Good evening. Turn with me to
page 553 in your handbook, please. Let's stand as we sing this. 553, sung to there is a fountain. Which I think is page 188, Cheryl.
I think. Yes. Yep. Page 553. Thou art my hiding place, O Lord,
in Thee I put my trust. Encouraged by Thy holy word,
a feeble child of dust, I have no argument beside. I urge no other plea. And tis enough. My Savior died. My Savior died for me. When storms of fierce temptation
beat And furious foes assailed, My refuge is the mercy seat my
hope within the veil from strife of tongues and bitter words my
spirit flies to thee Joy to my heart, the thought affords, my
Savior died for me. It trials heavy to be born when
mortal strength is vain. A heart with grief and anguish
torn, a body wracked with pain. All what could give the suffer
rest, bid every murmur flee. But this, the witness in my breast,
that Jesus died for me, ? And when thine awful voice ?
Commands this body to decay ? And life in its last lingering sense
? Is ebbing fast away then though it be in accents weak and faint
and trembling. Oh, give me strength in death
to speak, my Savior died for me. I think you may be seated. and turn to page 254, to bless
be the tie that binds. 254. Come, Holy Spirit, come. Let Thy bright beams arise. Dispel the darkness from our
minds and open all our eyes. Cheer our disbonding hearts. Thou heavenly paraclete, give
us to lie with humble hope at our Redeemer's feet. Revive our drooping faith. Our doubts and fears remove And
kindle in our breaths The flames of never-dying love ? Convince us of our sin ? Then
lead to Jesus' blood ? And to our wandering you reveal the
seed love of God. Tis Thine to cleanse the heart,
to sanctify the soul. to pour fresh life in every part,
and new create the whole. Dwell therefore in our hearts,
our minds from bondage free. Then we shall know and praise
and love the Father, Son, and Thee. It's good to see you here this
evening. I do ask God's blessing, that was a beautiful hymn, much
needed for me, to know this, that without thee we can do nothing. Without God, without His Spirit,
without His grace, no effect. Regardless of the preacher, regardless
of the I would say the greatness of
the message, but I know that's not going to be here either.
But regardless, if it were, without the Spirit of God, it is of none
effect. This is how much we need Him. I need Him to speak the Word to you. I want to preach to you. I came over the other day, just
to let you know, I came over, it was Thursday. And man, I had
a message in my heart and mind, and it was, it was just a joy
to me, I was thrilled over it. Talked to Kevin Thacker on the
phone, we talked about it for about 45 minutes or more, and
I got down, looked down at my paper, and began to write, and
I don't know where it went. It just went right out, I don't
know. But I pray the Lord to give me
the message for you that you need. I know it's what I needed
that day, but obviously you needed this. And I pray that God would
bless the message to you. Ask God's mercy on me and your
hearing. And to pray for those that are
sick. Remember Angela and Eric in your
prayers. Pray for them as he recovers. ask God's mercy on them. God give us grace whenever it's
needed. They need us to be there ready
to help in any way we can. So pray for that as well. Tia?
Yes, Jean has surgery, so pray that God be gracious to the doctors
and especially to you. I know the anxiety and fear. and the struggle we have with
sickness, the struggle this body faces. And then the struggle
of the mind, I think, is the worst, isn't it? It's the worst. I don't know about you, but I'm
often sent to the worst place that it could possibly go. That's
my first place to go. When something's wrong, I go
to the worst place. God deliver us from this. I know
this, tonight is just as planned as tomorrow in the eyes of God.
It's as though it were already done. Everything in the eyes
of God is as though it was already done. And just as sure as it
has already been done, whatever God decrees will happen. It is
our business as his servants to humble ourselves under the
mighty hand of God and submit to His grace and His mercy. And I hope the message tonight,
especially the conclusion when dealing with this, that we have
so much to be thankful for. So much. Regardless if everything in this
world were taken from us, we are rich. We are rich in a substance
that can never be taken. You know what that is? The grace
of God. We are abounding in the richness
of His grace. And nobody could take that from
you. Nothing. Not even you. Not even you. Because you didn't have anything
to do to get it. And there's nothing you can do
to keep it. Nothing you can do to earn it. I pray God will bless that to
her heart. So pray for her tomorrow. She goes in. Uh, pray for those congregations
again without pastors, those who are struggling. Pray for God's man. Uh, Jackson, is he doing any
better? I called, but she's... Okay. Pray for Jackson and Rylan
and Emma as they struggle with the sickness of their children.
