Thank you for that. Let's go
back to the book of Romans now this evening, Romans chapter
5. This morning in the message,
I spoke to you concerning what the Lord said to Israel in the
midst of giving them the statutes especially the laws of restitution. God said, you do these things,
and then he talked about not being unfair to people and those
sorts of things. And he says, and you do these
things because I am gracious. I'm gracious. What's the motivation
for us being gracious to one another, being merciful? to one
another. Is it not that the Lord has been
gracious to us? He's been merciful to us? In
Ephesians we read in chapter four that we're to be forgiving
of each other because God has, for Christ's sake, forgiven us. And the way to live in this world
as a child of God is to seek to pattern ourselves after the
great example of our Lord Jesus, who sought the good of others
and was forgiving, and even he treated those who mistreated
him with mercy, and even when dying upon the cross of Calvary,
He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Here's the motivation for us
as the children of God to walk before God in a manner that would
be honoring to Him, is because God has, for Christ's sake, been
gracious to us. He's been merciful to us. He's
been forgiving to us. And may we be kind-hearted people,
not ever compromising the gospel. I'm not talking about that. But
just in our daily conduct and with the conversations that we
have with those around us, let's be people who give some indication
that we've spent some time with the Lord Jesus. and may we be
a merciful people. As I thought about that passage
where God said, you should do these things because I am gracious. Well, then I got to thinking
in more depth concerning the grace of our God. So then I was led to go over
to Romans chapter five and read this, and then especially read
and study the last couple of verses. And this is what I'm
going to be dealing with tonight, the subject of God's super abounding
grace. I didn't read many commentaries
on this. I kind of ran a lot of references,
but I did read one. And that was some words that
spoken or written by John Calvin. And in his comments on these
two verses, he spoke of the grace of God as being what he called
super abounding grace. I thought I liked that title.
And he's not gonna mind, he's been dead hundreds of years,
so I'm just gonna use what Brother Calvin entitled super abounding
grace. That's my subject this evening
and we'll get into it as soon as we again see God's face in
prayer. Let's pray. Lord, we bow before
you as needy, needy, sinful people. Yes, many of us are your people,
but we still, we bear the marks of the fall. Lord, you know our
frame. You know how feeble we are. We're
so thankful that there's mercy with the Lord for sinners such
as ourselves. We dare not take to ourselves
any credit for this marvelous salvation that has been revealed
to us by the Spirit of grace. We rejoice in the Savior of sinners,
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in his full redemption that
he accomplished upon the cross of Calvary. Lord, we thank you
for your grace. It was given us in Christ before
the world was made. And all of our salvation, all of our righteousness, O God,
we owe to your grace given to us in the Son of God. We have
no boast to make in ourselves for In ourselves, we produce
nothing but filthy rags, all unrighteousness. But our boast
is in our great Savior. And Father, in your superabounding
grace, indeed, while it is true that sin has abounded, sin has
flowed over us, Sin holds us captive, and yet your grace,
oh, how omnipotent it is. Your grace to us has been superabounding,
and it has overflowed sin. The grace of God given to us
in Christ Jesus is forever. Oh, Lord, we thank you. We bless
you that before you made the world, you already were gracious
to us. You loved us with an everlasting
love. You gave us in covenant mercy
to your son, our surety, the surety of the covenant and our
standing before you, our position before you, is very secure because
it's based upon the person and the work of your own son. And we rejoice in him, we rejoice
in this grace, and it is our delight to delve into this glorious
subject again this evening, the subject of the super abounding
grace of God. Lord, bless all who are under
the sound of the word of God. Make your word effectual to all
of our hearts. Lord, be gracious to us. For Jesus' sake, amen. Well, as I said, I want to talk
to you tonight about the superabounding grace of God. I love the sound
of those words when I read them. and I thought this is a good
title for this message. And you can take that home with
you, as you will often read this passage of scripture, I'm sure,
and you've read it many times before. You've heard many messages
from this pulpit, excellent messages, I'm sure, on Romans chapter five,
verses 20 and 21. And we can rejoice in this marvelous,
wonderful grace of our Lord given to us through Christ Jesus. Now, there is no question that
sin has abounded. It has abounded. And as the law
of God is brought near to our hearts, We find the law of God
exposes our guilt. That's why the law of God was
given. In fact, if you look over to chapter 7 of Romans in verse
9, we read this. What should we say then is the
law sin? That is the commandments of God?
