Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. 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. Our subject for this morning
is what does it mean to preach Christ. Let me read this passage
of Scripture from Acts chapter 5, beginning in verse 40. It
says, And to him they agreed. Speaking of Gamaliel, you'll
remember that he said, If this work is of man, it'll come to
nothing. If it's of God, you can't stop
it. They had been trying to stop
the apostles from preaching the gospel. And they agreed with
Gamaliel, and when they called the apostles and beaten them,
they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus
and let them go. And they departed from the presence
of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. You see, when the Gospels preached,
there will be people who don't like what they're hearing. And
they were persecuting the apostles. And what did the apostles do?
They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for His name. Now, the gospel, the true gospel,
is offensive to the natural man. It's interesting how preachers
try to keep from offending people. Paul was afraid of not offending
people. He spoke of the offense of the
gospel. Now, let's go on reading. Verse
42, and daily, in the temple and in every house, they ceased
not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. This was their daily
work to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. It was the same message
in public, in the temple, and in private, from house to house.
It's something that they would not stop doing. They cease not
to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Now, what does it mean
to preach and to teach Jesus Christ. Now, somebody says, what's
the difference between teaching and preaching? They cease not
to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Well, you can't preach
without teaching. You can teach without preaching,
but you can't preach without teaching. But the preaching of
the gospel is God's chosen means of calling out His people, His
elect. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. In true preaching, you
always have the power of the Spirit of God empowering the
message. It's not just stating facts. True preaching is in the power
of God the Holy Spirit causing the gospel to be heard in power. And if you receive the message,
it's because of the power of the Spirit of God. You won't
receive it. I won't receive it unless God the Holy Spirit gives
us a heart to receive it. So preaching is a supernatural
thing. Christ Jesus Himself said He was anointed to preach the
gospel to the poor. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believed. Now, they ceased not
to teach and to preach Jesus Christ, and they had been commanded
to not preach in His name. Now, in true preaching, I'm preaching
in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm preaching in His authority.
If I come in my own name and I say, believe this because I
say to believe it, that has no authority. Nobody's going to
listen to this. But if I come in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, believe and be saved, don't believe and
be damned. That's what true preaching is.
It's not offering. It's not putting something up
for your acceptance or rejection. It's the declaration of the truth
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I remember one time
I heard a man say, I don't want to hear anything about doctrine,
I just want to hear about Jesus. Now, a statement like that is
actually very foolish. You can't say anything with regard
to the Lord Jesus Christ without speaking His doctrine. We read
in the Scripture of the doctrine of Christ. So the preaching and
teaching of Jesus Christ is the authoritative because it's from
the Word of God, because it's in the name of Christ, because
God the Holy Spirit blesses, it's the preaching of His person. Now, in order to teach and to
preach Jesus Christ, first thing man's going to have to do is
tell who He is. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ,
It's not like God. He's not like God at all. He
is God. He is the Creator of the universe. The reason you're breathing right
now is because of His will. All that God is, He is because
He's God. He said, He that has seen me
has seen the Father. Colossians 2, 9 says, In Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, omnipotence, omniscience,
omnipresence, everything that God is, immutable, immense, independent,
Eternal, everything that God is, holy, just, righteous, merciful,
absolutely sovereign, everything that God is, he is because he
is God. He said to his disciples, you
believe in God, believe also in me. Everything you believe
regarding God, believe regarding me because I am God. He is the
great I am that I am. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, a distinct person, and the Word was God. He is the Eternal I Am. I love His name, Jesus. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He's the Savior. Jesus is the Greek translation
of the Old Testament name, Joshua. If you'll remember, Moses could
not bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Joshua
did. The law can't bring me into heaven. Only Joshua Jesus, the Lord Jesus
Christ can. He's Jesus. He's Christ. That
has to do with his offices. He's God's prophet. He brings
the Word of God. He is the Word of God. He's all
God has to say. He's the speech of God. He's
God's priest. A priest brings men to God, and
he brings men to God. He brings all of his people to
God and causes them to be accepted because of his sacrifice. He's
God's King. He's Lord of Lords and He's King
of Kings. This is who He is and He's your
Lord. Now I can say this with complete
confidence, whether you know He's your Lord or not, He is
your Lord. You might not know it, but that
doesn't take away the fact He is your Lord. You're in His hands.
