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 Nyberg. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 16, the
Apostle Paul tells us why he had received mercy. Let me read
this verse to you. He says in verse 16, Howbeit
for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should
believe on Him to life everlasting. Paul tells us that God had mercy
on him, that Jesus Christ demonstrated His longsuffering to him, that
he might be a pattern as to how God saves sinners. If God has
saved me, If God has saved you, we will follow this pattern. We will fit into this mold. The word pattern is also translated
a form. It is taken from the cast or
frame into which molten metal is poured so as to take its shape. Now, the question is, do I fit
into this mold? This is a mold that I want. to
fit into. Now I admire and I respect individuality. I like people that are different
and you know in reality we all are different. We all have a
different fingerprint. We all have a different gene
pool. We all have different experiences in life that makes us what we
are and we're all different. We're born with certain characteristics
that make us different from anybody else. Different is good. I love and respect individuality. I love somebody who is his own
man. I love somebody who thinks for themselves. I love someone
who's not trying to conform, but someone who is truly being
himself or herself. You know, some people seem like
they've never had an original thought or an idea, but I like
people who are different. I like people who are not like
me, who walk to the beat of their own drum. We admire that. Difference
is good. I may not see or even agree with
your point of view, but I respect you for having your own point
of view and your own perspective. We're all individuals. We're
not cut out of the same pattern. We don't fit into the same mold,
and that's good. All that being said, here is
a mold I want to fit into. Here is a pattern I want to follow. I want to be a cookie-cutter
Christian in this sense. I want to fit into this mold
that Paul says that he is the pattern to those who would hereafter
believe. He says in verse 16, howbeit
for this cause I obtain mercy. Now, you only get mercy when
your sin is all your fault. If you have any excuses, it wasn't
mercy, it was yours by way of entitlement. But if your sin
is all your fault, there's mercy. There's mercy. Isn't that wonderful?
God is a merciful God. God delights in mercy. Now, Paul says, How bid for this
cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth all longsuffering? Now, Peter tells us in 2 Peter
3.15 that the longsuffering of the Lord is salvation. If God
is longsuffering for me or you, that means He has saved us. That
means He's saving us. That means He will save us. In the first, Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering. Patience. Forbearance. He won't
quit. Endurance. In me first, Jesus
Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern, a mold to them
which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Now, if the Lord has done something
for me, I will fit into this mold. The Apostle Peter fit into
this mold. The Apostle John fit into this
mold. They were all very different men, but they all fit into this
mold. They'll have the same pattern. They'll have the same experience.
But follow that. You might not be riding on a
horse, but you're going to get knocked off your high horse.
You might not be literally blinded by the brightness of the sun,
but you'll be blinded and you'll see that you're nothing but sin.
You're going to find out the same thing Paul did. The God
of our fathers has chosen thee that you might know his will
and see that just one and hear the voice of his mouth. For thou
shalt be his witness to all men of what you've seen and what
you've heard. Every believer has the same experience. Now,
Paul says, he saved me that I might be a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him unto life everlasting. Now, it's my
prayer that God will give you and I some honesty, that we may
look at ourselves in this sense to see if we fit into this pattern
that Paul says God has made him. Now, the first thing Paul says
is, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord. Paul gives the Lord Jesus
Christ all the credit for salvation. Now, if you ask the average religious
person who gets the credit for your salvation, I suppose probably
all of them would say God or Christ, but their doctrine would
deny that they really believe God or Christ gets the credit. Why do I say that? because they
believe in what is known as free will. God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. God
wants to save everybody. But it's up to your free will
as to whether or not you're going to accept what He did. Your destiny
is not in God's hands. Your destiny is in your hands. That's what's known as free will. Now understand, first of all,
There is no such thing as free will. No one has a free will. Your will is controlled by your
nature. You see, God doesn't have a free
will. He's got a will. But He doesn't have a free will.
His free will is controlled by His nature. That's why He cannot
lie. His truth, His nature is truth. He lacks the ability to lie.
