Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 22 from our Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn
book, number 22, For the Glory of His Grace. And let's all stand
together. We were ruined by the fall, Adam's
sin defiles us all. By our deed, as by our birth,
we deserve the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we,
never can our souls retrieve. But the blessed Son of God Came
as man in flesh and blood He fulfilled the Lord's demands
And in death stretched out His hands On the cross of Calvary
Christ redeemed and set us free In the time which God had set,
the Spirit came for His elect to regenerate and hope. from the ruin of the fall by
his power and by his grace we were born for god's own praise
now your purpose we fulfill saved according Please be seated. I want to reread a scripture
that we studied this past Sunday. It really spoke to me, especially
the last verse. So, Acts 28, beginning in verse
20. Acts 28, verse 20. Last chapter
of the book of Acts. Paul's coming to the end of his
earthly ministry, but he made it to Rome. The Lord saw that
he made it to Rome to preach to the people there. That was
his desire, and it was obviously God's purpose. For this cause,
therefore, have I called for you, to see you and to speak
with you, because that, for the hope of Israel, I'm bound with
this chain. And they said unto him, we neither
receive letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any
of that brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee, but
we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest. For as concerning
this sect, the believers, we know that everywhere it is spoken
against. And when they had pointed him
a day, there came many to him, into his lodging, to whom he
expounded, that word also means explained, and testified the
kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of
the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. I love Craig, he's a little
bit of a language, expert, and he looked at this, and he noted
that some believed passive, and some believed not an active thing. We came into this world not believing
an active thing. I mean, we came in with our fists
in the air. We believed what we wanted. We
made up what, if we're religious, we made up whatever religion
we wanted, you know, according to what we heard, and we had
it figured out, and we could approach God on our own. We were
unbelievers. We believe not. We were active,
active, and even in our religious pursuits, we were enemies of
God. I pray tonight that we will be passive and just receive the
gospel according to God's grace and his word, and that's the
best we can hope for. Greg called Jeff just before
services tonight, and he asked us to be in prayer for Jeanette
Briggs. She had some tests today. They
did a bone with a biopsy, a bone biopsy on her. And she gets the
results with Donny this Friday. We're hoping for a good outcome.
But the physicians, obviously there's a reason why they're
doing that. So anyway, let's pray for them. Lord, we come
before you tonight. Lord, we ask that by your grace
and your spirit, you would make us passive. Just, Lord, cause
us to believe what we hear, just to be still and to believe. Lord,
we ask for your grace on those who who are your children wherever
they meet throughout the world. Lord, we ask that you be with
our pastor and our friends who are not here tonight. Lord, we
especially ask for you to be with Donnie and Jeanette. And
Lord, we ask that she gets a good prognosis, Lord, but we know
all things are in your will and we ask that you would give Donnie
and Jeanette grace to deal with this and whatever you have ordained
for them. Lord, please be with us tonight.
Lord, calm our hearts. cause us to put the world behind
us and just to think on things above this hour and to believe. We ask it in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's sing another hymn. Number 125 from the hardback,
125. And then Jeff will come and preach.
Let's stand once again. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
in need is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me Thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone, And change the leper's spots, And melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, All to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, Whereby
thy grace to claim, I'll wash my garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left the crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Please be seated. Jeff. Well, good evening, everyone.
It really is an honor to be here when I think of what the Lord
has done from this pulpit, when I think of what I've heard from
this pulpit, to preach here, really. It really is an honor. Could you turn to Romans chapter
five, please? Romans chapter five. You know,
I pray the Lord, I do pray this often, that he would forgive
me, that he would guide me and strengthen me and forgive me
for any time I've ever mixed works into the gospel of his
free grace. I can remember when the Lord
first kind of turned my eyes towards spiritual things. I really
didn't have much understanding of the gospel. But there I was,
I was talking about the gospel to someone I've known for a long
time. I was only doing the best that I could with what I knew
at the time. I wasn't wanting to tell them to shape their lives
up, but they got really mad and they looked at me the way that
you'd look at somebody if they were looking down their nose
at you and telling you to change your life and be better. And
they got really mad and they said, You're someone to tell
me about right and wrong. And the idea was there that they
found it amusing that, having been privy to how I lived before,
that I would come and tell them about how to live now. But the
thing is, I wasn't wanting to tell them about how to live.
