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 1, if you would like to follow along with me.
Romans chapter 1, what I would like for us to see is how great
the Apostle Paul's desire was to preach the gospel to the Romans.
Just how great his desire was. That is the overwhelming desire
of every true God called preacher. It is an urgent burden. one that
every man who has been called of God to preach the truth of
His Word, that burden is something every man feels and desperately
desires to do when God calls him to it. It's an urgent desire. It's not just high on his list
of priorities. He cries And he sincerely means
it. He cries. Woe is unto me if I
preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me. That's what the
apostle Paul cried. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. And he cries that because he
knows. Woe is unto you if you hear not
the gospel. Woe is unto all of us if we believe
not the gospel. And the reason is because that's
the means that God has chosen to quicken dead centers to life. That's the the way he has chosen
to call his people to himself. It's what opens blind eyes. Blind
to the truth, blind to the word, blind to God. It's what opens
deaf ears. Those who have only heard doctrine
all of a sudden hear the voice of God Almighty. in the voice
of Christ their Savior through the preaching of the gospel.
In verse 16, the Apostle Paul said, for I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. And he said in verse 15, the one just before it, As much
as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at
Rome also. He said in every fiber of my
being. I desperately want you to hear
the gospel. That's what Paul said. I desperately
want you to hear the gospel, and if the Lord will open the
door. Open the mouth. Open the ear, open the heart.
He said, I'm ready to preach to you. And he proved that by
opening his letter to them with the gospel. Right out of right
out of the gate, he brought the gospel to him. He declared the
gospel of God. The first words out of his mouth. Where the gospel of God. All
right, let's read him Romans one verse one. It says Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. The gospel humbles men and women. It humbles men and women. And I want all of us to see this.
This is very, very important. This is a telling thing. The
gospel humbles men and women. And the reason is because it
shows men and women what they truly are. Sin. It shows them that it proves
that to them, nothing but centers through and through. That's all
just centers. After God dealt with Paul on
his way to Damascus, he was known as Saul of Tarsus, and he was
an enemy of God and an enemy of Christ, an enemy of the gospel. He was trying to stop the preaching
of the gospel, and he was trying to put away all those who believed
the preaching of the gospel. And God dealt with him on his
way to Damascus. God spoke to him, God knocked
him off of his horse, and God revealed the truth of who he
was to Saul of Tarsus. God revealed his sin to him. For the first time, Paul saw,
I'm a sinner. He was a self-righteous religious
man who went around telling everybody, thinking in his heart, I'm not
a sinner. Look at everybody else. They're all sinners. I'm not
one. Oh, but God came to him. And revealed the truth of his
of his sin to him. And after that, Paul made a statement.
It's recorded in the word. And after he made this statement,
he realized. It's worse than I thought. Maybe
that's not the correct statement concerning myself, so he made
another statement recorded in the word. And then after he made
that statement, he realized, no, this is much worse than I
thought. God started revealing more and
more of his sin to him. And with much regret, I'm sure.
He was forced to make one final statement, and I want to show
you all three of those statements. The first one is in first Corinthians
chapter 15. In first Corinthians 15, he said
in verse nine. For I am the least of the apostles. That am not meet to be called
an apostle. Because I persecuted the Church
of God. He said of all the apostles.
Those 12 chosen men out of the whole world. Out of all of the
generations 12. Chosen men, 12 selected men. He said out of those. Carefully
selected men. I'm the least of them. I'm the
least. I'm the least of the men who
were given the direct word and the direct mind of God. Those
men wrote and spoke. The direct word and mind of God. Those men were given the ability
to perform miracles. raised people from the dead,
and amazing miracles. Those 12 honored men, he said,
I'm the least of the honored, specially chosen men. Then as a little time went on,
he saw a little bit more of himself, and he had to say over in Ephesians
3, Ephesians 3 verse 8, he said, unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. First he thought,
I'm the least of the apostles. Then he thought, no, I'm the
least of all saints, all believers. I'm the least of all God called
believers. Then God finally revealed the
truth to him of everything he was inside and out. And he said
in first Timothy chapter one, I'm the least of all human beings,
all human beings, not just apostles, not just saints, all sinners
on the earth. In first Timothy one, verse 15,
he said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. I'm the chief. I am the worst.
