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 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 Nyberg. I've entitled this message, Paul
at Jerusalem. Now Paul had been in Damascus
and they tried to kill him. This is after his conversion
in Acts chapter 9 and they had to let him down the wall in a
basket and upon that he went to Jerusalem. So I want to begin
reading in verse 23 of Acts chapter 9. And after that many days were
fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. They were so enraged
by what he said that they wanted his death. But their laying awake
was known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill
him. Then the disciples took him by
night and led him down by the wall in a basket." Paul refers
to this event in 2 Corinthians 11 when he's letting the ones
he's writing to know that from the very beginning he suffered
trouble because of his preaching of the gospel. Verse 26, "'And
when Saul was come to Jerusalem, He'd never been there before.
He'd never met the other apostles. He'd been taught the gospel directly
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He said in Galatians 1, I certify
you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me was
not after man. It was not derived from any human
source, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ taught
the gospel to Paul directly and commissioned him to preach it.
But when he was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to
the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, and they believed
not that he was a disciple. Now, this chapter nine begins
with Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord. Went unto the high priests, and
desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he
found any of this way, this way of Christ, this way of grace,
He might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. So all the saints
in Jerusalem knew of Paul was that of being an enemy of Christ. They did not know that he had
been saved, and so when he comes to Jerusalem and tries to join
himself with the disciples, they thought this was some kind of
plot in order to bind them and bring them to prison. So they
were very afraid of Paul, and I can understand why they would
have been. Verse 27, or 26, when Saul was
come to Jerusalem, he has said to join himself to the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was
a disciple. But Barnabas took him, Now Barnabas
had seen what had taken place in Damascus. He had seen and
heard how the Lord appeared to Paul and knocked him off his
horse and revealed himself to him. And he had heard Paul preach
the gospel. He was an eyewitness to this.
But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared
unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way. Paul had seen
the Lord. He'd seen the resurrected Lord. Now, when our Lord was raised
from the dead and showed Himself after the resurrection with many
infallible proofs, He never revealed Himself or showed Himself to
an unbeliever. It was only men chosen, women
chosen to have this revelation. He revealed Himself to them,
and they were the ones, believers are the ones who had seen Him.
And the Lord made Himself known to Paul. He revealed Himself
to Paul. Paul saw the Lord. And next it says that the Lord
spoke to him. If the Lord appears to you, He
will speak to you from His Word. And here's what is proof of all
that, he preached boldly in Damascus, in the name of Jesus. Now, the church is scared to
death. They don't want to have anything
to do with Paul. I understand that. And Barnabas says, he's
fine, he's okay, you can trust him. You see, he's seen the Lord.
And the Lord spoke to him. and I personally heard him preaching
boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, I love this. This seeing of Christ is much
more of a than a physical sight, but really, listen to this statement,
everything we believe is predicated on seeing Him. Now, let me make
some comments about that, and I hope you'll understand what
I mean by that when I say, everything we believe is predicated on seeing
Him. like Isaiah. I'm not talking
about a physical sight, but I'm talking about a spiritual sight
when you know who he is. Isaiah said, In the year the
king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, high and lifted up,
sitting upon a throne. And you know what his response
to that was? Then said I, Woe is me, I am
undone." You see, if someone speaks of themself in any other
light than that of the chief of sinners, present tense, they
have not seen the Lord. It's a sight of the Lord that
will give you a sight of yourself. And if someone speaks of Christ
in any way other than as an absolute sovereign, the one who controls
everybody and everything, he's the cause, he's the creator,
he's the savior. If anybody speaks of Christ in
any lower terms, it's because they've never seen him. You can't
describe someone you've never seen. If anyone ever speaks,
a preacher comes and speaks of his atonement as anything less
than absolutely successful, He saved everybody He died for.
He accomplished salvation for the elect, and their salvation
is finished. That's what He meant when He
said, It is finished. Their salvation is accomplished.