I wanted to tell them about the Savior. Men naturally assume. that God's blessing, salvation,
depends in some way on your moral reform. That's natural to assume
that. And plenty of false religion
will come and back that up and make people think that even more.
I don't remember how the rest of that conversation went or
what I said. I know what I would say now,
though. I would say that the promise that God made to Abraham,
that he should be heir of the world, was not made to Abraham
or to us as seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. If I can do something to come
into God's favor and earn God's favor, faith is made void. Because if I can look to somewhere
else outside of myself, I need to do that. If I can look at
myself, I need to do more of that. If I can try harder, I
need to spend my time doing that. Faith would be made void, and
the promise would be made of none effect. God can't promise
a man his blessings if his blessings are conditioned on something
that man does, because that man might not do the things that
he needs to do to be blessed by God. Holy God cannot promise. blessings on a man, but he does
promise, and that's our hope that doesn't make us shamed.
He promises based on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. We're starting in verse 5, I'm
sorry. Not ashamed. We have something that we will
never be ashamed of. Believers are people who are
united with the only man who can be trusted. I hope that doesn't
sound trite or clever. It's really true. We have a living,
vital connection to a man with wound prints in his hands. The
only man who could be trusted. Would to God we would spend our
life just searching out. the scriptures this union between
Christ and his church. We could never search it out.
I'm first trying to show you why our hope will never leave
us ashamed. Okay, let's go to Isaiah chapter
50. I love this. Let's see, let's see
if the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ isn't the same
God and Father who receives our strong crying and groanings in
the days of our flesh. When I think of why our hope
will never be ashamed, the first thing I think of is that God
became man and came to this world. And for 30 something years, he
went through this same world being afflicted with the same
things we are. And he had the same Father watching
him and helping him. How could we be ashamed? Okay,
verse, we're in Isaiah chapter 50. Let's go to verse five. You know who's speaking here.
The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back. I gave my tongue, I gave my back
to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord
God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is
near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they shall all wax old as a garment. The moth shall
eat them up. I said the same Father, the same
God. Now, okay, of our Lord Jesus
Christ is ours. So could we go to Revelation
3.21, Revelation 3.21. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am
set down with my father in his throne. He's our same father. The Lord
Jesus Christ had to endure the same things in this world, fear,
pain, affliction, desertion, he overcame. And who is he that
overcometh, that he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God,
the Apostle John writes to us in 1st John, to believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Elsewhere he writes that Jesus
is the Christ. That He's the one who came into
the world and did everything that the Old Testament said He
would do. Put away sins, bring in everlasting
righteousness, make an end of sins. That is to believe that
He is the Christ. So the same God who watched over
Him, His Father watches over us. But we don't have a message
of moral reform or encouraging men to improve their lives. Men are so far past that. They're
dead. It wouldn't help them. It couldn't
do anything. They need a rescuer. They need to be delivered. They
can't be motivated. And if they could, it would only
be self-righteousness. He says, my salvation is forever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Now, remember,
our hope that maketh not ashamed or faith, is being fully persuaded
that what God has promised, he's able to perform. God promised
Christ to people before time began. Christ came and lived
and died for them, and God has performed this. You see, our
union with Christ is why our hope will never be ashamed. He
said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish
his work. It's like how Greg preached a
few weeks ago, whoever's in the ship with him is going where
he's going. So, so exalted is the son of God after his successful
mission to earth, and so satisfied is God the Father with the church
that he even makes hardened fools, the most hardened, reprobate
fools, to sing his praise. Like Balaam, he was hired to
curse, but God put a word in his mouth. Let's go to Numbers
chapter 23. I wanna show you why the high
honor of Christ, from his successful mission to earth to redeem his
people, the honor God puts upon him, carries us, us, all through
the days of our lives, because of what our Savior did. Numbers 23. This is God making
sure that we're never ashamed before men because men come against
the church and God overturns their plans. Let's start in verse
1. And Balaam said unto Balak, build
me here seven altars and prepare me here seven oxen and seven
rams. And Balak did, as Balaam had
spoken. And Balak and Balaam offered
on every altar a bullock and a ram. And Balaam said unto Balak,
stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go. Peradventure,
the Lord will come to meet me. And whatsoever he showeth me,
I will tell thee. And he went to a high place.
