that I did choose. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neibert. 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 Neibert. I'm going to read the first six
verses of Luke chapter 9. I've entitled this morning's
message, Take Nothing for Your Journey. Now this is when the
Lord was sending out the disciples, two and two, to go and preach
the gospel. Verse 1 of Luke chapter 9, Then
he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power
and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he
sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, take nothing
for your journey. Now I'm sending you out, but
I don't want you to pack anything. I don't want you to provide anything.
Take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor scrip, which
was a leather handbag, neither bread, neither money, neither
have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house you enter
in, there abide, and thence depart. And whosoever will not receive
you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust
from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed
and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Take nothing for your journey. I know that with me, one of the
more stressful tasks that I have is to pack. I dislike packing. Anytime I go out of town, it's
just a stressful thing. I always forget something and
I just do not enjoy it. The Lord tells his disciples,
do not pack. Don't take anything. Don't take a staff to lean on.
Don't take a script, which would be a suitcase to put anything
in for your journey. Don't take any bread. Don't take
anything to eat. Don't take any money to buy anything
to eat. And don't even take an extra
coat. Take nothing for your journey. Now, this is the Lord sending
his disciples out. And he says, don't do anything
to provide for yourselves. Take nothing for your journey.
Now, truly, this was a journey of faith. They were to live in
utter and complete dependence on the Lord for everything. They were to take nothing for
their journey. And you and I have a journey
as well, a race to run, a course to finish, a walk to walk, and
know that I'll be enabled and that you'll be enabled by the
grace of God to take nothing for this journey, truly the walk
of faith. Now, this journey began with
this special call of God. Then He called His 12 disciples
together. He didn't call everyone. He called
His 12 disciples together. Now, the call of God, insofar
as our experience goes, our experience begins when God calls us. Now, this call of God is a special
call. It's a sovereign call. Do you
know that He does not call everybody? Do you remember when Paul said,
you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God doesn't
call everybody. In 1 Corinthians 1, 22 and 23,
we read, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called.
Not everybody's called, but unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and Christ, the wisdom
of God. You see, the call of God is a
sovereign call. As a matter of fact, in Mark's
account, this begins, he called whom he would. Now, God doesn't
call everybody. I hope no one thinks, well, I'm
afraid He's not going to call me. Oh, if you want to be called,
He's already called you. If you want to be called, he's
calling you. But if you say, well, I don't
believe this, nor do I care. Well, he never called you. He
only calls his people. It's a sovereign call, and it's
an effectual call. Everybody he calls, they respond. Every single one of them. Lazarus,
come forth. He that was dead came forth.
Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide
at thy house.' He made haste and came down and received him
joyfully. He came to the little dead girl,
made, I say unto thee, arise, and she arose." You see, you
always respond to his call. It's always effectual. Now, This
journey began with His call, and then it says He gave them
power and authority. He gave them something they did
not have, power and authority. Now, by nature, You and I do
not have any spiritual power. Power means ability. That's what it means. Ability.
And you and I, by nature, do not have any spiritual ability. The Lord said in John 6, verse
44, no man can come to me. He lacks the ability to come
to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. Now, somebody
says, why are you saying that? Well, because it's what the Bible
teaches. And for me to ever learn anything about grace, I'm going
to have to find out that I have no spiritual ability. Now, somebody
once said, wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. And that
statement is so true, what you and I believe will be determined
by what we really believe happened in the Garden of Eden. Wrong
on the fall, wrong on it all. Now, what happened in the Garden
of Eden? Well, God said to Adam, in the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. Now, Adam didn't die physically
on that day. He lived many years more, but
he did die spiritually. And spiritual death means no
ability, no spiritual ability. He lacked the ability to believe.
He lacked the ability to repent. He lacked the ability to understand
the gospel. He was dead in trespasses and
sins. Now, when God saves someone,
He gives them power. They lost it all in spiritual
death. No power or ability to believe. Now, spiritually unable, and
let me say this before I move on, talking about men's inability. Men's inability does not deny
men's responsibility. Adam was not a victim, and the
sinner is not a victim. Adam did what he did willfully,
and he's responsible for that sin, and now everybody is born
into this world dead in sins, a sinner by birth, by nature,
by choice, and by practice. And because of this sinfulness,
we have no rights. Remember he said he gave him
power and authority. Authority is the right. Right. No man by nature has any rights
or claims on God. People argue over the sovereignty
of God's grace, how he elected some and didn't elect everybody.
