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 one verse of Scripture in particular,
from 1 Corinthians 1. If you would like to follow along
with me in your Bible, I will be speaking to you from 1 Corinthians
1. And verse 9 is a glorious verse
of Scripture. It is truly a glorious verse
of scripture. It says, 1 Corinthians 1 verse
9 says, God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship
of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. God is faithful. Isn't that good news? Isn't that
wonderful? God is faithful. Look at verse four right here.
It says, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace
of God, which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything
you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that
you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. By whom you were called unto
the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. God is faithful. That's the title of this message.
That's our subject matter today. God is faithful. If we want to know something
about our God, let's start right here. He's faithful. You know, we are unfaithful. Whether we realize it or not,
we are unfaithful. If we really think about it and
really get honest, we would have to admit that we are unfaithful. I was talking to a brother in
the church here in Kingsport a little while back, and we were
talking about our lack as human beings, our lack as believers,
as followers of Christ, just in the flesh, our insufficiency,
our inability to be what we want to be as followers of Christ. And we were talking about how
pitiful our efforts are, so pitiful, and how shameful they are, how
shameful we are. And then he said, Thank God,
he is faithful. Thank God, he is faithful. And I said, amen. Oh, how right
you are. Thank God, he is faithful. That's all we can come to. Thank
God, he is faithful. Verse nine says, God is faithful
by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord. The Bible dictionary, if you
look up a Bible dictionary, it says that the word faithful means
worthy of trust. It means one that can be relied
on. God is worthy of trust. God is one that can be relied
on. The Bible concordance, if you
have a concordance of the Bible, it says that the word faithful
means sure, true. God is sure, God is true. Webster's
Dictionary says it means steadfast in affection or allegiance, firm
in carrying out promises. God is faithful. If he promises,
he will do it. If he makes a promise, he will
do it. That's an important thing to
know. This is a very critical thing to know. This is a very
critical thing to remember about the Almighty God. If he makes
a promise, he will do it. No matter what that promise is. A promise of mercy, a promise
of judgment. If he makes a promise, he'll do it. He said in Isaiah
46, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have
purposed it, I will also do it. Everything that God does was
purposed before the foundation of the world. Known unto him
were all of his works from the beginning. Everything was ordered
and sure, predetermined, predestinated. And he said, if I've purposed
it, I will do it. I will do it. God is faithful.
He's faithful to his word. He's faithful to his promise. He's faithful to his people.
Now, I would like to take a minute in this message to see what has
he promised to be faithful in? He's faithful, faithful to his
promises. What has he promised to be faithful
in? In his word, what has he promised
to his people to be faithful to them in? Let's read a few
scriptures together. If you have your Bible there,
turn with me to Deuteronomy 7. Over in Deuteronomy 7, verse
9, it says, know therefore that the Lord thy God He is God. Boy, men and women need to know
that. The Lord thy God, he is God. The faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his
commandments to a thousand generations. How can a sinner keep the commandments
of God? He's faithful and his covenant
is to them that keep his commandments and love him. How can a sinner
keep the commandments of God? Here's the answer, only in Christ. Only in Christ. We do not look
within ourselves to keep the commandments of God. We look
to Christ. Only in Christ. Outside of Christ, all have sinned
and broken his commandments. That's what his word says. Christ
is the one who kept the commandments for his people. Those who were
in his covenant. So the Lord God made a covenant,
the Father, and this was the covenant, the Father promised
to choose a people to save. All sin, all of humanity fell
in Adam and sinned. God the Father promised to choose
a people to save. God the Son promised to die for
those souls, to redeem those souls, to buy back those souls.
And the Spirit promised to call every one of them. Go out and
reveal the good news of what had been done for them. It was
a covenant of mercy. It was a covenant of grace. It
was a covenant of mercy. Mercy for sinners that didn't
deserve mercy. That's who mercy is for, those
who don't deserve it. God made a covenant of mercy.
It was a covenant of redemption from sin, redemption from condemnation. Outside of Christ, every soul
is gonna leave this world and enter into eternal condemnation. But God made a covenant to redeem
his people from condemnation through his own blood, through
the blood of Jesus Christ. It was a promise of salvation
for chosen sinners. And he said, I will keep my promise. I will keep my covenant. If I
promised to do that for my people, I'll do it. I'll keep it. I'll
keep my promise. That's the greatest news a sinner
could ever hear. That the father chose to save,
the son died to save and saved. And the spirit will call the
saved. God started it, God will do it. On the cross, he cried,
it is finished. That's the greatest news a sinner
could ever hear. But the wonderful thing is, he said, I'm not gonna
do this because of you, I'm gonna do this because of me. I'm gonna
keep my covenant because of me. Look at verse one right here
in Deuteronomy 7. It says, when the Lord thy God
shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess
it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and
the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier
than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly
destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughters thou shalt not
give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they
may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord
be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall
you deal with them. You shall destroy their altars
and break down their images and cut down their groves. burn their
graven images with fire. Any image, any religion that
is not the one almighty sovereign, he said, you're gonna cut it
down, destroy it. There's one God, one God only.
