Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. 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 Nibbert. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians
chapter 3, verse 8, unto me, who am less than the least of
all the saints, is this grace given that I might preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ? I've entitled this message, The
Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Now let me say right off the
bat, because when we think of riches, we think of material
things. Indeed, He owns all material
things. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. But when heaven is described,
and I know that this is said in picture and type, but the
streets are said to be paved with gold. That shows you how
useless gold is in heaven. It's used to pave the streets.
The word unsearchable means impossible to be comprehended. When we have
plumbed its depths, we have not even skimmed the surface. When we talk about the unsearchable,
riches of Christ. The only other time the word
is used is in Romans 11.33. Paul says, O the depths of the
riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways, here's the word, past finding
out. A God that me and you can comprehend
is not worthy of worship. There's just not too much, too,
of God like that. But Paul says, my purpose is
to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now, this chapter
begins with this statement for this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner. of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles."
Now, this is one of the prison epistles that he wrote from prison,
but he says, I'm not a prisoner of Rome. I'm a prisoner of Jesus
Christ. The reason I'm in this jail cell
is because of Him. It's His will and His purpose.
Even more so, I am His prisoner. I can't get away from Him. Thank
God for that. I don't want to get away from
Him. I am locked up in Him, and I don't want to be anywhere else. You see, if I could get away,
I would get away. If I could fall away, I would
fall away. But thank God I can't, because
I'm the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. That speaks of
his irresistible and invincible grace. And he says to the church
at Ephesus, if you've heard of the dispensation of the grace
of God which is given me to Hubert, how that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery. as I wrote afore in a few words,
whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ." Now, he said, you've heard of my stewardship,
is the word. If you've heard of my stewardship
of the grace of God, that's what the word dispensation means.
Now, a stewardship or steward is one who has the responsibility
for that which belongs to somebody else. And Paul was enabled by
God to be a steward, and that's exactly what he was. He was responsible
for that which belongs to somebody else. He's talking about the
grace of God. God's grace is God's grace. It's saving grace,
it's sovereign grace, it's free grace, or it's not grace at all. And Paul's stewardship was to
preach and defend and declare that grace. Now, when God's grace
is called sovereign grace, that means it's the grace you have
was given to you because he gave it to you. It wasn't his response
to you. it wasn't His response to you
asking Him. It wasn't you accepting His offer. God's grace is not an offer. God's grace is sovereign grace,
where He sovereignly saves those He gives His grace to. It's free. It's not given in payment to
something you've done or something you've earned. It always saves. If you haven't been saved by
grace, you haven't been given grace. Everybody God gives grace
to is saved by His grace. And Paul said, I'm a steward
of that. And then he says in verse 3,
how that by revelation he made known unto me the mysteries.
I wrote four and a few words talking about what he'd said
in the first and second chapter, whereby when you read, you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Now, a mystery. The way Paul uses the word is
not the way we use it today. When we use the word mystery,
we think of truth concealed. I don't know. I don't know the
answer to that question. I'm unaware. I don't know. But that's not what Paul means
by the word mystery. Mystery is not truth concealed,
but truth revealed. not something so much that you
can understand, but it's something that God has revealed in His
Word and gave you the knowledge of it. Let me give you an example.
Would you have ever guessed that God is one God in three distinct
persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Of course you would have never known anything like that, but
God has revealed it in His Word. Now, to a believer, do you understand
this? Of course not. Do you believe
it? With all my heart. It's a mystery that would never
have been known had not God been pleased to make it known in His
Word. That is what is meant by the
mystery, and the reason Paul had some understanding of this
mystery and some knowledge in the things of God is because
God gave this to him. He said in Galatians 1, the gospel
which was preached to me is not after man. It's not derived from
any human source. For I neither received it of
man, nor was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, when Paul first heard the
gospel, it was through a man. God sent Ananias to him. And
if you're going to hear the gospel, it's going to be through a man
preaching the gospel to you. He's going to cause a preacher
to cross your path. The message is of God. It's not man's message, it's
God's message. You remember in 2 Corinthians
12, where Paul said he was brought up into the third heaven and
taught the gospel directly by the Lord Jesus Christ. You can
read about this in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 1-6. This is a gospel of revelation. God revealed this to Paul. He gave him knowledge in this
mystery. He said, this is how you can
know how I am saying these things. These are things that Christ
taught me, and I'm giving them to you. He said, moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel. And he called it, for I delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received. Christ
gave him this in order for him to give it to us. How that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. There's the gospel.
