Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 2709 Rock Springs Road in Kingsport, Tennessee,
would like to invite you to listen to a message of Sovereign Grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. For information and service times,
visit www.ksgc.church. And now, Gabe Stoniker. I will
be speaking to you today from 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6, I would like to read
from verses 13 to 16 in 1 Timothy 6. Verse 13 says, I give thee
charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things and before
Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession,
that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he
shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling
in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath
seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. Now I love declarations
like that concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who this
is concerning. That's who this is talking about.
The end of verse 14 said, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So that's who this is speaking
of. And that is an amazing thing to think about. There is a man
right now seated on a throne in glory. There is a man seated
on a throne in glory. There's a man, the God man, seated in his authority, seated
on his throne. I truly love the thought of that.
And it says, in His times, in His perfect time, in His appointed
time, He will appear again to this earth. He is going to appear
again to this earth. We always think of us going to
be with Him, seeing Him in glory. Well, He's coming back to this earth.
That's an amazing thought, isn't it? He is going to appear again
to this earth right here where we are. Our Lord appeared before
this earth ever existed. The scripture says He appeared
as the Lamb slain from before the foundation of this world.
And then He appeared as the creator and the owner of all things when
He laid the foundations of this world. There came a point in
time and He created this world. He laid the foundations of this
world. He created all things in this
world. And throughout history and time,
He appeared to men and women. He appeared to His creation. He appeared to Adam and Eve.
That was Jesus Christ walking in the garden in the cool of
the day. Jesus Christ. He appeared to Abraham and Sarah. He came to their tent one time
and he told them that they would have a son. And Sarah, they were
at, you know, in old age and Sarah laughed when she heard
that. She was laughing at Jesus Christ. He appeared to Jacob. He wrestled with Jacob. That
was Jesus Christ who wrestled with Jacob. He appeared to Moses
face to face as a man speaketh with his friend. He appeared
to a man named Gideon. He had a sword on his side. Gideon
reached for his sword and he said, are you for us or are you
for the enemy? And he said, I'm the captain of everybody. He
appeared to a man named Manoah and his wife. He appeared to
Solomon. He appeared to Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego and Nebuchadnezzar in the burning fiery furnace.
Nebuchadnezzar threw those three men in there and he said, all
of a sudden, I see four. He said, one of them looks just
like the son of God. That was Jesus Christ. He appeared
to so many throughout the Old Testament. And then the time
came for him to be born. And he appeared to Mary and Joseph
and the wise men at his birth. For 33 and a half years, he appeared
to all the land of Judah. And then he died. He was crucified. He was buried. And then he arose. And after his resurrection, the
scripture says he appeared to a woman named Mary Magdalene.
And then he appeared to all the disciples. And it says he appeared
to above 500 brethren at one time. And then he ascended. And after he ascended, he appeared
to Saul of Tarsus. It blinded Saul, knocked him
off his horse. Our Lord has appeared and appeared
and appeared. and he is going to appear again. He is going to appear again one
more time to this world. And the scripture says, every
eye shall see him. That's amazing. Every eye shall
see him from this earth. Over in Acts chapter one, It
says our Lord is standing here on the Mount of Olives in Bethany
with his disciples, and he said some final words to them. And
verse nine says, when he had spoken these things, while they
beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also
said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. These two angels appeared and
they said, as you have seen him ascend up in power and authority
and victory to his throne of glory, That's how he will come
again. That's how he will come back
down from his throne in glory. This same man is coming back
in power and authority and victory. That's how he will come back.
There is a man seated on a throne in heaven right now. The God
man. And he's going to appear to us
again. He's going to. And we need to be warned of his
appearing. We need to be warned of his appearing. We need to be ready for his appearing. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. It says in 2 Thessalonians 1
verse 6, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense
tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire. taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power,
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired
in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. That's vengeance. That's power. That's authority. He is going
to appear to us again. And this time it will not be
in humility. It will not be in meekness like
he came the first time at his birth. This time it is going
to be in power and glory. Power and glory. Right across
my page here in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16 says, The Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ
shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. So he is about to appear to us
again. He's going to appear to us again. And for every soul that is found
in him. It's going to be an appearing
unto glory, an appearing unto glory, but to every soul that
is not found in him, not found under the covering of his blood,
not found in his salvation. It's going to be an appearing
unto utter destruction and condemnation. It's going to be one of the two
for every soul on this earth, one of the two. 2nd Timothy 4
verse 1 says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead, the living and
the dead, the saved and the unsaved at his appearing and his kingdom. That's what he's going to do. There's going to be a right hand.
