Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Romans chapter 5 and the latter
part of verse 15. In verse 15 we read, The gift
by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. Reading the whole verse, there
is a comparison here. But not as the offence, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offence of
one, that is Adam, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and
the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded
unto many. So it's the latter part of Romans
5 verse 15. And really what is upon my spirit
is the grace of God experienced. It is one thing to know the doctrines
of grace, the teachings of grace, It is another thing to be mindful
of being a receiver of God's grace, to be able to recognize
that what we have received, are receiving, is the grace of God,
and that it is saving grace, and be able to recognize it also
in others, like Barnabas, came to Antioch, and when he saw the
grace of God, he was glad. The grace of God had a real effect
upon the lives of those at Antioch, and he was able to see it. The
Apostle Paul, he could testify and say that by the grace of
God, I am what I am, and he then could see the effect of grace
in his life, changing him, making him to be what he was, forming
his thoughts, his actions, his very life was defined by the
grace of God. And that is a great difference
than just being able to write down and describe doctrines of
grace and say, well, I'm a Calvinist, Believe in sovereign saving grace. I'm not an Arminian, I don't
believe in free will and the works of the creature being the
reason of salvation. But that's as far as it goes.
We actually just have a knowledge in the head and never really
know what it is to receive grace and to need. Grace. And so that is what is upon my
spirit this morning. So in order to look at this word,
I want to confine our thoughts to three points. Firstly, our
needing grace. And under that point, not only
just the fact that we do need it, but being brought to feel
our need of it. And then secondly, the source
and giver of grace, that is clearly set forth in our text, the gift
by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ. And then thirdly,
the grace abounding to many, In our text we read, which is
by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. It hath been given, imparted
to many. It is the gift by grace given
to many. I want to look at those gifts,
especially under that point, to be able to recognise those
gifts of grace. But firstly, our need of grace. What is grace? Grace, the free
unmerited favour of God, the kindness of God, in the face
of rebellion, antagonism, kindness to those that not only don't
deserve it, but are going against it. If we were kind to someone,
That would be one thing, but if that person then turned around
and was unkind to us, and did things against us or against
our property, and then we were kind to them again, then that
would be grace, it would show grace. We have set forth in this chapter
How sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for they'd all have sinned. Verse 12. The realization that we deserve
nothing at the hand of God. God is not indebted to us. God
does not owe us anything. God is not duty-bound to give
us anything out of a deserved hell, eternal wrath and damnation
forever and ever. That is the position of men. As we come into this world, we
are complete debtors. We are under the law. We are
under condemnation under the law. We're in a position where
God, if he chose, could just banish
us to eternal destruction. Every good and every perfect
gift comes to us through Jesus Christ. It is through the promise
of Christ that ever there is a lengthening out of this world. He is the Saviour of all men,
especially of them that believe. Unbelievers, those that shall
at last be confined to eternal damnation in hell, owe their
existence here below, their food, their raiment, health and strength
and everything to the Lord. They don't acknowledge it, they
don't ask it of Him, they don't give thanks to Him, but it comes
from Him. We all need that grace. We need common grace. We need that which is said, He
is good to all. His tender mercies are over all
His works. He openeth His hand He satisfies
the desire of every living thing. And any that are fed, any that
are healed of any sickness, any that receive any help, every
good thing comes from God. All the sickness, all the evil,
all the death, that is in the world all comes as a fruit of
sin. It is what we deserve. If we
have anything different than that, we may thank God for His
grace. We have in Peter's epistles,
if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. In one
sense, every man, woman and child does taste that the Lord is gracious
with the least hell, even in afflictions, and we would not
minimize the great trials and afflictions, sicknesses, troubles
and persecutions and terrible things that many of our fellow
mortals are going through. We all deserve that. But where there is any softening,
any helps in that, any reliefs in that, We trace that to something
which we don't deserve but is given, and is given graciously
and kindly. You say, but aren't there good
people in the world? Yes, there are those that do
good one to another. But we have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one, not in the sight of God. Our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. There's no man that doeth good
and sinneth not. Sin is mixed with everything.
