Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyvert. 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 Nyvert. I'm preaching this morning from
Acts chapter 12, and I've entitled this message, The Components
of Conversion. Now, what do I mean by that?
What takes place when someone is brought from being dead in
sins to be alive in Christ Jesus? The components of conversion. And we're given a beautiful picture
of that in this passage of scripture in Acts chapter 12. The Bible
makes very plain statements of men being dead in sin, salvation
being by grace, God electing a people, Christ dying for a
sheep. The Bible makes very plain statements.
And it gives many, many, many illustrations that make these
doctrines of the Scripture, the doctrine of the Scripture, come
alive. The Old Testament is filled with types of Christ and types
of the Gospel. Look at the life of Joseph. as
the life of Christ. Look at Abraham and Isaac going
up Mount Moriah for Isaac to be slain. What a picture we have
there of Christ going up Mount Calvary to be slain. The Old
Testament is filled with them and the New Testament is filled
with them. And we have a historical event that literally took place
that gives us a beautiful picture of what happens when someone
goes from being dead in sins to alive in Christ Jesus. Now, beginning in verse 1 of
Acts chapter 12, now about that time, Herod the king stretched
forth his hand to vex certain of the church. There are three
Herods mentioned in the New Testament. They're all related. And this
man wanted to have the church persecuted. So we read, he killed
James, the brother of John, with a sword. This is the first disciple
martyred. James, the brother of John, was
killed. And because he, Herod, saw it
pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then
were the days of unleavened bread. He saw what would be to his advantage
politically to put Peter to death, and he wanted to do it in a very
public way. He wanted to do it after the Passover, so he kept
Peter in jail till the time when he could execute him in a way
where many people would see, and many people, presumably,
would be happy. Verse 4, And when he had apprehended
him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions
of soldiers. to keep him, intending after
Easter to bring him forth to the people after the Passover.
Now, why did he use four quaternions, which means 16 soldiers, four
groups of four? Why did he use that many soldiers
to watch over one man? Well, Peter had, in Acts chapter
5, been miraculously delivered from a prison before. And I have
no doubt that Herod knew something about this, and I suppose he
didn't believe it was miraculous. He thought he just was good at
escaping, and so he was going to make sure it didn't happen.
And he had these four groups of four soldiers guarding Peter. Verse 5, Peter therefore was
kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church
of God for him. The Lord works through prayer.
And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter
was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the
keepers before the door kept the prison. Now, I love this
sight. Peter knows he's going to be
executed the next day, but there he is with his both arms bound
by fetters and chains, sleeping between two soldiers, and there
he sleeps. He's not worried. He knows God's
on the throne. He knows God's will will always
be done, and there he sleeps, not filled with anxiety, but
there he sleeps. And we read in verse 7, And behold,
the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the
prison, and he smote Peter on the side. This angel did, and
raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell
off from his hands. And the angel said unto him,
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals, And so he did, and he
saith unto him, cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out and followed,
and whistled off that it was true that was done by the angel. He
didn't know if this was really happening, or if he was just
having a dream or a vision. Verse 10, when they were past
the first and second ward, they came unto the iron gate that
leadeth unto the city, which opened to them of his own accord.
He just sat there and watched this big gate open by itself,
with no human being causing it to be opened. This was God doing
this. And they went out and passed
on through one street, and forthwith the angel departed from him.
And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety
that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of
the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people. Now here we have the historical
event of Peter being delivered, brought out of the prison, supernaturally. But in this story, we also have
a beautiful picture. Now, Peter is asleep. Sleep quite often in the scripture
signifies what? Death. Peter is asleep and he
has two shackles on his arms that prevent him from getting
up and escaping and getting out of that sleep. Two shackles. which represent the two chains
that hold the man dead in sins, God's holy law, and his own sinful
nature. Now, let's talk about, for a
few moments, about Peter being asleep, what this signifies,
and shackled down by two chains. Now, what happened in the Garden
of Eden? Well, the scripture says that
when Adam ate of the fruit, He died. The Lord said, in the day
you eat thereof, that very day, you will die. Now, we know that
Adam did not die physically, and he did not experience eternal
death at that time. That's what hell is. But he died
spiritually. He did have a body, soul, and
spirit, But after this death, he now only has a body and a
soul. He no longer has this spiritual
nature fit for communion with God. He doesn't have this spiritual
nature that can is the evidence of spiritual life. He is now
dead in trespasses and sins. And you and I are born into this
world dead in trespasses and sins. The scripture says the
wicked are estranged from the womb. They go about as soon as
they'd be born, speaking lies. David said, In sin did my mother
conceive me. Now he's not talking about his
mother committing sexual sin. He's talking about the fact that
when he was brought into this world, he was brought into this
world a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins. Now this blows the
very idea of free will out of the water. People think, well,
men have a free will. Well, men do what they want to
do. I won't deny that. Everything we do, we do it because
we want to. But the will is controlled by the nature, and the nature
is evil. Every will is chained to an evil
nature. In that sense, there's no such
thing as free will. We do what we want to do. But the idea of
free will, no, your will is controlled by your nature. Now, what does
spiritual death mean? Remember, we're looking at Peter.
