You see. Me. 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 Mattawar 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 Luke chapter 4, beginning
in verse 42, we read, And when it was day, he departed and went
into a desert place. And the people sought him, and
came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from
them. They wanted to be with him. He'd healed their sick.
They had seen his miracles, and they did not want him to depart. I understand that. And he said
unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities
also, for therefore am I sent. I have to live. because I must
preach the kingdom of God." And he preached in the synagogues
of Galilee. I have entitled this message,
Preaching the Kingdom of God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ said
he was sent for this purpose. God had this intention in sending
him, that he would preach the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the apostle or sent one of our profession. He was sent of the
Father. Some people said to him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? And he replied,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. When our Lord described His people
in John chapter 17, in His great high priestly prayer for His
people, they're described as those who believe that Thou hast
sent Me. That's their faith. They believe
He was sent of God. In John chapter 6, beginning
in verse 38, the Lord said, I came down from heaven not to do My
own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the
Father's will which has sent Me. that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
that seeth the Son and believeth on him should have everlasting,
eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. And the
Lord Jesus Christ says, I must preach the kingdom of God. That's
why I was sent. And the only reason why the Lord
Jesus Christ must do anything is he must do his father's will. And this is the father's will
which sent him that he would preach the kingdom of God. Now, what does it mean to preach
the kingdom of God? Our Lord was a preacher. He said,
I must preach the kingdom of God. The spirit of the Lord is
upon me, having anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. The Lord was a preacher. Now,
I realize that preaching is derided in our day and almost looked
upon as a bad thing. And people have substituted in
religious circles skits and plays and so on for preaching. But
the scripture still says, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And our Lord's subject
matter in his preaching was the kingdom of God. Now, what is
the kingdom of God? And the reason I ask that question
is because it takes divine revelation to even see the kingdom of God.
Our Lord said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.
In Luke chapter 17, you can't look at something physically
and say, well, there's the kingdom of God or there's the kingdom
of God. No, you can't even see the kingdom of God, except you're
born from above or born again. That's what the Lord said in
John chapter 3. The kingdom of God is something a natural man
cannot see or have any appreciation of. The Lord has to reveal Himself
to us for us to have some understanding of the kingdom of God. Now, the
kingdom of God that the natural man can't see and has no appreciation
of is the only stable kingdom. The kingdoms of men will all
crumble and fall. They'll never last. Everybody
has their little petty kingdoms. or big kingdoms, whatever they
might be, they're all going to crumble and fall, and this is
the only eternal kingdom. Now, what is the kingdom of God?
The kingdom of God is His sphere of rule or dominion, His jurisdiction,
if you will. The kingdom of God is His sphere
of rule or dominion. I'd like to read you a passage
of Scripture from Daniel chapter 4. We read beginning in verse
34, and at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, at the time
he had been the most powerful man in the world, and then the
Lord turned him into a beast for seven years, and then his
understanding returned to him that he might learn something
about who God is. He says, at the end of the days,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine
understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
And I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom, the kingdom
of God of which we're speaking, is from generation to generation,
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand, stop his will from being
done, or say unto him, What doest thou give an account for yourself?
He's God, and he answers to no one because of who he is. Now
here's his kingdom. It extends over everything. He's
absolutely sovereign, and his will is done in heaven and in
earth. That's the sphere of his kingdom.
But we also read Now, his kingdom is infinite in that sense, but
we also read of people being not far from the kingdom, and
we also read of people being thrust out of the kingdom. So his kingdom, when he's speaking
of the kingdom of God, not only is he speaking of his infinite
kingdom, but his kingdom is where his rule is acknowledged and
embraced. That's where his kingdom is,
where his rule is acknowledged and embraced. Now, in this kingdom
there are great mysteries. He said to his disciples, it's
given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom and all the mysteries
of the gospel. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. I speak a great mystery, Paul
said, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. These
are mysteries that we can't know unless God is pleased to make
them known. He's made them known in His Word,
and He's revealed them into His people. Oh, the mysteries of
the Gospel. Oh, the mysteries of this kingdom. It's so awesome and majestic
and mysterious. And only the believer can know
these mysteries. You know, Paul said in 1 Corinthians
5, the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. There's a lot of words. It's
one thing to say, I believe. It's another thing to believe.
