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 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 Paul's doxology to the great
book of Romans, he says in Romans chapter 6 verse 15, now to him
that is a power to establish you according to my gospel. Question, when Does THE gospel
become MY gospel? Notice Paul's use of the personal
pronoun MY. He speaks of MY gospel. He said
in Romans 2.16, God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ
according to MY gospel. When does the gospel become my
gospel? Now, the gospel is an objective
message with a definite content. It is what it is whether I believe
it or not. It is what it is whether I'm
saved by it or not. It's not subject to man's thoughts,
man's opinions, man's ideas or man's definitions. It is what
it is. Paul put it this way in the book
of Galatians, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which
was preached of me was not after man. It was not derived from
any human source. He said, I neither received it
of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Now the gospel can only be known
by revelation. You and I can't figure this thing
out. We're totally dependent upon God to make it known. Now, when is the gospel my gospel? That's something we should all
be interested in. Now let me make some statements
that the Bible makes regarding the gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. And the gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was
buried and raised again the third day according to the scriptures.
Now, I don't know how many times I've heard preachers say the
gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. No,
it's not. It's how that. Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, and he's speaking of the Old
Testament Scriptures. For instance, the Passover lamb. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Not when you see the blood, not
when I see your faith, not when I see your sincerity, not when
I see your church attendance. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you." Now that's how Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. It's a definite message that
excludes anything that is contrary to it. Let me read you this passage
of Scripture from Galatians chapter 1 beginning in verse 6. Paul
said, I marvel that you're so soon removed. from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is
not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ." Now listen to Paul's words. But though we,
or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we've preached unto you, let him be accursed." That
means let him be damned, let him be sent to hell. And just in case you didn't hear
me, Paul says in verse 9, as we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
which you've received, let him be accursed. Now was Paul being
harsh, unloving and overly dogmatic when he used that kind of language?
No, the opposite is actually true. Now understand this about
the gospel Peter said in Acts 15.7, he spoke of the word of
the gospel. Certain words are used. And if those words are purposely
omitted, the gospel is not preached. Words like election and predestination,
justification, calling, redemption, sanctification, all these words
of the scripture that reveal various aspects of the gospel.
And for the gospel, the gospel to be preached, the word must
be preached. Paul said to Timothy, preach
the word. The gospel is called the gospel
of God. Not only the gospel according
to the scriptures, but the gospel of God. I love that title of
the gospel, the gospel of which he is the author. He is the subject
and He is the end, for of Him and through Him and to Him are
all things to whom be glory both now and forever. I love what
Paul called it in 1 Timothy 1, verse 11, the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, literally the gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. You know the gospel is about
God's glory. He saves to the praise of the glory of His grace,
according to Ephesians 1.6. That's why He saved me, to glorify
His grace. And I know that when I stand
in heaven, I will be an example of just how much of salvation
is by grace, and how He gets all the glory in my salvation,
because it's obvious that none could go to me. That's the way
every believer feels about their salvation. All the glory goes
to God. And the gospel is called the
gospel of Christ. The gospel of Christ. Mark calls
it the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul calls it
the gospel concerning his son. Christ himself is the gospel. The gospel is a person. It's
not a set of doctrines. It's a person, and all truth
emanates from him. He is the gospel. You remember
when Simeon said, Now let us thou, thy servant, depart in
peace, when he was holding the child Jesus in his arms, where
he says, Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. The gospel concerning
Jesus Christ our Lord. It's about who He is. It's about
what He did. It's about where He is right
now. And it's about His return. The gospel concerning Christ. And many times the gospel is
called the gospel of the kingdom. The emphasis being the king of
the kingdom. The king of kings. and the Lord
of Lords. That's who He is. He's the King
of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. That
means He has absolute control of everything. The kingdoms of
the world are Christ's. Everything belongs to Him. He's
the King of the universe, and His will is always done. He's in control of everything
and everybody. And that's good news to you if
you're a believer. The gospel of the kingdom. It is called
in Acts 20, verse 24, the gospel of the grace of God. And oh, how thankful I am for
the word grace. I want us to look at the first
time that word is used in the scriptures. It's found in Genesis
6. First, I'd like to read verse
5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that's a grim representation,
but true. Every imagination of the thoughts
of man's heart. He's not even talking about the
things we do right now. He's talking about what goes on in
the heart. Every imagination. the thoughts of his heart was
only evil nonstop. Now let me ask you a question.
Was Noah included in that group? Most people would say that was
true of everybody but Noah. But Noah was a good person. Noah
was an obedient person. Noah was a righteous person.
He wasn't included in that group, and that's why God saved him
and put him in the ark, because he was better than these people
described in verse five. Is that true? No, it's not true
at all. Noah was in this group described
whose imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Verse eight, but Noah found grace. in the eyes of the Lord. Now
people like to describe grace as unmerited favor, and I suppose
that's okay, but actually it's demerited favor. What if you
killed my child and I had mercy on you and grace for you? That
would be demerited favor. If I just gave you something
in your need, that would be unmerited favor, but if you did something
horrible to me and I did something for you anyway. That is grace. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And here's what this grace did
for Noah. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man
and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. God
said concerning Noah, thee have I seen as righteous before me.