They say, well, how could that be fair? How could it be fair
for Christ to die only for the elect and not die for everybody?
How could that be fair? Now, when we think like that,
and everybody's been guilty of thinking like that, when we think
like that, what we say is, I have rights before God. I'm not the
fallen creature that he presents me to be. God's a debtor to me. He ought to die for me. He ought
to save me. Now we don't say it that way,
but that's what we mean when we question God's fairness in
His salvation. God's fair, whatever he does
is right. And if he saves some and pass
by others, just and holy is his name. He's right. I don't come
to him questioning his fairness. No, we don't come to the Lord
that way. We're in trouble if we do. We
have no rights. But when God saves a man, he
gives him power and he gives him rights. You see, let me explain
that. When God saved me, He gave me
life. Life gives you the power to do. I now can believe. I now can
repent. I now can love. I now can persevere. It's because God has empowered
me and caused me to do these things. He's given me power and
He's given me rights. Now, heaven is mine now by right. And I want to say this with fear
and trembling. I want to say this with humility. But with every believer, heaven
is theirs by right. It's not theirs by entitlement.
It's theirs by right. I have the righteousness of Christ.
If Christ has a right into heaven, everybody in him has a right
into heaven. He gave them power and he gave
them authority or rights. It's what the Bible calls justification. Listen very carefully. The believer
has been justified. That's more than forgiven. Yes,
I'm thankful for the forgiveness of sins, but scripture says,
when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. And in dying for the ungodly,
he justified them. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Now, if I'm justified, That means
that I have no sin, that I'm not guilty, that I'm perfect
in God's sight. And heaven is mine by right,
not by entitlement, but by right. I love thinking about that. And
then it says he sent them to preach. He gave them power and
authority over all devils. and to cure diseases, and he
sent them to preach." Now, preaching is the ordained means of God
for the salvation and the edification of God's elect. What I'm doing
right now, preaching, the scripture says it, please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. If God saves you, he's
going to cross your path with a preacher. Anybody that God
saves he sends them a preacher and they hear the gospel God's
message from that preacher now Let me read a passage of scripture
to you from Romans chapter 10 Beginning in verse 13 for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Thank God
for that verse I called on him right now How then? Paul asks,
shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed? You can't
call on somebody you don't believe. And how shall they believe in
Him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sinned? Now, he sent them to preach. This is how God reveals himself
through the preaching of the gospel. You know, today's religious
assemblies don't put much emphasis on preaching. They have skits,
they have plays, they have music, everything but preaching. And
preaching just takes the back place, but not where there's
a place where the gospel is preached. Not in a true church. No, preaching
is preeminent because this is what God uses. It's not putting
importance on the preacher, but the message, the message of the
gospel. He sent them to preach, and the
subject matter of their preaching was the kingdom of God. That's our subject matter, the
kingdom of God. Now, what is a kingdom? A kingdom
is the sphere of sovereignty. To preach the kingdom of God
is to preach the sovereignty of God. Now, what is meant by
the sovereignty of God? The gospel is a message of the
sovereignty of God. What is meant by the sovereignty
of God? Now, we, our nation, we call our nation a sovereign
nation. That means we don't answer to
other nations. We're independent. And there
are many sovereign nations, and by that they mean we do not answer
to others. We make our own laws, and we're
not subject to the laws and customs of other nations. We are sovereign. Well, to say we're sovereign
is to say we're independent. Now, in reality, there's no such
thing as a sovereign nation. Everybody's so dependent. We're
dependent upon so many things. There are no sovereign nations,
and the only one who is actually sovereign is God Himself. He's
utterly and completely independent. The sovereignty of God is the
independence of God, and His sovereignty, His independence
is seen in these three areas. His sovereignty, first of all,
is seen in creation. When He created the universe,
did He ask you about it? Did He consult with you or anyone
else? No, He was utterly independent. He willed everything into existence,
totally independent. In Providence, now Providence
is everything that happens in time, everything that takes place,
He is in sovereign control of. The things you think, the things
that are passing through your mind, He is in control of those. He's utterly and completely sovereign. We're totally dependent upon
an independent God. The wise man said in Proverbs
21.1, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the
rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. There's
no such thing as luck. There's no such thing as chance.