I finished the work the Father gave me to do. If I've never
seen the Lord, I'm going to say things that are not accurate
with regard to Him. I'll make Him to be less than
He is, and I'll make man to be more than he is if I've never
seen Him." Now, listen to this statement. You don't come to
Christ through doctrine. You come to your doctrine through
Christ. And what do I mean by that? You
don't come to Christ through doctrine. You come to your doctrine
through Christ. Here's what I mean by that. When
Christ is revealed, the doctrine becomes obvious. It's the obvious. It's not up for debate. You see
who He is. When He is revealed, you see
He's sovereign. You bow to everything the Word
says about Him because you've seen Him. And you arrive at your
doctrine through the revelation of His person. It's not like
you study this doctrine and study that doctrine and finally come
to the conclusion that you have. It doesn't work that way. Salvation
isn't by education. Salvation is by revelation. And the Lord made Himself known
to Paul. The Lord appeared to him. And then next, not only did the
Lord appear to him, the Lord spoke. to him. Verse 27, Barnabas
took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them
how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he, the Lord, had
spoken to him. The Lord spoke to him. When Paul
gives his account of what took place in Acts chapter 9 and Acts
chapter 22, when he's bearing witness before the ones who wanted
his death, he said, Ananias came to him and said, The God of our
fathers hath chosen thee. that thou shouldst know his will,
see that just one, and hear the voice of his mouth." The Lord
spoke to Paul with that same voice that said, light be, and
light was. The same voice that said to Lazarus,
Lazarus come forth, and he that was dead came forth. The same voice that cried, It
is finished. Now hearing His voice is being
effectually taught by Him. I've heard people make the statement,
I hope they don't mean it, but I've heard people, maybe I've
made this statement myself, it's a terrible thing to say, Lord's
trying to teach me something. Lord doesn't try to do anything.
If He teaches you, you're taught. You've heard the voice of His
mouth. This is the qualification of
a witness. You've seen someone, and you've heard his voice, and
you bear witness to what he has said. You know, it's amazing
that religion trains people to witness. You know, there's something
dishonest about that on the very surface. If you've got to train
someone to witness, you're training them to act a certain way in
order to get a response. A witness is somebody who's seen
something. He bears witness to it. And this is what will demonstrate
that a man has seen Christ. He says in verse 27, Barnabas
took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them
how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he, the Lord, had
spoken to him. He heard from Christ himself.
Christ taught him the gospel. And what happened as a result
of that? He had preached boldly at Damascus
in the name of Jesus. Bold preaching. bold preaching. That is the evidence of having
seen Christ and having heard from Him, He preached boldly
in His name. Now, this boldness is not natural
courage. There are some people who are
very timid, and there are some people who just dread conflict
and just wilt before it, and that's just their constitution.
And there are some people who are bold and courageous, and
they don't fear conflict, and they'll speak their mind. This
is not what this is a reference to when it speaks of him preaching
boldly in the name of Jesus. Some people mistake arrogance
and cockiness for boldness. That's not boldness. That's being
a jerk when it comes right down to it. What is this thing of
bold preaching? Well, I couldn't help but think
of that Scripture in Acts chapter 4 when It says, when they saw
the boldness of Peter and John, and saw that they were unlearned
and ignorant men, they didn't have anything going for them
as far as the flesh goes, uneducated, unlearned, ignorant, country
bumpkins. They took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus. That's the boldness. It's knowing
Him. they had been with Jesus. The same boldness that is spoken
of when it says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace. Because it's a throne of grace,
pure, free, sheer grace. I can come to this throne boldly. Having therefore boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Now, this boldness
is because His blood is effectual, and it makes me perfect before
God. All sin is washed away. That's
where that boldness comes from. Listen to this Scripture. Having
boldness on the day of judgment, this is 1 John 4, 17, having
boldness on the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in
this world. That's the boldness of knowing
that all that God requires of us He looks to His Son for, and
that as He is holy, righteous, perfect, accepted before God,
beautiful to God, as He is, so are we in this world right now,
present tense. This is the reality of justification. Now, this is speaking boldly
in His name. Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians
3, verse 12, seeing we have such hope. The hope of being perfectly
accepted. The hope of all sin being put
away. The hope of being perfectly righteous
before God. Seeing that we have such hope,
we use great plainness. Same word usually translated
boldness. We use great boldness of speech. Now, here's Barnabas' testimony
to the saints of Jerusalem. Paul had seen Christ. You don't
need to be afraid of him. Christ appeared to him. Christ spoke
to him. And I heard him preach boldly
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 28, and he was
with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. Now they accepted
him. And verse 29, and he spake boldly. in the name of the Lord Jesus.