So when are they slated to go to Pennsylvania? Next month? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, you're more sure than I
am, because I hadn't forgot. They did tell me, but I forgot
again. So pray for them as they prepare to go up there for a
long period of time to be with him. And as he sees the doctors
there, pray for that outcome. Anything else I'm missing? Connie
and Mike left. Did they make it? They have left
at 3 o'clock today. OK. Okay. Pray for them as they travel
and as they stay there. I know that they have a place
that they attend. They still attend the place there,
so pray for them as they attend the congregation there. I haven't
met the pastor, but they're very happy there, and I'm very confident
she knows the gospel, and if it's being preached there, she
wouldn't stay if it wouldn't. So pray for her and Mike, if
you will. Let's go to God in prayer. Gracious
Father, merciful Father, you have penned in your word
that you are rich in mercy. And Father, mercy is in need
in abundance among thy people, this people. We beg you for mercy. We plead for grace. We ask our
petitions, Father, only in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
only by the merits of His blood and righteousness, only by the
merits of His intercession do we plead for forgiveness and
pardon and peace. And Father, we know, according
to Your Word, that we have these things. And Father, I pray by
the grace of Thy Spirit, that you should give us faith as we
should look to these things and not to the things of the world,
not to the things of time and sense, the things of human reason,
not the reasoning of our own mind, but we should lay out our souls
upon the Word of God that testifies of His victory and success. Our only hope of forgiveness
is Christ. Our only covering of righteousness
is Christ. Our only object of love is Christ. I pray, Father, that you would
set him before us again. Show forth the glory of your
grace I pray, Father, that you would
forgive us our sins and lead us. These we have mentioned who
are sick, those who have great needs, Jean, Eric, Angela, and
others who have sickness and troubles. Be merciful. Oh, please be merciful. Father, I do plead for the souls
of men. I do plead, Father, for the lost, those who are walking unknowingly,
corrupted in themselves, haters of God. I am sure that if you would but
speak to their hearts, they would melt. If you would but say, live, to
their souls, they would live. Please speak. Speak life to the
dead. Speak comfort to the living. I plead you do these things. In the blessed name of our Savior
and for thine own glory, Amen. I take your Bibles and turn with
me to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Our text this
evening will be found in verses 20 and 21. I've entitled this
message, Super Abounding Grace. Super Abounding Grace. The apostle writes, moreover,
The law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That phrase is super abounding. That as sin reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the apostle has given us
who believe in this chapter great cause for joy. You have the greatest
cause for joy because of this. You are justified before God. You who believe. You are justified. This is not an ambiguous statement.
You are justified. I don't feel justified. What
does it matter? Often we don't feel justified. Well, I don't
deserve justification. Well, of course you don't deserve
to be justified. You and I were sinners by nature,
sinners by choice, haters of God, and yet in mercy God justified
us by Christ and then in mercy applied that justification by
faith in Christ. And all of the benefits of that
justification belong to you. Peace with God. Access to God. You have all of this. You have
the glory of God, hope in the glory of God. You have confidence. You have confidence God's going
to be glorified? Are you sure about that? I'm positive. When this is wrapped up, God
is going to be exalted, Christ is going to be exalted, every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now why does that give
me hope? Because my salvation is tied
to that. If that don't happen, I'm not going to be saved. But
just as sure as that's going to happen, I'm going to be there.
That's what I have hope of, being justified. You're justified and
you have all the blessings. And not only are you justified,
He said you glory in tribulation because we know tribulation has
a purpose, has a meaning. And we know this, that we who
are justified We are justified by faith. We know this, that this will
never be removed. Nothing we do can ever remove
us from being justified. Why? Because Christ died even
when we were what? Ungodly. You see, we didn't merit
His death. We didn't merit Him coming into
the world and dying for us. He did it as an act of love for
us, when? When we were ungodly. So now
Paul's reasoning like this, well now then that you're justified,
now then that that justification has been applied to you, what
in the world do you suppose could take it away? He said no, we're
confident that we are saved from the wrath of God by His death,
but he says this, In verse 10 he says, For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Because
He is risen, He is making sure that everyone He justified receive
what He promised, eternal life. And now then we see the conclusion,
he said, and not only so, be joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, verse 11, by whom we have now received the atonement. You that believe, you have now
received the reconciliation. You've been reconciled. And this
last Lord's Day, we went over this matter of reconciliation
by the illustration of Adam and Christ. How are we reconciled? How is that possible? You say
I'm justified, you say I'm reconciled, but how did that happen? Because
I didn't earn it, I didn't merit it. How did that happen? Well,
he begins to describe it. It happened through a federal
head. He says in verse 12, he says,
Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered in the world, and death
by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. This is how we were separated.
