Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Romans chapter 5. I'm reading
for our text the last two verses, verses 20 and 21. Moreover, the law entered that
the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. by Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5 verses 20 and 21. The Apostle Paul in writing to
the Romans often brings forth some very deep doctrine and teaching
and explains it in various ways. But he very often brings it to
our own experience, and that is vital, that we should not
only know about the truth of God, not only know the doctrines,
but how it actually relates to our own lives, how we walk it
out, how we experience it. Some of the hymns, the first
two hymns that we've sung, they speak of the experience, the
experience of God's people, how they experience sin in their
hearts, in their lives, how they wrestle with that, how they are
delivered from that. That is experience. It is what
is actually felt in the lives of the people of God. Now in
the earlier part of this chapter is the doctrines, but in our
text is the experience of the doctrines in our heart. It speaks of sin and grace, the
quantity of sin, and the quantity of grace, sin abounding, and
grace much more abounding, That is what a bound means, exists
in large numbers or quantities. So that is the first thing that's
set forth in our text. And then the second is sin and
grace's reigning, sin reigning and grace reigning. The power,
the authority, the dominion of sin and the dominion of grace. The apostle often uses these
comparisons and right through this passage he is using comparisons. Do you notice how the inspired
Word of God so often uses contrast comparisons? Our Lord hardly
ever told a parable but there wasn't to be some kind of a comparison
between two things. sometimes more than two things. With the sower we have three
types of seed that didn't bring forth fruit, and one type that
did. With the parable of the tares,
you have the wheat and the tares, and the comparison between the
two, heaven and hell, the true people of God and those that
appear to be the people of God. and what were the end of each
one of those. And so do notice those comparisons
throughout the Word of God. And then how the Apostle uses
stepping stones, as it were, going from one thing to another. We have in Romans 8 that well-known
stepping stone, as it were, from verse 29, he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. And so you have things that are
all joining together, foreknowledge, predestinated, called, justified,
glorified, and it's all like a chain linking together. It's
not separate one from another. It joins together. The things
of God do join together. The teaching of the Lord joins
together. It's not just random, a little
bit here and a little bit there, completely unrelated. Your children,
when you're at school, you're doing the lessons. One lesson
leads to the next lesson. One thing learned leads to something
else that builds on what you've learned before. And it's all
related one to another. And in the first part of this
chapter five, we have, again, a link, if you like, in verse
three. We glory in tribulations also. Knowing that, and there he has
this link, tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience,
and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts for the Holy Ghost
which is given us. And if we bear that in mind when
we come into tribulation or great distress and great troubles and
afflictions, Here is we are on part of this chain or on the
beginning of it. This is how God often uses these
things. Endurance, patience, that's the
first thing that's set before us. And then experience is something
we are actually experiencing in our lives. We are going through
it. You know, you might learn about
swimming, but it's a different thing learning in the school
or learning in a textbook. In other words, you go into the
sea and into a pool and swim. When I was at secondary school,
we learnt about sailing. But we didn't only learn in the
classroom about how to rig a boat and how to sail, we actually
went out onto the sea. And I've no doubt have I told
the story before of how the teacher, the head teacher, thought I knew
how to sail. He gave me a boy with me who
didn't know anything about sailing, and off we went out to sea. And
when I wanted to turn around to go to land, I tried to turn
the boat, and the boat didn't turn. It went straight back out
to sea again. And I couldn't turn the boat. And the headmaster,
he could see into the shore. He knew exactly what I was doing
wrong. And I wasn't pointing up higher and higher into the
wind, I was crosswind. As soon as it went into the wind,
it lost its way. It had no speed left to get past
the other side of the wind. It wouldn't turn. But gradually,
I got the boat turning round and round higher and higher into
wind until it came round. But it was a very anxious time,
a time I've never, ever forgotten. I got a right telling off when
I got back, didn't you properly learn your lessons? Well, the
best lesson that was used, learned, was actually experiencing it.
