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. I am going to be speaking to
you this morning from the book of 1 Thessalonians. If you would
like to turn with me and look at this wonderful chapter, 1
Thessalonians chapter 2. And one verse is going to be
our text. It'll be verse 13, 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 13. It says, for this cause also
thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the
word of God, which you heard of us, you received it not as
the word of men, but as it is in truth, The Word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe. When God calls
a sinner to himself, and God calls all of his people to himself,
and when he does it, when he calls his people to his gospel,
The gospel of substitution. The gospel is Christ taking the
place of his people. The gospel of the blood of Christ. Christ shedding his blood so
that his people would not have to shed their own blood. Christ's
work and not man's work. That's the gospel. And when God
calls a sinner to himself, and to his gospel, that's amazing
to me. That is absolutely amazing to
me, and this is the reason why. It's because I know firsthand,
I know firsthand how much the flesh does not want it. All flesh, this flesh, this natural
sinful flesh does not want to come to God, does not want to
come to His truth. The natural flesh of every man
and woman is so uninterested in the things of God. And again,
I'm not pointing any fingers to any person except for this
person. The natural flesh What we are
by nature, what we are in this world is so uninterested in the
things of God and so uninterested in the worship of God, this flesh
says let me go anywhere but to the house of God. Let me go to
the movies, let me go to a sporting event, let me go anywhere but
to worship God. So when any person is drawn to,
I mean drawn to the gospel and desires it, I mean personally
needs it, personally wants it, that's so amazing to me. That
is a miracle of divine power. The fact that God has called
me to his word and given me a heart to preach this word That's nothing
that I did and that's nothing I can glory in. That's a miracle
of God's divine power. That's what it is. That's all
that it is. And it's something to rejoice over. I rejoice over
it in myself and I rejoice over it in all of God's people. A
man came to John Newton one time, you may have heard of a man way
back in the old times, a man named John Newton. A man came
into his office, I believe it was William Jay, and he said,
Brother Newton, did you hear that God saved this other man
that they knew, this man who was a wicked sinner, a sinful
man, just in the gutter, No interest in God. God called him to himself
though. He heard the message of truth
and God gave him a heart to believe it. And William Jay said, Brother
Newton, did you hear that God saved that man? And John Newton
said, did he really? How amazing, how wonderful that
is. And William Jay said, I'll never
despair of anybody since God saved him. And John Newton said,
dear brother, I'll never despair of anybody since God saved me.
I'll never despair of anybody since God saved, God saved me. Oh, he can save anybody, anybody. I am truly amazed and I rejoice
in and I'm thankful to the Lord for overruling my flesh. I give
him much thanks for that and calling me to himself, calling
me to his gospel, giving me a real need for his word and a real
need for his worship and a real need for his people. I thank
God for that. And I sincerely thank the Lord
for doing that in every one of his people. Every time I see
him call another sinner to himself, I thank God for it. And that's
what the Apostle Paul is saying in this verse. 1 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, he said, for this cause also thank we God without
ceasing, because when you received the word of God, which you heard
of us, You received it not as the word of men, but as it is
in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you
that believe. Now the word received is in that
verse two times. They're not the same original
Greek word. You may have something called
a concordance. It's a dictionary. Hebrew for
the Old Testament, Greek for the New Testament. You can look
up every word in the Bible and see what it originally meant
when that word was used. And the word received, it's in
there two times, but it's not the same word. It's just like
in English, we have words that are the same word with two different
meanings. Well, the first one means when
it came to you, received. When it came to you, it means
when you heard with the ear. That's what it means. The second
one means you laid hold of it. You took it. Verse 13 says, for
this cause also thank we God without ceasing, Because when
you heard with the ear, the word of God, which you heard of us,
you laid hold of it. You took it, not as the word
of man, But as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually
worketh also in you that believe. Now it is a great blessing when
God reveals this to sinners and they lay hold of it. That's a
great blessing. Look with me if you would at
2 Peter 1. In 2 Peter 1, it says in verse 20, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation. What that means is not one word
in the Bible was written from the thoughts or the heart of
a man, a mortal man. When we believe that, it brings
great error to us. I've heard men say before that,
well, the apostle Paul meant this, and then he changed his
mind later and said that. That's not so. The Apostle Paul
penned half of the New Testament, but the Holy Spirit of God Almighty
wrote every single word. And the mind of the Scripture
and the heart of the Scripture never changes. God said, I am
the Lord, I change not. That's why you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Every word was written by the
Spirit of God Almighty. Verse 20 says again, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They only spake, their mouth
opened and out of their heart came what God's Holy Ghost put
in there. Every word, every word in this
book is directly from the heart and mind and mouth of our Almighty
God. This is the Word of God. The calling of a true preacher. One of the number one things
that our Lord warned of while he walked this earth throughout
the course of his ministry was beware of false prophets. That's
one of the number one things he warned of. Watch out for false
prophets. The apostles said the same thing.