Is the law sin? God forbid. No. The law is not
sin, God forbid. Nay, he says, I had not known
sin, but for the law. The law comes to us in the hands
of the Holy Spirit, that is. As the law of God comes to us
and it shines the light, on the deadliness of our own soul, of
our own hearts. It's the law of God that exposes
our wretchedness. It brings it to the surface and
shows us our guilt before God. And though the law of God gives
no remedy for our guilt, it does expose it and that is necessary. We need to know what the disease
is, only then will we really appreciate what the remedy is. The reason people have no love
for the gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, no interest
in his substitutionary atonement upon the cross of Calvary, the
certainty of that redemption that he accomplished by his death
upon the cross of Calvary, the reason they have no real love
and appreciation for the gospel is because they have no idea
of their state before a holy God. And God sends forth His
law by the Holy Spirit. When He does
that, then we begin to understand, we begin to see, we begin to
realize how guilty we are before God. Before the Law of God comes
to us in power by the demonstration of the Spirit of God, we thought
we were good people. We're good folks. Oh, we've made
a few mistakes. I mean, hasn't everybody? We
all fail every once in a while, but then the Spirit of God really
takes the Word of God, the Law of God, and exposes just how
wretched and how defiled and how ungodly we are. And that's
when we begin to realize that the accuracy of the word of God,
such as here in Romans chapter five, when Paul says in verse
six, we're without any spiritual strength, we're ungodly. ungodly. You know what that means?
Without God. In other words, we were idolaters. That's an awful state to be in.
But that's the way we were before the Holy Spirit of God came and
used the law of God to identify our hearts before God. And then
in verse number 8, the Spirit of God says we're sinners. The law of God convinces us of
that. And then it goes a step further
in verse number 10. It says, we were enemies. Enemies
against God. And you say to the average person
out here on the street, you know, in our natural state, we're enemies
against God. And I said, no, I'm not the enemy
of God. And most everybody will say,
I love God. I'm not His enemy. I've never
been His enemy. And yet the Word of God says
we were His enemies. When the Spirit of God takes
the law of God and exposes our guilt, then we realize all of
these things were true of ourselves. And only then will we really
appreciate the magnificence of, and the glory of, and indeed
the superabounding grace of God to sinners in Christ Jesus. We'll
then appreciate the remedy. And then when somebody, after
the Spirit of God has exposed our guilt, and then somebody
says, let me tell you something, there's good news for folks like
us. God sent forth His Son. made of a woman born under the
law of God in order to save those who were under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, to reconcile us to God. And we know He did that because
He was raised from the dead. Only then will the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ really mean something to us. And only then will we really
appreciate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the law
of God discovers and exposes our sin, and it takes away all
excuses for sin, and it leaves us speechless before God. That's
what the law of God does. Look back in the third chapter
in verses 19 and 20. Chapter 3, verse 19, now we know
that what things whoever the law saith, it said to them who
are under the law, under its dominion, under its authority,
under its power, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, By the deeds of the
law, by the works of the flesh, by obedience to the Ten Commandments,
let's say, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified, be right in God's sight. Now, others may say of
you, well, you've got to be right with God, because I see the way
you live your life. But it doesn't matter what other's
estimation of you is. All that matters is, how does
God see you? All that matters is the sight
of God. No flesh is justified in the
sight of God by the deeds of the law. The law wasn't given
as a means of salvation. Never. I know the dispensationalists
say in the Old Testament salvation was by legal obedience and in
the New Testament salvation is by grace. Let me tell you something. It's always been by grace. It
has never been by our legal obedience. Now, if by legal obedience, you're
talking about the legal obedience of our Lord Jesus. Yeah, it's
by his legal obedience, obedience unto death, even the death of
the cross. That's the death that he died.