Remember, reconciliation has two parts, separation and then
cessation of hostilities. You have to have both in order
to be reconciled. If we were never separated, then
we would need no reconciliation. But how was I separated? When
was I? That's a better question. When
was I separated? I was separated when Adam sinned. You and I were separated from
God. Wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and
what? Death passed upon all men. It wasn't isolated to him. When
he died, we died. Now then, how is it possible
for God to impose spiritual death on those persons who have never
themselves sinned? Well, Paul says it right there
in verse 12. Look at the end of that. For,
that word for means in whom? in whom all have sinned." You
see, when Adam sinned, you sinned. That's why when Adam died, you
died. Because his sin and his death
was transferred to every member of his race, regardless of who
they are or where they're from. Made no difference. So God justly
imposed Death upon all men, because all sinned in Adam. But according
to the wisdom and purpose of God, this is also how we are
reconciled. The same way you were made a
sinner is the same way you are made righteous, through the obedience
of another. It was the purpose of God that
by the federal headship of Christ that you should be made righteous.
Remember we read this often in Ephesians 1 how God chose us
according as he had chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him. in love, having predestined us
unto the adoption of children, listen how, by Jesus Christ. That was always God's purpose,
that His elect should be holy by a representative man, Jesus
Christ. And Paul testifies of this in
our text here. He says in verse 14 in the last
part of Adam, he said he was a figure. Why did we all fall
in Adam? Because God was going to testify
how a man could be made righteous. Through the righteousness of
another man. So he concludes this in verse
19. Look at that. He said, For as by one man's
disobedience many were made, what? Sinners. So how were you
made a sinner? I know you sinned, but you sinning
is only proof of this. It didn't make you a sinner,
you were already a sinner. Sinning is just a proof of what?
That you were a sinner. Therefore we came forth from
the womb speaking lies because, why? By one man's disobedience,
all of us were made sinners. Without exception. Well, how
are we going to be made righteous? That's the question, isn't it?
If God purposed us to be righteous, how are we going to do it? Look,
he said, even so, by the same way. By the same way, many. Even so, by the obedience of
one shall many be made righteous. Behold the truth that we had
had no part in either one. Look, I was in Adam, but I wasn't
there. I was in Adam, but I had no part
in that. And people don't like that. Why
do they not like that? Because they don't like the other.
See, I like that because I like the other. I like the other. I like being made righteous by
the righteousness of another. Why? Because I'm a sinner. I
can't make myself righteous. But listen, I had nothing to
do with either man. I was in Adam, but here's the
joy. I was also in Christ. And in
Christ I was made righteous. And so now look at verse 20,
the apostle comes in and he says this, moreover, listen to this,
moreover, the law entered. The law entered. Now in verse 13, the apostle
says this in this parentheses section, if you'll notice verse
13 through verse 17 are all parentheses. He's interjecting, he's explaining
a lot. The conclusion really explains
it clearer than this, but in verse 13 he said, for until the
law, sin was in the world. Now listen, sin reigned from
Adam to Moses. Death reigned from Adam to Moses. How do you know? Because men
sinned. And what? Men died. So we know
this, that before the law, this matter of sin and death transferred
from Adam to Moses. But now that here comes the law,
here comes the law, and they say, ah, see, now preacher, that
might have been so from Adam to Moses. But when Moses came
and he gave the law, then he gave us hope by which we may
be acceptable. Yet what does the apostle say
in his conclusion? Look at his conclusion of this.
