We're glad that you're here today,
many of you visiting with us. We appreciate you coming out
and trust that the gospel of God's grace will go forth in
great joy and encouragement to you today. The songwriter wrote,
marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our
sin and our guilt. yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Sin and despair, like the sea
waves cold, threatened the soul with infinite loss. Grace, that
is greater, yes, grace untold, points to the refuge, the mighty
cross. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson
tide. Whiter than snow you may be today. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace freely bestowed on all who believe. You that are longing
to see His face, will you this moment His grace receive? Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. And the people said? Amen. Our brother has read the Word
of God to us today. And has read from that portion
of Scripture in the book of Romans, chapter 5, where we find, I think,
some of the most weighty truths. And yet, truths that cut at the
very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And, I think, the greatest
news ever told. Where sin did abound, grace did
much more abound. I have now been finding my way
through this slew of life for almost 70 years. And 62 of those
have been as a child of God in experience. I was converted when
I was 8 years old. And really, that's when all the
confusion began, really. When I was converted. was born
of the Spirit of God and trusted Jesus Christ. It's important
what you hear. In order to have a little heaven
on the way to heaven, the grace message has to be consistent.
So as a young lad, I got very confused and at times very much
depressed. Not so much about others, but
about myself. I just didn't fit into the religious
mold. And in my heart, I knew that
I was pretending that it was different with me than it really
was. Every child of God in here knows this for a truth. Prone
to wander. I didn't get enough amens. And prone to wander. Lord, I
feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. The Apostle in Romans 7 said,
O wretched man that I am. After 30 years of preaching the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said, I'm less
than the least of all saints. The Apostle Paul said, I am the
chief of sinners. I don't know what happened to
that in our church, but Christians have stopped confessing many
things they need to confess. And I think it's because there
is a lacking of the message of grace in the church. Grace will
make you gracious and stop your fighting and fussing. Mercy will make you merciful. The grace of God teaches us to
deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and
righteously in this present evil world. At the same time, we know
that in our flesh dwells no good thing. And so oftentimes, the
little child of God stumbles, wanders and even falls. Not falls. out of grace, just falls around
in it. Because he who has begun a good
work in you will perform it under the day of redemption. In order
to have a little heaven on the way to heaven, you've got to
know the message of grace. Or, be a hypocrite in your tongue
and conduct. I am what I am by the grace of
God. It is grace that puts you in
the way. It's grace that leads you along the way. And it's grace
that takes you all the way. I hope that you'll listen clearly.
And maybe I was thinking this morning about God growing me. And God has grown me. And I think probably out of all
of my Christian walk, the greatest thing I thank Him for is showing
me grace. Not only having grace upon me,
but showing it where I see it. And it has become the theme of
my life. It is amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm
found, was blind, but now I see where sin did abound. Anybody
in here know anything about sin abounding? And the rest of you are lying. Sin abounds. Saint or sinner? Sin abounds. In your flesh is
no good thing. So sin must be abounding in your
flesh presently, even though you have that new nature that
has been given to you by the Spirit of God in regeneration
where sin did abound. Do you ever think about it? Do
you ever think about it in your own life? I mean, do you think
about yourself? Church people are the most judgmental,
self-righteous group in all the world. That's why it's so important
that this church stays solid in this truth. Grace. Because we have a lot to pick
at if we begin to pick at one another in here. Amen. The message of grace. That it
was totally, completely, absolutely, positively, sovereign, free,
undeserved grace. That God didn't give you what
you deserve, thank God. Or even now, what you deserve. Somebody told me a few weeks
ago, I have done so many things wrong here lately, I'm afraid
God is going to kill me. I said, oh, He killed you a long
time ago. He had intentions. See, your thinking is off. God
doesn't go around with a swatter ready to zap you. When I was
a little boy growing up in church, The things that used to scare
