I did choose the Lord 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 Niver. In Acts chapter 15, verse 11,
Peter gives us what could truly be called the Apostles' Creed. Now a creed is a confession,
a statement of faith, a shared belief of those who believe. And here, Peter gives what could
truly be called the true apostles' creed. He says it in verse 11,
but we believe, he's speaking as the spokesman of every believer,
but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved even as they. Perhaps you've heard of the Apostles'
Creed. Let me quote it to you. It goes
like this, and perhaps you've quoted it in liturgies and religious
services before. I believe in God the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only
Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the
Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died,
was buried. He descended into hell the third
day he rose from the dead. He ascended to heaven and sits
at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence he shall
come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen. And that is called the
Apostles' Creed. The Apostles didn't write that
creed. They were all dead when it was written. It was written
in about 150 A.D., and it was supposed to be a summary of what
they preached, and while I would give agreement to the historical
facts of pretty much everything it said, but the part about him
descending into hell, I'm not sure about that because nobody
knows really what happened. in the time between the Lord's
death and His resurrection. It's mysterious. If He did descend,
maybe He did, but that's the only thing that I would question.
But really, all these are historical facts. The gospel is not in the
Apostles' Creed. If all you ever heard was this
Apostles' Creed, you would not hear the gospel. But thank God
there is a true Apostles' Creed. Now, in Acts chapter 15, we have
the council at Jerusalem, and this was a very important event
in the New Testament church, and it's important to us now
to understand what the gospel is. Now, Paul was in Antioch
at this time, a church that he had founded. I think it's glorious
the way, no, he didn't found it. Barnabas was the first one
to preach there, and the disciples were first called Christians
in Antioch. And we read in chapter 15, verse 1, Paul had been in
Antioch preaching, and certain men, which came down from Judea,
taught the brethren, and said, Except you be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now these men came
from Judea. In all likelihood, they came
from the church in Jerusalem where James was the pastor. And
they came teaching something contrary to what Paul and Barnabas
was preaching. They were saying true salvation's
by grace, true salvation's by Christ, but except you be circumcised
the way you're supposed to be circumcised in the law of Moses,
you can't be saved. Now here's what these men were
saying. Something other than what Christ did is necessary. Now here is the hope of the gospel.
Listen to me carefully. My hope is that Christ died for
my sins. You know what goes after that?
A period. If Christ died for my sins, I
must be saved. I despise this preaching that
says that Jesus Christ paid for everybody's sins, But many of
those people for whom he died will end up in hell anyway because
they didn't do their part. Beloved, there's no gospel in
that. If Christ can die for me and I wind up in hell anyway,
I'll be in hell anyway. I know myself enough to know
that that's the truth. And how that dishonors God, that
Christ could pay for sins and God would make me pay for them
again. That's dishonoring to the justice of God. The only
hope of the believer is that Christ died for sins. And if
you add something to that, you've left the gospel. And that's what
these people were doing. They were adding something to
the work of Christ. Yes, it's true, Christ died for
your sins, but you need to fill in the blank. In this case, it
was be circumcised. Verse two. When therefore Paul
and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they
determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should
go up to Jerusalem and to the apostles and elders about this
question. Now, when these men came teaching this, there was
a fight. Paul and Barnabas gave strong objection to this. They
disputed. There was an uproar is what one
of those words mean. They were upset. Now, understand this. If somebody's denying the gospel,
I'm not going to keep my mouth shut. I'm not going to say, well,
you believe your way and I'll believe my way. No, there's only
one gospel, and in faithfulness to God and faithfulness to the
souls of that person who is making that wrong statement regarding
the gospel, and because of what other people would hear, I must
stand up for the gospel, which is exactly what Paul and Barnabas
did at that time. Now, they said, well, let's go
down to Jerusalem. And they were to talk to the
apostles and the elders about this. And Paul and Barnabas were
not going there to see if they preached the same thing. As far
as that goes, they did preach the same thing. Paul and Barnabas
knew that. But they weren't going to see if maybe they were mistaken
and the elders would have a different view of this. No, they were going
to show that all believers believe the precise same thing. Now, verses 3 and 4, we read,
and being brought on their way by the church, they pass through,
and he talks about these different places they went through on the
way to Jerusalem, Phenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion
of the Gentiles, and this caused great joy unto all the brethren. You see, any time you see the
Lord save somebody and bring somebody to the feet of Christ,
it gives you joy. It makes you happy. It made them
happy. Verse 4, And when they were come to Jerusalem, they
were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all the things God had done with them. They
talked about the great works of salvation God had wrought
through the preaching of the gospel. But, now he deals with
the issue at hand. But, there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them." Salvation by grace wasn't enough.
