Why did you 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 Nibert. When Paul ended his epistle to
the Galatians, he ended with these unusual words. Galatians
chapter 6, verse 17, from henceforth let no man trouble me, for I
bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I've entitled this message, The
Marks of Christ. Now, this is strong language. Let no man trouble me anymore
by opposing what I have to say with regard to the gospel. Now,
remember, God used Paul more than anyone else to expound his
gospel. Paul was actually taken up into
the third heavens and taught the gospel by Christ Himself. He said at the beginning of this
epistle in Galatians chapter 1, I certify you brethren that
the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. It was not derived from any human
source for I neither received it of man nor Neither was I taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ revealed
the gospel to Paul, so he spake with the authority of Christ.
To question him in his preaching of the gospel was to question
God himself. You know, the Lord said to his
disciples, he that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth
you, despiseth me. Now Paul said, I don't want to
be troubled anymore. They were continually calling
into question whether what he was saying was true. And he said,
from henceforth, let no man trouble me any more, because I have in
my marks, in my body marks, scars, which prove whose servant I am. And he's speaking of the scars
he received for preaching the gospel. You see, everywhere Paul
went, he was persecuted. When he preached, he'd be stoned
afterwards, or he would be beaten with rods, or he would be whipped
with the cat of nine tails and thrown into prison. Everywhere
Paul went, Paul was persecuted for preaching the gospel, and
he had in his body the marks, the scars that he received because
of what he preached and who he preached. In 2 Corinthians 11,
I'm going to read several verses where he describes what he went
through, beginning in verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ,
these men who are questioning me? He says, I speak as a fool. I realize this is foolish, but
I more, I'm more than they are in labors more abundant, in stripes
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews, five times received
I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered
shipwreck. A night and a day have I been
in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen. in perils by the
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness,
in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness
and faithfulness, in watchings often in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often in cold and nakedness." Now that is what I've gone through
for preaching the gospel. He's actually He speaks in 1
Corinthians 15 of having to fight off beasts. Evidently, he was
thrown into a lion's den the way they did Christians during
that first century. He said, I bear in my body the
scars that prove whose servant I am. Now, what is this all about? In Galatians 5, verse 11, he
says, And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, Why do I
yet suffer persecution? Paul did suffer persecution.
And he said, if I preach circumcision, I wouldn't be suffering this
persecution. But because I preach the gospel
and don't preach circumcision, I'm persecuted. Now, if I preached
circumcision, I would be removing the offense of the cross. Now,
Paul preached pure, free grace. He preached that Christ is all
in salvation. And his refusal to preach circumcision,
which represents salvation dependent upon works in some way, his refusal
to preach circumcision brought on persecution. His preaching
of the gospel of grace, the gospel of Christ, brought on the anger
of the religious world because the gospel declares that what
you're hoping in, if it's not Christ only, if it's not grace
only, what you're hoping in is no good. You won't be saved. You see, the gospel takes away
men's hopes of self-salvation. Men have a hope, but it's not
a good hope. They hope to be saved because they did this or
they stopped doing that. The gospel says, no, the only
hope is that Christ died for you, that he represented you,
that his righteousness is given to you. God is sovereign. He can give these things or withhold
them. You're completely dependent upon his grace. That's what the
gospel declares. And men who hope in their works
are not going to love that message. They didn't love Paul for preaching
that message. And you see what happened to
him as a result of him preaching that message. But he says, my
scars eloquently describe whose servant I am, and what I stand
for, and who I stand for, the gospel of grace. Now, our Lord,
Jesus Christ, was hated by this world when he walked in this
world, and he's hated now by this world. Let me show you that
in the scripture, John chapter 15. He says in verse 18 of John
chapter 15, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me
before it hated you. He's speaking to his disciples.
This is his last discourse to his disciples shortly before
his death. He says in verse 19, if you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, Therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they'll keep yours also. But all these things
will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me. If I had come and spoken unto
them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
father also. If I had done among them the
works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now
they have both seen and hated, both me and my father. But this
cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written
in their law, they hated me without Now, that is Christ's testimony
regarding the world's view of Him. They hated me without a
cause. Now, everybody is born into this
world hating Jesus Christ, and they don't know it. Why do they
not know it? Because you don't find out you
hate Christ until you hear who He really is. Most people are
comfortable with a Jesus that they can control. They're not
afraid of Him. They don't hate Him. They've
got Him in their back pocket. He's really their servant. He's waiting to see what they're
going to do. Nobody hates that Christ, but
the Christ who has absolute control and authority over everybody,
the one who's Lord of the dead and the living, the one who's
absolutely sovereign, the one who's absolutely holy, the one
who said, I always do those things that please the Father. Men hate
Him. They always have, and they always
will. As soon as the Lord was born,
they wanted him dead. Herod tried to kill him that
was born king of the Jews, and he had all around him. Every
male under two years old was put to death. Our Lord's first
public sermon in Nazareth in Luke chapter four enraged the
crowd so much. We read, when they heard these
things, they were filled with wrath. and they rose up and thrust
him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way." His first sermon in his hometown, they
wanted him dead after that. It would do you well, I don't
have time to get into it, but it would do you well to look
back at Luke chapter 4 and see what was said that infuriated
this crowd so much. In John chapter 7, verse 7, he
no longer walked in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill him.