And I'll never ever forget that lesson. But it is a very different
thing in experience. And remember that in the things
of God, what you are told, what we hear preached, when God works
in your heart and in mine. It will be in our lives. It will
be what things we actually go through. We will have troubles. We will have needs. You will
know what sin is about. You will know what it is to cry
unto the Lord to be delivered from it. You will know the power
of Satan. You will know those things actually
by experience, which is very, very different than just reading
about them. And so Paul has this link, the
tribulation, then the patience or endurance and experience,
but then through that experience there is hope. And it is a well-grounded
hope that if God has used these things for good, used them to
bring us to Him, there's a good hope. This is the Lord's work. And hope maketh not ashamed because
The love of God is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And it's good to notice the links
of scripture, the things that are joined together. Sometimes
we think, oh, we'd like to just be blessed of God and jump just
to the love of God, and that's what we'll have. But no, the
Lord says you go through tribulation, and you go through trials first,
and those difficulties first. And this is how it works. And
this is how the Apostle sets these doctrines, these truths
before us. Then we have another, and I mention
this because I often find this a very precious thing for those
that know the Lord, in verses 8, 9 and 10. God commanded his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, every one of
God's people, before they are called, while they're still enemies
to God, while they do not know God at all, Christ died for them
on Calvary. He suffered in their place. Those that were crying out, away
with him, away with him, crucify him. The Lord Jesus Christ was
dying to put away their sins, even while they hated him. And
that is the case with all of the people of God. But those
for whom Christ has died for and shed his blood, then he reconciles
them, he brings them to a time when they are converted, they
are brought to be in need of a saviour, And the Lord opens
their eyes and brings them to faith in Christ Jesus. And so he says in verse 10, if
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son. That is how God finds his people,
as enemies, at peace with hell. In sin's dark maze, we wander
far, at peace with hell, with God at war. And Hymn 76 speaks
of it. And we are, we're enmity and
hatred to God. But it is in that place that
God finds his people and converts them and changes them and makes
them to love him and to serve him. And so he says, if that
was the case, while we were enemies, much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life. So if God had mercy on us when
we hated Him and did not seek Him, how much more shall He have
mercy and help us when we do seek Him and He has brought us
to love Him and to serve Him and to walk in His ways? You
know, Satan will often be the accuser for the people of God
and point to all of their sins and say, No, the Lord did call
you, but after all what you've done afterwards, he'll cast you
away. He'll never save you now. But
the word says no. If the Lord begun a good work,
he will finish it. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So then he goes in the latter
part of the chapter, with drawing a contrast between Adam and Christ. The people of God in Adam, and
the people of God in Christ. Sin entering into the world through
Adam, but life through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this comparison
he has through most of the latter part of the chapter, verse 19,
For as by one man's disobedience, that's Adam, many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So by
Christ's obedience, many will be made righteous in the sight
of God, and by Adam's disobedience, many or all in the world were
made sinners. But our text speaks of the experience
of it. And you might say, well, is it
not speaking just generally about the law entering? Hasn't Adam
already said in verse 14 that the death reigned from Adam to
Moses? And what Paul is meaning is that
God had said to Adam in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die. They broke the law, the sentence
God brought, and they died, spiritually and literally. And that was the
case right from the beginning of the world, right until Mount
Sinai, even though there was no written law. There was no
written law. But then the law was given. The
Ten Commandments were given. at Mount Sinai. And the reason
why it is given was because if there is not a law, then sin
is not imputed, even in our land. If someone is going to be brought
in guilty before the courts, there must be a law that you
can point to, a written law, and say, you've broken that law,
you're brought in guilty. And so the law was given at Mount
Sinai, even though men were dying from Adam's day, because the
