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 in your Bible, I will be bringing a message from Romans
chapter two. And in this chapter, I would
like for us to look at who needs to be justified before God and
how a man or a woman is justified before God. The Apostle Paul
is very clear about this in Romans chapter two. If you look with
me at verse 12, he wrote, for as many as have sinned without
law shall also perish without law. And as many as have sinned
in the law shall be judged by the law. The Jews were given
the law. God gave the Jews his law and
the Gentiles were not given the law. But Paul said, either way,
all men are going to die in their sin. He said, if a man was never
given the law, but he sinned against it, he's gonna die in
his sin. And if a man was given the law and he sinned against
it, he's gonna die in his sin. No matter what, all men and women
are gonna die in their sin against God. Verse 13, he said, for not
the hearers of the law are just before God. but the doers of
the law shall be justified. That's a clear verse and that's
an important verse. People hear the law all the time.
Well, now you know the Bible says, that's what people say.
Well, he said, not the hearers of the law are justified, but
the doers of the law. Verse 14, for when the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, These having not the law are a law unto themselves,
which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts. The meanwhile,
accusing or else excusing one another." What he's saying is
the law is written on every man and woman's heart. Whether a
person physically knows every commandment that God has given
in his word or not, God has written on the mind, the thoughts, the
conscience, the heart, right from wrong. Men and women know
that, right from wrong. And he said whether a man knows
the law perfectly or not, he's going to be judged by his conscience. A man knows when he shouldn't
be doing something. Verse 16, in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to
my gospel. God is going to judge the secrets
of men. That's something we must understand. God is not going to just judge
the deeds of men. He's gonna judge all the secrets
of men. I have secrets, you have secrets,
they're not good. And God's gonna judge all the
secrets of men. I'll tell you this, what is on
the outside, the things that we have done that other people
can see, what's on the outside, that's the least of our problems.
We feel guilty about something we did out in the open that others
can know about, that's the least of our problems. God is going
to judge a man by what he sees on the inside, on the heart,
on the conscience, on the mind. Verse 17, it says, behold, thou
art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast
of God. He said, you say you're one of
his, you say you have his favor, you're one of his people. And
most everybody does who believes Christianity. Oh yeah, they think
they're one of God's people. Verse 18 says, and knowest his
will and approvest the things that are more excellent being
instructed out of the law. He said, you believe and you
say that you know what he demands. You believe you're in his favor,
one of his people, and you believe you know what he demands of us
and what the desires are of his heart because you've seen it
in his law, seen it in the scripture. Verse 19, and art confident that
thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which
are in darkness. He said, you're confident that
you have it all figured out. You have it all right. And everybody
else needs to listen to you if they want to go from darkness
to light. Because you are, verse 20, and
instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form
of knowledge and of the truth in the law." He said, you get
up in pulpits and you see yourself to be an instructor and this
is what you say to people, you better stop sinning. You stand
up there telling people, oh, you better stop sinning. If you
want to be saved now, you better listen to me. I'll instruct you.
I know these things. If you want to be saved, you
better stop sinning. Now, this is what he's about
to say. Do you think you have stopped sinning? To the man who
stands up and says, I'm going to teach everybody, I'm going
to instruct everybody in the way of God, in his law. He said,
do you think that you have stopped sinning? Look at verse 21. Thou
therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou
that preachest to man should not steal. He said, dost thou
steal? Do you steal? Anything. People say, well, no, I'm not
a thief. I don't steal. He means anything. He's talking
about secret things right now. You know, men, Sometimes they
won't put in all 100% effort into their job and they'll be
a little lazy on the job. Well, that's stealing time and
money from the employer. Our Lord said, whatever you do,
you better do it with all your might. Tiny little things that
men and women never think about, secret things, but infinitely
more condemning than any physical thing He's asking the question,
are you not stealing the glory away from God? Men stand up and
talk about what they know and what they do and he said, are
you not stealing the glory away from God? Verse 22, thou that
sayest to man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Do you commit adultery? He's
talking about in the heart. A man can say, well, no, I don't
go around, I'm a married man, I don't go around committing
adultery on my wife. He's talking about in the heart.
He said, do you commit adultery? We know the answer to that. We
know the answer to that. This flesh is weak, this flesh
is sinful. Verse 22 goes on to say, thou
that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Man's own flesh
and man's own will. Man believes he has a free will. Man believes that he is the decision
maker in this thing. That's his greatest idol, himself. His own ability, his own works,
his own decision, his own will. Man worships himself. That's
the truth. Men and women worship themselves. You know that so, don't you?
Just turn the TV on and watch men and women. They worship themselves.