He is in control of everything. The Lord said, not a sparrow
falls to the ground without your heavenly Father. He didn't say
without your heavenly Father knowing it, but without your
heavenly Father. He is in control of everything,
even of the most insignificant that we think of events. He is
in control of working out His sovereign purpose. And His independence
and His sovereignty is seen most especially in salvation. He calls
whom He will. He saves whom He will. Salvation's
of the Lord. And if you're saved, it's because
God the Father elected you. It's because Jesus Christ died
for you. It's because God the Holy Spirit gave you life. It's
a work of God and God only. It's not a cooperative effort
between men and God. Salvation is of the Lord. You know, I love the term sovereign
grace. We use the term sovereign grace.
Now somebody says, why do you use the term sovereign grace?
Well, I can answer that question. Because the way men use the word
grace is not the way the Bible uses the word. Here's what men
use. Religion uses this term, and
here's pretty much what they say. They say, well, salvation
is by grace now. And they mean by that God used
to be holy, He used to demand obedience, but now He's found
a way to let men off easier. You no longer have to be obedient,
now all you've got to do is accept His grace. He offers grace, and
it's yours to have it if you want it. He offers it, there
it is. You can accept it or reject it. Your salvation is dependent
upon your acceptance or your rejection of that grace. Now my dear friends, that bears
no more resemblance to what the Bible means by grace than a devil
bears resemblance to an angel. There's nothing like that at
all. God's grace is saving grace. It's not something He offers
and it's up to you to accept it or reject it. God's grace
is saving grace, sovereign grace, the electing grace of the Father
when He chose who would be saved. redeeming grace. Christ redeemed
those the Father chose. Life-giving grace. God the Holy
Spirit gives life to those the Father elected and the Son redeemed.
Salvation is of the Lord. They went preaching the kingdom
of God and to heal the sick. Now, the word sick here is quite
often translated impotent. It means powerless. This is good
news to someone who is powerless. Now, if you think you have ability,
you don't like this message. But if you're powerless and in
need of grace, this is good news to you. There's healing in this
message. 1 Peter 2, verse 24 says, who
his own self, bear our sins in His own body
on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes you were healed." Oh, the healing that is in this
message, the message of the Kingdom of God. And then the Lord said
to them in verse 3, He said unto them, in sending them out to
preach and to heal, He said unto them, take nothing for your journey. In this thing of preaching the
gospel, leave behind your arsenal of facts and your ability to
persuade and leave out all your strategies and plans and Lean
wholly on me. Don't take a staff to lean on.
Lean wholly on me. No suitcase to pull out the things
you've provided and prepared. Don't provide bread for yourself
or money to buy the bread. And certainly don't take two
coats. There's only one coat to wear. Now in this journey,
this walk of faith, we provide nothing. I was thinking of when
Abraham and Isaac are walking up Mount Moriah, God had told
Abraham, you take your son, your only son, and offer him up as
a burnt offering to me in a mountain I'll tell you of. And they went
three days journey. And when they were walking up
the mountain, just Abraham and Isaac, Isaac looked to his father
and said, here's the fire, here's the wood. But where is a lamb
for a burnt offering? You see, Abraham had taught that
boy that the only way that God could be approached is through
the blood of the paschal lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Did Abraham
understand that? Yes, he did. Because the scripture
says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He was looking to the
coming Christ. He knew that animal's blood didn't
put away sin, but he was looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
knew that blood represented the one who was to come. Abraham,
the Lord said, rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was
glad. And the boy looked at his daddy and said, here's the wood,
here's the fire, but where's the lamb? And Abraham answered,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb. You see, you can't provide
one. You can't provide, and I can't
provide anything God will accept, but thank God he does the providing. He provides the lamb. and He
provides the Lamb for Himself. Listen, the blood of Christ was
not so much for you, but for God. For God to do something
for me, He had to first do something for Himself. He had to find a
way to be just, and remain just, and to remain holy, and remain
true, and yet justify people who weren't that way, who were
unjust. And that's what the Gospel does.
