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 would like to strongly encourage
you this morning to open up your Bible with me to Ephesians chapter
2. Let's open up this Word together
and see whether the things that we are going to talk about today
are so. Let's see from God's Word whether
these things are so. I want to speak to you from an
outline that was preached over 60 years ago. He was preached
by a man named Rolf Barnard, and he preached it in a Bible
conference in 1954. And the Lord used that conference
to open the eyes of many men and women to the truth, the absolute
truth. Is anyone searching for the truth
this morning? The truth about the Word of God,
and the truth about salvation, the truth about Jesus Christ. Is anyone searching for the truth
this morning? Well, this particular message
that was preached back in 1954 that the Lord used mightily was
titled, Six Stubborn Statements. Six Stubborn Statements. And Rolf Barnard said during
the beginning of that message, he said, there's one thing that
I know. If you meet a fact, an absolute
fact, in the middle of the road, you either have to deal with
it or turn and run. One of the two, if it's an absolute
fact. The men who were preaching back
then, were preaching to people who had heard nothing but lies. They were in a place where the
gospel was not. Men were not telling the truth
there. And the people at this conference
had heard nothing but liars. Men stand up and lie on the Word
of God, say things that God did not say in His Word. And all
that they had heard was men who stood up and skirted around the
issue and skipped verses and twisted verses. And Rolf Barnard
said, we're not going to do that anymore. We're going to deal
with the truth. And this is so vital because
men and women today are in the exact same boat that those people
were in 61 years ago. Things have not changed. The facts are still in the word
of God. And while this world wants to
turn and run, While men do not want to declare
the truth, somebody has to. Somebody has to tell the truth
because we are all gonna deal with the truth. These facts that
are in God's word, every single soul on this earth is going to
have to deal with them, every single soul. Now, here is the
first thing that we need to deal with. Here is the first truth,
the first statement that was brought up in this outline. And
this is the thing that every single one of us are either gonna
have to deal with here or we're gonna have to deal with it in
judgment. One of the two. Salvation, mercy
from God is when he causes a sinner to bow the knee, kiss the feet
of the Son of God and confess that He is Lord and bow to the
truths that are in His Word. So here's the first one we need
to deal with. Either God is sovereign or He is not. One of the two, there is no middle
ground. Either God is absolutely sovereign
or He's not. You know what sovereign means?
It means chief. It means supreme. It means independent,
ruler, all powerful. There is no middle ground. Either
he is all powerful or he's not. You bring that truth up and you
will find a lot of people saying, well, maybe we ought to just
steer clear of that one. But here's the truth of the matter.
Either we deal with it now, or we are going to deal with it
in the judgment. Either way, we are going to have
to deal with it. Either way. People are being
lied to in churches everywhere. They are being lied to in churches
everywhere. They are being told, God is trying
to save you. Now, God is trying to save you,
come on now. God wants to. What's wrong with
you? God wants to. He's trying to. Well, let me ask you this. What
does Ephesians 2 verse 1 say? It says, and you hath he quickened. and you hath he quickened." Do
you know what that does not say? It does not say, and you let
him quicken you. When men and women make the statement,
I got saved, you hear that a lot. Men and women will make that
statement. Put it in those terms. I got saved. What they're saying
is, I saved myself. I finally did it. I knew for
years that I needed to clean up my act, straighten up and
fly right, stop doing what I was doing, start acting better, and
I finally did it. I finally accepted Jesus as my
personal Savior. I got saved. Do you know what Jonah said,
the one that God put in the belly of a whale? He said, salvation
is of the Lord. It is of the Lord. It's not of
the Lord and me. It's not I decided to let the
Lord work. Salvation is of the Lord. Paul
told Timothy, In 2 Timothy chapter 1, in regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ, He said, Who hath saved us? He hath saved us. Either He works all things after
the counsel of His own will or He doesn't. That's all there
is to it. Either He does or He does not. Well, what does Ephesians
1 verse 11 say? It says, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. All things. All things? Wait a minute. All things? You're
saying all things? Well, God wouldn't kill anybody.
God wouldn't wound anybody. Have you ever read Deuteronomy
32 verse 39? Have you ever seen that verse?