I am the lowest of them all. I'm the lowest of them all. And
I'll tell you, as God deals with his children, that same thing
will take place in each one of them. He will reveal a little
bit of what they are to them. And as time goes on, they will
grow in that knowledge of what they are when they grow in grace
and grow in a knowledge of him and who he is and what he did,
what he had to endure for them. They will grow in a knowledge
of what they truly are. They will see more and more and
more of their sin. And they will become lower and
lower and lower in the dirt before God. An aged believer is a humbled
believer. A man or a woman who has truly
seen the gospel of God. Is low is make. He loathes himself. The gospel humbles people. Back in the days of the apostles,
they had titles for offices and positions in the church, just
like we have today. You can read about it in the
word. They had deacons. They had elders. They had bishops. None of the apostles went by
any of those names. None of them. It is hard to give
honor to yourself when you feel like you are the greatest center
on earth. That's the truth. It is hard, Paul and James, all
the apostles, though they did find one title. One position
that they felt comfortable using, there was one. One position,
one title that they did give to men and women and refer to
themselves as back in Romans one, verse one, it says, Paul,
a servant, a servant, a center saved by
grace, a chosen vessel, a recipient of mercy. and a willing and happy
servant of the one who saved my soul, a servant of Jesus Christ. He said, Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ. What a high calling that is to
be a servant of Jesus Christ. He said, I was called to be an
apostle. I was called to be an apostle.
He acknowledges that the position God gave to him for the purpose
of the writing of the word of God. But. He referred to him as God's servant,
referred to himself as God's servant with God. Everything
that happens to sinners, all of his dealings with sinners.
Is a calling. It is a calling. Sinners do not
come to, they do not do anything until they're called. Sinners
are called to Christ. God, the father draws them. They are called to Christ. Sinners are called to salvation. They're called to a realization
of it. God's people are all called into the family of God. They
are called into the fellowship of his people. They're all called
into the ministry of his word. Paul said, I was called to be
an apostle. This is nothing that I did. And
all of God's people will say that this is nothing that I did. God just called me to it. He
called me to himself, separated me unto the gospel of God. Verse
two says, which he had promised a four by his prophets in the
Holy Scriptures. All of the Old Testament declared
this one gospel. All of the Old Testament pointed
to and promised the fulfillment of this one gospel. All of the
Holy Scripture. Every page in this book, every
page you turn to declares the one and only gospel that there
is the gospel of God. God's gospel, not man's. The
good news of God, not the good news of man. Not this denomination's
gospel or that denomination's gospel, God's gospel. And Paul is about to take the
next few verses to tell us what it is. What is God's gospel? Well, do you see how verse two
is in parentheses? If you have a King James Version
Bible, verse two is in parentheses, and what that means is these
are words that were inserted into a complete thought. They
are very important. But there is a complete thought
here. And in parentheses, you are inserting a thought into
a thought. If you remove those words, you
still have the complete thought. All right, let's read verses
one and three together back to back. And this is the complete
thought. Verse one says, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God, verse three, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The gospel of God is concerning
his son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, that's about as plain
and as simple as it gets. The gospel is concerning Jesus
Christ, our Lord. The gospel is not concerning
me and the gospel is not concerning you. Now, I hope the Lord will
give me some clarity here. And I hope that he will cause
you to understand this. Give me the ability to say it
and give you the ability to hear it, because this is critically
important. The gospel is not concerning
me. And it's not concerning you. The gospel is not concerning
you. It's not concerning man. Now, if I am trying to figure
out how I fit into the gospel. I have it all wrong. I have it
all wrong. And that's what man naturally
does. If I'm trying to figure out what role do I play in the
gospel? If I'm trying to figure that
out, I have it all wrong. It's all wrong. The gospel is
not concerning me. I'm asking what role do I play?
The gospel is not concerning me. Now. It concerns me. The gospel concerns me, but it
is not concerning me. What that means is God's people
are recipients of the good news. The good news is to them, it
is for them, it is given to them, but they have no part in what
makes the news good. Does that make sense? They have no part in it. The
gospel is to them, but the gospel is not about them. The gospel
is about Jesus Christ, our Lord. All right, well, what about Jesus
Christ, our Lord? What did he do that is such good
news? Verse three says, he was made
of the seed of David, according to the flesh. He was manifest
in the flesh, God. God was manifest in the flesh.
