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 read along
with me in your Bible, the message today will come from Psalm 20.
Psalm chapter 20, and I want to give you the title of this
message. It's called Comfort for the Day of Trouble. Comfort
for the Day of Trouble. Psalm 20 verse 1 says, The Lord
hear thee in the day of trouble. The Lord will hear you in the
day of trouble. That's a wonderful thing to hear,
isn't it? That is so confident, that's such a confident statement,
such a sure statement. The first four verses right here
in this Psalm tell us what the Lord will do. It says the Lord
will do this, and the Lord will do this. The Lord, the Lord will
do it. Let's read these together. Verse
1 says, The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name
of the God of Jacob defend thee, send thee help from the sanctuary,
and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings, and
accept thy burnt sacrifice. grant thee according to thine
own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel." The Lord will do all
of those things. And then verse 5 says in response,
we will rejoice in thy salvation. And in the name of our God, we
will set up our banners. That's what we'll do in response.
And then the end of verse 5 goes on to say, the Lord will fulfill
all thy petitions. The Lord will do that. Verse
six says, now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. And then verse
seven says, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will
remember the name of the Lord our God. Verse 8 says, They are
brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. And then verse 9 ends the psalm
by crying and begging and pleading, Save, Lord. Save, Lord. Let the King hear us when we
call. Save us. That's our cry. That's the heart cry. That's
what David was crying, and that's what all of God's people cry. Save, Lord. Let the Lord hear
us when we call. I pray the King might hear us
when we call. Well, verse 1 says, The Lord
hear thee in the day of trouble. The Lord will hear you in the
day of trouble. Mankind experiences all kinds
of trouble. You know that. I know that. Men
and women everywhere are constantly in trouble. Always in trouble. God's people experience all kinds
of trouble. All men and women do. We are
constantly either about to head into trouble, currently in trouble,
or just coming out of trouble. AND THAT CONDITION IS GOING TO
REMAIN WITH US. THAT'S GOING TO CONTINUE UNTIL
WE ARE RID OF THIS BODY OF SIN AND DEATH. BUT THE GOOD NEWS
IS, HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS. THE LORD WILL BE WITH HIS PEOPLE
IN TROUBLE. THE LORD WILL BE WITH HIS PEOPLE. HE WILL HEAR HIS PEOPLE. HE WILL HELP HIS PEOPLE. He will never leave His people,
never. Whether trouble comes their way
or whatever trouble it may be, He said, When thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. He said, I will be with you in
trouble. I'll be with you in trouble.
Every trouble that comes to his people, all of them. But there
is a particular trouble that I'd like for us to dwell on for
a moment. I pray the Lord might honestly allow us to enter into
this and really get a hold of it, really dwell on it. There
is a particular trouble that comes to all of God's people. All of God's people. And it's
a necessary trouble. It is a life changing trouble. It's an arresting trouble. And I would definitely say it's
a precious trouble. It is a very precious trouble. It's a trouble that all who have
experienced it desire for those who have never experienced it.
All those who have been through this trouble, they want this
for others. They desire it for those who
have yet to experience it. And I'll tell you what it is.
And then those who have experienced it, see if you Don't see this
to be so, and know that this is absolute truth. There is nothing
more precious to me, to any believer, than to witness another person
become lost. There's no more precious trouble. There's no more precious thing
than witnessing God as he makes another person lost. The trouble of being lost. I know that's strange. I know
that's backwards from what we're used to hearing. Everybody's
talking about getting saved. That's what everybody's talking
about, getting saved, you know, getting themselves saved and
getting other people saved. I want to see everybody saved.
Well, There's nothing more gloriously wonderful to me and to all who
have experienced this than witnessing a person get lost, lost, truly
lost. Now, man naturally is lost. All men and women, all of mankind. All are lost. All are born that
way. We enter the world lost, but
man doesn't know it. And that's what I mean when I
say witnessing someone become lost. Witnessing God revealing
the truth to them, the truth of their condition. Man does
not know the truth of his condition. The majority of men and women
do not know the truth of their condition. The Spirit of God
has to reveal that to a person. And when the Spirit of God does
reveal that to a sinner, when God causes a sinner to truly
become broken, broken over it, when a man hits rock bottom spiritually
before God, no hope in the flesh before God, a truly lost sinner,
that's a precious thing to see. That's a precious thing to see. A songwriter wrote this line
in a song. He said, A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. What that means is if a man ever
comes to the realization of what he truly is before God. It's
precious because God is the one who has revealed it to him. The
Holy Ghost has made it so revealed to him that he's a lost sinner
before God. This message today is for those
who have never been lost. That's who this message is for.
Those who have never been lost. This message is for those who
have yet to experience what it truly is and what it truly means
to become lost. I pray God will reveal that to
us, to me, to you, today. If God intends on making anyone
lost, if He's purposed to bring a sinner to an utter realization
of what it is to be lost, then He will give that sinner ears
to hear His Word. If God purposes to make a sinner
lost, He is going to give that sinner ears to hear His Word.