He's not in your hands, you're in His hands. And He can do with
you whatsoever He's pleased to do. Romans chapter 14, verse
9 says, For to this end Christ both died and revived, that He
might be Lord. both of the dead and the living. Those who are dead in sins, He's
their Lord. They're in His hands, and He
can do with them whatever He's pleased to do. Those who are
living, oh, He's their Lord, and they love having Him as Lord. To preach Jesus Christ, I must
preach who He is. He's God, and He's man. He's the God-man. He was spent
nine months in his mother's womb, just like you and I did. He is
man, a human being. He's the perfect man. He's the
man who never sinned. He's the man who worked out a
perfect righteousness, the only holy man to ever live. The God-man
is who He is, Jesus Christ. And in order to preach Christ,
I have to tell who He is. He is the God-man. Now, secondly,
to preach and teach Jesus Christ is to tell what He came to do.
First, it's to tell who He is. He's God. He's man, the God-man. But it's to tell what He came
to do. Now, I can't preach Jesus Christ
if I don't clearly identify why He came. Now, in just about every
organization, you have what's called a mission statement. You
go into a doctor's office, generally they'll have their mission statement.
listed. You go into a restaurant or any
kind of corporation, they'll have a mission statement about
what they want to take place. This is their goal. Now, preachers
fail here in not giving his mission statement because he gave a definite
mission statement. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. That's His mission. He came to
save sinners. Not good people, not righteous
people. He came to save sinners. sinners. He didn't come to make salvation
possible. He didn't come to make salvation an offer. It's up to
you to accept or reject. He came to save sinners, and
that's exactly what He did. The very opening chapter of the
New Testament says, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. That's His mission. The Son of
Man, he said in Luke chapter 19, verse 10, the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's why
He came. Now, most people, most preachers,
say He came to make salvation available. He came to die on
the cross to make all men savable. He paid for everybody's sins,
but it's up to you as to whether or not you'll accept or reject
Him. Now, if that is my message, I don't have any idea why He
came. I'm not really preaching Christ, because if I preach Jesus
Christ, I'm gonna tell why He came. He came to save His people
from their sins, and my dear friend, that's exactly what He
did. In John chapter 17, that great high priestly prayer for
his people right before he died, he said, I've glorified, in John
17, verse 4, he said, I've glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work thou gavest me to do. Mission accomplished. You think of his sixth saying
from the cross. It is finished. Mission accomplished. What He
came to do, He did. He completely saved all of His
people from their sins. Oh, thank God for His mission
statement and the accomplishment of it. Now, thirdly, to preach
Christ, first of all, is to preach who He is. He's the God-man. It's to tell why he came. It's to give his mission statement.
And there's so many scriptures that deal with that, what he
came to do. And the next thing that must be said in preaching
Jesus Christ is to preach the success and the solitariness
of his work. Now, both of those words are
important. The success, you know what that means. means whatever
it was he set out to do, he did. He accomplished. It was successful.