That's the way Paul preached, with boldness. Like I said, this
is not fleshly confidence and arrogance. You've heard preachers
that are so arrogant and they mistake it for boldness. That's
not what we're talking about here. This is the boldness that
comes from being with Him, knowing Him and knowing His sufficiency,
knowing the completeness of His salvation, knowing the satisfaction
of His blood. He spoke boldly in the name of
the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians. Now here he's not
even speaking to Jews, he's speaking to Greeks, the Grecians, the
Hellenists. He's speaking once again boldly
in the name of the Lord Jesus, but they went about to slave.
Now, the Jews, when they heard him preach, they wanted to kill
him. The Greeks, when they heard him preach, they went about to
slay him. They didn't like what he was
saying. Now, whether Jew or Gentile,
the natural man hates bold preaching. Hear me, please. The Bible is
the inspired Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. The Bible is the inspired Word
of God, inerrant. And if we don't have that, if
we say, well, it contains the Word of God, well, who's smart
enough to figure out which part comes from Him and which part
comes from man? That's foolishness to say it contains the Word of
God. No, it is the Word of God. If God can create the universe,
He can inspire men to write a book and preserve it perfectly. The Bible is the Word of God.
Believe what God's Word says and be saved. Reject what God
says and be damned. Now, that is not arrogance. That's telling the truth. God
is absolutely sovereign. He's absolutely in control of
everything and everybody. He is the cause. He's sovereign
in creation. He's sovereign in providence.
Everything that happens is His will being done. He's sovereign
in salvation. That means salvation's in His
hands. Salvation's not up to you, it's up to Him. Somebody
says, what will you do with Jesus? No, what will he do with you?
That's the issue. You know, the leper understood
this. He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean, if you
will. He knew his salvation was in
the will, up to the will of Christ, and he was in Christ's hand.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, sovereign,
one God in three distinct persons. Now, that's who He is. Men are
dead in sins. You, by nature. Me, by nature. We were born into this world
dead in sins. Dead. Dead. Do you hear it? Dead. What can
a dead man do? Well, he can stink. That's it. He can't perform the
functions of life. He can't do it. And you have
the quickened who are dead in trespasses and sins. Men are
dead in sins, totally depraved. And that doesn't mean everybody's
an ax murderer or a pedophile, although you would be, and I
would be, if the Lord doesn't prevent it. But what that means
is every aspect of our nature is under the dominion of sin.
My mind is defiled. My will is enslaved to a sinful
nature. My heart, by nature, love what
ought to hate and hate what ought to love. Men are dead in sins
and cannot do anything to save themselves. Graveyard dead. Now, this is what bold preaching
is. It's not yelling and screaming
and acting courageous. It's telling the truth. It's
giving what God's Word actually teaches. Now, men being dead
in sins, they can't save themselves, but here's the good news. Did
you know that God, before time began, elected a vast number
of people to be saved? Oh, thank God for election. Paul
said, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord. because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame." Now, If I don't preach election, I'm not preaching boldly. As a matter of fact, I'm not
preaching at all. Election is who God is. You can't preach
the gospel and not preach election, God's choice of His people before
time began. And election is simply a declaration
of grace. It's a declaration of grace.
