I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. 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 Nybert. I want to speak to you from 1
Corinthians chapter 2, where Paul was speaking to the church
of Corinth. Now, before I read the scripture
that I want to read, I want to read a scripture from Acts chapter
18 that tells us something about this church of Corinth. It was
a very large church. Paul preached 18 months in Corinth
for the establishment of this church. And this is when God
spoke to him. Verse 9, Then spake the Lord
to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and
hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this
city. Corinth was a large city And
the Lord gave Paul the assurance that he had a whole lot of his
people, his elect, those for whom Christ died, those who would
believe the gospel. There were many people in this
city. And Paul is writing to this church
at Corinth, and he says in chapter two, verse one, he reminds them
of how he came to them when he first came preaching the gospel.
He said, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony
of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I made this my determination,
not to know, not to esteem as important anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Now, Paul tells us how he came,
and understand this, Paul is the model. Now, in every profession,
there ought to be some kind of progress. I don't want to have
a doctor who has not been to school recently or one who hasn't
been trained with 21st century techniques. Would you want a
doctor looking at you that did what they did 200 years ago?
Of course not. You would want one who has learned
and benefited under all that people have learned. And in every
profession, there ought to be some kind of advancement. I mean,
building, whatever, there's advancement. But in this thing of preaching,
if I am advanced beyond what Paul did, I'm wrong. I'm to do things exactly as he
did it, exactly as the scripture says. And when he came into Corinth,
he said, when I came to you, and this is the way I want to
come, he said, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God, Now when I preach, I
want to speak well, and I want to do so in true wisdom. So when
Paul says, I didn't come with excellency of speech and of wisdom,
he's not talking about true eloquence, speaking from the heart, speaking
as inspired by God. And he's not talking about that
true wisdom that God gives. He's talking about human rhetoric
and human wisdom. I did not come with excellency
of speech. In verse 17 of chapter 1, Paul
says to the church at Corinth, for Christ sent me not to baptize. I didn't come to baptize people. Now, we believe in scriptural
baptism. Baptism is the believer's public
confession of Christ. Baptism by immersion, it pictures
the gospel. When I'm baptized, I confess
that my only hope is that when Christ lived, he lived for me.
And when he died, he died for me. I was in him. When he was
raised, he was raised for me. I confess that baptism is very
important, but our purpose is not to gain converts. Our purpose
is not to build a church. Our purpose is not to get a following.
Paul said, I didn't come to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That's my purpose. Not with wisdom
of words. lest the cross of Christ should
be made of none effect. Now what are wisdom of words? It's man's attempt to make the
gospel understandable to the natural man. It's man's attempt
to make the gospel more pleasing to the flesh. It's man's attempt
to make God's gospel easier for a natural man to receive. It's
dressing it up. It's packaging the gospel in
a way that will make it appealing to the flesh. Now that's what
wisdom, and that would describe most preaching in this day. It's
preaching the gospel with the wisdom of words, trying to make
it more appealing and more attractive to the flesh. Not preaching the
naked truth as it is in God's word, but trying to make men
more likely to receive it if we package it this way. Now Paul
said, when I came, I didn't come preaching the gospel with wisdom
of words, trying to package it in a certain way. You see, when
we do that, All we do is make the cross of Christ of none effect. God will not bless that. He won't own it. No one is saved
through preaching like that. No one is born of God. No one
is born again. God does not use that. Why should
He? He's God. He doesn't need our
help and our inventions to help out His gospel. He said, 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. And then he says in verse 18,
for the preaching of the cross, that word preaching could just
as easily be called the word of the cross or the doctrine
of the cross, the preaching of the cross. Now, the cross, listen
to this statement very carefully. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the whole counsel of God. And let me repeat that. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the whole counsel of God. Before time began, Christ was
called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And
when time is over, the song of heaven will be, worthy is the
Lamb that was slain. And right now, there's only one
message to preach, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
the preaching of the cross, what is meant by the preaching or
the doctrine of the cross? Is that simply talking about
the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was nailed to a cross,
suffered, bled, and died? Well, that's certainly part of
it, but why did he do it? What did He accomplish in doing
it? Now the cross, if you want to
know who God is, the only way you'll know and the only way
I'll know the true character of God is by what the cross tells
us of Him. Now, the cross tells us that
God is absolutely just. He will not let sin go unpunished. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. And when the sins of God's elect
were placed upon Christ, the son of God, he became guilty
of those sins. And God did not clear him. It was the justice and law of
God that slew the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, men were allowed
to do it, but God is just. God is holy. God hates sin. But oh, in the cross, we see
the mercy of God. He gave His Son to save sinners. We see the love of God. We see
the wisdom of God, how He's so wise that He's made a way to
be just and yet justify the ungodly. We see His sovereignty and salvation
with those two thieves. One He saved, the other He passed
by. We see His power in putting away sin. We see His power in
making people holy. It's all seen in the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We see the true character of
God. God cannot be known, savingly,
apart from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But not only in
the cross do we see the true character of God, we see the
true character of man. Now, if you want to know what
you're really like, Don't just look at the things you've done
or the bad things you've done. Those are bad. I'm not saying
they're not, but don't look at the things you've done. Look
at the cross. The one time men were allowed
to do what they wanted to do. And God took away the restraints
and left men to themselves, left men to their own will. They nailed
his son to a cross because they hated who he was and they hated
his claims. They said, we will not have this
man reign over us. And when they were given the
opportunity, they nailed him to a cross. And that's how bad
I am. That's how bad you are. If God left us to ourselves,
we'd put Him out of business. Now, we feel comfortable with
the false God that's in our pocket and we can get Him to do whatever
we want. We can manipulate Him and get Him to do this or not.
