Did you? 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. The goal
I have in bringing this morning's message, if the Lord will help
me, is to bring the most simple message regarding God's salvation
that I can possibly bring. My text is found in 2 Timothy
chapter 1. I'd like to read verses 8 and
the first part of verse 9 of 2 Timothy chapter 1. Paul is
writing to Timothy. And he says in verse 8, Be not
thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God who hath saved us. Now in that statement, we have
everything a believer believes. God hath saved us. And notice the E.D. at the end of the word saved.
Not, He'll make salvation possible. Not, He'll make salvation available. Not, He'll make us to have the
potential to be saved. It says, He hath saved us. You see, salvation begins with
salvation. He hath saved us. It's not a process. It's an accomplishment. He hath saved us. Now, my wife will give me things
to do and jobs to perform. And I will say, my intention
is to finish the job. I want to finish it. But sometimes
I lack the ability to finish it. Sometimes I lack the oversight
to finish it. And sometimes, although I intended
to finish the job, I didn't finish the job. But sometimes I can
say to my wife, I have finished the job. It's already done. It's already completed. Now there is a big difference
in intending to finish something and actually having it finished. Now salvation is something that
Christ finished. What were his last words from
the cross? It is finished. Salvation is accomplished. Now, what does it mean to be
saved? And notice the E.D. on the word. Save. That's what I've entitled
this message. Save. What does it mean to be saved? People talk about being saved.
I've heard many people say, I got saved or I've been saved or the
Lord has saved me. What does it mean to be saved? Now, most people believe that
means if you're saved, when you die, you'll avoid hell and you'll
go to heaven. Now, that is indeed true. If
you are saved, you will avoid hell and you will gain the bliss
of heaven. But saved means much more than
avoiding hell and gaining heaven. And in your conscience, you know
that. In Matthew 1, verse 21, we read these words. This is
what the angel said to Joseph right before the birth or the
conception of the Lord Jesus Christ in the virgin's womb.
He said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save
His people from their sins. Now, notice it says he shall
save. It doesn't say he'll make them
savable. It doesn't say he'll make salvation a possibility
or an opportunity. It says he shall save his people. Who is it he saves? Well, not
everybody, because if he intended to save everybody, everybody
would be saved. But it says He shall save His
people. His people are His elect, those
the Father gave Him before time began. When He came into this
earth, He came as a representative of His people, His sheep. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He didn't lay down His life for
goats. He laid down His life for the sheep, His people. He said in John chapter 17, verse
9, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. but
for them which You have given Me. He shall save His people."
And what shall He save His people from? He shall save His people
from their sins. Well, what is sin? What are sins? The Scripture says sin is the
transgression of the law. Any want of perfect conformity
to the Ten Commandments is sin. The Scripture even says the plowing
of the wicked is sin. If a wicked man does it, that
makes it sin because he did it. Now, this passage of Scripture
promises that the Lord will save His people from their sins, their
iniquity, their wickedness, the bad things they do, the bad things
they think, the bad things they are. He shall save His people
from their sins. Now, how does He do that? First
of all, He saves His people from the penalty of their sins. You see, on Calvary's tree, My
sin became Christ's sin. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them His very own. He
bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. My sin
became His sin and He bore the punishment due my sin. He became guilty of my sin. He bore the punishment and now
I won't have to. There is therefore now no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Now, I'm saved from the penalty of my sins, but I'm also saved
from the power of my sin. Sin cannot reign in me. It cannot rule me. It cannot
control me. Now, somebody says, what do you
mean by that? Well, I'll tell you exactly what I mean. There
was a time when I lacked the ability to believe. There was
a time when I lacked the ability to repent. There was a time when
I lacked the ability to love God. I was dead in sin. Sin had complete dominion over
me. I couldn't see any beauty in
Christ. I didn't see any glory in the Gospel. I was unable to,
dead in trespasses and sins. I couldn't believe the Gospel
any more than I could create a universe. But when God saved
me, He gave me a new heart. He birthed me from above. And
I can now do what I heretofore could not do. I can now believe. I can now repent. I can now love
because I've been given a new nature. Sin cannot have dominion
over me. Paul promised in Romans 6.14,
sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law,
but you're under grace. And I will be saved from the
very presence of sin where I won't even have any consciousness of
sin. And that's going to be when I'm in heaven, beholding the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, I will not even
remember what it's like to be a sinner. I'll be perfectly conformed
to His image. Now that salvation, saved from
the penalty, saved from the power, and saved from the presence of
sin. Saved from the penalty of sin
by what the Lord did in the past. saved from the power of sin by
what the Lord does in the present with me, and saved from the presence
of sin when I'm made perfectly conformed to His image, beholding
His face in glory. Now, that's salvation. Yes, it's
avoiding hell. Yes, it's going to heaven when
you die, but it's being saved from sin. And that's what I need
to be saved from. Saved from my sin. Now, in our
text in 2 Timothy 1.9, it says, He saved us. Well, who is He
that saved us? God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father saved me in eternal
election. As He did all of His people,
we read in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, but we're bound to thank God
always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God had
from the beginning chosen you to salvation, saved in eternal
election. I was saved by Christ's work
in my behalf. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. I'm saved by what
the Lord Jesus Christ did in my behalf. He reconciled me.