But salvation in the Old Testament, Abel, Adam, Eve, Enoch, Noah,
go all the way through the Old Testament, name all the saints
of God. They weren't saved by legal obedience. They're saved
by the grace of God. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord is what the scripture says in Genesis chapter six. So in chapter five, Here the
writer, the Spirit of God, uses the Apostle Paul to write this
chapter, and we're led to see our miserable state, our miserable
spiritual condition before God. And we're made to understand
how we got into this mess to begin with. Look at chapter 5
and verse 12. And Bill read this to us. Wherefore,
As by one man, who's that one man? Adam. We all know that. If you don't know it, you know
it now, if you're listening. Wherefore, as by one man, this
awful thing of sin, it entered into this world, it made its
presence known. It's been here ever since. and
it will be here until the Prince of Peace comes back and he puts
down all rebellion against him, and then sin will be no more.
Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, but something
else happened because of sin, death. What kind of death? Spiritual
death. That's how Adam died immediately. Remember, God said to him, in
the day ye eat thereof, you'll surely die. Adam willed to eat,
he willed to defy God, to rebel against God, and when he did,
he died. He lost that glory that God gave
him. He lost that righteousness that
God gave him. And he and his wife immediately
knew they were naked. Something's wrong here. They died spiritually. They lost
the life of God. And you're not going to get any
life from God unless God gives it to you. You don't get life
from God on your own. You don't get spiritual life
on your own. Don't listen to these men who say, believe on
Jesus and get born again. That's not how you're born again.
You're born again of the Spirit of God, whose grace blows like
the wind wherever He wants to blow. The Savior said you must
be born again, but no matter what men have said in writing
of their books on how to be born again, the Lord didn't say how
to be born again. Now Nicodemus, this is how you
be born again. Do these things, A, B, C, D,
E, F, G. If you do all those things, you
get born again. No, he just said you must be
born again. Except a man be born again, he
can't even see the kingdom of God. That's what the Lord Jesus
said. Well, where does this new birth come from? Where does this
life come from? Well, it comes from above. Only God can make a dead sinner
live. And the scripture says, the son,
John chapter five, the son quickeneth whom he will. You're dead in
trespasses and sins, me too, all of us. Death's passed upon
all men for that all-sinning Adam I represented. Now, I know
who has the authority and who has the power to give us life,
Him who is life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life is what Christ said in John chapter 14. I know who
has the power to give us life, but He only gives it to whoever
He wants to. He don't have to give it to you.
He doesn't have to give it to me. This is due to his sovereign
grace. So this death, spiritual death,
physical death, eternal death, what is eternal life? To know
God. What is eternal death? To go
forever without a knowledge of God. An everlasting death. Death passed upon how many men? Well, all except those that live
a good life. No, all men, all men. Death is passed upon all men
for that all have sinned against God. Here the writer of the book
of Romans takes us by the hand as it were and he says to us,
here's the reason for your dilemma. transgression of your father
Adam passed on to all his posterity, because when he sinned, you sinned. When he died, you died. When he rebelled against God,
you rebelled against God. He was your representative. In
him, in him, we lost all life. But then he takes us by the hand
and says, now, let me tell you something else. That is one representative
man, Adam. And he represented all of his
posterity. But let me tell you about another
representative man. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the Lord from glory. And as we fell, as we became
condemned, as we became unrighteous through the action of our father,
Adam, Bless God, He had appointed a representative for all the
elect of God, and His name is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He came into this world and
He didn't sin. He didn't defy God. He was obedient
unto God every step of the way. He was obedient up to and including
His own death upon the cross of Calvary that satisfied justice
because the justice of God said, death for sin, death for sin. That's why Christ came. He came
to die. He was born to die. He died for
our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried again and raised
the third day according to the Scriptures. And by His obedience,
He established righteousness for all of his posterity. Everybody
he represented. You see, it's really quite simple.