No, but the God of the Bible, the absolute sovereign, holy
God of glory. That God, by nature, we hate
and we'd knock him off his throne if it were in our power. Thank
God it's not, but we would. The cross gives the true character
of man, and the cross gives us the true character of salvation.
That one who is hanging on the cross, when he said it is finished,
he accomplished the salvation of everybody he died for. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. Now, the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. Those people who do not believe.
Those people who see no glory in this message, they're perishing. They're under the wrath of God.
They do not believe. These are people who are not
saved. When they hear the preaching of the cross, to them it's foolishness. And that word foolishness means
morally worthless. They see no beauty in the message
of the cross. They see no glory to God in this
message. They see no safety for themselves.
They consider it morally worthless, but unto us which are saved. Oh, this is a group I want to
be in. Those who are saved. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Now to those people who are saved,
God's done something for them. He's done something about their
sin. He's forgiven it. He's put it away by what Christ
did. He's given them a new heart. He's given them, He's regenerated
them. They've been born from above.
They're kept by His power. To those who are saved, Preaching
of the cross is the very power of God. And the power of God,
the power of God, you know only He has power. Any power you or
I have is a borrowed power. We don't have any power in and
of ourselves. I think of when Pilate came up
to Christ and he said, don't you know that I have power to
crucify you and I have power to release you? And the Lord
said, you wouldn't have any power at all over me, except it be
given thee from above. The power of God. The power of
Christ. The preaching of the cross is
the power of God. Now there's something, let me
tell you something that only the power of God can do. Only
the power of God can create. Only the power of God can bring
something to existence that was not there before. And only the
power of God can cause something that is to be no more. It's gone. It's obliterated.
It's wiped. It's not there. You know what?
I've heard that matter can't be destroyed. It can only, it
can change, it can change, like wood can turn into ashes when
it's on fire and it changes form, but the matter itself cannot
be destroyed. Energy's always here, but God
can make something that is to not be. Only God can do that. And here's the power of the cross. God made me to be, through the
cross, what I was not in any way. He made me to be righteous
before Him. He made me to be holy, and my
sin, which was most real, is put away so that it is not. Everybody Christ died for stands
before Him without sin. To those who are saved, the preaching
of the cross is the very power of God unto salvation. For it's
written, verse 19, God says, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, and I'll bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent,
those who believe themselves to be wise. Verse 20, where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom, by its own
wisdom, knew not God. You take the wisest men of the
world. You take Socrates and Plato and Aristotle of the Greeks.
They were the wise men just before the birth of Christ. And they
were considered the most wise of this world. The world by its
own wisdom knew not God. Canst thou by searching find
out God? No, you can't. The world by wisdom knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. What's going on right now? It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Now, Paul said, this is how I
came to you. I came not with excellency of
speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God. And
this is what true preaching is. It's nothing less than a declaration
of the testimony of God. I'm not trying to embellish it.
I'm not trying to help it. I simply declare it. The message
of the gospel is not explained so much, but declared. And it's
glorious mysteries that we believe. We don't so much understand them
as believe them. Can you understand how God can be one God and three
distinct persons? God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit? No, I don't understand that, but I believe
it. I believe it. Do you understand how God can
take the sins of His people and impute them and charge them to
the Lord Jesus Christ so that they become His and He becomes
guilty of them? I don't so much understand that, I believe it.
It's what the Bible teaches. Now the preaching of the cross
is to them the parish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it's
the power of God. Paul said in verse 2 of our text,
for I determined I made this my resolve, not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." I don't care
about politics. I don't care about right wing
or left wing. I don't care about all the issues.
Now, that doesn't mean we don't have an opinion on issues, but
it's not even important. Here's the only message of the
preacher. to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, who He is. He's the Son of God. He's God's
Christ. He's God's prophet. He's God's
priest, and He's God's king. He's the only Savior of sinners.
We preach Him crucified, not just the fact of His crucifixion,
but what He accomplished by His death. I love that story of the
man of transfiguration when the Lord appeared to James and John
and Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, and He was glorified before them.
