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 invite you to turn with me
this morning to Psalm 111. Psalm 111 in verse 10 is going
to be our text. It says, The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever." What is heaven all about? What is heaven all about? What are the details of all of
this? There are so many different churches,
there are so many different opinions. What is the truth? What does it take to get into
heaven? What's the truth on that? Who
is going to get into heaven? Who's going to be allowed to
enter into heaven? How good does a person have to
be in order to get into heaven? How good? How bad does a person
have to be to be denied heaven and sent to hell? How bad really
does a person have to be? Don't you want to know the answer?
The truth. Don't you want to know the truth?
I do. Doesn't it scare you to think of going through this life
just ignorant of the truth? Just happily making my way through
this life ignorant of the truth? Only to get to the end and find
out I was wrong. Get to the end and find out I
had it all wrong. I don't want to find out I was
wrong. What is the truth in all of this? What is heaven all about? What is church all about? Worship, what's it all about? The average person's gonna say,
well, heaven's all about doing the best you can, trying to do
the right thing, We go to church because you're supposed to go
to church. It's the right thing to do. We've got to obey the
rules. We've got to do our part. You
know, we've got to do some good so we can balance out all those
bad words and all those bad thoughts we had. We've got to make it
so it's all going to come out in the wash. That's why we go
to church. That's what most people believe,
isn't it? That's what most people believe. Well, if I believe that,
if that's all I believe, then when I get to my end, I'm going
to go meet God and I will not possess the one thing He requires
in order to enter into His kingdom. and he's going to reject me and
send me to hell. Let me prove that to you in Proverbs
chapter 1. Turn with me over to Proverbs
chapter 1. Proverbs 1 verse 24 says, Because
I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded. I called You refuse. This is God talking. All through
this word, He says, I am your God. I own you. I control you. You belong to me. But He says,
you said, no, you don't. You don't own me. You don't control
me. I will not have that man reign
over me. Verse 24, because I have called
and you refused. I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded, but you have set at naught all my counsel
and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. When distress and
anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. How does a person choose the
fear of the Lord? Is that what he means right there?
Choose the fear? Can you choose to be afraid? Can you choose to be afraid?
If I said, okay, I'm gonna scare myself. One, two, three. Can a person choose to be afraid?
Really. Truly afraid, deep in the heart. True horror in every fiber of
your being. Can you choose that? The answer
is no. No. Fear is something that happens
to you. Absolute fear is outside of your
control. It's something that overtakes
you in spite of the fact that you don't want it. You don't
want it, it overtakes you anyway. Our natural flesh does not want
fear. Our Lord said in John 15 verse
16, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. They did not
choose because they would not choose, And they would not choose
because they could not choose. Why would they not? It's because
Genesis 6, 5 says, the thoughts and the heart of every man on
this earth is only evil continually, will not. Well, if they would come, then
why can't they? It's because Ephesians 2 verse
1 says we're all dead in trespasses and sins. All of us. You know,
most people believe we're just behind the mark a little bit.
We've done a few too many bad things and we need to make up
for it. We need to catch up. How good
does a person have to be to get into heaven? Here's the answer. As good as God. As good as God Himself. Turn with me over to Psalm 24. Psalm 24 verse 3 says, Who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy
place? He that hath clean hands, Clean
hands. The person says, well, I haven't
done anything wrong. Really? Have you ever gotten
mad at somebody? Our Lord said in Matthew 5, if
you've gotten angry with a person, you've committed murder. And
the law says, thou shalt not kill. Psalm 24 verse 4 says,
he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. A pure heart. Somebody says, well, that person's
got a heart of gold. A pure heart. Really? Have you ever lusted after another
person? Our Lord said, if a man looks
on a woman, And it goes both ways if a woman looks on a man.
He or she has committed adultery. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. That's how good a person has
to be. And no person can be that good. It's impossible. How bad does a person have to
be to be denied heaven and cast into hell? Just how bad does
a person really have to be? Here's the answer. All he has
to do is break one of God's laws, just one. Let's start with thou
shalt not lie, bear false witness. Turn with me over to Psalm 58. Psalm 58 verse 1 says, Do you
indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do you judge uprightly, O sons
of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness,
ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked
are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Speaking lies. Now I'll ask myself this question
on behalf of all of us. Have I ever told a lie? Yes. Then do you know what that makes
me? Wicked. Wicked. Psalm 58 said, this is
how you know who the wicked are. They go astray as soon as they
be born speaking lies. That's the honest truth. It's right there in black and
white. The truth is shocking. The truth hurts. I can try to twist it all I want
to. I can try to cover it up. I can try to smooth it over,
but it's not going to change the truth. It is not going to
change the truth. I must know the truth. Why? Because the truth shall set me
free. The truth is what sets a sinner
free. Now let's go back over to our
text. Psalm 111, verse 10 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Does hearing the truth strike
fear into you like it strikes fear into me? Hearing who God is and hearing
who I am and knowing what I've done and knowing what the wages
of my sin is, it's death. Does hearing the truth strike
fear into you like it strikes fear into me? Well, this says
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord. Fear God. Who is God? The Lord. This man, Jesus, the
Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, the fear of Him, this one whom
nobody's afraid of, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. It says a good understanding,
a knowledge of the truth, A good understanding have all they that
do his commandments." The fear of the Lord brings a knowledge
of the truth. Well, if I can't choose this
fear, if this fear is something that happens to me, if it's outside
of my control, how does a sinner get this true fear? If I have
nothing to do with it, how do I get this true fear? Well, turn
with me over to Psalm chapter 9, verse 20 says, put them in
fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but
men. If I'm going to possess this
true fear, God has got to put that fear in me. And when He
puts it there, I'm going to know it. If He puts that fear in you,
you'll know it. You're going to stop just fearing
hell, and you're going to start fearing God. Everybody's afraid
of hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. The
fear of hell is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. Fear God. This God whom you've
sinned against, this God whom I've sinned against, this God
whom we've blasphemed, This God who does control me. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Wisdom. Because the fear of the
Lord brings a knowledge of the truth. I am a sinner. I am wicked. I do deserve hell. And He is holy. He is just. He is sovereign. He is God. He really is God. If God ever
opens a sinner's eyes to that, if God ever puts that kind of
fear in a person, do you know what that person will do? He or she is going to become
a seeker of mercy. A true seeker of mercy. There has got to be a way to
find mercy. There has got to be an appeasement. There has got to be something
that will satisfy this holy God. There is. There is. Turn with me over to Leviticus
chapter 17. Leviticus 17 verse 11 says, For
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to
you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For
it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Hebrews
9.22 says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sin. Not without the shedding of blood.