Though this gospel is full of the hidden wisdom and mysteries
of God, in many ways it's quite simple. In Adam we fell, in Christ
we're made alive. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. When he obeyed God, I obeyed
God. Just like when Adam disobeyed
God, I disobeyed God. When my representative, the representative
of all of the elect of God, when he obeyed God, I obeyed God.
When he satisfied the law of God, I satisfied the law of God.
When he died under the wrath of God, I died. When he was raised,
I was raised. When He ascended back to glory,
I ascended back to glory with Him because He's the head and
we're the body. And in Him, righteousness was
established by His obedience unto death for all of His posterity. Two representative men. In the
one, I fell and was condemned. In the other, I was raised up. and I'm declared righteous. Now
you understand that, don't you? That's not too complicated for
any of us here who are listening or for any of you who are watching
by way of the internet if you're paying attention. He says this, look at verse 19.
For by one man's disobedience. Now who do you reckon that man
is? Now you know. You know, don't you? His name
was Adam. Adam. For by one man's disobedience,
many, that is the many he represented, were made legally constituted
to be sinners." You know you were a sinner even before you
were born? And when you entered into this
world, you entered into this world as a sinner. Well, what
do you mean? You became a sinner in Adam.
You don't become a sinner when you sin. You sin because you're
a sinner. You understand that, I'm sure.
So by one man's disobedience, the many that he represented
were made legally constituted to be sinners in the eyes of
God. So, here comes this other man,
Christ Jesus. by the obedience of one, Christ,
shall many, that is the many He represented, be legally constituted
to be righteous. They can't be any other way.
They are righteous. All of God's people are righteous
through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus which He established
by His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross.
As it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21, for He, God the
Father, hath made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us. Who knew no sin, the Son of God
knew no sin, but He has made sin for us. That we might be
made, and the word might doesn't mean, well, maybe we will be
and maybe we won't. The word might means in order
that, in order that. We would be made the righteousness
of God, everything the holy God demands in Christ and His death,
we're made the righteousness of God in Him. And that's the
good news of the gospel. And so then that brings us down
to our text here in verses 20 and 21. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. God's got to strip us, got to
show us our guilt, that's necessary. But then after doing that, he
says, but where sin abounded. where sin overflowed. You're
overflowing with sin. That's what about it. You're
overflowing with sin. I'm looking into the faces of
ladies. You're virtuous. You're moral. I know that. But by nature, you're as ungodly
as any prostitute or drug addict a seller of drugs or whatever,
a murderer. I'm telling you, that's our guilt
before God. And us men, we don't get off
either. We're as vile as any man who's
ever lived. I mean, there's enough hell within
us to create another devil, one writer said. We're just evil
by nature. Isaiah, the Lord says to him,
from the top of your heads to the bottom of your feet, there's
nothing sound in you. You're just filled with wounds
and runny sores. That's all you are. And they
hadn't been mollified or bound up. You're just raging malady
of sin. That's all of us. Sin just overflows. It just,
it pours out of us. But where sin abounded, uh-oh,
grace comes in. Grace comes in, and it comes
in without being asked for, without being sought, without being desired. You see, here's what the grace
of God does. It all of a sudden comes surging
in and makes a welcome for the Savior. That's what it does. It makes a welcome for the Savior.
And it just comes over in an overwhelming flood into your
soul. It super abounds. It just covers
sin over so as to make it to be like you never were a sinner
at all. Because you made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. That's the grace of God. And
unfortunately in our world today, religious people talk about grace
as some kind of desire of God to help everybody. Grace is not
a desire of God. Grace is an attribute of God.
