honors his word. That's what
I want to do. I want to honor him and honor
people. And maybe the Lord would save
some sinners. I often pray at our place, the Lord would bring
some more lepers in that house of leprosy that's in Jackson,
Missouri. There's a few gathered there
that that honor and worship him in spirit and truth. Turn with me if you would. Again,
thanks for the invite and thanks for the hospitality. The breakfast
was exceptional and the company was better. Really enjoyed ourselves
tremendously. Romans chapter 5. We'll see how this goes. Romans
chapter 5. I'm going to read just a couple
of verses starting in verse 19 through the end of the chapter.
I want to look at a phrase that
Paul uttered under inspiration of God, so it's not open for
debate, never is. We like to tweak things or think
we tweak things. I just always, when I start hearing
this stuff, I always wonder, do you think, first of all, do
you believe God is sovereign? If God is sovereign, as we say,
do you think he would allow puny man to mess around with his word? Case closed. If he does, if he
does, then we are, of all men, most miserable. Just pack it
up and let's just shut down, close the doors. But that's not
the case, in verse 19 of Romans 5, for as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered, that's
the offense, 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. This phrase, where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. I suppose if I were to state
or summarize what the child of redemption believes, looking
back at his life, it's just like this. Seems like we're like Peter,
we're in the boat, we're fine, and then the way, you know, we
ask the Lord, can I come out there, walk on the water, and
then everything's fine, and then get our eyes off Christ, and
then we're sinking. Seems like that's my life, my
concern, my way. I would say this would come pretty
close to summarizing or stating what every believer, it doesn't
matter the age, from back A.D., 1 A.D., 2 A.D., to now, there's nothing new under the
sun, the scripture says, and that's exactly right. We get
all excited and worried about what's going on in this country
and Just look back at history and read some books. Spurgeon and beyond. Flaval. Some of the things, if you catch
when you're reading through some of their works, they had the
same concerns. We were able to go to Spurgeon's
library up in Kansas City and they got almost all the works
there. And he put out that little sword
and trowel, that little booklet, and he was concerned, this is
quoting, he was concerned that putting those little books out
would cause people to quit attending church and hearing the word of
God. We got the internet, and we're thankful for the use that
the Lord has of it, but it can be abused, but man has abused
God's word, God's ways, God's methods all the time. So where sin abounds, it doesn't
stop there. Where sin abounded, that's you
and I. Grace, oh, thank you so much, Grace. Grace did much more
abound. May we here tonight look a bit
closer at this amazing phrase that is uttered by our brother
Paul. Where sin abounded. This is our
universal problem, our central issue, our sin-inherited nature,
where sin abounded. This is our issue. When Adam
fell, we fell, and it was total and complete and absolute, as
we heard last night. And I know you've heard this,
because I heard it from the man that used to pastor here. And
he heard it from somebody else. If you're wrong on the fall,
you're wrong on it all. We think we can skip that and
go directly to God. God's unapproachably holy. Matter
of fact, I may be, I haven't looked this up, but I believe
the attributed characteristic of God in this book, the most
one often uses is holiness. From birth, To our nature, which
is shown up by our practice, we are sinners, estranged from
God, condemned by his unalterable law. Paul says in Ephesians 2,
we're dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Like I said last night,
I'm not complicated. Dead's dead. Dead is dead. My oh my, sin abounding in us,
through us. It sticks closer to us than our
skin. And you know how everyone here
knows how close that sticks to us. And sin's result, as in verse
21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, that's the result. It's not gonna miss anybody.
It's not gonna skip a generation. Sin's result is death, physical,
and spiritual. Well, why is this so important?
This is where we get a little bit more interesting. Why is
it so important to declare the depravity of man, the exceeding
sinfulness of sin? Why is it so important to declare
this in the gospel when we preach the gospel, the gospel of God's
grace? And there's only one gospel. Why is this so important? Think
about this. There can be no grace where there's no guilt. This
is what our brother said last night. There can be no mercy
where there's no sin. No help in time of need where
criminality is not owned up to. I'm not a criminal. I don't need
mercy. I don't need grace. It is a misuse of words to talk
about forgiveness where no wrong has occurred. The policeman doesn't
give a ticket if you're abiding by the law. It is an insult to
innocence to proclaim mercy to it. You must therefore have sin
or you cannot have grace. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. I stop here and I ask myself
and I ask you, if you and I see sin abounding, then perhaps we
will see grace much more abounding. We've got to stay there. We've
got to stop there. But look at our text. Our text
doesn't stop there, and I'm so thankful for that. But where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. This, I trust, is
noted. It's seen and experienced. In
the whole scheme of this thing we call sovereign grace, in substitution,
in salvation, justification and righteousness. Mr. Spurgeon said this, sin is the
wolf which has devoured the flocks of men. Isaiah chapter 1 and
verses starting in verse 5, why should you be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even
to the head, there's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. And they have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." It's pretty serious.