It's one thing to say, I repent. It's another thing to repent.
It's one thing to say, I love. It's another thing to love. It's
one thing to say, I forgive. It's another thing to forgive. It's one thing to say, I pray.
It's another thing to pray and have God hear me. It's one thing
to say, I have fellowship with God. It's another thing to have
fellowship with God. You see, the kingdom of God is
not in word, but it's in power and it's in reality. Now, this
leads me to ask this question, what is essential to his kingdom? The kingdom of God. Well, it's
the sphere of His rule and dominion. It's where His rule and dominion
is embraced and loved and rejoiced in. But what is it that makes
up this kingdom of which Paul said it's not in word, it's not
in speech and talk, but it's in power? Well, what's essential
to a kingdom? Three things. There must be a
king. There must be subjects of the
king and there must be the law of the king or the government
or the rule of the kingdom. Now, first, let's talk about
the King. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the King of saints in Revelation 15, 3. His subjects are saints,
and He's the King of saints. He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. Now, remember what a king is.
We have a hard time grasping this in our day, but when the
Bible speaks of a king, it speaks of someone with absolute authority. You see, in those days, whether
you lived or whether you died, whether you prospered or whether
you were impoverished was up to the King. He had that authority. And why was our Lord crucified? What was the accusation written
over His head? This is Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of the Jews. They didn't nail Him to a cross
because of His good deeds. They didn't nail Him to a cross
because of His miracles. They didn't nail Him to a cross
because of Him feeding the poor and healing the sick. They nailed
Him to a cross because He claimed to be King, the one who has absolute
rule and reign, the King of the Jews. He was born King of the
Jews. That's why Herod wanted to put
him out of business and kill him. He wanted to kill all the
kids that were two years of age and under at that time because
he wanted to kill him who was born King of the Jews. Now when our Lord is King, and
He's called the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, that means
He has absolute sovereign control and authority. He is the King. That's why they crucified Him.
We'll not have this man reign over us. You've got no choice. He is the King. Revelation 19,
16, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now a king has a throne. Remember when Isaiah said he
saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up? Now His throne,
which speaks of His authority, His sovereign authority. Whatever He wills must come to
pass. It means He's in control. What
does a king do? A king rules. A king reigns. This is speaking
of His rule and His reign. He has an eternal throne. Thy throne, O God, is forever. That's what God the Father said
to God the Son. Thy throne, O God, is forever. It's an eternal throne.
It never had a beginning, and it'll never have an ending. And
then it's a throne of holiness. The psalmist said, justice and
judgment are the habitation of thy throne. And thank God it's
a throne of grace. Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace. A king not only has a throne,
a king has a scepter. Remember them giving Christ a
hollow reed for a scepter and making fun of him and smiting
him in the face because of his scepter? But he was holding a
scepter at that time that they couldn't see. It's called a scepter
of righteousness. His scepter is a scepter of righteousness. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. And here's what this scepter
says. Now, this word righteousness, the Gospel is about the righteousness
of God. Listen to this Scripture. Romans
chapter 14, verse 17. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. It's not meat and drink. If you
eat this and drink this, you'll be more pleasing to God. And
if you refrain from eating this and drinking this, you won't
be as pleased. It's not about man-made rules and regulations.