me the most and maybe depress me the most was about how now
I'm saved and you have eternal life, but you must appear before
the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds
done in the body, whether they be good or bad. That's not a
judgment for damnation. I was told that was a judgment
for yo-yos, rewards or crowns. How many of you in here would
really and truly as a Christian, really like to appear before
the judgment seat of God and give an account of everything
since you've been a Christian or everything since 8 a.m. this
morning that you have thought or done. I just want to drive this little
point home. Sin is abounding. It's no small
thing to get to go to heaven. It's a big deal if you've been
rescued out of Lodibari. If somebody has come to you and
got you out of the hood, it's a big, big deal because you deserve
to go to hell with all of the rest of us. And so here in Romans
5, I hope that you will take some time and look into those
verses. The Apostle tells us about sin
abounding. Sin piled up. Literally in the
Greek it is sin piled up. It kept on piling up. In fact, it gets a little depressive
when you read it in the verb form. It kept on piling. and
piling, and piling, but we're sending about grace
piled up, and piled up, and piled up higher. Aren't you glad? Aren't
you glad? Grace that is greater than all
our sins. What a pile you have. In fact, the Scripture says that
when God found us, he found us on the dunghill down there with
the tumble bars. All have sinned and missed the
mark. There's been a long battle in
this world between man's sin and God's grace. You know, if it had been a fight
between man's sin and God's justice, it wouldn't have taken long.
Because God's justice makes short work of sin. God is a just God. God is a holy God. And when justice
comes out against sin, it makes short work. But this war was
not between justice and sin. It was between sin And grace. And I got some good news for
you. Grace wins. Grace won. Sin and grace. I love the result
of the battle. You ever thought about the exceeding
sinfulness of sin? In fact, there in Romans 5, here's
what the Apostle Paul tells us. He said, God gave the law and
he didn't give the law to save anybody. Thank God we're not saved by
law. You see, the law did nothing but increase the gravity of our
offenses. God gave the law and God didn't
give the law to hurt us. God gave the law like a doctor
does an exploratory surgery only God wasn't exploring. He knew
what was in there. You see, you and I had a cancer. It was a sin cancer. And God
put the light on it. God says, don't. And you say,
I will. Isn't there something wrong with
that? When God says do, and you say I won't. Sin abounding. Just look around
you. In this building. Think about
how much mess there is in this building. No, we're not talking
about little white lies and little teeny sins. We're talking about
S.I.N. sin. You see, Adam didn't stump
his toe. He fell. And mankind has been born to
a woman, a sinner. When a baby comes into the world,
it doesn't become a sinner. It already is. Fresh out of the
oven. Already by nature, and as soon
as it gets big enough, will be by practice and by choice to
rebel against God. Now, I've been around too long
for you to try to convince me that somewhere in the Bible you're
going to find some moral code whereby you can live by or some
recipe that you can live by that's going to take you to heaven.
It's going to take God Almighty coming down here to take you
to heaven. And why would He do that? Figure
that one out. You want to go deep in theology?
You really want to go deep. Why did God save you? I mean,
get really down that deep. And let me tell you this, if
you come up with an answer, it's wrong! Because you can't explain why
God would save you. You know you better than anybody
else in here. You know man was a sinner before
God gave the law. You do know that. Many in here
think that somehow sin just appeared after Mount Sinai after the Ten
Commandments were given. Men were already dying before
God gave His law, which means men were sinners, right? Death
passed upon all men. And so men sinned long before
Sinai smoked. Men were dying. And men were
sinners. And then God I don't know whether
he said it quite like this. Let me help these guys along
a little bit in seeing themselves. I'll show them how righteous
I am. I'll show them how holy I am. I'll explain to them there
are do's and don'ts. There is absolute wrong. And you're to pray. I want to
say this to you. No hope. outside of grace. I don't care who you are. You
can be baptized, dunked, sprinkled, poured, all you want to. Go to
church wherever you want to. Join the Baptist, Methodist,
Catholic, Presbyterians, and Church of God, Church of God
in Christ, First Pentecostal, First Church of God, or whatever. But you're not going to go to
heaven by works. Not one work. Not two works. Not by works. Search the Bible. There is no way. There is no
way to heaven except smack dab through the middle of Jesus Christ.
