Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, located at 2709 Rock Springs Road in Kingsport, Tennessee, would like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace of their pastor, Gabe Stonica. For information and service times, visit www.ksgc.church. And now, Gabe Stoniker. I will be speaking to you today from Psalm 86. Psalm 86. And I have a glorious message of good news. I truly do have some good news for any sinner who needs good news. Let me bring your attention to verse 5. Psalm 86 verse 5 says, four, that means because, because thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee." That's good news, isn't it? For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive. and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee." This message is for every soul that truly calls on the Lord, truly cries out to the Lord. And I want to begin by saying that if a man or a woman truly does cry out to the Lord, God is the one who made that man or woman, cry out to the Lord. All men and women are born into this world dead in trespasses and sins. A dead man or a dead woman can't do anything. But God chose a particular people to save. God elected some souls, particular souls to save. And in his time, He will give faith to those souls to see that salvation is completely and totally of the Lord. They will see that they are helpless and there is nothing they can do in themselves. They will turn from the law because they will see they can't keep it. They will realize they cannot satisfy God. They will be without hope in their flesh, at their wits end, nowhere else to turn. They'll cry to the Lord. They'll not be able to look to the flesh anymore. They will cry to the Lord. God does that. God is the one who teaches his children that and causes his children to see that and to believe that. Romans 10 says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It says, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? God has to give faith. And when he does, a man or a woman will see Christ, will believe on Christ, will call out to Christ, will come to Christ. John 6, 44, our Lord said, no man, no woman can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw that man or woman. That's what has to happen. I want us to establish that. God gets the glory. God gets the credit. All right now, to every soul that calls upon Him, to every soul who has no hope in themselves, to every person who realizes, I'm not a good person. I'm a sinner and that's all I think I can be. I don't think I have the ability to obey this book like it commands me to. To every person who sees that and desperately not just with lip service, but from the heart desperately cries out to the Lord. Here's a three point outline for you. He is good. He is ready to forgive. Do you need forgiveness? Are you sitting there smiting yourself crying? I'm sorry. He's good, He's ready to forgive, and He is plenteous in mercy. That's good news. That's good news. Now let's read the first four verses right here. Verse one says, Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. And I have a center margin in my Bible, which tells me that that translates one whom thou favorest, one who you have set your favor on, one who you chose to love. Verse two goes on to say, O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. David made these four requests to the Lord. He said, bow down your ear to me and hear me. That's first request. And then he said, preserve me, save me. And then he said, be merciful unto me. And he said, give rejoicing to my soul because, verse five, because, he said, you're good. Do this because you're good, you're ready to forgive, and you're plenteous in mercy. Now, we can hear the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ in that from the cross. We see Christ in everything. This is important to know. This is important to remember. We see Christ in everything. We hear Christ in all of the scripture. all of the scripture. These are they. These scriptures are they which testify of him. There's a story that's told of a young man long time ago who was called on to fill in for his pastor while the pastor was away. He was called on to fill in in the pulpit one Sunday and the young man did. And after the service was over, he walked up to one of the older men in the congregation and he said, what did you think of my message? And the older man said, I thought it was a very poor message. And the young man said, poor? Why did you think it was poor? Do you think my delivery was unclear? The older man said, no, your delivery was fine. The young man said, do you not think that I put in the time to study? The old man said, no, clearly your notes were in order, very well organized. The young man said, well, why do you think the message was poor? The old man said, the message was poor because Christ wasn't in it. It was poor because Christ was not in it. The young man said, well, Christ wasn't in the text. The old man said, young man, Christ is in every text. In every portion of scripture, there is a road that leads to Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he said, our business is to find that road and get on it. And that's so. That's so. In every portion of Scripture, there's a road that leads to Christ. Every word that we just read leads to Christ. And here's our on-ramp to that road. In these words, we hear the voice of our Savior while He hung on the cross, shedding His blood, dying for the sins of His elect people, suffering the wrath of God, the horrible wrath of God in the place of His elect people, crying for them, pleading for them in agony. We know that our Lord hung