law was still there, though it had not been written. But that applies in a believer's,
or one that is to be a believer's, life as well. And that's why
our text, it says, moreover the law entered that the offense
might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And why I say this is speaking
of the experience of a believer, a child of God, is because it
immediately goes from the entrance of the law to grace abounding. And it is that where God begins
with the law entering, he will end, if you like, with grace
abounding. So I want to speak firstly in
this verse 20 of sin and grace and in the quantity of it. Moreover the law entered and
the reason that the offence might abound. The Apostle Paul later
on in chapter 7 He speaks of his own personal experience of
the law entering. He says in verse 9, I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died. There is a great difference between
knowing, being able to rehearse the Ten Commandments, and having
God taking even one of those commandments and showing us that
we have broken them and are guilty before God. And that is what
happened to the Apostle Paul. God did that, convinced him of
covetousness, thou shalt not covet. And when the law entered,
you might think, well, if God shows us his law, Immediately
that will make us to obey it and to do what is right, and
we won't be guilty of that sin anymore. But the law of God has
a different effect when it comes in. It's like with a child, if
you say, especially a young child, if you say to them, you must
not do this, you must not go into such and such a place, The
reaction, and for adults as well, the reaction is you want to do
it. The very thing that is forbidden, the more it is forbidden, the
more that in your heart it wants to do that. And when God brings
his law into our consciences and into our hearts in a living,
powerful way, it stirs up sin. It stirs up that which is fallen
in us. Not to be able to obey the law,
but actually to rebel against it and to fight against it. And God tells us why he brings
the law in. It never ever was designed to
give life. Already we have broken it. Already
we are under the sentence of it. The reason why the law was
given was that sin might abound, that sin might be exceedingly
sinful, that the idea that we could be saved by works should
be completely cut off, that we would not be looking that way,
that we be completely convinced that If it was by our own works
and by our own deeds, we must certainly go to hell. It says here in our text, the
law entered that the offence might abound. That is God's intention. Now if that is your experience,
that God is beginning to bring his law the Ten Commandments
and bringing it into your heart, and you begin to see your offenses,
begin to see your sins, they start then to abound. You realize it is in actual things
that you've done, then in things that you've thought, And then
in things that has been your intention. Then there'll be the
deceit, the covering of sin. And then there'll be the pride
of your heart. And then there'll be the aggravation
of those sins. Those things that have shown
us that the sin is not against man, but against God. against
light, against knowledge. And if the law has been brought
into our heart, we can't really turn around and say, well, I'm
ignorant of it. I don't know about that. Because
God is saying the whole reason why he brings the law in, the
offence might abound. If the Lord Jesus Christ is to
save a sinner, He makes that sinner feel a sinner first. And He'll make them feel a sinner
by bringing His holy, pure law into their hearts. You might
look or read through the Old Testament with the law of God
and how it was applied and given to the children of Israel. You
might think how strict that was, how severe that was. Man that
was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, he was stoned
to death. Many laws like that, so severe,
you think, how did anyone survive? How did anyone keep that? But it all teaches us that we
cannot obey the law of God. If it was put, say if we were
to make it, that the law was put in such a way that man, with
a bit of effort, he could fulfil it. Or at least to his own satisfaction. He would never seek mercy, he'd
never seek Christ, he'd never need a saviour. But the Lord's purpose is brought
in guilty before God. God's people truly will be brought
in as guilty sinners. But there is a reason, there's
a joining together, where moreover the law entered that the offence
might abound, but where sin abounded, and that is what the offence
is, is sin against God, a transgression of the law of God, Grace did
much more abound. And you might say, well, how
is this? What is grace? Grace, the free,
unmerited favor of God. It is a gift that is given by
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is given to a sinner, a person
here, that the law has entered. Well, the first thing where grace
is starting to abound is that God has caused that law to enter. That is God's grace. We don't