He said, moreover, the law entered for what reason? To save us? To help us? the law entered for
one purpose, that the offense might abound. That the offense
might abound. And so the law could not provide
reconciliation, could it? The law of Moses was not wanting
or lacking in anything holy. You read the law of Moses and
you are going to read an absolutely perfect law. Paul said if it
were possible, salvation should come by that law. That law is
so perfect that if any way salvation should come, it'd come by that
law. But we know that it didn't. What
happened at Mount Sinai when the law was given? Did everyone
turn a corner? Everyone said, okay, now we understand,
now we're going to be reconciled, now we'll start. Before he even
got down the mountain, they were committing fornication. They
had already broken the law before they had received it. And so the law by no means made
reconciliation possible. And so in verse 20, he gives
us the purpose of the law that the offense might increase. The
offense might increase. Does the law increase my sin? No. The law doesn't increase
my sin, but my sin increases exponentially
when I read its demands. Now, my lust and my covetousness
extended, existed long before I ever read the law. You know,
we probably couldn't read until we were, you know, kindergarten,
maybe six, seven years, five, six, seven years old, some of
us maybe could read. You couldn't read the law. You
could barely read Jack and Jill. But when we could read the law,
how much had we already sinned, broken the law? Didn't even know
we did it. So what happens when I read the
law? When I read, thou shalt not covet
the Holy Spirit, conviction showed me my covetousness. Paul said
that in Romans 7, didn't he? He said, I had not known covetousness
except the law hath said thou shalt not covet. And then when
the law said that, what did I begin to see? I began to see my covetousness. I began to see what already existed. But now
I'm aware of it. Therefore, the law entered only
to magnify my sins, only to magnify them. Go to Galatians chapter
3. You read the apostles' words on this very subject. Galatians 3, look at verse 10. He says, for as many as are of
the works of the law are unto what? The curse. The curse, as
it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is
justified by the law in the sight of God. Well, that's just evident.
That's just evident. For the just shall live by faith,
and the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall
live in them. What is the law? say to those
that are under the law. Anyone want to be under the law,
this is what the law says to you. Men don't like this now. They don't like to hear this.
Anybody wants to be under the law, they don't want to hear
this. They hear this, they'll run as fast as they can in the
opposite direction with their hands on their ears, screaming,
law, law, law, law. Law is life. Law is life. No,
it's not. Law is death. Curse is what the law says to
you. Anyone, anyone who wants to be under the law, in the least
measure, in the smallest measure, you want to be under the law,
the law pronounces a curse upon you. And Paul said this, the
law is not of faith. Now man is justified only by
faith. But as soon as he goes back under
the law, he ceases to be under faith. You can't have both. You're
either under one or the other. The law says, cursed is everyone.
And so Paul says, then, what's the purpose of the law? That's
the question, isn't it? Why does the law enter? Look at verse 19 of Galatians
3. Wherefore, then, serveeth the law. Boy, I ask good questions,
don't I? No, I don't. I love the way the
Lord anticipates the questions. They're wonderful. You don't
even have to guess what the question is. The question is going to
be stated if you just read. Wherefore then serveth the law?
What was its purpose? Paul tells us. It was added because
of the transgression. Till the seed should come, till
Christ should come. to whom the promise was made.
And it was foreordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now
a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the
law therefore against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there
had been a law given, which should have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded,
this is what the law concludes, all under sin. All under sin. Why? that the promise by faith
of Christ. What's the promise? It's the
same promise given to Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was
counted him for righteous. What's the promise? The promise
is justification. The promise is salvation. How does it come? By faith of
Jesus Christ. not by faith in Jesus Christ,
by faith of Jesus Christ. That's how the promise came. That it might be given to them
that believe in Jesus Christ. You see, faith in Jesus Christ
is how it's received. It's not how it's made. The promise
was made by the faith of Jesus Christ. So why does it serve
at the law? It only is intended to magnify
the sin, to show you the exceeding sinfulness of sin. That's the
purpose of the law. But behold now, what is the mediation of this covenant? What's the hope? Behold Jesus by his obedience,
has made many righteous. Many were justified by the obedience
and blood of Christ. Many were reconciled to God by
Jesus Christ and the law had no part in it. Our obedience
to the law had no part in it. But notice this, look back at
your text. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound
but here is the hope that where sin abounded. Where sin abounded. Grace did
much more abound. I want us to see two things.