And God met Balaam, and he said unto him, I have prepared seven
altars, and I have offered upon every altar, a bullock and a
ram. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, return
unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. And he returned unto him,
and lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the princes
of Moab. And he took up his parable and
said, Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought me from Aram out
of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob,
and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath
not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks
I see him, and from the hill God's gonna make this man praise
him for what he's done in his people, starting right here.
From the hills I behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone
and shall not be reckoned among the nations. So he realizes now,
come out and be separate. He realizes God has a sanctified
people. They're different. They're not
reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob?
Verse 10. Who can count the dust of Jacob
and number the fourth part of Israel? Here, God's making this
man sing the praises of God's faithfulness, his faithfulness. Remember, God had promised Abraham
a seed, as many as the sand of the seashore. And now he sees
that here. Let me die the death of the righteous
and let my last end be like his. And remember, when God promised
Abraham all that seed, in that same conversation, he said, I
am, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. So we see God protecting us,
guarding us, all because of what his son did, his mission to earth
to redeem his people, God is pleased with that. He showers
his church with blessings. Here's something I know. I know
this for sure. There will be nobody on the judgment
day who believed in Jesus Christ who is not ushered into heaven.
There will be nobody who's turned away, who came to Christ as a
sinner, who needed mercy and believed that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, who will be turned away because they failed to also
do something else other than believe in Jesus Christ. When
God took the people out of Egypt, he said there wasn't a hoof left
behind. You say, well, they were so sickly,
but they made it. They made it, not a hoof. left
behind, never be ashamed. What kindles this hope? What, back to our text now, what kindles,
what makes it strong? How is it sustained? This hope
of ours. It's the love of God. Hope maketh
not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts. The love of God constrains us
because we thus judge. We judge that if one died for
all, then we're all dead. The love of God constrains us.
It guides us. It cheers us. It does everything
for us because we know that when Jesus Christ died, then God's
elect in him were dead. I've been dead to sin since he
died. I've been dead to sin. It has
no claim over me. It doesn't, it's not gonna send
me to hell. R.G. once preached from here.
He said, I wonder how many people have lived and died and gone
to hell. and I know I won't be one of
them. That constrains us. In one place
scripture says, hereby perceive we the love of God because that
he laid down his life for us. But here, here in Romans 5 verse
5, And in the following verses, we see how low that love had
to reach down. Here we see that this love shed
abroad is not the love of God toward a world of people who
are lovable. It's not the love of God toward
a world of people who are morally injured and need help. And now
he's helping those who help himself. There's nothing lovely about
man. Genesis 5 3 it says Adam brought
forth Seth in his image The Bible says Adam was made in God's image
something changed they walked in the cool of the day and Now look at him and and now he's
hiding in bushes he's lying and making excuses something changed
we're not lovable and This is the love of God towards
sinners who are at war with God and alienated in their minds
by wicked works. That is the love of God the scriptures
talk about. Let's go to Proverbs chapter
20. Here's man's problem. Here's
man's problem right here. He cannot and he doesn't want
to think right thoughts about himself or about God. If you think right thoughts about
yourself, you're going to start thinking right thoughts about
God, though. Okay, Proverbs 20, verse 8. A king that sitteth
in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes. Those eyes are the same as the
light in John chapter 3 that the wicked won't come to. Irreligious
wicked men hate God because they wish that he would stop watching
them. Religious wicked men hate God
because they wish that he would start watching them and taking
account of their works. The problem is we hate God. Who
can say, I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin.