Salvation really is all of grace. This ought to be good news to
anybody who believes themselves to be a sinner. There's hope
I can be saved because God saves by His grace. Now listen to this. Christ came to represent those
God elected, and when He bowed His mighty head and said, It
is finished, every single one of them were saved. He died for
the elect, and He accomplished their salvation. He said, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world. but
for them which you have given me." You see, Christ's atonement
actually atoned. He didn't make atonement available
if you do something. No, He actually redeemed everybody
He died for. And if somebody says, well, does
that mean maybe He didn't die for me? Listen, if you see yourself
to be a sinner and you come to Him for mercy, He died for you
and He'll save you. This doesn't prevent people from
being saved. It saves people who would never
have been saved. Oh, I love the thought of His
effectual atonement. He hath by one offering perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That's what He accomplished.
And those the Father elected, those the Son redeemed, God the
Holy Spirit comes in time and gives them life. That's what being born again
is. You're birthed by the Spirit of God. You were dead in sins.
Now you're given life. You're given life that sees God
for who He is, sees Christ for who He is, sees your sinfulness
and your need of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a time when
I didn't see my need of Christ. There was a time when I didn't
understand how sinful I was. I was satisfied. Hey, I'm okay.
I had been baptized and gone to the front of the church and
all those things, but then the Lord showed me who I am. He gave
me life. Now, all of these people that
God has elected, that Christ has died for, that God the Holy
Spirit has given life to, they will persevere in the faith. Now, what's that mean? They will
continue looking to Christ only all the days of their life. They're
only going to look to Him. He is all in their salvation.
They are afraid to look anywhere else. You know, that's what the
fear of the Lord is. When you have the fear of the Lord, you're
afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. Now, if you can look somewhere
other than Christ, it's because you really have no fear of God.
You really have no respect of God. You don't know anything
about His holiness or your own personal sinfulness. If you can
find evidence of salvation by something you do rather than
what He did, it's because you don't really have a fear of the
Lord. If you fear the Lord, you will
persevere in looking to Christ only all of your days." And he
spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed amongst
the Grecians, but they went about to slay him. They wanted to do
the same thing the people in Damascus wanted to do. They wanted
to kill him, which when the brethren knew, They brought him down to
Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus. They wanted to rescue
him because they saw he was getting ready to be put to death. Verse
31, then, had the churches rest. throughout all Judea, and Galilee,
and Samaria, and were edified, walking in the fear of the Lord,
and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." Now,
they didn't have rest simply because Paul wasn't persecuting
them anymore. They had this rest before this
persecution because this rest is the word that's generally
translated peace, the peace that flows from justification, therefore
being justified. By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, what is justification? A
perfect standing before the law of God. The Ten Commandments
can look you over and find no sin. You see, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is the righteousness of every believer. And what peace
there comes from that. Then had the churches rest? in Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria,
and were edified. They were built up. If you ever
understand, if I ever understand what peace is and where it comes
from, from Christ, we will be edified. Now any growth-somebody
says, I'm really growing-any growth that's not founded on
this peace is a false growth. You know, we hear in our day
of fake news, well, there's fake growth. Any growth that's not
founded on the gospel of justifying righteousness of Christ is not
real. But they were edified and they
walked in the fear of the Lord looking to Christ only, and the
comfort of the Holy Ghost. Now, what exactly is the comfort
of the Holy Ghost? The comfort of the Holy Ghost
is a comfort from the Scriptures. Romans 15, 4, 14, the comfort
of the Scriptures. It comes from the Scriptures.
If you can't find it in the Scriptures, it's not real. It's called in
Philippians 2, 1, the consolation in Christ. It's the comfort that's
found in Christ, where all God sees is Christ. And it's stated
in Isaiah chapter 40, where God says, Comfort ye, comfort ye
my people. This is the comfort of the Holy
Spirit. It's the comfort of the Father and the Son, too. Speak
comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. Battle's over. that her iniquity
is pardoned. It's not offered, it's accomplished. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now, that's the message
of the gospel. That is the comfort of the Holy
Ghost. Now, I'd like to invite you to
services at Todd's Road Grace Church. We're located at 4137
Todd's Road, 4137 Todd's Road. And our services, Bible studies
at 945, Sunday morning, 1030. And we'd love to have you come
out and hear the gospel. This is Todd Nibbert, 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 your request to todd.neidert at gmail.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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