It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. 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 Nyvert. I've entitled the message for
this morning, What Must I Do to Be Saved? Now this is the
question that the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas,
what must I do to be saved? Now he understood that there's
nothing he could do to save himself. He didn't say, what must I do
to save myself? As a matter of fact, when he
says, what must I do to be saved? It's in the passive tense. He
knew there was nothing he could do to save himself, but he did
want to know what must I do in order for me to be saved? Or
what is involved? What must I do? He wanted to
be saved. Now let me read this passage
of scripture to you. We read beginning in verse 27.
And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and
seeing the prison doors open, he drew out a sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, do thyself no harm, for
we're all here. Then he called for light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? This life is so brief, it's compared to a vapor that
appears for a little while and then vanishes away. No matter
what you achieve or don't achieve in this life, no matter how happy,
no matter how sad you are throughout this life, it really doesn't
matter much in comparison to eternity. You see, after you
die, after I die, we will spend eternity either in heaven or
in hell. There is a place called hell
where God meets out his justice. Everyone there is paying for
their sins. That's why they're there. God
is holy. God is just. God hates sins. There are people you know right
now, even as we speak, who are in hell suffering the wrath of
God. And there is a place called heaven
where Christ is. where those who are saved are. In that place, there's nothing
but bliss, an eternal marriage feast. There's no tears, there's
no sorrow, there's no pain. There's perfect likeness to Christ. There's perfect pleasure. Now
you take those places, heaven and hell. Only the saved go to
heaven. Everybody else will be in hell. Now, my question is, what must
I do to be saved? I want to know, what must I do
to be saved? Now, the fact that salvation
is altogether by grace does not negate the fact that there are
some things that I must do. If God has saved me, and if I
do not do these things, I will not be saved. In 2 Timothy 1,
verse 9, Paul said, He saved us. That's all of our theology
right there. He saved us. He did it all. 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, everything that the
believer has was given him in Christ Jesus before the world
began. But that does not negate the
necessity of being called. He saved us first. He saved us
before time began. All the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. And He called us. In time, He
called us. Ephesians 2, verse 8 says, For
by grace are you saved through faith. There's no salvation apart
from faith. It's not the faith that saves
you, it's the grace that saves you through faith. If I personally
do not believe the gospel, I will not be saved. In II Thessalonians
2.16, we read, But we are bound to give thanks to God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. I will not be saved apart from
the sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit and believing the
truth. When Peter preached on the day
of Pentecost and those men who heard him, the very murderers
of Christ, were pricked in their hearts, they said, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Peter didn't reply, nothing.
He said, repent. and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Yes,
salvation is altogether by the free and sovereign grace of God. If I'm saved, it's because God
elected me to salvation before time began, irrespective of any
works in me. It was an unconditional election.
It wasn't conditioned upon me doing something. Romans 9 and
11 says, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. If I'm saved,
it's because Christ redeemed me. Hebrews 1.3 says He by Himself. With no help from me, with no
help from you, he by himself purged us of our sins. Everybody he died for, their
sins were purged away. If I'm saved, it's because God
the Holy Spirit birthed me into the kingdom of heaven. I was
born of the Spirit. I didn't have any say in this.
The Spirit didn't ask me if I wanted to be born again. He gave me
life. This is all together by grace. And in the grand scheme of God's
salvation, there are some things that you and I must do to be
saved. Somebody says, well, that sounds
like works. I'm sorry if you think it sounds that way, but
it's not salvation by works, but it's still true. There are
some things you and I must do to be saved. When Christ said,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. If you don't come, You won't be given rest, and
you won't be saved. There are things that a lost
man can do. You know, if you can read, you
can read the Bible. If you can walk, you can walk
into a building and hear the gospel preached. If you can hear,
you can hear. There are some things a lost
man can do. Somebody says, well, a lost man can't do anything.
Well, he can read the Bible. He surely can. Now, I'm going
to give you from the Bible what a man must do to be saved. That's how I arrived at the outline
I'm using. I just looked in the Bible where
it talks about what men had to do to be saved. And if I do not
personally do these things, I personally will not be saved. It's kind
of like forgiveness. I'm not forgiven because I forgive.
