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 would like for us to look at
a verse of scripture from Romans chapter 10, if you would like
to follow along with me. We will be in Romans chapter
10, verse 11. It says, for the scripture saith,
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. The scripture
saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth on Christ,
and I'm going to try to make this very clear, very clear. I want to hound this point. Whosoever believeth on Christ
shall not be ashamed, and that means shall be saved, will not
be lost, will not be left empty handed in that day of judgment,
will be saved. Believing on Christ, believing
on, another way to say that is faith. Faith in and on the Lord
Jesus Christ, That is the evidence of being saved. That is the evidence. I pray the Lord might honestly
make this clear to us and let us really get ahold of this.
Faith in and on the Lord Jesus Christ, believing in him, believing
on him, casting your all on him. That is the evidence of salvation,
not good works. not good works. Good works are
not the evidence of salvation. Faith in and on the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is the evidence of salvation. True faith in the
accomplishment of his blood that truly covered and paid the debt
of our sin. True faith in the accomplishment
of His righteousness that robes us in and supplies us with every
goodness that we need before God. True faith. Hebrews 11 verse
one says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. Faith, the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. If God would truly reveal
that to us, it would deliver us from all of our error. There
is so much error out there. It would deliver us from all
of our bondage. It would deliver us from our
false hope, faith alone in Christ. looking to Christ, trusting Christ,
believing on Christ. That's what God's people are
called out of false man centered religion. False religion is man
centered religion. It keeps looking at man and talking
about man and telling man what man has to do. And God's people
are called out of that. When the spirit comes, he reveals
Christ. And God's people are called out
of that. They're called away from works to faith. Faith in Christ. Faith is the only thing that
is not a work, really. It's about one of the only things
that exists that is not a work. Men and women can make a work
out of anything except for God given faith. It's not a work. You'll never find a company You'll
never see an ad from a company advertising that they are looking
to hire a believer. Believing, trusting is not a
work. You'll see men make a work out
of listening. People do that. Psychiatrists
do that. You'll see men make a work out of speaking. I'm doing
that right now. You'll see men make a work out
of thinking. A company will hire someone that
you do some thinking on this and you creatively come up with
something. All those things, you can make
a work at it, but no one hires a believer. No company says,
we will hire you on and we will tell you some things and you
believe what we tell you and then we'll pay you. Nobody does
that. Faith is not a work. Faith is not a work. The only
thing that faith does is it looks to the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It trusts his work. That's what faith does. It believes
his work. It believes what he has said
that he has done. That's what faith does. Anything
other than believing what Christ has said concerning his own finished
work that he accomplished for his people. Anything other than
just believing him is not faith, not faith. It's a work. Now let
me be clear on this. Okay. The apostle Paul is the
very man who wrote to the Ephesians, by grace are you saved through
faith, believing on Christ. And he said, that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. We don't
come up with it. God gives it. He said, it's not
of works lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. The scripture says,
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Shall we just
throw caution to the wind and say, you know what? We're saved
by grace, therefore we'll just dive head first into sin and
not worry about it. God forbid. God forbid. We should strive to, as we say
it, straighten up and fly right. God's people ought to act like
God's people. And God's people want to act
like God's people. They do desire to act like God's
people. Paul has laid the groundwork
here that good works are not the evidence of salvation. Faith
is. Good works are not the evidence.
Faith is. But he goes on to say, there's
no excuse for man. That doesn't excuse us into sin.
But if we don't understand this critical difference, We will
never be brought from bondage to liberty. We will never be
brought from error to truth. Think about this with me, okay?
You can find good works in every religion known to man. And I
say with the Apostle Paul, I'm for good works. I believe men
and women ought to strive to be good and not evil. But you can find good works in
every religion known to man all over this world. Every one of
them is based on good works. But that does not mean you can
find faith in Christ in every religion known to man. And therefore,
that does not mean you can find salvation in every religion known
to man. Salvation is in believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ, believing on
him. That's the evidence. Paul spent
chapter one here in the book of Romans saying this. You can read it sometimes. Read
Romans chapter one. He spent that chapter saying
the Gentiles are awful people. And that's what I am. I'm a Gentile.