Sin abounds. Even a littlest child knows what sin is. Sin is what we are,
sin is what we do. But, and yet, I look at verse
16 in Romans 5, and not as was by one that had that sin, so
is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. The second Adam has repaired
and that much more than what the first Adam ruined. He by
himself made restitution, and I'm talking about Christ, made
restitution and then some for all the sins of all his elect
throughout all time. Now I want to look at eight things
on this sin abounded grace did much more about. I want to look
at these things. And let's look at these together.
Grace did much more, did much more abound. Notice with me,
if you will, the whole aggregate from Adam until this shoot match
is wrapped up, the whole aggregate of combined offenses of God's
people were taken away. They were taken away, swiped
clean by Christ's single act on Calvary's tree. We'll see
that in Isaiah 53, which is that great chapter in the redemptive
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken and
smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, all. I can't imagine. It's like when
we pray and you got hundreds of thousands of the elect praying,
he hears them all. But this sin, we're sin abounded.
Every, and we're still sinning. We're still sinning. I remember
talking to Henry years ago when he came down the first time we
met him in the early 80s, and he said, there's enough sin in
what I preach to send me to hell. And that just took me aback.
And the more I thought about it, yeah. But where that happens,
and it happens tomorrow, and the next day, The grace of God
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ far exceeds that. You sang that, didn't you, yesterday?
The blood has reached deeper, deeper than the stain has gone. Oh, I'm so thankful because if
it didn't cover it all, none's covered. Not a single one is
covered. My, oh my. Also, secondly, consider with
me, sin has utterly destroyed humanity. In Psalm 65, verse
5, he says, my sins are not hid from thee. Sin utterly destroyed
humanity. Adam could not eat of every,
or he, yeah, could not, he could eat of every fruit but one tree.
Every fruit, every good thing that was given by God for life
and sustenance and wholesomeness But it wasn't enough. It wasn't
enough. Now we got death and return of
the dust and earning the living by the sweat of our brow, thorns,
thistles, where tender herbs and gardens grew. All our faculties
are out of gear. If you're a believer, you know
why the world is the way it is. You know why things are going
the way they are. You know why you can't do what you used to
do a week ago. Sin. Sin. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound in our substitute, and only in our substitute. My,
oh, my. All of our faculties are out
of gear, out of the way. They're inconsistent with our
creator. Yet, but in Christ Jesus, we have a higher reach, a nobler
pursuit than even Adam or Eve. We have fellowship and union
with the Son of God. We are indwelt by the blessed
Holy Spirit. And as we saw last night, humanly,
unbelievably, in Proverbs 8, His delights were with the sons
of men. His delights were, well, why
would they be? He couldn't have just Just wiped us out. Just
wiped us out. We deserve it. Simply put, our
paradise regained is far more glorious than our paradise lost. You think about that. Our paradise
gained is far more glorious and more honorable than our paradise
lost. This is what Augustine, for you
historians, 360 A.D. This is what he was referring
to when he stated in Latin, felix culpa. What does that mean? It
means, oh, happy fall or blessed fault. Adam fell. If there was no fall, there's
no redemption. That's what he meant when he
wrote that. And I'm like, okay. I agree, I agree. Where did he
get that? I don't know, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Thirdly, notice and consider
with me, sin dishonored our God, but God is more honored in our
redemption than if there had never been a fall. That's Mr.
Spurgeon. God is more honored in our redemption
than if there had never been a fall. The angels in glory wonder
at this whole scheme to rescue fallen men and women and boys
and girls. Principalities and powers, says
the scriptures, shout glory to God in the highest, not only
at Emmanuel's birth, but because they knew what lie ahead. They
knew he came to seek and to save that which was lost. Yes, where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Let's keep digging.
Fourthly, man, the elect, now born again, is capable of virtues
he perhaps could not have reached before the fall. Unparalleled
joys. Unparalleled joys. Repentance. A righteous man does not need
repentance. We can experience repentance. And with one another,
forgiveness. One another. Conquering grace
realized and experienced. Conquering, and we realize it's
not of us. It's by his grace. And fifthly,
after the fall, the law was given. There was no need for the law.
Adam fell. The law is given later on. With
this law, we see Christ Jesus. We're going through Deuteronomy
right now. We're about at the end of Deuteronomy. Christ is
everywhere. Well, that Deuteronomy, that's
the second law is what the Hebrew, There's not a whole lot of law
in there if you see it through New Testament eyes, as Henry
would say. Yes, indeed. We see Christ Jesus
in the high priest's office, the tabernacle, the showbreadth,
the altar, and all these things. They are all types and shadows
of good things to come. If there's no fall, we would
not see that. But we can, and I love Old Testament,
we can come, you know, look at this See something and tomorrow
night I'm going to share a passage that I'd never seen before in
my life. Right in the middle of Deuteronomy, stuck right there, just one verse.