He took the reason for anger and removed it and put it away
by putting away sin. And He now is my representative
before the Father, my great High Priest. I'm saved by Him and
I'm saved by the work of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth. We read, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost. There
was a lady that came up to a preacher one day. She'd been listening
to him preach and hearing some of the things she said that he
had said. And she said to the preacher,
I'm having a hard time understanding election. I hear you preach it.
I see it in the word of God. But what does this mean? Can
you explain election to me? And he looked at her and he said,
well, do you believe you're saved? And she said, yes, I believe
I am. I believe I'm saved. He said,
well, did you save yourself? Or did the Lord save you? She
said, oh, the Lord saved me. And he said, did he do it all
or did you help out? And she said, oh, he did it all. He said, did he do it by accident
or on purpose? And she said, I see. Saved. He hath saved us, God, the Father,
God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit, and he did it all. Now, who is the us that he saved? Well, obviously, everybody he
saved, everybody Christ represented, everybody he intended to save.
Let's look at this passage of scripture on down a few more
verses, and we can see in the context who the us is that he
saved. Verse 9, He hath saved us and
called us with an holy calling. Who are the people that He has
saved? The people He has called. Well, how can I know if I've
been called? Well, Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 1,
23 and 24. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto us or them which are
called. He doesn't call everybody, but
to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the
power of God and Christ, the wisdom of God. Now, I can tell
you how you can know if God has called you. You see Christ as
the power of God and the salvation. You see Him as everything in
your salvation. And you see Him as the wisdom
of God, how God is so wise that He's made a way to be just. totally
consistent with its justice, and yet justify someone who is
unjust through the work of Christ on the cross. He saved us and
He called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. Now,
if He saved you, you know it has absolutely nothing to do
with your works. You know that. You know that
deep down in your soul. You know that salvation is by
grace and not by works. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, if He has saved you,
you know that this salvation was accomplished outside of your
experience. Everything you have was given
you in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, do I understand
that? No. Do I believe it? Absolutely. God's elect have always been
in the Lord Jesus Christ and everything they have, whether
it be acceptance, adoption, forgiveness, everything, justification, sanctification,
it was all given them in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then he says in verse 10,
this salvation that was given to us in Christ Jesus before
the world began is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Jesus, Savior, Christ, prophet,
priest, and king, God's anointed. And here's what he did. He abolished
death. He put death to death because
he removed the reason for death. He removed sin. And so now every
believer lives before God. And he hath brought life and
immortality to light through the Gospel. I have light as to
how I can live before God. by virtue of what Christ did
for me when he came into this world and kept the law for me,
died for my sins, was raised for my justification, I have
light as to how I can have life before God. Now Paul says, where
then do I appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of
the Gentiles? This is my purpose, to preach this gospel. For the
which cause I also suffer these things. Men have no love for
the gospel, and I am persecuted because of that. Nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, not what, I
know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded, I am convinced
that He is able to keep that which I've committed to Him against
that day. Now, that's the person or the
persons whom he has saved. That's their testimony. That's
their experience. Salvation by grace. Now, when
did he save these people? Now, look again at verse 9, who
hath saved us and called us. Which came first? The saving
or the calling? Well, according to this passage
of scripture, the saving came first, then the calling. You see, everything he does is
eternal because he is eternal and everything that we have was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Salvation begins
with complete salvation. In this sense, it's not a process.
It's complete salvation. We were given this salvation
in Christ Jesus before time began. When did He save us? Well, He
saved us when Christ said, It is finished. Matthew 121, at
the beginning of our Lord's life, we already read this Scripture.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. And when He said, It is finished,
He's saying, I have saved them from their sins. He took my sin,
it became His sin. He bore the wrath of God in my
place. His righteousness is given to me and becomes my personal
righteousness, and I'm saved from my sin. When did He save
His people? When He said, It is finished,
they were all saved. When were we saved? When we believed. Not before then. As far as our
experience goes, before we believed the gospel, all we knew anything
about was being under the judgment of God. And no one has the right
to believe that God has favor toward you until you believe
the gospel. In whom you trusted, Paul said,
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. You heard the gospel and you
trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's when you were saved.
