Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nivert. 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 Nivert. I'm reading from Ephesians 2,
verses 8 and 9, and there's not a more important declaration
in all the Word of God than these two verses of Scripture. Ephesians
2, verse 8, for by grace are you saved, through faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should
boast." My greatest need is to be saved. You know, people talk about getting
saved. That's not good language. You
don't get saved. If you're saved, the Lord saved
you. you've been saved. And my greatest need, and your
greatest need, is to be saved. Now the first question that may
come to your mind is, saved from what? Well, first of all, I need
to be saved from God. You see, my sin is against Him. David said, against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. My sin
is against him, and he's a just and holy God, and would be totally
righteous and just in casting me into hell, and he's got the
power to do it. Now, I love the verse of Scripture,
if God be for us, who can be against us? Oh, how I love that,
but it's equally true. If God be against you, who can
be for you? I need to be saved from a righteous
and holy God who would be absolutely just in my condemnation. Secondly,
I need to be saved from myself. I am my own greatest enemy. I don't need to be saved from
the devil or from you. I need to be saved from myself.
If the Lord leaves me to myself, that's all he's got to do, is
leave me alone. If the Lord leaves me to myself,
I will destroy myself. I need to be saved from myself. Thirdly, I need to be saved from
my sins. I am a sinner. What's that mean? It means I
was born a sinner. It means I have a sinful nature.
It means all that I do is sin because I do it. It means I cannot
not sin. I can't blame anybody else for
my sin. It's all my fault. I can't look
down my nose at anybody in moral superiority. I am a sinner who
has no claims on God. I need to be saved from my sin.
I need to be saved from the penalty that is due my sin. I need to
be saved from the power my sin has over me. I need to be saved
from the commission of sin. I need to be saved from my sins. And fourthly, I need to be saved in a way that gives God all the
glory. I need to be saved from the circumstances
my sin brings me into. I need for God to do for me what
only He can do, bring good out of evil. I need to be saved from
the circumstances my sin brings me into. Now, the only way I
can be saved is by grace. By grace you are saved. And in the original, it reads
like this, by grace you having been saved. Not by grace you
can save yourself. It's something that you must
have the Lord do for you. Salvation is of the Lord. By grace are you saved. Now, grace is not God's response
to me or you. God's grace is God's response
to Himself. He said, I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious His
grace is sovereign grace. It's no man's by entitlement.
He gives his grace to whom he pleases, and he can justly pass
by anybody he pleases to pass by, but his nature is to be gracious. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. Now, the textbook definition
of grace, when men try to define it, I've heard it called, God's
grace is God's unmerited favor. And indeed, it is unmerited favor,
and it is demerited favor, because we have demerited any rights
to his grace. If you have a right to it, it's
not grace in the first place. Somebody once said, mercy is
God not giving you what you do deserve, and grace is God giving
you what you do not deserve. Now, I do not deserve God's love. Most people think God's love
is a given, but the Scripture says, He loved Jacob and hated
Esau. No man has God's love by entitlement. No man deserves God's love. I don't deserve the love of God.
I don't deserve the forgiveness of sins. I deserve to be cast
into hell. I don't deserve God's grace.
I don't deserve His mercy. I don't deserve to be justified
before God. I do not deserve acceptance. The only way I can have these
things is if He freely gives them to me, who has demerited
everything freely by His grace. Now, here's grace. Ephesians
chapter 2, verses 1 through 3 talked about our deadness in sins, and
then in verse 4, it says, but God. That's grace. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. Everybody
that's saved is saved by grace. Now this word, grace, God's favor
in spite of you, is translated by several different words in
the King James Version of the New Testament. It's translated
acceptable. Only grace can make me or you
acceptable with God. He's made us accepted in the
Beloved. It's translated benefit, and
what a benefit it is for God to bestow His rich grace upon
you. It's translated favor. Mary found
favor. Mary found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. People quite often speak of Mary
as if she wasn't a sinful being. She was just as sinful as me
or you are. But the reason she was saved was because she found
favor, grace, in the eyes of the Lord. It's translated gift. I love this gift, not something
to be earned, not something that I can merit, not something that
I can do to get God to respond to me. It's utterly free, the
free gift of His grace. It's translated joy. God gets joy from giving his
grace to unworthy sinners, and unworthy sinners find joy in
being shown his grace and his mercy. It's translated liberality. Grace is the liberality of God. It's translated pleasure. God
gets pleasure in saving by His grace, and sinners who are saved
by grace find pleasure in being saved by His grace. It's translated,
thank-worthy, and grace is indeed worthy of thanking God for. Now, grace. By grace are you
saved. Grace is who God is. You see,
God makes Himself known in His way of saving sinners by His
grace. He makes Himself known in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Paul said. Though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor, that you, through His poverty, might be
rich. Listen to this scripture, John
1, verse 17, the law was given by Moses. Now we know that Moses
received the law from God, he's the one who inspired it, but
still the inspired writer says in John 1, 17, the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You see,
the law doesn't show forth the whole character of God. It shows
forth His justice and His holiness, but it doesn't show His love,
His mercy, His grace, His kindness, His compassion. Everything God
is is seen in the salvation of the sinner. When He said to Moses,
I am what I am, Tell them that I am a synthy. Several Hebrew
scholars have said that the implication of that statement is, I save
in the manner which I save. Now, God is known by the manner
in which he saves. He's saved by grace. Every aspect
of salvation is by grace. You've got to begin with electing
grace. He chose who would be saved by His grace before the
foundation of the world. His grace is redeeming grace. Because He's gracious, He's made
payment for the sins of everybody that Christ died for, of all
the elect, of all who believe. He has made payment for their
sins and wiped them out. His grace is justifying grace. He makes it to where every sinner
He saves stands just before God without any sin at all, perfectly
righteous. His grace is life-giving grace.