Look at verse 11 right here. He said, thou shalt therefore
keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which
I commanded thee this day to do them. Did they? Do you know? Have you ever read about the
travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness? You know the
answer. No, they didn't keep his commandments. They sinned
against him the whole time. They murmured, they complained,
they did everything they shouldn't have done because they are sinners,
just like us. They sinned against him and they
didn't do it. But, but, look at verse six. He said, for thou art in holy
people. That means a set apart people,
sanctified people. Unto the Lord thy God, the Lord
thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself
above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord
did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were
more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all
people. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would
keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of
the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt?
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful
God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. He said,
know that the Lord your God is God. And I will do all these
things. He is God. He said, I am God. And he said, I will do it. I'll
do it. I'll keep my promise and I'll
do it. Not because of you, but because of me, because of who
I am. I'm faithful. That's amazing,
isn't it? That's amazing. He made a covenant
concerning his people and that covenant did not depend on his
people. If we are His people, His covenant
to save us does not depend on us. It depends on Him. I say
thank God to that. His covenant is not conditioned
on His people in any way. His covenant was in spite of
His people. That's the reality, that's the
truth of it. In spite of us. Because it was
a covenant of mercy. covenant of mercy, it was a covenant
to love his chosen people. It was a covenant to redeem his
chosen people and he will do it. He will love them, he will
redeem them, not because of them, but because of himself. He will
do it because he's faithful. I love how Hebrews 6 says, because
he, because God could swear by no greater He swore by himself. I love that, because he could
swear by no greater. God swore to God. He said, I swear to God, no one
should do that but one, because no one can keep a promise but
one. He swore to himself, and he will not break his promise
to himself. He's faithful. He'll keep his
covenant. and he will show mercy. He will
show mercy to his people. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
5. Over in 1 Thessalonians 5, I love this verse, verse 24.
It says, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do
it. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. That's what you call good news.
That's what you call the gospel. That is the declaration of the
gospel. He made a promise to have mercy
on his people and he will have it. He will show it. He made
a promise to call his people and he will call them, call them
to himself. Verse 23 right here says, the
very God of peace sanctify you wholly, completely. And I pray
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will call his people
to purity. You know, that's not what we
are by nature. We're defiled, we're sinful,
we're ruined, we're rotten. But He will call His people to. He has made His people to be
spotless in Him, righteous in Him, sanctified, holy in Him. Isn't that wonderful? Innocent. You know what we are by nature?
We're guilty. I'm guilty, you're guilty. You're a sinner against
God. So am I. Not in Christ though. In Christ,
we're made to be innocent. In His blood, we're made to be
innocent. blameless unto the day of his
coming. He faithfully will do that for
every single one of his people. That is such good news. Look
at 2 Thessalonians 3. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 3, it
says, but the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep
you from evil. He's faithful. If you belong
to Jesus Christ, if you belong to Jesus Christ, if God the Father,
before the foundation of the world, put you in Jesus Christ,
put you in the blood of Jesus Christ, he will establish you
and he will keep you. You're gonna be kept. You're
gonna be kept. You know, some people think,
well, I better not do that. I might lose my salvation. That's
not true. If God saved us, He will keep us. If He made a promise
to save us, He will keep us. We're gonna be saved to the end.
He shall have mercy on you. He shall wash you. He has washed
you, if you're in Christ, and He'll keep. Don't you just love
the shalls of God's Word? I love the King James Version.
I love that old speech, shall. He shall, He shall, He shall. I love it, I thank God for it.
Look at 2 Timothy 2 with me, verse 13. 2 Timothy 2, 13 says,
if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. without faith in Christ Jesus.
Faith, what it does is it, faith doesn't look to ourselves and
faith doesn't look to us where in a hard moment we just need
to pull our bootstraps up and be strong. That's not faith.
Faith is weak in self and strong in Christ. Faith causes a sinner
to just have all their hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And without
that faith of totally looking to Christ, we cannot please God. God is not happy. where there
is not total, complete faith in Jesus Christ. And Ephesians
2 verse 8 says, faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift
of God to us. Meaning we don't naturally have
it. We're not born into this world possessing faith, true
faith. We don't produce faith, but Christ
does. He is the one that has it. The
scripture says time and time again, it is the faith of Christ. He is the one who has it. He
is the one who gives it to us. And thank God he keeps giving
it to us. He just keeps giving it to us.
