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. Our message today will come from
Romans chapter 9. In Romans chapter 9, the Apostle
Paul is speaking here of his great heaviness and continual
sorrow that he has over his brethren, his kinsmen after the flesh,
his family and his friends. This is a wonderful chapter,
Romans 9 is such a wonderful chapter. Paul is so honest, he
just so plainly declares the truth, he wants them to hear
the truth. because he is just burdened over
the fact that his brethren and his kinsmen do not know Christ. He's just so burdened about it.
They don't know Christ, lost in the world without Christ. There are so many people right
now who are in that state. Ephesians 2 tells us that all
men and women start out in that state. We are born into this
world dead in trespasses and sins. Without Christ, no hope
in the world. That's where all of us start
unless we get to the part that says, but God, but God did something
for us. God had mercy on us. And Paul,
that's what motivated him to preach the gospel and preach
the message and preach the truth. That's what motivates every true
preacher of the word. It's to tell men and women the
truth of salvation. It's to desire that men and women
know Christ. Salvation is of the Lord, it's
his doing, but it has pleased the Lord by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe. It has pleased the Lord to use
the witness of His Word to open the eyes of His people. So we
preach. And that's what Paul did. He
said in Romans 9 verse 1, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ. for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh." In verse four right here, he said, they're
religious. He said, they're all religious.
I'm not talking about them being religious. Verse four, he said,
they're Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and
the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of
God and the promises. claim to be God's people. They
claim to have and do and possess the things of God, the law of
God, the scriptures. They identify with it. They know
the commandments, they go to church, they read their Bible.
That's what we could say about men and women today. But he said,
they're lost. They're lost. They have the law
and they have all these things, but they're lost, lost to the
point of being cursed. He said, they're going to go
out and meet God and realize that they're cursed because of
their sin. And this is what he said. He
said, I could wish. And it's amazing that he would
even say this, but he said, I could wish that I was cursed in their
place for them. I could wish that I was eternally
damned so that they wouldn't be. He said, I could wish that,
but Paul knew that he couldn't do that. He knew that he could
not do that. Paul knew that he was a sinner. He knew he was and one sinner
cannot be the substitute for another sinner. It takes a sinless
substitute to stand in the place of a sinner. It takes a sinless
one. If two sinners trade places you
still have two sinners. It takes a sinless person to
take another one's guilt away from him and take another one's
judgment away from him. So that other person can stand
in sinlessness. If two are going to trade, one
has to be sinless. So the other one can stand in
that sinlessness. Well, that's the gospel message.
When we talk about the gospel, we're here to preach the gospel
and gather right now around the gospel. That's the gospel message. Even though Paul could not truly
wish himself to be cursed for his brethren. Even though he
could not make that transaction take place. Christ could. And he did. Christ could and
he did. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 says,
God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. He did not know
any sin, he never sinned, sinless. But God made him to be sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
God gave him our sinfulness so that we could have his sinlessness. God gave him our ruin so that
we could have his righteousness. A trading of places. Galatians
3.13 says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. That's the glory and the beauty
of the gospel. If you want to get to the heart
of the gospel, that's it. Substitution and God being satisfied
with that, satisfied with our sin being punished and satisfied
with only accepting perfection into his presence. Christ was
made to be the substitute of his people. The Lord laid on
him. the iniquity of all of his people. And the scripture says,
with his stripes, we're healed. That's the gospel. That is the
gospel. He took what was coming to us.
