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, Todd Nyvert. As far as men go, I suppose
I would have to say that my hero is the Apostle Paul. He was a
very remarkable man, brilliant, passionate, loving. He actually said with regard
to his enemies, I could wish that I could be cursed from Christ
if they would be saved. He is the man that God used more
than any other man to expound the gospel. He was the twelfth
apostle who took the place of Judas. Now remember there are
only twelve apostles. We read of the 12 apostles of
the Lamb in the book of Revelation. There are not 13 or 20. When
men claim to be apostles, they're phonies. There were only 12 apostles,
and Paul was the 12th apostle. And whatever he did, he gave
it his all. You know, before the Lord saved
him, he was the greatest of enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
felt it to be his moral obligation to kill people who were followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God saved him, oh, he
now preached the faith which he labored to destroy. And I
love to read of Paul throughout the book of Acts. I love that
sermon in Acts chapter 13, his first recorded sermon. And then
in Acts chapter 14, as he is preaching in Asia, they stone
him for it. And they presume he's dead. They
drag him out of town and he gets up, no doubt sore and bruised
and mangled. And then a couple of days later,
you can read where he said to the people, through much tribulation,
we enter the kingdom of heaven. And do you imagine it meant a
little bit more when they saw the bruises and cuts from the
stones that had been thrown on him when he made that statement?
In Acts chapter 15, we had the controversy he had with the Jews
which believed over law and grace. In Acts chapter 16, we read of
what took place in Philippi. And when he was thrown into prison,
and there at midnight, he and Silas sang praises to God. In Acts chapter 17, we have his
sermon on Mars Hill. In Acts chapter 18, we read of
his time in Corinth and the riot that took place in Acts chapter
19. And in Acts chapter 20, he is giving a summary of his ministry. That interest me very much. Paul said in Acts chapter 20,
verse 17, and from my latest, he sent to Ephesus and called
for the elders of the church. And when they would come to him,
he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into
Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. Always the same. And here was
his manner serving the Lord. Not serving myself, not serving
men, serving the Lord with all humility of mind. Now, if you serve the Lord, you're
going to do so with humility of mind. Humility is a just estimate
of yourself. You know what you are and you
know what you would be apart from his grace. And you serve
him with humility of mind. And then he said with many tears. He said to the church at Corinth,
for out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto
you. And then he said in verse 31
of this same chapter, when he was talking about the grievous
wolves that would enter in, he says, therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. He said, I served the Lord in
all humility of mine with many tears and temptations which befell
me by the lying of weight of the Jews. Now he's talking about
the persecution he experienced because of the religious people
who hated his message, the Jews. Now, if I'm making friends with
the religious people, I'm not preaching the gospel of God.
Religious people. Self-righteous people always
hate the gospel of God's grace. And then he says in verse 20,
he says how I kept back nothing that was profitable to you. If
a man keeps something back, if he doesn't tell what he really
believes, it's a dead giveaway. He's a false prophet. He has
another agenda and it's not the glory of God. Paul said, I've
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. He said,
I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have
showed you and have taught publicly and from house to house. My message
was always consistent. What I said publicly is also
what I said in private. Same message. And here it is.
Here's Paul's summary of his preaching, testifying, bearing
witness not just grinding out some facts that I read in a book,
not giving second-hand information. I'm testifying what God has taught
me. Testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this was a summary. of all that Paul preached and
of all that any true gospel preacher will preach. Repentance toward
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That summarizes
the whole gospel. Now, I have entitled this message,
The Relationship Between Repentance and Faith. Now, repentance and
faith are not the same thing, but they cannot be separated. Like two sides of the same sheet
of paper, they go together, and the relationship is that the
evidence of having the one is having the other. And the evidence
of not having one is not having the other. Wherever you have
true repentance toward God, you have faith toward the Lord Jesus
Christ, and wherever you have faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ,
you will have true repentance toward God. Now, what is repentance? You know, when our Lord opened
His public ministry, He opened with these words in Mark chapter
1, verse 15, repent and believe the gospel. What is repentance? If you asked the average person
what repentance is, how would you define repentance? I believe you'd probably hear
something very much like this. Repentance is being sorry. for your sin and repentance is
sincerely attempting to not commit that sin anymore. Let me repeat that. Here is how
most people view repentance. Repentance is being sincerely
sorry for your sin. and sincerely trying to not commit
that sin anymore. Now, we should be sorry for our
sin, and we should not commit that sin that we're sorry of
anymore, but that is not what repentance is. Hear me very carefully. By definition, repentance means
a change of mind. Now, we have all repented many
times. We believe something or we stood
for something and we don't have the same mind we once had toward
it. Perhaps we felt very strongly
about something and we no longer feel strongly about it. Perhaps
we had certain political convictions and we change our mind regarding
those political convictions and we take another position. Repentance
is a change of mind, but notice Paul says he preached repentance
toward God. Now, biblical repentance is a
change of mind toward God. Now, there are a lot of repentances,
even in one's religious experience, that has nothing to do with repentance
toward God. For instance, When you get caught,
you change your mind about what you did. When you are exposed
and humiliated, you wish you never committed that sin. But that's not repentance toward
God. Fear of punishment can cause
you to be afraid to do something, or fear of what you will lose.