Now this is what grace does. Grace takes somebody sinful like
me. and makes me perfect, makes me
sinless, makes me righteous through the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, Noah was elected by
God before time began. Christ kept the law for him.
Christ died for his sins. Christ was raised for his justification.
Noah was saved the same way every believer is saved, by the grace
of God. How we love the gospel of his
grace. And then in Galatians 2.14, we
read of the truth of the gospel. I'm going to get to when is the
gospel my gospel in a moment, but we read of the truth of the
gospel. And very interesting, Paul publicly
rebuked Peter. and we read in Galatians 2.14
that he did this so the truth of the gospel would remain. It
was in danger of leaving. Now what took place? You can
read the account in Galatians chapter 2, but Peter was at the
church at Antioch, and he was fellowshipping with the Gentiles,
eating with the Gentiles, And all of a sudden some people from
the church in Jerusalem came who were Jewish. And Peter saw
them. Scripture says he feared them
who were of the circumcision. He was afraid of what they would
think of him eating with the Gentiles. So he got up from the
table he was sitting at and walked over to the table where the Jewish
brethren were and sat down with them. Didn't say a word. Didn't
say a word. All he did was get up from one
table and sit down at another, and Paul publicly rebuked him
at that time, pretty much calling him a hypocrite for doing that.
Now, what was the issue? Peter was saying that you could
be a little bit more pleasing to God sitting at the table of
the Jews than you could be with the Gentiles. And what he was
doing was denying that Christ is all in salvation. Did he mean
to do that? No, I don't think he did, but
he did. He denied that Christ is all in salvation. He said
that you could be more pleasing by practicing the Jewish customs
than being just a regular Gentile believer, and Paul said that
was a denial of the truth of the gospel. The truth of the
gospel is that Jesus Christ is all in salvation, all that God
requires of me, he looks to his Son for. His Son is everything
in my salvation. That is the truth of the gospel. And then we read in Ephesians
6.19 of the mysteries of the gospel. I love the mysteries
of the gospel. Those are things we would have
never known had not God pleased to make them known. Now there's
some things about God that you can know without revelation.
You can use common sense and know that God created the world.
You know that somebody had to make all this and nobody made
him. Everybody is born with that knowledge and that understanding.
We can know that God created the world just by common sense,
but you can't know if God will forgive sin. You can't know if
God has grace. You can't know that God is holy.
You can't know that God is just apart from revelation. And that's
what the mysteries of the gospel are. They're mysteries we would
have never known had not God been pleased to make them known.
He said to his disciples, it's given to you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom. And oh, what mysteries! That
God was manifest in the flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. God became flesh. When he speaks
of marriage in Ephesians chapter 5, when he ends it up, he says,
I speak a great mystery. When I'm talking about marriage,
but I'm speaking concerning Christ in the church. When he talks
about the two being made one flesh, he's talking about the
eternal union between Christ and the believer. This is a great
mystery. The mystery of Christ in you,
the hope of glory, the mystery of the resurrection. Behold,
I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we'll
all be changed. The scriptures are filled with
the mysteries of the gospel. And then we read in Ephesians
chapter 6 verse 15 of the gospel of peace, the gospel of peace. I love that name of the gospel. I have peace with God because
Christ made my peace with God. Colossians 1 20 says, having
made peace through the blood of his cross. Because of what
Christ did, God's at peace with me. He doesn't have anything
to be mad at. My sin has all been washed away. And seeing how Christ made my
peace with God, and it's a done deal, it's an accomplished fact,
I have peace. Now, my peace is not because,
oh, I have peace because I'm really good today. No, my peace
is because of the blood of the cross. My peace is because of
the justifying work of Christ where he bore my sins and justified
me before God. Oh, the peace of the gospel. Great peace have they that love
thy law. The peace of God that passes
understanding, the joy and peace of believing. He is our peace. Now, I have peace, all is well.
because I know that Christ made my peace with God. And then we
read in Colossians 1.23 of the hope of the gospel, the hope
of the gospel. Now hope, I like what Paul said
in Romans 8, he said in verse 24, hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for it? I have a hope, I can't see it,
but I have a hope that I'm justified before God. I have a hope that
I'm sinless before God. Can I see it by observation,
by looking at my conduct? No. I sin all the time. You do
too. But I still have a hope that
I'm sinless before God. I have a hope that on judgment
day, he's going to say to me, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. I have a hope that I really am
righteous before God, holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight because of what Christ did for me. I have a hope
that everything between now and judgment day is going to work
together for my good, not separately, but together, because Paul said,
and we know that all things work together for good, to them that
love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. It's
the gospel of hope. How do I know I have those things?
Well, faith is the evidence of things not seen. I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's what faith is. I believe
He's God the Son. I'm relying completely on Him,
and faith is the evidence of things not seen. And then in 2 Thessalonians 2,
verse 14, He called you. He called you by our gospel. The gospel is the calling gospel. It calls upon men to believe.