I'm forgiven for Christ's sake. And if I refuse to forgive, I
will not be forgiven. The scripture says both of those
things. In John 6, verse 37, the Lord
said, What if I don't come? Then you
will not be saved. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. I myself must come to Christ,
whatever that means. I must in my heart come to him.
And if I do not come to him, I will not be saved. And he went
on to say in him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. Sirs, said the Philippian jailer,
what must I do to be saved? Now, right now, you don't need
to worry about whether or not you're one of God's elect. You
don't need to worry about whether or not Christ died for you. You
don't need to worry about whether or not you've actually been born
in the Spirit and born again. I want to give you what the Scripture
says you and I must do to be saved. Now, the first Scripture
I'd like to read is from Acts 11, verse 14, where the angel
said to Cornelius, send men to Joppa. whose surname is Peter,
who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and thy house shall be Now,
for me to be saved, first of all, I'm going to have to hear
the words of salvation. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. You see, the gospel has a content,
a very specific content. Paul said, First Corinthians
117, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect. For the preaching of the cross,
the doctrine of the cross, the word of the cross, is to them
that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It, the preaching, the doctrine,
the word of the cross, what the cross declares is the power of
God. unto salvation." Now, for me
to be saved, I must hear the actual content of the gospel. Somebody thinks, well, what's
the minimum I need to hear? You know, if you went in for
an interview and said, what's the minimum I need to get by
with before me to get this job? You wouldn't get the job, would
you? That's a question we should never ask. What's the minimum
I should hear? Hear what Cornelius said to Peter.
He said, we're all here present before God to hear all things
that are commanded thee of God. What do I gotta hear? Everything
God says, anything God says in his word with regard to the gospel. But understand this first, you
cannot be saved apart from hearing the truth of the gospel, how
God saves sinners through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we're gonna talk about that more on down. But also in our
text, when that man said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Look
how Paul answered. He said, believe. on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." What must I do to
be saved? Believe. Rely upon the Lord. He's the
Lord. You know what? When we talk about
the Lordship of Christ, He is Lord. And that means He's in
absolute sovereign control of everything. This is no empty
title. You're in His hands. I'm in His
hands. He can do with us whatever He's pleased to do because He's
the Lord. Jesus, the Savior, thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He's the Christ,
God's prophet. He's the very Word of God. When
God speaks, here's what comes out of His mouth, Jesus Christ. He's the Great High Priest. If
He brings you into God's presence, you'll be accepted. God the Father
must accept Him and all those in Him. He's God's King. He's
in absolute sovereign control of everything. He's the King
of kings, and He's the Lord of lords. It's not just believe.
It's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Rely on who He is and
what He did as all that is needed to save you. Sirs, what must
I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we read in Isaiah chapter
45 verse 22 where God says, look unto me and be ye saved. Now for me to be saved, I'm going
to have to look. Looking is such an easy thing.
If I say, look at me, you don't say, what do you mean by that?
You just look. It's something you understand. Now the scripture
gives a beautiful illustration of what it is to look when the
children of Israel had grown tired of the manna. They said,
our souls loathe this light bread. We want something better to eat.
And God sent fiery serpents into the camp of Israel because of
their murmuring and complaining. And they bit the people. And
much people of Israel died, the scripture says. And they came
back to Moses and they said, pray to God for us that he takes
these serpents from us. So Moses came into the Lord's
presence and the Lord told Moses to make a brazen serpent made
of tin and brass, brazen, two-foot picturing the person of Christ,
deity and humanity. A brazen serpent, put it on a
pole, and all someone has to do when you're bitten is look.
Anybody who looks, will live. And you and I are called on to
look to Christ. Somebody says, I can't see. Then
you're not looking. If you look, you will see. You'll
see that He is everything in salvation, and you need nothing
else. Look and live. And then we read in Mark 16,
verse 16, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He that believeth not shall be damned. Does that mean I need to be baptized
to be saved? The waters of baptism washes
away sin? Doesn't mean that at all. But
I know this, if you believe, you'll confess Christ in believer's
baptism. You'll understand what baptism
means. All my salvation is in Christ. When he lived, I lived.