And there's going to be a left hand. There's going to be a living
and there's going to be a dead. And Jesus Christ is going to
be the judge. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. And this is what I want us to
really enter into. The judgment is not going to
go like people naturally think it's going to go. Our Lord did not come to call
the righteous. Our Lord did not come to call
the self righteous. Another way of saying that is
false religion those who are in false religion sometimes you
look at somebody and they would be labeled as a goody two shoes
you know a really good goody two shoes church going person. Well that's not the person that's
going to end up on his right hand. I know that is very shocking
and strange but Every soul that ends up on his right hand is
going to be a wretched, miserable, unworthy sinner. That's what
his word says. He came to save sinners. He said,
I did not come to call the righteous. I came for sinners. If you're
a sinner, this ought to be very encouraging to you. And if you're
not a sinner, be warned and beg God to reveal your sin to you. I need to beg God to reveal my
sin to me, because that's what all men are. And that revelation
is the evidence that God has done something for us, caused
us to see our sin. Over in Revelation chapter one,
Revelation one verse one says, this is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. That's what the whole book is
about. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And verse 7 says,
Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him. Those who pierced him. Who pierced
him? Religion did. Religion pierced him. The Jews
of the temple pierced him. church did. Now the Romans were
the one who carried it out, but it was at the Jews demand, the
self-righteous Jews demand. And it says, every, I shall see
him. They also, which pierced him
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so. Amen. Now I want us to understand something
that's very important. Very important. Our Lord said
in John 17, this is life eternal, right? This is eternal life right
here, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou has sent. Eternal life is in knowing the
true God, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, knowing him, knowing
who he is, knowing what he is in reality, in truth. And in
Matthew 11, our Lord said, the only way we can know who Jesus
Christ truly is, is if he will reveal himself to us. He has
to reveal Himself. It's in His power to reveal Himself
to whoever He's pleased to reveal Himself to. That's in His power
to do so. And when you find men and women
who speak of Him in a very flippant way, do you see how we have seen
Christ so far from the Scripture in His power, in His glory, in
His authority, in His vengeance? When you find men and women who
speak of him very flippantly, throw his name around, speak
of him irreverently, no fear, you found a man or a woman who
doesn't know him. If you find a man who speaks
of him that way, you found a man or a woman who does not know
him. When you find a man or a woman who speaks of him as being needy,
you know, he needs something, he needs for you to do something,
or they speak of him as being frustrated, you know, he's trying
to do things, but he's frustrated or he's discouraged. All of his plans are getting
messed up. When you find people who refer to him as constantly
asking for someone's help, asking for someone's permission. You
know, he needs for you to let him. When you find that, when
you hear that you found a man or a woman who does not know
who God is and does not know who Jesus Christ is. And to not
know who Jesus Christ is, is to not know salvation. We must
know who he is. So my prayer is that He will
reveal Himself. My prayer is that the Spirit
of God will reveal Christ through the Word to me and you. I pray we might know who Jesus
Christ is. Now, back in our text today in
1 Timothy 6, Verse 13 says, I give thee charge
in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Christ
Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession,
that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he
shall show who is the blessed and only potentate. the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus
Christ? He is the blessed and only potentate. Potentate means power. It means authority. It means
sovereign. That's what it means. Jesus Christ
is the blessed. That word blessed means anointed. He is the acknowledged only power
that there is. He is the acknowledged only authority
that there is. He is the only sovereign that
there is. You say, well, what about God
the Father? Well, all the fullness of the Godhead is seen in Jesus
Christ. The Father is in Jesus Christ.
The Spirit is in Jesus Christ. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. It's all in Him. Everything is
in Him. When men and women separate God
from Jesus Christ in their minds, And that happens often people
think of God up in heaven and Jesus Christ down here. People
imagine God stayed in heaven and he just sent somebody else
to the earth to accomplish his mission. Well when men and women
separate God and Jesus Christ that evidences the fact that
men and women do not know God and do not know Jesus Christ.
