Well, it's a delight to be here
when you open your Bibles to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter
5. We'll talk about the nature of
grace. The nature of grace. I don't have a clock or a watch.
Is there one on the wall somewhere? That's not good. It's not good to tell me that. Start reading together in verse
17. For if by one man's offense,
death reigned by that one sin, by that one man's sin. But now
watch what he says here about what we have in Christ. Much
more, they which receive abundance of grace, one sin, one man, one
brought death. But much more, they which receive
abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, that righteousness
reigns in life by the Lord Jesus Christ, by one man, and his righteousness,
his obedience. Therefore, as by the offense,
or that one sin of one man, that one sin of judgment came upon
all men to condemnation, Even so, the righteousness of one,
the free gift, free gift, not earned, not deserved, came upon
all men under justification of life. Now I'm going to comment
on that, that all that came under condemnation, that all that received
the free gift of justification, is the same people. Is the same
people. All those who was Condemned they
were the very ones that was justified because only God justifies only
his elect So it's obvious That the same all is the same people
For as by one man's disobedience Many were made sinners see how
he's used the same language again So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous the same many moreover The law entered
that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, and again,
that much more, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath
reigned, there's two sovereigns in this scripture, sin and Christ. Sin reigns, righteousness reigns,
Christ reigns. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign. rule by our Lord Jesus Christ
and His righteousness unto eternal life. But you notice that word
grace. Grace did much more abound. I
love the word grace. I just love the word. I just
enjoy saying the word. Delight in saying the word. And
if I had another daughter, I'd name her Grace. I would. I'd name her Grace. Not only
a wonderful word, but a beautiful word, if you know what it means.
What a comprehensive word the word grace is. And we have such
a great contrast here. We have in these verses, we have
sin abounding. Sin absolutely abounding. Just
abounding. But we have grace much more abounding. You think sin abounds. Grace
much, much, much more abounds. Where sin abounds. Sin reigned
unto death, but grace reigns unto eternal life by our Lord
Jesus Christ. And where sin abounded, grace
completely overflows it. No matter how much sin is present,
the grace that comes from God is immeasurable. It's like putting
out a match with a whole bucket of water. That's what it's like. Grace is so abounding. And you
look through the Scriptures at how grace abounded in men and
women's lives. You take Mary Magdalene. Here's
a woman who had seven devils. You realize how mean, how corruptible,
how despicable, how corrupt this woman was? I've seen some rough
women in my time, some rough men, but this woman had seven
devils. Sin abounded in her life so abundantly,
so greatly. And our Lord Jesus Christ, grace
overflowed in her that you find her sitting at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Coming in and washing His feet
with her tears and drying them with the hairs of her head. Grace
did much more abound. Zacchaeus, a thief, a thief,
tax collector. Sin abounded in his life. But
grace, when our Lord called him down out of that tree, grace
did much more about it. It said, Today, salvation must
come unto your house. And you late Saul of Tarsus,
he despised and hated our Lord Jesus Christ in His name, persecuted
the Lord Jesus people, took children like you, parents, husbands,
wives, children, had them put in jail, had them persecuted.
And how much did grace abound over that man's life? Put him
down in the dust. And that man is the very one
who penned these words, where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. Became the greatest preacher
other than our Lord Jesus Christ of anybody who lived on this
earth. And then there's Simon Peter. You're talking about sin
abounding. He bragged and boasted, said,
Lord, I'll go with you. If I have to die with you, I'll
go to jail with you, whatever's necessary. And our Lord looked
him a square in the eye and said, before this night's over, Peter,
you'll deny me three times for the rooster crow. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Sin is horrible, but wherever
it is, Grace superabounds over it. Overflows over it. Now let's
talk about the nature of grace. Grace is this. It's God acting
freely. God acting freely. God acting
according to His own nature. God acting according to His nature
of love. The scripture says God is love.
God is love. And don't say God is a God of
love. People say that all the time. Whenever you preach the
righteousness of God, the justice of God, the wrath of God, and
the holiness of God, they'll say, well, my God's a God of
love. God Himself is love. It's His nature. And He must,
in nature, must act according to His nature. If there is love
present anywhere, it must be acted out. It must be. You and I aren't free to love
who we will. We don't have that ability. You
know who we love? Our own families. Our own children. Our own wives and our own husbands.
