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 this morning is going
to come from a portion of Matthew chapter 1. We're going to be
looking at some verses throughout Matthew chapter 1, but I want
to begin reading with verse 21. Matthew 1 verse 21 says, and
she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people. He shall save his people. from their sins. I'd like for
us to look for a minute at His people. That's what we're going
to look at this morning, His people. He came to save a people,
a particular people. God, His Father, chose the people. The scripture says He chose them
out of every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue. He chose them from
all over this world, every generation. His goodness was great. He chose
a people out of this entire world. And the Lord said in John 17
that He would give eternal life to as many as the Father gave
Him. The Father chose them and gave
them to Christ his son. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I have now come that they might have life and that they might
have it more abundantly. I'm going to save them. Every
soul that my father gave to me, I'm going to save every single
one of them. Every one of my particular people
and every single soul that the father gave to Christ And every
soul that Christ saved, the Holy Spirit will call. The Spirit will call them out
of darkness into His marvelous light. And that's how you'll
know who in particular His people are. God's Spirit will call them.
Well, that's what I'd like for us to look at for a moment. Who
in particular are His people? Who are His people? Not every
person is one of His people. To say that He has a particular
people is to say that not every person on this earth is one of
His people. Many people are not His people. That's a sad declaration to make,
but it's true. I don't want to be one of those
people, and I know you don't either. I fear not being one
of His people, and I'm sure you do too. We want to be one of
his people, so this is important to us. It's important to me,
I know it's important to you. Now, who are his people? Who
are his people? Am I one of his people? Are you
one of his people? I want to show you some people
in the scripture, and this will reveal to us who his people are,
and whether or not we're one of them. I want to show you a
man in Luke 18. If you have your Bible there,
you may want to turn with me to Luke 18. And I want to see
that this man, earthly speaking, morally speaking, is a fine man,
what this world would call a good man, a good moral citizen. Luke 18, verse 10, it says, two
men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and
the other a Republican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee. He said, God, I thank Thee. He's a religious man. He went
into a temple. He said, God, I thank Thee. He's
a praying man, a religious man. He's a church going man. He has
no shame in openly identifying with God, calling himself a Christian. Verse 11, he said, God, I thank
thee that I am not as other men are extortioners. I'm not an
extortioner. This man didn't take advantage
of anybody for his own gain. He just wouldn't do it. He was
not that kind of man. Fair. Verse 11, he said, I'm
not an extortioner, I'm not unjust. This guy was honest. Honest. He wouldn't defraud anybody.
He wouldn't take advantage of anybody. He wouldn't defraud
anybody. Verse 11, he said, I'm not an adulterer. He was the
kind of man that no woman felt threatened by. He was a polite
gentleman. Verse 11 goes on to say, even
as this publican. I'm not as this publican. Publicans
were considered to be traitors. They were traitors. They were
Jews who collected taxes from other Jews to give the money
to the Romans. They took from the Jews and gave
it to the Romans. And they were considered to be
traitors because in the process of doing that, they did it in
a very deceitful way. They skimmed off the top. They
would take money from other Jews to give it to the Romans, but
skim off the top. They used brutal harshness to
force the money out of their fellow men, out of their fellow
Jews. It was very mafia-like. Very
forceful, very harsh. And this Pharisee said, I'm nothing
like that man. I don't treat people that way.
Verse 12, he said, I fast twice in the week. That was a commandment
given by the order of Ezra. And this man observed it. He
said, I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. I give. back to God of everything
he's given me. This man was a pillar in the
church where he attended. And I'm sure you know many men
just like him. But do you know in verse 14,
the Lord said that he was not one of his people. Do you know
that? Down in verse 14, the Lord said,
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other. He's talking about the public
and was justified, not the Pharisee. As fine as this man was in moral
character, that fine moral character is not an evidence of being one
of his people. That's not an evidence. Now,
all of God's people are jealous over a fine moral character.
They want that. They want to be good citizens. They want to be what is becoming
of a believer they desire that but here's the thing seeing that
in a person as wonderful as it is seeing that in a person is
not a defining evidence of being one of his people all right now
he said that man was not one of my people Now let's see who
he said were his people. Let's see who he said, who he
identified himself with and said, these are my people. And I'm
gonna go ahead and tell you, this is graphic. This is graphic. But this is the truth of God's
word, and it's vital that we see this. Absolutely vital. If you'll look with me back at
Matthew 1. Matthew 1, verse 2, it says,
Abraham begat Isaac. Verse 1, we just recently looked
at, it says the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham, and then it goes in to say Abraham begat
Isaac. Abraham. Abraham was an idol
worshiper for the first 75 years of his life. He was an idol worshiper. He was a man who lied about his
wife being his wife. Think about that. He lied about
it. He told other men on numerous
occasions, he did this multiple times, that she was his sister. That's what he said. This is
my sister. And he let her go with these other men in order
to save his own skin. Now, what kind of man is that?