deserve the Lord to begin to save us, to pass by us and to
bid us live. That is His grace to do it. Not everyone has that. Why should
you have that blessing and not another? Why should others go
on like Saul of Tarsus once did, a Pharisee thinking that he did
nothing wrong? But you, the Lord has made you
to see that you are a sinner and the law is a holy law that
you cannot fulfil. Grace is beginning to abound
even in that. And what about bowing before
it and accepting what you see instead of rebelling against
it and to own like David did, I have sinned, is not that grace? Is it not grace to feel, to mourn
over that sin that you see in your heart? Is it not God's grace
to seek to cry unto the Lord on account of it? The publican
beating upon his breast, God be merciful to me a sinner. You
tell me that was not grace. Grace that made him fear the
sinner. Grace that made him pray. Grace that made him seek for
mercy. Grace is starting to abound in
many different ways. What about pride? Instead of
lifting up above the brethren or others and seeing in others
their moats and taking those out, you're suddenly aware there's
a beam in your own heart. And you've so much to do in your
own soul, you can't be looking much at others. One of the effects
of grace is to humble, is to bring down proud looks. That
is what we are by nature. But grace starts to abound as
one is brought in guilty. It comes, as scripture speaks
of it, a place of stopping amounts, a place of putting our A mouth
in the dust, if so be there might be hope. A place where we fall
down as in Psalm 107. There's none to help. We fall
down and cry unto the Lord in our distress. And He saves us
out of our distresses. And so grace starts to abound
in every answer that is given in prayer. Grace abounds when
instead of going along with Satan's suggestions, we resist and go
against them. Grace starts to abound where
we see the true nature of sin and where we start to really
groan under it and say with the Apostle O Wretched Man that I
am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? In me, that is in my flesh. Well
there's no good thing, is there not grace that shows that and
unfolds that? The free unmerited favour of
God, giving to his people those gifts, those graces that come
from him and that really show the blessing of the Lord. We
think of the the attitudes, and we may say of them, all of those
are the graces that the Lord gives as a sinner under sin. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Seeing
their sin, they're so wanting righteousness, they're wanting
to walk in right ways, good ways, but seeing that they're walking
in the opposite ways. And blessed are the merciful,
they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
they shall see God. And you might say, well, how
can it be pure in heart when a sinner is feeling their sin?
Pure. is something that is unmixed.
We're used to so many things in our lives, metals especially,
they're alloyed. Gold is alloyed, even a gold
ring has got other metals mixed with it, they're not pure. But
when the Lord begins with a sinner, he is of one mind. He knows himself
as a sinner and he desires righteousness. The Lord says he cannot serve
God a mammon must either be one or another, not got to be mixed. And that is what grace God gives
of his children, so that they have one aim, one desire, and
seeking after the Lord with not part of the heart, but all the
heart. They're not like King Agrippa, almost, thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. There's a realization, give me
Christ or else I die. It is the one thing, needful,
for that soul. And so, what the apostle says
here is worked out in experience for the people of God, that when
the law enters, by the grace of God it does, and the offences
begin to abound, then there is an abounding of grace, much more
abounding. And it's all linked. with the
conviction of sin, the knowledge of sin, that those graces are
given. Paul says when he writes to the
Ephesians, by grace ye are saved. Through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. We also are told, but grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We often think if we grow in
grace, we're going to get more and more holy. You grow in grace,
you more and more feel if ever my poor soul be saved, it is
Christ must be the way. If we grow in grace, we grow
more and more that by the deeds of the law, my soul shall never
stand, but only by the mercy and gifts of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel. One under the law will feel they
can't repent. They haven't life, they haven't
the ability to turn. But by the grace of God, they
are directed to Christ. The Holy Spirit of God will point
them to Christ. All of the sacrifices in the
Old Testament pointed to Christ. The Lord says of the Holy Spirit,
He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. It is
not just grace isolated, it's grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where it comes through.
