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 Nybert. I've entitled this morning's
message, Boldness in the Mystery of the Gospel. Is there mystery
in what you believe? A mystery that you cannot grasp,
you just believe it. Now if there's not, it's not
the scriptural gospel. because the gospel is a mystery. And by mystery, I do not mean
we don't know. It's not truth concealed, but
truth revealed that we would never have known had not God
been pleased to make it known in his word. Mystery. Now Paul is asking the Ephesians
to pray and to pray for Him. He says in verse 18 of Ephesians
chapter 6, praying always, with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints, may not always to pray and not to faint. Praying
in the Spirit. You can't pray apart from God
the Holy Spirit enabling you to pray. And understand this
about prayer. Whatever God is going to give
you, He's going to move you to pray and ask for it. You have
not because you ask not. If you're going to have mercy,
the Lord is going to move you to ask for mercy. If you're going
to have the forgiveness of sins, the Lord is going to move you
to ask for the forgiveness of all your sins. If you're going
to have a new heart, you're going to ask the Lord to give you a
new heart. I shall yet, God said, be inquired
of, of the house of Israel, to do this for them. You can read
about all the things he said he was going to do in Ezekiel
36. And he says, they're going to ask me. Now he gives them
this exhortation to pray, and then he tells them what he wants
them to pray for him. He says in verse 19, and for
me, pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I
may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am an ambassador and bonds that therein I may
speak boldly as I ought to speak. Boldness in the mystery of the
gospel. Now let me give you an example
from the scriptures that lets us know something about mystery.
Do you know that the Bible reveals that God is one God in three
distinct persons? God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Listen to the words of the Lord
or John introducing the Gospel of John, in the beginning was
the Word. The Word was with God, a distinct
person, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him.
And without him was not anything made that was made. I think of
the very opening verse of Genesis. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And this same God said, let us
make man in our own image. God is revealed throughout the
scriptures as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Now, let's say a man decided, I'm going to give myself to studying
to find out what God's really like. And he started exercising
the height of his mental powers and trying to figure out the
substance of God. Would he have ever come to the
realization, well, I've discovered it. God is one God and three
separate persons. No. The only way you can know
that is by revelation, that God has made this known in His Word. And that's what He does in the
Scriptures. He makes Himself known. Now, when Paul asked them
to pray for him, he doesn't say, I pray that I might be delivered
from all my troubles. I asked that you'd pray that
I could be successful. I asked that you would pray about
my health. He doesn't ask for those things.
He says, I ask that utterance might be given to me. Now that
word utterance is words. His words. This is what I'm asking
you to pray for me about. That words might be given to
me. Now, I have no desire. All my flesh does. My corrupt
nature would desire self-promotion in some way, and I hate that.
I can't wait to be rid of it. I have no desire, that being
said, I have no desire for men to hear my voice. I do not want
to bring people around to my point of view to get them to
believe just like me. Not interested in that. If I
convert you into believing just like me, what good's it done?
Absolutely nothing. What I'm praying for, what I
desire, is that words, the very words of God, His gospel, that
words might be given for me and for the people that I preach
to. I want to hear the Word of God. I want to believe the Word
of God. I want to preach the Word of
God. Oh, that utterance may be given
unto me, words given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador
in bonds. Now, before we get into the mystery
of the gospel, three words I want to point out to you that Paul
uses to described making this mystery known. First of all,
he said, I'm an ambassador. I'm an ambassador, for which
I am an ambassador. Paul said, let a man account
us as ambassadors of Christ. We then as ambassadors of Christ. What is an ambassador? Well,
an ambassador of the United States is someone who goes to another
country, and he doesn't give his own opinion. He doesn't give
his own ideas. He doesn't give his own thoughts.
He comes as a representative of the United States of America,
and a representative of the Constitution, and a representative of the President
of the United States. And he comes to bring the terms
of the United States to that country. He doesn't try to soften
what he's saying. He doesn't try to make it more appealing
to anybody else. He says, this is our terms. I'm speaking as an ambassador
of the United States of America. I'm not giving my thoughts. I'm
giving the thoughts of the Constitution, the thoughts of the United States
of America. That's what an ambassador is.
And a preacher is to be an ambassador of God, sent by God, coming with
His message, stating it as He said it in His Word. I remember
one preacher saying, preaching is this, saying back what God
has already said in His Word. And that's what preaching is.