Here's a challenge from God. Who wants to say that? There
are some people who do. They do. Verse 10, by using diverse
weights and diverse measures, what God calls righteous and
acceptable is a lot, lot higher of a standard than where we set
it. We say something weighs a pound.
God says it doesn't. and for grace to be able to just
realize that and run to Christ in this life now. What I call
a pound, he doesn't. It must be perfect to be accepted.
Diverse weights and diverse measures, calling something righteous that
God says is only adding sin unto sin. That's man's problem. But God
who is rich in mercy Yet sinners look at back to I'm sorry back
to Romans chapter 5 I'm talking about the love of God For when we were yet without
strength Yet sinners ungodly. That's how we are described in
verses 5 through 10 in Let's look at verse 8, while we were yet sinners. You know what breaks a believer's
heart more than anything? While we, Christ died. That's how it is throughout the
entirety of scripture. While we were yet sinners, but
Christ died for us. There's two places in the scriptures
where Paul seems to speak as if his writing changes. He seems to speak as if it's
like he was the only person in the world who Christ came to
save. It's like the world stops spinning when you read this.
He talks like he's the only one. It's in Galatians 2 where he
says, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now
live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And then, in the first chapter of 1 Timothy,
where he says, this is a saying worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. Well, right here in verse 8, we get the perfect chance to
do that same thing right here. We can put ourselves in this
verse, just like Paul wrote, while we were yet sinners, while
we were lost in religion, while we were lost in a filthy lifestyle,
while we were groping in the dark and trying to find our way
to something we could call happiness, thinking that that was the goal
and hating God. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. There's really no understanding
of God's love until you take your place as a ruined sinner
who God shouldn't love. The thing that stops our mouths
in a good way is we can say in truth, I am my beloved's and
my beloved is mine. We can tell the gospel to people,
and you see it come over their face. They're confused. Wait,
so God hates sin, but he loves, every person who he loves is
nothing but sin. How does that work? The church
in the Old Testament knew about this. They knew. In Song of Solomon,
the church says, my beloved is white and ruddy. My beloved is
white, that's not ethnicity, that's holy God, separate from
sinners, who will by no means clear the guilty. Holy God. And ruddy, that's a ruddy complexion. You have a ruddy complexion only
if you have blood. Our Lord came as man. He took
on him the nature of the seed of Abraham. He's tempted in all
points as we are. He was made like his brethren. He was a man with blood as ours,
and his was shed for the remission of sins. You know, If somebody is lovable,
there would really be nothing special about it if somebody
loved them. What about unlovable people who
don't do anything but sin? I want to see the love of God.
Let's go to Psalm 107. Psalm 107, please. Okay. Verse 1. Verse 1. O give thanks unto the
Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Let the
redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the
hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands, from the
east and from the west. from the north and from the south.
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found
no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses."