And if he does not intend on lovingly bringing one of his
own to a state of being utterly lost, then he will not give ears. He will not give spiritual ears
to hear his message, the message he's given to his people through
his word. So this is what I pray. I want
to encourage you to pray this with me. Let's pray this together.
Lord, give us ears to hear. Give us ears to hear your word. He said, He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. Now, before we get into this,
let's understand what being lost means. When a person becomes
lost spiritually, it's just like being lost physically. It's just
like it. Imagine yourself walking through
the woods and all of a sudden you realize you're lost. That may have happened to you
in any location. You may have been somewhere and
thought you knew the way, but all of a sudden you realize that
you're lost. There's no trail. You're off
the trail. Everything looks the same. It
looks like you're going in circles. You're lost. Truly lost. Not just turned around for a
minute. I mean truly lost. A person who is truly lost realizes,
I don't know where I am. I don't know where I need to
go. I don't know the way out of the condition I'm in. I need somebody to help me. I
need somebody to come get me. I've tried everything I know
to do, I've gone every way I know to go, and everything I've done
and everything I've tried has only brought me deeper into my
horrible condition. It's just making me more and
more lost of my own ability. Of my own ability, I don't see
any way out. I have no more hope. I have no
more confidence. I have no more trust in myself.
I have lost all trust in myself. I'm lost. I'm lost. Lost is a condition of emptiness. It's a condition of helplessness. It's a condition of absolute
need and dependency on someone else to remedy your situation. When God brings a man or a woman
to that spiritual condition, that is a glorious, precious
thing to see. Because every time, every single
time when God gets a sinner lost, God gets the sinner found every
single time. Every time. If God ever makes
a sinner lost, God will make the sinner found. Now, I truly
do pray that God will give us ears to hear this. God has a
people. God has a people. He has a particular
people that He has purposed to save. He has not purposed to
save everybody. He has not purposed to be the
help of everybody. But He has declared in His Word
who He has purposed to do this for. And if you'll turn with
me to Matthew 18, we'll see who it is. Over in Matthew, chapter
18, verse 11, it says, for the son of man is come to save that
which was lost. Do you see that? That's who Christ
came to save. He came to save the lost. Luke's account says he came to
seek and to save. that which was lost. That's who
He came to help. That's who He came to save, the
lost. Verse 12 says, How think ye,
if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them go astray? Doth
he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains,
and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he
find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep
than of the ninety and nine, which went not astray. Even so,
it is not the will of your father, which is in heaven, that one
of these little ones should perish. Not one of these lost sheep should
perish. And if that's the will of the
father, then none of them are going to perish. None of them. They're all going to be kept
by the power of God. Christ shall lose nothing, but
shall raise them all up at the last day. Every single soul that
he makes lost. Every one of them. The problem
for mankind is, here's the problem for men and women today. Nobody's
lost. Ask them, let me ask you and
then you go ask others, are you lost? Are you lost? In your flesh,
in your own ability, in your own works before God, are you
lost? Most people will say no. Well. It takes the Spirit of God. It
takes the power of God to make a man say, in my own flesh, in
my own works, in my own ability before God, I'm lost. I'm helpless. If I stay here,
I'll die. I'll just die in the condition
I'm in. I can't get myself out of this. I'm lost. Are you lost? Am I lost? Are we lost? Look with me at Matthew 15. It
says in Matthew 15, verse 21, Then Jesus went thence, and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy upon me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word,
and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." That's
who the Lord said he was sent to. He said, I'm not sent to
anybody, but the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Man is in
for such a rude awakening, the moment that he stands before
God in the judgment, only to hear Him say, I'll have nothing
to do with you. You were never lost. Man is going
to be shocked. Shocked. Now, thankfully for
this woman's sake, she was lost. Look at verse 25. It says, Then
came she and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered
and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. This is why it is so precious
and so glorious when God brings this utter trouble. That woman
was in trouble. If you don't help me, I'm not
going to be helped. It's so precious when God brings
a sinner to this state of being absolutely lost. Dire straits,
no hope before God, lost. It's because that's who Christ
came to save. That's the evidence of a person
that Christ came to save. That's who he has commanded his
preachers to send his message to, the message of salvation
to. That's who he's commanded his
preachers to cry peace to and comfort to, the lost. Look with
me at Matthew 10. Matthew 10, verse 5, it says,
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go
not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans
enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. He said, You carry the message
straight to every soul that I cause by My Spirit, by My Word, by
My grace to be lost. Lost. That's the condition God
puts all of His people in. I hope and pray that you are
lost with me. I'm honest with you right now.