The Lord said, I kill, I make alive. I wound, I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. You know why he said that? It's
because he's sovereign. He is sovereign, all powerful. He does as he will with whom
he will. Have you ever read Isaiah 45
verse seven? You should turn over and read
it sometime. It says, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. The truth is, God is sovereign. God is sovereign. He does whatever
He has purpose to do, and He does it independently. He does
it alone. If man has any part in his doings,
then God is not sovereign. If he is dependent on man in
any way, shape, or form, then God is not sovereign. But look at Ephesians 2 verse
8. It says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. He is the potter, we are the
clay. All of His works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Every knee must bow. Here's the
truth of this matter. Every knee must bow. and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord, the sovereign
God. He's sovereign. All right, now
here's the second stubborn statement. Man, as he is in this world,
is either spiritually dead or he's not. One of the two. He's either dead
or he's not. There is no middle ground. When Adam and Eve sinned against
God in the garden, every man and woman that came from Adam,
in him, they were either wounded at that moment or they were killed. One of the two. There's no middle
ground. Well, you know, he's kind of dead. No, uh-uh, that's
not possible. Well, he's mostly dead. No, uh-uh. Either he's dead or he is not. And if man didn't die, if man
was not totally spiritually dead, if he did not die in that garden,
then Christ died in vain. Do you know that? If man was
just set back a little bit, if that's all that happened to him,
he was just kind of set back. If man just fell down into the
ditch, but he has the ability to pull himself out, if he'll
just do it, then Christ died in vain. It was not absolutely
necessary. But what does Ephesians 2 verse
1 say? It says, And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. There is no point in telling
man to do anything towards his salvation. He's dead. He is completely spiritually
dead. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22 says,
In Adam all die. Romans 5 verse 12 says,
by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. Death. When we send out this
gospel call, when we declare God's truth and His Word and
we send out this gospel call which is come to Christ, That's
what we tell men and women, you come to Jesus Christ. When we
do that, we are not asking anybody to do anything. We are not begging
anybody to do anything. It is the command of a sovereign
God for a particular sinner to respond to his work. That's what
it is. Ephesians 2 verse 1 says, and
you hath he quickened. who were dead in trespasses and
sins. So God is sovereign. He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. And man is completely
spiritually dead. Absolutely dead. What can man
do for himself in salvation? What role does man play? He does
not play one. He can do nothing. He's dead.
Here's the third stubborn statement. Christ either chose particular
people to save or he didn't. He either chose individual people,
certain people, or he didn't. And I can tell you this. If Christ
didn't choose particular people, if He died for everybody, if
He died for the entire world, then His death was an absolute
failure. Absolute failure. Because there
are people in hell. There are. There are some people
who are in hell, and if that's the case, then he's not sovereign.
He can't do what he wants with whom he wants. Some went to hell. He died for them, but he wasn't
able to keep them. If he died to save somebody,
but he still went to hell, then he's not sovereign. He is not
in control, he's not all powerful, and his death was a failure.
But what does Ephesians 2 verse 4 say? It says, but God, who
is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. Us. That is a key word to the
truth. Us. Look at Ephesians 1 verse
3. It says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Christ, in Him, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Second Thessalonians 2.13 says,
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. He's chosen
you to salvation. Sinners are chosen, particularly
chosen by God to salvation. Now turn with me over to John
chapter six. This is so important. John chapter
six. Not too long ago, there was a
big debate, a very big and public debate on the issue of, is there
or is there not only one way to God? Many people were saying,
I just can't believe that. I cannot believe it's that narrow. So they interviewed some big
TV evangelists. And one of the ones they interviewed
was Joel Osteen. And they asked him, what is the
answer? Is there one way to God or not?
Because some people are upset over this. They're offended over
this. And he answered by saying, I believe that there's one way
to God and that's Jesus. But I believe there are many
ways to Jesus. Well, that just makes everybody
happy, doesn't it? That satisfies everybody. The truth of the matter is, the
man or woman who believes that, that there's one way to God and
that's Jesus, but there are many ways to Jesus, which is ultimately
saying there's many ways to God. The man or woman who believes
that, believes a lie. Let me show you that right here
in John 6 verse 44. Jesus Christ himself said, no
man can come to me except, no man can come to me. No man can
come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and
I will raise him up at the last day. You know what he was saying
right there? There is one way. No man can come to Jesus Christ
except The Father which hath sent him, draw that sinner, draw
that man, and Christ will raise him up at the last day. He must
be chosen by God and drawn. That's it. That's the truth of
the matter. Christ is the only way. One way
to Christ, one way to God. And if a man comes to Christ,
he's coming to God. Here's the fourth stubborn statement.
