No man can come to me, except
the Father which has sent me, draw him. You and I are unable
to do anything to save ourselves. And if salvation is in any way
dependent upon you and I, we will not be saved. Now, let me ask you a question.
Is this a theological concept to you, or is this your reality? You know that you are unable
to do anything to save yourself. And if God leaves you alone,
you will not be saved, you will be condemned. This man was powerless. And then it says, being a cripple. This is the man's state of being. He was powerless, being a cripple. Now, this word means deprived
of a foot. It's translated sometimes in
the scriptures maimed and halt, but the word by definition means
being deprived of a foot. Evidently, this man either had
a club foot or his foot was not there. Maybe he was only born
with one foot. I don't know what the situation was, but I know
the Lord said, if thy foot offend thee, cut it off, cast it from
thee, because it's better to go into life with one foot than
to have two feet cast into hellfire. Now, the point is, this man did
not have what he needed to have in order to be saved. He was
without a foot. And if you know yourself You
don't have what it takes for you to be saved. You don't have
a new heart. You don't have a new nature.
You don't have a holy nature. You can't do the things that
are required of you because you don't have them. You can't believe
that's beyond your grasp. You can't repent. You can't love.
You don't even know what these things mean unless God gives
you a new heart. These things are impossible for
the natural man. His state was that of being a
cripple without a foot, lacking that which he needed to have.
Now, how long had he been this way? We read in verse 8, there
said a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a
cripple from his mother's womb. He was born that way. And every
man that's born into this world, every woman that's born into
this world is born a sinner. Sin comes natural to you. You don't become a sinner when
you sin. You sin because you're already
a sinner. You were born that way. You were born with an evil nature. Because of Adam's fall, you inherited
his nature. You were born a liar. You were
born an adulterer. You were born a thief. You were
born a sinner. There's no such thing as an innocent
person. We were born that way. And what's the result of this? It says, who never had walked. And my dear friend, me and you,
we have never kept God's law one time. All we have done is
broken God's law. That's it. Somebody says, not
me. Well, you're blind then. You don't see who God is and
you don't see what the law means. You don't see yourself. If you
have any understanding of yourself, you'll know that all you have
done is broken God's law. That was the state of this man.
The scripture says in verse nine, the same heard Paul speak. He was laying there, being a
cripple from his mother's womb, having never walked, the same
heard Paul speak. Perhaps this was the first time
he'd ever heard a gospel message, but he was hearing the gospel.
Paul was preaching the gospel at that time, the same heard
Paul speak. Then says this about Paul, who
steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith
to be healed. Paul looked at this man and he
saw that he had faith to be healed. Now, the word healed or saved
is in the passive voice. This is so important. Not in the active voice, but
in the passive voice. He saw that he had faith to be
saved. Now, if any part of my salvation
is dependent upon my activity, me doing something before God
can do anything for me, if there's a step I must first take before
God will respond to me, I won't be saved, and salvation really
is by works, if that is so. But that's not the way God's
salvation works. You see, even the faith I have,
and I do believe. I believe God. I have faith.
It's me believing, not somebody for me. I have faith. But it
didn't begin with me. It began with God giving it to
me. 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.
I have repentance. I'm in a state of repentance,
a state of a change of mind. And that was not because I repented. It's because God granted me repentance. Then hath God to the Gentiles
also granted freely given repentance unto life. Now, I love the Lord. I love Him as He is. I love His
isness. I love Him as He's revealed in the Scripture. And the reason
I love Him is because He first loved me. We read in 1 John 4,
19, we love Him because He first loved us. Now, this language
is so exact and it's so important. Faith to be saved. Passive. In every aspect of salvation,
I'm passive. Now, that doesn't mean I'm indifferent. It doesn't mean that I just sit
like a gnoll on the log and I hear the gospel and say, well, if
God's going to do something for me, he will. If not, he won't. Nothing I can
do about it. And just have kind of a fatalistic attitude. I'm
not talking about that at all. But I know this. In my election,
I was passive. God chose me. Before time began,
I wasn't even around. And He didn't choose me because
He saw something that I would do. He saw how sinful I would
be, but He chose me to be saved. I was passive. In justification,
when God justified me, I was passive in that. He declared
me to be just. I didn't do anything to make myself that way. He declared
me to be just because of Christ's work. on the cross for me. In
redemption, I was passive. I didn't ask God to pay for my
sins. I didn't ask God to take them away. He took them away.