But our Lord said in Exodus 12 verse 13, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. I need blood,
and you need blood. Well, guess what? There is a fountain filled with
blood. Drawn straight from Emmanuel's
veins. Call his name Emmanuel because
God is with us. Drawn straight from God's veins. That's God's blood. And every sinner plunged beneath
that flood will lose all his guilty stain. Seek the Lord Jesus
Christ and His blood while He may be found. Call on Him. Call on Him while He is near. He said in Jeremiah 29 13, you
shall seek me and find me. when you shall search for me
with all your heart." All your heart. What's heaven all about? It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ and His blood and His righteousness. It's not about
living right. It's not about working your way
to glory. It's not about that. It's all
about Him and His work of redemption. Redemption. The Apostle Paul
said, I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's what heaven is all about. What does it take to get into
heaven? It takes His blood. It takes
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's the only thing God will
accept as payment for sin, that's it. Who's gonna get to go to
heaven? All who are covered in His blood. All who are washed in the blood
of the Lamb. All who are in Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. What's church all about? What's
worship all about? Why do we come together? Why
do we come to meet together? We come together to hear about
that blood one more time. That's why we come together. We come to worship Him and thank
Him and praise Him for laying down His life for sinners like
you and me. Sinners like you and me. We don't
just come here because we're supposed to. We don't just come
here because it's the right thing to do. We don't come here to do our
part. We have no part. We have no part in salvation. There is nothing we can do to
save ourselves or help God save us. Christ has to do it all. It's got to be totally by and
in and through His blood. We come together to hear about
and hear from Him. That's why we want to hear about this covering
We want to hear about our inheritance one more time. Tell it to me
one more time. There's a song that says, sing
it o'er and o'er again. That means sing it over and over
again. Christ receiveth sinful men. That's why we come together to
worship. That's why we come to what the
world calls church. We want to hear about the fact
that Christ receiveth sinful men and he washes them in his
own blood. We don't come here because we
have to. We come here because we have to. We have to. We need Him. We need His blood. We need to hear about it one
more time. I have to. Have to. Well, I want to close this morning
by reading Psalm 111, the chapter that our text is in. Turn with
me back over to Psalm 111. Psalm 111 verse 1 says, Praise
ye the Lord. Oh, we have great reason to praise
Him, don't we? It says, I will praise the Lord
with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. I'm going to go there. I'm going
to meet with His people to worship Him and to praise Him and to
thank Him and to hear from Him. He said that's where He will
meet with His people. Psalm 111 verse 2 says, The works of the
Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
All who see the truth, they become seekers of His works. I need His work, His work of
redemption. Verse 3 says, His work is honorable
and glorious, and His righteousness endureth forever. Forever? Verse 4 says, He hath made His
wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. That's good news. That is good
news. Verse 5 says, "...he hath given
meat unto them that fear him." He will ever be mindful of his
covenant. Forever. All those whom he has
put this fear in them, If the fear is there, He has to put
it there. And if He put it there, He made a covenant to keep it
there. Verse 6 says, He hath showed His people the power of
His works, that He may give them the heritage of the heathen.
He's able. All power belongs to Him. Verse
7 says, The works of His hands are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure. If he said it, it will happen. No ifs, no ands, no buts about
it. Verse 8 says, they stand fast
forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. Christ said, I am the truth. The truth sets a sinner free. Christ is the truth. Christ is
the one that will set a man or a woman free. All of His works
are done in truth. They're all done in Christ. Verse
9 says, He sent redemption unto His people, not to the world. Christ didn't die for the world.
If He did, then that means His death didn't accomplish what
He purposed for it to do. It means He's a failure. He didn't die for this world.
He sent redemption unto His people, all that the Father giveth Him. Verse 9, He sent redemption unto
His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. There is one reverend. May no
man take that name upon himself. There is only one who is holy
and reverend and worthy of that name. Verse 10 says, The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding
have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever."
Until 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.