There are things God can't do. He can't sin. He can't deny Himself. His will is controlled by His
nature. Now, He has a will. There is such a thing as the
will of God, and the will of God is always done. He doeth
according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say
unto Him, What doest thou? Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He. There is such a thing as the
will of God, but it's not free. Now, he can do, he acts according
to his holy will. And men do not have a free will,
their will is controlled by their nature. We have a will, we do
what we want to do. We don't do what we're forced
to do, we do what we want to do. If I sin, I did what I wanted
to do. I hate it that it's that way,
but that's part of the wickedness of human nature when you sin
you do so because you want to do it. Nobody forced you to do
it. You can't say the devil made me do it. You did it. Whatever
we do, we do. We're not constrained. We do
so freely in that sense. It's not like somebody is forcing
us. But our will is controlled by our nature, a fallen, sinful
nature. You see, when Adam ate the fruit,
he became spiritually dead. That means he became evil. He
became evil. So, his will was controlled by
an evil nature. A tiger, if he wanted to, could
eat grass. Who's going to stop him? You
could tell him no, but his nature won't let him. It's his nature
to eat meat, not grass. A man has a will, no doubt about
it, but the will is controlled by the nature. So, if you believe
in free will, you're actually giving yourself the credit rather
than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to think about
that. If you believe in free will, that's what most people
believe. God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. God
wants to save everybody. But it's up to you to decide
to accept what He did or decide to reject it. It's up to you. Let me say this another way. Let's take Judas and Peter. Judas we know was not saved.
He's called the child of perdition, the son of perdition. Peter was
saved. If God loves them both the same,
what's the love of God have to do with salvation? Nothing. It didn't do anything for Judas,
even though God loved him just the way Peter did nothing. If God willed the salvation of
them both, Judas just as much as Peter, what's the will of
God have to do with salvation? Nothing. If Jesus Christ died
for the sins of Judas just as much as He did for the sins of
Peter, what's the blood of Christ have to do with salvation? Nothing.
You see, that view is a view of salvation by works. That's
all it is. Salvation by works. Now, Paul didn't say, I thank
my will that I turn to. If you believe in free will,
quit praying to God. Pray to the person. Oh, your will needs
to change. There's no point in praying to
God. If you believe in free will, you need to go to that person
and try to change their mind and change their will. Free will
is ridiculous. It's not taught in the scripture.
It's heresy. Paul said, I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord. He gave Christ all the credit
for he has enabled me. What I do is because he enabled
me to do it. If I believe, it wasn't an act
of my will that caused me to believe. It was him enabling
me to do it. If I repent, it's because He
enabled me. If I love Him, it's because He
enabled me. Whatever I do spiritually, it's
because He enabled me. He gets all the credit. I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, for He counted me
faithful. He enabled me to be faithful.
And this is what every believer is. Faithful. They believe. And they can be believed. They
can't be bought. They believe, and they can be
believed. They rely, and they can be relied
upon. They trust, and they can be trusted. Every believer is faithful, the
faithful in Christ Jesus. And the reason that I'm faithful
is because He enabled me to be faithful. I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord, for He enabled me, counting me faithful, and put
me into the ministry. The ministry of the New Testament.
The ministry of the New Covenant. The Gospel. Grace. Do you fit
into this mold? You give Christ all the credit?
Whatever you do spiritually, He enabled you? He's caused you
to be faithful? Are you faithful? How do you
fit into this mold? Now let's go on reading. He says
in verse 13, Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor, and endurance. Paul had a before. Now, in this
before, he was very religious. He said, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, I was blameless. He was very religious. He studied
the Scriptures. He was very zealous. He had a
zeal for God. But all it was, was evil. He said, who was before, a blasphemer. Everything I said was blasphemy. wrong railing speech toward the
living God. I was injurious. I was a persecutor. I was an
evil person. Have you ever before? Let me
ask you a question. Have you ever been lost? You
know, if you've never been lost, you've never been found. Has
there ever been a time when you were an enemy of God? Somebody
says, no, I've never been an enemy of God. Well, you've never
seen your sin then. You don't really have an experience
of grace. You see, Paul had it before. Who was before? A blasphemer and a persecutor
and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly
in unbelief. I was so ignorant, so willingly
ignorant, I was so given over to unbelief, I was so guilty
before God that the only way I could be saved is for Him to
simply have mercy on me. Not because of anything I've
done, but because He willed to do it. This is not saying I obtained
mercy because I didn't know any better than what I was doing,
therefore it wasn't that bad, kind of like the guilt is mitigated by that.
