It's not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for, Lord, that would not be. 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 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 Galatians 1, verse 6, Paul
says to the Galatians, I marvel, I'm amazed, that you are so soon
removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. Now, the church at Galatia was
going in a wrong direction. If you read this epistle, you'll
find over and over again where Paul is warning them. He says,
I stand in doubt of you. He said, I prevail in birth until
Christ be formed in you. In Galatians 3.1, he says, O
foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey
the truth? Why are you going in this direction? Now, if you
read the epistles of the New Testament addressed to the various
churches, all the churches had their problems. You look at the
problems in the church at Corinth, for instance. And if somebody's
looking for the perfect church, if you find it, don't join it
because you'd ruin it. I've seen people looking for
the perfect church, and that's just self-righteousness. Churches
are filled with sinners needing the grace of God. But in all
the epistles of Paul to the various churches, he would always commend
them. But he did not commend the church at Galatia. He said,
I stand in doubt of you. I marvel that you're so soon
removed from Him that called you to the grace of Christ unto
another gospel, a gospel that is a perversion of the truth,
a gospel that does not save. Now, that's a serious accusation. And the theme of the book of
Galatians is the recovery of the gospel. They had heard the
gospel. They had seemingly believed the
gospel, but they'd left. And Paul said, I'm amazed. What
has motivated you to do this? Why would you leave the grace
of Christ unto another gospel? Now, the need at that time is
the need for today, a recovery of the gospel. We have all kinds
of things going on under the name of Christ in Christianity,
in the Bible. We've got plenty of religion,
but we've got no gospel. We've got super churches supposedly,
but no gospel. What is the gospel? That is the
great need of our day, is the recovery of the gospel. Now notice,
he says, I marvel that you're so soon removed from Him that
called you to the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Now, the gospel that they were
leaving has something to do with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said to the Corinthians,
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though He
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor That's talking
about what happened to him on the cross. He was rich in righteousness.
He was made sin. He became poor in righteousness
when he was bearing the sins of his people. He was rich in
praise. Now he's the butt of jokes. For
your sakes, he became poor that you through his poverty might
be rich. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the gospel is the gospel
of the grace of God. Now, what does the Bible mean
by grace? It's not what men make it. Men make grace God's offer,
God's sincere offer, His intention to save you if you'll just let
Him. It's a potential salvation, a salvation that might be if
you allow it to take place. Now, that's not grace. That's
just man-made works. That's putting salvation ultimately
dependent upon man. The grace of Christ, first of
all, is electing grace. Now, the Bible teaches the doctrine
of election. You can't read the Bible and say, no, it doesn't.
I mean, the Word's there dozens of times. God chose who would
be saved before time began. And what that tells us is that
salvation is all of grace. That's all it says. You can't preach grace and not
preach election. There's electing grace. There's
justifying grace, where God takes a sinner who is guilty before
His law, and He causes it to where they're not guilty, to
where they stand without sin, justified. There's redeeming
grace. A redemption that actually redeems.
If Christ died for you, you must be saved because His blood actually
made payment. It's an atonement that atones.
A redemption that redeems. It works. Everybody He died for
must be saved. Now somebody may listen to that
and say, are you implying that He didn't die for everybody?