And so in all that we do, we are rewarding the Lord's goodness
with evil. We are not rendering back again
to Him that which He's given to us. You know, Hezekiah, he
received life It was said, put thy house in order, thou shalt
die and not live. The Lord added 15 years to his
life. But then we read that he did
not rent unto the Lord according to the benefit done. His heart
rose up in pride. He showed the messengers of Babylon,
his kingdom. And the word of scripture is
that the Lord gave him Grace, blessings, but he did not render
back according to that. And that is the pattern. Ezekiel
was a godly man, a good man. But even the Lord gave him mercy
and grace in that, that it would not be in his days, but in his
children's days, that Babylon would come and destroy Jerusalem. So the need of grace, we need
it. because we do not deserve anything. We need that there be a giving
to us that does not require us to merit that giving. Do not
earn it, not be worthy of it, even in temporal things. And
especially that applies in a way of salvation. Because if the
Lord did not give us what was needed to be saved, we could
not and we would not be saved. That must be by a free gift. By grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is a free unmerited favour
of God to save any And yet in our text and in this
passage, we read that the Lord saves many and the grace of God
abounds to many. But our need of grace, again,
that is a fact. That is that which is stated
in the word of God, the free kindness and unmerited favor
of God. All men need both temporally
and spiritually and savingly, because we deserve nothing, nothing
but wrath. The difference is, again, is
to realize our need of it, and to value it, and to seek it. It's one thing to know about
grace, one thing even to know about that we need it, but it's
another thing to feel our need of grace. When we look at everything
that we do, and sin is mixed with it, when we look at all
of our lives, and we need that help from God, we need His mercy,
His kindness, If he was to say, I will show you kindness, but
first, you've got to do this and this and this. You've got
to fix that in your life. You've got to mend that in your
life. You've got to do your part. Then we'd have no hope. The devil
will tell us that that's what's required. You've got to add your
works. But grace and works are complete
opposites. The Word of God is very clear.
You cannot mix the two together. It's either by grace or by works. Either we merit God's favour
and what He gives to us, or we don't merit it at all, but we
are given it anyway, freely and sovereignly, by God. And so the feeling sense of that
grace, when we come upon that ground, then we start to see
grace where we never saw it before. We start to ask for grace where
we would never ask for it before, because we know that if that
be not given, we have no hope at all. That is, the only hope
that we have is upon the great kindness and benefits and are
given to us so freely and unmerited from God. So I want to look then,
secondly, the source and giver of grace. Our text tells us that
it is the gift of grace which by one man, Jesus Christ, hath
abounded unto many. It is a gift through Jesus Christ
by one man. It's emphasized here, the Lord
Jesus Christ is a man. One man. The one truly God man. God manifest in the flesh. The man Christ Jesus. And really
the very start of the provision of this grace is in the giving
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the kindness of God to
us to provide a ransom, to provide a land, to provide a substitute,
to provide a way that the debt that we owe may be paid so that
the gifts that are given are given freely and need not be
taken back. You know if we were poor and had no food and we really
needed that food and we had a friend that saw our need and they thought
well the end justifies the means so I'm going to go to the supermarket
and I'm going to to rob them, I'm going to take food and to
hide it and to take it away and to give it to this friend, to
give it to this person. And they did that. But they got
seen what they were doing. They got found out. The authorities
then came and traced to where that food was. And that which
hadn't already been eaten, they came and they took it all back.
And then they accuse that person of receiving stolen goods. And
that which once was a gift and so thanked for now becomes a
burden and is all taken away. Why? Because it was not justly
and rightly given. It had not been paid for. It
wasn't the ones who gave it to us. It wasn't theirs to give.
It was someone else's. And so with our Lord Jesus Christ,
first he must pay the debt. First he must satisfy justice. First he must take the sins of
his people, have them laid on him, and that he must then suffer
for them and take away the wrath of God. That
must be done first. And we know in the coming of
our Lord, made under the law, and made of a woman, that he
put himself in the same position of those who have sinned, the
second Adam, as is what is set forth here. And in that position, he lived
a perfect life that we could not live. He died a death that
we could not die. And he died a death that made
atonement for the sins of his people. It laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He died for His sheep. He died
for those that were given Him of His Father. He gave for those
that were elect according to the full knowledge of the Father.