The gospel in Deuteronomy, one verse. Before the fall, nothing. It
wouldn't have had that. But after the fall, now we've
got these pictures and types. Sixthly, also proceed with me,
the history of Israel. I know everybody's talking about
that now. They're not talking about it correctly. The history
of Israel through which we, See types of the church's care all
through the Old Testament. Up and down, up and down. He
keeps keeping them, he keeps keeping them, he keeps keeping
them. They keep forsaking them. And judges, they raise up a judge.
They follow him, they worship him. The judge dies, they go
back to idolatry. He's keeping them, he's keeping
them. Where grace abounded, where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. This we see when we see Israel's
history. And we see special mercies and
particular grace given. To us poor, derelict Gentiles,
how we were grafted in. There would be no need to do
that, had it been no fault, grafted in because of their rejection. Oh, sin, says the apostle, where's
your sting? Where's your sting? Seventhly,
again, we mention the crucifixion of our King of glory, the Lord
Jesus Christ, perhaps the greatest display of sin and grace. perhaps the greatest display
in all history. However, grace raised its arms
in complete victory. I know you sing it here, we sing
it at home. Redeeming love has been my thing and shall be till
I die. Oh, happy day of our guaranteed
resurrection honor. Why? Because the grave could
not hold our savior and it will not hold us. It can't, why? Because sin, we see sin's effect. Every time we go, I don't understand
the modern day funerals. I don't have much nice to say
about them. Celebration of life, the person
is passed on, he's gone, they're gone, he or she's gone. They're
gone. But to the believer, that sin
took that body and it's gonna take every one of us, but grace. Grace will reign through righteousness. Not my righteousness, which is
of the law, but his righteousness, which brings peace. Peace, I
love peace and I want hope and I want a single eye to worship
him. Redeeming love indeed. Lastly,
right now, tonight at 6.39, I ask this question of myself and I
ask it of all of us here. Where can we look to see grace
abounding more than sin's side effects? Right now, where can
we see, where can we look to the chief of sinners? Is there a sinner here? Is there
a sinner here? That's where you will see, and
I know we're not supposed to look at ourselves, but this is,
it's okay. If you can confess and own up,
Lord, I'm so miserable. I know what I was created for,
but I want my way. I want my way, I want my things,
I want myself. But Christ, he considered not
himself. He was equal with the Father,
took upon himself No reputation. Paul, I had this argument with
the guy at rehab. I was about done with rehab,
and he was a day ahead of me. And he started getting religious.
He started spouting off, and I'm trying to do my stuff and
ignore him. So he wanted to get my phone number. Oh, we're good
buddies. OK. So we exchanged numbers. And
then he starts telling me his gospel. And I said, no, that's
not right. And I'm trying to get back to
my exercise. That's not right. That's not correct. He says,
oh, I got a scripture for you. When I quote the scripture, you're
going to change your mind. I said, no, I know the scriptures.
And he just completely rested and twisted the scripture. I
said, what is Paul? Oh, Romans 7. No, he was lost
then. OK, we'll go to another. I am the chief. I am less, I
am right now less than the least, of whom I am chief. I said, that's
present, that's a present article. He's like, nah, and then that
was it, just walked away. So I'm like, well, I guess I'm
supposed to keep his phone number? No, that's, where do we see grace
abounding more than sin's effects? Right here. I'm not telling you
to look in within, but I'm saying, If God, the Holy Spirit, convicts
you, you'll see. You'll see the things that I'm
saying as clumsily and as poorly as I'm saying them is true. It's true. An old preacher said,
and then the second, as we look at others around us, your fellow
believers, they're just like you. They're just like you. And I need patience, and I need
to have less of a critical spirit. But if God, if you believe, I
like to take things down to the lowest common denominator. If
you believe the person you're talking to or you're dealing
with, or if you believe they're a believer, that should dictate
how you treat them on everything. So look to yourself. and look
up to others around you and say, we're sin abounds. And you don't
want to follow me around, because you see sin abounding. And I'm
not making excuses for it. And the believer sins far more
than he wants to. We desire to live like Christ,
love Christ, worship Christ, gather together in unison. You can't do that out in the
world. It's here, where we're gathered together. An old preacher
said, since the Lord adopted me, I have no reservation of
others. What about in the scriptures?
How about a fallen David? How about a wayward Manasseh?
How about a dying thief? One minute they both were casting
the same in his teeth, and then the next minute. Where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. How about a miserable Saul of
Tarsus, a lonely, sinful prodigal? Spent everything. I think I'd
be rather aggravated, give him everything, he spends everything.
Sin, sin, sin, Wallard with the pigs, sin and degradation, and
nobody, there's the world for you if you're young and you don't
know what the world's like. That's what the world's like.
They don't care. They don't care. Well, there's sin, but in that
story, he started coming back, and when he was far off, grace
did much more bound. We see the vile and contemptible
effects of sin upon us and all around us, but I tell you this. based on the authority of not
me, but on this word of God, where sin abounded. Grace, grace,
how sweet the sound. Grace did much more abound in,
and only in, the Lord Jesus Christ. Flee to him for refuge. Beseech you.