No, I'm not implying it. I'm saying it. He died for His elect
and He accomplished their salvation. Grace is life-giving, regenerating
grace that causes someone to live. It gives a new heart and
they're made to have life in Christ and believe the gospel
and love God. Grace is preserving grace that
keeps somebody from going off into the air of Galatians. It
keeps somebody continuing in the faith, grounded and settled
and not being moved from the hope of the gospel. Oh, the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said, I marvel, I'm
amazed that you're so soon removed from Him that called you to this
unto another gospel. Now, I with Paul don't marvel
pretty much at anything any men do. Men are such sinful, weak
creatures, frail creatures, fragile creatures. And I'm talking about
myself too. I'm not amazed by anything when I hear somebody
did this or somebody did that. I'm disappointed, I'm heartbroken,
but I'm not amazed. But I am amazed if someone seemingly
hears of the grace of Christ, the saving grace of Christ, and
goes back to salvation by works. Why would you do this? Paul went
on to say in this epistle, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched
you that you should not obey the truth? Now he goes on to
say in verse 7, speaking of this other gospel, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert or change
the gospel of Christ. It's not a different gospel that
will save, it's a perversion. And a perverted, a perversion
of the gospel will not save anyone. Now Paul says in verse 8, and
look at the strength of this language, but the we or an angel
from heaven Preach any other gospel unto you than that which
we've preached unto you. Let him be accursed." Now, do
you hear what Paul's saying? And Paul's somebody who loved
the souls of men. He said in Romans chapter 9, I could wish
that I myself were accursed from Christ, from my brethren, my
kinsmen according to the flesh. He said, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. This is a man who loved the souls of men. But He says,
if any man preaches any other gospel, Let him be damned is
what that means. Let him be sent to hell. Let
God put him in hell and let him have no mercy if any man preaches
any other gospel. And he says in verse 9, as we
said before, so say I now again, just in case you didn't hear
me, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which
you have received, the first gospel you have heard, let him
be accursed. Let him be anathematized. Let
him be sent to hell. Now remember, Who's speaking? This is Paul speaking under the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And he's not being harsh, but
he loved these people and he didn't want to see them go in
the direction they were going. Now he says in verse 10, regarding
the things that he had just been saying, for do I now persuade
men or God? Is this about me trying to please
men or please you? make you to be pleased with the
things I'm saying, trying to draw you in. He says, do I seek
to please men? If I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. Now, false gospels always have
this at their core. They're trying to please men.
Not trying to please God. Now, I want you to be pleased
with what I'm saying in the sense that I want you to believe it.
But there's only one person that I'm concerned about being pleased
with this message, and that's God Himself. If he's pleased,
everything's fine. And I know with regard to God's
people, you want to hear somebody who seeks to please God and not
to please men. A man pleaser is always going
to please the flesh, but he's never going to preach the truth.
He's always going to tone it down to make it more plausible
and pleasing to the flesh. But Paul says, for do I now persuade
men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men,
I should not be the servant of Christ. I would not be his servant. And it says in verse 11, but
I certify you, brethren, I assure you that the gospel which was
preached of me is not after man. It was not derived from any human
source. Now, versions of the gospel are
designed to please men, and they come from men. Paul says, the
Gospel that I preached unto you was not derived from any human
source. Verse 12, I neither received
it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Now Paul says, man did not give
the Gospel to me. Man did not teach the Gospel
to me. I was given it by the direct revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now here is the authority behind
true preaching, the gospel, Paul says, what I'm preaching came
directly from God Himself. It came directly from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul was the man God used to
expound the gospel. The Lord had His hand on Paul
in an unusual way, and the gospel of grace is expounded by Paul. Paul was a sinful man, like me,
like you, but Paul's gospel was infallible. And any deviation
from Paul's Gospel is a deviation from the Gospel of God. So he
says, I didn't receive it of man, neither was I taught it,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ revealed the Gospel
to me, and He sent me to preach the Gospel. And what we know
of the Gospel is seen in the writings of Paul as clear as
anywhere. He's the man that God used. Now, the Gospel of Paul,
the Gospel of God, Paul called it my gospel because it was the
gospel that saved him, is utterly unique. There's nothing like
it. It is a perfect gospel, perfectly
suited for a sinner's needs. It's called the revelation of
Jesus Christ. He's the one who revealed it,
and He Himself is what is revealed. who He is, what He did, where
He is now. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. You're made to see who Jesus
Christ is. He's God. He's the only Savior
of sinners. He's the only way to the Father.
And this is a perfect gospel. Now, the false teachers were
seeking to discredit Paul. And he shows what they were really
doing was seeking to undermine the authority of what the gospel
is. Let me show you a passage of
Scripture in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13. Paul says, For such
are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
as the apostles of Christ. They claim to be sinned to Christ.
And this is no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an
angel of light. His main sphere of operation
is the pulpit. His main sphere of operation
is not in the bar and the gambling casinos. His main sphere of operation
is in what men call the church and religious organizations.