And grace is that which He showers upon undeserving sinners. so
that this grace of God super abounds over sin, where sin overflowed
grace overwhelms the overflowing of sin. And here's what grace
does through the blood of the Lord Jesus, washes all that sin
away, all that filth, all that contamination. It's all gone
due to the grace of God. Oh, how thankful we are for the
superabounding grace of God. And this grace of God comes through
him who took our place. John 1.14, and the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In the text here, we have two
kings, as it were. One king is sin, ruthless. It's a ruthless tyrant. With
absolute dominion, sin reigns over all men and women because
of our natural birth. Look back in chapter three, and
I'll make good on this. Look at chapter three in verse
nine. What then? Are we better than they? Are
Jews better than Gentiles? Or we could turn around and say,
are Gentiles better than Jews? No and no wise, for we have before
proved, Paul says, both Jews and Gentiles, that we are all
under sin. Under, what does that mean? Under
the authority of sin, under the control of sin, under the power
of sin, under the dominion of sin, all of us. and you can't
get out from under it. That's an impossibility. Sin's
got the authority over you. It's a ruthless king, and it
reigns in the kingdom of darkness. The reign of sin is universal.
All of Adam's race is under sin's power and authority. Sin has
made all men and women and young people its servants. We're the servants of sin. And
if it isn't dealt with, then sin, when it's finished, it brings forth death. That's
for certain. comes along grace. The primary and principal sense
of the word grace is God's free favor and unmerited kindness. Grace stands in opposition to
works. It stands in opposition to worthiness. It stands in opposition to merit. Grace in its strictest sense,
always presupposes unworthiness in its object that it's going
to deal with. It presupposes. It presupposes
guilt. And before the grace of God comes
in its saving power, God, by His grace, sends the law to you
to show you your guilt. That's a gracious thing, really,
for God to show us how bad off we are. And then He pours in
the royal ointment of the gospel of Christ. It's grace of God's eternal.
It is the free favor of God. I'll give you several things
about this grace. I'll give them to you quickly.
Number one, that the source and the fountain of grace is God
the Father. And you can read Ephesians chapter
one, the first few verses, God purposed in himself a multitude
of an elect people. Before the world began, he made
a covenant of grace with his son on the behalf of those people,
ordered in all things ensure. Paul called it in chapter 11
of Romans, the election of grace. And Paul said, if God had not
left us a remnant, we would have been like Solomon Gamora. Grace flows freely from the throne
of God. We need to understand this, and
I'm sure that you all do. If it weren't for the grace of
God that came to us in its overwhelming power, You see Sodom and Gomorrah out
here all around us? That's kind of what it is, isn't
it? That we'd be right with them. That, that. Say, whoa, wait,
not me. Really? Oh yeah, you. And me. If God hadn't sent grace to us,
There's no depth of wickedness too deep that we wouldn't have
delved into. No crime too evil that we weren't
capable of committing. And even since God has saved
us, the Lord don't keep us on a tight
leash. We can do some awful things.
Children of God have done some terrible, terrible things through
the years. Now, and we still do, even all
of us, we still do terrible things in our minds, in our imagination,
in our hearts. If it weren't for the restraining
grace of God, we'd do them literally. We have that capability. Anything
anybody else has done, You're capable of doing it. You ladies,
any sin any woman in this world has ever committed, you're capable
of doing it too, even as a child of God, in a moment of weakness,
if the Lord just, if He's pleased to release your chain a little
bit, give you a little bit of slack. Go tell Him what you did. See Simon Peter there warming
himself by the fire? Right there with the enemies
of the Lord Jesus. No, not an apostle. Oh yeah,
an apostle. You hear him cursing? I don't
know him. I don't know Jesus of Nazareth.
