Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. 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. I've entitled the message for
this morning, the minister's commendation. I'd like to read
from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. Paul the Apostle
says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry as we've received
mercy, we faint not. We don't lose heart. We don't
give up. But have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
uncovering of the truth, making naked the truth. We commend ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. What is the minister's
commendation? Manifestation of the truth. Telling the truth. Making bare
the truth. Paul said, seeing we have this
ministry, this ministry of the New Testament, this ministry
of grace as opposed to works, the ministry of the covenant
of grace, seeing we have this ministry as we've received mercy. It's by mercy we have this ministry. It's by mercy we continue in
this ministry. Because of that, we faint not.
But we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Most, quote, ministries are things
of dishonesty. Most of what goes on under the
name of Christianity is dishonest. It's not real. Now, I say that
because most ministries do not try to uncover the truth and
make bare the truth. They package the truth. They
try to make the truth more appealing to the flesh. They try to package
their ministry to make it appealing to their consumers. That's about
what it is. Now, when we first started the
Todrow Grace Church, I got a real taste of this. I remember when
we started this church, there was another church that started
the same year and claimed to have similar doctrine. I thought,
well, if they're doing it, I believe that I'd just go ahead and join
up with them rather than have this church. This was a long
time ago. And I remember I went to their opening meeting and
they had a game plan, a five-year, a ten-year, what all they wanted.
They wanted to have a school and all these different things.
But they said, the way we're going to make the church grow,
they hired a demographer to find out where the population was
growing and they were going to put the church there to have
it in that place where they could get more of their consumers,
I suppose. And he said, what we're going to do, we're going
to have focus on the family tapes in your home, you know, help
people raise kids and so on. And that'll create the interest.
And that's the way we can get them to get in to hear the gospel.
Now, my dear friends, that's dishonest. That's all it is. It's covering up. It's an agenda of some kind.
It's not making bare the truth. Whenever someone packages the
gospel to try to make it more appealing to the flesh, it's
wrong. It's a thing of dishonesty. Paul
said, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking
in craftiness. The word means all working. They'll
do everything and anything to accomplish their ends. They adopt
secret methods of accomplishing their ends that they would be
ashamed to avow openly. They seek to cover what they're
really doing. They're seeking to remove the
offense from the cross They're seeking to make their message
more palatable and easier to be received because they don't
really believe the true message. So, they don't make the message
naked. They don't manifest the truth. They seek to cover it up. Now,
Paul says, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. using the scriptures and pulling
them out of their context to prove corrupt doctrine. You can prove anything you want
from the scriptures if you pull it out of its context. I don't
care what doctrine you want to sell. You can get it from the
scriptures if you pull it out of its context and twist it.
And that's what he's accusing these people of. He says, we
haven't done this. but by manifestation of the truth."
Now here is the true minister's commendation. By manifestation,
by making naked, by making bare, by uncovering the truth, we commend
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Now listen
to this. When you hear the truth, Your conscience tells you that
it's the truth. Now, you may not like it. You
may even become angry or you may rejoice. I don't know. But
when you hear the truth, you know it's the truth. God has
given every man a conscience. Now, if conscience doesn't always
work, I realize that we can sin so much it works less, if that
makes sense. But that being said, everyone's
born with a conscience that will enable them to know that what
they're hearing is the truth. Now, the truth recommends itself,
and I believe so earnestly that what I'm preaching is God's truth,
that I'm willing to preach it and leave you alone with God,
and God will take care of the results. Here's the true minister's
commendation, manifestation of the truth. I'd like to make some
statements regarding the truth from the Scripture. First, the
truth is a person. It's not merely a proposition.
It's not a set of doctrines. The truth is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth. and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. Now, in the truth being a person,
that means that what we believe is determined by who we believe. The truth is not a what, it's
a who. And what we believe is determined
by who we believe. Now, let me try to illustrate
that. If you believe that Jesus Christ is God Almighty, if you
believe that He is the Creator of the universe, as the scripture
says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. If you believe that regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him." If you believe
He is who the Bible presents Him to be, it would be impossible
for you to believe that He could fail in His intentions. You couldn't
believe that He could die for somebody and pay for their sins
and they'd wind up in hell anyway. It would be impossible to believe
that if you really believe Him. I think of what Paul said, who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. That's
the only answer that's needed. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified them. Who is he
that condemns? It's Christ that died. If he
died for me, I cannot be condemned. I can't be anything but saved. So you see, what we believe is
determined by who we believe. The truth is a person. In John chapter 17, verse 17,
the Lord said, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is truth. Now, the Bible is the truth. This is God's revelation of Himself. The inspired, inerrant Word of
God. That's what the scripture claims
for itself. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. That's what the Bible claims
for itself. Peter said this, knowing this
first, that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation,
for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now, I realize people will make
objections, well, didn't men write the Bible? Well, God used
men. The Bible came through fallible,
sinful men. There's no doubt about that.