First of all, the abounding sin. How much did sin abound? And secondly, I want us to see
for the comfort of our souls that the grace of God, however
much sin abounded, the grace of God in Christ has much more
abounded. So first of all, let's see the
abounding nature of sin. All sin stems from Adam. We see how sin was superabounded
after the sentence of death was passed on Adam. You can't help
but see his experience. Look at Adam's experience before
the fall and after the fall. And what do you see? After the
fall, you see sin abounding. You see ignorance abounding. You see, first of all, a perfect
and upright man, you realize he named all the animals? How
intelligent! God displayed a magnitude of
his intelligence and knowledge. He walked with God as, you know,
we get up and walk together. That's how he walked with God,
daily. And yet once he sinned, he lost
all knowledge of God, all knowledge as to how to communicate with
God, even. He saw his sin, he saw his nakedness
and thought so little of it that he figured that only leaves could
cover it. Until he heard the voice of God
and realized that wasn't enough. Then he ran into the forest hoping
the forest would cover him. And that wasn't enough. Sin abounded in him because of
what? Death. Notice what Paul says
in verse 21. He said that as sin hath reigned
unto death. We're talking about abounding
sin. We're talking about the reigning
principle of sin. When a person is born into this
world, what reigns? What rules him? Sin. Everything he does is for
himself. I remember going through education
classes and so forth. They said, you know, up until
about seven years old, there's no concept of a team. There's
no concept. You see little kids trying to
play soccer. I think Emory's playing soccer
there. My niece's daughter playing soccer. And they say, you know, she'll
go kick the ball. And it's all by herself. You know? And nobody's. Why? Because she thinks it's just
her. That's natural. There's no sense of team because
it's just me. Why is that? Because sin reigns. Sin reigns. Now as we get older,
we begin to hide that a little more, don't we? You ladies around
derby time, you see some other person with a bad hat, and you
say, well, bless her heart. You didn't mean that. You didn't
mean that at all. I'm just saying this as examples,
but sin reigns in us. Everything we look for, we look
for advantage of self. We don't look for the glory or
honor of God. Sin reigns. It reigns over everything. Sin in us extends and contaminates
the whole being. That's what Paul is saying. It
abounded. It abounded to every faculty
in our mind, in our heart, and in our actions. That's how much
sin abounded. Our sin does not just though
abound in our lusts, in our evil desires, but it abounds in our
good works. Go to Isaiah 5. You really want
to see how much sin abounds inside the natural man. Isaiah chapter
1 and verse 5. God asks a question to a very
wicked nation. He said, Why should you be stricken
anymore? And what kind of question is
that? He said, why in the world would I threaten you with death
anymore? What's the purpose? Because that's what God's law
threatens with, isn't it, death? The soul that's in it, it shall
surely die. You know what that does? Nothing. Nobody's converted by that. You
know that? They should be afraid. Notice what happens when we preach
law. You will revolt more and more. You preach the law, that's the
only thing that happens. Why? Because sin reigns. Notice what he says. This is
why. Listen. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. From
the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no wellness
in it. What's there? Wounds and bruises
and dripping sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with Ointment. There's no soundness
in us. Listen to me. At all. At all. Isn't this exactly what
we've discussed, what I've preached to you in Romans 3? Isn't this
exactly what Paul said? That there is none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that understandeth.
How many people understand the salvation of God? How many? None. Alright, who's seeking God? Paul
said there's none that seek Him. There's none that doeth good. Well, you know, preacher, I do
good. No, not according to God. You
don't. Why? because sin abounds through every
faculty, so that all the things that we do, that we perceive
as good, in the eyes of God are sin. Remember those people in
the day when Christ comes again, they're going to say, Lord, Lord,
have we not preached in your name? Have we not in your name
cast out devils and done many wonderful works? What is His answer to a man who
brings his own works before God? What does Christ answer? He said,
depart from me, listen, you that work iniquity. So what did He
say about all your preaching? Iniquity. All of your casting
out of devils? Iniquity. Your many wonderful
works, they're iniquity. Why? because sin abounded. Sin reigned. In the eyes of God, it is as
a pus, flesh-eating disease that is covered from your feet to
your hands. so that there is no way you ever
will please God by your works. That's how much sin abounded. See now the full and complete
ruin of us all is so great that none of us escape. None of us
have failed to receive the sin-abounding nature of Adam. Therefore, Paul
says, the result of sin is death. Sin reigned unto death. That's the end of all sin. Death. Death. So abounding is the nature of
sin, so reigning is the nature of sin, the only just sentence
for it is death. Sin, so much reigns in us that
all we do is corrupt it because we are born dead. Therefore,
no amount of law No amount of threat of eternal
death will ever overthrow the rule of sin in this nature. No amount. Paul says, therefore,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Why? Sin reigns. It is always my hope that a sinner
would see this. I can tell you this. If you're lost, you can even
imagine this. But you can't know I'm talking
about you until God speaks to you. I know this, when God spoke those
words to me, I wasn't looking at everyone else. I knew sin
abounded in Him. I knew that man who was sick