He gave to them eternal life because He Himself had suffered,
bled and died, and taken away the debt that they owed. I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hand. The first real
manifestation of the grace of God is in the gift of His beloved
Son. As we said before, He is the
Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe. Without
the Lord, there would be condemnation, wrath, this world would not continue. All men O every favour to them,
going to a hospital ward, and every one that is healed, every
one that receives some help, all receiving from the same way,
not some by chance, some by the skill of a doctor, and some in
answer to prayer. No, all from the grace of God,
and some, yes, in answer to prayer, and some that will give thanks
for what has been done, but most will not give thanks. but He
is the one that heals all and helps all. There's not two forces
in this world or several forces, not some being healed by this
God and that God or this person or that person. No, everything,
every favour out of a deserved hell comes through our Lord. And so He is the source and giver
and especially of saving grace, of that which is saving, that
which is vital, to bring us into union with Him, to bring us as
a prepared people for a prepared place, to bring us to be not
of the world, but joined to the Lord, joined to Christ. those
that are sanctified may meet to be partakers with the saints
in light, those that are receipt of saving grace. And so this
source, our Lord was very clear, I am the way, the truth and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And he is the giver, the giver
of these gifts. He has received gifts for men,
yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell
among them. In a knowledge of that, the token that we have received,
saving grace from the Lord, will be in this. that the Holy Spirit
will not fail to show us our need of grace, to show us where
that grace and kindness comes to us from, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and also make known to us our need of it, not only at the start,
but daily, and when we are given it, will ascribe their grace
and their kindness to the Lord in every instance. You know sometimes
we might receive gifts from men and they are anonymous gifts
and certainly in our giving in the Church of God that is the
way it is to be. The right hand not know what
the left hand is doing and that it is given as before God not
to be seeing men, or to receive praise of men. Sometimes though,
the circumstances do dictate that the giver needs to be known,
and it is known, it is right to be able to give thanks to
a person. But it is a tracing of those
gifts to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit will always do that, as
to showing that these things come and maybe it is through
the means of man or some other way, but tracing it up to the
gifts and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in that, when
we see it, when we believe it, when we know it comes from Him,
it gives us that token of the favour of God to us. We mentioned
before regarding common grace, every temporal blessing, the
countless millions never ever give thanks to God for it. They
don't ask, they don't give thanks. And it is the great blessing
to give thanks. We think of the Lord healing
those ten lepers and as they went to show themselves to the
priest, there was one, saw that he was healed and turned to give
thanks to the Lord. And the Lord said, where is the
nine? Were there not ten healed? There's
only one returning to give thanks, where are the nine? And that
man went down to his house, not only cleansed from his leprosy,
but justified. And the difference was, it wasn't
what was done in him that was the same as what was done in
all the others. But for him, it was traced to the Lord, and
he believed, and he gave the glory to God. And it was, you
may say, by grace, not only to heal, but grace to point to the
Lord and to give him to believe. and to give him to give the glory
to God. So it is vital that part of that
grace that we receive, it points us to the source, glorifies the
Lord Jesus Christ, makes us to see what it cost him to be able
to give us any blessing and any favor at all. So I want to look
then thirdly at the grace abounding to many. Our text says, the gift by grace
which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Really we have a picture here
of, here is Adam, And from Adam and from the fall it infects
the whole human race. The word here says many, and
it is many, but it is all of the human race. And then the
gift by grace abounds unto many, but that is not every one of
the sons of Adam. In one sense it is, when you
say of common grace, but saving grace it is to a people that
he has loved eternally. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And so that grace abounding,
how is it known? How is it evidenced? Well the first thing that is
set forth in the Word is the new birth, is the giving of eternal
life. I pass by thee when thou wast
in thy blood and bid thee live. It's not asked for, not sought
for, not really, because one dead, a dead know not anything. They may have a form of religion,
they may have known the doctrines in their head, but to actually
know and to feel what they deserve at God's hand, to have their
eyes opened, to have their first need of saving grace. If we were to use the Apostle
Paul as an example, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He did not
know his need of grace. He was like the Pharisee in the
temple of whom Christ said that he prayed, I thank thee that
I'm not as other men are, even as this publican. Publican, he
beat upon his breast, God be merciful to me a sinner. Paul
was like that, a religious man, but a man that was to receive,
even though he had persecuted the people of God, persecuted
the Lord through them, he was received saving grace to be stopped
in his mad career, stopped on that Damascus road, saved. shown that his sins were put
away and given him to understand the things of God, to believe
the things of God, to be a changed character so that he would say,
as we said at the start, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And so that change, the new birth,
conversion, regeneration, that is wrought, that is That is grace. No man ever deserves to be converted,
to be saved. We read in verse 6 of this chapter,
when we were yet without strength, that is no spiritual strength. As if we were dead, we are dead.