Verse 4 says, and declared to be the Son of God with power. He was made to be man and declared
to be God. The God-man, the perfect, holy,
righteous, spotless God-man. in order for me to be saved and
in order for you to be saved sinners in order for sinners
to be saved we needed the power and we needed the ability of
the almighty god in order for us to be saved we needed the
power and the ability of almighty god and we needed the suffering
death of a guilty man that's what we needed and both of those
were provided to us in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Both
of those things were provided to us. When it says he was made
of the seed of David, according to the flesh, that means he was
made to be sin. That's what it means. Second
Corinthians five says he made him to be sin for us. He made him to be sin for us. John chapter one says Jesus Christ,
who is eternal. He has no beginning. He has no
ending. Jesus Christ, who is omnipotent,
that means all powerful. He is omnipresent, he's everywhere. He made himself to be flesh and
dwelt among us. And Luke chapter one says he
increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. That
means he worked for God's favor and he got it. He earned it. He is the only man who ever earned
God's favor. He is the only man who ever earned
a righteousness. a rightness, a perfection before
God. And by the time he was, fleshly
speaking, 30 years old, he is eternal. But in time, he made
himself to be born of a woman. And fleshly speaking, by the
time he was 30 years old, he was so perfect in God the Father's
eyes. God the Father cried out from
the throne of heaven, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well-placed. I'm well-pleased with him. The
end of verse three says, he was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power
according to the spirit of holiness. What that means is God in his
holiness in his righteousness, in his justice and in mercy and
in love, took the sin. And the sins. From his wretched
people. And he laid them on his perfect,
spotless. Well, beloved son. And in doing
that, the innocent Christ. Was made to be guilty. And the
guilty, us, his people, were made to be innocent. And in righteous
holiness, God judged and condemned and killed the guilty. Christ made to be guilty for
his people. And God set the innocent, his
people, made to be innocent because of him. God set the innocent
free. And the gospel of God's son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord, is this. If Christ, by being our substitute,
has made us free, then we are free indeed. Free from the law,
free from the guilt, free from the punishment, free from all
condemnation. Somebody will say, how do you
know? How can we know that? How do we know we've been set
free from all that? Here's how we know. It's because
God raised him from the dead. God killed him with our sin on
him. And then God raised him from
the dead. Once that sin was put away, our sin that was laid on
him is gone. It's gone and there's nothing
left to condemn us. Nothing left to bring the fire
of God's wrath upon us. I've told this story before.
I've loved this story ever since I first heard it. But back in
the days when men and women were settling out west, they would
head across the country in wagon trains. Many wagons would go
together. It was safer. There were many
dangers along the way. One of the great dangers was
prairie fires. That tall, dry grass, if for
some reason a fire caught it, the winds just blowing across
the plains, those fires would sweep and burn up everything
in sight. So what they would do is they
would send a scout on a horse a couple of miles out in front
of the wagon train, and if he ran into danger, he would come
back and tell the wagon master and they would take action accordingly. Well, there was a time when a
wagon train was headed out west and the scout was out front and
sure enough, he ran up on a prairie fire and the fire was coming
fast. The wind was blowing and the
grass was burning and he turned around and he ran as fast as
he could back to the wagon master and he told him there is a prairie
fire coming and it's coming fast. So the wagon master told all
the men, let's pull the grass from behind us and set a fire
going the opposite way. And after they set that fire
and it took off, the wagon master said, now let's ease all the
wagons back. And they sat and they waited.
And here come the fire. The fire just sweeping towards
them, raging towards them. And they sat there on their wagons,
and on one wagon was a man holding his little boy. And as that fire
got close, that little boy hugged his neck and said, I'm scared,
Daddy. And that man said, son, you have
nothing to be afraid of. He said, look down right here.
You see all that black stubble? We're standing on burnt ground. The fire has already been here.
There's nothing left to be burned. Nothing can condemn us. We're
standing in safety. And that's how it is for God's
people in Christ. If Christ has already suffered
the fire for his people, there's nothing left to condemn. There
is nothing left to burn. It's all gone. Everything is
gone. Verse 4 says that Christ was
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit
of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. The fact that God
raised him from the dead declares it's all gone. It's already burnt
ground. Verse six, among whom are you
also the called of Jesus Christ. He is the one who is calling
all of his people to himself, to his word, to his spirit, to
a belief and a trust in him. So he says in verse seven, To
all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints,
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said to all that be in Rome,
and we can say this anywhere and everywhere. that the gospel
of God is being preached. We can say to all that be in
Kingsport or to all that be in whatever town or city you're
in listening to this right now to all who have received the
loving gift of Christ. The gospel of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ to all have been called to be saints, believers
on him by the spirit through the gospel to all who have heard
his voice. and have been given a heart to
follow him and serve him and bow before him and thank him
for everything he's done to every soul who has been given ears
to hear the gospel of God Christ grace to you. Grace to you and
peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said,
I am so ready to preach that to you. And I'm so glad he was. I'm so glad God preached that
word to my heart and I say the same thing. I'm so ready to preach
that to you. What a glorious message we have.
May God bless that word of his 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 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.