They cannot be separated. They cannot. They are not separate. God did not just send Jesus Christ
to this earth. The scripture says God Almighty
came down. God came down. Emmanuel. Call his name Emmanuel, God. with us, the potentate with us. The only blessed sovereign that
there is came down. He veiled himself in the likeness
of human flesh. He veiled his glory to the point
that when men saw him, they saw nothing in him that they should
desire him. Why did he do that? Why did he
do that? Here's the reason why. It's because
he came to be the substitute for his people, his chosen people. And there is nothing in his people,
there is nothing in me, there is nothing in you that men should
desire us. The amazing mystery of the gospel
is that God Almighty, Almighty, came down here in a way that
allowed men to despise Him. In all of His glory, in all of
His beauty, in all of His majesty, He came in a way that allowed
men to despise Him and to reject Him. How is that even possible? He humbled Himself down so that
He could be a man of sorrows. our sorrows, acquainted with
our grief, in order to save His people from their sin. He allowed
Himself to be handled by men. You know, we say man-handled,
you know, roughhoused. How can you roughhouse God Almighty? He allowed Himself to be judged
before men. That's amazing. The judge. He
came in a way that allowed him to be judged before men. He allowed himself to be condemned
before condemned men. He allowed himself to be nailed
to a cross by men. He allowed himself to be laid
in a grave by men. He willingly took the weakness
of his people. That's what he did. When He bore
our infirmities, He bore our frailties. For His people, He
died in their weakness. He died in their weakness, but
listen to this. He was raised in His power. He died in the weakness of His
people, but He was raised in His own power, the power of God
Almighty. And that's where He abides right
now. He abides in His power. And in His time, He shall show
to every man and woman on this earth who is the blessed and
only potentate, the only sovereign that there is, the sovereign
in creation, the sovereign in salvation, the sovereign in every
eternal thing that there is. Verse 15 says, He is the King
of kings, He's not waiting for his subjects
to give him permission to do anything. He's the king of kings. He's the sovereign seated on
the throne. He does what he wants with whom
he wants. They asked David one time, where
is your God? He said, my God is seated in
the heaven doing whatever he wants to do. And that's what
we need to understand. Jesus Christ does whatever he
wants to do. Little K, King Nebuchadnezzar
saw that. After he saw the Lord, he said,
he is seated on his throne. He said, the dominion is his.
It's an everlasting dominion. And he does what he wants with
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. And
nobody can stop him or question him. That's what Nebuchadnezzar
saw. He is the king of kings and he's
the Lord of lords. We can't make him Lord. People
say, won't you make him Lord? You can't do that. Only God can
do that. And God has done that. He's already
made him Lord potentate. That's who he is. In his times,
he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords. Verse 16 says, who only hath
immortality. He's the only one who has life.
All life is in him. If we're going to live, it's
only going to be in him. If we're going to live, it's
only going to be by him. Only by him who only hath immortality
dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto his
glory. No man can can approach unto
it. Not outside of his covering. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. And he said, No man can see my face and live. I'm going
to have to put you in a cleft of the rock and I'm going to
have to cover you. And that's what happened on the
cross of Calvary. The rock, Jesus Christ was broken. His people were inside, covered,
kept safe. Verse 16 says, who only hath
immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,
whom no man hath seen nor can see. Not outside of Jesus Christ
revealing himself, coming to a person and bringing his righteousness
and bringing his blood and showing what had to be done to redeem
a sinner from his or her sin. In that, 2 Corinthians 4 says
we can, with that, look right into the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God that's in the face of Jesus Christ. In
Him, we can see God. In him, we can have all of these
things and access to all of these things that are in Christ alone. He's not just the potentate in
King and Lord, he is the blessed potentate King and Lord because
of what he did for sinners like you and me. He's the author,
he's the finisher, he's the sovereign of our salvation. and our faith. He is our maker, defender, redeemer,
and thank God He's our friend. And the end of verse 16 says,
for all of this, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. May God reveal that to us. May
He give us a heart to say all glory be to Him for everything
because of who He is, what He's done and what that means for
sinners like me and you. Amen. You have been listening
to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, you can call
or write to the number and address on your screen, or visit www.ksgc.church. Tune in at this same time next
week for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.