In John chapter 8, verse 59, he said, before Abraham was,
I am, the name that only goes to God. And the scripture says
the Jews took up stones to stone him. In John 10, 31, he said,
I and my father are one. Then again, the Jews took up
stones to stone him. And when they finally had him
crucified, the accusation written against him, Jesus of Nazareth,
king of the Jews. And the Jews said to Pilate,
don't put that. He said, I'm the king of the
Jews. And Pilate said, what I've written stays written. But this is why men crucified
him. They did not want him as king,
king of kings and Lord of lords. Now, if I'm not being persecuted
for the gospel that I'm preaching, I am not preaching the gospel. Now, let me repeat that. I want
you to listen to these words carefully. If I am not being
persecuted For the gospel that I'm preaching, I am not preaching
the gospel. Paul said all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I'm not worried when people are
upset with what I'm saying, I become concerned when everybody thinks
it's great. Oh, that was good. I believe
that. I must not have said anything
then. You see, there will always be
a strong response to the true gospel of God's free grace, the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why do men hate the gospel? The Scripture says they do. Believe
it because the Bible says it. Why do men hate the Gospel? Why do men hate the Lord Jesus
Christ? It's a fact that they do, but
why? Let me give you a couple of reasons. Number one, because
men are evil. We're born into this world with
an evil nature. We're born bad. The wicked are
estranged from the womb. They go off as soon as they be
born, speaking lies. David said, Behold, I was shaping
an iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Now, when
Adam fell, he died spiritually. All of a sudden, he had no love
for God. He went and hid from God's presence, and when God
came after him, he blamed God for the fall. He no longer loved
God. He hated God and wanted to be
away from Him. And we're born into this world
having inherited His sinful nature. And you have to be evil to hate
Him who is altogether lovely. Jesus Christ is altogether lovely,
altogether glorious. What a Savior! And for a man
to hate Him? That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians
16, 22, Let him be anathema maranatha. Let him be cursed upon the return
of the Lord. Men hate Christ. Men hate the
gospel because they're evil. And men hate the gospel because
the gospel takes away what they're hoping in. They're hoping in
their works. They're hoping they can do something
that can recommend them to God or they could stop doing something
that will cause God to be obligated to save them. Men are hoping
in their works and the gospel says that hope is no good. Your only hope is for God to
do something for you. Salvation is not what you do
for God. It's what He does for you. The Gospel removes every
hope of the natural man, and he's made to see that the only
hope he has is for God to reach down and do something for him,
and it's up to him as to whether or not he's going to do it. It's
not up to you. Jesus is not in your hands. You're in His hands. Now, the natural man rebels against
that. We will not have this man to
reign over us. When men hear the gospel, oh,
they don't respond that way to a false gospel, but when they
hear the true gospel of how God saved sinners, election by the
Father, redemption by the Son, and regeneration by the Holy
Spirit, they won't throw rocks. They don't agree with this. You know, I love the attitude
of the apostles. I pray that he would give me
this attitude in Acts chapter 5, beginning in verse 40. And to him they agreed, and when
they had called the Apostles and beaten them, Paul wasn't
the only one who had marks on his body for the preaching of
the Gospel. And when they had beaten them, they commanded that
they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
And they, the apostles, departed from the presence of the council,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name." Now, I don't want to be persecuted because of the way
I treat people. I want to treat people in a gracious,
kind, loving way. But if I'm not being persecuted
for the gospel I'm preaching, I'm not preaching the gospel,
and I greatly desire to be persecuted for the preaching of the gospel. What an honor. Now, men hated
Christ. They hated Paul. Paul had the
marks on his body that proved he was a true apostle. It was a mark of ownership. Actually,
when he says, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,
it's the word stigmata. It's where we get the word stigma
from. And what this was was a mark
of ownership where you would scar and put some kind of signal,
sign in the slave that shows they belong to you. And Paul
said, my marks prove I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
I don't have any physical marks where I've been beaten for preaching
the gospel. I don't have any scars. I doubt
that anyone listening to me does. Maybe you do, but I kind of doubt
it. But does that mean there are
no marks that a believer has? No, every believer has some marks
of divine ownership. Now, what are the marks of Christ? If they're not scars, what are
they? Well, somebody says, is it something that's seen on the
outside? Yes, it is, because it's something that's been done
on the inside, in the heart. Now, it's not just behavioral.
When I'm talking about the marks of Christ, the marks that prove
ownership, it's not just behavioral. You see, people can change bad
behavior. If you get sick and tired of
being sick and tired, You can go to rehab and deal with that
issue you may have. Or you can go to a counselor
and maybe they can help you. And you can change your behavior
without your heart ever being changed. So these marks are not
just a change in behavior. As far as that goes, people talk
about, well, he's a good Christian or she's a good Christian. Listen,
my dear friend, if you're a Christian, that means you know you're bad.