there in agony for His people. In His agony, we hear Him crying out to the Father. Verse 1, Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. I'm the one who's poor and needy right now. Hanging in our place, in the place of His people, He said, I'm the poor and needy one. That's proof that He was hanging there in the place of His poor and needy people. That's what we are. That's what we are. Psalm 40 records this same cry from our Lord on behalf of his people. If you wanna look at Psalm 40, verse seven says, then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. This is Christ speaking. I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. And it was in Christ's heart. He said, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. He said, withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me. This is him crying from the cross. Oh Lord, let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have compassed me about. the sins of all of his people. But he said, mine iniquities have taken hold of me. He took the sin of his people and made them to be his own. The sinless one was made to be sin for his people. So much so he owned them. He said innumerable evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that's saying to me, aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. Let every soul who loves the fact that Christ secured salvation for his people say, the Lord be magnified. He said in verse 17, but I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying, O my God. Christ said that from the cross in His agony. That's what he became in order to hang in the place of his people. Poor and needy. Poor and needy. Do you know what he called himself in Psalm 22? Now, clearly, Psalm 22 is Christ speaking. It opens with, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's Christ, the prophecy of Christ. And right there in Psalm 22, he said, I am a worm. He called himself a worm. Why would he call himself that? It's because that's what I am. That's what you are. That's what his people are in their flesh. Worms. Earth worms. Dust to dust worms. It's incredible to think of what our Lord had to become to take the place of his people. From the cross, we can hear him cry, Father, bow down your ear and hear me. And then we can hear his cry. Father, preserve my soul. Preserve my soul. Look over at Psalm 16, if you're following with me. Psalm 16, again, this is Christ speaking. Verse 1 says, Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. That's where his trust was. When he set his face like a flint to go to the cross of Calvary and he bore that cross and he bore that death and he bore that grave, his trust was in the Lord. And we see that right here. Look at verse eight. Christ said, I have sent the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. I'll lay here in hope and in rejoicing. Our Lord endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. He went on to say in verse 10, for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. He said, I believe in my soul, you will preserve me through this, through this death of the cross, through this burial in the grave. Verse 11, he said, thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Bow down your ear and hear me. Preserve me. And then we can hear him say, be merciful unto me. Why would Christ ask the father to be merciful to him? Why would Christ ask the father to be merciful to him? It's because that's what his people needed. That is what his people needed. And therefore he cried that for them. as their substitute. Father, for my sake, in my blood, this blood that's being shed right here, show mercy. That was his plea, that was his cry. And in that mercy that through him was shown to his people, we can hear him cry to his father, rejoice the soul of thy servant. Rejoice the soul in this great transaction of deliverance, bring great rejoicing to me over this. I just quoted that, that's in Hebrews chapter 12. Over in Hebrews 12 verse 1 says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If we have faith, He authored it, he finished it. He started it, he ended it, and he did everything in between. He's the author, he is the performer. It is God which worketh in you, both to will and do of his good pleasure. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Verse two says, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Why did he bear the cross for his people? The rejoicing, the joy that was set before him. Jude verse 24 says that Christ endured all that He did to keep His people from falling and to present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. That's why He did it. And because He did that for us, because we see and hear that He did that for us, This is our response, okay? This is our response to him. If you look now at Psalm 86, one more time, we can still hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in this, but we can also hear our voice in this. Every chosen, redeemed, called, saved soul, can hear the Lord's voice in this and can hear his or her own voice in this. If we hear the Lord's voice continuing on, he gives the grounds for his request. He cried, Father, do these things because you're good, you're ready to forgive and you're plenteous in mercy. That's the foundational reason why we have received everything that we've received in Christ. And that's our response to everything we've received in Christ. That's all we can say about it. When we see his grace, when we see his abundant goodness and mercy, that's all we can say, Lord, you're good. That's the believer's response, not, well, I did this and I did that and you owe it to me. Lord, you're