He means nothing to me. Was he a child of God when he
said that? He was, wasn't he, Ron? He's a child of God. What
he found out, he wasn't made of anything, was he? See, if
we stand in the day of temptation, if we stand, that's the grace
of God right there. We don't have any strength. David,
the king, sees Bathsheba, lust filled his
heart. And he had the authority of a
king. I want that woman. This is a man after God's own
heart. He got who he wanted to. And
then when she wound up pregnant, David, being a very wise man
himself, he figured out a way, he thought, to kind of get out
of that. I'll just have her husband come
back from the battle. Uriah, come back and have some
R&R. Why don't you spend some quality
time with your wife? He's got it all figured out,
David does. Oh, but he doesn't know that
that man Uriah, who's one of David's chief warriors, he doesn't
know that that man's got backbone. He says, hey, nobody else is
getting R&R. None of the other soldiers coming
in spend a weekend with their wives. No. And then David said,
well, in his own mind, he said, well, I'm going to have to have
him killed then. Sent a message out to Joab. Sent him in the hand of Uriah
himself with instructions. Leave him out in the front by
himself. How awful is that? And then months go by. King,
he's just fine. Then Nathan calls him in. Exposes his guilt. Broke his heart. Wrote Psalm
51. I was talking to a brother yesterday. David wrote Psalm 51 after that,
didn't he? I said, yeah. Tell him you're
capable of anything. Me too. Oh God, keep us. I don't want to bring reproach
upon the name of Christ. I don't want to bring reproach
upon my church family. Everybody, just about who knows
anything about the Bible, knows what David did. It's kind of
a bluff on his life. Now, in the books of God, it's
not there. No, no. Grace overflowed that sin. Boy, I tell you, it sure did
put a mark on his name. Like it did to the name of Simon
Peter. If the Lord had left us a remnant,
we'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah. The source and fountain of grace
is God the Father. The channel of grace is God the
Son. John says the law came by Moses. Grace and truth had that come
by Christ Jesus. The grace of God is revealed
and given to men only through the mediation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Grace comes to sinners through
Christ. And then the only giver of grace
is the Holy Spirit. He's called the Spirit of Grace.
The Spirit of Grace. In Zechariah chapter 12 and verse
10. He's the one who teaches us the
gospel. He teaches us how much we need
this Savior. He teaches us what this Savior
did for us. And the message that comes to
us by the Holy Spirit's saving power is identified as being
the gospel of the grace of God. That's what it's called, the
gospel of the grace of God. I know to the self-righteous
religionists, the gospel is a stumbling block. To the wise men of the
world, the philosophers of the world, it's foolishness. But
to those who are being saved, it's the power of God and the
wisdom of God. That's what Paul said. Grace as it is set forth in the
word of God is an altogether different thing than most people
in religion think it to be. Nowhere in the Bible do you ever
read of universal grace. There is no such thing as universal
grace. God is not gracious to all men
without exception. He is not. Now you might say that mercy,
mercy is defined as God not giving us what we justly deserve. And
so we have often said something like this, any side, anything
this side of hell is mercy. because that's what we all deserve.
But nobody deserves the grace of God. And he doesn't give it to all
men. He just gives it to some people. And they're not more qualified
to receive it than others. They're not better than others.
It's just that the grace of God is given freely. And we don't ever read of what
some people call common grace. Got a friend of mine, he and
I have talked about this, the denomination that he is associated
with, their denomination split over this. Common grace, which
is generally defined as universal grace. There's nothing common
about grace, there's nothing universal about grace. Grace
is given through the Lord Jesus to a specific people that God
chooses to give it to. Let me give you real quick some
characteristics of grace. Grace comes to the center as
that which is pure charity, unsought, unasked for, and undesired. Therefore,
grace and works won't mix. It's one way or the other. It's
what it says in Romans 11. It's either works or grace. Grace or works. It can't be both. It can't be a mixture. And I'll
tell you something else about grace. It was given to some of
Adam's race before the world began. Grace doesn't begin in
time. Though it is revealed in time,
it wasn't given in time, it was given before time ever began.
