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. In Acts chapter 14, verse three,
we read these words concerning Paul and Barnabas. Long time
therefore abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave
testimony unto the word of his grace. I want to preach upon
this subject, the word of His grace. The word of His grace. I pray that the Lord will cause
even now that to take place, the preaching of the word of
his grace. Now, Paul and Barnabas had been
run out of town in Antioch, and what a blessing that proved to
be to the inhabitants of Iconium, because leaving Antioch They
went to preach the gospel in Iconium. Now, there's no greater
blessing in a city. than to have a church where the
gospel of God's grace, the word of his grace, is preached. There are cities where there
is no gospel witness. Somebody says, no, I disagree
with that. There are plenty of churches in every city. Well,
there are plenty of religious institutions that call themselves
by the name of churches, but the word of his grace is not
preached. A true church is where the gospel of His grace is preached. And what a blessing this was
to the city of Iconium. In Acts 14, verse one, it came
to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue
of the Jews and so spake. Oh, they expected people to believe
the message. That's the way I want to preach.
They expected people to believe the message. It's the truth.
You ought to believe it. They so spake that a great multitude,
both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, believed. They believed
the gospel. But the unbelieving Jews stirred
up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected against the
brethren. They sought to turn people against
Paul and Barnabas. They vilified them. They demonized
them. They sought to make people unable
to hear them. What a horrible thing to do. But that is what these unbelieving
Jews did. They were opposed to the message
of grace and they sought to vilify. Paul and Barnabas so that people
could not hear them. Well, how did this affect Paul
and Barnabas? What did they do about this?
I love what the scripture tells us they did. Long time therefore
abode they. speaking boldly in the Lord,
which gave testimony unto the word of his grace and granted
signs and wonders to be done by their hands." Now, it doesn't
say they tried to defend themselves. They simply sat there for a long
time or abode there for a long time preaching the word of his
grace. And the scripture says they did
so boldly. Now, if you believe what you're
preaching is the very truth of God, you'll be bold in preaching
it. I think of what Paul said to
Timothy. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel who hath saved
us. That's everything we believe.
God saved us. Be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God who hath saved us. He didn't make salvation available
to us. He didn't offer salvation to
us. He saved us. Salvation is of the Lord. He
saved us and then He called us. Note, the salvation took place
before the calling. That's how works have nothing
to do with our salvation. The salvation took place before
the calling. I was saved before the foundation
of the world. In the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, according as He has chosen us and Him before
the foundation of the world, He saved us. And he called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, not in response
to something we do, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, if you believe that, you'll
preach that boldly. And the scripture also points
out that at this time, the Lord granted signs and wonders to
be done by their hands. Do you know the apostles and
those, the apostles who they laid their hands on? They could
heal the sick. They could raise the dead. They
could perform miracles. Somebody says, well, can you
do that today? Well, if I could, I would. But the scripture points
out clearly in Acts chapter eight that when the apostles laid hands
on people, they would have these gifts. When the apostles died,
these gifts died out. There are no gifts like this
in our day. Now, a couple of things to say.
Evidently it's not needed or we'd still be doing it. No one
was ever saved by observing a gift or a miracle. They're saved by
believing on Christ. And people who claim to have
this miraculous healing power, how come they're not going to
the hospitals and healing people? I'll tell you why. Because they're
phonies. That's it. It's phony. It's not real. But it was real with the apostles.
Through the laying on of hands, the apostles' hands, these supernatural
gifts of the Holy Spirit were given. Why, they could hold snakes,
they could drink deadly things. If a snake bit them, it wouldn't
hurt them. They had these miraculous powers. I just got to say this,
the next time somebody says they have these miraculous powers,
I'd like to hand them a bottle of Drano, say, drink it and show
me. I don't think they would do that because the scripture
says, if you drink any deadly thing, it won't hurt you. But
men do not have these gifts now. But at any rate, and hearing
this preaching, verse four, the multitude of the city was divided. And you know, the gospel always
divides. Now, I pray for the unity of our country. I hate
seeing the division in our country between the left wings, the right
wings, and all the different, why can't people respect each
other and love one another and be together and seek the common
good? I would love to see unity in
this country, but I know this, there will be division over the
gospel. The Lord promised us that. He
said, don't think that I came to send peace. I came not to
send peace, but a sword. I've come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the mother against the mother-in-law, and
the daughter against the mother, and so on. The gospel has always
been divisive. Those who believe and those who
do not believe And the people who do not believe hate the message
of those who believe, and those who believe give no credence
to the message of those who do not believe. They can't be brought
together. There's always a division in
that sense. You can't believe in grace and
works at the same time. Verse five, and when there was
an assault made, both of the Jews and the Gentiles with their
rulers to use them despitefully and to stone them." Now, these
people were mad. They wanted to stone Paul and
Barnabas over their preaching. They were aware of it and fled
unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region
Lythra about them, and there they preached the gospel. Now
you could say this about everywhere Paul and Barnabas went, there
they preached the gospel. Now look in verse three, once
again, long time therefore abode they, speaking boldly in the
Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace. Now this could be another name
for the gospel. the word of his grace. How special God's grace is to
himself. When Moses said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. Listen to God's answer in Exodus
33, 19. I'll make all my goodness pass
before thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee, and I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious, I
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. You cannot separate
God's grace and God's glory. That's how important this is
to God. And notice the word of His grace. God's grace is communicated through
words. The word of His grace. Now, could God just give people
grace without words, without hearing the gospel? Well, I suppose
he could if he wanted to. With God, nothing is impossible.