It was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep
the law of Moses. Now notice when Paul and Barnabas
talk about these people that came bringing this message. He
says certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed. Now
when Paul talks about them in Galatians chapter 2, he calls
them false brethren. who came in privileged to spy
out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus. He says they
weren't real. They were false brethren. But
here he calls them a part of the sect of the Pharisees, which
believed. Now that word sect is the word
that's generally translated heresy. As a matter of fact, in Acts
24, verse 14, Paul said, after the way which they call heresy,
same word, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all
things which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets
and the Psalms concerning him. The word heresy means a choosing,
making a choice between two opinions. Now the gospel is never, here's
this way and here's that way, you make your choice. There's
only one way. There isn't any choice. And if you choose to believe
something wrong, It's because you chose to. If you believe
error, it's because you chose to believe that error. You heard
the truth, you rejected, and you said, I'll take this instead.
But if you believe the truth, you do so because you have no
choice. It's the truth. You must believe that which is
true. If you choose to believe, by definition, you're a heretic.
He spoke of the sect, the heresy, the choosing, the two different
opinions. The word heresy means an opinion, my opinion, your
opinion. Who cares about man's opinion? But it's a choosing
of the sect, of the Pharisees, the separated ones which believed. They claimed to believe, but
they didn't believe the same thing Peter did. the apostles'
creed because he said, we believe that by the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. They didn't believe
that. They believed something, but they didn't believe that.
Well, what did they believe? Well, he says, There rose up certain
of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it
was needful, it was necessary. This had to be done along with
the grace of God, along with the death of Christ, along with
the Holy Spirit. It was needful to circumcise
them and to command them to keep the law of Moses, the Ten Commandments. They need to be circumcised and
they need to keep the law. Have you done there? Have you
succeeded in this thing of keeping the law? If this is necessary,
where does that leave you? Where does that leave me? I tell
you where it leaves me, it leaves me in hell. I haven't kept one commandment
one time. Not in my heart, not perfectly, not purely, not with
the right motive. You see, God's law is exceeding
broad. And if I think that I've kept
even one of the commandments, all I do is show what a low opinion
I have of the law of God and a high opinion I have of myself.
The law shows us our sin. We don't keep it. It exposes
our sinfulness. As many of the works of the law
are under the curse. Romans 10.4, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. Now, when you get to the end
of something, you don't go any further. We're not under law.
but under grace. The only way I honor God's holy
law is by looking to Christ only as my obedience before that holy
law of God. If I think that I can keep it,
all I do is dishonor it and show myself to be a self-righteous
blind Pharisee. No, God's law shows me my need
of Christ. The law is our schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ, but these men were denying that. They were
upholding the law and saying, we need to keep it. We need to
command believers to keep it. Now, verse 6. And the apostles
and elders came together for to consider this matter, if this
was really true. I can hear all the things that
might have been said. Well, the law is no good for justification,
but it's good for sanctification. It can't save us, but it's a
good guide of life. We ought to try and keep it.