Anyone who is not a Jew is a Gentile. And Paul spent Romans chapter
one saying the Gentiles are awful people. They are ruined people
by the wickedness of sin. All right. That's Romans chapter
one. Then he spent Romans chapter two saying the Jews are awful
people. The Gentiles are awful. The Jews
are awful. They are ruined by the wickedness
of sin. Therefore, he said in chapter
three, it is clear that all have sinned. All, Jew and Gentile,
every man and woman, boy and girl on this earth, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. He said, there
is none that doeth righteousness. Good. No, not one. I just said we should strive
to do good. Well, we should, but we need
to realize there is none that truly does good in the eyes of
God. All of our self righteousnesses
are filthy rags in the eyes of God. They don't live up to his
standard. They just do not live up to his
standard. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But he said there in chapter three, thank God our salvation
is not in us doing good. It's not in our righteousnesses. It's in Christ doing good. It's
in Christ's righteousness. He went about doing good. Turn with me over there if you
would. Romans chapter three. If you have your Bible, I'm going
to kind of go through Romans here just a little bit and you
may enjoy following along with me. Romans three, verse 20. Now look at this verse very carefully.
It says, therefore by the deeds of the law. Now this Bible, I
have a Bible. I know it's not in your screen,
but I have a Bible right here. And this is the law of God. These
are the commandments of God. And he said, by the deeds of
the law, by obeying these commandments. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Justification
does not come by us obeying the law. because we're sinners who
cannot obey this law, not to the perfect standard that God
requires. So it says, therefore, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law was
given to just show us we don't live up. We do not live up to
his standards. Verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. Who is the righteousness of God?
It's Christ. He is the righteousness of God
and he was manifested. God came down and was manifested
to us. Verse 21 says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. They all spoke of him. Verse
22, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus
Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation. That means a blood covering.
It means a bloody victim. That's what it means. Whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. What about my sin? That's what
men and women want to know. What about my sin? Look to the
blood of Jesus Christ. You trust in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ that covered the sins of God's people. whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, not mine, his, that he might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Verse 27 says, where is boasting then? What do we have to brag
about? Well, I did this and I did that.
No, he did it all. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, no,
but by the law of faith. Look at verse 28. It says, therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. Do we see that? Could that be
any more clear? That is so clear. What that's
saying is Christ saved his people without his people, without the
help of his people. They helped him not at all. Scripture
says he by himself purged our sins. He did it alone. He did it alone. Faith is not
the final component of salvation. Christ finished salvation. But
the evidence of who he did it for is he gives them faith. And with his faith that he gives,
they believe on him. They totally, completely believe
on him. That is the evidence. Paul illustrated
this in chapter four with Abraham. If you look at Romans chapter
4 verse 1, it says, What shall we say then that Abraham, our
father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? How did it
go for him? How was he justified before God?
Verse 2 says, For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath
whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. He looked to Christ and he looked
to Christ's righteousness and through that faith that was counted
to Abraham as though Abraham had committed righteousness.
He did it in Christ. He did it by way of the work
of Christ. He believed God and it was counted
to him for righteousness. Now, what did Abraham believe?
Well, if you look at verse 20, it says, he staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief. He believed he had faith, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. He didn't look to his flesh at
all. He didn't look to Sarah's womb at all. God promised him
a son. And it says he believed that what God had promised, God
was able to perform. Now, how did he get that faith?
God gave it to him. God worked it in him. God performed
it in him and caused Abraham to look to Christ and to believe
on him. So he believed God, he believed
Christ, and that was counted to him for righteousness. Now,
again, through chapters five and six, Paul is going to ask
this question again. We've already mentioned it, but
he asked the question again. Does knowing this, does knowing
that Christ did it all, knowing what Christ did, who he did it
for, how effectual it was, how great the accomplishment was.
If you look at Romans 5, verse 6, it says, for when we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Knowing what Christ did and who
he did it for, the ungodly. Do our works play a role in this?
How could they? We were ungodly. Verse seven
says, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Sinners, ungodly sinners. And
he says, does knowing that Christ died for sinners, does knowing
that Christ died under the works of sinners, and that every soul
he died for lives under his works of righteousness. Does knowing
that Christ came and took his perfect record of life and traded
it with our awful record of sin and death, our ruined record.