It's not do's and don'ts. It's not touch not, taste not,
and handle not. That's what most religious people's
religion is around. What you do or don't do. The
kingdom of God has nothing to do with that. The kingdom of
God is righteousness. It's how a sinner can be righteous
before God. Now that's what I'm interested
in. How can I be righteous before God? 2 Corinthians 5.21 says,
For He, God the Father, hath made Him, the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be sin. For us, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now that's what the Kingdom of
Heaven is about. You see, my sin, the sins of the elect, the
sins of those who believe, the sins of those whom Christ died
for, were placed on Christ and He bore them. They became His. He was actually made sin. You want to know what sin is?
Look at the cross and there you'll see what sin is. When He was
made sin, and look how God dealt with Him, He forsook Him. He
turned His back on Him. He poured His wrath upon Him
because He was made sin. And just as truly as He was made
sin, every believer is made the very righteousness of God. For He has made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. He never sinned in His person.
He never committed a sin. But He was made sin when the
sins of His people became His that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness. How God can make a sinner righteous. How God can be just and yet justify
the ungodly. And what comes from that? Peace. The peace of God that passes
all understanding. The joy and peace of believing
that knowing that all God requires of me, I have. When He said it
is finished, God could ask for no more. And He could receive
no less. and the believer is complete
in the Lord Jesus Christ, what peace I get from that. He is
all my salvation. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy. What joy we
experience in having Him as our righteousness and Him as our
peace before God, knowing that all God requires of me I have
in the Lord Jesus Christ. What joy we have through that. Now, King, has a crown. The Scripture says, on His head
were many crowns. The crown of the King, the crown
of the Savior, the crown of the one Mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, His crown of glory. And he has all
these crowns on his head because he one day wore that crown of
thorns in obedience to his father. He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore,
God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee is going
to bow. And every tongue is going to
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. A king has a royal robe. You
remember how his robe was seamless? It couldn't be divided? You see,
his kingdom cannot be divided. It's absolute. Truly, hail Jesus,
the King of the Jews. Jesus of Nazareth, the Eternal
King, sitting on a throne, ruling and reigning, with his scepter
of righteousness, his crown and his royal robes. He is the Lord
of lords and he is the King of kings. Now, a king has subjects. There's no such thing as a king
without subjects. Who are the subjects of the kingdom of God? We read in Revelation 15.3 that
he's king of the saints. You see, every believer is a
saint, a saint of God. It means sanctified one. Every
believer was sanctified by the Father in eternal election, set
apart to be holy. Every believer was sanctified
by the Son when He died, made holy, declared to be holy. Every
believer is sanctified by the Spirit of God when they're regenerated
and born again. He's the King of saints. But
you know how else the scripture describes the subjects of his
kingdom? Well, in Luke chapter 6, verse
20, we read that the subjects of his kingdom are poor. Poor. Blessed be poor, for yours is
the kingdom of God. When they're poor, that means
they don't have anything to commend themselves to God. They don't
have one single thing about them, not one penny's worth of merit
or righteousness. They have nothing wherewith they
can recommend themselves to God. They're poor, but blessed are
the poor. You see, it's only when you have
nothing that you can receive Christ as everything. Now, if
you have something, you can't receive Christ as everything.
Oh, the gospel is a sinner's religion. Thank God for that.
Christ didn't come, you know, all other religions are for good
people, but the gospel's for bad people. Thank God for that,
the poor. And then we read in Revelation
17, 14 of him being king of kings and lord of lords, and they that
are with him are called, chosen, and faithful. Now, there is a
description of the subjects of his kingdom. They are called. called by invincible, irresistible
grace. called by the gospel. We preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, called
by God, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and
Christ, the wisdom of God. The believer sees Christ to be
nothing less than the power of God unto salvation and the wisdom
of God, how he can be just and yet justify the ungodly. And
they're chosen Chosen by God. Our Lord said in John 15, 16
to His disciples, you did not choose Me, but I chose you and
ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. I don't
believe in a second in free will. People talk about, well, you've
got to make your choice. Now, we do what we want to do. I realize
that, but it's because He made us willing. If we believe the
gospel, it's because of what He's done for us. And He said
to His disciples, you did not choose Me. Somebody said, I chose
Jesus. The Lord said to His disciples, you didn't choose Me, but I chose
you and ordained you. This is talking about election.