They said, try the spirits, meaning try the preachers, whether they
are of God. Make sure they're preaching God's
word to you. the calling of a true preacher and the desire of a
true preacher. The goal of a true preacher is
to do nothing more than repeat God's word in a clear way where
people can understand what he is saying. That's all a true
preacher is called to do. That's all that a true preacher
wants to do. Tell you, tell the people what God said. Add nothing to it, take nothing
from it. This is what God said. We are called to declare. We are called to announce. We are called to set forth His
Word alone. Alone. My greatest desire I believe
every time I preach, every time I stand up, this is my greatest
desire. My greatest desire right now
as I preach to you is that the Lord will always remove me from
the equation. That's my greatest desire. It's
that when the message is over, nobody's talking about the preacher.
Nobody's thinking about the preacher. I do not want to come in between
you and his word. I do not want to be a stumbling
stone by trying to wow you, impress you, get some emotional response
out of you. Not at all. Not at all. If come
the end of a message, we all, myself and everyone who hears
it, if come the end of the message, we all can say that we heard
him. That's what God said, isn't it? This is my beloved son. Hear
him. Hear Him. If we can all say that
we heard Him, and if we can all say that our minds are on Him,
everything that He did, everything He came to do, everything He
accomplished, where He is now, what He has to say to us in His
Word, as long as we are all glorying in Him and rejoicing in Him,
rejoicing in His good news to us, rejoicing in His mercy, not
giving us what we deserve for our sin because that sin was
taken away from us and given to Christ and Christ took what
we deserve. As long as we're all rejoicing
in his mercy and rejoicing in his grace, I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. I don't need anyone
to know my name, neither did John the Baptist. They asked
him, what is your name? He said, I'm not telling you. I rejoice every time the Lord
takes his word and opens the heart of a sinner, the heart
of a sinner, every time and blesses that heart with it, causes that
sinner to rejoice in Christ over it. I give thanks for that. That's
all I want. That's my desire. Now look with me back at the
text. First Thessalonians chapter two, it says in verse 13, For
this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when
you received the word of God, which you heard, when you received
the word of God, which you heard, it came into your ear and you
heard, and you heard. I mean, you heard with the heart. When you heard Paul said, oh,
I thank God for this. I thank God for this. Do you
know of that woman named Lydia? Do you know the story of that
woman named Lydia, the apostle Paul? went down and met with
some ladies who were gathering for worship but they didn't know
what they worshiped, they were going about the routine of religion
and they were devout women. trying to read the commandments
and obey the commandments. And they had some fear of God
in their hearts, but they did not, they'd never seen Christ. That's what it boils down to.
They'd never seen Christ. And Paul came and he preached
the word to them right there by the river. And it says for
this one woman, Lydia, it says, the Lord opened her heart. That's what it says, the Lord,
Paul just preached the word. That's what he told Timothy to
do, just preach the word. And it says, the Lord opened
her heart and that woman heard, that woman heard with the heart. As I come to you, I told you
one of my greatest desires is that I might be removed from
the whole equation, get me out of the way. One of my greatest
fears as I preach is that I or anyone else would only hear this
message with the ear. If you are listening to me right
now, you are definitely hearing this message with the ear. And
my great fear is that men and women would only hear this message
with the ear and hear it as the word of a man. This is just some
other preacher. There are preachers everywhere.