good. That's the only response. We are not actually. We're not good. A man came to the Lord one time and said, good master. And he said, why do you call me good? There's none good, but God. There's none good. No, not one. In sinful man, only God. We're not good, but he is. That's the only response a child of God can have to everything that has been given to him or her in Christ. You're good. You're good. You're gracious. We're so undeserving, we're so unworthy because we're so evil. Did you know that all men and women in the flesh are evil, sinful, wretched? The song says, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, a sinner like me. You're good. You're good. And that's where our hope comes from. It's in the fact that you're good. That's where our hope comes from. Aren't you so glad to hear that the God of all heaven and earth, the sovereign over everything is good. That's his character. That's who he is. That's where our hope comes from. It's in the fact that you're good and you're ready to forgive. Don't you wish we were all like that? Don't you wish we were all just quick, ready, willing to forgive? What a glorious character trait in our Lord. For his own blood's sake, he is ready to forgive. And that's how we ought to be as God for Christ's sake has forgiven we ought to forgive and God's people desire to that that's a character trait of his people they desire to forgive. If Christ is in us then then we will be ready to forgive. He's so abundantly forgiven. What good news that is. You know, where there's no desire for forgiveness, that's a bad sign. That's a bad sign. Ephesians 4.32 says, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Are you a sinner against God? If God has forgiven you, do you know why he forgave you? It's not because you straightened up and flew right. It's not because you turned over a new leaf. It's not because you decided to stop sinning and decided to become a better person. It's for Christ's sake. It's for the blood of Christ's sake. There's one reason. For His sake. He is good and He is so ready to forgive. That's the message of good news that I have for both me and you today. He is so ready to forgive. And here's the reason why. It's because verse five says he is plenteous in mercy, plenteous in mercy because redemption in his blood was so abundant. He has plenty of mercy, plenty and infinite amount of mercy exceeding abundantly above anything we could imagine. And because it brings him so much joy and rejoicing, he said he delights to show it. Isn't that good news? He delights to show it. Do you need forgiveness? That's who I'm talking to right now. A person who needs forgiveness, a person who is wallowing in his or her misery. hating himself or herself for who he is, who she is, what he or she has done. Do you need forgiveness? Do you need mercy? Lord, I need you to be merciful to me. Approach the throne of God. In your heart, approach the throne of God, pleading the blood, plead the blood of Christ, and you'll find it. You will find it with God. You won't find it in your own works, but you will find it in his blood. And it'll help you in your time of need. It will help you so much. That's how I want to end this message. I want to end it by acknowledging that calling on the Lord for these things. Whoever calls, every soul that calls in sincerity. I started by saying, if you call, God's given you faith to call. because we're dead. So don't take it for granted. Don't just say, well, yeah, I'll call. Sure, why not? What can it hurt? You can't unless God quickens you to life and gives you faith. This call is not the cause of his goodness and the cause of his forgiveness and the cause of his mercy. This call and cry is the evidence. It's the end result of everything he's already done. If we cry out, Lord, be merciful to me, that's the evidence that he was merciful to you. If we cry out, Lord, I need your goodness, I need your grace, that's the evidence that he has been gracious to you, kind to you, loving to you, good to you. If we cry, Lord, I'm begging and pleading, I need forgiveness. In the blood of Christ, I'm begging for forgiveness. That's the evidence that you have been forgiven in the blood of Christ. That's your evidence. No dead center can call on the Lord. No dead center can cry out for mercy and forgiveness and grace unless mercy, forgiveness and grace has already been shown to that center. Without his quickening, we cannot call. Not in truth, not in truth. You know, anybody can give lip service. The life we live here, we're spiritually dead. I know we have physical life, but we're spiritually dead. And people say things and they say prayers, but there's no soul, heart in it. We can't cry out in truth. We can't cry out in God-given life. But if he gives it to us, if he puts that truth in us, if we truly, sincerely desire these things from him, If we say, this is all I have, this is all my hope. That is the evidence. That truly is the evidence that we have already received all of these things from him. And you know what that hearing that, you know what that makes me want to do? It makes me want to cry out. I pray it makes you want to cry out more and more. God, please be merciful to me, the sinner. Because you're good, because you're ready to forgive, because you're plenteous in mercy, please, every soul who cries will hear, I have, I will, I shall. To Him be all the glory for that. Amen. 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 call or write to the number and address on your screen, or visit www.ksgc.church. Tune in at this same time next week for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.