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 text this morning is going
to come from one verse in Psalm chapter 4. Sometimes it's so good for God's
people to just pause and think about what the Lord has done
for us. Just to be thankful, just to
dwell on, just think on and be grateful for everything that
our Lord has done for us and in us through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, here in Psalm chapter 4,
verse 7 says, Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. And I believe I can honestly
say that he really has. He really has. I believe that
God's people can truly say that from the bottom of their heart.
He really has put gladness in our heart. No matter how the
world pulls us down, and it does pull us down. It really does. But even when the world pulls
true believers down, even when they feel that they're on the
bottom. Just knowing that the Christ of heaven awaits us, just knowing that a sinless eternity
with Christ awaits us, and knowing that even though relationships
here in this world are tough, and even though there are so
many things that we fear and so many things that we dread,
Just knowing that in Christ, God is not angry with us, and He has reserved a place for
us, a place in His glorious kingdom. Just knowing that will make us
say with David, Thou hast put gladness in my heart. more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased." Over in Psalm 37, David talked
about being envious of the wicked. This world, the world that has
no regard for God, no heart for the true and living God. They
might have a heart for religion, They definitely have a heart
for their own self and their own well-being, but no heart
for God. And every soul that has not been made to be a believer of Christ, a believer on the
Lord Jesus Christ, the world calls that soul wicked. Wicked. Not believing Christ
is wicked. And over in Psalm 37, David talked
about being envious of the wicked. And our flesh does get envious
of the wicked. It really does. But it only gets that way when
we're not looking to Christ. That's the only time it gets
that way. When I see Christ, when God allows
me to get a glimpse of heaven Himself, and when God shows me through
His Word the beauty of His purity and the beauty of His perfection
and the beauty of His holiness, and when I see the reality of
His love, and the reality of His kindness and His tenderness. When I see through the eyes of
this Word the things that He has prepared for those who love
Him, when these eyes of faith see all His wisdom, and the spiritual
house that He has built, and the meat of His table, and the
sitting of His servants, and the attendance of His ministers
and their apparel, and His cupbearers, and His ascent by which He goes
up to the throne of God, happy are His men, happy are His servants
which stand continually before Him and hear His wisdom. When
I become consumed by the fact that because the Lord loved Israel
forever, Therefore made He Christ King to do judgment and justice. When I see that, I don't envy
anybody. I really don't. When God opens
my eyes and lets me enter into Christ Himself, I pity everybody. Everyone who
does not see the High King of Heaven. What I just quoted to
you was when the queen of Sheba went and saw Solomon. And that's what she said when
she saw this great king who represents Christ. And when I see all that a greater
than Solomon has done for me, And I know you can say the same
thing whenever you see all that a greater than Solomon has done
for you in Christ. It's all in Christ. When we see
that, we say with David, thou hast put gladness in my heart
more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. This world wants this world. This world wants the corn of
this world. This world wants the wine of
this world. And neither one of those will
satisfy the corn, the fatness, the sustenance of this world,
and the wine, the lightheartedness, the happiness, what they believe
to be is happiness. But neither one of those will
satisfy. Not the sustenance and not the
gladness that the world can provide. And the reason is because neither
one of them will last. Neither one of those will last.
But there is something that will. There is someone that will. And let me show you who it is
over in Psalm chapter 9. If you have your Bible open with
me, turn with me to Psalm 9 verse 1 says, I will praise thee, O
Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous
works. I will be glad and rejoice in
thee. I will sing praise to thy name,
O thou most high. The message that I have for us
this morning is titled, Reasons to be Glad. Reasons to be glad. We have some real reasons to
be glad. When God's people are reminded of everything that Christ has
done, all of these reasons that we have, they get real glad. So what I want to do is go through
a few scriptures and remind us of some of these reasons. The
first one is right here in Psalm chapter 9, verse 2 says, I will
be glad and rejoice in thee, in thee. God's chosen people, His chosen people, the ones that God the Father
looked down on and chose to have mercy on, chose to save, chose
to reach down His hand for and pull out of the pit. When God's
chosen people realize that they get to be in Christ. And everything that that means.