Now we love one another, but not like we love our wives and
children. And that's why it's not natural for us and not free
to us to love whom we will. But God is free to love whom
He will. And if God loves anyone at all,
Manifest that love it's all of grace God chose to love that
person God freely loves that person It's all of grace in grace
is God loving his people as individuals as individuals, every single
one of them individuals, without any promises from them, without
any obligations from them, without them having to do anything or
fulfill anything. And not only that, but He loves
and gives His people and loves them based on the righteousness
and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that was given us in Him before
the world ever began. And I'll tell you something else
about the nature of grace. Not only is grace God acting
freely, But grace is uncaused in the recipient. Grace is uncaused
in the recipient if its cause, grace's cause, is holy, solely,
in the one who gives it, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, for God Almighty. Look in Ephesians 1 with me a
minute, and I'll show you what I'm talking about. Grace is uncaused
in the recipient. You know, years and years ago,
I used to wear long hair and a beard and done all those things and did
it for several years. And everybody always tell me,
said, the Lord, you know, if you need to cut your hair, need
to shave your beard, start going to church, you know, and maybe
God will save you. And of course, you think that's
right when you're lost and you're a natural man. But I have nothing
to do with God giving you grace. Oh, look what he said here at
verse 4. According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, listen to this now, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself now. This this
is the cause of God's grace according to his good pleasure Why does
God do what he did for you according to his good pleasure? And why
did it what was the motive behind it to the praise of the glory
of his grace? We're in he he he hath made us
accepted in the beloved and Grace, if it's given, it's solely in
the cause of the giver. And if you ever, ever look for
a cause of grace in yourself, you'll never find it. You won't
find it. Just quit looking. You'll never
find it. And that's what makes grace so
amazing. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. Once was blind, but now I
see. Once was lost, but now I'm found.
Once was blind, but now I see. You see, that's what makes grace
so amazing. It's free! That's why I love
the word free grace better than a new sovereign grace. Cause
free means that you absolutely don't do anything for it. You
don't do anything to pay it back. You don't do anything you don't
owe anything. You absolutely do not do anything. I mean grace is God just constantly
doing for you what you cannot and will not do for yourself.
Huh? It's free! It comes to God without
anybody asking for it, and where it comes, it absolutely overflows. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That's not of yourselves. If
anybody ever tells you repentance and faith is conditions for God
to save you, they're telling you a lie. Grace gives you repentance. Grace gives you faith. Wherefore
by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourself.
What is it? The gift of God. Not of works. Why is it not of works? Because
if man had anything to do with it, you know what he'd do? He'd
boast about it. You find a fellow boasting about what he's done
for the Lord or why God's done something for him, you've found
somebody who don't know anything about the grace of God. I'm telling
you, and I know I'm telling the truth right there. I'll tell
you something else about the nature of grace. Grace is sovereign. It acts freely, freely loved,
and grace is sovereign. God has no debts to pay to any
member of the human race. You hear people say that all
the time. I've never, you know Mother's Day, we just went through
Mother's Day. Every mother I know, and ever heard tell of, got to
go to heaven. You know they but they might
have been mean as hell itself might have beat their children
black and blue Might have been a drunk, but when they died they
become the best mother that ever was and they get to go to heaven
and grannies to Grannies and mamas always go to heaven Because
they was good and so God owed them a debt and he has to take
them and If you want to go see your granny, you better get right
with God because you know you better do this, that, and the
other if you want to go see granny. But we're not going to glory
to see granny. We're not going to glory to see our mother. We're
not going to glory to see our wives. We're not going to glory
to see our children. We're going to glory to see the
Lord Jesus Christ, to behold His face, and to see the joy
and the glory that's manifested in Him and Him alone. That's
why we want to go. And so God has no debts to pay. Only debt He owes anybody is
the wages of sin. And you know what that is? That's
death. And He'll pay everybody off just exactly what they got
coming to Him. And there's no conditions on
man's part for God to wait on. Grace doesn't wait for us to
become worthy to do some act. Grace acts toward whom it will,
how it will, where it will, and whether you're in a church house,
or whether you're on the Damascus road, or whether you're sitting
on a well and getting water out of a well, or whether you're
sitting in a church house, wherever you're at, grace can come and
get you right where you are. And I like it like that. That's
why we're not on a fool's area. And I tell you, when we're preaching
the gospel and preaching the grace of God, God's going to
save His people. Oh, listen. It takes the worst
deservers and puts them in the highest places. Oh, my. And I tell you something about
grace being sovereign. It can save a multitude or save
one at a time. You look at how our Lord Jesus
Christ, how many times did He save one person? He went to the
woman at the well, one person. One person. And then Zacchaeus,
that's the only man as far as we know the Lord done anything
for that day. One person. And then He turned around And
on the day of Pentecost, they saved 3,000 people at one time.