This whole psalm, it's all like that. Let's go to verse 33. He
turneth rivers into a wilderness and the water springs into a
dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness
of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into
a standing water and dry ground into water springs. He makes
our moisture become drought. He dries up our self-righteousness
and gives us the fountain of life then. Now, the very last
verse of this psalm, verse 43. You see how the Lord has put
a difference between us and the Egyptians. You see how he's directed
our entire life everything about us, that thing
we did yesterday, everything about us, to bring us to Himself,
to Himself. We don't come to people with
a message of moral reform. We come with a Savior who takes
you from where you are and asks nothing of you, but to believe
in Him and trust Him that He's done it all. We have a spiritual
understanding of Psalm 107 by the Holy Spirit that's given
to us. Now, when he's given, he makes us know that we're without
strength, sinners, yet sinners, and ungodly, just like it says
in our verse. Now, when the Spirit comes, that
is being saved, being saved by Christ's life. In verse 10, 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. That's by his resurrection life. In the last supper, the Lord
told the disciples they were scared. I don't know a better
word for it. They were scared. They were upset. He had been with them for so
long and he was going to leave. And he said, in that day, in
that day, well, let's go to it, I'm sorry. Let's go to John chapter
14, please. He saved us in his death and
he saves us by sending his spirit into our hearts. Okay, John chapter
14. Let's look at verse 19 and 20. Yet a little while, and the world
seeth me no more, but ye see me. Because I live, ye shall
live also. At that day, in that day that
you live, because I live, you shall know that I am in my Father. and ye in me, and I in you. I'm in my Father, a man approved
of God, whose God is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He
said he comes out from the Father, and he says, we'll know you in
me. We are in him, that we're chosen
in him, that we're branches of his vine, and that we're crucified
with Christ. And he says, we'll know that
he is in us. filled with the Holy Spirit who
testifies of Him, this is being saved by His life. Now His life
at the Father's right hand as well. We're being saved by His
intercession right now too. He said, I will not leave you
comfortless. We know that He's at the Father's right hand. sending
his spirit to guide us and lead us. He doesn't have to beg God
to bless us. His mere presence in heaven is
the seal of our well-being. You see, at the dedication of
the temple, one asked if God will indeed dwell on earth with
man. Well, he does. Our bodies are
the temples of the Holy Ghost. You see, to be saved by his life,
to have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, it causes
God's elect to glory in and to cling to the things in verses
six through 10. While we were yet enemies, we
were reconciled. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. To be saved by his life is to
be filled with the Holy Ghost who shows you these things. What is a sinner? What is a sinner? Do they need help? Are they disabled? Do they need to be shown the
right way? Well, a sinner is somebody who can't fix themselves
and they can't see what's wrong with them. They can't do anything
about it because they don't believe anything is wrong with them.
A sinner is a man who doesn't know God. That's really simple, but think
about that. To not know God, you're lost. You're lost. You have no spiritual life. Mankind is such a sinner that
the most popular song to be played at pagan funeral services is
a song that says, I did it my way. There he is. There he is, being lowered into
the ground, the penalty for sin. The last thing he's doing on
earth is celebrating his rebellion, saying, I did it my way. And
the men around the graveside are glad that he did it his way. Mankind is lost. We don't have
a message saying, to improve yourself, we have a savior. If the gospel was a message of
moral improvement, men would only do the same thing with it
that they do with God's law. They would break it and then
lie to themselves and lie to God and lie to others that they
keep it. It would be of no use. We don't
have to steal glory from God by climbing up some other way.
God's elect are already perfectly spotless in God's sight. For
the blood of Jesus Christ justifies us from all charges. Verse nine,
being now justified. I used to have trouble with that.
Why does it say now? I tried to fit that into my scheme
of soteriology and it got really complicated really quick. That's
not the reason the Bible was written. It was written to Glorian.
It says now justified because you're always sinning. And every
second is a now. And God wants us to know that
we are continually justified and freed from the charges we would be guilty of. If you saw a man had just been
executed for his crimes, Would you ask him to pay for his crimes? Of course you wouldn't. He's
dead. He's already paid for them. The law has been completely satisfied. There's nothing more he can do.
That's like asking one of God's elect to pay for their crimes.