What kind of man is that? The Lord protected her. God in
mercy He protected her every single time in spite of Abraham's
ignorance and in spite of his wickedness. Abraham was a man
who left the covenant of his own marriage. If you know the
story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Isaac and Ishmael,
you know that he was a man who left the covenant of his own
marriage. He had an illegitimate child with an employee of the
family. And he did that, here's the worst
part, he did that in the name of doing God's work. And that's
a spiritual illustration of false religion. False religion. What he was saying is, God is
not able to do this unless I help him out. I've got to help God. I've got to get involved and
take matters into my own hands. And that's not the way God purposed
for it to be. And that's not the way God works.
He said, that's not my son. That's not the son I promised.
But that was Abraham. That was the life of this man,
Abraham. Verse two goes on to say, Abraham begat Isaac and
Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob bribed his own brother out of what rightfully belonged
to him. He lied to his own father in
order to get what rightfully belonged to his brother, rightfully
belonged to somebody else. He lied. He stole. He thieved. He put his brother's
clothes on. He put hair on his arms and made
himself smell like his brother and feel like his brother. And
when his father point blank asked him, he said, are you Esau? Jacob said, yes, I am. Yes, I am. And he took for himself
what rightfully belonged to somebody else. Everything about Jacob's
life, everything lives up to his name. Trickster, supplanter,
liar, cheater, everything about it. That was Jacob. Okay, that
was Abraham. That was Jacob. Verse two goes
on to say, Jacob begat Judah and his brethren. Judah sold
his brother. Literally sold his brother, Joseph.
Judah and his brethren put Joseph in a pit. And when some Ishmaelite
gypsies came passing by, Judah was the one who said, let's sell
him. That's what he said, let's sell him. Sold his own brother. They sold their brother for 20
pieces of silver. That was Judah. Verse 3 goes
on to say, Judas begat Phares and Zara of Tamar. Phares and
Zara were Judah's illegitimate incestual children. This woman,
Tamar, was Judah's daughter-in-law. She married Judah's son. His
name was Er, E-R, E-R. In Genesis 38, it says that Air
was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him.
The Lord killed him, and now this woman has no husband. And
she wanted a child. So she disguised herself, and
she tricked her father-in-law, and those two products of incest
were born. All right? That's Phares and
Zarah. That's Tamar. That's Judah. Well, skipping down to verse
five, we don't have time to look at all of these names, but we'll
look at a few. Verse five, it says, and Salmon begat Boaz of
Rakeb, or another way of saying that name is Rahab. Rahab was
a harlot. Rahab was a harlot. When you set aside that amazing
story of Jericho, you may know the story of Jericho the children
of Israel coming in and the Lord taking the city, the walls falling
down, the beautiful token of that scarlet line, that red rope
that she hung out of that window, and every soul who laid hold
of that scarlet line was delivered. And that represents the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only way of escape, the only
way of deliverance. But when you set that glorious
story aside and you get down to the heart of who this woman
was, What her life consisted of, when
you get down to the heart of who she was, she was a harlot. She was a harlot. That was Rahab.
Verse 5 says, Boaz beget Obed of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabitess
woman. A woman from Moab, the land Moab. Moab the people, the entire nation
of Moab, they came from Moab the man. They were all descendants
of Moab the man. Moab was the product of a worse
form of incest, a much worse form that took place with Lot. He was Lot's son. And the Moabites
were the sworn enemies of God. They hated God and they hated
his people. The Moabites, they hated God. Well, Ruth was a Moabitess woman.
Verse six, Jesse beget David the king and David the king beget
Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. He goes ahead
and announces that right there in verse six. We know that story.
And I'm sure you know that story, David and Bathsheba and her husband,
Uriah. When you get right down to it,
David was a murderer and an adulterer. You can't get around it. You
cannot deny it. We can say, yeah, but he did
some wonderful things in his life. And he did. I love David. I thank God for David. But we'll
never be able to. Deny or undo the fact that David
the King was an adulterer and a murderer. He did it. He did
it. You can't undo it. Once it's
done, physically speaking, humanly speaking, it can't be undone.
He did it. Now, is it not amazing that God
said, these are my people? Is that not shocking to you?
These are my people of all the people in the world. Of all the
people in the world. These are the people that God
hand selected. To make up his family tree. He recorded
them in his eternal word. Every single one of these people.
