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 Nyvert. In 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4,
Paul writes to this church, knowing, brethren beloved, your election
of God. Now this was not an old church. He had just preached there recently,
and this is his first epistle to this church, and he says to
this church, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. Now, I've entitled this message,
Knowing Your Election of God. Now, I'm going to read a verse
of Scripture from Revelation chapter 13, and let me say that
the whole Bible can be interpreted through this verse. This is key to understanding
the Scripture. Revelation chapter 13, verse
8. and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, that's
not talking about God, that's talking about the false prophet,
and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names
are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Now you can't really understand
all the implications of that. I realize that. But there's some
implications you can't understand. Christ stood as the Lamb slain
before time began. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. And in the mind and purpose of
God, He was slain. before time began. And the reason
this universe was created was for the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And we read of a Book of Life
with some names written in it. The Book of Life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Whose names are these? These are the names of God's
elect. Those the Father chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now there is a Lamb's
Book of Life with the exact names of every one of God's elect in
it. Nothing's gonna be added to it,
nothing taken from it. Now Paul didn't have any access
to this book. Me and you don't either. Yet
he could say to these people, knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. And he goes on to say why he
knew it. But first, let's consider this
thing of election before we see these evidences that he gives
of these people's election. What is election? Look, Ephesians
chapter 1, verse 4. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Now, who chose
who? He chose us. The Lord said to
his disciples, you've not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I don't know how many different
ways there are to take that. He chose us. The second question
is, who is the us? Well, the us is those he chose. Not everybody. Romans 9 and 11
says, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. not of works, but of him that
calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it's written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Those are God's words. The us
is not every son of Adam. It's those that he chose before
time began. Now, when was this choice made? according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world." Somebody says,
well, when we choose Him, He chooses us. That's not what the
Bible says. It says He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Now, why did he choose us? Is
it because he could look down through the telescope of time
and foresee who would believe, and he foresaw this one would
believe, and he said, therefore, I chose him. Well, he did foresee
who would believe, but it's because he determined that they would
believe. By grace, he is saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. He determined to give these people
saving faith. That's how he knew they would
believe, They believed because He gave them faith. And He saved them, not because
He foresaw they'd believe, but He saved them to the praise of
the glory of His grace, to honor His dear Son. That's why He chose
these people, for the glory of Christ. How did He choose these
people? Was it just some arbitrary choice?
Well, I'm going to select this one and I'm going to damn that
one. No, not at all. That's not what election is.
According as ye hath chosen us in him. before the foundation
of the world. God's elect have never, ever
been viewed independently of Jesus Christ. I don't understand
this. I just believe it. It's not like
He chose us and then put us in Christ. God's elect have always
been in the Lord Jesus Christ, united to Him. election was ingrained in the
early church. It was used conversationally.
When Peter writes his general epistle, he's writing to the
strangers scattered throughout Cappadocia and Bithynia, elect,
he said, according to the foreknowledge of God. And when he ended that
epistle, he said, the church that's at Babylon elected together
with you, salute you. When John is writing to a woman,
he says, the elder unto the elect lady whom I love in the truth. And he says, the children of
thy elect sister greet thee. The Lord, when warning the false
prophets, said, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect.
But it is impossible for the elect to be finally deceived.