But even in saving that 3,000 people, every single one of those
3,000 people were saved individually. God spoke to every single one
of them individually, and every one of them was saved individually.
They heard the gospel for themselves. They were the only ones in the
presence of God at that time, even though there was 3,000 converted
at one time. That's an amazing thing. That's
how grace is. That's how grace is. And that's the way He does
it. And I tell you, there's something
else about free grace. Grace cannot, cannot act where
there's any ability. If there's any ability, grace
ain't gonna work. It can't do it. No, no. Grace doesn't help us. We don't
need a shove in the right direction. We don't need help pulling ourselves
up by our bootstraps. Grace If there is any ability,
grace can't act. It won't act. Grace is absolute. Grace does everything or it does
nothing. Grace, salvation is from grace
from start to finish. From the day God saved me until
the day I take my last breath on this earth and step into glory.
Everything that's ever done for me has been by the grace of God.
Everything I have, everything I know, everything I possess,
everything there is is by the grace of God. And since there's
no cause in us why God should show grace to us, we need to
just stop looking for a cause because you'll never find one.
You just never will find one. You know, if there's a cause
for God to do anything for us, the cause is found in Him. Never
in us. No ability in us. You know, people
say, well, God gives me grace because... There's never a because.
There's never a because. If there's ever a cause, then
it ceases to be grace. You know what it is to fall from
grace? You've heard people about falling from grace? You know
all it takes to fall from grace is to do anything. to try to
get God to do something for you. Or add anything to Christ or
take anything away from Christ. And that's falling from grace.
That's all you have to do. You don't have to go get drunk.
You don't have to commit adultery. You don't have to do something
mean. All you got to do is add something
to Christ. Add some work that you've done.
Some prayer you've done. Some sincerity you have. And
you fall from grace just that quick. That's falling from grace. That's all it takes. Just add
something to Christ, takes something away. Add some part of yourself
into that new equation, and it ceases to be grace. Just that
snap of a finger. I love it. And I'll tell you, if you all
ever done this, I hope you haven't. I hope you haven't. But if you
ever thought, boy, I really, really need to pray, but I wait,
I need to get in a better condition. Need to get in a better frame
of mind. You know what that is? That's
works, that's self-righteousness. That's all that is. That's all
it is. You're never good enough. You'll
never find yourself good enough. You'll never find yourself And
will our Lord hear us? Of course He will. Will He ever
turn us away? No. Will He ever say, Don't come?
No. Will He ever say, Boy, you're
a miserable creature? No. I just read to you that before
Him we're holy and without blame, before Him in love. And you know
what holiness is? Holiness is the state of being
God is holy. And God cannot be more holy at
one time than He can another. And if we're in Christ, we cannot
be more holy at one time than we are another. Holiness is a
state of being, either you are or you ain't. And righteousness
is a state of being, either you are or you ain't. Is that not
right, Clay? Oh, let me tell you something
else about grace. Nature of grace. Grace produces
humility. The grace of God that bring us
salvation teaches us some things. And when God makes us to understand,
and He's the only one that can do it, and He does it in grace.