His deity burst through His humanity. The Scripture says His face shined
like the sun. And there were two men talking
to Him at this time, Moses and Elijah, the representative of
the law and the representative of the prophets. And you know
what they were talking about? Luke 9.31 says, they spake of
the decease which He should accomplish. You see, when he said it is finished,
the salvation of all of the elect was accomplished. It was finished. Sin was put away. Righteousness
was established for every one of them. There's only one message
to preach. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And Paul said, I made this my
determination not to even know anything else, not to talk about
anything else. Paul was a man of one subject. And by the grace
of God, I want to follow in his steps. I want to be a man of
one subject, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And then he says in verse three,
and I was with you when I came. Now, remember he, he came with
the assurance that the Lord had much people in this city and
he knew the Lord had sent him there. And no doubt he was confident
in that, but look at the way he says he came. He says, I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. He didn't come with some cocksure,
arrogant attitude. He said, I was conscious of my
own weakness and my own insufficiency for the task of preaching the
gospel, knowing that if the Lord doesn't build the house, our
labor is in vain. It must be His work and His work
alone. I was with you in fear, fear
of misrepresenting God. Afraid of myself, knowing how
easily I could be deceived apart from the grace of God. Much trembling. Not some kind of cocksure, arrogant
attitude. I was with you in weakness and
fear, and much trembling. And if Paul came that way, that's
the way every preacher of the gospel ought to come. With an
attitude of weakness, knowing my own weakness, and my own need
of his grace, my own need of his revelation, my own need of
his help. fear and much trembling. And then he said in verse four,
when I came to you, my speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom. I didn't come with enticing persuadable
words of man's wisdom. You see, I'm not trying to talk
anybody into anything. I'm not trying to entice you
to believe. My job is to preach the truth and leave you alone
with God, not using enticing words of man's wisdom. You know,
if I talk you into something, somebody else can talk you out
of it. We're not interested in that. You know the way churches
try to train people to be witnesses. Have you ever thought about how
corrupt that is? To train someone to be a witness? You are a witness
if you've seen something. And when you give testimony,
you testify what you've seen. You don't need to be trained
to do that. There's something corrupt about that. You speak what you've
seen. You give testimony to what you've
witnessed. That's what a witness does, and
that's what a gospel preacher does. He preaches that which
God has taught him. He's testifying. We're not using
enticing words of man's wisdom, trying to present the gospel
in such a way that we can affect you with it. But in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, we preach the truth and completely
rely on God the Holy Spirit to work faith in His people. Now,
I tell the truth, and I leave you alone. And I ask the Lord
to do something for you. I ask Him to do something for
me. looking to the power of God, not human power, but the power
of God. The cross is the power of God.
The gospel is the power of God into salvation. And then he says
in verse 5, here's why I did this. Here's why I came, not
with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the
testimony of God. Here is why I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Here is why I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much
trembling. And here is why my speech and
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Here's why, that your
faith, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men. but in the power of God." Now that word stand can just
as easily be translated be. That your faith should not be
in the wisdom of men, but that your faith should be in the power
of God. Now, the power of God. What a glorious subject, what
a glorious thing to think about, the power of God. The power of
God is His ability. Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God,
being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able
also to perform. God's ability. I want your faith
not to stand in man's wisdom, but in God's ability. Salvation is of the Lord. Paul
said in 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I have believed, and I'm
persuaded he is able. There you go. He is able. to
keep that which I've committed to him against that day. The
Lord said, thou has given him power, talking about himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ, thou has given him power over all flesh
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given
him. He said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And what power is displayed in
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's where we see the mighty
power of God. On the cross, God made my sin
to where it was not. And now I stand before God justified. Understand this about justification.
Justification is not, as some people say, just as if I never
sinned. Justification is, I never sinned. You see, my sin became
Christ's sin, and He put it away. He was manifested to take away
our sins, and that's what He did. In Him is no sin. If I'm
in Him, I have no sin. I stand before God just. What
power that God could actually put away my sin and make me absolutely
righteous in His sight. What power is displayed in the
new birth when I'm given divine life. Scripture says we're partakers
of the divine nature. What power is displayed by God
in the fact that I'm kept and that I haven't fallen away and
that I continue in the faith? What power will be displayed
when I'm made to be perfectly conformed to the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, the power of God. Now, I'd
like to read a passage of scripture in closing. He said, I don't
want your faith to stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Romans 1 16. And second
Timothy chapter three, verse five, Paul warned us of those
who have a form of godliness. They're religious. They go from
the scriptures. They have a form of godliness.
but they deny the power thereof. From such, turn away. If you see a light bulb shining,
how would you deny the power of it? Well, first you could
deny it by denying the source of the power, or you could deny
it by denying the means through which that power is carried.
Or you could deny it by denying the reality of that power, denying
that the light is shining. Now, men having a form of godliness,
a form of our religion, and yet denying the power thereof. You
deny the source of the power when you put it in man rather
than God. If I'm saved, it's because of
the will of God, not because of my will. If I give man's will
the credit, I've denied the power thereof. You can deny the power
by denying the means of the power. It's the gospel that's the power
of God into salvation. That's all God uses is the gospel. And if I think salvation can
come apart from the gospel message that I've just preached, I deny
the power of God. Or you can deny the source of
that power. I mean, the reality of that power,
and you do that when you say someone is saved when they don't
believe the gospel, or when they're walking contrary to Christ. You
say, well, they're saved anyway. No, that's denying the reality
of the power of God's salvation. Oh, Paul says, I want your faith
to stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now we have this message on CD
and DVD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg, praying
that God, by His power, will be pleased to make Himself known
to you. 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.