Therefore, we get what was coming to him. That's the gospel. Now,
verse five right here tells us exactly who our substitute is. who Christ is, the one who came,
the one who was made to be a curse for his people. We say, well,
that was Christ. Who is Christ? Who is the Lord
Jesus Christ? Verse five is gonna tell us who
this one who came and accomplished this for us is. All right, let's
read it together. Verse five says, whose are the
fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed
forever. Amen. Who is he? He is the one who is over all,
God blessed forever. Amen. Now, let's look at that. Let's consider that, okay? Who
is this man who came to be the substitute of his people? Who is Jesus Christ? That's the question every soul
on this earth needs to be asking. He said, Father, this is life
eternal that they might know me. Know you, know the one you
sent. This is life eternal that we
might know him. Who is Jesus Christ? I'll tell you this, many people
know who he is, but they don't know who he is. Does that make sense? Most everybody,
everybody knows who he is, but they don't know who he is. Well, who is he? First, verse
five says, he is over all. He is over all. Think about what
that means. Really think about that because
I'm going to tell you this. Most men who are standing in
pulpits today do not preach him to be that way. Rarely will you hear a man stand
up and preach Christ to be absolutely over all. That's such a foreign thing to
hear. And that's a shame. Because that's who he is. That's
who he is. Many people are standing up preaching
him to be so, so weak and so, so helpless. Many men are standing
up preaching that we are over him. We have to make the decision
before he can do anything. We have to let him do what he
wants to do. That means we're over him and that's not so. That's utter
blasphemy. That is blasphemy. Many people
say men will stand up in pulpits and preach that he's standing
at people's hearts door and just knocking, just knocking. Have
you ever knocked on a door and you wanted to come in and nobody
answered the door and you're just so disappointed? There's
nobody to open this door for me. He's just standing there
knocking. And they're saying, well, won't
you help him, help him, help him be your savior, help him
be your God. That makes you God. That makes me to be the savior. I have to help him before he
can be my savior. Then I'm my own savior. The scripture says, this is what
the scripture says. It says, the Lord Jesus Christ
is a man of war. Do you hear him preached in that
way today? That's what Exodus 15 says. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is. The scripture says that he by
himself fought the battle and won. Scripture calls him captain
of the host, but the scripture also says only the captain went
into the battle. HE BY HIMSELF WENT IN. THAT STORY
OF DAVID AND GOLIATH. DAVID WENT IN BY HIMSELF AND
WON THAT BATTLE. THAT'S A PICTURE OF CHRIST. EVERYBODY
ELSE WAS STANDING THERE WATCHING. THE SCRIPTURE SAYS HE DOES WHATEVER
HE PURPOSES IN HIS HEART TO DO. He said, I will work and who
shall let it? You're gonna let me do what I
have purposed in my heart to do. The scripture says, nobody can
stop him. men will stand up in pulpits
and preach that the devil, the adversary is messing up everything
he's trying to do. He has a wonderful plan for your
life. He's trying to work good things in your life, but the
devil's messing it up and you're messing it up. Oh no, nothing
can stop him. No man, no being, nothing can
question him. That's what he said. No man can
stop me. No man can question me. The scripture
says he is the king of heaven, which most people see that to
be so. They say, oh yeah, he's the king of heaven. But listen
to this, he's the king of earth too. Boy, that's a shocking announcement.
He's the king of this earth, in control of everything that
happens on this earth. Heaven is infinite. Earth is so small. Yet people
see him to be the king of everything and the God of everything in
control of everything in heaven. But for some reason, man does
not see him to be in control of this little bitty place called
earth. He is. He is. That's what it means when
we say he is over all. Jesus Christ is over all. Let's read this in a few scriptures
over in Psalm 47. It says, oh, clap your hands,
all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph, for
the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. God has gone up
with a shout, the Lord with the shout of a trumpet. Sing praise
to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the
earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen,
God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness. The princes of
the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of
Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong unto God. He is
greatly exalted." Greatly exalted, exalted over all, king over all
the earth. That's what it says. Psalm 83
verse 17 says, let them be confounded and troubled forever. Yea, let
them be put to shame and perish that men may know that thou whose
name alone is Jehovah are the most high over all the earth. The most high over all the earth. Isaiah 45 verse 6, it says that
they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west
that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. He said, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.
I the Lord do all these things. There was a time when Job and
his friends were ignorantly, very ignorantly mouthing off
before God. And this is what God said to
him. He said, Job, who do you think
you are? Who do you think you are? He
said, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Where were you when I did that? He said, what holds all of the
firmament together? Space, the heavens, what holds
all that together? It stays in a perfect order.
What holds all that together? He said, tell me if you think
you know. Man says, well, gravity does.