lying there asleep, bound with two chains. Dead in sins, bound
by two chains. Well, dead in sins means two
things. It means total depravity and
total inability. If I'm dead in sins, I'm totally
depraved. Now that doesn't mean that I'm
out with an axe murdering people or a pedophile or something like
that, although you and I would be that way, apart from the grace
of God, I realize that, but that's not what total depravity means.
Total depravity means that every aspect of me is under the dominion
of sin. The heart is desperately wicked,
deceitful above all things, Jeremiah says. The heart represents the
mind. It represents the affections.
It represents the will. It's all desperately wicked,
deceitful above all things. Now, you don't become a sinner
when you sin. You sin because you're already
a sinner. Now, total depravity says this about me and you. We cannot not sin, and all we
do is sin. Now that is what the Bible says. Sinners by nature, sinners by
choice, sinners by practice, you and I are born into this
world totally depraved. Now somebody says, that's a hard
pill to swallow. What about the good things people do? Well,
you better believe what God says. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. That's God's testimony. And here's
what happens as a result of total depravity and this death of sins,
total inability. Now what does that mean? John
6, 44, the Lord said, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me, draw him. He lacks the ability to come
to me. Romans 8, 6 through 8 says, the
carnal mind, this is Romans 8, 7 and 8, the carnal mind, that's
the mind you and I are born with. The carnal mind, the fleshly
mind, is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. I Corinthians 2.14 says, the
natural man, that's me and you the way we're born into this
world, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they
are foolishness unto him. Neither indeed can he know them.
He lacks the ability to know them because they're spiritually
discerned. And the natural man is spiritually
dead. He has to have a spiritual nature
to discern the things of God. You and I are completely dependent
upon God giving us life to be able to understand the things
of God. Now, by nature, we cannot come
to Christ. We cannot believe. We cannot
repent. We cannot love God. And what
makes all of this so evil is we cannot because we will not. There's a willful wickedness
in all of this. Now, don't anybody think, well,
doesn't inability suspend responsibility? Is God going to expect me to
do something that I can't do? Yes. Yes, and God is just. Now, like Peter, dead in sins,
we're bound by two chains, the law of God and our own sinful
nature. Now, the law of God says the
soul that sinneth shall surely die. The law knows no mercy. The law
of God is a reflection of God's holy character, and it must punish
all sin. All the law does is expose sin. It doesn't give you power to
obey. It simply says, you're guilty. Guilty as charged. All you've done is broken me.
And that law cannot be changed. And the second thing that I'm
shackled by is my own sinful nature. I like what Jeremiah
said, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
How then can you do good that are accustomed to doing evil? There's none righteous, no, not
one. Now here we have Peter dead in
picture, shackled by two chains, the law of God, the strength
of sin is the law. All the law does is expose sin.
Somebody says, I try to keep the law. No, you don't. Don't
even say that. All the law does is expose me
and you as lawbreakers and our own sinful nature that we cannot
change. Here Peter lays. Now let's, kept in prison, verse
seven of Acts chapter 12. And behold, here's the gospel. The angel of the Lord came upon
him. Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ
interfering by His Spirit coming upon him. Now if the Lord doesn't
come upon me and doesn't come upon you, we will remain dead
in sins. And we're totally dependent upon
him to come upon us. And here's my reaction. Lord,
come upon me. Do something for me. Don't leave me to myself.