And guess what? You won't come to Christ unless
He draws you. But isn't this a great truth?
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Aren't you glad He
put a rope around your leg? and drew you to Himself. God
gave the law that the offense might abound. It's worse than what you thought.
In fact, some of you are sitting here looking at me right now,
and I don't mean this in an ugly way, but you could care less.
That's how wicked you are. Think about it. Or some of you
are in here last week I spoke about election. I heard some
of you grumbling about it. It's still true. Why would you think God chose
you? Why would God choose you? I believe in election. I believe
God chose. I just don't believe it is the
way you said. The only thing I said is God
chose whom he would. Tell me a reason why He would
choose you. Well, it was because of my...
Oh, no. Oh, no. No, you used the wrong
word. The wrong word is my. Me. I. It's grace. You know, I am getting old. You know that. But I'm telling
you this. This message God has not retired. And it is pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So
I herald this message of God's free and sovereign grace, believing
that God is able to do in you exceedingly abundantly above
all that you ask of me. Grace abounding. I wonder if anybody here has
any thoughts about how you almost OD'd. You left the needle in your hand.
Or you almost ruined your life. You almost destroyed your life
in some immoral conduct. You know, do you know this? Let me tell you this. Let me
tell you about God's amazing grace. Do you know God had his
eye on you when you were in the hood? Do you know God saw you
in the crack house? Do you know you never really
did almost die? Because of God's amazing grace.
It's called prevenient grace, not preventing grace, but prevenient
grace. It means grace before grace.
You know, God showed you grace before he really showed you grace. And let me tell you this, don't
be fighting this. Don't be fighting this. You'll
never be happy. Not Listen, until you lay the
shotgun down and say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to
thy cross I cling. I know it's by grace. The Lord
can save you or damn you and still be God. It's true. You see, grace doesn't grow,
but we grow in it. I want this church to grow in
it. When I leave here, I'm going
to watch you. I'm talking about when I go.
Don't be messing with this message of grace. This place will collapse. You know why? Because the message
that we preach here gives God all the glory, all the honor,
and all the praise. And God just keeps doing stuff. And Bill and Alice may not know,
and some of you visiting with us do not know, But some man
and family that doesn't attend our church bought this building
for $500,000 for us. I just want to show you, because
this place doesn't make sense. How many millionaires do we have
in here this morning? Let's see. Huh. Yesterday I met with three men
out in the parking lot. They had cliffs. plans for the
parking lot all spread out there and in the next few days, within
a week, maybe this week, they're going to start on a $540,000
parking lot out here. And guess what? The person doesn't
attend our church. If I get that right, 500,000
and 500,000, that's a million. Now, just look at us in here. How do you explain that? You
say, Pastor, do you believe in miracles? I believe in the miracle
of this. You give Him all the glory, all
the honor, all the praise, consistently preach the Gospel of Grace, and
you'll see things that will drive you out of your mind wonderful. But what I would hope that you
would do today is simply this. Do you see how many notes I'm
turning over I'm moving. You know what? I spent about
14 hours in my study yesterday. And I'll tell you why I spent
14 hours in my study. Because it was so good, I didn't
want to leave. I was enjoying studying God's
grace. I even approached it from the
standpoint I'm going to try to prove it wrong. I'm going to
take the Bible and prove this wrong that it can't be all grace. You can't just say God will save
whosoever He will and you owe Him all the praise and all the
glory and honor. It's not your will, not your works, not your
church, not your baptism, not the decision card. It's none
of those things. It's pure, sovereign grace. Say, well, Pastor, you know,
I really get tired of... You need to go somewhere else. I meant that this way. I don't
want you to go anywhere. I want you to come here. But
what I meant was, the menu's the same. It never changes. Because it's God's message. God
created you for His glory. God created me for His glory.