This preacher says this and that preacher says that. That's why
I strongly, strongly exhort you, don't listen to the man. Make sure he's telling God's
word. If he's not telling you what God's word has to say, don't
listen to him, he's not God's man. If you and I don't open
this scripture together and if I do not say this is what God
says, don't listen to me, I'm not God's man. And my greatest fear is that
when people hear God's word, forget my words, My greatest
fear is that when people hear God's word, they just hear it
as another opinion. That's just his opinion. Everybody
has an opinion. They just hear it as the word
of a man. They just listen to this as the
teaching of a man. Most people will hear things
and they agree with some of it. They disagree with some of it. May God cause me, may God cause
you, may God cause us to hear and receive this word. I have a Bible right here just
below your picture in your screen. I have the King James Version
Bible. May God cause us to hear this
word, his word, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth,
the word of God. May God cause us to hear this
with the heart. May God pierce our hearts with
it. I beg God to pierce my heart
with it. Pierce my heart with your word. Don't let it go in one ear and
out the other. Let it go in one ear and straight down into my
heart. And may God speak to us. May
we hear his voice. Through a man, yes. He's raised
up preachers to preach his word through a man, yes, but may we
hear his voice. Turn with me over to Acts chapter
3. In Acts chapter 3, Peter and John healed a lame man and he
was sitting at the gate of the temple begging for money, that's
why he was there, he was there begging for money. In Acts 3,
verse 6, it says, And He took him by the right hand and lifted
him up And immediately his feet and
ankle bones received strength and he leaping up, stood and
walked and entered in with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. And that's the very thing the
apostle Paul is rejoicing over. The very thing that lame man
did not leap up and run off to do all the things that he'd been
dreaming of doing in this world. God not only moved on his legs,
God moved on his heart. He moved on his heart. He leaped
up and he entered straight into the temple, walking and leaping
and praising God. Thank you. That's what his heart
was crying. Thank you for such a great salvation as this. In
verse 9 it says, And all the people saw him walking and praising
God, and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the
beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder
and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the
lame man, which was healed, hailed Peter and John, all the people
ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's,
greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered
unto the people, You men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why
look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness
we had made this man to walk?" What Peter said was, why are
you looking at us? A man can't do these things.
A man cannot. This did not take place through
the word or the work of a man. Peter said, God did this. God did this, and that's how
it is in the preaching of the gospel. If a sinner is going
to truly hear the word of God and lay hold of it with the heart,
then God himself is going to have to effectually work on the
heart of that sinner. God is going to have to do it.
Sometimes I wonder, How do I say these things in a way that makes
people truly believe it? How do I do that? Here's the
truth of the matter. Here's the reality. I can't. I can't. My calling is not to
make people believe this at all. That's not my calling at all.
My calling is to preach the word of God. My calling is to declare
the word of God. and leave all of the convincing
to God himself. Just preach the word, just declare
the word. And if a soul is healed, God
is the doer of it. Paul said, that's why I rejoice
so much every time I see it. I say the same thing. That's
why I rejoice every time I see it. I never know when he is going
to reveal himself to a sinner. I never know which sinner he's
gonna reveal himself to. We just preach the word and then
we stand back, we get out of the way and we see the salvation
of the Lord. Turn with me over to Philippians
chapter two. It says in Philippians two verse
13, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do. and to do of his good pleasure. When God effectually works in
the heart of a sinner, when he moves on a sinner, when the heart
of his child, his chosen child, hears the word, receives the
word, believes the word, when God speaks, it produces a result. Sinners both will and they do,
they desire and they do His good pleasure. And Paul said, I rejoice
in it, I rejoice every time I see it. I give thanks to God without
ceasing every time I see it, every time. Now go with me back
to our text in 1 Thessalonians 2. I'm sorry, this time 1 Thessalonians
1. In 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 2,
he said, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention
of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith, you believed, God called and you heard, and your labor
of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the sight of God and our Father, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. We know that God elected you
and chose you. Verse five says, for our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. You heard it, you believed it.
Much assurance. Verse six, and you became followers
of us and of the Lord. having received the word in much
affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. He said, we rejoice
because you heard this word, you received it by the power
of the Holy Ghost, and you became believers. You became hearers,
you became followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you came to
Him. And you came to Him alone. Him
only. Not him plus this book that some
man wrote. Not him plus some of the old
doctrines that you still had from false religion carrying
it along with you. Him only. Him only. Over in chapter two, where our
text is, There are two words which are italicized, and what
that means is they were added by the translators. And our translators
were a great help to us in making it more readable. But sometimes
if we remove the words that they added, we get a better understanding.
Let's read this without those two italicized words. It says
in verse 13, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing,
because when you received the word of God, which you heard
of us, You received not the word of men. You received not the word of
men. As soon as you truly heard the word of God, that was it.
That was it. Our Lord said, my sheep hear
my voice, and they follow me, for they know my voice. A stranger
they will not follow. You did not, no longer receive
the word of men. And God's people won't. It'll
be His word alone. That's what they'll all cry.
Give us your word alone. Let us hear your voice alone.
The scripture says, let God be true, but every man be a liar.
Do we say the same thing? If so, God has been merciful
to us, and he's been gracious to us, and he's revealed his
word to us and calls us to believe it and see it as the word of
God himself. May that be so with us. 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.