Before then, you were in darkness. But when you believe the gospel,
that's when you're saved. When are we saved? Well, when
we're perfectly conformed to His image and we don't sin anymore,
Romans 13, verse 11, Paul says, now is our salvation nearer than
when we believed. Now, how did He save us? We see
who saved us. We see who He saved. How did
He save us? What a glorious truth it is that
He saved us. He saved us from our sins. How
did He save us? Now, I want to answer that question
from the Scripture. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, for by
grace are you saved. Attai saved us by the free, unmerited
favor of God. By grace are you saved. And in
that passage of Scripture, it's stated in such a way as to say
you're completely saved, perfectly completed, ne'er to be repeated
because it's already done. By grace you have been completely
saved. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, but faith. You didn't generate
that. It didn't come because you decided
to believe. It didn't come as an act of your
will. That not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should
boast. Now listen real carefully. What
does grace mean? Not of works. If I believe that
salvation is in any way dependent upon me, in any way, I don't
care if it's even my free will. If I believe that God loves everybody,
Christ died for everybody, wants to save everybody, made salvation
available for everybody, but it's up to me as to whether or
not I'll accept it or reject it. It's in the hands of my will.
If I believe that, I believe in salvation by works. Grace
means not of works. Here's what grace means in that
same passage in Ephesians chapter two. 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 together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. I love that passage of scripture
in Acts chapter 15, where some people came into the church,
wherever the truth is preached, the counterfeit is not going
to be far behind. And we read in Acts chapter 15, verse 1,
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. That doesn't sound like grace,
does it? That's a mixture of grace and works. But I love how
Peter answered these people. He said in Acts chapter 15 verse
7, and when there had been much disputing regarding this issue
of grace or grace and works, 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 God which knoweth their hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
to us, putting no difference between us and them. No difference
between the Jew and the Gentile, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now, therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck
of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we are able to
bear? But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they,
us Jews, will be saved the same way that Gentiles will, by the
grace of God. We're saved by grace. We're saved
by the work of Christ for us. Romans chapter 5, verses 9 and
10 says, I'm having to turn, I'm drawing the middle block,
Romans 5, 9 and 10. Much more than being now justified
by blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
Saved by the death, saved by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's how we're saved by what He did for us. And the Scripture
says we're saved by faith. Thy faith has saved thee. Go
in peace. Remember when the Philippian
jailer came to Paul and Silas and said, Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? How did they answer? In Acts
chapter 16, verse 31, they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. I don't care who you are. If
you believe on Christ, you will be saved. In Romans chapter 10,
verses 9 and 10, we read, If you confess with your mouth the
Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." You see, what you believe in your heart, you'll
confess with your mouth. And someone who doesn't confess
Christ as all in salvation, it's because they don't believe in
your heart. If you believe this in your heart, that He is your
righteousness before God, you'll make confession of it with your
mouth. There's no salvation apart from confession. And Romans 10.13
says we're saved in calling. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." Now, the name of the Lord is
who He is. It's His attributes. It's the
person behind the name. It's His holiness. It's His sovereignty. It's His power. It's His wisdom. It's His grace. We call upon
His name, Lord, save me as an act of Your sovereign will. Save
me by Your justice. Save me by Your mercy. Save me
by Your grace. Save me by Your power. And whosoever,
I don't care who you are, whosoever, I love that word whosoever, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then we read in Romans 8
24 that we're saved by hope. The hope we have in Christ that
will stand justified before God on Judgment Day, that hope saves
us. We can't be saved apart from
that hope. And then we're said to be saved
through enduring, he that endureth to the end. The same should be
saved. Only that person who continues
believing all the way to the end is the person who will be
saved. And then we're said to be saved
by entering the door. The Lord said, I am the door
by me, by me. If any man enter in, he should
be saved. And I come pleading only to come
by Him. I don't come in my own works.
I don't come in my own name. I come in His name. And anyone
who enters by the door shall be saved." Now, you can know
right now whether or not God has saved you. I want to read
one final scripture. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, Paul
said, this is a faithful savior. And it's worthy of all acceptation,
everybody ought to rejoice in this, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Now, I want to ask you a question. Are you a sinner? Now, it doesn't
say he came to save believing sinners. It doesn't say he came
to save repentant sinners. It doesn't say he came to save
any adjective before a sinner. It just says he came to save
sinners. Now, would that describe you? All you are in and of yourself
is sin. You can't claim anything higher.
You have no claims on God. You can't look down your nose
at anybody. All you are is a sinner. Now, if that's what you are,
do you have any reason or any right to not believe that He
came to save you? Because it says He came to save
sinners. If you are a sinner, He came
to save you. And if he came to save you, he
saved you. And you are saved and you will
believe the gospel. Every sinner that he came to
save believes the gospel. Thank God for his salvation. 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 Knight, 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
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