All of them are sinners. They are all sinners. And not just small sinners. Great
sinners. Great, great, undeniable sinners. Verse 11 says, And Josiah begat
Jeconiah and his brethren about the time they were carried away
to Babylon. All of Israel was carried away
captive into Babylon. All of Israel. All of God's people
are a captive people. all of them captive to their
own sin, all of them bound by sin. They lived their lives on
this earth bound by sin. Every one of those people died
because of their sin. We're reading generation after
generation after generation, they all died. All of them, they
died because of their sin. The wages of sin is death. sin entered into the world, and
death by sin. But verse 16 says, Jacob beget
Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is
called Christ. Now, if you want to look with
me at Romans chapter 5, verse 12 says, Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered the world, and death by sin, And so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned." Verse 15 says, but not
as the offense, so also is the free gift. The same way that sin was passed,
so is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more The grace of God and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. Many, his people. Verse 19 says,
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound, But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What is all that saying? It's
saying call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. He will save His people from
their sins. How did He do that? What did
He do? He came for His people. He lived
for His people. He suffered for His people. He
bled. He died. He endured the grave
of absolute separation from God for His people. He satisfied
God in the process for his people. He broke down the middle wall
of partition that was separating his people from God. He broke
it down, united them. He arose for his people. And he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high for his people. And now he ever liveth. to make intercession for his
people. Every bit of that is called mercy. It's called grace. He said, I'll
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. That's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. That's what he did. God said
he by himself, not with me, not with you, by himself shall, he
shall with no possibility of failure. save to the uttermost his people. He shall save his people. These chosen, peculiar, prized
recipients of grace, blessed, blessed people. He said, I'll
save them from their sins. And that's what he did. Now to
every person he did this for, God sends a messenger to that
person. And he notifies that person of
what Christ did. To every one of them, he notifies
them. That notification brings new life. God calls it the new
birth. All of his people are born again.
Death to life. Darkness to light. And the very
thing that Mary was notified of in the Lord's birth. That's the very thing that his
people are notified of in their own quickening, their own spiritual
birth. If you look with me back at the
text, Matthew 1 verse 18 says, Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph
before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost. What that means is she did nothing. That's what it means. She did
nothing. God did it all. That's exactly what it means.
And she was just notified of what God had done. That's how
it came to her. If you look at Luke chapter 1,
it says in Luke 1 verse 26, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel
was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to
a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house
of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came
in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored. That
means graciously accepted. You're just notified. He said,
You're graciously accepted. He said, The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women. Nowhere in this does he say,
now Mary, if you'll do this, God will do that. Nowhere does
he say that. Nowhere in this announcement.
The entire notification was God has done it all. Verse 29, when
she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her
mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel
said unto her, fear not Mary, for thou has found favor with
God. He's saying, peace be unto you. God has brought peace to
you through this Savior. Verse 31, Behold, thou shalt
conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his
name Jesus. Christ liveth in you. That's
what she was told. Christ lives in you. Verse 32
says, he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father
David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and
of his kingdom there shall be no end. He's going to reign over
Jacob. He's going to reign over sinners.
Verse 34, Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man? She said, How is this possible,
seeing that I haven't done anything? I haven't done anything. My flesh
has given no contribution. Verse 35, And the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. How is this possible? Just behold
the Lamb of God. Just behold the Lamb. Every one
of His people received that notification. Every one of them. And every
one of his people respond to it in the same way Mary did.
She said in verse 46, my soul doth magnify the Lord. Thanks
be to God. That's the only response a sinner
can have. Thanks be to God. Everything he promised he has
fulfilled. Now I started this message by
asking who are his people? Am I one of his people? Are you
one of his people? Well, I want to close by answering
that in this way. If I want to know if I'm one
of his people, then this word, the word of God needs to look
me right in the eye. As we read this word and see
what it says, the word needs to look me right in the eye and
ask me point blank, Gabe, are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? Are you a worthless, ruined,
vile, wicked sinner? Like this word says, I am. Like it says, you are. Everything
the scripture condemns, is that us? Is that you and me? In our
flesh, are we the epitome of God's enemy? God's enemy in the
flesh. Because that's what the word
says. We're by nature enmity against God. Is that us? In our
flesh, are we the poster child of everything God hates? Is that
us? If we cry, no. No, I'm not that kind of sinner.
Then there's horrible news for me. But if God lays it on this
heart to cry, oh yes, I am that kind of sinner and I need that
kind of mercy. The only hope for this sinner
is in the blood of Jesus Christ. If God causes me and if He causes
you to cry that, then the answer is yes. We're His people. His people cry, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. Till next week, may the Lord
bless His word. 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.