But the fact of the matter is, he doesn't. That's the point. Does he? No, he doesn't. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. There are words associated with
his grace. Let me give you one example,
the word election. Election tells us that God chose
who would be saved before time began, and that lets us know
that it doesn't have anything to do with their works. It's
all an act of His grace. Now, can you preach grace and
refuse to preach election? Certainly not. It's impossible. As a matter of fact, you can
tell what somebody believes about grace by what they believe about
election. There are words that are used. to communicate his
grace. Now, when I thought about that,
I thought about a passage of scripture in Luke chapter four,
where we read in verse 22, this is speaking of people hearing
the Lord speak, and all bear him witness and wondered at the
gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Now the word
gracious is not an adjective. It's not speaking of his graceful
manner of speech. I have no doubt that the Lord
is by far the greatest preacher to ever preach. I think it's
interesting how there was a preacher who I like named Charles Spurgeon
from the last century, Baptist preacher, and they called him
the Prince of Preachers. I don't think so. Christ is the
prince of preachers. And they heard his grace words. That word gracious is the word
that is generally translated grace. They heard his grace words. The word of his grace, his grace
words. Now, their response to these
grace words that we read of. Here's what they
said after they heard these grace words, is this not Joseph's son? And he said to them, you will
surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever
we've heard done in Capernaum, do also thou hear in thy country.
And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in
his own country. Now listen to these words. But
I tell you of a truth. There were many widows in the
days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and
six months, when great famine was throughout the land. You
can read about that in 1 Kings, beginning in chapter 17. God
called a famine. There was no rain for three years
and six months. And there were a whole lot of
widows in Israel. And unto none of them was Elijah
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow." He passed by all the Israelite widows, didn't help
them, and had mercy on a Gentile widow and provided for her. And then he gives us a story
from Elisha's time. You can read about this in 2
Kings 5. Many lepers were in Israel in
the time of Elisha the prophet. And none of them was cleansed
save in Naaman the Syrian. Now hear what's being said. God
is sovereign in salvation. He sovereignly saved a Gentile
and passed by all the Israelite widows. He sovereignly saved
a Gentile leper and passed by all the Israelite lepers. God
saves whom he will. And all they in the synagogue,
you see, their hope was the fact that they were Jews. They thought
we're God's people. This is what they were hoping
in. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the
city and led him under the brow of the hill where on their city
was built, that they might cast him down headlong, head first. They were so angry with what
he said, they wanted to kill him. Now that was their response
to these grace words. Now let's look at what brought
this about. We read in verse 16, and he came
to Nazareth where he'd been brought up and as his custom was, he
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for
to read. Now remember, he's coming back to his hometown. His hometown
people have heard of the miracles that he's performed. And I'm
sure there was a buzz all over the town. They were very excited
about him coming back to town. A hometown boy made good. And
they were very interested in what he would have to say. Perhaps
they wanted to see him perform some miracles. I guess it was
like a circus atmosphere. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord,
this is Isaiah 61.1, and I can just hear him in my own mind
the way he read this. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted. to preach deliverance to the
captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord
and he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister
and sat down. And you can bet you could hear
a pin drop at that time because everyone knew what he meant when
he was emphasizing me. And he began to say unto them,
all of them that were in the synagogues, their eyes were fastened
on him. And he began to say unto them
this day, right now, present tense, is this scripture that
I just read fulfilled in your ears. This scripture, like every
other scripture, is all about me. That's when it says, all
bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words, the grace
words, which proceeded out of his mouth. Let's consider these
grace words, but the first thing I want to point out is you have
to fit the description of the people he speaks of for them
to be grace words to you. He speaks of the poor. You don't
have anything to recommend you to God. You don't have one thing
about you that could commend you to God. You don't have any
spiritual ability. You are poor, you have nothing. And then he speaks of the brokenhearted.