Esau feared what he would lose, and he sought repentance with
tears and didn't find it. but it was not repentance toward
God. It was repentance over what he
perceived that he was losing. There is a change of mind that
you may have regarding something because you think it can benefit
you. That's not repentance toward God. You know, Herod, when he
heard John the Baptist preach, he heard him gladly and did many
things, but he never had biblical repentance. Now, this is what
Christ was speaking of, biblical repentance, when he said, I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. This is what causes joy in heaven
over that one sinner who repents. This is what God commands all
men everywhere to do, to repent. This is what if we do not do,
we will perish, because the Lord said, except you repent, you
will all likewise perish. Repentance, just like faith,
is the gift of God, and it's a complete change of mind toward Now let me try to give some examples
of this, and I'm saying this from experience. I used to believe
God was far too strict. I've changed my mind. I used
to dislike His holiness. I used to dislike the strictness
of His law. I've changed my mind. I used
to set judgment on God, finding fault with Him. I used to hear
of how He saved sinners by sovereign grace. I used to hear of how
He elected some and passed by others, and my heart would respond,
that's not fair. How could He choose some and
not choose others? Doesn't everybody have a chance?
I used to hear how Christ died only for the elect. And I said,
that's not right. He should die for everybody.
How can it be fair for him to die for one and not die for another?
In other words, I was sitting in judgment on God thinking I
was his moral judge. I used to hear of the invincible,
irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit, that grace that could
not be resisted. And I didn't like that. But I've
changed my mind. I've changed my mind concerning
God and how He saves sinners. What I once disagreed with, what
I once hated, I now love. It's a change of mind regarding
God. To repent is to agree with God
and take sides with God against myself. I used to Bring God down
to my level by thinking there's certain things I could do to
please Him. And all I did is bring God down to my level. But
I repented of those thoughts of God. It's a change of mind
toward God. Repentance is a change of mind
regarding self. I used to believe that I could
choose to be good if I wanted to. I used to believe that I
had a free will, that I could will to be good, that I could
will to do what was right if the circumstances were right. I used to not believe that I
was completely evil. I did bad things, but I did not
believe I was completely evil. I have repented of that. I've changed my mind regarding
that. It's what the scripture calls
repentance from dead works. I see that all my religious works
are dead and rotten and stinking and could never save me. I've
repented of my views of myself. I now believe that I am the chief
of sinners. I now believe that I am totally
depraved, that there's nothing good about me. There's not one
thing I can do to recommend myself to God. Now, I didn't used to
have that mind about myself, but I do now because I have repented. Repentance is a change of mind
toward God. It's a change of mind toward
self. And repentance is a change of
mind regarding the remission of sins. Now, here's what I used
to believe. You know, Mark 1 verse 4 says repentance toward or concerning
the remission of sins. I used to believe that if I straightened
up, I used to believe that if I could get all my ducks in a
row, and that if all the circumstances were right, and I was put in
the right place, I could do the right thing, I could be saved.
I used to believe that whenever I got around to it, I could be
saved. I could do whatever it takes
to save myself with God's help. I used to believe that if I did
this, and if I did that, and if I quit doing this, and I quit
doing that, I would have the forgiveness of sins. But do you
know, I've repented of that. I see that that's nothing more
than salvation by works. Beloved, listen to me real carefully.
Salvation does not end with the forgiveness of sins. Salvation
begins with the full, free, absolute forgiveness and blotting out
of all sin before you did anything. Salvation begins with the forgiveness
of sins. Repentance is a change of mind
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I may have had high thoughts
of Christ. But when I repent. I see that
all my high thoughts are far too low and that he is all. And I repent of anything contrary
to He is all. Now, while repentance is a change
of mind, it brings with it fruit. We read of fruit meat for repentance. You see, it is a change of mind,
no doubt. But that change of mind is caused
by a change of masters. The Lord Jesus Christ has become
my master. And when my master is changed
rather than the devil himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the motive
is changed. My motive is His glory. And my manners are changed. I walk with Him. Now make sure your repentance
is toward God and not a repentance that you're going to find later
on that you need to repent of. Repent. Change your mind. Would to God that the Lord would
cause us to see our need of a change of mind, that what we think is
wrong. You can write this down. Whatever
you think concerning God naturally is wrong. Write it down. Repent toward God. And what is the evidence of repentance?