When he died, I died. When he was raised from the dead,
I was too. My only hope of salvation is
being united to him. Whoso believeth and is baptized,
the same shall be saved. And then we read in Romans chapter
10, beginning in verse 9. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now listen to me. If you confess
with your mouth, and there's something public about that.
You're not ashamed of the gospel. There's something public about
that. You confess the Lord Jesus. You confess He's the Lord. He's
the Lord of Creation. He created the universe. He's
the Lord of Providence. He controls everything that happens
in time. He's the Lord of Salvation. If you're saved, it's because
He saved you. You have the same faith that that thief did when
he cried out, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
He knew this one hanging on the cross wasn't a helpless martyr.
This is the Lord. He was in control of everything.
And he was going to come back as a mighty reigning king. Remember me. when you come into
your kingdom. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead. You really believe he went into
that tomb dead, and he came out alive, and the reason he came
out is because God raised him from the dead, because God was
completely satisfied with what he did. He came to put away sin,
and that's what he did. When he died, the sins of everybody
he died for were put away, and every single one of them were
justified by what He did for them. He was delivered for our
offenses, and He was raised again for our justification. Now, what
must I do to be saved? Confess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the
dead. And then in Romans 10, verse
13, we have a verse that's one of my personal favorite verses.
It says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Now, the first word I'd like
to mention is whosoever. I love this word, whosoever. I'm one of those people. I'm
a whosoever. Now, my name is Todd Nybert,
but there are other Todd Nyberts. And if it said, if Todd Nybert
shall call upon the name of the Lord, he'll be saved, it might
mean another Todd Nybert. But whosoever, I'm a whosoever. That's why I love that word.
Whosoever, I don't care who you are, how far you've fallen, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord. Now here is the important
word, the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is the person
behind the name. It's not just audibly calling
his name Jesus. His name represents all of His
attributes, His holiness, His sovereignty, His justice, His
omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His immutability,
all His glorious attributes. When I call on His name, I say,
Lord, save me by Your sovereignty. Will my salvation. That's the
same thing the leper came up to him and said, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. Lord, save me by your grace.
If you're pleased to, you can give me your free favor. Save
me by your mercy. Save me by your justice. Save
me in a way that honors your justice and puts away my sin.
Save me by your wisdom in that you found a way to be just and
justify the ungodly. Save me by who you are. That's
what we cry when we cry calling on his name. And I love this,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. What's it to
call upon the name of the Lord? Peter is sinking in the water,
and he cries out, Lord, save me. That's calling on the name
of the Lord. Lord, save me. I'm calling on
your name. And look at this sure word. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not they might be saved. They
shall be saved. What must I do to be saved? Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then we read in John chapter
10 verse 9 where the Lord said, I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved. Now my only way of entrance into
the presence of God is by Christ the door. I can't come in on
my own. I have no right to come in on
my own. I was talking to two people who
were Mormons that came to try to witness to me, and I asked
them this question. I said, what would you say to
God if He said, why should I let you into heaven? And they both
began with a because I. because I believe, because I
serve, because I'm doing my best. Didn't mention the death of Christ
or the grace of God. Anytime that question is answered
beginning with the word I, it's a wrong answer. The only way
I come into God's presence is by Christ bringing me. He said,
I am the way. the truth and the life. No man
comes to the Father but by me. You see, when He comes to the
Father, I'm in Him, and I come to the Father. I enter in by
Christ the door. 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. What must I do to be saved? I must enter by the door. And then we read in Isaiah chapter
30 verse 15, God said, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. In returning and rest. Returning where? to the Lord,
to the starting point. When you first came to Christ,
how did you come? As an empty-handed sinner, needing
mercy, knowing the only righteousness there was was His righteousness,
and you had to have Him, or you would not be saved. Do you know
you're always returning to that? If you're a believer, you're