When God's people realize that they get to be in Christ. When God's people realize that
they were chosen in Christ. And when they realized that they
were punished for their sin in Christ, and when they realized
that they were raised from destruction in Christ, and when they realized
that they are going to be seated in glory in Christ, they get
real glad. Real glad. We get to be in Christ. We get to be in Christ. If this book, this holy Bible,
plainly told us that we were outside of Christ, and if it
gave us no hope of being in Him, we would have no reason to be
glad. None. I don't care how much corn came. It doesn't matter how much corn
we have gathered, how much corn we are storing, Death is right
around the corner and we can't take any of it with us. And I don't care how much wine
came throughout this lifetime. I don't care how much of what
the world believes is happiness. Doesn't matter how much of that
came through this life. Death is right around the corner
and then there's nothing to be happy about. It's time to go
meet God. It's time to be judged by God
for the sin we have committed against Him. But all of God's elect are in
Christ. They're all in Christ and everything
that that means. And we believe on Him, don't
we? And we hope in Him, don't we? And the amazing thing is
our Lord said, straight is the gate and narrow is the way that
leads unto life and few there be that find it. But we found
it. We found it. How do we know? How do we know that we found
life? When the Word of God says multitudes
haven't. Here's how we know. He has caused us to know that
we didn't find life, life found us. We didn't find Him, He found
us. That's how we know. You see,
we know through the Word that we were born dead There's nothing
that we can do in our natural state. But if He comes and finds
us, if He brings life to us, then there's some hope there.
We can hope in that. Right after our Lord said, few
there be that find it, He said, many are gonna say to me, we've
done this, We've done that. We've done all these wonderful
things. We have, we have, we have. Not us. Not God's true believers on Christ. Not all those who are putting
all their trust and all their hope in Christ. Not us. He has
caused us to say, we didn't. He did. He did. David said, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and
thy truth's sake. This word says, whoever says
that, from the depths of his soul, truly believing on Christ
alone, whoever says that, has found life. Life has found him
or her. Now, I don't care how little
the corn is. We just said a minute ago, I
don't care how much the corn is. I also don't care how little
the corn is. And I don't care how few drops
of wine there are. I don't care if we're low on
the sustenance of this world. Better is little with the fear
of the Lord. And it does not matter if these
days on this earth are days of trial and tribulation and suffering. I don't care how little the corn
is, and I don't care how few drops of wine there are. If God
the Father did all the choosing, and if God the Son did all the
saving, and if God the Spirit has revealed that to us, then
we're in Christ. We're in Christ. When it's all
said and done, we're in Christ. And when this life is over and
we go out into eternity, we're going to be in Christ. And as
long as we're in Him, everything that was little in this earth
is going to be innumerable. with Him in glory. He said, how
shall He not freely with Him give us all things? All things,
all the spiritual blessings of God are going to be found in
Him. And if we are in Him, we are
in all of His spiritual blessings. That makes me so glad. I will
be glad in thee. In thee. Alright, here's another
reason to be glad. Look at Psalm 14. Psalm chapter 14, look at the
last half of verse 7. It says, When the Lord bringeth
back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice And Israel
shall be glad. Glad. We have been set free. We have been set free. And we are going to be set free. We have been set free from the
penalty of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus." And we're in Christ Jesus. We
have been set free from the penalty of sin, but soon, real soon,
it's just right around the corner, real soon all of God's children
are going to be set free from the presence of sin. For every
soul that was put in Christ, it's right around the corner.