When God produces in us, He produces this humility. When God Himself
makes us to understand that we're the objects of His sovereign
free grace, it humbles us like nothing else could. And it keeps working in us. producing
us and putting us down all the time, making us to understand
that if grace and God don't do it for us, it ain't going to
be done. He keeps working in us and teaching us and making
us to understand that we have nothing to contribute to this
business of salvation. And why would we produce such
humility? Because we're brought Grace brings
us, and God in His sovereign grace brings us, in His free
grace, brings us to see our absolute unworthiness. Absolutely unworthy. Who am I? Abraham said, Who am
I, Lord, to speak unto thee, dust and ashes? Simon Peter said,
Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man, because he thought he was
going to tell the Lord something about fishing. Then he after
he calls fish and oil, I'm such a sinful man that I would question
you and doubt you and wonder about what you do. Just depart
from me, just leave me in my misery. Oh listen, were we worth our
Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world? Were we worth our Lord Jesus
Christ being despised, being rejected? being smitten upon,
spit upon. Were we worthy of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the horrible treatment that was given to Him? Beard
plucked out, beaten to the blood run out of His back and His bones
showed. Were we worthy of our Lord Jesus
Christ bearing our sin in His own body on the tree? Were we worthy of our Lord Jesus
Christ's blood being shed and poured out on that tree and even
running down onto the ground? Were we worthy of that? Were
we worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Father, forsaking Him, turning
His back upon Him? When our Lord cried out, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Were we worthy of that? David said, Oh Lord, I'm not
worthy. I'm not worthy of Thy tender
mercies. Were we worthy of our Lord Jesus
Christ, praying until His sweat became as great drops of blood? And I tell you, beloved, this
grace produces this humility. We're brought to know our complete
inability to ever become worthy. ever become worthy. We find in
ourselves, beloved, ourselves blessed on another principle
outside ourselves, and it's grace, free grace. I want to show you
this and I'll close. Look over in Isaiah chapter 5
with me just a minute. Isaiah chapter 5. I'll show you
this. And I tell you something, beloved,
grace, flesh has no place in God's free grace. Flesh has no
part. What did our flesh contribute
to our salvation? What does our flesh do to help
our salvation at all? But look here in Romans, I mean,
excuse me, in Isaiah 5.12, look what it says here. Isaiah 5 12 listen no excuse
me. I'm sorry. Let me go back over
here. Isaiah 5 11 Look what it says whoa unto them that rise
early in the morning that they may follow strong drink to continue
unto the night till flame and the wine and flames look down
verse 18 Whoa unto them that draw nicotines is cords of stress
look down verse 20 whoa unto them that call evil good and
good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness and 21,
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes. 22, Woe unto
them that drink wine in men's strength to mingle strong drink.
Now look over here in Isaiah 6 just a minute. Here this fellow,
he's got five times he says, Woe, woe, woe to somebody else. Now Isaiah, here's what he said.
He said, In the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.
Sitting on a throne high and lifted up in his train filled
the temple I'm gonna tell you something right here If you ever
see the Lord if you ever see the Lord, you know, how you gonna
see him high and lifted up You know, what else you gonna see
you gonna see his glory You gonna see him high and lifted up and
then look what he says and then you'll hear down verse 3 you'll
hear God is holy He's holy thrice. Holy and The earth and you'll
see this about him the whole earth is full of his glory and
when he saw that Look what he said about this city. Whoa to
everybody else when he saw the Lord, you know what he said first
five boys me You have to find a preacher preaching
won't everybody else but himself But oh, when you ever see the
Lord, and you see His glory, you see His power, and you see
that this world and everything in it belongs to Him, and oh,
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, high and lifted up, you fall
on your face before Him, and you say, woe is me. I'm undone. And then he says,
not only that, but everybody that I know, my children, my
wife, my grandchildren, people I work with, everybody I know
is just like me. They're unclean. Just like me. I dwell among a bunch of people
like that. And then though, but listen, here's grace. Then one
of them seraphims having a live coal, living coal in his hand. He come and He took it off the
tongs of the altar where that sacrifice had been offered. And
He laid it upon my mouth. Put a new song in my mouth. And
He laid it upon my mouth and said, Lord, this has touched
Thy lips and Thine iniquities take away. Thy sin is purged. Oh my! Grace, free grace, sovereign
grace, Grace unsought, grace undeserved and it produces humility
and the flesh contributes nothing to it. Flesh has no place in
the grace of God. None whatsoever. Our most blessed, our most holy,
our most righteous and glorious God in heaven. Blessed be your
holy, blessed name, who is like unto you in all the earth. Lord,
we are so blessed to have your gospel, so blessed to be taught
the grace of God by you, so blessed and separated from the rest of
the human race, set apart by your blessed grace, washed in
the blood cleansed by our Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified and
made holy. Father, thank you for this wondrous
privilege to speak, to talk of your grace, talk of your glory,
talk of your power and your majesty. And Lord, as we think of our brethren preaching
this morning, God help them, God strengthen them, God give
them liberty, Oh Lord Jesus, give them great utterance as
they labor there at Lantana Grace and other places as my brethren
do. And Lord, strengthen and encourage
this body of believers and bless the rest of our time together
as we ask you now, Lord Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Amen.