I'm by nature dead in sins. He gives me life. His grace is
preserving grace. He keeps me all the way to the
end. Listen to this scripture in 2
Timothy 1, verse 9. Paul said, He saved us. And He
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which were given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now let's take apart that
verse. It says He saved us. We didn't
save ourselves. We didn't do anything to make
ourselves savable. He saved us. That's everything the Bible teaches. Salvations of the Lord. He saved
us and He called us. Now notice the order. He saved
us before He called us. He saved us and He called us. Now how can that be? Well, listen. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works. God's salvation
is not in response to anything you or I do, not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. You see, everything that grace
is was given through Christ, because of Christ, in Christ,
to everyone who has it before time ever began. Salvation is by grace. By grace are you saved. I love
what Paul said to the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9,
he's telling them what the Lord said to him in response to his
thorn in the flesh, that he asked the Lord to cause it to depart.
The Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee. You're going to have
to be satisfied to be saved by pure, free, sheer grace. My grace is sufficient for thee. You don't need anything else.
I don't need anything else but the grace that's in Christ Jesus. Now, grace, God's unmerited favor,
God giving you what you do not deserve and cannot earn, God's
grace. How can I know if God has given
me grace without it being an act of presumption? How can I
know if he has saved me by his grace? Well, let's go on reading. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Now this is so very important.
The only evidence that you can have that God has shed his grace
upon you and done something for you is through faith. The only evidence of being saved
by grace is faith. Now, somebody says, surely I'm
saved. My life has changed so much.
I've given up my sinful addictions and sinful habits, and I've started
attending church regularly, and I'm being a better spouse, a
better parent. I'm just doing better. Surely
God has saved me. Now, if you conclude something
like that, you've missed the gospel. You don't understand
the gospel. A works-based evidence, a works-based
assurance is a false assurance. The scripture will never support
anything like that. By grace through faith. Okay, what's faith? Well, somebody
says, well, faith is believing. Okay, go on, faith is believing.
You gotta believe that Christ died for your sins. You've got
to believe that you're saved. You can't let the devil whisper
doubts to you regarding your salvation. You have to believe
that you really are different, that you're better than you used
to be, and that you have more victory over sin. You have to
believe. And let me tell you something.
There's a lot of folks in hell right now who believed all those
things. That is not faith, believing
you're saved. In Acts chapter 16, verses 30
and 31, the Philippian jailer made this request to Paul. Sirs, and Silas, sirs, what must
I do to be saved? Now, he knew he could not save
himself. He knew he needed to be saved. And he asks this question, what
must I do to be saved? Now, what a question. You can
never deal with anything more important. I recently heard a
preacher make this statement to his congregation, and I've
heard this so many times. He said, what must you do to
be saved? You must turn from your sins
and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. That may sound right on the surface,
but it's nothing more than salvation by works, putting something in
between the sinner closing with and relying on Christ. You must
turn from your sins and trust Christ. What if The Philippian
jailer asked Paul, sirs, what must I do to be saved? What if
Paul would have said, well, you've got to turn from your sins and
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He would have been putting something
between the sinner and Christ and faith that he first has to
do. What about when the Lord came to—said He was going to
heal that couple's child who was sick, and she ended up dying? What if the Lord said, turn from
your sins and believe, and she shall be healed? He said nothing
of that nature. He said, believe only. and thy daughter shall
be healed." Now, I realize somebody may think, well, you're making
it okay for people to not turn from their sins. No, I'm not.