He comes as an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works. And back to our
text, Paul gives us a little biographical information. He
says to the Galatians, for you've heard of my conversation in times
past in the Jews religion. He's talking about what he was
before God saved him. Oh, he was a he was a straight
laced man. He was a zealous man. He said,
I have a beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it. He said, I thought it was my duty, I thought it was my
inherent responsibility to persecute anybody who didn't believe the
way I did, who didn't believe what he considered the Jews'
religion. He thought it his moral obligation to do that. And he
says in verse 14, I profited in the Jews' religion, above
mine equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous
of the tradition of my fathers. I was going somewhere. I was
a big shot in the Jews' religion. I was really making it, but But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." I
didn't check this out with men to see if they were in agreement.
God taught me the gospel, and that's the gospel I preached.
But when it pleased God. I was very happy in what I was
doing, very successful. I profited in the Jews' religion
above many mine equals of my own nation. But God interfered. God stopped me on the road to
hell. God arrested me when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb. Now, why were
you saved, Paul? Because it pleased God to save
me. When were you saved, Paul? When it pleased God to save me.
when it pleased God. Now, the only reason Paul was
saved and the only reason that you or I will enter heaven is
because it pleases God. There's no other reason. God's
will. The Lord said, I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hid these
things, God hid these things from the wise and prudent and
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight." Now, if I'm saved, it's simply because God
was pleased to save me. It's what's called sovereign
grace, discriminating grace. Now, what do you mean by that
somebody thinks? That's a bad word. It's bad to discriminate.
Well, of course it is as far as between men. But what I'm
talking about is God making a difference. Paul said to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7, who makes you to differ from
another? Who discriminates you from somebody
else? Who makes you to differ from
another and what do you have that you didn't receive? Now
if you're a believer, you know this is so, the only reason you're
saved is because God made a difference for you, in you, for you. God the Father made the difference
in eternal election when He chose you before time began to be saved.
God the Son made the difference in redemption when He died for
your sins and put them away. That person who ends up in hell,
He never died for them. That person who ends up in hell,
God didn't choose them. God makes the difference. God
the Holy Spirit makes the difference in salvation. He gave you life.
Let me ask you these four questions. Four questions. Now, most folks
believe that God loves everybody the same, Christ died for everybody
the same, God the Holy Spirit's calling everybody the same, making
salvation possible, but it's up to you. Now, let's take Peter
and Judas. Peter was saved, Judas wasn't.
If God loved them both the same, if he loved Peter and Judas equally,
what does the love of God have to do with salvation? Nothing. If Christ died for them the same,
if He paid for Judas' sins and He paid for Peter's sins, yet
Peter is saved and Judas is lost, what does the blood of Christ
have to do with salvation? Not a thing. If God willed the
salvation of Peter and Judas equally, and Peter is saved and
Judas is not, what does the will of God have to do with salvation?
Absolutely nothing. You see, sovereign grace. That's the only kind of grace
that saves. There are people, I realize, who want to quarrel
with this. They have no problem with a God
they can control. They're fine with that. As long
as you let men have what they think is their free will, that
they can let God save them whenever they want to, that salvation
is in their hands and they can control when and if they're saved,
they have no problem with a God like that, but a God they have
no control over, the living God. The one who doeth according to
his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand, will say unto him,
What doest thou? That God, the God of absolute
sovereign control, they don't love that God. They don't love
Him because they can't control Him. Everybody wants a God they
can control, but my dear friend, God cannot be controlled. And
God does not negotiate with sinners. He rules, and His will is always
done. Now, if you feel hostility toward
this God, let me remind you, this is who the God of the Bible
is. Whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, this
is who the God of the Bible is. And if absolute sovereignty were
placed in the hands of a man, we would have reason to fear.
But this God, who is absolutely sovereign, is absolutely just. He's absolutely righteous and
He's absolutely holy. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? This is a reason to rejoice and
not find fault. But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb. Just like He said to Jeremiah,
before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before I formed
you in the valley, before you were conceived, I knew you. You see, with God, everything
is in the present. And He knows His people. Now, He doesn't know everybody
like this. What about that crowd in Matthew chapter 7 who said,
Lord, Lord, have we not preached in Your name? In Your name have
we not cast out demons? And in Your name have we not
done many wonderful works? And then shall I say unto them,
depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew. Oh, he
knew who they were. He knew all about them, but he
didn't know them in the sense of loving them and knowing them
to be his. But here's Paul's testimony,
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace. Now, God's elect have always
been united to Christ. They've always been one with
Christ. Now, do I understand that? No.