In verse 21, grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. We finish our services the same
as Paul's benediction to the churches, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ and love of God and communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you. And the emphasis is it is the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is poured into his lips. Every blessing, every favour
comes to us through Jesus' precious blood. They are the gifts of
God to sinners. He shall save His people from
their sins. So that is verse 20. We have
sin and grace, the quantity, the quantity of sin, the quantities
of grace, more grace, abounding. The two are linked together. If you and I Desire to know much
of grace will know much of sin. The two are tied together. It won't lead us to sin. Paul
answers this question in the next chapter, in chapter six.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? And he says, God forbid. That is an abuse of this doctrine. Those that truly have the law
enter and really see what sin is, will seek to hate that sin
and the graces that they are given when they are crying to
the Lord for help, that sin might not have the mastery over them,
that they be delivered from it and saved from it. So it is not
just saying, well, we just deliberately do things or we won't make any
effort and any desire to change because, well, the Lord will
just forgive and pardon. No, that is fatalistic, licentious
spirit, a spirit that does not show the true grace of God. Then we have in verse 21, sin
and graces, And this is now in reigning. Who has got the mastery? Who is in control? That as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. As sin hath reigned unto death,
For there are several aspects that that applies to. A sinner
that is dead in sin, sin is reigning unto death, because they are
dead in sins. They don't know it, but they
are under sin, and they're under the dominion of it, and they're
under Satan's rule, and the dead know not anything. There is no
grace in that heart. There's nothing to combat sin
in that hut. Yes, there might be upbringing
and natural things that will restrain wickedness, but nothing
for the sake of the Lord and because of grace. Then there
is when sin becomes sin by the entrance of the law. We read
to you from Romans 7, Now the apostle said it was with him. He says, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And so then there is a reigning,
if you like, of sin and it reigns unto death. Another place in
Paul's letter to the Galatians, he says the law is a schoolmaster
unto Christ. And the purpose of God, the aim
of God, is not to bring a sinner so that he is just partially
wounded, but actually that the law slays him and it reigns unto
death. And so it brings him in, so that
he is dead to sin. He is dead to the possibility
of saving himself. And sin has reigned so much,
it has really overreached itself. It's made itself so abhorrent
that it's reigned even unto death. And so then that has made way
that there be another reign. Of course, at the moment, we have
most terrible things that are happening in the Ukraine, and
the people there being so affected by another power attacking them. And really, there's a battle
as to who shall reign in that country, who shall have, the
control over that country. And that is how it is in the
song. Who shall have a control over
that song? Bunyan in his holy war, he speaks
of that warfare, that battle for the soul of man. The attempts
of Satan to regain it once it has been taken out of his control. And the whole aim is, who shall
have the sway? Who shall govern the population
of that soul? Who shall be the dictator of
what happens in this person, in this believer? Shall it be
sin reigns, and that has the sway? Or shall it be grace that
reigns? What shall it be? You might say, well, with what
we have sung of all of the conflicts with sin, how do I know that
grace is reigning? How do I know that sin is not
reigning? One of the Puritans said to impress
upon a young believer that he is called to a life of a constant
warfare with the corruptions of his own heart. And I know
it to be true. That where there is a warfare,
there's never a reigning. Now there's a thought even with
the conflict in Ukraine, Even if they were able to gain tremendous
mastery, if there were those there that were still strengthened
to be able to fight for their country, they would still keep
doing so. You might say, well, they'd never
really have a great victory, great dominion, but one could
never say that those that were Seeking to have control, we're
reigning uncontested. The grace of the Lord will never
allow sin, an easy passage into that soul. It will be that which
the Lord will raise up a standard against the adversary. He will
cause it there be. a resistance which there can
never be, where there's never been a change in the heart. Where
there is an unregenerate song, there is a
complete reign of sin. But where there is the grace
of God, then that grace reigns. But it reigns in this way. through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Now in the next
chapter, there's a few verses that just tells us the means
and way that grace will reign in our heart. In verse 12, we
have this. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the last day of. Now what an answer to the devil
when he would say, well if you're really converted, then sin will
be so dead that it will never be an adversary or never rise
up against you. The word of God will say, sin
is there within, And in one sense, there is a choice, there is a
way that's set before a soul. A soul that's dead in sin, has
no power, no might, no strength, none to call upon, none to help