It calls upon men to repent. It calls upon men to call on
the name of the Lord. It calls. The call of the gospel. Now, what happens when God calls,
you respond. Lazarus, come forth. There's
the call of God. Lazarus, come forth. He that
was dead came forth. If somebody doesn't respond,
God never called him because everybody that God calls comes
forth in life. And then we read in Philippians
chapter 4 verse 15 of the beginning of the gospel. The beginning
of the gospel. Now this is talking about the
beginning in our experience. in our experience, the gospel
had a beginning. There was a time when I didn't
know the Lord, and now I do. There's a time in my experience
when I was not saved, now I am. There is a beginning of the gospel. Now, The gospel in itself had
no beginning. It's eternal. It's called in
Revelation 14, 6, the everlasting gospel. It never had a beginning.
It'll never have an end. It's as old as its author, God.
Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
But in our experience, there is a beginning. Now listen to
this scripture. In Romans 10, verse 1. Paul said, Brethren,
my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Now, there are two things that
pop out at us in that statement. One, they were not saved. In their experience, they were
not saved. And number two, Paul desired
that they would be saved. And listen to his next statement.
I bear them record. This is verse 2, Romans 10, 2.
I bear them record. They have a zeal for God. They're
very religious. very religious, very zealous
about their religion. They have a zeal for God. He's not denying their zealous
religion, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness. And here's what everybody does
who's ignorant of God's righteousness. going about to establish their
own righteousness. Now, if you have any knowledge
of God's righteousness, you'll see your own sinfulness and how
you could never present a righteousness or work out a righteousness that
He would accept. You would understand, as Isaiah
said, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. You'd believe
that, and you wouldn't try to work out a righteousness to present
to God. They, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,
His righteousness in their condemnation, but not only that, His righteousness
in their salvation, how He makes a way to be just and justify
the ungodly in a way of righteousness. And he goes on to say, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now
here is when I'm saved in my experience. I'm saved in my experience
when I look to Christ as the end of my righteousness before
God, where He is the only righteousness I have. Faith is trusting Christ
as your personal righteousness before God. Now, we read in Ephesians
chapter 1, verse 12 of the gospel of your salvation. the gospel
of your salvation. And here's what happens when
God saves you. You find out He saved you. You know, I hear people
quite often use terminology like, I got saved, or you need to get
saved. I got a cold. I got a disease. I got cancer. You know, that's
the wrong kind of terminology. It's like you didn't get saved.
If you're saved, you find out the Lord saved you. And you find
out when it happened. Now listen real carefully to
these three times of salvation. I find out I was saved before
the foundation of the world. 2 Timothy 1.9 says he saved us,
and he called us with a holy calling, which came first, the
saving or the calling. 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. I would say before time began. according to the Scripture. Somebody
says, I don't understand that. Well, you don't so much need
to understand it as believe it. It's what the Bible says. And I was saved when He said,
It is finished. What was finished? The salvation
of all His people. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save his people from their sins. And when he said, it is finished,
mission accomplished. They were in fact saved from
their sins. I was saved when I first heard
the gospel in my experience as gospel. when it became good news
to me that on Calvary's tree he accomplished salvation, and
salvation was accomplished before the foundation of the world.
When that becomes good news to me personally, that is when I'm
saved, when I hear the gospel as gospel. And before that takes
place, I would not believe myself in any way to any degree to be
saved. Now Paul spoke of the afflictions
of the gospel. He said to Timothy, Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Now if somebody
confesses Christ in this world, if they confess what I'm preaching
right now, the world's not going to like it. They're going to
get mad. They're going to disagree. But I'm called upon to deny myself,
take up my cross, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and be
a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. You see, natural
men have no love for what I'm preaching. Now, men love a Jesus
who can't save them unless he lets them. They love a Jesus
that they can put in their back pocket and control him and get
him out when they need him. But the Lord Jesus Christ of
the Bible, men will persecute that one who preaches him. And the scripture says, blessed
are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Theirs is
the kingdom of God. Now, when is the gospel that
I've been describing, the gospel that excludes all other gospels? And that's what it does. The
gospel of God, the gospel of his son, the gospel of the kingdom,
the gospel of the grace of God, the saving grace of God. The
gospel, the truth of the gospel, that Christ is all in salvation. He's all of God. He's all in
the scriptures. He's all in salvation. The mystery
of the gospel, the great glorious truth that God has revealed that
we would have never known had not God revealed it. The gospel
of peace where Christ made my peace before God. The gospel
of hope that I have such hope that I can't see but I believe
because of the truth of the gospel. The gospel of my salvation, the
afflictions of the gospel. When is the gospel my gospel? When I see that this is the gospel
that saves me. This is the only gospel that
saves me. This is the gospel that's suitable
for me, a gospel where God does it all for His glory. and he
saves helpless sinners by his grace. Now that's the gospel
that saves me. The gospel I've described is
the saving gospel. And when you find the gospel
as good news to you, you can call it my gospel. the gospel
that has saved me. It's God's gospel, but it's mine
too. I've experienced the saving power
of God in the gospel of His grace. Thus, the gospel is my gospel. And how we love the gospel to
be our gospel. This is Todd Kniper praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. To request a copy of the sermon
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