Well, who invented gravity? He said, do you say to the ocean,
stop right there, you can't go any further. He said, can you make your voice
thunder across the skies? He said, do you tell the lightning
exactly where to strike? And the lightning says, here
we are. Do you do all that, Job? And Job said, no. No, he said, I see that it's
time for me to bow before the king. It's time for me to bow
before the one who is over all, over all. In Daniel four, Daniel
said in verse, Nebuchadnezzar said in verse 34, He said, I
blessed the most high, I praised and honored him that liveth forever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from
generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth,
that includes me and you, all the inhabitants of the earth
compared to God are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according
to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or saying to him, what
doest thou? None, no person, no thing, no thing. I love the story of when our
Lord was standing on the bow of a ship one time in a great
storm. He was asleep and the disciples woke him up and said,
Lord, this storm is gonna take us down. We're gonna perish and
you're sleeping. They said, carest thou not that
we perish? Don't you care that we're gonna
die? So he got up and he stood on the bow of that ship and the
scripture says he rebuked the storm. And he cried, peace, be
still. And it says, immediately there
was a great calm. It didn't just start to die down
and slowly. It went from raging torrent to
absolute calm. And every person who saw it,
this is what they said. They said, what manner of man
is this? That even the wind and the sea
obey him. They obey him. I'll tell you
what manner of man this is. This man is over all, over all,
over everything. We say this, especially in reference
to the Old Testament, we talk about things in the Old Testament
and this is the response that people naturally have. They say,
well, yeah, but that's talking about God. When you talk about
all those things, you're talking about God. We mentioned a moment ago that
the Lord is a man of war. That's in Exodus 15. Moses wrote
that. He said, the Lord is a man of
war. You say, well, but that's talking about God. Well, this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ said. Moses wrote of me. Moses was
writing about me. That's the realization of truth
when it comes to a person. It says, who do you think God
is? Jesus Christ, the Lord. That's who God is. He is over
all. That's what Romans 9 said. Speaking
of Christ, he is over all God. That's what it says, God. Isaiah 7 verse 14 says, Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and shall call his
name Emmanuel. which being interpreted is God
with us. God with us. Isaiah 9 verse 6
says, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor the Mighty God. That's his name,
the one who was born. the mighty God, the everlasting
Father. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father, the Prince of Peace. John 1 verse 1, it says,
in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and
the Word was God, was God. And it goes on to say, all things
were made by Him, the Word, Christ. and without him was not anything
made that was made. He was the one in the beginning,
in the beginning, God, who is that speaking of? Jesus Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
the one who walked in a body with Adam, Jesus Christ. The one in the burning bush,
Jesus Christ, Moses wrote of me. This is what he himself said
in John 8. He said, before Abraham was,
I am. Before Abraham existed, I am. I am. The disciple said one time,
show us the father. He said, if you've seen me, you
have seen the father. You've seen the father. He said,
have I been so long time with you? And yet has thou not known
me? Hebrews one verse eight, the
father said to the son, thy throne, oh God is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. All of this tells us that Jesus
Christ is the Lord God. 1 John 5 verse 20 says, we know
that the Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true and we are in Him that is
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. This is the true God. So who
is the Lord Jesus Christ? He's over all God blessed forever. That's what Romans nine says
over all God blessed forever. The father said in Isaiah 42
verse one concerning Christ, he said, behold, my servant whom
I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth, I've put my
spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles." The father said, I choose him. That's who the father chose,
Christ. He only chose us in Christ. We're only elect because of Christ
being in him. As our Lord was coming up out
of the water from being baptized by John the Baptist, it says
the spirit in glory, in honor, in blessing, it descended from
heaven like a dove and landed on him. The father in glory,
in honor, in blessing cried out for everyone to hear. He said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased. Philippians 2 says, because Christ
was equal with the father, but put his reputation aside, took
upon him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death
for the sin of his people. It says, because he did that,
the father has highly exalted him and given him a name, which
is above every name, that at the hearing of that name, every
knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. That's who he is. He is overall
God blessed forever. May our Lord cause us to see
that, and may He bless that word 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 10.45 a.m., and 6 o'clock
p.m., Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next week
for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.