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. Our message
today will come from Psalm 27. Psalm 27. And I absolutely love
Psalm 27. I thank God for Psalm 27. This psalm reaches me in my heart. This psalm speaks to me. This psalm blesses me. And I pray that it might do that
for you. I pray this psalm might reach you in your heart and speak
to you and bless you. I really just want us to use
one verse for our text and it's verse 14, which says, wait on
the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait I say on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. That is experience
talking. That's experience talking. That
is a blessing. That is comfort. That is strength. That is encouragement. That is
a word from a child of God. David is the one who the Lord
used to pen this. It's a word from a child of God
who has had this proven to him. You can hear in that that David
has had this proven to him. It says, wait on the Lord, be
of good courage. Be of good courage. He shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. My desire today is to bring a
word of encouragement to you. That's what I want to do sincerely.
If you are one who has been caused to truly wait on the Lord, the
Lord has an elect people. Our God has an elect people,
a chosen people. And that's who I'm in search
of as I preach this message. This message goes out in search
of God's sheep, to reach the hearts of God's sheep. And if
you are one who has received faith to believe on Christ, Then
I want to bring a word of encouragement to you today. I sincerely do. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. He shall strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is the most
hopeful thing that the spirit or the soul of a child of God
can do. That's the most hopeful thing. It is the most difficult thing
that the flesh of a child of God can do. But it's the most
hopeful thing that the spirit of a child of God can do. And
it's because God's people have been caused to know and to believe
those two little words in the middle of that verse. He shall. He shall. He has and he shall. If God has spoken to you, if
God has sent his spirit to you, caused you to believe on him.
This is what you believe in your heart. You believe he has and
he shall. He shall. That was the announcement
of the Old Testament concerning our Lord's coming to save his
people. The announcement was call his
name Jesus for he shall. save his people from their sins.
He, he'll do it and he will do it. He shall. If you look right here in Psalm
27 at verse five, it says, for in the time of trouble, he shall
hide me in his pavilion. And that's what happened on the
cross of Calvary when our time of trouble came from God's judgment,
he hid his people. Verse five says, in the time
of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret
of his tabernacle shall he, he shall hide me. He shall set me
up upon a rock. He shall, he shall. Who shall
do this? Verse one, David said, the Lord
shall. The Lord, it is the Lord. Isaiah
42 says, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles and
he shall not fail. God the Father said through the
prophet Isaiah, he said, let me tell you what he shall do
and what he shall not do. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not fail. Isaiah 53 says, He shall grow
up before Him as a root out of dry ground. in order for the
father to lay on him the iniquity of all of his people. It says,
he shall, and I love this, this is verse 11, Isaiah 53 verse
11, he shall see the travail of his soul. You think about
that. That prophesied that God the
Father would, shall, see the travail of Christ's soul. From the throne of judgment,
He would look at His own Son and see the travail of the Lord
Jesus Christ's soul. What a holy thought. What an
amazing thought. And in seeing that, it says the
Father shall be satisfied. He shall be. In seeing what His
Son endured, the Father shall be satisfied. Jeremiah 23 says,
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness, our righteousness. You know what you and I need
to go meet God? If we're gonna meet God and survive
it, if we're gonna go stand before God and survive, we need righteousness. When he looks at us, he needs
to see something that's right, something that's good and right
and acceptable. Well, Jeremiah 23 says, Christ
shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. He is our righteousness. The angel announced to Mary in
Luke chapter one concerning Christ, he said, he shall be great and
he shall be called the son of the highest. And he shall reign
over the house of Jacob. He's the one who's going to reign
and he's going to reign over the sinner. He shall reign over
the house of Jacob and of his kingdom there shall be no end. I love that. I love that. Just
wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. He shall. Isn't
that so comforting? Do we hear the comfort of God's
word to his people? Christ shall. He shall. Moses told the children of Israel
just before God parted the sea for them. The Lord had not yet
parted the sea and they're standing there in fear. In their minds,
they're about to die. Egypt is about to overtake them
and they're crying, what shall we do? Moses said, Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. And that's the gospel message
to God's people. You stand still and look to Christ. You see the salvation of the
Lord. Moses said, the Lord shall fight
for you and you shall hold your peace. And he did. He did. Moses said, you wait on the Lord.