It's not that Christ died for our sins, it's how that he died
for our sins according to the Old Testament scriptures. Whereby when you read, you may
understand my knowledge of the mystery of Christ. God revealed
this to me. God used Paul more than any other
man to reveal His grace, and Paul was the great expounder
of grace. Now, he says in verse 5 of chapter
3, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it's now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit. Now, this is so important. In
the Old Testament, The gospel was not as clear as it is in
the New Testament. Now, in the Old Testament, men
were saved the same way. They're saved by the blood of
Christ, saved by the grace of God. Abel was saved for one reason,
the Lamb of God. He brought that sacrifice that
pictured the coming sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. But men
in the Old Testament did not have the light that they had
in the New Testament. Here's an example. Abraham has promised
a son. They wait for years. It doesn't
happen. Sarah says, you go into Hagar, and we'll have a son through
your union with her. And they had Ishmael. Years later,
Sarah finally has a son, Isaac, and she says, cast out the bondwoman
and her son. She wanted to get rid of Hagar. She wanted to get rid of Ishmael.
And that sounds like just one of those Old Testament stories
that you're not so sure about, but Paul in the New Testament
tells us that that is given to illustrate law and grace. Abraham, that's Galatians 4,
and it actually opens up the whole Old Testament because you're
made to see that every single one of these stories in the Old
Testament, without exception, are given to illustrate some
aspect of the gospel. And here Abraham is Without child,
even though God has promised, Sarah says, well, we need to
do our part or God's promise won't come to pass. Abraham,
we need to do our part. Abraham says, okay, we'll go
into Hagar. Abraham does his part and then Isaac is born later,
supernaturally, through her who had already gone through the
process of menopause, to show the gospel. That's not Abraham
doing his part, it's God doing it all. And if salvation is God
waiting for you to do your part, all that is is works. That's
it. And so we see Abraham and Sarah
didn't completely understand this when they were going through
this event. But we do now because the New Testament reveals it.
But the Old Testament saints didn't have the light that we
have been given. And here's the light, verse 6,
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers
of its promise in Christ by the gospel. Whereof I was made a
minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto
me by the effectual working of his power, and here's our text,
unto me. Unto me. who am less than the
least of all saints. It's this grace given that I
might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
And the first thing that strikes me about this verse of Scripture
is the humility of Paul. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all the saints, is this grace given." Now, this was not
mock humility on Paul's part. It wasn't him saying what he
knew he should say. He really believed this about
himself. He believed himself to be less than the least of
all the saints. Now, if there is anything that
is appropriate for any believer, it's humility. What is humility? It's a just estimate of yourself. You can have self-confidence
or confidence that you can do something and still have true
humility. Because the confidence that you
can do something, you know where that came from. It came from
the Lord. It's not about you. It's about Him. Now, in this
thing of humility, every believer has much reason for humility. Number one, because of how sinful
you still are. Now, I realize that religious
people don't talk this way, but that's the way the Bible speaks.
When Paul spoke of himself, he said, O wretched man, that I
am, not that I used to be, but that I am right now. Who shall
deliver me from this body of death? What I hate, I do. What I want to do, I don't do. Read Romans chapter 7, and he's
giving the healthy believer's testimony, spiritually healthy. They see themselves as the chief
of sinners, and somebody says, well, that was Paul before he
was saved. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. This is every
believer's experience. We have every reason for humility
because of how sinful we still are. That's just the truth. And we have reason for humility. Let me make a comment before
I go on. Every believer has two separate
natures. They have the nature they were
born with, and they have the nature they were born again with,
the new nature, the holy nature. They have a nature that's nothing
but sin, and a nature that is nothing but holy. And this all
is funneled through one consciousness. And it's the holy nature that
sees the sinfulness of the new nature. I think it's interesting
with, I've said that wrong, it's the holy nature that sees the
sinfulness of the old nature. The only people who see themselves
as truly sinful are holy people. Somebody with a nothing but one
nature can't really see that. They have a high opinion of themselves. When Paul was first saved, he
said, I'm less than the least. I'm the least of the apostles.
I'm the worst one of the bunch. And then in the middle of his
life, he said, I'm less than the least of all the saints.
And then shortly before his death, he said, Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners of whom I am. Not I was, but I am
the chief. I'm the worst man to ever live.
That was Paul's testimony. Now, in order to understand anything
about the unsearchable riches of Christ, you've got to take
Paul's place as less than the least, the chief of sinners.
Now, that's where he was coming from. He said, unto me who am
less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should
preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable. riches of Christ. Now, I am guaranteed failure
in trying to talk about the unsearchable riches of Christ, because whatever
I say will not be good enough. I know that ahead of time. But
I want us to think of the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. Colossians chapter 2 verse 9
says, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
in a body. Now, all the fullness of the
Godhead, yes, God has great riches. Everything belongs to Him, and
He's got the power to create where He could have more riches
if that's what He wanted. He is God. In the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ, there was a time when He didn't have a
body. Some 2,000 years ago, He became incarnate. He's the Eternal
Son, and 2,000 years ago, He took upon a body so He could
save His people from their sins. They were human. He became human. But I want you to think of the
unsearchable riches of this One who has all the fullness of the
Godhead dwelling in His body. He's got all the fullness of
creation. The world was made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. He has fullness of omnipotence
and power. He has the power to do whatsoever
He's pleased to do. In Him dwells all the fullness
of sovereignty. That means He controls everybody
and everything and every event. He is the first cause behind
Everything. I know somebody's going to say,
you say he's the cause of sin. I'm saying he's in control of
everything. He said, I form the light. I
create darkness. I make peace. I create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Isaiah 45, verse 7. He has fullness
of immutability. He never changes. He can't be
added to. He can't be diminished. He has
fullness of independence. He has no needs. He doesn't need
you, you need Him. He doesn't need me, I need Him,
but He's utterly independent. He has no needs because of who
He is. He has fullness of eternality.