We're going to be set free. There's a poem that says, Run,
run, the law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. The
gospel bids me sweeter things, bids me fly, and gives me wings. Right around the corner. We are
all, all who are in Christ, we're gonna be set free. Free from
one drop of sin. Doesn't that make you glad? That's
a reason to be glad. Look at Psalm 16 with me at verse
nine. It says, therefore my heart is
glad and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope. The Word of God has given us
so much hope. So much hope. Every soul that
believes on and trusts in the blood of Christ for all their
salvation has hope. I promise you that. I promise
you that. Every soul that is looking to
nothing other than the blood of Christ has hope. Some people
go through this life with no hope. no spiritual hope, no physical
hope. They live this life with absolutely
no hope. But those that God has chosen
to have mercy on, those that God has chosen to
put faith into, causing them to look to Christ, they have
hope. Our hope is in Christ, the man,
Jesus Christ. He is our hope. I don't have
hope in the fact that I'm trusting in Christ. My hope is in Christ. He is our hope. Seeing His ability
and seeing His power and seeing His authority, it gives us hope. Look with me at Psalm 31. And
verse 7 says, I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for
thou hast considered my trouble, thou hast known my soul in adversities. Knowing your own sin, I know
my own sin, I know some small degree of my own sin, not the
depth of it, but some small degree. Knowing your own sin, How glad
are you that God is merciful? Mercy is not getting what you
deserve. How thankful are you for God's
mercy? What is the source of God's mercy?
It's the blood of Jesus Christ. He said, when I see that blood,
I will pass over you. What if God didn't have mercy?
What if God was not a God of mercy? How much sadness would
that put in our hearts? Thanks be to God, He's put gladness
there instead. Why? Because He's shown His mercy. It's who He is. It's who He always
has been. It's who He always will be. a God of mercy in the blood of
Jesus Christ. Psalm 51 verse 8 says, make me
to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken
may rejoice. If God has broken you because
of your sin, if you are broken over your sin, aren't you glad? Really, aren't you glad? An animal that has been broken
means he belongs to somebody. That's what it means. An animal
that has been broken means he belongs to somebody. If God has
given you a broken and a contrite spirit because of your sin, and
if He has caused you to bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, aren't you so glad? It means you belong to Him. There's
a song that says, Jesus my Lord will love me forever. From Him
no power of evil can sever. He gave His life to ransom my
soul. Now I belong to Him. Now I belong
to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone. but for eternity." Oh, Thou has
put gladness in my heart. Thou has put such gladness in
my heart. Psalm 100 says, Make a joyful
noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with
singing. Because we belong to Him We are
allowed to come before His presence. Isn't that something? We are
allowed to come before His presence and we won't be killed. Hebrews
4 says, all of God's people who are in Christ are allowed to
walk right up to the throne of grace. Right now in prayer. We can do that right now in prayer,
but real soon it's going to be in person. in person, if we belong
to Christ, if we're in Christ, we're going to get to see God
sitting on His throne with a smile on His face. Why a smile on His
face? The reason is because He's going
to be looking at us in Christ. When He looks at us, He's going
to be seeing Christ. The one who is daily His delight. The one with whom He is well
pleased. Do we need any more reason than
that to be glad? Is there anything better than
being reminded of our reasons to be glad? That's why David
said what he did over in Psalm 122. He said, verse 1, I was
glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the
Lord. We get to worship God, you know
that? In truth, in His Word. That's what we are doing right
now. Worshiping God in truth, in His Word. Psalm 126 verse
3 says, The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are
glad. Oh, we're glad. Great things. How could we count them? They're
innumerable, great things. Well, let me give us one more
Scripture, one more precious Scripture to hold to and feast
on. I believe it will make us glad.
Go with me over to Isaiah 25, Isaiah chapter 25. The first
five verses here in Isaiah 25 tell us about the destruction
of strangers. those who are outside of Christ.
But for all of God's people who are in Christ, Isaiah 25 verse
6 says, And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the
lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the leaves well refined. And He will destroy in this mountain
the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil
that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people shall
He take away from off all the earth, For the Lord hath spoken
it. And it shall be said in that
day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for him and he
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for him. We will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. Every sinner who waits on the
Lord can wait with gladness in his
heart. Are you waiting on Christ? Are you looking to Christ, hoping
in Christ? David said, wait on the Lord.
And again, I say, wait on the Lord. And every sinner who waits
on him can wait with gladness in his heart because he will
come and he will save us because he hath spoken it. I have said
it, I will do it. That's a reason to be glad, isn't
it? Well, until next Sunday morning, may our 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.