always returning to the starting point. Like the Lord said to
the church at Ephesus, repent and do the first works. you're
always returning to the starting point. As an empty-handed sinner
with nothing to recommend you, pleading for nothing but His
mercy, He said, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. You see, when you return this
way, only then do you rest. You rest because The job's finished. The work's finished. There's
nothing for you to do. He did it all. The scripture says in
Hebrews chapter four, they which have believed do enter into a
rest. For he that's entered into his
rest has ceased from his own labors as God did from his. When God finished the creation
of the world, the scripture says he rested. He didn't rest because
he was tired. He rested because there was nothing
else to do. The work was perfectly done. And in returning, and resting
in Christ, resting, not doing anything, not moving a muscle,
resting in Christ, you shall be saved. And then in 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 10, we read of those who receive not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved. Now for me to be saved, For you
to be saved, I'm to receive the love of the truth. Not merely giving assent to some
facts that I see that are, in fact, in the Bible. If you read
the Bible, you'll see that God did elect a people. If you read
the Bible, you'll see that Christ died for a sheep. He didn't die
for goats. If you read your Bible, you'll see that God the Holy
Spirit's work is irresistible and invincible. He births men
into the kingdom of heaven. Men are born of the Spirit. You'll
see these things if you read the Bible and are honest with
it and read it for what it says. But you know that's not receiving
the love of the truth. Not at all. That's not receiving this
as gospel. Receive means to receive by deliberate
and ready reception the love of the truth. Christ said, I
am the truth. He said, I came to bear witness to the truth.
And that's what he did on Calvary's tree. He came to bear witness
to the truth. The true character of God is
seen in the cross. We see every attribute of God. We see His justice, His holiness,
His hatred of sin. When Christ was punished because
the sins of His people became His sins. We see the mercy and
the grace of God. We see the wisdom of God. How
He's made a way to be just and justify the ungodly. Oh, we see
the sovereignty of God when He saved the one thief and passed
by the other. Oh, every attribute of God is
fully displayed in the cross of Christ, the truth. We see
the truth concerning man on the cross. If you want to know the
truth about yourself, look to the cross. If God took His hand
off you or me, we would have been the actual, literal murderers
of Jesus Christ. And we see the truth concerning
salvation. He Himself is salvation. He did it all. That's the truth. And we receive the love of the
truth. This comes as good news to us, the love of the truth. And then in 1 Corinthians 15,
2, Paul said, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel,
by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preach to you. If you hold fast, literally is
the word, what I preach to you. If you don't let go, you hold
on to this with all your soul and might. And you know it's
only God's grace that enables you to hold on, but you hold
fast to this. In Hebrews 3, verse 6, we read, We are made partakers
of Christ if we hold. the beginning of our confidence,
steadfast to the end. What's the beginning of my confidence?
Well, the beginning of my confidence is Christ. The beginning of my
confidence is the forgiveness of sins. I don't do some things
in order to get the forgiveness of sins. He forgives me. He forgives
me for Christ's sake. That's where salvation begins,
what God does for the sinner. And we hold on to that firm and
to the end, and we will not let go Paul said in Colossians 1,
22 and 23 that we're holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight if if we continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved from the hope of the gospel." Well, what is
the hope of the gospel? When Christ said, it is finished,
my salvation was accomplished. And finally, in Matthew 10, verse
23, we read where the Lord said, he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. The only people who are saved
are those who endure all the way to the end. They don't stop.
They don't quit. They continue being preserved
by the grace of God. What must I do to be saved? Hear
the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look. Believe and be baptized. Confess
with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that
God raised him from the dead. I'm to call upon the name of
the Lord. I'm to enter in by the door. I'm to return and rest. I'm to receive the love of the
truth and hold it fast, and I'm to endure to the end. That is what I must do to be
saved. And here's the glorious thing.
If God has saved me, He will enable me to do all those things. It's His grace that enables me.
But these are the things that you and I must do to be saved. Now we have this message on DVD
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