He paid for them. He put them away before I was
ever born. Actually, before the world began
in the sense that Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. When I was regenerated, I was passive in that. When my
parents conceived me, they didn't ask me about it. They conceived
me. I was passive in it. And in regeneration,
this is God's work. He says, live. He doesn't say,
do you want to live? He says, live. I live. I'm passive. in this thing even of perseverance.
The only reason I persevere, and I do persevere, I'm going
to by His grace, I'm going to persevere all the way to the
end, but it's because He keeps me. It's because He preserves
me. When I'm glorified, when I'm
made just like Christ, it's not going to be because of some activity
on my part, it's going to be because He does this for me. You see, salvation is of the
Lord. By grace are you saved through
faith. Now the scripture says the same,
heard Paul. He heard Paul preaching the gospel. He'd been given ears to hear.
Remember when the Lord said, if any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. Not everybody has ears to hear,
but this man did. He heard Paul. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye are of the Lord. He heard Paul. Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Now, listen to this scripture
from 1 Thessalonians 2.13. Paul says, for this cause also,
thank we God without ceasing. Because when you receive the
word of God, which you heard of us, you received it not as
the word of men, not man's opinion, not a denominational distinctive,
not what the Baptists believe or the Catholics believe or the
Methodists believe. You received it as it is in truth,
the Word of God, which effectually worketh in you that believe."
When this man heard, he didn't just hear Paul speaking. He heard
this as the very truth of God. If all you hear is my voice,
it won't do you any good. But if you hear the Word of God,
The same heard Paul speak. He was like that bunch in Acts
chapter 13, after Paul finished preaching that message, we read,
and when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. Oh, it came as
good news to them. And they glorified the word of
the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, Now, we're not given exactly what Paul said
when this man heard, but we know he was hearing the gospel, because
that's all Paul preached was the gospel. And insofar as our
personal experience goes, it begins with our hearing. And it says that Paul steadfastly
beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed. He looked upon this man and he
could see that he had faith to be healed. He can see it on his
face. Now, obviously I can't see your
face right now. I'm looking at a camera. And
when I'm preaching to the congregation, I'm looking upon faces. Sometimes
I'll see faces that seem indifferent, bored. Sometimes I'll see faces
that obviously are not believing. Sometimes I'll hear faces or
see faces that are loving what they're hearing and hanging on
every word. But you know what? I can't really tell what somebody's
believing, whether somebody believes by the way they look. Anything
can be counterfeited, so I know I can't, I don't know what's
going on when somebody might act like they're listening or
not, or act like they're not listening at all, or somebody
acts happy or glad. I don't know what's going on in their heart.
But somehow Paul knew that this man had this faith to be healed. The expression on his faith Let,
on his faiths, let Paul know. And what was it that Paul saw?
He saw he had faith to be healed. Now, to be healed, like I said,
is in the passive. Faith to be saved. It's what
God does. But what about this thing of
faith? He saw he had faith to be healed. Faith to be saved. Now what is faith? Faith is believing
Him. Faith doesn't have anything to
do with what you believe about yourself. It has wholly to do
with what you believe concerning I love what the Lord said to
the woman at the well, woman, believe me. In John chapter 11, this is after
Lazarus has died. And the Lord says to Martha,
Jesus said unto her, thy brother shall rise again. And Martha
said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection
at the last day. I already know that doctrine.