And the only hope you have is Christ. You don't refer to yourself
or somebody else as a good Christian. Oh, no, your only hope is Christ. Now what are the marks of a Christian? Now there are several ways that
I could describe this. The first thing that came to
my mind was the Beatitudes. The Lord gave eight marks of
a believer, what they really are. A believer is someone who
is poor in spirit. He has nothing to recommend him
to God. He mourns. He mourns over his sin. He's
meek. Whatever God sends his way is
right because God did it. He hungers and thirsts after
righteousness because he feels he has none of his own, but oh,
he hungers and thirsts for the righteousness of Christ. A believer
is a peacemaker. A believer is merciful. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Having experienced God's mercy,
they're merciful. A believer is pure in heart.
He's been given a new heart, a new nature. He's a new man
in Christ Jesus. And a believer is persecuted
for righteousness sake. They're persecuted, which is
what Paul was speaking of, because they stand for the righteousness
of Christ being the only righteousness there is. And they say all of
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Now, those are the marks
of a believer, the Beatitudes. But here's something that came
to my mind especially. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13,
that great chapter on love, Paul says, and he'd been talking about
gifts, but he says in verse 13, the last verse, and now abideth
faith, hope, and charity. these three. Now, when he's saying
these remain, he's saying these other things no longer remain. These other gifts that people
practice and claim to have, they no longer remain. He said, when
that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be
done away with. These gifts no longer remain,
but there is something that does remain. Here are the marks of
a true believer, a true child of God, faith, hope, and charity. These three. Faith. What must we do that we might
work the works of God? Our Lord answered, this is the
work of God. that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. You believe Christ, the Son of
God, was sent of God, actually sent of God, and you believe
He did what His Father sent Him to do. He said in John chapter
17 verse 4, I finished the work thou gavest me to do. And what
was the work the Father gave him to do? On the very opening
page of the New Testament in Matthew's Gospel, we read in
Matthew 121, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And that's exactly what he did.
He saved his people from their sins. I've been saved from the
condemnation of sin. I'll never have to be judged
and found guilty. I've been saved from the power
of sin. There was a time when I couldn't believe. I can now.
There's a time when I couldn't repent. I can now. There's a
time when I couldn't love. I can now. Why? Because I've
been given a new nature. I've been saved from the dominion
of sin. And I'm going to one of these days be saved from the
very presence of sin. I won't even remember what it's
like to be a sinner. That's how thorough the salvation
of Christ is. And what's the evidence that
this is mine? Faith. Faith. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. Now, when you look to Christ,
that means you look to Him only, and you've burnt all bridges.
The only hope you have is Christ. The only hope you have is that
what He did is all that's needed. If anything else is needed from
you, you've got no hope. You're relying completely on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. And I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. To him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. Now this would describe me. I'm
ungodly. And I know I can't be saved by my works, but I'm believing
on Him who justifies the ungodly." And that's exactly what Christ
accomplished on Calvary's tree, the complete justification of
everybody He died for, and I'm relying on Him. It's faith. I can't see my name written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. I've never had access to that
great book, but I know it's there. How do you know it's there? I
believe the gospel. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. I can't look at myself and say
I'm totally just before God, but I believe I am. What's the
evidence? Faith is the evidence of things not seen. I can't see
the holy nature God has given me that does not sin, but I know
I have it. How? Faith is the evidence of
things not seen. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Therefore it's a faith that it
might be by grace, to the end that the promise might be sure
to all the seed. The just shall live by faith. Now here is the mark of a true
believer. faith. He believes the gospel. Now the next mark is hope. Hope. Hope is a confident expectation
with regard to the future. Peter said in 1 Peter 3, 15,
always be ready to give every man that asks you a reason for
the hope that's in you. Now here's my hope. I have a
hope that when I stand before God on Judgment Day, He's going
to say to me, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Now, how can I have a hope like
that? How can you have a hope like
that? Because I really believe that Christ did well, and what
He did, He did for me. And I'm relying on Him. I'm relying
on His law-keeping. I'm relying on His righteousness.
Someone once said to a preacher that was dying, You're now going
to get the reward of your labors. He said, Oh no, I'm going to
get the reward of Christ's labor. That's the only hope I have.
And I have a hope that everything's working together for my good
between now and then because the Bible says, and we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the call according to his purpose. I have this hope
regarding the future. And I've got a scriptural reason
for that hope. So a believer is marked by faith,
hope, and thirdly, charity. Charity. Love to God. Now this charity, this love,
is not the product of the natural man. It's only what a believer
possesses because he's being given a new nature, a holy nature
that actually loves God. But I love God, and I love him
as he's revealed in his word. I love his people. I love his
gospel. I love the way he saves sinners.
I love sinners. I myself am one, a sinner saved
by grace, and I want them to hear the gospel. I want them
to come to the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
charity. There's a true love for God,
a love for his people. It's not people doing what they
don't want to do. It's people doing what they want
to do out of love. That's the mark of a believer,
faith, hope, and love. And notice, he says, the greatest
of these is love, charity. You see, one of these days, my
faith is gonna be changed to sight. And the hope I have will
turn into experience. But what will be left is his
love, love to God, love to his son, love for his gospel, love
for his people. 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 Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. 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
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