He traded those books, traded those records, and then we all
stood before God and God judged Christ in our sin. And God judged
us in His righteousness. Does knowing that Christ freed
us from the bondage of the law by fulfilling that law for us,
does knowing that cause a child of God to want to dive headfirst
into sin? God forbid, God forbid. Knowing what Christ has done
for us makes God's people fall in love with Him. And it makes
them hate what they did to him. Oh, we hate it so much. Look
at chapter six, Romans six, verse one. He said, what shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Say, well,
if he came to save sinners, I'll be the greatest sinner you've
ever seen. Verse two, he said, God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? How could we glory in
our sin and revel in our sin and just take pride in our sin?
How could we do that? Seeing what Christ has done makes
God's people cry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It makes them long to be like
him. I don't want to be like me anymore. I want to be like
him. I'm so tired of being like me.
I'm so tired of what I am. That's what Paul said in Romans
7. Romans 7 is Paul confessing to everybody, this is what I
feel about myself in the flesh and I hate it. And he's not talking
about what he was before God saved him, he's talking about
what he is right now in this moment as God's very own apostle.
This is what he said concerning his own self, his own flesh.
Romans 7 verse 24, he said, oh wretched man that I am. Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? Why do you say that, Paul? Look at verse 15. He said, for
that which I do, I allow not. I don't know why I do it. Can
you enter into that? I can. For what I would, what
I wish I would do, I wish I was like Christ. He said, what I
would, that do I not. But what I hate, That's what
I do. Sin, he said, is just so infected
me. It's just so ruined everything.
Verse 19, he said, for the good that I would, I do not. I wish
I just did good. But he said, I don't. But the
evil, which I would not, that's what I do. Sin is mixed with
everything that I do. Verse 21, he said, I find then
a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Everything
I do is drowning in sin. Verse 24, he said, Oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who shall deliver me? He very
clearly spells out the answer to that in Romans chapter eight.
Look at Romans 8, verse 1. He said, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation in Christ. Isn't that wonderful news? He
is the gospel. Verse 29, Romans 8, 29, it says,
for whom he did foreknow. That means elect. who he knew
beforehand, knew before the foundation of the world, whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate. There's that word, predestinate.
Yes, God predestinated a people. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified." You hear how it keeps saying, he,
he, he did this, not us, him. Whom he called, them he also
justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now he warns in chapter nine,
God is not for everybody. He said, God has clearly revealed
that to us with Jacob and Esau. Romans 9, verse 10, it says,
not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even
by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election. Yes, God elected a people. The
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works. But of him that calleth, it was
said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. People hear that
and they get so angry with God over that. They say that's not
fair. That's not fair. He can't do
that. So Paul addresses that in the next verse, verse 14.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. God forbid. You know, the question
is not how could God hate Esau? Esau was a sinful rebel against
God, just like every other man and woman on this earth. There's
none that do with good. The question is, how could God
love Jacob? And the answer is only in the
person and the work and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
21 says, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same
lump to make one vessel under honor and another under dishonor?
What this is saying is God is sovereign and he can do whatever
he is pleased to do. He can do whatever he is pleased
to do. God will save, God will choose, God will heal. as he
sees fit. And Paul said, My prayer is that
he will do this for as many as he's willing to do this. In chapter
10, verse 1, he said, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, and men and women do,
but not according to knowledge, not according to truth. For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, meaning the perfect work he has
supplied in the person of Christ, and going about to establish
their own righteousness. And that's what man's false religion
is built on, him trying to do his own good works and establish
his own righteousness before God. Verse three says, they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness. have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Verse four says, for Christ,
he is the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Everyone that
believeth. Faith is not of ourselves, it's
the gift of God. May God give it to us. That's
our prayer. Lord, increase our faith. Give
us faith. Cause us to look to Christ. Cause
us to turn our eyes away from self. Cause us to totally forget
about self and turn everything to Christ. Give him the glory. Give him the credit. Look to
his work, his righteousness, his blood, his everything alone. May God give that to us. Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. I pray the Lord would
make it so with us. 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.