You just wait on the Lord. All you have to do is wait on
the Lord. Look to Christ. In your helpless condition, in
your needy condition, you just look to Christ. You just trust
Christ. You trust the word of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Isn't that so wonderful? Isn't
that just so pleasant and so relaxing? Just wait on the Lord. Rather than telling men and women,
you better go do this, and better go do that, and you better work,
and you better hope, and you better not, and you better, no,
no, no. Here's the gospel message to
God's people. Stand still. Wait on the Lord. Turn your eyes
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of this earth will go strangely dim in the
light of his glory and grace. Whether we're talking about the
eternal things of salvation or the temporary things concerning
the life that we're living on this earth, our strength and
our encouragement is in waiting on the Lord. That's where it
is. Look to the Lord. Look to the Lamb of God, the
song says, for He alone is able to save you. If God the Father
gave you to Him to save, if God the Father gave you to Christ
to save, He shall, He shall, He will eternally and even right
now, temporally. Verse 14 says, wait on the Lord. And as I read this verse, I noticed
the punctuation in it. There's a colon after wait on
the Lord. And then there's another colon after, be of good courage
and he shall strengthen thine heart. It's like those colons
divide this verse into three parts. The first part emphasizes
the Lord, wait on the Lord. The second part emphasizes he,
he shall strengthen thine heart. And the third part emphasizes
the Lord again. Wait, I say on the Lord, the
Lord, he, the Lord, he's the object. He's the doer. He's the prize. Wait on the Lord. He'll do it. Wait on the Lord. He'll give you courage. He'll
give you strength. And how will he do that? He'll
do that by being our courage. and being our strength. When
we are weak, that's when we're strong. It's because we have
no strength in ourselves. Christ is all the strength that
we have. When we have no courage, that's when we're strong. It's
because there's no courage in ourselves. Christ is the only
courage that we have. And the promise of God through
the word is he'll do that for you. If you belong to him, if
you're one of his people, he shall do that for you. Now, do you belong to Him? Do
I belong to Him? Are we His people? He has an
elect people. God has an elect people that
He chose to save before the foundation of the world. Are we among them?
Are we one of them? Well, if God gives us the ability
to wait on Him and to stop looking to the flesh and to stop looking
to ourselves and to stop looking to our works, If God gives us
the ability to truly look to Christ, I'm going to tell you
that most men and women, in their minds, they're going to meet
God based on what they see in themselves, based on the good
works that they see in themselves, based on how worthy they believe
they are to go meet God. That is not the right way to
go meet God. And that's the evidence of a
soul that does not belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. If God
has given a soul to Christ, God will give that soul the ability
to look to Christ. That soul will say, I don't see
any good thing in my flesh. Oh, wretched man that I am. There's
nothing but sin dwelling in me. My only hope is to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's my righteousness. He's my
sanctification. He's my wisdom. He's my redemption.
He's my everything. He's my salvation. If God gives
us the ability to wait on Christ and look to Christ, it means
we belong to Him. I hope God has given you the
ability to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and to wait on Him. And
I pray God has given me the ability too, because God only gives that
ability to His people. It is such good news if God causes
a heart to just truly see his or her all in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only hope we have. If we are his people, then he
shall in our looking and in our waiting on the Lord Jesus Christ,
he shall supply our every need, our every need. He shall. Over in Numbers chapter 6, this
is a wonderful passage of scripture. Numbers 6 verse 24 says, The
Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. That's a wonderful, wonderful
prayer. That's a prayer from someone
to someone. That's a desire for a particular
people. That's saying this is my desire
for you, my desire that the Lord does this for you. All right,
here's the question. Who's praying that prayer? Who
said that? Verse 22 says, the Lord said
it. Isn't that wonderful? The Lord
is the one praying that prayer. Verse 22, the Lord spake unto
Moses saying, speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying, on
this wise shall you bless the children of Israel, my people,
my chosen people, my elect, saying unto them, the Lord is going
to bless you. The Lord is going to keep you.
Oh, I want to be one of the Lord's people. Don't you? Lord, call
us to yourself. Draw us near to you. Reveal your
salvation to us. Reveal your election to us. Give
faith to us. Pray that to him in your heart.
If you desire to belong to him, tell him. Cry out to him. Call
on the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Because only those who he gives
faith to call will do it. But it says here the Lord is
going to bless his people. The Lord is going to keep his
people. If God saves a soul, can that soul be lost? No. Not if God saves them. If God
saves them, God will keep them. He said the Lord is going to
make his face shine upon you. The Lord is going to be gracious
to you. The Lord is going to lift up his countenance on you
and the Lord is going to give you peace. Peace with God. That's the peace that we need.
