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. If you
have a Bible and would like to follow along with me, I'm going
to speak to you today from Psalm 79. And while you turn there,
let me open the message with this statement. If we don't have Christ, we don't
have anything. That's the truth. If we don't
have Christ, we don't have anything. If we lose Christ or miss Christ
or end up leaving this world without Christ because we tried
to gain something that's not Christ, we have ended up losing everything. We have given up everything for
nothing. Anything in this world that is
not Christ is nothing. And Christ is all. That is the
absolute truth. Now, with that statement being
said, if you look with me at Psalm 79, verse 9 says, Help
us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name deliver
us and purge away our sins for thy name's sake." Help us, O
God of our salvation. That's our cry, that's our plea,
that needs to be our cry, that must be our plea from the heart. Help us, O help us, O God of
our salvation. Deliver us, and purge away our
sins. Lord, would you do that for thy
name's sake? For the glory of thy name, would
you do that? Verse 13 in this Psalm says,
if you do, we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give
thee thanks forever. Lord, if you do that, We thy
people and sheep of thy pasture will give you thanks forever. We will show forth thy praise
to all generations." The title of this message is Sheep of Thy
Pasture. Sheep of Thy Pasture. I want
us to just enjoy the thought of being the sheep of His pasture. What a thought! What a glorious
thought. I pray that might be said about
us. I sincerely do. I pray that I am a sheep of His
pasture and I pray you're a sheep of His pasture. Now this entire
Psalm is a condemnation against the heathen world. And I'll tell
you the whole world is Heathen means outcast, that's what it
is, outcast by nature. And this Psalm is a condemnation
against the outcast heathen world and their sin against God and
against His people. But in the midst of all of this
condemnation of the heathen world, And again, heathen means those
who are without God, those who are without Christ, those who
do not belong to the Lord. There are some who do not belong
to the Lord. In the midst of all of this condemning,
all of this condemnation, the writer of this psalm said, God's
people shouldn't kid themselves. All right, this Psalm is a condemnation
of the outcast world and sin and all of that. But he said,
God's people shouldn't kid themselves. They're not without sin either.
They are not without sin either. All have sinned. All have sinned. We are not without sin. I'm not
without sin and you're not without sin. And what that means is I'm
a sinner and you're a sinner. And I know that's offensive,
people take offense to that, but it's just so, it's just so. We shouldn't be offended by it
because it's so. I am a sinner, you are a sinner,
like it or not, that's what we are. We sin in the flesh, we
sin in the mind, we sin in the heart, we sin in pride. If a
person in pride believes, well, I haven't sinned today, that's
a sin against God. Pride's the number one thing
he hates. We are sinners. We have sinned. And in verse
eight of this Psalm, he said, Oh, remember not against us,
former iniquities, us. remember not against us former
iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are
brought very low very low now let's read this psalm so we can
understand what is being said here and then After we read this
and all of its condemnation, let's beg God for Christ. All
right, let's read the psalm, see what God has written, and
then let's beg God for Christ. Let's beg God to be sheep of
his pasture. Let's beg God to make us to be
members of his fold, sheep of his pasture. The heading at the
top of my page above this Psalm, it says, the desolation of Jerusalem. And it says, this is the miseries
of the church. The church, the desolation of
Jerusalem and the miseries of the church, the prayer, the cry
of the miseries of the church because of the sin. The sin that
has destroyed everything, desolated everything. And it will. Sin will destroy everything. Thank God Christ has overcome
sin. Thank God. Thank God Christ has
destroyed the sin of His people. His people are sinners. But Christ
destroyed the sin of His people. He did that for them. Now, verse
1 says, O God, The heathen are come into thine inheritance.
Thy holy temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. Oh, how man will do everything
he can do to destroy God's kingdom and destroy God's worship and
destroy God's people. The sin of man is enmity against
God. That means that the flesh of
man is the natural enemy of God. Let me repeat that again so we
can understand that. Our flesh, this is sinful flesh. Sin is the enemy of God. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is the breaking of His commandments. That's what sin is. So man by
nature, all of us in our flesh are naturally, as we're born
into this world, the enemies of God. I know that's strong
language, but that's scripture. at enmity against God. Verse 2 says, The dead bodies
of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of
heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth?
Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem,
and there was none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our
neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about
us. How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry forever? Shall
thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not
called upon thy name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid
waste his dwelling place. How long are you going to let
sin abound and this wickedness abound? Mankind thinks that just because
God has not dealt judgment to man for his sin speedily, the
scripture words it, man thinks that just because God does not
immediately deal judgment for man's sin, that it's not coming.
His judgment's not coming, but it is coming. It is. In his perfect time, all judgment
against sin is going to be executed. But we see things happen and
we say the same thing that the writer of this psalm says, how
long, Lord? Oh, how long will you allow all
this to go on? Everything we see around us,
everything we see in us, how long? Verse 10 says, wherefore
should the heathen say, where is their God? Let him be known
among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood
of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee according to the greatness of thy power. Preserve
thou those that are appointed to die. And render unto our neighbors
sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have
reproached thee, O Lord." They're doing this against you. So we,
thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever.
We will show forth thy praise to all generations. Now it is true, there is a wicked
world full of wicked sin. That's true. Sin against God,
sin against God's people, that is true. And it grieves and it
brings misery to the church of God. It does. But the true church of God, and
I'm not talking to just about religious people. There are many
religious people who are not among the true church of God.
God's true called quickened people. The true people of God know that
the sin that is out there in the world is the least of their
miseries. It's misery, but it's the least
of their miseries. All of that is out there. It
most definitely is. But for the true child of God,
his or her greatest concern is what's right inside here. what's
right inside us. That's the child of God's greatest
concern. And while we do condemn the sin
that's out there in the world, our greatest cry is, verse eight,
oh, remember not against us, former iniquities. Let thy tender
mercies speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low."
Very low. Remember not against us former
iniquities. That means remember not against
us the sins of our ancestors, our fathers before us. That's one meaning of it. Don't
let their sin be laid on us. And we see the same thing for
our children, don't we? Lord, don't let our sins be laid
on them. Don't let the things we have
done ruin them. Please don't let that happen
because that sin is there. That ruin is there. There's plenty
of that. Man drinks iniquity like water, the scripture says.
The other meaning of it is every sin that I have committed up
to this point in my life, Lord, please, verse eight says, oh,
remember not against us former iniquities. All of these sins
that I have committed in my life up to this point, can you enter
into that? Can you say that with me, with the writer of this psalm? Can we say that together? Oh,
we have sinned. My life is full of sin. Lord,
please, he said, oh, remember not against us former iniquities,
let thy tender mercy speedily prevent us. That word prevent
means go before. He said, let that tender mercy
speedily go before us, get in front of us. Let mercy get in
front of us before we go to the judgment throne of God Almighty
and stand there in our sin and have to answer for our sin. Before
we stand before that judgment throne, would you please let
mercy get in front of us? Please let mercy go before us. For we are brought very low."
We are a low and sinful people ourselves. Can you enter into
that? I can. I can. My sin grieves me. Does your sin grieve you? I wish
I could get away from it. The Apostle Paul, his sin grieved
him. Read Romans 7. Just read Romans
7, read 1 Timothy 1, read these scriptures where Paul just poured
out his heart saying, oh, wretched man that I am. My sin grieves
me. I wish I could stop sinning,
but I can't because I'm a sinner. Does your sin grieve you? Do
you have a life of sin? Do you fear standing before the
holy God thinking I cannot do what I need to do to make things
right with God. I can't stop sinning. Not only
can I not make things right with God, I can't stop sinning. Do
you enter into that? You hear other people going around
saying how they don't sin anymore. They are lying. Read 1 John 1. If a man say that he doesn't
have sin, he's a liar. He's calling God a liar because
God said all sin. Lord, please, because of sin,
we're brought so low. We're a sinful and low people
who need mercy just as much as anybody does. I need mercy just
as much as anybody does. You need mercy just as much as
anybody does. What is mercy? When we say that
we need mercy, what does that mean? What does mercy do? Where does mercy come from? How
does mercy come to us? There's a song that says, as
poor wretched sinners, no God and no hope, it seemed there
was no one to help. But God in his mercy, salvation
supplied, emptied heaven and came down himself. and a ransom
was found." That means a payment. Yes, a ransom was found. Love
paid the price. What is love? Scripture says
God is love. God paid the price. The scripture
says all of the love of God is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Christ paid the price. A ransom was found. Yes, a ransom
was found. Love himself paid the price on
Calvary's mound. The song says judgment was met
for all of that sin of God's people. All that sin that had
been committed against him. Judgment was met and the law
satisfied. that justice had been served,
the law was satisfied, and it said, mercy was born when a ransom
was found. When that payment was made, mercy
was born. That's where mercy came from. It began when the ransom was
found, the payment of Christ himself, the payment of the blood
of Christ himself. When Christ died paying that
price for the sin of his people, that blood brought mercy, mercy
to all of his people. The blood he shed has gone before
his people to the throne of God as the high priest. That's what
the high priest would do. A high priest would kill a lamb
representing Christ and would bring that blood in to God and
Jesus Christ by himself with his own blood One sacrifice,
that blood prevented all of his people. That blood went before
all of his people to the throne of God and appeased God. It pled mercy, pled mercy for
all of his people. There's another song. I love
this song so much. The one verse in it says, five
bleeding wounds he bears. Two in his hands, two in his
feet, one in his side. Five bleeding, woundsy bears
received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die. Do not let that blood-bought,
paid-for sinner die. That's the mercy of God that
prevents, goes before all of his people. Verse 8 says, Oh,
remember not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercies
speedily prevent us. Let them get between us and the
throne of God quickly, quickly. He goes on to say, for we are
brought very low. Verse nine says, help us, oh
God, of our salvation for the glory of thy name. Do that for the glory of thy
name. What did he say his glory was?
I mention this all the time. It needs to be mentioned all
the time. He said, my glory is that I'll
have mercy. I'll have mercy. I'm telling
you, that's what we need. We don't need to turn over a
new leaf, we can't. If we turned over a new leaf,
there'd be sin on the other side. Honestly, we need mercy. We need mercy in the blood of
Jesus Christ, mercy that covers all sin, all sin. God said, this is my glory, that
I'll have mercy. It's that I will save my people
by hiding them in me. I want to be hid in Christ, don't
you? He hid his people. He said, I'll
hide them in the secret of my tabernacle. I'll hide them in
me while their judgment is poured out. It's poured out on me. I'll
take their punishment for them. And he said, therefore, you call
my name Savior. That's what I'm going to do.
I'm gonna remember after I deal with that and put them all away,
I'm gonna remember their iniquities no more. I will speedily put
my mercy in front of them, speedily. I'm gonna help them. I'm gonna
deliver them. I'm gonna purge away their sins. I'm gonna do that for my name's
sake. Now, doesn't hearing that, if
you're a sinner like me, And if you need mercy like me, hearing
that God speedily provided mercy, doesn't that make you want to
say in verse 13, we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will
give you thanks forever. We will thank you forever. We
will show forth thy praise to all generations. Doesn't that
make you say that sounds so good to me. That sounds so good to
me. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
that. Thank you. Well, if it does,
if his mercy is music to your ears, like we say, if that is
the hope that you've been looking for, if you see your hope there,
if you see your sin is overshadowing any good deeds you can accomplish.
Sin, where your good deeds have tried to abound, your sin just
more abounds. If you see that, and it's brought
nothing but misery and desolation to you, and if mercy in His blood
has been revealed to you, total redemption in His blood, if that
has been revealed to you and you rejoice in it and you desire
it and it makes you so glad, if that's the case, then you
just might be one of his sheep. And if that's the case for me,
I might be one of his sheep and I pray we are one of the sheep
of his pasture. That is a wonderful thing to
be. Doesn't that sound so nice? so
peaceful, so restful, just to be a sheep in his fold, one of
the lambs in his fold, in his protection, having a shepherd
who will lead us and feed us and defend us and deliver us
and provide everything we need. That's what a shepherd does.
That's exactly what a shepherd does. Leads, feeds, defends,
provides. keeps. Doesn't that sound wonderful? Psalm 80 verse 1 says, Give ear,
O Shepherd, crying out to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
O Shepherd, give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest
Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims,
shine forth Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up
thy strength and come and save us. O Shepherd, save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine and we'll be saved. Save us. Psalm 78 verse 50, this is speaking
of the Passover when the Lord passed through Egypt. Psalm 78
verse 51 says, He smote all the firstborn in Egypt the chief
of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham, but made his own people
to go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a
flock. And he led them on safely so that they feared not, but
the sea overwhelmed their enemies." Isn't that glorious? Psalm 100. says, make a joyful noise unto
the Lord all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness, come
before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting. and
his truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 23 says, the Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want. John chapter 10 says, he's the
good shepherd. Hebrews 13 says, he's the great
shepherd. First Peter 5 says, he's the
chief shepherd. Psalm 23 says, He'll make me
to lie down. He'll restore my soul. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll have
nothing to fear. He'll provide for me. He'll prepare a table
for me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life. And I'll dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. My shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd,
just like a sheep. Even though we cannot do anything
to provide for ourselves, sheep are helpless. Even though we
cannot truly offer our master anything of any value to him,
he's made a covenant to take ownership of his people. He's
reserved a place in his house for his people. For his beloved's
sake, for Christ's sake, he'll keep his people. He'll feed his
people. with the food he provides, the
spiritual food he provides. He'll lead us into his warmth.
He'll lead us into his rest. He'll shoulder us and all of
our burdens. And he'll do this because he's
the shepherd. How wonderful is that? May God
make us to be sheep in his fold. I pray so for Christ's sake.
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.