But when God moved them, there's no error. Now, if he's able to
create the world, he's able to give us this perfect book, and
that's what he does. The Scripture is the truth. All we're going to know of God
is seen in the Scripture. This is his revelation of himself. And the third statement I'd like
to make from the scriptures regarding the truth is that there is no
worship without the truth. The Lord Jesus said in John 4,
24, God is spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, there are two things
that are absolutely necessary for worship. First, God the Holy
Spirit. They that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit. You see, the natural man is unable
to worship God because we're dead in sins. We can't render
acceptable worship in and of ourselves. I have to be given
a new nature. I have to be born of the Spirit.
So, in order to truly worship God, We must have the Holy Spirit,
and secondly, we must have the truth, the truth of the Gospel,
the truth of how God saves sinners. Paul said in II Thessalonians
2.13, But we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. and belief of
the truth. Wherever you have the one, you
have the other. Wherever you have the work of
the Spirit of God, you have belief of the truth. And wherever you
have true belief of the truth, it's because of the work of the
Spirit of God. There is no worship of God without
the truth. Now, I'd like to read a passage
of Scripture in John chapter 1, where it is said of the Lord,
beginning in verse 14, and the Word was made flesh. God became man. He took upon Him flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, whatever truth
is, It has something to do with grace. He was full. He is full of grace and truth. In verse 17 of the same chapter,
we read, For the law was given by Moses. Talking about the Old
Testament, the law was given by Moses. By law, That means
salvation by works, salvation dependent upon what you do. The
law was given by Moses. The law is true. But the law
is not the truth because the law doesn't tell all the truth.
The law doesn't tell us how God saves sinners by His grace. The
law only gives us half of the information. And if all I do
is give half the truth, what am I doing? I'm telling a lie.
The law, and I'm not saying the law is a lie, I love God's holy
law, but still the Bible says the law was given by Moses and
everything in the law is true, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. The truth has something to do
with salvation being all of grace. Now, salvation is 99% by grace,
that means it's 100% by works. Salvation is all of grace. Now, what do I mean by that?
Or what does the Bible mean by that? First, you've got to go
back to election. God, by His grace, chose who
would be saved before time began. Those He chose, He selected,
He elected, He determined that they would be saved by His grace.
God the Son came and represented those people and kept the law
for them and died for their sins. And God the Holy Spirit in time
comes irresistibly and invincibly and by His grace He gives them
life so that they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and every
aspect of salvation is by grace. It's not of works, it's not of
man's free will, it's not of man's effort, it's the grace
of God. Truth has something to do with
grace. And my dear friend, there is
no faith apart from hearing and believing the truth. You can't
believe what you have never heard. It is impossible. There is no faith, there is no
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ apart from hearing and believing
the truth. Let me give you the scripture
to back that up. Ephesians 1.13 says, In whom you trusted, after
that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Paul said in Romans 10.13-15, How shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach, except
they be sent? James 1.18 says, Of His own will
begat He us. This is talking about the new
birth of His own will, not by man's will, but by God's will.
Begat He us with the word of truth. Now, in order to hear
the truth, we have to be of God. In John chapter 8, the Lord asked
this question. If I say the truth, why don't
you believe me? Isn't that a powerful question? If I say the truth, why don't
you believe me? He that's of God, heareth God's
words. You, therefore, hear them not,
because you are not of God. Now, in order to hear the truth,
you have to be of God. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Exactly what it says. You have to be of Him. You can't
be of the flesh. You can't be of works. You have
to be of God. You have to be one of God's elect. You have
to be somebody that God does something for. You see, salvation
is not what you do for God. It's what He does for you. And
in order for me or you to hear the truth, we must be of God. He must do something for us. Salvation is described in 1 Timothy
2.4 as coming to the knowledge of the truth. Repentance is defined
in 2 Timothy chapter 2 as granting them repentance to the acknowledgement
of the truth. Faith is called in Titus 1.1,
the faith of God's elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which
is after godliness. And Paul warned us of those who
are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. And my dear friends, the truth
is something that is known. The Lord said, you shall know
the truth. And the truth shall set you free. Now, it's not your knowledge
of the truth that sets you free. It's the truth himself. Remember,
the truth is a person. And he says, you shall know the
truth and the truth shall set you free. And he went on to say
a few verses later, If the Son shall make you free, that's what
He means by that. If the Son shall make you free, you are
free indeed. If He sets you free, you're truly
free. The truth is known. Now, I'd
like to close by looking at John chapter 18 in verse 33. We read, Pilate entered into
the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto Him, Art
Thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered and said, Sayest
thou this thing of thyself, or did others telleth thee of me?