He never began to be. Oh, I love to think of the glory
of this glorious person. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, and you are complete in Him. Now,
this thing of being in Him, Of Him are you in Christ Jesus. Now, all of God's salvation,
all of God's pleasure, all of God's love, all of God's grace
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way you will have
God's love, the only way you will have God's favor, the only
way you will have all of God's riches, God is your Father, is
as you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, somebody says, well,
what in the world does that mean? I have a hard time fathoming
that. I have a hard time getting hold
of it. Well, I do too, but it's what the Bible teaches. Now,
David said in 2 Samuel 23, 5, just before he died, he said,
although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me
an everlasting covenant. ordered in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire. Now, before time began, there
was a group in the Lord Jesus Christ, a vast number, not all
of humanity, but all of God's elect. according as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world. Now, election is
not God arbitrarily choosing some to be saved and choosing
others to be damned. All of the elect have mysteriously,
gloriously always been in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, behold,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. Before I formed thee in
the belly, I knew thee. And this covenant that God made
with David is because Christ, in this covenant, agreed to take
full responsibility for David's salvation and everybody else
that was in him. That's what David meant when
he said, although my house be not so with God, yet hath he
made with me an everlasting covenant before the foundation of the
world. It's ordered in all things. And it's sure. Now you think
of the unsearchable riches of being in this covenant that the
Father made with the Son to save a people. That's what he was
speaking of when he says, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. I think of Romans 8, beginning
in verse 28, and we know, and listen to the riches of this,
the unsearchable riches of Christ, and we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are thee
called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, for
love, love beforehand. Then he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son. Oh, what riches there
are in predestination, being predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestinated,
then he also called. What a blessing to be called
of God. Oh, call me is my response. And whom He called, then He also
justified. What a blessing to be justified
before God, to have no guilt. Whom He justified, then He also
glorified. How secure is the believer? He's
already glorified. Because Christ is already glorified,
and I'm in Him. 1 John 4, 17 says, As He is,
so are we in this world. What riches! Whatever riches
Christ has before His Father, every believer has. We're called
joint heirs with Christ. Oh, the riches of having His
righteousness. Have you ever understood Oh,
I hope the Lord causes me and you to understand this. Have
you ever understood that there's only one righteousness? David
said in Psalm 71, 16, I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only, and his righteousness, oh, the riches of his righteousness,
his perfect obedience before God is the personal righteousness
of every child of God. Just as my sin became his so
that he became guilty of it, his righteousness becomes mine
so that I am justified before God. To him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Even as David describeth the
blessedness of the man unto whom the Lord imputes righteousness
without work, saying, Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven.
Blessed is he whose iniquity is covered. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. What treasure, what unsearchable,
indescribable riches there is in having his righteousness.
I want you to think about the unsearchable riches of his sin-atoning
death. There is a scripture in Romans
8, verse 34, who is he that condemneth? Paul's saying, bring it on. Who can condemn me? Well, I've
broken God's law. My conscience condemns me. The
devil has plenty of things that he can bring before God that
I'm guilty of. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. Yet Paul says, who is he that condemneth? One answer,
it's Christ that died. You see, if I died for you, it
wouldn't be any good, but it's Christ that died. And if Christ
died for you, you can't be anything but saved. Oh, the riches of
his precious blood. What about the riches of His
resurrection? He was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. When He was raised, all of the
elect were raised with Him and perfectly justified before God. My justification took place not
when I believed, but when Christ was raised from the dead. And
He gives me grace to believe that. Oh, the riches of His resurrection. Oh, Paul said that I might know
the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings.
And I think of the riches of His intercession, to have Christ
representing me, praying for me. This is infinitely above
anything this world has to provide. He said, Peter, Satan has desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I've prayed
for you. that your faith fail not." Now,
Peter failed, and he had to. It was all a part of God's purpose
for Peter's good and God's glory. And Peter's going to be learned
through that fall that the only righteousness he has is the righteousness
of Christ. But Peter's faith didn't fail.
He never ceased to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.
First John 2.1, these things write unto you, that you sin
not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. What riches are in his intercession. I think of the riches of his
return. John says, beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he shall appear, we'll be like him. for we shall see him as he is."
Oh, the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, and they are for
all who simply believe the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper praying God
will be pleased to make himself known to you. To request a copy of the sermon
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