When he comes again and he sends his angels, it says they will
gather his elect from the four winds. I think of the great high
priestly prayer of our Lord in John chapter 17. Six times he
refers to the people he's praying for as those thou hast given
me. You remember when he said, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the Father which has sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again. At the
last day, he said in that great high priestly prayer, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world. but
for them which you have given me, for they are thine." Now
Paul says to this very young church, knowing brethren beloved,
your election of God. Now it was ingrained in the early
church and it's ingrained in the true church today. I know
there are assemblies that call themselves churches that would
pay no attention to election, well, they haven't paid any attention
to the Word of God. It's not a true church. All true
churches love God's electing grace. Now, let me make some
more statements. Listen to this statement very
carefully. You cannot preach the gospel
and not preach election. Now, let me repeat that. I want
you to hear this carefully, and I'm going to give my supporting
reasons for this. You cannot preach the gospel
and not preach election. And let me tell you why that
is true. Well, first of all, because I've
already demonstrated that the Bible teaches it. That's beyond
argument. The Bible teaches. God elected
who would be saved before time began. But election is a declaration
of the character of God. Election is nothing less than
God being God, controlling everything and everybody, every event, every
person. He selects who will be saved,
and He chooses to pass by the rest. And whatever He does is
right because He's God. He's immutable. He doesn't change
in the objects of His affections. He's eternal. He doesn't start
doing something. If He does it now, it's always
been that way. This is a declaration of the
character of God. I love the God of election. I love His eternal grace. Electing
love is the fountain of all grace. And listen to this, election
is what the sinner needs to hear about. Somebody says that will
confuse sinners. Sinners are already confused.
What it will do is tell them who God is and tell them their
need of Him. And it's a great stripping doctrine.
If I'm ever confronted with the doctrine of election, I'm going
to learn there's nothing I can do to save myself. I'm in the hands of the
sovereign God, and you've really never worshipped God until you've
seen that you're in the hands of the sovereign God. Secondly,
election shows the true character of man, shows the true character
of God, shows the true character of man. Now, what do I mean by
that? Man is so bad, so evil, that he'll never come to Christ
unless God chooses him to and causes him to. Election, you
don't believe in election, you don't believe in the true character
of man's sinfulness. The Lord said in John 6, verse 44, no
man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw
him. No man has the ability to come
to me. Why? Because we're totally depraved,
totally sinful, totally evil in and of ourself. When Adam
fell, he became dead. You and I are born into this
world dead in trespasses and sins, and we can't do anything
to save ourselves. We're totally dependent upon
God to do something for us. Now, election tells the true
character of God, election tells the true character of man, and
election tells the true character of the cross. On the cross, Christ
Jesus wasn't making salvation available to people if they do
something. He was saving. He saved God's elect. That was his purpose. That was
his intention. That's what he did. The very
opening chapter of the New Testament, thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. That is his
purpose, and that's what he did when he said, it is finished.
They were all saved. Christ doesn't make men savable.
He doesn't make salvation available. On Calvary's tree, he accomplished
salvation. Election. Also, fourth, you can't
understand the work of the Spirit apart from election. You don't
understand the character of God. You don't understand the character
of man. You don't understand what Christ was doing on the
cross. And fourthly, you can't really understand the work of
the Spirit of God, apart from election, because the Spirit
of God comes to the elect and gives them life through the preaching
of the gospel. He doesn't offer life. He gives
life. He births from above. Everybody the Father elected,
everybody the Son died for, God the Holy Spirit gives life to. And there's no real understanding
of regeneration or the new birth if you don't understand election.
Bottom line is, you don't believe election, you don't believe grace.
That's the bottom line. You can't believe in the grace
of God and not believe election. Now, The God of election is the
living and true God, and really there are no other options. Anything else is the figment
of man's depraved imagination. There are no other options other
than the God of election. Now, you could say, well, what
about a God that's less than all-powerful and less than sovereign?
Well, that's not a God. That's not an option. Somebody
says, what about atheism? Atheism isn't an option. I mean,
you, I'm, you know, I know an atheist quite often would say,
think they're very intellectual and very intelligent. No doubt
they are. I'm not the same. Probably a lot smarter than I
am. But it is completely irrational and illogical to think that something
doesn't have to have a cause. It's just all of a sudden there
it is. Life all of a sudden pops up, and it comes out of some
primordial stew, and all of a sudden it develops. Just the whole idea
is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I know an atheist
tries to come across as intellectual, but it's anti-intellectual. It's
intellectually indefensible. There are no options. to a sovereign
God who elects. Election is just a declaration
of the character of God. Now, knowing, brethren, beloved,
your election of God. Now, he tells how, and this is
just as important. Four. Now, here's how I know
that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. This
is how I know that you're one of the elect for our gospel. Our gospel came not to you in
word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance. And let me dwell on this phrase,
our gospel. for our gospel." The word gospel
means good news. Paul called it our gospel. It's the gospel of every single
believer. It's the gospel of God. It's
the gospel of Christ. Paul called it several times,
my gospel, but our gospel, the gospel that every believer believes. Now, what about this thing of
our gospel? Now, listen to these statements
I'd like to make very carefully about our gospel, the gospel.