He did not fail. And the solitariness, that means
what he did, he did by himself. He had no help. He had no aid. There wasn't anything that you
or I do that makes what he did successful. He did what he did
by himself. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 says,
when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the
right hand of the majesty on high. It would have been wonderful
if it said he purged our sins, but this is much more explicit,
when he had by himself purged our sins. Now, when Christ created
the universe, and the Scriptures do say all things were made by
Him and for Him. The Scriptures do say that. He's
the Creator. When Christ created the universe, He didn't consult
with you. He didn't consult with me. We
weren't around. When He created the universe,
He had no help. He did it by himself, didn't
he? Simply as an act of his own omnipotent,
sovereign will, he spaked the universe into existence. And
he did it by himself. There was no creature to aid
him in this glorious work. And just like that, in salvation,
everything in salvation he did by himself. You didn't do anything
to make it work. Now I realize that most of the
preaching that goes on in our day makes something you do activate
what He did. And if you don't do it, what
He did for you won't do you any good. Now, my dear friends, that
kind of thinking is just another form of salvation by works. It
puts salvation ultimately dependent upon what you do. And if that
is what you believe, you believe in salvation by works. You don't
believe in salvation by grace at all, but works. But thank
God, that's not what took place. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He completely saved everybody. He died for. Colossians chapter 2 verse 10
says you are complete in Him. There's nothing you need to do
to complete yourself. In Christ Jesus, you are complete. Nothing lacking. Nothing you
need to do to make what He did work. You are complete. You're plumb saved. You're complete
in Him. Now, to preach Jesus Christ is
to preach Him as the only object of faith. Now, what do I mean
by that? Most people, when they think
about faith, here's what they think about. They think, well,
I'm saved. I have faith. You believe you're saved. Now,
that really doesn't have anything to do with faith. Faith has nothing
to do with what you think about yourself. It doesn't have anything
to do with what you think about somebody else. Faith has wholly
to do with what you think concerning Him. Now, would to God that you
and I could forget ourselves for just a second. When the Ethiopian
eunuch asked, What hinders me from being baptized? He was being
very sincere in that question. Is there something I need to
do first? Is there some more amount of
knowledge I need to have? Do I have to have a better experience? Does my life need to be examined
to see whether I'm really sincere and see if this thing is going
to work and if I'm going to continue? What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip answered, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. Now, what does it mean to believe
with the heart? Is it some kind of indefinable
ooey-gooey feeling that you have when you believe, and if you
don't have that feeling, it's not really heart faith? When
the Bible speaks of the heart, It's talking about the whole
man. It's talking about the understanding, the affections, and the will.
That's the heart, the whole man. With the heart, Paul said in
Romans 10, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now,
that's a good example of what it means to believe With the
heart, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. That means
I understand that the only righteousness I have is the righteousness of
Jesus Christ himself. That's my personal righteousness.
That's my only grounds of acceptance. Not only do I understand that
as best I can, I love it. I love being saved by his righteousness.
Not only do I love it, if I'm given my choice, would you rather
be saved by your righteousness or his? My choice is his. with
the heart man believeth." If you believe with all your heart,
you may. And listen to his answer, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He didn't say, I believe
I'm saved, or I have assurance of my salvation. He didn't say,
I know for sure that Christ died for my sins. He didn't say, I
know I'm one of the elect, or I've been born again. What his
faith had to do with was holy in the person of Jesus Christ.
I believe that this man, Jesus Christ, is the eternal Son of
God, the second person of the Trinity. You see, what you believe
will be determined by who you believe. If you believe Him,
you're gonna believe all this doctrine, you're gonna know how,
you're gonna understand the salvations of the Lord, but the main point
is, faith is not what you believe about yourself. I don't know
how many times I've heard people say to me, well, I know I'm saved.
Well, you may be, you may not be. Just because you say that
doesn't mean you are. And I've had people say, well, do you
think I'm saved? Well, what difference does it
make what I think? Whether I think you are doesn't mean you are.