Pilate answered him, Am I Jew? Thine own nation and the chief
priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is
not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore
said unto him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest
that I am king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth." That's why Christ came. He said, I came that I
might bear witness. And that word bear witness is
where we get the word martyr from. He bore witness by his
own blood to the truth. And Pilate's reply was, what
is truth? Is there such a thing? Is there
such a thing as absolute truth? If there is such a thing, can
we really know the truth? Is the truth worth this? Is the
truth worth you dying for? is truth. And Christ said, I
came to bear witness to the truth. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
nailed violently to that cross, when He was beat up, when the
thorns were pressed upon His head, when He was tortured He
bore witness to the truth. The cross of Christ is the truth. Now, what do I mean by that? If you want to know the truth
about yourself, do you? You know, people say, I don't
know myself, or I want to find out who I am. Do you really want
to find out who you are? Take a look at the cross, and
that is who you and I are. When God takes away the restraints,
when he leaves a man to do what he wants to do, he becomes a
God murderer. Now here's the truth regarding
you and I. If left to ourselves, If left to our own will and the
corrupt desire of our own heart, we would kill Jesus Christ. Somebody says, there's no way
I would do that. Well, you may not be angry with the Christ
that you feel comfortable with, the one you've made up, but I'm
talking about the Christ of the Bible. When God let men do what
they wanted to do, they nailed Him to a cross. Now, that's the
truth. See that one writhing in anguish? On that tree, there is the truth
concerning the true character of God Almighty. The cross is
the manifestation of the truth of the character of God. God
is just. He's utterly impartial. He's
going to punish all sin. Now remember, when Christ was
on the cross, the sins of His people became His sin, so that
He became guilty of it. The Father wasn't treating Him
as if He were guilty. He actually became guilty through
the sins of His people being imputed to Him. And God is just,
He will punish sin, even if it's on His own soul. Son, there's
no respect or persons with God. He doesn't respect persons. He's
utterly impartial, perfectly just, holy. He hates sin, but
I see more than that. I see the purpose of God. God's
purpose for His Son to come and it's being fulfilled. He was
called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We see
the holiness of God, His hatred of sin, but we see the wisdom
of God, how He's made a way to remain just and yet justify somebody
who in themselves is not just. Only God could do that. Oh, how
we see the love and the mercy and the grace of God. Every attribute
of God is displayed. in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If you want to know who God is,
He is known through the cross. This is how God saves sinners.
See that one hanging on that tree? In your mind's eye, there's
the truth regarding salvation. When He bowed His mighty head
and said, It is finished, That meant the salvation of everybody
he died for was finished, completed, nothing left to do. Now, what
this tells me is that salvation was accomplished without me,
without my works. When he said it is finished,
my salvation was accomplished. Oh, that's good news to me. I
don't have to look to myself for a thing. He did it all. Somebody says, well, don't you
have to believe? Yeah, you have to believe what I'm saying. He did it all. That is the truth regarding salvation. Salvation is not by my works
or your works. It's by the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He accomplished salvation by
what he did on Calvary's tree. Now, that's the truth. That's
the truth. The cross tells the truth regarding
who man is. Completely evil. And the cross
is proof of that. The cross tells the truth regarding
the true character of God. All of God's attributes are displayed
in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the cross tells the
truth regarding salvation. That's why Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's one last scripture
I would like to consider regarding this thing of the truth. It's
found in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Beginning in verse 8, Paul
is talking about the coming of Antichrist, and he says, Then
shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of
Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because,
listen real carefully, because they receive not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved. Maybe they received parts
of the truth, but they never received the love of the truth. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have
pleasure in unrighteousness. But Paul says, we're bound to
thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Now, that's the truth. And that is what commends a man
as being truly sent of God. This is the minister's commendation,
not where he went to seminary, not what kind of education he
has, how big the church he has or any of that foolishness. It's
not his brilliance or his oratorical abilities or his charisma. It's
the simple making naked the truth. Thank God for the truth of grace. Now, we have this message on
CD and DVD. If you call the church, email
or write, we'll send you a copy. And we'd like to invite you to
services at Todd's Road Grace Church. We begin Bible study
this morning at 9.45. The morning worship service is
10.30. And the evening worship service
is 6. And we would love to have you come out and visit with us.
This is Todd Knight, praying that God will be pleased to make
Himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. 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.