If there's one thing I want to do, it's give Him glory. I can't wait until I have a glorified
body where I can give Him glory and praise. And the Bible says
while the ages pile themselves one on top of another, we're
going to be giving Him glory and praise. That's the chief
end of man. Think about how sin has messed
us up. Who else but God could solve this problem? Everywhere
you go, every day in your life and in mine, every relationship
I have is messed up. Because sin entered the world.
There's nothing perfect. Because sin has tainted. But thank God the blood goes
deeper than the stain has gone. And the grace of God goes deep. Grace piled up. Can you imagine
God taking out His big telescope, looking down through the ages,
and He sees you? There you are. There you are
in the hood, downtown Detroit. There you are in the back of
a car. You know, an abandoned car. There are some of you in
church sitting there all self-righteous. You know, I found out this in
being over here for 28, 29 years. It doesn't make any difference
whether you're a crack addict, a heroin addict, whether you're
homeless or you're the churchiest of the church. It's still a self-righteous
Pharisee about many things, isn't that right? Do you know when
we were singing this morning, if we'd all been right, we'd
all fell down on our faces here and sang victory in Jesus? I
noticed I wasn't the only one weeping with joy. Those were
not tears of sadness. Like the songwriter wrote, And
can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's love?
Died He for me who caused His pain? Last, and did my Saviour
bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? And the answer to that question
is yes! And yes, He did. Yes, He did. We'll go home with this. God
chose you. Don't ever get over it. If you're
a Christian, don't ever get over it. Don't bad mouth election. Thank God there was an election
made. Say, well, I don't understand
it. Me neither. It's too deep for me to understand.
I can't figure it out. I've looked at it. What are those
toys they turn every which way and try to get them all in order?
I don't know what they call that thing. But that's kind of like
grace. I've twisted that every which way you can, and I can't
figure out why God saved Wanda. Can you, Wanda? I can't figure
out why God saved me. But He has. I want you to think
about this. Just think about this. Sins abounding. So you've got a pile of mess. Let me tell you where sin abounded
the most. It was at Calvary. You want to
see sin abounding? When all of your sins and all
of your transgressions were laid upon Him. There's grace abounding. When
God took your filthy rags of unrighteousness off of you and
wrapped them around His own Son. And then took out his black snake
whip and beat his son. And by his stripes, you were
healed. And Jesus paid it all. Here's
how I know we won. He said we did. It is finished. It's accomplished. It's done.
The debt is paid. It's true. And then He called
you. He had to hunt you down like
a lost dog. Amen. Yes, he sought you out. But think
about that. Think about this, too. I'm preserved
today. I'm kept by the power of God. And he's going to glorify you.
You know, as sure as shooting, you're going to die. What's your
hope? Skin worms are going to have
a carnival. They're going to put you in a vault or somewhere
out there in the cemetery. But the worms are you got a problem
on the inside, not only the outside. Is that right? How are you going
to get to heaven? How are you going to get a glorified
body? I mean, you've already messed
up. You've done all you can. You're out there in the cemetery.
Oh, there is one at the right hand of God. The trump of God
shall sound and the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible
and undefiled. And when we get to heaven, we'll
sing amazing grace. Now, I know there's somebody
sitting here, some of you are angry at me, but some of you
are sitting here and you're going like this. You know, you're right,
Pastor. I'm the blackest dog of all of
them. Pastor, I just stay depressed.
I really don't know whether there's any hope for me. I've gone too
far. You know, I've done I've just
done too much. Really? Where sin did abound. Grace piled up higher. That means
there's grace for you. Say, well, you seem like you're
contradicting yourself. No. I guarantee you, if there's
anybody here who knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that they
need a Savior, He's yours. Only sinners get saved. See,
some of you haven't learned yet. You know, one of the things before
the peace of God ever floods your soul, you've got to learn
to shut up. You're not in the right position. The right position
is like this. Or maybe down like this. That
every mouth may be stopped. That every mouth may be stopped. I didn't say shut up. God did.