It's saying back what God has already said in his word. And he uses in verses 19 and
20, the word boldly, boldly, with boldness. That's to speak
without ambiguity, without bluntness, without concealment, to speak
in confidence and courage. Now we have a wonderful example
of what boldness is in Acts chapter four. I'd like to read this passage
to you. This is after Peter has been arrested. And verse seven,
and when they had set them in the midst, they said, by what
power or by what name have you done this? And it's talking about
he healed a man who had been lame from birth. Now we know
it was the Lord that healed him, but he used Peter to do it. And
the man received strength in his ankle bones. He got up leaping,
walking after he had been lame all of his life. And this caused
a stir. People saw this. It couldn't
be denied that it took place. And the high priest set them
in the midst and they asked, by what power or by what name
have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent
man, by what means he's made hope? Be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole." Now what
if he would have said, by the name of Jehovah, this man stands
before you whole. By the name of the God of Israel,
This man stands before you whole. By the name of Elohim, of El
Shaddai, whatever other name you can find of God in the Old
Testament. By the name of the Lord, this
man stands before you whole. Now, if he would have used those
names, it would have been true, and it would have been compromise. That's you. Paul said in Galatians
chapter 2, verse 20, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Now, I live, but it's not me. It's Christ in me. I believe,
but it's not me. It's Christ in me. I could go
on and say that about every aspect of the divine life. That's mysterious. It's not something you can understand
or grasp. It's something you believe. We
read in Revelation 17.5 of the mystery of the great harlot.
And we see that human religion is indeed nothing but evil. That's what he's talking about
when he's talking about the great harlot of Revelation 17.5. And he calls it mystery, Babylon
the great. And we know this because God
has made it known. Now I want you to think with
me. The mystery of God. The mystery
of God. God's a spirit. You can't see
Him. Yet He is eternal. He never had
a beginning. Nobody made Him. The mystery
of His sovereignty. He controls everybody and everything. He's all-powerful. He's omnipresent. He's not bound by space or time. He's all-knowing and all-wise. He never learns anything. He's
absolutely holy. He's perfectly just. He's gracious. He's merciful. He's invisible. He's immutable. He can't change.
He's independent. He's the only independent being. He has no needs. He has life
in Himself. God is love. Oh, the mystery
of God, the Creator, the mystery of the Son. Colossians 2.9 says
that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He said
in John chapter 14 verse 3, you believe in God, believe also
in me. Whatever it is you believe concerning God the Father, believe
the same thing concerning God the Son. I and my Father are
one. And yet this one who is so altogether
glorious describes himself as being meek. and lowly in heart,
and calls upon burdened souls to come to Him and find rest."
What mystery! What mystery is the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Trinity, all we experience of God, is
through Him. He's the author of the new birth. If you're born again, it's because
you were born of the Spirit. The mystery of the decrees of
God. Now listen to me. Everything
that happens in time was decreed by God in eternity. Let me repeat that. Everything
that happens in time was decreed by God in eternity. That is why we understand Well,
we don't understand it, we believe it. All things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. Everything that was done to Christ
on the cross, they were doing whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done. Now, that's mysterious. It's
glorious. It's all you can do is trust
Him. You know, with regard to everything that happens, I don't
know what the Lord's doing, but I know He's doing it. And I trust
Him, whatever He does is right. What mystery is involved in that? There is the mystery of the suretyship
of Christ. He's called the surety of a better
covenant. Before time began, He stood as my surety and took
full responsibility for my salvation. The mystery of creation, how
He created the universe from nothing. The mystery of the incarnation
and the virgin birth. When God was made flesh, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The mystery of His
life without sin. He never sinned. The mystery of His death. The
fact that he could die in the first place and we know the reason
he died was because of sin. He took my sins and made them
his own. I love what the songwriter said,
"'Tis mystery all, the immortal dies, who can explain the strange
design? In vain the firstborn seraph
cries to sound the depth of love divine. "'Tis mercy all, let
earth adore, let angel minds Inquire no more. What about the
mystery of him being made sin on the cross? Who can explain
that? You just believe it. He became
sin. All the sins of God's people
became his. What about the mystery of the believer being made the
righteousness of God? For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The mystery of His resurrection
when He raised Himself from the dead. The mystery of our regeneration
when God gives us spiritual life. The mystery of a believer having
two natures, a sinful nature and a holy nature. The mystery
of being preserved by His grace, kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation. Now unto Him that's able to keep
you from falling. The mystery of faith. I'm saved not by what I do, but
by what someone else has done, and I am relying completely on
him. The mystery of repentance, how
you change your mind concerning everything you've ever believed
in this thing of believing the gospel. The mystery of judgment
day, when I'm going to Hear Him say to me, well done, thou good
and faithful servant, because if Christ did well and is good
and faithful, I am too. The mystery of being justified
by God and standing before Him absolutely without guilt, the
mystery of eternal conformity to His image, I will spend eternity
just like him, perfectly conformed to his image. Don't you stand in awe of the
mystery of the gospel. And the only way this mystery
is to be declared is with boldness. Boldness in the mystery of the
gospel. We have this message on DVD and
CD, if you call the church, write or email, we'll send you a copy.
This is Todd Nyberg praying 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.