We lose it. He gives us eyes to see Christ,
and then in our sinful flesh, we're so prone to wander, Lord,
we feel it, we turn our eyes away. Like Peter did, walking
on the water. He was so strong, walking on
the water, as long as he was looking to Christ. But he turned
and looked at that wave and he started to sink. And the Lord
reached out and caught him and pulled him back up, turned his
eyes back to him again. And that's what he does for all
of his people. We turn and look to something else and he'll turn
our eyes back to him again. And that's him giving us more
faith and he gives more faith. Every time we believe not, if
we were chosen to receive faith from him, he abides faithful
and he'll continue to give us faith. He cannot deny himself. That's just wonderful. He will
not deny himself in his desire to cause his people to look to
him. If we look to him, it's because he made us look to him.
David said in Psalm 27, when you said, seek my face, that's
when my heart cried, thy face will I seek. He causes us to
do that. And he's faithful to keep doing
that for his people. Turn over to 1 John 1. 1 John 1 verse 9, it says, if we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We need that every day. We need
that every day. He did that for us eternally
on the cross of Calvary. And we need that every day. We
need for Him to wash us and cleanse us daily. I need to confess my
sins to Him every day. Look at verse seven, it says,
if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses
us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Every time that we confess our
sins to him, begging him for mercy, he's faithful and just
to remind us. to remind us again that the blood
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has cleansed us from all our
sin. He's faithful to do that every
time. I think I have time. I wanna read a little story to
you. This is from a man named Charles
Spurgeon, and he was a gospel preacher back in the late 1800s.
And this is from one of his messages. This is just a little excerpt
out of one of his messages. But he said, during this last
week, I have been with Brother Offord, I assume that's a man
in his congregation, conducting prayer meetings. Spurgeon used
to preach most nights of the week. He was always somewhere
traveling, preaching for a congregation, and they called those prayer
meetings. And he said, during this last week, I've been with
Brother Offord conducting prayer meetings. And he told one evening,
a tale which I made him tell every evening after, for I thought
it so good. He said there was a poor man
living on Dartmoor who had been employed during the summer in
looking after horses and cows and so on that were turned out
on the moor. He was a perfect heathen and
never went to a place of worship, perhaps since he was a child.
For him, there was no Sabbath. After a time, he grew very ill. He was over 60 years of age,
and having nothing to live upon, he went into the workhouse. He
didn't have any money, and the workhouse was debtor's prison.
If you couldn't pay your bills, they put you in prison. Debtor's
prison. While he was there, It pleased
the mysterious spirit to make him uneasy as to his soul. He felt that he must die. He
thought he was gonna die soon. And the old man had just enough
light to let him see that if he did die, all was wrong with
regard to a future state. He had a little grandchild who
lived in the neighboring town, Plymouth, I think it was. and
he asked leave for his grandchild to come in every day to see him.
As he was very ill and near death, that was allowed. She came in
and he said to her, read the Bible to me, dear. She complied. And the more she read, the more
wretched the old man grew. Read again, said he. The more
she read, the more dark his mind seemed to be with a sense of
guilt. That word just exposed his sin
to him, caused him to see what he was in the flesh, and he carried
so much guilt. At last, one day, she came to
that passage in the first epistle of John. You know it. The blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Is that there,
he asked. Yes, grandfather, replied the
little girl, that is there. Is that there? Oh yes, grandfather,
it is there. Then read it again. Read it again. She again read, the blood of
Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. My dear, are
you sure it is just like that? Yes, grandfather. Then read it
again, dear. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanses us from all sin. Then, he said, take my finger
and put it on that verse. Is it on that text, child? Is
my finger on that blessed text? Yes, grandfather. Then, said
he, tell them, alluding to his friends, that I die in the faith
of that. And he closed his eyes and doubtless
entered into eternal rest. And I will die in the faith of
that truth by God's grace, and so will you, I trust, brethren
and sisters. Die with your finger on that
text. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanses us from all sin. Isn't that wonderful news? Every
child of God will say, based on the word of God himself, I'm
a sinner. And He has promised that His
blood is able to, and already has, washed me from all my sin. And He's given me His faith to
believe that. In His faithfulness, He's caused
me to believe that. I believe His Word. By His grace,
I believe Him. I believe on Him. And I die in
the faith of Him. and the promise of His Word.
I die in His faithfulness. And to that, we say amen. God is faithful, who has called
us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. 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.