And generally when we use the word brokenhearted, we're thinking
of somebody's spouse leaves them, they're brokenhearted. Indeed,
that is a heart-wrenching experience. Someone's child is wayward and
they break their parent's heart. Problems in the church can be
heartbreaking, but that's not the kind of broken heart he's
talking about. He's talking about a heart that's no good, that
doesn't work. Now, if you ever learn something
of your sin, you're going to see that your heart is the problem. It's not your addiction or the
things that you do, your heart is the problem. The heart is
desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. A heart that
is no good. And then he speaks of the captives. Now, if you're captive, that
means you can't get out. The very idea of free will is
ludicrous to you. You can't, can a prisoner just
freely decide I'm going to get out of jail? It doesn't work
that way. You are captive. And then he speaks of recovering
the sight to the blind. You can't see why God would have
anything to do with you. To set at liberty, to forgive
them that are crushed. to preach, and he's talking about
the year of Jubilee, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
That's when slaves were set free. You have to know something of
slavery. If you had debts, they were canceled. You have to know
about having debts because of your sin that you can't pay.
These are the people who can hear these grace words. Now, listen to what he says. He came to preach the gospel
to the poor. He says, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. Now, there is no gospel preaching
without the Holy Spirit. You see, gospel preaching is
not like a brilliant lecturer in a college giving proper information
concerning some subject that you become an expert in through
here and him. That's not gospel preaching.
Gospel preaching is anointed by the Spirit of God. It's a
supernatural thing. Gospel preaching is thus saith
the Lord. That's gospel preaching. The
Lord was a preacher. Oh, no preacher like him. And
he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor, people who have nothing to pay. Now, if you have nothing to pay,
listen up. Here's the gospel. Everything
God requires of you, he provides for you. You don't have to provide
anything. You can't provide anything. He
provides a sin payment. He gives a sin payment. He requires
righteousness. He gives righteousness, the very
righteousness of His Son. He requires a pure heart. He gives that pure heart in the
new birth. He requires faith. He gives that
faith. It's called the gift of God.
He requires repentance. He gives that repentance. He requires perseverance all
the way to the end. He preserves all the way to the
end. Everything He requires, He provides. Oh, that's good news to you.
If you don't have anything to bring to the table, He gives
it all. And He has sent Him to heal the
brokenhearted. And just about every other translation,
It has the word broken heart and oppressed, but still the
word is broken to shivers beyond repair. Now I've heard preachers
say, give Jesus your heart. What would he want with it? It's
evil. You ask him to give you a new
heart. You see, your old heart is beyond repair. You ask him
to give you a new heart, he'll do it. He said, a new heart will
I give you in Ezekiel chapter 36. And then he came to preach
deliverance to the captives. Now captive, you're in jail,
you can't get out. Well, how is a captive delivered?
I think the best illustration is a man named Barabbas. He is
in jail. The morning of his execution
has arrived. There's a cross reserved for
him. He hears the jailers coming. I'm sure he's filled with a sense
of dread. They open the door and say, you've
been set free. A man by the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, who claims to be the Christ, the Son of God, has taken
your place. Now that is how a captive is
set free. Christ Jesus the Lord put away
the sin that put him in jail. They're now justified and they
have no reason to be held. Next he said, the blind are given
their sight. Now there was a time when I could
not see why God would have anything to do with me. But I see now. I see he saves me for Christ's
sake. No other reason is needed. He
saves me for Christ's sake. God has found a way to be just
and justify the ungodly. That's me. He's just. He justifies,
clears of all guilt, somebody ungodly like me. How does he
do it? Through the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I see that. I see how God can
be just and justify me. The word said at liberty is the
word generally translated forgiven. Forgiven. Forgiven. Oh, the forgiveness
of sins, past, present, future. They're all forgiven. They're
all put away and they're forgiven in a way that only God can forgive. He says their sins and iniquities
I remember no more. He puts them away, makes them
not to be, and forgives them. To preach the acceptable year
of the Lord, the year of jubilee. When if you were in debt, your
debt was canceled. It happened every 50 years or
was supposed to happen every 50 years. Your debt was canceled. If you were a slave, you were
set free. Whatever you had lost through
inability to pay was restored. and the land was given a year's
rest. You were given rest. Now, there's
no example of that ever taking place, although it was commanded
to, and I'm sure there would be plenty of people who try to
prevent that from taking place. If somebody owed you money, if
somebody was your slave, would you want them to go free? I'm
sure people tried to stop it, but this is what the Lord said
about that day of Jubilee. He said, This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears. I am the year of Jubilee. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.nyler at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.