Give me life. The angel of the Lord comes upon
him and a light shined in the prison. How bright was this light? Maybe above the brightness of
the sun. Maybe it's the same light that appeared to Paul on
the road to Damascus. But the point is, Conversion,
spiritual life, begins with light. What took place in the first
creation first? Light. Let there be light. And in the new creation, being
brought from that state of death to a state of spiritual life,
where does it begin? Light. And this thing of light
is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the light of the
true character of God. He's the light of the true character
of man, and he is the light of how God saves. Every attribute
of God is manifested in Christ being nailed to the cross. This
is the light of who God really is. All of his attributes, all
of his divine perfections are manifest in the cross. His justice,
he must punish sin, his holiness, his hatred of sin. He's no respecter
of persons. When sin is found on the son,
he kills him. HIS LOVE, MERCY, AND GRACE IN PROVIDING HIS SON
FOR SINNERS, HIS WISDOM IN MAKING A WAY FOR GOD TO BE JUST AND
JUSTIFY THE UNGODLY, HIS POWER IN EXECUTING THAT. EVERY ATTRIBUTE
OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST. THE CROSS OF CHRIST
GIVES ME THE LIGHT CONCERNING WHO I AM. NOW, I CAN THINK ABOUT
THE SINS I COMMIT AND FEEL BAD AND FEEL GUILTY AND SO ON, BUT
THEY DON'T TELL ONE-TENTH OF THE STORY. The real story about
me and you is seen in the cross. When God left man to himself
and let him do what he wanted to do, what did he do? He nailed
the Son of God to a tree in hatred, wanting to put him completely
away. And that's what God holds every
man guilty of, hating his son and putting him to death. But
thirdly, the cross gives the light of how God saves sinners
by what His Son accomplished. You see, Christ Jesus came into
this world and kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned. He's nailed to a tree. Why? There's
only one reason for death, sin. The sins of God's people became
his. He became guilty of them. God's wrath came down upon him.
He put those sins away, and his perfect righteousness is given
to everybody that he died for. Those people where he took their
sins, he gave them his righteousness. It's called substitution. That
is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is divine light. Now, what happened? Behold, the
angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison,
and he smote Peter." The angel smote Peter on the side. It doesn't
say he gently nudged him and said, wake up, Peter. No, this
word smite is used for killing someone. As a matter of fact,
in this same chapter, we read in verse 23, this is what the
angel did to Herod later on in this chapter, and immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him. He killed him. Because he gave
not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms and gave up the
ghost. The process of decay was sped
up with this man. He was smitten so thoroughly.
Now that's the same word used with regard to Peter, the angel
of the Lord came and smote him. You see, when you're dead in
sin, you don't know you're dead. It's only when God gives you
life that you know you're dead. It takes life, really, to see
that. As long as you're dead, you don't
see it. But when he gives you life, You see what your problem
is. Paul put it this way in Romans
7. I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. You die to all hopes of saving
yourself. That's what happened with Peter.
The angel of the Lord came and light came in the prison. He
smote Peter on the side. and raised him up, saying, Arise
up, quickly. Now, this word, he raised him
up, is the same word that's used for the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, when Christ was raised,
we hear two times, he raised him up, and then he said, Arise.
He raised him up, then he said, Arise. When Christ was raised
from the dead, so was every believer. As a matter of fact, The scripture
says every believer is seated together in the heavenlies with
him. But when he was raised from the
dead, he did that as a representative. When he died, all of his people
died. When he was raised from the dead,
all of his people were raised from the dead. Now what does
the resurrection of Christ signify? He satisfied God. When God raised
him from the dead, God said, I'm completely satisfied with
everything he did and everybody he did it for. You see, he was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
Every believer was justified by what Christ did. They were
raised together with him. And then he says to Peter, rise
up quickly. This is talking about hearing
the gospel. You see, you're going to be spiritually alive when
you hear the gospel, rise up quickly. And that's what Peter
did. And I love the way he said, rise
up quickly. You know, most people think, well, I need to do something
before I can believe on Christ. I need to become less sinful.
I need to live a holier life. I need to give up this sin and
I need to quit committing this sin. And I need to start doing
this good thing. And I need to start all the things they need
to do. Now, when God speaks to you, you see that all your works
are filthy rags, the good ones and the bad ones, and you don't
wait for anything to happen. You look to Christ right now. That's the command of the gospel.