I don't understand it at all. I don't understand how I've always
been united to Christ, but I believe it. Both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. He says regarding
His people, Behold, I have loved you with an everlasting love. We've always had personality
before God. He's always known His people.
There's never been a time when He didn't know His people. They've
always been united. As I said, understand it, no,
but believe it with all my heart. Now notice the order Paul gives
it. When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace. God's will is the separation
and then there's God's call. He called me by His grace. Now this is talking about the
effectual saving call of God's grace. Listen to this scripture.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, then
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, then He also called. This is that
call that He gave Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth, and he that was dead
came forth. This is irresistible, invincible
grace. And I tell you this, when He
calls, you'll come. The Lord said in John 6, 37, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. Now notice the language. But
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. Now, did you hear the language?
He didn't say to reveal His Son to me, but to reveal His Son
in me. If Christ is merely revealed
to me, it will not do me any good, because the me is no good. I'll lose that. I won't keep
that. I'll leave that. If He's simply
revealed to me, that won't do me any good because the me is
so bad. I hope you understand what I'm
saying. But if Christ is revealed in me, Christ in you, the hope
of glory. I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself for me. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, I appeal to every child
of God, if you believe, you know it's not you. You know it's Christ
in you. You know you wouldn't believe
unless He was in you. You know you wouldn't repent.
You know yourself enough to know that you would be nothing but
sin and that you would not come to Christ unless He first came
to you. You wouldn't love Him unless He first loved you. And
it's Him in you that causes you to believe. It's in Him in you
that causes you to repent. It's Him in you that causes you
to love. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And notice He says
to reveal His His Son in me, that I might preach Him among
the heathen." That I might preach Him. This is the message of the
Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ. Who He
is. He's God, the Creator of the
universe. He's Man who came in the flesh. We tell what He did when He came
in the flesh. When He came, He kept God's law
perfectly. He obeyed God perfectly. And when He was nailed to the
cross, He put away the sins of everybody He represented. What
He did, He did as a representative man. When He kept the law, He
kept the law for everybody He represented. When He died, He
died for everybody He represented. When He was raised from the dead,
He was raised from the dead for everybody He represented so that
everybody He... when He... was raised, everybody
he represented was raised in the mind and purpose of God.
And we're actually said to be seated together in the heavenlies
in him, with him, even now. That's how complete his work
is. Where is he now? He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, ruling and reigning in absolute sovereign control,
interceding for all that the Father has given him. And because
of that, we can say, these things are right unto you that you sin
not, but if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is our message. That I might
preach Him among the heathen, united with Him, chosen in Him,
redeemed by Him, justified by Him, called by Him, and it's
all for His glory. That I might preach Him among
the heathen, he says immediately, I conferred not with flesh and
blood. Now, somebody may be even thinking, well, if what that
guy's saying is so, well, this church doesn't believe that,
and that church doesn't believe that, my mom doesn't believe
it, my dad doesn't believe it. Now, when you hear the gospel,
you quit talking like that. You don't confer with flesh and
blood to see if it's okay. You don't check out with men
to see No, when you hear the gospel, you hear it as the gospel.
You hear it as the Word of God. You hear it as the absolute truth,
and you know that you do not need to confer with men as to
whether or not it's true, because you see it's true according to
the Word of God. Paul said, I didn't need to make
this conference. He said in 1 Thessalonians 2,
verse 13, now this is the way the gospel is to be heard, and
this is the way you don't confer with men when you hear it. In
1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, Paul said, For this cause also
thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the
word of God, which you heard of us, you received it not as
the word of men, not as a man's opinion, not as a preacher's
opinion, not as religion's opinion, but as it is in truth, the word
of God, which effectually also worketh in you that believe.
Oh, what a statement! When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen. Immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood. I knew that was something
I did not need to do. Now we'd like to invite you to
services at Todd's Road Grace Church. Our Bible study begins
at 9.45 this morning. The morning worship at 10.30.
This evening we meet at 6 o'clock and you'll hear the gospel of
God's grace preached. 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 Knight, a friend
that 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. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.