All flesh does. So he said in verse 23, thou
that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law
dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you. as it is written, blasphemed. And that's what self-righteous,
not God-righteous, but self-righteous, man-centered, not Christ-centered,
but man-centered. And you'll hear, if you listen
to a man preaching, you'll hear the difference in Christ-centered
and man-centered preaching. You listen, is the man up there
constantly trying to instruct the flesh on what it needs to
do and always talking about man and how you can man, man, man,
or is he talking about Christ? Is the message about what man
needs to do or is the message about what Christ has done? That's
the difference in man-centered and Christ-centered. But man-centered
religion is blasphemy. It's blasphemy against God. It's
lies on the truth of God. It's unbelief. It's blasphemy.
Verse 25 says, for circumcision verily profiteth if you keep
the law. But if thou be a breaker of the
law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if
the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee who by the
letter and circumcision does transgress the law? For he is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." This is what he said, this is what that means. To be a child
of God, you can't just please men. which is what most everybody's
doing in religion today, just trying to go around and look
good to other men. You can't just please men by what they
can see on the outside. You have to please God by what
he can see on the inside. And I'm gonna tell you this,
that's a tall order. That is a tall order. Now we
might as well get honest about this because God sees everything. God does not stop at the skin
of a man. God sees straight into the soul.
He sees your mind. He watches your thoughts. He
knows the motive of your heart. He already sees it. So we might
as well get honest to each other about this because we don't have
a choice but to be honest before God. To be a child of God, To
be accepted by God, to be justified in His sight, to where He says,
justified, you're one of my people. You have to be perfect inside
and out. Perfect. From the day you're
born till the day you die, perfect. That is not only a tall order,
we can say that's a tall order, but if a man ever sees the truth
of his condition, his inner condition, what he was born into, then he's
going to realize that's an impossible order. That's not just a tall
order. With man, it's impossible. What
God demands is impossible. So the purpose of this message,
is for us to gain an understanding of why the scripture commands
us to do something that we cannot do. As you hear the word preached
and as you read the word, you're gonna realize that this word
commands you to do things that you cannot do. And it's gonna
say, if you do this just once, you cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And you're gonna know in your
mind, I've done that. So here's the purpose of the
message. We want to see why does the scripture command us to do
something that we can't do? Why does the scripture demand
that we have to do this in one place, one location, and then
in another location, it tells us plainly, you can't do this.
You better, you can't. You can't. Is there any hope
for us? That's what we'll get to at the end. Is there any hope
for us? Because in verse 13, we read it a second ago, he said,
not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers
of the law shall be justified. To be justified, you have to
be doers of the law. And if you look at Romans 3,
it's just across the page in my Bible. Romans 3 verse 19 says,
now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. 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. In order
to be justified, we must perfectly, inside and out, do all of the
stipulations and all of the conditions that God has given to us in his
law. But in the process of trying
to do that, Men see that, and then they try to do that. In
the process, though, it will be proven that we can't do it. We cannot do it. Just try in
your mind, resolve, say, that's it, I'm not gonna think any more
bad thoughts. I'm not gonna have any more angry thoughts. I'm
not gonna have any more lustful thoughts. See how it works out
for you. The more we try to do the law,
the more our sin against it will be exposed to us. Now when our
Lord was here on this earth, he told us some of the things
that the law said. He told us some of the things
that God requires for us to be saved. And to break those things,
or to fall short of those things, means you can't be saved. He
said the greatest commandment that there was, was to love the
Lord our God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all
of our mind. And to not do that, which no
man does, no man does, but to not do that means we can't be
saved. He said, if we don't love our
neighbor in the exact same way that we love ourselves, really
think about that. That doesn't just mean mow his
grass every now and then. If we don't truly love our neighbor
as much as we love ourselves, we can't be saved. No man does. No man has a heart to truly empty
all of his bank accounts and go deposit them in his neighbor's
bank account. If you loved him as you love
yourself, you would. But man doesn't. He said, if
we've ever gotten mad one time, We can't be saved. Every man
has. Every man has. He said if lust
has ever entered our heart one time, we can't be saved. He said
the only souls that will be allowed to enter into the gates of heaven
will be those that have clean hands, never done anything wrong. And a pure heart, never had a
bad thought, never had a bad feeling, a bad motive. who hath
not lifted up his soul unto vanity, never gone after the emptiness,
never desired the emptiness of this world and of this flesh,
he said, nor sworn deceitfully, never lied. That's what God requires
to stand in his presence. But here's the truth of our condition,
all right? If you look back again at Romans 3, verse 10 says, as
it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. That's
the truth of our condition. Verse 11 says, there's none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They
are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. none. So my hope for this message
is number one, that we might see Christ, that we might see
the glory of Christ and glorify him for what he's done. And number