I'm simply preaching the gospel. The only evidence that God has
given you grace is that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You
trust Him only as everything in your salvation. You're not
looking to yourself. You're not looking to your experience.
You're not looking to your past. You're not looking to what you're
going to do in the future. You look to Christ only right
now as your only and complete grounds of acceptance before
God. Now, if you find assurance of
salvation by how you're living, you've missed Christ. The only
evidence that demonstrates that God has given me grace is if
I look to Christ only. Paul put it this way in 2 Timothy
1 12, I know whom I have believed. Notice he didn't say I know what
I believed. He says I know whom I have believed. You see what
you believe is going to be determined by who you believe. I know whom
I have believed And I am persuaded, I am convinced that He is able
to keep that which I've committed to Him. What have you committed
to Him, Paul? The entire salvation of my soul. I'm resting in Him when He said
it is finished. My salvation was finished. I'm
totally dependent upon, I'm totally relying on who He is and what
He did as everything in my salvation. And I'm looking nowhere else.
I'm not looking to my works. I'm not looking to my evidences,
my experience. I'm looking to Christ only. Christ and is not faith. Faith is in Christ only. And until you make that commitment,
you've never really believed Him. Now, the commitment is resting
the entire salvation of your soul in His hands. Now, the evidence that God has
given you grace is if all you have is Christ. Somebody once
said to a preacher, if all you have is Christ, is that enough?
And he replied, it is if he's all you've got. Now that's faith
in Christ, faith in Christ only. You rely on him only. But notice Paul doesn't end here. I don't know how many times I've
heard people say, well, I believe in grace, salvation by grace
through faith. That's what we believe. Any denomination
will admit that that's what we believe, salvation by grace through
faith. And I've heard that I don't know how many times. I believe
in salvation by grace through faith. But look what Paul says.
He says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourselves. That faith did not come from
you. It did not come as an act of
your will deciding to receive God's offer of grace. Now, what
most people mean by grace through faith, they mean, well, God offers
grace, and you have to, by faith, accept it, or you won't be saved.
Now, God never offers grace. God saves by grace. He doesn't
put grace out there as an offer, and it's up to you to accept
it or reject it. It's not the grace of God. God's
grace saves. By grace are you saved. Through faith, there's no salvation
apart from believing the gospel. through faith, and that, that
faith, it's not of yourselves. It didn't come because you decided
to accept it. It's the gift of God. Now, every aspect of salvation is
the gift of God, and so is faith. Faith didn't come from a decision
you made. Faith didn't come from you walking
down the aisle and getting in front of everybody and confessing
Christ. Faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. Now, if you have faith, he gave
it to you. And if you have faith, you know
it is his gift. I didn't decide to believe, I
found myself believing. That's the experience of every
believer. I didn't decide to believe, I
found myself believing. The gift of God's grace, faith,
given me by the grace of God. It's a supernatural gift. It's
a part of the great salvation that is all of grace. Now, election is by grace. It's called the election of grace.
Redemption is by grace. Regeneration is by grace. Faith is by grace. In the saving
gift of God given to the elect, it's a work of grace. That faith,
it's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We have no grounds of boasting. As a matter of fact, in verse
10, we're going to consider this next week. But in verse 10, it
says, we are His workmanship. This is not a cooperative effort.
We're His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Every aspect of salvation is by grace. It is not of works
in any way to any degree. If you put a work anywhere that
makes salvation in some way dependent upon what you do, you make it
all of works. Now, I'd like to read a passage
of Scripture from 1 Corinthians 1. Beginning in verse 26, not
of works, remember, not of works, lest any man should boast. God's
not gonna have anybody boasting before Him. Look in 1 Corinthians
1, verse 26, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, the academics, not many mighty,
powerful people, not many noble, high-born are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world, and remember, he's talking about
people, to confound the things which are mighty, and the base
things of the world, and the things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and the things which are not which are nothing,
that have nothing to bring to the table, to bring to naught
the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence."
What's it mean to glory? It means to take credit for something,
when no credit really is due. If you believe in free will,
you're taking credit for something. But look what he goes on to say,
But of him are you in Christ Jesus. The reason you're in there,
if you are, is because he put you in there, who of God is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. not of works, lest any man should
boast or glory." Now, 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 Kniver praying that God will be pleased to make Himself
known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.