2 Timothy 1 verse 9. Grace doesn't originate with
you when you believe. You believe because grace was
given to you in Christ before God made the world. And the grace
of God is free. It's free. Without a cost to
you. God doesn't look upon a sinner
and say, well, he's doing the best he can. Believe I'll give
him grace. Nah. No. We call it free grace. Free grace. And the grace of
God is always sovereign. God gives it to whoever He wants
to. It's grace that distinguishes. You see, grace separated Abel
from Cain. Cain didn't get any grace. Abel
got the grace. They're brothers, came forth
from the womb the same mother, fathered by the same father.
No natural difference between those boys at all. But grace
made a distinction before the world began. I'll have Abel,
I'm bypassing Cain. God separated Abraham from the
rest of his family, called him out of earth, Chaldeans. God
separated Isaac from Ishmael. God separated Jacob from Esau. God separated Joseph from the
rest of his brethren. God separated, grace separated
David from his brothers. The only difference between the
children of God and the children of the devil, the only difference
between the children of light and the children of darkness
is the difference grace made. That's all. No wonder Paul said, by the grace
of God, I am what I am. God's election is the election
of grace. God's covenant is the covenant
of grace. Our adoption into the family
of God was by grace. The redemption of our souls and
our bodies by the blood of the Lord Jesus was a marvelous work
of grace. We're justified, the scripture
says in Romans 3, justified freely through His grace that is in
Christ Jesus. We're forgiven by grace. We're
regenerated and effectually called to faith by grace. We're sanctified
by the grace of God. We're preserved by the grace
of God. Our future resurrection of our
bodies, our bodies are going to die. When the body dies, the
soul goes immediate to be with the Lord if we're His people. Body goes to the grave, but hey,
the future resurrection of our bodies will be the work of God's
grace. And our ultimate total glorification
is all due to the super abounding grace of God. So that from the
gates of hell to the gates of heavenly glory,
we owe salvation all to the grace of our God given to us through
Christ Jesus our Lord. And when God almighty has finished
bringing all of His ransomed ones to faith in the Lord Jesus,
and time ends. We will recognize the greatness
of grace, and He shall bring forth, Zechariah says this, the
headstone thereof with shoutings. And we're going to be doing the
shouting. Grace! Grace! Grace! Grace! That's the theme through
eternity. Not merit, not works, not what
we've done, but this super abounding grace of God. We're going to
bless God forever for the Lord Jesus and that grace that came
through Him who is the mediator. He's the channel through which
the grace of God flows. and doesn't it flow so liberally
and so freely? Superabounding grace. Let's pray. Thank you, Father. For the grace
that we have according to your eternal purpose, grace given
to us in Christ Jesus, you could have bypassed us and rightfully
so, we'd have no argument with you because we love sin. We love darkness rather than
light because our deeds were evil. But because you would,
because you had purposed this, because you gave us grace in
Christ Jesus before the world began, you sent the gospel to
us. And we found out we weren't good
people at all. Never were. We're ungodly. We need help. You felt that only
this superabounding grace could give us through Christ Jesus.
And you revealed to us the way that you save sinners. Your method
is by grace. Not common grace, not universal
grace. You didn't give grace to all
men and then men could make use of it if they wanted to. No,
that's not the way it was. This is superabounding grace.
Grace given to us in the Son of God. Given before we knew
anything about the gospel. Given to us before we ever existed
in the flesh. Given to us when we only existed
in the mind and purpose of God. Grace given to us when you chose
us unto salvation. Oh, Lord, receive our thanksgiving. Lord, be glorified. And we're
thankful that we are trophies of your grace. And someday you
will put all of your elect, ransomed, called, regenerated, perfected
people on display for all the world to see. These are the ones
that I have saved by super abounding grace. Teach us more of this
marvelous work, of this marvelous grace, Father. Bless us as we
go our ways. Give us a good week, thinking
of the things of God and rejoicing in who you are and what you've
done for us. Bless all of our church family
and all of the family of God, those who are listening right
now in other states or wherever they may be, other countries
perhaps. Lord, lift up the spirits of
your children, encourage all of us in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we thank you for your grace. For Jesus' sake, I pray.