And that's when Peter arose up during all this talk about the
law. Verse seven, and when there had
been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and
brethren, You know how that a good while ago, God made choice among
us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And he's talking about that time with... Cornelius,
when Peter had that vision and the sheep let down from heaven
with the unclean animals in it and creeping things, and the
voice said, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter said, Not
so, Lord. I've never touched anything common or unclean. I'm
not going to go contrary to the law. And the voice said, What
God hath cleansed call not thou common. God's cleansed, and he
understood the gospel to the Gentiles at that time. Verse
8, And God, which knoweth the hearts, bared them witness, giving
them the Holy Ghost, even as he did to us. And he put no difference
between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore
why tempt ye God? This is blazing hypocrisy, Peter
says, for you don't want to put them under law. This is nothing
more than hypocrisy. You're tempting God. God will
be provoked at this. Now, therefore, why tempt ye
God that ye put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, these
Gentile believers, which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear? We couldn't bear it. We broke
the law. Why would we try to impose this
upon them? But We believe, now here's the
true apostles' creed. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Now let's consider this. First
of all, Peter says, we believe. Now this is the same we as the
we Paul spoke of in Romans 8, 28, when he said, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose. This we is every
believer. Excuse me. This we represents all of the
elect of God. Now understand this. All believers
believe the same thing. They don't believe differently.
All these denominations with different beliefs, those are
all man-made. They're not of God. You won't find denominations
and differences in the Bible. All believers believe the same
thing. If you believe the gospel and
I don't believe like you, that means I don't believe the gospel.
And if I believe the gospel and you believe differently than
me, that means you don't believe the gospel. You see, there's
only one faith. All believers believe the precise
same thing. Somebody says, well, I disagree
with that. Well, your disagreement doesn't affect the truth of the
statement. All believers believe the same thing. We believe. The gospel is a message to be
believed. That means relied upon. It's
not just giving assent to some facts. All my eggs are in this
basket. This is my only hope. We believe
that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they. The gospel is a message to be
believed. And in this statement, we find
out what the apostles did not believe. They did not believe
in salvation by works in any way. They said, we believe that
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we should be saved,
even as they. Now, I believe in works if I
believe that any aspect of salvation is dependent upon me. If I believe
that, I believe in salvation by works. Now that takes on so
many different forms. I might believe I need to keep
the Ten Commandments, or I might believe what most people believe,
that God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, God wants
to save everybody, God the Holy Spirit's calling everybody, but
it's up to you, it's up to your acceptance of Him as your personal
Savior as to whether or not you'll be saved. If you don't accept
Him as your personal Savior and let Him into your heart, then
you won't be saved. My dear friends, that's salvation
by works. That's salvation dependent upon what you do. The message
of the gospel is not do. The message of the gospel is
it's done. It's done. There's nothing you
do. You know, most people think of the forgiveness of sins. They
think, well, if I do this, this, this, and this, I'll be rewarded
the forgiveness of sins. No, no, no. The gospel doesn't
end with the forgiveness of sins. If you do this and that, you'll
have the forgiveness of sins. The gospel begins with the full
free, complete forgiveness of all sin, past, present, and future. Now that's the gospel. That's
the good news. Anything short of that is bad
news. The apostles did not believe
in salvation by works in any form. We believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. The apostles
believed in this statement that men were dead in sins, unable
to save themselves, and the only way they could be saved is through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the apostles believed that.
They believed men were dead in sins. Paul said, "...and you
hath he quickened who were dead in sins." Now, if you're dead
in sins, that means you can't save yourself. You can't come
up with the faith. You can't come up with the repentance.
You can't come to Christ. You're dead. And if I'm dead,
the only hope I have is that salvation is by grace. Only salvation
by grace is going to give hope to that man who is dead in sins. And the apostles believed in
saving Grace. Not grace that simply offers
salvation, but grace that saves. We believe that by the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, just like them. Saving
grace. By grace you are saved, through
faith, but not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now, what kind of grace is saving
grace? How much of salvation is by grace? That's a good question. I want
you to think about it. How much of salvation is by grace? Now, for grace to be saving grace,
it's first of all going to have to be electing grace, grace that
chooses the sinner. If I don't believe in electing
grace, I don't believe in grace at all. You see, grace begins
with God. It begins with God's choice of
His people. It doesn't begin with our choice.