Rise up quickly. And the scripture says, his chains
fell off from his hands. You see, when you believe the
gospel, when God gives you faith, when God saves you, when he brings
you from death to life, these chains fall off, the chain of
the law. What's that mean? The law is
now satisfied. The law can't condemn you. The
law looks you over and says, there's no sin. He's absolutely
perfect. He's absolutely just. I have
nothing to bring against him. And that evil nature that could
not believe, that could not repent, You're given a new nature. That's
the new birth. You're given a nature that does
believe, that does repent, that does love Christ. Those shackles
fall off. You're made to do what you could
not do before. You find yourself believing.
You don't decide to believe. You find yourself believing.
You don't decide to repent. You find yourself in a state
of repentance. You find yourself loving God
for who he is. How come? If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation, a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. The songwriter said, long my
imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound by sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening
ray. I rose the dungeon flamed with
light. My chains fell off, my heart
set free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. And I have
no doubt that the songwriter was thinking of this event when
he penned those words. Now verse 8, And the angel said
unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did.
And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow
me. Now, by girding himself, I have
no doubt that it has something to do with the girdle of truth,
with the truth, the Christian armor of Ephesians chapter six,
the truth of the gospel. But how many times do we also
read in the scripture where the servant is to gird himself and
serve his master? Now, when the Lord saves somebody,
they are the Lord's servant. Their only purpose is to serve
him. He said, bind on your sandals.
Now, once again, the sandals in Ephesians chapter 6 have your
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now,
that word preparation is the readiness, the preparedness.
What is it that makes you ready and prepared? One thing, the
gospel of peace. Put on those shoes, because the
only way you can walk in this world as you receive Christ Jesus
Lord, so walk in them, is in those shoes. And then he said,
cover yourself completely with your garment. Cast on your garment,
and your garment is all that can be seen. This is the wedding
garment. This is the best robe. This is
the robe of righteousness that every believer wears. And it's all God sees, and it
is the justifying righteousness of Christ. My wedding garment
given to me. It's the fine linen, clean and
white. And it's all I want God to see.
And I'm not alone in that sentiment. Listen to the words of Paul.
Paul said, O that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God. God's righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, my garment,
by faith. I only want God to see me in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is how Peter leaves. He said, cast thy garment upon
and follow me. Now this is the life of every
believer, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know this
much about following. The only way you can follow someone
is to keep your eyes on them. If you look down on your feet
to see how you're walking, or if you look to your side to see
how somebody else is walking, you'll lose sight of him. The
only way you follow Christ is to look unto him only, looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Now, verse
nine, he went out and followed him. And wist not that it was
true which was done by the angel, but he thought he saw a vision.
He wasn't sure at this time whether this was real, When they were
past the first and second ward, they came unto the iron gate
that leadeth unto the city, which opened to them of his own accord.
They saw this gate mysteriously open. They saw no human hand
had anything to do with his entrance. This was all divine. And he passed
on through one street and forthwith the angel departed from him.
And when Peter was come to himself, He said, now I know with surety
that the Lord has sent his angel and delivered me out of the hand
of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. Now,
let me tell you when you'll have assurance of salvation. when
you're assured that the Lord did it all, that it was His work
and not yours. There's nothing to not have assurance
about if you really believe salvation is of the Lord, if you believe
it's wholly what Christ did. Now, you'll lose assurance. You
won't have any assurance if you start looking to yourself, because
anything that comes from you is gonna be no good. It's not
something you can find assurance in. And if you find assurance
in it, it's only because you're dead in sins. A believer can
find assurance in nothing but who Jesus Christ is, what he
did, and how he accomplished everything in salvation. And
if you can rest in him, you can know for a surety that it's the
Lord that did this. Now, have you ever looked to
Christ only? Not look to Christ and your evidences
and your experiences and your life and your works. You look
to Christ only. Only then will you have the assurance
of His favor. Now here we have a beautiful
picture of the components of conversion. How a sinner is brought
from being dead in sins to looking to Christ only, the evidence
of life. Now we have this message on DVD,
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Niler, praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. Amen. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to
todd.niler at gmail.com, or you may write or call the church
at the information provided on the screen.