No. He said I was so given over to
ignorance and unbelief that the only way I could be saved is
by obtaining mercy. Verse 14, he says, And the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, the word exceeding abundant
is not an adjective describing grace. It's a verb telling us
what grace does. Let me show you where else it's
used like this. In Romans chapter 5, verse 20,
we read, Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound,
overflow. When you see God's law, you see
that all you are is sin. The law entered that the offense
might abound, but where sin abounded, every place where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. There's the word. Grace did much
more abound. It over-superabounded even over
the sin. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace superabounded toward me. Now do you fit into that mold?
Has grace superabounded toward you? The grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Now this is what happens Wherever there's grace, there's faith
in Christ, there's love to Christ. This is the evidence of abounding
grace. When God's grace abounds to somebody, they believe the
gospel. They rely upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they love the Lord Jesus
Christ. They love Him as He is. They can say with Peter, Lord,
you know all things. You know that I love you. That is what every believer does. He believes. He loves. That's the evidence of abounding
grace. Do you fit into that mold? Now,
let's go on reading. Verse 15. Paul says, This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Now, this
verse of Scripture, getting ready to read is my personal favorite
verse of scripture. Now I've got a lot of favorites.
By grace he is saved, through faith, great is the mystery of
godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. I've got a lot of
favorite scriptures. It is finished, oh how I love
that, it is finished. But here's my favorite of my
favorites. This is a faithful saying, You can rely on this. You can count on this. And it's
worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to embrace this
as the best news they've ever heard. All of it should be accepted
and it should be accepted by all. It's worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus, Christ, That's His offices. Christ, God's prophet,
the Word of God, the One who brings the Word of God to me.
Christ, the priest, God's priest, the One who represents me to
God. He said, no man cometh to the
Father but by me. He is able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him. sin he ever lived to
make intercession for them. He's God's priest. If he represents
me, I must be heard. God always hears him. If he represents
me, I'm heard, I'm safe, I'm secure in him. Christ, the King,
God's King, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, the One
who rules, the One who reigns. And I need His Kingship to rule
and reign in me. I need Him to cause me by invincible,
almighty grace as the King of Kings to cause me to do His will. I need Him as my Prophet. I need
Him as my Priest. I need Him as my King. Christ
Jesus came into the world. He invaded. history. He came into the world. Whoso
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God. We confess that He was before
He came, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. We confess He came
into the world. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God was manifest in the flesh.
He came in the world, the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
became flesh. He came into the world. And He
kept God's holy law. He did what He came to do. He
came to save His people from their sins. Matthew 1.21 says,
I shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. And that's what He did. He came
into the world. Now hear this scripture. This is a faithful saying. And
it's worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save. That's why He came. He didn't
come to condemn the world. The world was already condemned. He didn't have to come into the
world for the condemnation. The condemnation was already
here. We've already sinned against God. He came into the world not
to condemn, but to save. Now, who did He come to save? What if you'd never heard this
verse of Scripture before? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save blank. How would you listen? I'll tell
you how you'd listen. You'd listen like a man who is
hearing the reading of a will to see if his name was in it
and see what was coming to him. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save blank. Who did He come to save? I know
this because of who He is. Whoever He came to save, He succeeded.
He didn't come to save somebody and fail. The Lord's no failure.