This is the elect of God. They that were with Him are called,
they're chosen, and they're faithful. It's required in a steward that
a man be found faithful. They're faithful. They believe,
and they can be believed. They're honest. They trust, and
they can be trusted. They rely upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, and they can be relied upon. They that are with him
are called chosen and faithful. Let me read this scripture to
you from Psalm 110. This is talking about the Lord's kingship. The
Lord, David said, said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send
a rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst
of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing.
in the day of thy power." You see, all of the subjects of His
kingdom are willing. They're willing for Him to be
King. They're willing for Him to get all the glory and salvation. They are willing to do His will
because He's worked in them both to will and to do His good pleasure. You see, their will has been
changed. This doesn't have anything to do with free will. By nature,
we have an evil will, chained to an evil nature. But when a
man is born again and given a new heart and a new will and a new
nature, well, the Lord put it this way, except a man be born
again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But when you're
born from above, you're given a new nature, a new will and
a new desire. Those are the subjects of His
kingdom. They're saints. They're poor. They're called, chosen and faithful. and they're willing. Now, what
about the laws of his kingdom? We see who the king of kings
is, and we see who his subjects are. What about the laws of his
kingdom? You see, the king has law. He
has rules. He has a government. What are
the laws of this great king? What is it that the subjects
of this great king, what are the laws that they keep? under
his kingship. Well, we read in Matthew chapter
7, the Lord said, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of God, but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven. Now, here is the great law doing
God's will, keeping God's commandments, not just admiring, not talking
about Him, but there's an actual doing of His commandments. The
Lord said, He that loveth me is the one who keeps my commandments.
What commandments do I actually keep? Now, I've kept the Ten
Commandments perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ, because when
He kept them, I did. But I can't look at one commandment
and say, I've kept that one. But here's a commandment that
I personally have kept. Our Lord said in 1 John, or John
said, this is the Lord saying, this is John, we're reading verse
23 of 1 John chapter 3, and this is His commandment. that we should
believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another
as He gave us commandment. Now here's a commandment that
I keep. I believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. I do not look anywhere for salvation
but Him and Him only. His name is the only thing that's
going to bring me into heaven. And I do love His people." Anyone
who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, I really do love. My heart goes
out to them in a true and genuine love. Now, this is the keeping
of His commandments. We actually believe the gospel
and we love His people. Now, here's a law of the kingdom. We are to do His will, keep His
commandments, believe the gospel, love. Listen to this, in Matthew
chapter 18, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus
saying, Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus
called the little child unto Him and set him in the midst
of them and said, Verily I say unto you, except you be converted
and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this
little child, the same is great in the kingdom of heaven. Now,
the rule of the kingdom of heaven is take the lowest seat. It's
humility. It's humbling yourself as a little
child. Oh, may God give me grace to
take the lowest seat always, really believing that's where
I belong rather than that being an act of condescension, but
actually believing that's where I belong, humbling myself before
God, Believing what he says, taking the lowest seat, confessing
I'm nothing but a sinner saved by the grace of God. True humility. And then in Luke chapter 9, we
read where we can't look back. No man having put his hand to
the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Now
once you put your hand to the plow, if you look back, you're
no longer fit. Now what does that mean? I think
the best Example of that is in John, chapter six, when our Lord
gave this sermon. And the people didn't like what
he said, and they left five thousand people who claimed to be his
disciples left after they heard that message. And he looked at
his disciples and he said, will you also go away? Now, I'm not
going to keep doors open, that's what you want. Will you also
go away? If after you've heard the gospel
of God's grace, how God can be just and justify the ungodly
through the gospel, and if you turn back to works, you're not
fit for the kingdom of God and you will not be saved. No man
having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the
kingdom of God. And 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 Nivert 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 a request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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