That's Romans 3. Shut your mouth. That every mouth
may be stopped. There's none. Good. No, not one. Shut up. Don't say you. That's what God's doing. He has
to do that really quick too, because somebody's going to say,
I am. Shut your mouth. And you know
what? Some of you have sung this song
thousands of times and are yet to believe it. Just as I am without
one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, O Lamb of God,
I come, I come. That's the truth. Come just as you are. Come right
now. Come to Christ. Trust Christ. You say, Pastor, you've really
got me confused. I hope I've got you locked up.
I hope I've got you so locked up, you say this, I'm going to
go to hell unless he does something. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Lord, I know You deserve all the glory. I know what I am. I know what I did behind the
door. I know what I did when others weren't looking. I know
what I've already thought this morning. And all of you Christians,
all of us Christians, if we were really right, if we were really right, I mean,
if we could really see, if the lights were really on in the
cellar, and you had to acknowledge there are creeping, crawling
things down here, that I've been feeding for years. And thank
God for grace. Thank God for amazing grace.
And I say to those of you who are lost, those of you who feel
like there's no hope for you, of course there's hope. You haven't
gone through fire. And stop your bragging. He's a greater savior
than you are a sinner. Stop acting like you're the top
notch guy. You don't know me. What I hope happens here at this
church, And I keep pounding it and I keep pounding it. And I
want to say this to you too. There are thousands of other
places out there that are preaching other things and watering this
message down. I will not water it down because
it is not true. And God will not save a sinner
outside of getting the glory. He will not. And before He saves
you, you're going to know who saved you. You may not know much. You may not know all of Romans
5 and understand all that Adam headship and Christ headship
and Adam being a representative and Christ being a representative.
You may not get all of that. But this is simple enough. Once
I was blind, now I see. I can remember very early getting
excited about this message. It still excites me when I hear
somebody else preaching. When I hear you telling the story
of God's amazing grace, it still excites me. I love to tell the story to those
who know it best. Right where you are, as you are,
in all of your rags, trust Christ. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I don't know whether He
chose me yet. That's none of your business. I'll tell you
how you can find out that God chose you. You want to really
find out? I double-dog dare you to try
this. You want to find out if God chose
you? Trust Christ. And as soon as
you trust Christ, I'm going to say it's because God chose you.
Otherwise, you wouldn't have chose Him. You don't first choose
Him. He first chooses you. And then
He draws you in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. You would
have got away. You would have got away. How
many of you tried to get away? Of course you did. The first
time you heard the gospel, you didn't fall on your face and
say, I trust Him. I surrender. I give up. You said,
if I can get out of here, I'm never coming back. That's right. But you found out when you went
downtown, caught the bus and went downtown. He followed you
downtown. The hound of heaven will go where
you go. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Praise
God. Some of you are probably smoking
a joint. It just didn't feel right after you heard the gospel. The Holy Spirit of God messed
up your hide. And you stop singing 99 bottles
of beer on the wall to, oh, how I love Jesus. Because the Spirit
of God did something on the inside. And he's here today. I know,
I can, listen, I can feel resistance. I feel resistance. But what I
say to the devil, go on back to hell. We're going to give
God glory here. We're going to give God praise
here. Because he's worthy of it. Just take your Bible and
get excited about God's grace. All right, we better stand so
we can go home. Trust Christ. Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. Step over
the line to Christ. And life will change. I promise
you. It will. Sing it, will you? He is Lord. He is Lord. He has returned from the dead,
and He is Lord. Every knee shall bow Every tongue
confess That Jesus Christ is Lord He is Lord He is Lord. He has risen from the dead, and
He is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue
confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Bless you, man. Brought you a long way. Alright. Thank you, Lord.