Everybody He came to save, they'll be saved. Now, who did He come
to save? What if it said Christ Jesus
came into the world to save the good people? Where would that
leave you? Where would that leave me? What
if it said He only came to save righteous people? Well, that
would mean He didn't come to save me. What if it said He came
to save believers? Well, that would be true. But
what if I felt like I couldn't come up with any faith? That
wouldn't be good news to me. What if it said He came to save
the elect? Well, that would be true, but
that wouldn't necessarily be good news to me if I don't know
whether or not I'm one of the elect. Who did He come to save? Tell
me. Listen to this. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. No adjective before the Word.
It doesn't say believing sinners. It doesn't say repenting sinners.
It just says sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Now, I am one of them. I fit
that description. I fit into that mold. If He came
to save sinners, then He came to save me because one thing
I know about myself, I am a sinner. And I'm not saying this bragging
about it or proud of it. I'm ashamed. But I am a sinner. What is a sinner? A sinner is
the one who commits the sin. The sinner is the one who breaks
the law. A sinner is somebody who all they do is sin. You see,
as long as I have a sinful nature, that means anything I do is sin.
I don't care if it's my preaching, I don't care if it's my Bible
reading, my witnessing, there's flesh in it. All I do is sin
and I cannot not sin. A sinner is someone who can't
look down his nose at anybody. He can't look at anybody in moral
superiority. He knows that in and of himself,
he's nothing but sin. A sinner is someone who has no
claims on God. If God passed me by, if He saved
everybody but me, He'd still be just. He'd still be holy.
I couldn't find fault with Him. I'm a sinner. Christ came to
save sinners. The songwriter said, a sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made Him so.
I have not found many sinners. Most folks are good. Most folks
have some ability. But, oh, you find me a sinner,
a real bona fide sinner, someone who is guilty before God, that's
the person Christ Jesus came to save. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief, Paul said, He
didn't say, I used to be the chief, but now I'm a lot better.
No. He said, I'm the chief of sinners right now. Now, Paul
wasn't hanging out in bars and things of that nature, but he
knew who God was. And the clearer view you have
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is, the clearer view you'll have
of yourself, and you'll see that you're nothing but a sinner in
and of yourself. Paul says, I am the chief of
sinners. I'm the worst man to ever live.
That's how Paul viewed himself. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Now how does He go about doing
that? When He came into this world, He kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned. No, not even in thought. And
yet, He was nailed to a cross. Why? Because God took the sins
of His people. and place them on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thou shalt call His name Jesus
for He shall save His people from their sins. And here's what
He did. He saved His people from their
sins first of all by justifying them. My sin was punished in
Christ and His righteousness is given to me Therefore, I have
a perfect standing before God's holy law. I'm justified. I have
no sin. I'm saved from the penalty of
sin. I'm saved from the power of sin. He did this by His work
for His people. Now, there was a time when I
couldn't believe. I do now. There's a time when
I couldn't repent. I do now. There's a time when
I couldn't love. I do now. It's because I've been
saved from the power of sin. And bless God, one of these days
I'll be saved from the very presence of sin. I'll be perfectly conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, He came to save
His people from their sins. Now, my question is, did He do
it? If He came to save sinners, did
He do it? Yes, absolutely he did. When
he said, it is finished, that means he did what he came to
do. He saved sinners. Somebody says,
when were you saved? Well, I'll tell you when I was
saved. First of all, I was saved in the mind of God before time began.
Viewed in the Lamb's flame from the foundation of the world.
When were you saved? I was saved when Christ said, it is finished.
My sin was put away. When were you saved? When I heard
the gospel and believed. That's when I was saved. And
I'm relying on Him. He got the job done. He finished the work the Father
gave Him to do. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And when He died
for the ungodly, every single one of them were justified. Now, here's my question. Do I
fit into this mold? Am I the chief of sinners? Paul said, he was, and if I know
anything about my sin, I'm going to say the same thing about myself.
Do I fit into this mold? Now, he said, how be it for this
cause, I obtain mercy, that in thee first, Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering for a pattern, for a mold, for
a form, to them, that's me and you, which should hereafter believe
on him to life everlasting. Do I fit into the mold? 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 Nybert praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you, that you might
fit into the mold by His grace. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at podsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.