In due time Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8, God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. I do love this chapter because
it is such an encouragement to those who have been called by
grace, where the Lord has begun with them and I hope it is with
some of us we can look back where the Lord so sovereignly began
with us, so turned us, so changed us, so opened our eyes. And this
chapter's whole message is if the Lord did that while we were
enemies, how much more now, now that we are saved, now that we
are reconciled, now that we are believer, how much more now will
he give grace? Will we be saved by his life? And that tells us that even those
that are saved, even those that are born again, they still need
grace. They still need help. The Lord
doesn't give them spiritual life and say, here's that life you
go. You don't need any help from me at all. Those that are quickened
into divine life, given spiritual eyes and hearing ears and a teachable
spirit, Those who are given faith to believe and to profit from
the Word of God, those are brought to be dependent upon that Word
all their life long, dependent upon God's grace, Him continually
giving out of His exhaustless store, fresh life, fresh helps,
and grace is evidenced in several ways. I'll just notice a few
of those ways. in this last point. And the first
one is this beginning, this new birth, a spiritual life. The next I'll mention is when
that grace is given, that then there is a growth in grace. Peter tells us in his epistles
that growing grace and inner knowledge of the Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. Some might think, well that's
just, that's getting more and more godly and more and more
holy. But if we grow in grace, what really it's saying is, grow
less reliant on works, grow more and more persuaded that I need
the unmerited favor of God every day and every hour of my life.
Though as I go along my way, It is, I must decrease, He must
increase. In my experience, what I experience,
I feel more and more how undeserving I am, how my works deserve wrath,
and how the Lord, in spite of all what I am in my life, He
continues to give me grace, kindness, and helps, evidence, in many,
many different ways. And in that way, there's a growth
in grace, a growth in our valuing of it, needing of it, realizing
without it we would never be saved. If the Lord was ever to
look at anything in our lives as to merit some goodness or
repay Him for what He's done, He would never find it. then there is a receiving of
grace in afflictions. The Apostle Paul had a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet him, and he
saw that it might be taken away. But the Lord said, My grace is
sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. We need to remember that because
in this world we are told you shall have tribulation We must,
through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. And the Lord's people
have been chosen in the furnace of affliction, not just a small
thing. Sometimes it is referred to as
the waters of affliction. They are things where our strength
goes, where the thing is too hard for us. where we cannot
in ourselves bear it, our flesh shrinks from it, in our strength
of body or of mind to continue at all. And it's in that setting that
the Lord gives grace. He gives the help to walk in
that path He has chosen for us, to bear it. Grace so that we don't despair,
don't give up. So that we don't reply against
God, hate God, murmur, complain. How many times have we been able
to see that in others? And it's been such a lovely thing.
We've looked at their life. We've looked at what they're
passing through outwardly. And we've seen their spirit.
We've seen how they've coped, we've seen how they've got on.
We've seen their character. And the grace of God shines. You think, how can they stand
that? How can they get through that?
And they themselves would testify. I can't of myself. In fact, if
you saw what goes on or felt what goes on inside, then you
wouldn't think much of me at all. But the grace that the Lord
does give, it does have an effect. While that person, in their own
feelings, they're not saying, oh, how well I'm coping with
this trial. Isn't it working well? Aren't
I good? Haven't I done well? No. Haven't I done poorly? What a mess I'm made of things.
But the Lord has given them. Helps. And so they do continue. And they are able to continue.