from head to foot was me. I knew that those wounds were
my wounds, that I could not heal by my works. I couldn't make it better by
my religious deeds, no matter how hard I tried. It abounded
so much, it seeped through every pore of my being. so that I could
never have any hope of pleasing God. And I tell you, the more
I tried, the more I failed. The more I tried to bound up
these wounds, the more they began to open. But if there is ever a sinner
in such a case Everyone who understands the superabounding nature of
sin, here is a message. Listen, where sin abounded, pay
attention, grace did exceedingly over-abundantly abound. Grace. Grace. What do I mean by this? What
I mean by grace is the grace of God in pardoning sin overabounded
my sin. Forgiveness of sin overabounded
my sin. My sin that brought disunity
with God. The grace of God so overabounded
my hatred. that it reconciled me to God
even before I ever loved him." The grace of God overabounded. So all who believe on Christ,
all who believe on Christ, the grace of God now abounds so much
for you. that none of the sins of your
flesh can overthrow its wraith. Just like you couldn't overthrow
sin's wraith. No matter how hard you tried,
you couldn't throw it off. Listen to this. You that have now received
the grace of God, there's nothing you can do to throw it off. It overabounds. It overrules. It overrules my sin. It overrules
death. Grace. the grace of God. None of the sins of our flesh
can now overthrow its reign. No deficiency in our flesh, no
vileness of our flesh that has ruined us can in any
way contaminate the righteousness of God that has been given to
us. Everyone that believes, we know the ruin of our sin nature,
don't we? I don't know the fullness of
it, and I imagine if I did, I'd probably go hang myself. If I
knew it in an instant, how bad my nature was, I probably would.
God's so gracious to gently show us this over time as he causes
us to grow, but know this, that would have no impact on the righteousness
that's been given to me, none whatsoever. We know our sin and our need,
and therefore we have come to Christ, and what have we found?
We have found righteousness. We have found pardon. We have
found peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. So where
sin abounded, listen, grace did much more abound. Behold, how many sins have we
sinned. how fully sin reigned in us.
See how we abounded in our hatred toward God, in our love for our
sins. See how death reigned over us
so that we could not and would not come to Christ. Have you ever seen the sun come up
in the morning? They say it's dark as before the dawn. You
get out there, I know you guys go to the woods, And I mean right
before that sun breaks, I know that's true, it's just dark.
It's darkness. But when that sun crests the
horizon, what could the darkness do to stop it? Nothing. Nothing. Just as the darkness cannot shut
out the light of the sun, even so our abounding sin and deadness
of nature could not stop the grace of God from giving us the
righteousness of Christ. There was nothing that would
have ever prevented Him from giving us His righteousness.
This was always His determination. It was a determination from eternity.
If you have the righteousness of God, that's because God determined
to give it to you before the world was. So now that it's come,
what's going to stop Him from giving it to you? You didn't
earn it. You didn't merit it. You didn't
even ask for it. Matter of fact, you wanted the
opposite. You wanted your sin. You wanted your way. But God
superabounded over your desires, your will, and in grace gave
you something that's far more valuable than what you had. All
you had was death and sin. He gave you righteousness and
life. Why? Because grace abounded. Grace abounded. How did this happen? Because
Jesus was our surety. The Lord Jesus Christ, isn't
that what He says? He says that sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness.
Listen, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's
how it's all made. That's how it's made. Our Lord
Jesus Christ was our surety, our representative. He has fully
delivered us from both sin and death. Fully, completely, absolutely
delivered you from all sin and death. That's how powerful His
work was. And He has now by His death borne
all your sins. How is it He made you righteous?
Because He bore your sins. He paid the debt we owe the justice
of God by His blood. And behold now the superabounding
grace of God, as it is displayed in the offering of Jesus Christ,
that He has made you righteous before God. Look at Hebrews chapter
10. Behold the superabounding grace
of God. We didn't want Him. We didn't
ask for Him to come. We weren't seeking Him. Why? Because sin abounded in us. Sin
reigned in us. But look, even in spite of that,
what did He say? Verse 9, Lo, I come to do Thy
will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
He may establish the second. By the witch will we are made
holy. By the will of Christ to do the
will of God, you were made holy. Now how are you made holy? Tell
me. You that are now righteous, how
is it that... Joanne, how are you made righteous? You were
made righteous because He did the will of God. God's will was
for you to be righteous and He did that by His own righteousness,
by His own obedience to God. He sanctified you. Listen, through
the offering of His body. Now how many times were you made
holy? Once. You were made holy once,
a long time ago. You were made holy when He died. What about that law? Well, it
can't do anything. Listen, every priest standing
at daily ministering offers the same sacrifices as what? They
never take away sin. That law never was meant to take
away sin. But this man, that's who we worship, that's who we
praise, that's who we believe. This man, by one man, I know
Adam brought sin and death. But by this man, listen what
happened, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, He sat
down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool for by his one offering he hath
perfected." How long? How long are they perfected?