That's the peace that passes all understanding, peace with
God Almighty, this holy God. The promise of the word is he's
going to wait on the Lord. All right, now here's our next
question. How is he going to do that? Where is he going to
do that? Here's the answer, in Christ. Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, where? In
Christ. in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is all in Christ. If the Lord is going to bless
us, and if the Lord is going to keep us, and if he is going
to be gracious to us, and if he's going to show kindness to
us and mercy to us, it is going to be in Christ, in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In John 17, our Lord said, Father,
all those that you have given to me, I have kept them. They are kept in me. They are
in me. He said, I am in you, and they'll
never be taken out. Kept by the power of God. In
Christ, we're kept by the power of God. 2 Corinthians 4, verse
6 says, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God Where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
You want to see the glory of God? Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in Christ. All of it
is in Christ. John 1 verse 17. It says, the
law was given by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. That's where grace came from.
That's where truth came from. The Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 15
verse 11 says, we believe that through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. And that's what all of God's
people believe. We believe that through the gift, grace means
gift. free gift, favor with God, grace. Through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved. That's how men and women are
saved. It's not through their own obedience of the law. We
open this Bible, we read this Bible, all of the commandments
in the word of God, they are good. The law is good. The law
is holy. The law is just. Here's the problem.
We are not. We are sin. Man by nature is
only evil continually. That's what God said. Only evil
continually. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. That's what the Word
of God says. And our only hope is that God the Father sent Christ
to redeem us, Christ to save us. We're not going to save ourselves
through our own obedience or our own decision or our own anything.
It's only going to be in Christ. It's only going to be by Christ.
Romans 3.24 says, being justified freely, justified before God,
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Psalm 42 verse 5 says, I shall
yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, because He is
the health of my countenance. And my God, He is, He is. Ephesians 2 says, He is our peace
because He is the one who broke down the middle wall of partition
between us and God. And He did that in His own body
on the tree, so making peace. So Numbers 24 says, The Lord
bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. He will do it. In Christ, he
shall do it. Just wait on the Lord. Be of
good courage. He shall strengthen your heart.
He shall. If we need salvation, do you need salvation? I do.
If we need salvation, wait on the Lord. Look to the Lord. If
we need provision, if we need to be provided for, I do, you
do too. Wait on the Lord. Look to the
Lord. If we need direction, do you
have a decision that needs to be made? If we need some direction,
wait on the Lord. Look to the Lord. If we need
comfort, if we need hope, if we need strength to make it through
one more day, do you need strength just to make it through one more
day? Wait on the Lord. Look to the Lord. Cry out to
the Lord. Call on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If God the Father has given you to Christ, he is going to encourage
you in Christ. He is going to strengthen you.
He is going to bless you. He is going to keep you. He is
going to make his face shine on you. He's going to be gracious
to you. He's going to lift up his countenance
on you and he's going to give you peace. In Christ, you shall
have peace. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. You know, you may hear this and
say, how do you know that? How can you be? You know, you're
saying you sound pretty confident right now. How do you know that?
Here's how. It's because God Almighty is
the one who said it. And if he said it. He shall. If He said this is what will
be, that's what will be. He shall. Look with me back at
Psalm 27, our text here, Psalm 27. If we wait on the Lord, if
God gives us the ability to look to the Lord and to wait for His
encouragement and His strength, then this will be the end of
our waiting. Okay, this will be the encouragement
and the strength that comes to us. This is what we'll realize.
Psalm 27 verse one says, the Lord is my light. We're gonna see in this, Christ
is all. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall
I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident." What is this host?
What are we this enemy that comes? It's our sin. It's all of our
sin that attacks us. Verse 4, he said, In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me, he shall set me up on a rock. And now shall
mine head," and that's Christ. He's the head, we're the body.
"'Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies, round
about me. Therefore will I offer in his
tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing
praises unto the Lord.'" Christ is all. That's what David said
in this. Christ is all. He's all, and
I have about two minutes left, and I want to show you a couple
of minutes, a couple of scriptures in two minutes. These are very,
very encouraging scriptures. This is Lamentations 3, verse
21. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It is up the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for him. to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." It's
good. It's so good that a man looks
to Christ, waits on Christ, hopes in Christ. Why? Why is it good? It's because Isaiah 40 says,
this is verse 28, "'Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard
that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends
of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching
of his understanding. He gives power to the faint and
to them that have no might, he increases strength. To those
who are completely empty, that's who he helps. Even the youths
shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not
be weary. They shall walk and not faint."
Listen to this one more. This is Isaiah 30, verse 18. It says, therefore will the Lord
wait. The commandment to God's people
is you wait, you wait. Isaiah 30, verse 18, it says,
therefore will the Lord wait. that he may be gracious unto
you. And therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy
upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment.
Blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall
dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more." Every
soul that He brings to glory with Him. They're gonna weep
no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy
cry. When He shall hear it, He'll
answer you. That's a blessed promise, isn't
it? I pray that's an encouragement to your heart. You wait on the
Lord. You look to Christ, and He'll strengthen 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.