He found a way to be just and justify the ungodly through the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He Himself is the Lamb. He
provides Himself as the land. Jehovah-Jireh the Lord will provide. Now we don't provide anything,
the Lord provides everything. He says take nothing for your
journey. Don't take a script, don't take a suitcase, To put
things in that you think you'll need because we have already
everything that is needed. The scripture says you are complete
in him, lacking nothing. We don't need a staff. We lean
on the everlasting arms, the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't provide our own food because He is our food. He is
that bread that came down from heaven, the living bread. We
don't bring money for food. We don't bring money to buy anything
because it's already been paid. He's already paid all the debt. You know, many people, when they
sing, Jesus paid it all, the dead I owe, what they mean is,
Jesus paid a half, the other half I owe. But oh no, Jesus
paid it all, all the dead I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow, and I do not bring anything. And
I certainly do not want two coats. He said, don't take two coats.
Now our coat, our wedding garment, is the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and there's only one righteousness, His, and we
certainly don't want to have anything to do with two coats.
We lean on Him as our covering. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauties are, my glorious dress. Midst flaming worlds in
these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. In Luke chapter
22, verse 35, he said, When I sent you out without purse, script,
and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing. You see,
when we go out on this journey carrying nothing with us, if
we're believers, we still have everything because Jesus Christ
is all. And we have everything. And then
he said in verse four, in whatsoever house ye enter into there abide
and thence depart. In Matthew and Mark's account
he said don't go from house to house, you stay in the one house. I
simply want to stay in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this also means
be satisfied to just be there in Christ and don't be looking
for something else. Don't be looking for something
better. Don't be changeable, don't be fickle, don't be luxurious,
don't be hard to please. We have a message that we want
to go into people's houses and their homes and that they come
to rejoice in the gospel. And he said in verse 5, and whosoever
will not receive you when you go out of that city shake off
the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
Now we have a message that ought to be received and is not received. But beloved, that's not because
it ought to be received. Everybody ought to receive the
gospel. Everybody ought to receive the
truth. Christ Jesus, listen to this
scripture, this is a faithful saying and it's worthy of all
acceptation, everybody ought to embrace this as the very best
news they've ever heard, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Everybody ought to
receive that message. You ought to receive that message.
I ought to receive that message. The sad fact of the matter is
many people reject this message. They fail to receive it. They
don't believe it. Now, what is it to receive the
message? Because you can't tell what rejection
is until you first see what receiving is. We read in John 1.12, But
as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the
sons of God, even to them which believe on His name." To receive
the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe on His name. You have some understanding
that salvation is holy for His name's sake. Ephesians 4.32 says,
Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you." He didn't forgive you if you're
forgiven. He didn't forgive you because you asked Him to forgive
you. He didn't forgive you because you were sorry. He didn't forgive
you because you promised you'd never do it again. The whole
and only reason He forgave you is for Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. Because of what He did. Now,
you forgive for the same. You don't forgive somebody because
they say, I'm sorry. You do it for Christ's sake.
But here's the point. We understand. We understand that salvation
is holy for His namesake. Nevertheless, He saved them for
His namesake, the psalmist said, that He might make His mighty
power known. And we receive that. This is
how I receive the gospel, all my hope. of salvation is in who
He is and what He did. I receive that, I embrace it,
I hold on to it. But many will reject this message.
And what does the Lord say to do? He says, shake the very dust
off your feet as a testimony against them. As a matter of
fact, it says in Matthew 10, verses 14 and 15 in Matthew's
account of this same thing, beginning in verse 14. And whosoever shall
not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of
that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily
I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Now those
are strong words. Sodom and Gomorrah was filled
with moral perversion and God destroyed that city for their
moral perversions and The Lord tells us, that one who rejects
my gospel, the folks from Sodom are going to have it better in
judgment than the folks who have not failed to receive my gospel. Oh, may the Lord enable you and
I to receive the message of the gospel, to receive the message
of the kingdom of God. And verse 6 says, they departed
and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Oh, take nothing for your journey. May the Lord enable you and I
to live in complete dependence upon Him in every respect, looking
to Him only as our salvation. 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
church at the information provided on the screen.