You that believe, how long are you perfected? Forever. Isn't that superabounding? Now listen, I was dead. My sin reigned in me. But now by the grace of God,
listen, grace reigns. And what does grace say? Grace
says this, by him I am perfected forever. He is perfected forever
them that are sanctified. where the Holy Ghost is also
witness to us after He has said before, this is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I
will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will write
them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember." How long? No
more. God said, this is what grace
says. Grace says, I will remember your sins no more. That's what
grace says. super abounding grace. His grace
is so abounding that we are made perfect by the obedience of Christ and by His grace we now believe
on His Son. We now trust that His grace super
abounds. What is the conclusion of this?
Why is Paul saying this? He says that sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness.
Listen, not to death, but to eternal life. by Jesus Christ. Now why is he saying this? He's
testifying this truth of what he's going to get to. I always
tell you, he prefaces things that he says in small sections
of what he's going to expound on later. This abounding grace
is expounded to us in Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter
8 he says what? There is therefore now, what?
No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. None whatsoever. Now, why is that? Because I feel
condemned. The experience of every believer
is this, I still have sin. John said that, didn't he? He
said, if we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us. I ain't
going to say that, because I know that to be true. But if we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
But yet, you know, John says something totally opposite that
later in the chapter. 1 John chapter 3, 1 John chapter
3, and I think it's verse, no, I better not misquote it to you.
1 John chapter 3 and verse 9, it
says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. How can
those two things be? I'll tell you how. Because grace so abounded, listen,
he didn't eradicate the old nature. Instead, he created a new one. That's what he tells us in Ephesians
chapter 4. He said, put on the new man which
is created. In whose image? After God. In true holiness. So now then,
you see the believer, he is by the superabounding grace of God,
he is given a new heart. God didn't patch up the old one. He set the new one to reign over
the old one. The old one's still here. The
old one's still here. And every believer struggles
with it. But the comforting thing about this is, listen, because
God's grace superabounds, there is nothing we can do to overthrow
its reign. There is no sin that we have
ever committed or ever shall commit that will overthrow his
reign of grace. Is that not astounding? How do you know that's what he's
saying? Well, because the very next chapter, look at the very
next chapter. The apostle is going to ask this question that
every hypocritical, religious, workmonger is going to ask. Well,
if you preach salvations by grace and there's nothing that a person
can do to overthrow that grace, then what you're going to have
is a congregation full of wicked, vile people. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in seeing that grace may abound? What do we say? If you've ever experienced the
grace of God, if you've ever really experienced the grace
of God, what do you say to such a statement? God forbid. You see, it is the message of
superabounding grace that constrains us from sin. And it's a superabounding grace,
message of superabounding grace that when we sin, we have hope. We'll close with the illustration
of David. I got much more, but I just want to use this. David, a man after God's own
heart. If anybody experienced the grace of God, David did.
We know that. What wonderful gifts of display
of God's grace that David had. He put down Saul. Now listen,
when Saul, when Saul was king, when he committed that one atrocious
sin, remember he had went ahead and didn't kill those Amalekites
like God commanded, and he saved the best for himself, he's just
being a wicked man, he's covetous. Anyway, God disowned him. You remember Samuel weeped for
a while, and he said, don't weep for him. Why? Because sin reigned
unto death, and there was no grace for Saul. When he sinned,
God cut him off. But here's David, man after God's
own heart, writes most, a majority of the Old Testament Scripture
is written by David. Now consider this, there David is, God has
exalted him to the throne, given him everything, peace in his
kingdom. They had one war, one little
skirmish they were taking care of out there, and David stood
back and, you know, didn't go to battle. And he's surveying
his kingdom, he's overlooking all that God gave him. I imagine
he was thanking God for all the wonderful things, and he looked
down there and he saw a woman bathing. You can imagine, in our own nature,
this is what probably we would do, the same thing. He said,
well, her husband's at war. Maybe I should just invite her
over for dinner. Poor lady is all by herself.