If I think you're not, that doesn't mean you're not. The question is, what do
you think of Christ? What think ye of Christ, whose
Son is He? John chapter 6, verse 29, this
is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. Now, to preach Jesus Christ is
to preach Him as the only object of faith. To preach Jesus Christ
is to preach His saving grace. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Paul said. In Acts chapter 15, verse 11,
we're given the true Apostles' Creed. You've all heard, maybe
you've quoted the Apostles' Creed. Here's the one that comes from
the Scriptures. Peter said, we believe that we shall be saved
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. even as they." We believe
His saving grace. Now, to preach Jesus Christ is
to preach His saving grace. Now, in the context, when Peter
made that statement, we believe that by the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they, he was talking
about those Gentiles. He said, us Jews are going to
be saved the same way those Gentiles were saved, by the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, His saving grace. Now, let me remind you,
grace is not God's offer to you. Grace is God's action by which
He saves. By grace ye are saved. The electing grace of God where
He chose who would be saved. The redeeming grace of God where
He actually made the payment. The justifying grace of God where
He actually makes righteous. The regenerating grace of God
where He causes spiritual birth and new birth through the preaching
of the Word. The preserving grace of Jesus Christ that causes us
to persevere all the way to the end. The saving grace of God. Now you can't preach Jesus Christ
and not preach His saving grace. And to preach Jesus Christ is
to preach Him as the only mediator between God and men. First Timothy
2.5, there's one God and one Mediator between God and men,
the man in Christ Jesus. He is the only Mediator, not
Mary, not saints, not your mother. He's the only Mediator, and He's
the Mediator that excludes all other ways. He said, I am the
way. Not a way, the way, the only
way, the way that excludes all other ways. No man comes to the
Father but by me. Now, what that means is, is the
only way I'm going to get to the Father is if I'm in Him,
and when He comes to the Father, I do too. This is speaking of
the believer's eternal union with Christ. You see, my hope
of being saved and being accepted by the Father is because when
He comes to the Father, He comes with me and brings me in Him. and I come to. Hebrews 7.25 says, Wherefore,
he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now,
do you know how much the uttermost is? It's a word that's pretty
much impossible to define. It's to the fullest, to the most
complete. If I come to God by Him, I can't
get any more loved by God. I can't get any more accepted.
I can't get any more holy. I can't get any more saved. He
is able. Oh, the ability of Jesus Christ. Oh, I love to preach His ability.
He's able to save you. He's able. I don't care who you
are. I don't care how evil you are. I don't care how far off
you are. I don't care how blinded by self-righteousness you've
been. If He's pleased to save you, He's able. He's able to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him. There's no
other way to come to God but by Him. And in teaching and preaching
Jesus Christ, we preach Him as the only mediator between God
and men. And to preach Jesus Christ is
to preach His willingness to save. He said, Him that cometh to me.
I will in no wise cast out." He's willing to save. You can't come to him and ask
for mercy, truly asking for mercy, and find him unwilling to save
you. He said, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I'm meek and lowly in heart and You'll find rest
for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. If any man thirsts, let him come
to me and drink. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. If you come to Christ for mercy,
you'll be received." A leper came to him once, and he said,
Lord, if you will. He wasn't sure about his willingness.
But he knew of His ability. He said, Lord, if You will, You
can make me clean. And the Scripture says, And Jesus
moved with compassion, reached forth His hand, and touched him,
and said, I will be thou clean. You can't preach Jesus Christ
and not preach His willingness to save. A lot of times people
slam sovereign grace. They say, well, if you preach
election, predestination, and Christ only dying for the elect,
that's going to discourage sinners from coming to Christ. No, it
won't. Him that cometh to me, he said, I will in no wise cast
out. And to preach Jesus Christ is
to preach Him as my only subject. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2,
Paul said, I determine not to know anything among you. say,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's all I'm going to preach.
That's it. I want people to, when they come
to hear me preach, they say, well, he's got the same message
every time. That's right. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He's the sum and substance of
all gospel preaching. And to preach any other subject
is to not preach the gospel. Whenever I'm preaching in Old
Testament, New Testament, Stories, doctrine, whatever, I'm to preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You only preach Christ when He
has all that's preached. Now, most preachers don't really
believe this. They think other things are needed
to motivate people to obedience and to generosity and to love,
and so they'll get out the whip of the law and scare people.
Crack the whip. Make them think, you need to
do this or you're not saved, you need to do that, and they'll
crack the whip trying to scare people. Doesn't work, doesn't
work, doesn't save anybody. Do you actually think that preaching
nothing but Christ would make people less sound, less orthodox,
less obedient, less generous? No, no, not at all. Really, it's
only the preaching of Christ that creates these things. Paul said, I determine not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, you only preach Christ when
He's all you preach. You become a man of one message. The Jews require a sign, the
Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. unto
the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and Christ, the wisdom of God. Have I ever
seen Christ as that one pearl of great price that makes me
get rid of everything else just to have Him?" That's the message
of the apostles. They cease not to teach and preach
Jesus Christ. This is Todd Kniper, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer.