Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. If you would like to follow along
with me today, we will be in the book of Romans. If you have
a Bible there and would like to read with me. This is a very critical message,
I believe, coming from Romans chapter 9. Some very deep and
very worthy of pondering questions, eternal questions, are asked
all throughout the scripture, but especially in the book of
Romans. especially in the book of Romans. We're gonna look at
one of them today. It's Romans 9, verse 14. And it says, what shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? He asked a very, very deep question,
a very pondering question. Is there unrighteousness with
God? And I want to emphasize We know
the answer here. He immediately says, God forbid.
Anyone who is asked this question will immediately know the answer. The answer is no, there's no
unrighteousness with God. God is God. But this is an important
question and I pray the Lord will give us the ability to pay
special attention to it today because this is truly a critical
question. And this is something that if
God will reveal this to us, He may turn the light on for a lot
of things that we may have wondered. Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. No. No, there is
not. Sometimes we read these questions
and we don't ponder what they're saying. You hear a question,
you give the answer and you move on. Sometimes we don't ponder
what this is saying, but we should because our eternity hangs on
these questions. God wrote all of these on purpose. Everything that he put in here
was on purpose. Now, we know that our Lord chose
to use the hands of men to pen the scriptures, to physically,
with a pen, write the scriptures. He used the prophets. He used
the apostles. So sometimes, even though we
know this is God-inspired, sometimes we read the Word thinking, well,
Paul is asking this question. We read that thinking, you know,
Paul wrote the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul. So we're thinking
Paul is asking the question, is there unrighteousness with
God? God is asking that question. Even though the hands of men
penned the scriptures, these are the words of God Almighty.
These are the words of the Spirit of God. And this is a question
that God has recorded forever for sinners like me and you to
ponder, truly ponder. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Now let's look at a few questions
that he asked that led up to this question. If you look at
Romans 8, verse 33, he said, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Boy, that's a question. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Think about that
and ponder that. Ponder what that's actually saying. What that means is, who shall
say to one of God's elect, you committed sin? Who shall say
that to one of God's elect? You committed sin. Verse 34 says, who is he that
will condemn for sin? Who is he that condemneth? But
verse 33 says, who is he that will even accuse? Who is he that will accuse one
of God's elect saying you did it? Condemned or not condemned, you
did it. No matter what, THAT CRIME IS
KNOWN OR IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN COMMITTED BY YOU. WHETHER YOU'RE
CONDEMNED FOR IT OR NOT CONDEMNED FOR IT, WE KNOW YOU DID IT. THAT'S WHAT IT IS TO BE CHARGED.
YOU SEE ON THE NEWS, YOU TURN ON THE NEWS AND YOU'LL HEAR ABOUT
SOMEBODY COMMITTING A CRIME AND THEY'LL SAY, WELL, HE'S CHARGED
WITH hasn't gone to court yet, hasn't stood before the judge
yet, but he's charged with, that means he's accused of, I knew a young man many years
ago, a long time ago, who committed a crime, a very unfortunate crime,
and he went to prison for it and served his time. They sentenced
him to an amount of time. and he served it. And after that
time was served, they let him go. They unlocked that cell and
they discharged him and let him go. They said that his debt was
paid and that he was free to go. Even though his debt was paid
to the law, he still did it. You know that? He still did it. PEOPLE KNEW
THAT HE HAD DONE IT. PEOPLE STILL TALKED ABOUT THE
FACT THAT HE HAD DONE IT. EVEN THOUGH LEGALLY HIS DEBT
WAS PAID TO SOCIETY, IT WAS STILL LAID TO HIS CHARGE. NOW, DOES THAT AT ALL BRING A
GREATER WEIGHTINESS TO THE QUESTION THAT GOD ALMIGHTY HAS ASKED? WHO SHALL LAY ANYTHING TO THE
CHARGE OF GOD'S ELECT? THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM
WHICH ARE IN CHRIST JESUS. THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BE CONDEMNED.
BUT WHO WILL EVEN ACCUSE ONE OF GOD'S PEOPLE OF HAVING DONE
ANYTHING WORTHY OF CONDEMNATION? THAT MEANS THE SLATE IS WIPED
CLEAN. THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS. THAT MEANS
A BRAND NEW CLEAN SLATE, A NEW RECORD. THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS.
Look at verse 35, right here in Romans 8. It says, who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Let's ponder that. Hold your place right here if
you have your Bible and look with me at Psalm 5. Over in Psalm
5, this is an important verse of scripture. Psalm 5, verse
4. It says, For thou art not a God
that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with
thee. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity."
David said, David penned, Lord, I know that you hate sinners. Now that's strong language, isn't
it? That's strong language. Some people will say, well, God
doesn't hate the sinner. He hates the sins. That's not
what God said through the hand of David. He said, I hate the sinners,
all workers of iniquity, the iniquity and the workers of iniquity. That that's, oh, that's tough
to hear. That is tough to hear. That is
strong language. Verse six, he said, you're going
to destroy them all, all of them. Verse four, he said, they're
not going to dwell with you. They're not going to be there
in glory with you. You're going to cast them out. Knowing that he hates all workers
of iniquity. And knowing that that's what
we are. Now go into your mind for just a minute. Are you a
sinner or not? Doesn't matter if it's a big
sinner, little sinner. Are you a sinner or not? I'll
confess to you, I am. I'm a sinner. And I'll also confess
to you that you are. I wish we weren't. I'm sorry
that it's the case, but we are. And God says that he hates all
sinners, workers of iniquity, and they're not going to stand
with him in his glory. So knowing that, doesn't it make
us want to ponder the question a little bit more deeply? Who
shall separate us from his love? How can that be said? How can
it be said that in Christ, no one will ever charge us? They'll never accuse us of committing
sin. And even though we know that
we're nothing but sinners, we know what we are. Nothing will
ever separate us from his love. All right. Now, this is why we
need to ponder the question in Romans 9, 14. Is there unrighteousness
with God? Wait a minute. I'm a sinner. And he said that I'm not going
to be charged with sin and nothing's going to separate me from his
love, but sinners won't dwell with him and he hates sinners.
Wait a minute. Is there unrighteousness with God? Is there unjustice with God?
If you look with me back at Romans nine, I'm sure that you've heard
of cities and countries that for a long time, years and years,
throughout different parts of the world, have been known for
having corrupt government. There are some places that everybody
knows it. They know it in their country,
and other countries know it, and it's just accepted. It's
a corrupt government. Corrupt officials known for taking
bribes to turn a blind eye to justice. When that is known to be the
case, people can't have any assurance in the ones who are ruling over
them. They can't really trust the ones who are ruling over
them. There's no stability. It's chaos. It's change. Whoever
has the most money in their bribe, it's constantly change. You can't
put your trust in that. YOU CAN'T HAVE FAITH IN SOMETHING
WHEN YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S EVEN A POSSIBILITY THAT RIGHT IS NOT
GOING TO BE DONE. WRONG IS GOING TO REIGN. NOW, WHAT IS SAID RIGHT HERE
IN ROMANS 9, 14, THIS QUESTION COMES RIGHT AFTER WHAT HE SAID
IN ROMANS 9, 13. IF YOU LOOK AT ROMANS CHAPTER
9, VERSE 13, HE SAID, AS IT IS WRITTEN, JACOB HAVE I LOVED,
BUT ESAU HAVE I HATED. Verse 11, the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil that 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. God said, I have not loved and
I have not blessed the naturally rightful heir. I HAVE LOVED AND
I HAVE BLESSED THE UNWORTHY, UNDESERVING, UNOWED SINNER. I HAVE NOT BLESSED THE ONE WHO
IT'S OWED TO AND I HAVE BLESSED THE ONE THAT IT'S NOT OWED TO.
NOW THIS IS IMPORTANT. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THIS IS
THE FIRST TIME THAT A PERSON HAS HEARD THE GOSPEL OR A PERSON'S
BEEN LISTENING TO IT FOR 50 YEARS. IT DOES NOT MATTER. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
We must know how God justified His people. We must. This is the critical issue of
the gospel. If you want to know what the
heart of the gospel is, if you want to get to the heart of the
truth of the gospel, it's in this. This is what determines
whether we know the gospel or don't know the gospel. This is
it. Now let's let it be known that
God justified His people. Everything He said about them
is so. God justified His people, but
here's the question we need to know the answer to. Was He just
in doing it? Or was He unjust in doing it?
Was he righteous in doing it or was he unrighteous in doing
it? Now his name is on the line.
His character is on the line. His holiness is on the line. How was God just in justifying
his people? I'm a sinner and you're a sinner. How was God righteous? That means
right. How could it be said it was right
that he justified Jacob? How is that possible? How was
God righteous in justifying you and me if we belong to him? If he chose us and justified
us, how was he right in doing that? Because if his actions
were unrighteous, if they were unrighteous, we can't have any
faith in that. We can't put any trust in that.
If he was unrighteous in doing it, God is not holy. There's no security in that.
If our hope of salvation is built on corruption, it'll change. There's no security. The whole
thing is going to fall. The foundation will crumble. So here's the question. Is there
unrighteousness with God? Here's the answer. God forbid. No, there is not. Shall not the
judge of the earth do right? Righteously. God was just in
justifying his people. And here's how he did it. All
right, here's how we did it. This is the heart of the gospel.
God's chosen people. God chose a people out of all
tribes, nations, kindreds, and tongue on the earth. God's chosen
but sinful people. Christ came to save sinners.
God's chosen but sinful people had to meet his justice. at a sacrifice. That's what the
law required. That's what the judge required.