I understand that. I know that. And look at the way the Lord
replied to her. And Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection
and the life. The resurrection is not an event. I am the resurrection. When I
will be raised from the dead, all of my people will be raised
from the dead. I am the resurrection. I am the
life. I am the life of every one of
my people. My life is their life. I am the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? I know you've got your doctrine
straight, but do you believe that I am salvation? I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I am the Christ. I am the Son
of God. I am the creator. I am the brightness
of God's glory and the express image of his person. I am the
one who upholds all things by the word of my power, and by
me all things consist. I am Belief is believing Him. And you can only believe Him
if you know who He is. Whom do men say that I am? Well,
they put you in some high cotton. Whom say ye that I am? Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Faith is believing Him. That's what saving faith is.
And when you have faith, Listen to this very carefully. When
you really have faith, you have faith only. Jairus is coming
back, hopeful that the Lord will heal his daughter. She was very
sick. And they come to him when he was on his way over there
with the Lord and said, trouble not the master, your daughter's
dead. I can just see the optimism turning to utter Despair, my
daughter's dead. And the Lord looked at him and
said, believe only and thy daughter shall live. Now, let me say this
about faith. Faith is by itself. It's believe only. What do I
mean by that? Well, I hear preachers quite often make this statement,
turn from your sins and trust Christ. That's not believing
only. When I hear that, all I think
of is the things I need to do and the things I need to get
straightened out. I need to stop this sin, I need to stop that
sin, I need to start doing this good thing, I need to start doing
that good thing, and then I can trust Christ. That's just another
form of salvation by works. When somebody makes a statement
like that, all you hear is about what you gotta do. Now somebody's
thinking, you don't need to turn from your sins, you can just
remain in your sins. Sin's never okay. Under any circumstance,
sin's never okay, but if I say turn from your sins and trust
Christ, I'm not preaching the gospel. I'm mixing up the gospel
with works. Believe only. You're to look
to Christ alone, not to Christ and anything in you. You look
to Christ alone. That is faith only. And faith that is saving faith,
faith to be saved, is a faith that really believes salvation
is by grace. Peter said in Acts chapter 15,
verse 11, for we believe that by the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we shall be saved. Even as they, those Gentiles,
we believe we've been saved by His grace, we're being saved
by His grace, and we will be saved by His grace. Salvation
is by grace, not of works. Grace or works, those who believe,
believe all of grace. And then there's a story in Luke
chapter 17 where the Lord healed 10 lepers. And one of them came
back to glorify God. Only one. And the Lord said,
were there not 10? Where are the nine? And then
he looked at that one who came back to glorify God and he said,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Thy faith has saved thee. Now
this is one thing I know that faith will always do. Faith looks
to Christ alone. Faith really believes grace and
true faith always returns to give Christ all of the glory. If it doesn't return to give
Christ all of the glory, it's not saving faith. Now, Paul saw
that this man had faith to be healed or to be saved. And I
love this statement in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10. Paul warns us of
those who receive not the love of the truth. Faith loves the
truth. I love that the Bible is the
inspired Word of God. I love that God the Bible presents
who really is God. He's in control of everything,
absolutely sovereign. I love being told I'm nothing
but sin for this reason. It tells me I'm not to look to
myself. I'm to look outside of myself
for salvation. I love the fact that God elected a people because
I know if He didn't, I wouldn't be saved. I love that Jesus Christ
successfully atoned for sin and saved everybody he died for because
that's the only hope I have is that Christ died for me. If you
tell me he can die for me or anybody and then wind up in hell,
you've taken away my only hope. I love the fact that salvation
is by grace invincible and irresistible grace because I know if it wasn't,
I'd resist it. I love that he preserves his
people. Oh, faith loves. It's not just a bare intellectual
assent to it. Faith loves the truth. And then
we read in our text, he said with a loud voice, when he saw
that he had faith to be healed, he said with a loud voice, stand
upright on my feet. And he leaped and he walked. May God enable you and I to do
the same. To receive a copy of the sermon
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