two, that we might learn something about this scripture. And I'm
going to go ahead and tell you what it is. This is one critical,
important thing, but glorious thing to know and always remember
about the scripture, about the word of God. If the Lord will
enable us to get ahold of this, we'll get ahold of it all. All
right, here's the key to it all. When it comes to the scripture,
when it comes to the demands and the stipulations of the word
of God, and when it comes to the truth of the gospel, if you
want to get to the heart of the gospel, here it is. Christ did
it all. If we can ever get a hold of
that, if God will ever reveal to us what that means, we'll
have it all. When the scripture says the law
must be kept, but man can't keep the law. Scripture says the law
must be kept. Scripture says man can't keep
the law. But it must be kept. Man can't keep it, but it must
be kept. Because if it's not kept, man
is going to suffer eternal condemnation and death. But the problem for
man is he has never, not one time, ever come close to keeping
one commandment in the law. Not one thing that God requires
of him. People think they have because
they think they have in the flesh. God's not only looking on the
flesh, God's looking on the heart. What God sees is so much deeper
than what we've done in the skin, in the flesh, in the deed. Man
will never be able to satisfy God, but the law must be kept. It must be kept. Every time you
see that in the scripture, remember this, Christ did it all. Christ did it all. If you can
walk away from this, remembering these four words, you will have
gotten a hold of the gospel and so will I have. If we both can
enter into this, Christ did it all. Christ did it all for us. Christ did it all as us. As us. Substitution. Substitution is
the key to it all. Substitution is the answer to
it all. Substitution is everything. It's
everything. Substitution is the gospel. If somebody wants to know, if
you want to cut to the core of it, what is the gospel in one
word? Substitution. Two words, substitution,
satisfaction. Substitution means Christ trading
places with us, taking our place. That's what substitution is trading
places. Trading places with us, and then
once he traded places with us. As us. Earning for us as us a
perfect record of holiness. Before God. He satisfied God. Substitution, satisfaction. Dying
when the law said die. Dying when the law said you must
die. Living when the law says live. Christ did it all. In Romans
chapter 8 it says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after
the spirit. That's verse one. Verse two says, for the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, it couldn't justify me.
My flesh would not allow the law to justify me. God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin by a
sacrifice for sin. That's what that means. Condemned
sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law, the perfection of
the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. That trading of places. Christ
took our position so that we might take His. The moment God
opens our eyes to substitution, the scriptures make sense. Let me repeat that, okay? This
is so true. The moment God opens our eyes
to substitution, Christ coming and taking our place, trading
places with His people and doing for them what they could not
do for themselves. The moment God reveals that to
us, the scriptures make sense. All of a sudden, they make sense. Seeing how God's word can say
you're guilty, but you're not guilty, all at the same time. Chargeable, but not chargeable,
all at the same time. Condemned to die, but free to
go. all at the same time. How? When
the time of judgment came, Christ traded places with us. In Him
we died, we were condemned, we suffered by Him, through Him,
because of us, because He took that for us in our place. We're
free to go. We're not chargeable. He was
not chargeable and He gave us His place. Therefore in Him,
we're not chargeable. He made Himself to be sin for
us who knew no sin. He knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. The scripture clearly
lays out what it demands of us and clearly proves to us that
we cannot fulfill what it demands of us. It does that to point
us to Christ. That's the whole reason. That's
the whole reason. All of this word leads us to
Christ. It tells us what we cannot do
to point us to Christ. All roads lead to Christ. In Romans 8 verse 13, it says,
if you live after the flesh, you shall die. What that means
is if you try to earn heaven through the deeds of your flesh,
you'll never make it. But if you through the spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, if you kill all of your own efforts
and look to Christ for his efforts, you shall live. You'll live. Christ did it all, that's what
that means. Christ did it all. Substitution is the key to it
all. Our Lord told his disciples in
Luke 24, all of these words, cover to cover, these are the
words that testify of me. They're all pointing to me. It is all concerning me. The scriptures, if you look at
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's constantly saying, our Lord
did this, that the scripture might be fulfilled. Our Lord
did that, that the scripture might be fulfilled. Everything
he did was to fulfill the scripture. He said in Matthew 5, don't think
that I came to destroy the law. I'm not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. I came to fulfill it. And that's what Christ did. Christ
did it all. He did it all. Everything that
God demanded of us, every dot of the I and every cross of the
T, Christ did it all. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. What do I have to do to be saved?
Look to Christ. He did it all. He is the fulfillment. He is the completer of the law
for the righteousness, the perfection, the holiness of His people. Seeing that brings a clear understanding
of the scripture. It brings a clear understanding
of why Christ came and it brings a clear understanding of the
gospel, the good news of the gospel. Christ came and traded
places with his people and accomplished everything that they needed to
accomplish before God so that they could earn heaven. and he
took everything that they were against God and he died with
it and put it away and now it's gone. In that, we see and we
give thanks, Christ did it all. 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.