They had to meet His justice at a sacrifice. The altar of
that sacrifice was the cross of Calvary. That's where the
Lamb was slain. That was the altar of sacrifice. God's mediator Christ, Christ,
Jesus, the Lord and God's people. Us, if we belong to him, if he
chose us. God's mediator and God's people
all met right there. Right there on the cross. Christ
came to the altar of sacrifice, Christ went to the cross. Totally
spotless. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
was absolutely spotless. He was completely sinless. He was innocent. He was pure. He came to that sacrifice spotless. We came to the altar of sacrifice
totally ruined. Completely sinful. guilty, filthy. All we have to do is go right
into our minds and see what takes place in there. You think about
the thoughts you think. You think about what goes in
the heart, the emotions of the heart. Filthy, filthy, God's
people met Christ the mediator at the cross of Calvary. All
right now, so far what we have is the truth We're going to preach
the truth. Here it is. This is what happened.
Christ came and he was spotless. God's people came and they were
filthy. All right. That's the truth.
But we don't yet have the gospel. All right. Now, the good news
is how God justified his filthy people in the spotless person
of his son. That's the gospel. That is the
gospel. How God justly, rightly, justified
us in the person of His Son. Knowing that Christ was perfect,
knowing He was spotless, knowing He was innocent, knowing He was
pure, and knowing that we were sinful and we were guilty and
vile and wicked. God the Father looking down on
the sacrifice of the cross, this great transaction that took place
on the cross. Okay, God looking on Christ in all of his innocent purity,
God seeing Christ in his absolute perfection and purity and slaying
him in it, killing him in his purity, punishing
him, making Him to suffer, turning His back on Him, rejecting Him,
forsaking Him in all of His spotless perfection. Everything heaven demands, seeing
Christ in it and God turning His back on Him and forsaking
Him and punishing Him and then God looking on us in all of our
guilty vileness, all of our filth, everything that is opposite of
His glory, everything that He said He hates. After beholding
our wickedness and our sin, God smiling at us and saying, you're
free to go. And looking at Christ and saying,
kill Him. Does that sound like justice
to you? If that's what happened, does
that sound like justice, does that sound like righteousness?
Does that sound right and holy? No. That's unjust. That's unjust, that's what most
people think happened at the cross. But if we view it that
way, we are viewing injustice. We are viewing unrighteousness. That's unholiness. God is holy. That means he must do what's
right. Is there unrighteousness with
God? No, there's not. No, there's
not. Had God killed the innocent man,
and set free the guilty man, God would have been unrighteous
in doing that. Just like that young man that
I know who committed the crime. Had that judge, there was a judge,
he was standing before, had that judge said, I tell you what,
you go home and I'll just pick somebody from the courtroom and
I'll send them to prison instead. That can't be. God forbid. That's unjust. That's corrupt
government. That's what that is. And that's
not what happened on the cross. Not only is that not the gospel. That's not the truth. That's
a lie. That's a lie on God's holiness
and that's a lie on God's justice. And to believe that is to believe
that there is unrighteousness with God. And there's not, God
forbid. So what is the truth of the gospel? How was God just in justifying
his people? What true grounds of salvation
can we put our faith in and our trust in and go make God in? What really happened? What really
happened on the cross? Here it is. 2 Corinthians 5 verse
21 says, God made Christ to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Christ came to the altar
of sacrifice, totally spotless. I mean spotless, completely sinless,
innocent, pure. And we came to the altar of sacrifice
totally ruined, completely sinful, guilty, filthy. And Christ traded
places with us. HE MADE HIMSELF TO BE US. HEBREWS 7 SAYS HE BECAME US. HE MADE HIMSELF TO BE THE BEARER
OF OUR SIN, INSIDE AND OUT. HE WAS NOT THE COMMITTER OF OUR
SIN. WE WERE THE COMMITTERS. BUT HE
BECAME THE OWNER. He became the owner and the bearer
of all of our sin. And as the owner, He stood before
God in the filth and the wickedness of our sin that we gave to Him. And in seeing the reality and
the condition of what Christ had been made to be, God slayed
Him in it. God punished him and made him
to suffer and turned his back on him and rejected him and forsook
him, gave him everything we had earned. And then after that happened,
God looked at us. God looked at his people. Now,
having all of that sin removed, gone, I mean gone, it's not there,
Christ took it away. bearing only the righteousness
of Christ that He made us to be. His righteousness. We were not the committers of
righteousness, but we became the owners of His righteousness. And as the owners, we stood before
God in the innocence and the spotless purity that Christ gave
to us. And in seeing the reality of
the condition that we had been made to be, God blessed us in
it. God smiled and he said, well
done. Welcome in, you're free to go. free to go. He bore our sins
in his own body that we might bear his righteousness in our
own body. Total trading of places. In holiness
and righteousness and justice, God killed the guilty man and
set the innocent man free. And in that, there is no unrighteousness
with God. Thank God. God was just in justifying
his people. That's the gospel. May God bless
that gospel to our hearts. 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, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.