Go with me back over to Ephesians chapter 2. When Christ died on
the cross of Calvary, He either redeemed those chosen people,
paid the debt of their sin in full, He either redeemed them or He
did not. One of the two. And this goes
back to what we were just talking about. If He did not accomplish
what He set out to do, He's not sovereign. And if He didn't pay
all of the debt, then man has to make up the difference. If
He paid 99% and man has to make a payment of 1%, then it means man is not dead,
which means Christ died in vain. Either He redeemed them, either
He paid their debt in full, or He didn't. What's the answer? What does Ephesians 2 verse 5
say? It says, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, By grace, you are saved. You're saved. It doesn't say
by grace, you're almost saved. By grace, you will be saved.
It says you are saved. The Lord cried, it is finished. That means done. paid in full. He washed us from our sins in
His own blood. He paid it all. There's nothing
else to be paid. That's the truth of that matter.
Here's the fifth stubborn statement. Either God's Holy Spirit quickens
the elect, quickens those chosen ones to life and light and faith
And salvation comes through that faith, or it doesn't. One of the two. Either eternal
life depends on a sinner being quickened, coming to Christ,
or it doesn't. Our Lord told the Pharisees in
John 5 verse 40, you will not come to me that you might have
life. Why? They were dead. God didn't choose them. The Spirit
hadn't quickened them. Our Lord told Nicodemus, marvel
not that I said unto you, you must be born again. My Spirit
must put life in you. My Spirit must put faith in you. It must. Our Lord said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. He said, my sheep hear
my voice and they follow me. They believe my word. They bow
to my word. They love my word. They come out from among the
people and gather together and worship me. There's no way, there
is just no way that a child of God who has been enlightened
by God's Holy Spirit to the truth I'm talking about the truth of
God's Word, enlightened by God's Holy Spirit to Christ, the truth. There is no way that child could
be satisfied to stay under the lies of religion. There's just no way. No way. When men are standing up there
saying, now, salvation's up to you. This thing is all up to
you now. You better make your decision.
There's no way when a child knows that is not what God said. He said, I'm dead. I can do nothing. He must do it all. There's no
way they can sit there. They're seekers of truth. They're
seekers of Christ. That's what He calls them to
be. Seekers of Christ. Ephesians
2 verse 1 says, and you hath He quickened. Quickened. Verse 5 says, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Verse
8 says, for by grace are you saved through faith. Believing, trusting, looking.
That not of yourselves. Believing the Word of God is
not a work that a sinner does. It's something that happens to
them. It's a gift that's given to them. It is the gift of God.
Looking to Christ is not something a sinner does. They're dead.
He must quicken. He must give them eyes to see.
He must give them ears to hear. He must give them a heart to
believe. It's not a work. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. But the fact of the matter is,
by grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourself,
it's a gift of God. Here's the sixth stubborn statement. God is sovereign. Man enters
this world totally spiritually dead. God chose particular people
to save. And Christ paid the debt for
all of their sin in full. And God's Spirit is going to
call every single child He chose. Here's the sixth stubborn statement. Every single one of God's people
are either going to all make it to glory or they're all not. False preachers stand up and
tell men and women, be careful now, you'll lose your salvation. If that's possible, then we are
all not gonna make it, not one of us. They say, you have to
keep yourself in the love of God. If that's the case, not
one of us are gonna make it. But do you know what Romans 8
verse 39 says? It says, nothing is able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Till next Sunday morning, 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, you can write
to our physical mailing address at 905 Yadkin Street, Kingsport,
Tennessee 37660 or log on to our website at kingsportsovereigngracechurch.com. 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 10.45 a.m. and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next Sunday morning
at 8.30 for another message of God's free and sovereign grace. you