You might be like that, I might be like that. For you to be complete failures
in ourselves. And yet really we cannot deny
The Lord has given grace and help, and in affliction too,
to look for it, to value it, to ask the Lord for it. He giveth
more grace, we are told in James. Graceful grace gives the spirit
of grace and supplications. We, some of it, we read in Hebrews,
let us come boldly unto the throne of grace. that we might find
grace to help in time of need. The grace of prayer He gives,
and then in answer to prayer He gives further help, some further
graces, and we trace all of that coming from Him. I will yet be
inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them. We see it
with Naomi, and it was the grace that Ruth, also a widower, saw
in Naomi, who had lost her husband and her two sons, that she claimed
to her and wanted that her God be her God, her people her people. The grace of God in that fiery
trial of affliction drew others in a like manner to them. And
often it is, you know, even in the ministry. It is the minister
in his afflictions and trials and weaknesses that is a help
to his people in their weaknesses and afflictions and their trials
as well. Because then he starts to understand
them and starts to come down where they are. And the Lord
is that one. He understands. He knows. He condescends. He understands. He knows our frame. He remembers
that we are but dust. He knows our need of grace. He
knows we deserve nothing. But he comes through our Lord,
through his blood, through his mercy, through what he has done. He comes by means of grace. You think of dear David, under
the chastening hand of God. And there he is, driven out even
by Absalom. His own son. And Shimei is casting
stones and dust. And we find Abishai, he says,
let me go over and take off his head. That was his spirit. David's spirit, a gracious spirit. He bowed before that. He bowed
before what men was doing unto him. He said, let him curse.
The Lord hath bidden him, it may be, The Lord will requite
me good for his cursing this day. Know that we were blessed
with more grace like that when we received many knocks from
men, that instead of rising up in bitterness and anger and hatred,
that we bow before it. Let him curse. Let them curse. Let them blacken our name. Let
them tell lies. The Lord hath bidden them, it
may be the Lord will requite me, requite us good for what
they are doing in this way. We think of the grace of repentance
when David had sinned, when he had committed adultery and murder. And we see those beautiful words
of Psalm 51, Really, that is grace that shines
right through that psalm. What causes a poor sinner to
utter the words, and you can read at your leisure, that psalm.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. Pray to
be washed and cleansed, and that he might hear joy and gladness,
the bones that thou hast broken may rejoice. creating me a clean
heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me. All the breathings
of that psalm is grace that brought him to utter those things, to
feel those things, to walk in that path. It's also the grace
of God we mentioned about showing where that help comes from. You
know, I've had it when I've had real peace, when there's been,
should have been, anything but peace, and had to ask the Lord,
Lord, why this peace? These things have happened in
my life. And the Lord immediately dropped in, Thou will keep him
in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he
trusteth in Thee. I would not have said that I
was trusting in the Lord, but the Lord gave me that peace and
told me why. Another time as well, complete
freedom from what had been days of being plagued with evil thoughts
and things going on in my heart and in my mind. Suddenly a peace,
suddenly all quiet. Lord, why is this? The Lord dropping
in his word, if the sun shall make you free, you shall be free
indeed. Telling where that came from,
in other words, This is my grace. I have done this for you. You couldn't do it. You had no
power. You're powerless. But I've done
it for you. And I've told you I've done it.
And you've received the benefit. You've felt it. You've known. You've received that help. And
I show you where it has come from. And there'll be those things
that we're brought into in our lives. When we have no strength,
they fell down, there was none to help. You have it again and
again in Psalm 107. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and the Lord delivered them out of their distresses. His grace magnified in those
that are needy, those that have nothing in themselves. And it
is His grace then The grace experienced, the grace received, that's so
different than just a doctrine in the head. You'll be able to
say, then, that grace has fashioned my life. It defines my life. I'm a dependent sinner, day by
day, but I have experienced the grace of God. I've experienced
the Lord's kindness in the face of all my provocations and all
my sins. I've been able to see, even in
fiery trials, some mercy, some helps, some tokens for good. And so our text says, the gift
by grace which by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. But not as the offence, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offence of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by
grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Dear friends, may we be able
to say we are amongst that many. We have received grace. And to
be encouraged and strengthened and to give the glory to God
where we have received it and come into fresh trials and fresh
need, remember He giveth more grace and grace for grace. and that that is what we need.
We might say, oh, I need so many other things. I need so many
other things, but oh, to see what we really need is this grace
of God that makes the Lord Jesus precious and gives us that help
to go through this world as the Lord would have us to go through
it. He giveth grace and glory No
good thing shall the Lord withhold from them that walk uprightly,
not because of their works, but they walk uprightly in this way,
in this world. An upright way is to walk depending
upon grace, depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord
grant us that and to see it and to be encouraged and strengthened Amen.