I love what he says next, testifying both to the Jews and also to
the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, what is meant by faith? Repent and believe the gospel. Wherever you have repentance,
you have this faith. What does the Bible mean by faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ? And that's very important, not
just faith. Everybody has some kind of faith. An unbeliever
has some kind of faith. You can be an atheist and you
have some kind of faith. You have a belief. You believe
that there's no God. That's a kind of faith. Someone
who doesn't believe in creation, they believe somehow man just
happened and just Appeared all of a sudden life just began to
be and began to evolve boy. That's a stretch of blind faith
to believe something like that Everybody has a type of faith
everybody believes something, but he speaks of faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ and 2nd Timothy 2nd Timothy chapter 1
Verse 12 Paul gives what I believe is my favorite definition of
faith in the Bible He says in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Speaking of the day of judgment. Now, faith, first of all, begins
with knowledge. You cannot believe what you do
not know. It is impossible. I've heard
of people where they say, well, their heart's right, but their
head's wrong. That's impossible. What's in your heart is what's
in your head. And what's in your head is what's in your heart. I know whom I have believed. Now, notice Paul's knowledge
was as of a person. He didn't say, I know what I
believed. He says, I know whom I have believed, and what you
believe will be determined by who you believe. For instance,
if you believe that Jesus Christ is God, you can't possibly believe
that He could fail in His intentions. If you believe He's God, you
believe He must be successful. If He died for you, you must
be saved. Knowledge. I know whom I have
believed, And I am persuaded that He is able. It goes past knowledge. There's
a belief. There's a persuasion. I am persuaded. I am convinced that He is able. I'm convinced that He is able
to save me. I really believe that. I'm convinced
of it. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
committed to Him. Against that day where there
is true faith, there is committal. Now, Paul said, I've committed
the salvation of my soul to Him. My hands are off. I'm not looking
to myself. I don't have a plan B. I don't
have a contingency plan. Sink or swim, I go to Him. All my eggs are in this one basket. His death is all my salvation. His resurrection is all my justification. If what He did is not enough
to save me, I will not be saved. I've committed the salvation
of my soul to Him. Now, if you believe in salvation
by works in any way, that's a failure to commit. We commit, if we really
believe Him, we commit the salvation of our soul to Him. Now, people have faith in their
experience. People have faith in their works
and their intentions and the power of their will, faith in
their faith. That's all faith, but it's not
saving faith. Because saving faith is toward
our Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul said, I know whom I
have believed, he knew his faith was toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, repentance toward God,
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, his name, he's the
Lord. This is who my faith is toward. Him who is the Lord. That's not
an empty title. He's the Lord of creation. He willed this universe into
existence. He's the Lord of providence. Everything that happens, He's
the first cause of and is in control of. Everything that happens
in time, He is in control of. He's the Lord of salvation. Salvation's
of the Lord. That means if I'm saved, it's
because He saved me. My salvation is not in my hands.
My salvation is in His hands. He is the Lord of salvation.
He quickens whom He will. He's the Lord. He's Jesus. Oh, what a blessed name. He is
the Savior. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people. from their sins. And that's what
I need to be saved from, from my sins. He saves His people
from the penalty of their sin by justifying. He saves His people
from the power of their sin by giving them a new nature. He
saves His people from the presence of sin, bringing them into glory
and glorifying them. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He's the Lord.
He's Jesus. He's Christ. Christ means God's
anointed. He's God's anointed prophet,
and I trust Him as the Word of God. He's God's anointed priest. All my hope is in Him being my
priest and representing me before God the Father, accepting His
sacrifice and the putting away of sins, and He's now in heaven
interceding for me. He's my King. He's God's anointed
King. And how I love His rule and reign
over me. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the message of the Gospel.
Repentance. A change of mind toward God. And faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ. And in preaching this message,
we preach the gospel of God. Now, Paul says, this was my message
publicly, and this was my message privately, and this covers everything. This is the preaching of the
cross. This is the preaching of the whole counsel of God. Repentance toward God. and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have this message on cassette
tape, on DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of this 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.