him at all. But one that the Lord has begun
with, one whom he has died for, shed his blood for, redeemed
for, he is one that the Lord will fight for, and will deliverance. You know, the children of Israel,
when they came out of Egypt, the Lord fought for them. He
delivered them. He saved them. Each time, like
when they were at the Red Sea, they thought, surely we're going
to be destroyed. But the Lord destroyed their
enemy instead. And sin is like that. But the
Lord gives his people that strength and help. Resist the devil and
he shall flee from you. Or the Apostle says, if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. He
says regarding himself, I keep under my body that after I preach
to others, I myself become a cast away. And you have a picture
of a believer in a very conscious way, doing warfare against the
sin of his own heart and own body. He's not doing it to gain
acceptance with God. He's not doing it to obtain heaven. His trust is in Christ. Christ's
blood, Christ's finished work, what Christ has done for him
at Calvary, The satisfaction obtained there, the empty tomb,
that is his title for heaven. That is where he looks, that
the God has given him grace to make him feel his sin, and grace
to resist it and to hate sin. He will give him that help in
those daily battles with sin. And so there's an exhortation
joined within, and it is by faith. Remember the Apostle writing
to the Ephesians, by grace ye are saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. And here is the acting of faith. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. And then you further, Neither
yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. and these beautiful promises,
and this is how grace reigns, that sin does not have the dominion. He says in verse 17, but God
be thanked. Why? That ye were the servants
of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. The Lord makes his people obedient
and to walk in his ways and to hear his voice and to flee from
those sins, hating those sins. That is what repentance is, that
the Lord is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins, to turn
the heart, to turn the feet to Zion's hill. And he says in verse
19, I speak after the manner of flesh, manner of men, because
of the infirmity of your flesh, as ye have yielded your members,
servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even
so now yield your members, servants, to righteousness unto holiness. The path of the people of God
is a path of obedience, of following the Lord Jesus Christ, in us
seeking those things that are above, resisting against sin,
fighting against sin. In the book of Esther, we have
the sentence of death there over all of the Jews. But the way
that it was overcome was not the king saying, we're going
to take away the sentence of death. You won't have any enemy
rise up against you. That was not allowed. They couldn't
do that. But they could make another law.
And the other law was that the Jews could stand for their lives. They could fight. They could
resist. And they had the authority of
the king. And because of the fear of that,
many that weren't Jews, they became Jews. And you see what
an effect it is when the king of heaven gives authority to
his people. weak as they may be, sinners
as they may be, that they have authority to fight because they
have a captain that is stronger than any foe. They have one who
has grace to give in every time of need. And it is the love of
God that constrains the people of God to desire to have the
Lord reign over them. Instead of by nature, it is by
nature We will not have this man to rule over us. By the grace
of God is we desire the Lord to rule over us. We want him
to be our king. We want to bring back, as it
were, David and Absalom. And we want there to be the Lord's
presence and the Lord's blessing to be amongst us. This people
have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. because they are recipients of
his grace and power of mind. These people, they are his people,
a redeemed people, a saved people, a people that he shows his pleasure
and goodness upon them. In this world, in the midst of
sin, in the midst of tribulation, having a body of death, the Lord
works his grace in the midst of all of this. making them more
than conquerors, not in themselves, but through the Lord Jesus Christ,
through the grace, the help that he has given them. He has laid
help upon one that is mighty. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that grace then reigns through
righteousness, through the Lord's righteousness, through the grace
that he gives his dear people. to walk in His ways and not in
the ways of sin. And the end of it is eternal
life, really that eternal life begins here below, but it will
be forever and ever. I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of mine hands. And may we really notice how
that life is evidenced here below, and is evidenced in the conflict
with sin, and the grace that abounds where sin abounded, and
the reign of grace over the reign of sin. That is how that life
is evidenced in experience in these two verses, and I trust
there are some of us here alone We have set it forth. Pauline
will know something of what this conflict is and the secret of
the life of God in her soul. Here below, he shall give grace
and glory. No good things shall he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. And they walk uprightly by the
grace of God and the help that he gives. Their trust again,
I say, of heaven is in Christ alone. their works are the fruit
of his righteousness, they're not what they do to obtain heaven. Well may the Lord bless this
word, amen.