I'll just keep her company. And you know what happened. David
committed adultery with that woman, and then to cover it up,
he murdered her husband. Now compare that to the sin of
Saul. Who is worse? David. After all God had given him.
After all God put up with him. And he commits this evil sin.
And then what happens? The baby comes and everything
is okay. Everything he thinks he likes,
he's hidden. Then the prophet of God comes with a message.
And the message is what? The message is one of grace,
isn't it? It's a message of grace. He comes
to David and he said, David, let me tell you a story about
this sheep. And David's a shepherd, he loves sheep. He said, this
man, he had a whole bunch of sheep. This one little man, he
had one little ewe lamb over here. That's all he had and all
the work. And he loved that lamb and he kept that ewe. He took
that lamb to bed with him. He so loved that lamb. And he
said, that man was rich. He had a visitor come over to
his house. And he said, that man, instead of taking one of
his own sheep, he went and grabbed that man's and killed the lamb
and fed it to this stranger. And David said, where's the man?
I'll kill him. You know what the prophet said? What's that a message of? Sin
abounding. David was convicted in his heart. He said, I have sinned against
the Lord. What's the first words out of Nathan's mouth? Fear not. The Lord hath already put away
thy sin. He didn't direct David to the
law, did he? He didn't tell him to go meet in a men's group and
try to get all kinds of, get all that adulterous nature out
of him by meeting with other people. No, what did it? What
caused David to never wanted to do that again? What was it? What constrains a believer? It
is a message like this, that God's grace so abounds that
it has already put away our sin. Read this in Romans 8 with me
and we'll close. Come here. Look at this. This is the principle
he's getting to. In verse 31 of Romans 8, he says,
what shall we say then to these things? Here it is, super bound
in grace. If God be for us, who can be
against us? You feel like everybody's against
you? You feel like the world is against you? Well, it is.
It is. What about self? But if God is for me, who can
be against me? He despaired not his own son,
but delivered him up for his own. How shall he not freely
give us all things? Notice this, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You
realize nobody's allowed to charge you with sin? Why? Super abounding grace, that
wherever your sin abounded, The death and righteousness of Christ
so much more abounded that God said they can't even charge you
with it. Look at this. Who is he that
condemneth? Now if you can't charge me with
something, how in the world are you ever going to condemn me
of something? Can't do it. Yet people do it all the time.
You got an innocent man, they'll try to condemn him. He said,
nope, can't condemn him either. Why? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
is risen again, who is even now at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who then shall accuse me
before God, seeing Christ Himself died for my sins? To accuse me,
to condemn me, is to say His blood is not sufficient. Well,
you're going to have to take that up with Him. You want to
condemn me, you have to take it up with Him. Why? He intercedes for me. Now, I have to tell this to myself
all the time, because I'll tell you, condemnation comes first
to me. I condemn myself. But in all my condemnation, does
that overthrow the grace of God? And all the world get together
and condemn you. Will that overthrow the grace
of God? Seeing it was not your righteousness
that brought this on, you were already a sinner when God did
this. What will cause God to move? Therefore, Paul said this,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? If there's nobody
that can condemn me, nobody that can accuse me, who then is going
to separate me? So tribulation, you in that?
Distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword? He said,
no, that's just how it's supposed to be. As it's written, we are
killed for thy sake all the day long. No, in these things we
are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Why? Because where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That we through
righteousness might have eternal life. And all of that is by one
man, Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel is always intended
to encourage you, but it never praises you. Does it? Did I praise you in any way?
No. It doesn't praise you at all. It gives all the praise to Jesus
Christ, our Lord. I am so thankful that I am under
a grace that cannot be moved. I cannot be tainted by how I
think or how I feel. I can't be condemned even though
I know that I'm worthy of being condemned. Why? Because God is gracious
to make me righteous through the work of Christ and His work
alone. His work alone. May God comfort
you and continue to bless you as I know He will. Why? Because
grace reigns. Grace reigns. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Father dismiss us with your own
blessings and mercies I beg you by the grace, by your
grace, that the Spirit of God should take this as you intend. Make it effectual to the hearts
of your people that they would rejoice in their trouble, knowing that soon you should
deliver us from our troubles. Why? Because your grace abounds. Sin no longer has a hold on us. Death and the grave no longer
hold us. but grace reigns by righteousness
of Christ unto eternal life. Given to us by your grace, help
us to praise you. Help us to magnify your name
and serve you, even as you give us grace. In Christ's name.