It begins with God's choice. According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world. that we should
be holy and without blame before him. Now, the only way I'm going
to be holy and without blame before him is if he chooses me
to be holy and without blame before him through the Lord Jesus
Christ. As a matter of fact, it's called
in Romans 11, 6, the election of grace. Now, somebody doesn't
believe in election. I'm talking about God choosing
who would be saved before time began, and only they will be
saved. They don't believe in grace at
all. For grace to be saving grace, first of all, it's going to have
to be electing grace. And for grace to be saving grace,
it's going to have to be redeeming grace. It's got to be grace that
actually redeems, not that makes redemption available, dependent
upon whether I accept it or reject it. Not a redemption that is
contingent upon some act of man's supposed free will. That kind
of redemption is no good because you can be redeemed that way
and wind up in hell anyway. That's not a saving redemption. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Now please
listen to me carefully. When Christ said it is finished,
all of the elect were redeemed. This message that Christ redeemed
everybody all the world, but now it's up to you as to whether
or not that redemption will work for you. That is a false message. It is not a saving message. No
one is saved believing that message because they're not trusting
Christ, they're trusting something they've done. There's no salvation
in that message. The only kind of saving grace
there is, is the grace that actually redeems, that actually makes
payment for sin. And for grace to be saving grace,
first it has to be electing grace, it has to be redeeming grace,
but then it has to be justifying grace. Oh, I love this thing
of justification. This is the heart and soul of
the gospel. Christ justified me. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Now, if
I'm justified, that means I have no sin to be condemned for. If
I'm justified, that means God's holy law looks me over through
and through and finds nothing but that which is righteous,
pure, holy, and good. That's what justification means.
I don't have anything to feel guilty about. I don't have any sin.
I'm perfect in God's sight. Now, justification is not something
that you accept or reject. The judge doesn't say, well,
do you want to be justified or condemned? I'm leaving it up
to you. That's never happened and never will happen. Justification
is what the great judge declares you to be. And because of the
work of Christ on the cross, every believer is actually justified. Their sin's been put away. Their
sin's been washed away. It's gone. It's no more. And
they all stand justified before God. Now, for grace to be saving
grace, it will have to be justifying grace. And for grace to be saving
grace, it's going to have to be life-giving grace. It's got to give the dead life,
the dead in sins, or have to be given spiritual life so they
can believe, so they can repent, so they can love. But God who
is rich in mercy, Paul said in Ephesians 2.4, 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, hath
given us life together with Christ. By grace are you saved." Now,
the only kind of saving grace there is, is it gives a dead
sinner life, where God says, live and I live. That's the only kind of grace
that truly is saving grace. And for grace to be saving grace,
It's going to have to be preserving grace. It's going to have to
preserve me. And notice how Peter said this.
He says, we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved. even as they, we shall be. We
believe the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will carry us all
the way to the end, and we shall be saved. We will persevere unto
the end. It's only He that endures to
the end that should be saved, and we believe in a grace that
preserves us and causes us to continue to come to Christ. Here's the true Apostle's Creed.
We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall
be saved even as they. And the Apostle Paul said something
very similar in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9. He said, you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I say to every believer,
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, rich in righteousness, rich in
praise. He had the praise of his father.
He had the praise of angels, rich in power, omnipotence, rich
in the presence of his father, enjoying the presence of God.
Though he was rich, yet for your sakes, every believer, he became
poor. He became poor in righteousness.
On the cross he didn't have any. All he had was sin. He became
poor in power. He was crucified through weakness,
nailed to a cross. He became poor in praise. He was the butt of jokes, people
making fun of him. And oh, how poor he became in
the presence of his father, he no longer had the presence of
his father. He cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? When my sin became his sin, he
became poor, that you, the apostle said, through his poverty might
be rich. Because of the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who for my sake became poor, I through his poverty
become rich, rich in righteousness, Rich in power, the power of God. Rich in praise. I even have God
praising me. Rich in the presence of God. He said, I'll never leave thee
nor forsake thee. Oh, we believe. This is the true
Apostles' Creed. We believe that through the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they,
those Gentiles, they won't be saved like us Jews. No, us Jews
will be saved like those Gentiles. And 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 Knopper 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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