They've already paid for it in their head, in their surety. He gave everything the law demanded. God says, behold, I have caused
thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change
of raiment. You know what makes me frustrated
is I hear conservative, orthodox, Calvinistic men even, and they
will use as if language to describe our justification. Justification
is just as if I'm perfectly righteous, But justification is not just
as if I'm perfectly righteous. He says, I have caused thine
iniquity to pass from thee. We are righteous. If it was only
as if I'm righteous, will heaven be as if I'm in heaven? The Bible says, God loveth the
righteous. Is it as if he loves those who
are as if they're righteous? It destroys the entire gospel. We are righteous because Jesus
Christ shed his blood for us. We shall be saved from wrath
through him because we actually are acquitted from every charge
of sin. Who shall lay a charge against
God's elect? Joshua in Zechariah chapter 3. He told Satan, the Lord rebuked
thee, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem. This Joshua
is one of my brands I've plucked out of the fire. I set my face
like a flint for that man. He's mine. So, this is what I want people to
know about the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ is
inherently powerful. It secures and guarantees God's
blessings. We have such a hard time understanding
God's justice because all we know is what we see, the way
that we see society working when it comes to that. We usually
lessen punishment if somebody is contrite and they own up to
their crimes. God can't do that. God can't
do that. Apart from a blood sacrifice,
repentance and owning our mistake is pointless. It does nothing.
It's not meritorious. Or we lessen punishment if people
are willing to make up for their crime with good deeds. God can't
do that. Our works aren't meritorious
because they're done by sinners. No, Lebanon is not sufficient
to burn, it says, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt
offering. A world lifting up its eyes to
hell, in hell, to all eternity, wouldn't be sufficient to satisfy
God's anger towards sin. Because it would simply be sinners
enduring the punishment they deserve. Enduring what you deserve
isn't meritorious. But this man," in Hebrews 10,
who was made a curse, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down. The veil of the temple was rent.
The veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom to
show that it's something only God could do. A man couldn't
get to the top and start tearing it from the top. He'd have to
start at the bottom. The gospel comes from heaven
down to us. That is, well, wait, Romans chapter 10. The word is nigh thee. Let's
go to Romans chapter 10. The gospel comes down to us,
we don't go up to it. Verse five, for Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, That is, to bring up Christ
again from the dead? But what saith it? How does the righteousness which
is of faith speak? How does that sound? The word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith, which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. We have a message about a man
who put away the sins of his church. They're gone. and a Holy Ghost who comes and
shows us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,
who shows us that we have no strength, that we're ungodly. There's nothing in us that's
like God. No. No, this chapter, Romans chapter
5, is about representation. The actions of the one man being
accounted to the rest. Adam sinned. We're all sinners. Christ died and obeyed the law. We're all righteous. His elect
are all righteous. Our hope is a man. Was Adam truly
human? He was really a man, in Christ
just as much so, and he's seated in glory. Adam, the man, brought
death, and you can see its effects. You can see the effects of Adam.
When you drove here tonight, you passed graveyards, hospitals,
ambulances, people fighting on the street. Your sins today, The effects of Adam's actions
are all around us. You can see it. But a man, but
this man, he came. He was a man every bit as much
as Adam. And you can see the effects of
that too. Can you not? Why are we all here
gathered tonight? Why do you believe the gospel?
You see, He undid, for God's elect, everything
the first man, Adam, did. By man came death. Also, by man
came the resurrection from the dead. Messiah said that if a
seed of corn abides alone, nothing will happen. But if that seed
falls in the ground and dies, it will bring forth much fruit. We are his fruits. David said,
truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall
look down from heaven. The Lord raised him from the
dead and seated him at his right hand, having put away our sins,
and he's now sending his spirit into our hearts, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. And that's the message I want
to bring to those around us. Let's worship him. Let's pray
to him. Lord God, Lord, you know what
every person needs. You know our sins, Lord, and
you've put them away, God. Thank you so much that you hear
us and that you guide us through this world. Please, Lord, take
these words and make them powerful to all who hear. It's in your
son's name we pray, amen. We can close with 126, Jeff.
126. Number 126. Let's all stand. Bye! Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flow be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These, for sin, could not atone. Thou must save, and Thou alone. In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold thee on thy throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in thee.