Our gospel is the gospel that lines up with the Old Testament
Scriptures. And this is so important. So
many people look at The Old Testament is the old Bible and just a bunch
of character studies. You cannot understand the gospel
without the Old Testament scriptures. And if my gospel doesn't line
up with the Old Testament scriptures, it's not the gospel of God. First
Corinthians chapter 15, verse 3, when Paul declares the gospel,
he declares the gospel is how that. Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. And he's speaking of the Old
Testament Scriptures. All those sacrifices, all those
feasts, all those holy days, they all have to do with explaining
and giving us a picture of the gospel, the tabernacle. That's Christ Jesus. That's what
the tabernacle's all about, Christ Jesus. covered with that badger
skin, that's the humanity of Christ, but inside was the very
glory of God, the way the high priest would come into the Holy
of Holies once a year, not without blood. That's how Christ is approached. And then on the Day of Atonement,
how the priest would put his hands on the head of the scapegoat,
and the sins of God's people would be transferred to that
scapegoat, and it would be led away, and the other lamb is slain
to put away sin, explaining the transfer of guilt. And that's
the Old Testament. What about the Passover? I suppose
that might be my favorite story in the Old Testament. God said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. All the firstborn in
the land of Egypt were to be destroyed. But God told the children
of Israel, You slay a lamb without blemish, without spot, and put
the blood up over the door. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you." That blood wasn't over everybody's door, just the
Israelites. And let's say Somebody committed
some horrible sin. God forbid that happened. I'm
not trying to in any way saying sin's okay, but let's say one
of the children of Israel committed a murder that very day or something
even worse than that, some horrible sin. If they were in the house
with the blood over the door, were they safe? The answer is
yes. Yes, they were, because that
sin had been put away by the blood. What is the one thing
God was looking for? He didn't say, when I see your
faith. He didn't say, when I see your repentance. He didn't say,
when I see your sincerity. He didn't say, when I see your
good works. He said, when I see the blood. That's what God was
looking for, the blood of His Son. The blood was shed for God
to make a way for Him to be just and justify somebody like me
or you. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now, the gospel must be consistent
with the Old Testament scriptures. Gospel, our gospel is the gospel
that gives God all the glory. Our gospel is the gospel that
gives God all the glory. No glory goes to man. Man's not
saved because of his free will. Man's not saved because of his
works. Man's saved because Christ died for him. And it gives God
all the glory. Our gospel is the gospel that
gives Jesus Christ the preeminence in all things. You see, I'm saved
for one reason, for Christ's sake. He gets all the glory. He gets all the preeminence.
Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. He didn't forgive you for
any other reason but for Christ's sake, because Christ has all
the preeminence in salvation. As a matter of fact, the Scripture
says in Colossians 1, please God, that he should have all
the preeminence. That's God's purpose. Now, our
gospel is the gospel that is consistent with every attribute
of God. Now, in most preaching, for instance,
It's taught that Christ died for everybody's sins. But some
of those people he died for will end up going to hell. Now that's
denying the justice of God. That's denying the attributes.