If God leaves me alone, if God leaves me in my flesh and in
my own ability before him, I'm a goner. I'm lost. If I don't have Christ, I don't
have anything. And I pray God brings you into that same condition
with me. I pray he makes us just lost
before him. Lost without God, his son. Look
with me at Psalm 119. Psalm 119, verse 176, it says,
I have gone astray like a lost sheep. This is David speaking
of himself. I'm lost. I've gone astray like
a lost sheep. He said, Seek thy servant, for
I do not forget thy commandments. What are the commandments? coming
to me. That's what the Lord said, coming
to me. David's crying, I can't, I can't, I'm lost, I'm in trouble. Psalm 69 verse 17 says, hide
not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Have you ever
experienced that as a sinner before God? Have you ever experienced
that? This message is for any soul
that God brings this realization to. I'm lost. I pray that's you. I pray that's
me. I'm lost. I'm stripped of all my ability.
In my own self, in my own works, in my own doing, I have no hope
before God. I need Christ. I need Christ. I need the way. The way is not
a way, the way is a person. I need Christ the way. I need
the Savior. If He does not find me, I'll
never be found. If He does not bring me, I'll
never be brought. If He does not redeem me, I'll
die in my sin. I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. If you ever find yourself in
that condition, then this is God's message from God's Word
straight to you. If you look with me back at Psalm
20 verse 1, it says, the Lord will hear you in the day of trouble. You cry like that. The Lord will
hear you in the day of trouble. If you cry, it's only because
he made you cry. You know that if you cry, it's
because he has already heard you before you ever even cried. YOU'RE ACTUALLY JUST RESPONDING
TO HIS COMMAND. THIS IS WHAT DAVID SAID IN PSALM
27. HE SAID, WHEN YOU SAID, SEEK MY FACE, MY HEART SAID, THY FACE,
LORD, WILL I SEEK. IF WE CRY, IT'S ONLY BECAUSE
HE SAID, CRY TO ME. CRY OUT TO ME. VERSE 1 SAYS,
THE LORD WILL HEAR YOU IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE. THE NAME OF THE
GOD OF JACOB WILL DEFEND YOU. HE WILL DEFEND YOU BEFORE THE
THRONE. the judgment throne of God. If
the fear of standing before the judgment throne of God in your
sin comes over you and you cry out to God for mercy, Christ,
the God of Jacob, the God of the sinner, the God of those
who are lost, will defend you. BEFORE THE ALMIGHTY THRONE. HAPPY
IS HE THAT HAS THE GOD OF JACOB FOR HIS HELP. VERSE 2 SAYS HE'LL
SEND YOU HELP FROM THE SANCTUARY. HE'LL SEND YOU HELP STRAIGHT
FROM HIS THRONE. HE'LL STRENGTHEN YOU OUT OF ZION. HE'LL STRENGTHEN
YOU THROUGH HIS WORD, THROUGH HIS PREACHERS DELIVERING HIS
WORD. VERSE 3 SAYS HE'LL REMEMBER ALL
THY OFFERINGS AND HE'LL ACCEPT ALL THY BURNT SACRIFICES. WHAT
ARE OUR OFFERINGS TO GOD? Christ, His blood. He's our sacrifice, the Lamb
God provided Himself. Verse 4 says, He'll grant you
according to your own heart. If your heart's desire is, I
need Christ, one thing have I desired of the Lord, I'm going to seek
after it. I need Him. I need to dwell in His presence.
If that's the desire of your heart, He'll give it to you.
He will fulfill all thy counsel. Verse 5 says, We will rejoice
in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up
our banners. We'll preach Christ. We'll declare
Christ. We'll spread the word to every
soul we can. Christ is all. He's our all. The end of verse 5 says, The
Lord will fulfill all thy petitions. If he's what you're asking for,
he's what you'll get. Verse six, now know I that the
Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Now I know
that if God made me lost, God will make me found. David said,
now I know that. Verse 7, some trust in chariots
and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord
our God. What's His name? His name is
Jesus Christ. The Lord our God, the Lord our
righteousness, the Lord our Savior, the Lord our Redeemer, the Lord
our peace, the Lord our rest, the Lord our seeker, our finder,
our keeper. Verse 8 says, they are brought
down and fallen Who is brought down and fallen? All who have
never been lost. All who have not been in mercy
brought down by God to see their state of lost, their lost condition. Pride comes before fall. Verse
eight says, they are brought down and fallen, but we are risen
and we stand upright in Him. Because He is risen, we are risen
in Him. So for Christ's sake, FOR MY
SAVIOR'S SAKE. OUR SAVIOR, OUR FINDER, OUR KEEPER,
OUR REDEEMER. VERSE 9 SAYS, SAVE LORD, LET
THE KING HEAR US WHEN WE CALL. FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, WOULD YOU
HEAR US WHEN WE CALL? If you ever find yourself in
that place, when you're crying, Lord, please hear me, then may
this be the comfort to your heart. Verse one says, the Lord will
hear you in the day of trouble. Cry out. If you're lost, if he's
made you lost, cry out. He'll hear you. Till next week,
may the Lord bless his 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 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.