Anything that doesn't line up with all the attributes of God,
his absolute sovereignty, his immutability, his eternity, his
holiness, his justice, his love, mercy, and grace, any gospel
that doesn't line up with all of his attributes is not true. Our gospel must line up with
all of the attributes of God. I need our gospel. My gospel
is a gospel that meets me where I am and saves me. It doesn't wait for me to get
to where I need to be. It comes to me where I am, dead
in sins, and saves me, and it's a gospel that keeps me saved. It's a gospel that can save the
very chief of sinners. It's a gospel that I can face
death with and face judgment without fear, because the sin
questions have been taken care of. Christ put away my sins,
and I stand just before God. My gospel is a gospel that will
completely conform me to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says our gospel, the
gospel of God, the gospel that lines up with the Old Testament
scriptures, the gospel that gives God all the glory, the gospel
that gives Jesus Christ the preeminence in all things, the gospel that
is consistent with every attribute of God, the gospel that meets
me where I am, a gospel that saves the very chief of sinners
and keeps them saved and enables them to stand before God in judgment
without fear. Our gospel came not to you in
word only. Now, it comes in word only when
you don't hear it in its saving power. You hear with these ears,
but you don't hear with the ears that He gives to hear. You don't
hear with the ears of the heart. You hear with the ears only.
And here's how you hear. You're not hearing as a sinner.
You're not hearing as a sinner. If you don't hear as a sinner,
the gospel's not going to be good news to you. As a matter of fact,
you're not going to like it because it's going to take away what
you're hoping in because you're hoping in your works. But if you're
one dead in sins who can't save himself, and you here as a sinner,
the gospel doesn't come to you in word only, but it comes in
power. I love what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
1.18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. It comes in power. You see, it's
the power of God that put away sin. It's the power of God that
gave you eyes to see. It's the power of God that makes
you rely on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. Our gospel came not to you in
word only. but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost. Now, the reason it came in power
is because of the Holy Spirit. Now, when God saves somebody,
it's not them making a decision. It's God the Holy Spirit birthing
them into the Kingdom of Heaven, being born from above. And you're given a new nature,
born of the Spirit. You're given a new nature that
sees what it could not see, that does what it could not do. You're
given eyes to see the beauty of Christ. You're enabled to
believe. Before you were given the Holy
Spirit, you didn't even know what it meant to believe. Now you
believe. It's because you've been born
of the Spirit. You used to have no idea what repentance means
until you're born of the Spirit, and then you're in a continual
state of repentance. When you're born of the Spirit,
you now love what you once hated. You had no love for God as was
revealed in His Word. Now you love Him and wouldn't
change Him if you could. For our gospel came not to you
in word only, but also in power and the Holy Ghost and much assurance. Now, my dear friend, that is
not talking about assurance of personal salvation. Now, if you
look to Christ only, you will have assurance of personal salvation. If you look within yourself and
find reasons that you think you're saved, well, I'm good, and I'm
righteous, and I'm better than I used to be, that's a false
assurance. That's a false assurance. As a matter of fact, the only
time I have assurance is when I look to Christ. When I look
within, I lose it. But I look to Christ, I have
assurance. But that's not what this is talking about. What this is talking
about is you are assured that this is the gospel. That's what
that means. You are assured that this is
the gospel, the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ, the gospel
of the Holy Scriptures. You know that this is the very
truth of God. Now that is how Paul knew that
they were God's elect. They, when they heard the gospel,
they received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth,
the word of God. They heard the gospel in power,
not in word only, but in power. And they heard the gospel in
the Holy Ghost, and they heard the gospel with much assurance. And there are several other things
that he says in this chapter. Let me read it. I'm not going
to be able to make comments on them. But he says, You were examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abod,
so that we need not speak anything of you. For they themselves show
of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, the how that
you turned to God from idols." You didn't turn from idols to
God. You turned to God and saw the idols for what they were.
"...to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son
from heaven." I'm waiting on Him to answer for me. "...to
wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." There
is a wrath to come, but no believer has anything to fear of it. because
Christ has put away their sins. Isn't it glorious the way Paul
could look at this young church, it hadn't been around for more
than a few months, and he says to them, knowing, brethren beloved,
your election of God. For our gospel came not to you
in word only, but also in power, and the Holy Ghost, and much
assurance. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, Ryder,
email will send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying God
will be pleased to make Himself known to you. 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.