And I want you to start with
me again there in verse 17. Verse 17. You know, I'm gonna
talk about grace today. And you know, the scriptures
tells us that we stand in grace. That's what he said. Just a second,
look at it there in verse one and two, chapter five. Therefore being justified by
faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also, by the Lord Jesus Christ, we have access by faith
into this grace we're in. We stand. We stand in grace. How in the world can you stand
in grace? Well, you gotta be shown grace first. You can't
stand in something you don't ever know nothing about. But
there in verse 17, let's get this amen. For if by one man's
sin, by that one offense, that's what he's talking about, one
offense, offended against God, death reigned by that one sin,
that one offense. But Paul always comes back and
says this, much more, much more, they which we've, now listen
to this, one sin, death reigned by that one man, by that one
offense. Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace, abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness
shall reign, and everything we have there is talking about a
gift, by one, the Lord Jesus Christ. One man brought sin,
but Christ brought an abundance of grace, and it was a gift. Righteousness, a gift. Therefore,
in verse 18, therefore as by the one, By that offense, one
offense, that sin of Adam, one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. That means judgment and condemnation,
the same word. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, The free gift, listen to this, came upon all men under
justification of life. Now I want you to understand
there in verse 18 when it says the offense came upon all men
to condemnation. And so these all men that came
to condemnation are the same people, all men, that come under
justification of life. So these all in all are the same
people. Now that means, beloved, that
God brought judgment on us all. who are in Christ, and then gave
us grace in Christ. Verse 19, for by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. This proves what I'm talking
about. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous.
It's the same many. But here's what I want to deal
with today. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might
abound, but where sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. Grace. I love that word. Oh, I love that word, grace.
Grace. What a blessed, blessed, wonderful
word. Beautiful word. It's a word that
can only come from God. Only come from grace. All religions,
world's religions don't know anything about grace. Mohammedism
don't know nothing about grace. Roman Catholicism don't know
nothing about grace. Buddhism don't know nothing about
grace. Confucianism don't know nothing about grace. But I'll
tell you what, grace, grace, grace, grace is just a charming
sound. And grace is a comprehensive
word. Oh, what a comprehensive word.
Here we have great contrast. In these verses we have sin abounding. Sin abounding. We have sin abounding. We have judgment because of sin. And then you turn around and
you have life as a free gift. You have grace as a free gift.
You have righteousness as a free gift. Sin reigning unto death. Death is working in all of us,
reigning under death. But then grace also reigns, and
it reigns unto an abundance, unto abundance. And this grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look there in verse 20, where
it says, moreover the law entered that the offense might abound,
oh my. It says the offense abounded,
the sin abounded, The sin against God, offense, offensiveness,
all the things that was offensive to God. Grace did much more abound. Where sin abounded, the scripture's
telling us here that grace completely overflowed that sin. Now listen
to me. If you don't get nothing else
I'll say today, let's get this right here. No matter how much
sin is present, The grace of God that comes from
God through Jesus Christ is immeasurable. Would you take a whole bucket
of water and pour it on one match? That's what God does. He takes
a whole bucket of water to put out one match. And that's the
illustration showing us how much grace abounds. Whatever sin you've
got, Grace just overflows it and takes care of it. Oh, my. I tell you, Grace, you know,
you look at all the people in the scriptures. Look at the,
you know, talk about sin abounding and grace much more abounding.
You take Mary Magdalene. It says in the scriptures that
she had seven devils. Now that's, you know, I've known
some mean women in my lifetime. My stepmother, my stepmother,
she smoked so much that her lip was brown. She always lit one
cigarette off the other. As long as I was out there around,
she always did that. And she'd take a bottle of vodka
and just turn it up and drink it like it's water. And she would fight a man. She'd
just take on a man just as quick as she would a woman. She's mean. I mean, junkyard dog mean. And I know some people that I
think personally, some women that I personally think they
got devils in them. But here's Mary Magdalene, she
had seven devils. Do you realize how mean a woman
is that has seven devils in her? What'd she act like? What did
she look like? How did she act? How did she
treat other people? Where did she live? All the things
that she done all of her life. And our Lord Jesus Christ, after
he manifested grace to her, you find her at his feet. She was
the first one at the grave when Christ rose again from the dead.
That's grace overflowing, what I'm talking about. And you take Zacarias. Here's
a man that was a publican. He told the Lord, Jesus, if I
take anything, if I've taken anything by false accusation,
which what he was saying was that I've been a thief, I've
been taking money that I'll not take. I'm gonna give it back.
If I took a dollar, I'm gonna pay it back $4. That's what he
said. Oh, you're talking about grace
much more abounding. And then you take, that's what
I'm talking about. You take Saul of Tarsus. He spent
his life being religious. All his whole
life he was religious. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
came along and he hated him with a passion. He said, I hate him
and I hate all those who profess his name. And you know what I'm
gonna do? I'm gonna go everywhere I can,
and I'm gonna arrest them, I'm gonna put them in jail, I'm gonna
kill them, I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to wipe out that
name of Jesus Christ. And then one day, grace came to him on the Damascus
road. Oh, where sin abounded. Grace
did much more about. And then there's Simon Peter. The Lord said, I've got to go
to Jerusalem, I've got to die, I'm going to be betrayed. Peter
said, Lord, I'm not only going to go to a prison with you, if
you've got to go to prison, but if you die, I'll go with you
and I'll die with you. The next time you find him, he's
rolling his hands up the enemy's fire. The woman said, you know,
you sound just like a Galilean. I believe I saw you with him.
No, no, no, no, no. You never saw me with him. I
don't know that man. He did that three times. Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Huh? Oh my. Those who nailed our Lord Jesus
to the cross. Our Lord said, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Oh my. And let me tell you about a man
you may not even heard of. His name was Manasseh. He was
a king over Israel. And he was the wickedest king,
him and Ahab, the two wickedest kings that ever lived. And he'd
take his children, and he would build a big fire to false gods,
to Baal, and the sun god, and all the gods that he worshipped,
and he'd burn his children on those altars, burn them alive. But God saved him. where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. And I tell you, beloved,
sin is horrible, but where it abounds, grace super abounds,
overflows. So let's look at grace. Let's
look at some things about grace. Let me get, I got five or six
points. I don't know how many there are,
but I'll get to every one of them. I tell you what, you know
what grace is? Grace is God acting freely. That's what it is, God acting
freely. God acting according to the nature
of His love. Now let me show you what I'm
talking about. Look over in 1 John chapter 4. You know, our Lord Grace is God acting freely. There's nothing that makes God
do what He does other than His own love, His own nature. His
nature. Now you know people talk about
a God of love. God is love. He's not a God of
love, He is love. He is love. But all He acts according
to the nature of His love. Look what it says here in verse
8, 1 John 4, 8. He that loveth not, he that doth
not love, knoweth not God, for God is love. Now, he says, I
want you to understand how God showed us how much he loved us.
He said, I want you to get this. I want you to understand this.
And this was manifested, the love of God toward us. Toward
us. because that God sent his only
begotten Son into the world, into a wicked world, a sinful
world, a dark world, a God-hating, a Christ-rejecting world. But
here's what he said, that we might live through him. And he said, oh my, I'm gonna
just let you know a little bit more about it. Here it is love,
not that we love God, we didn't do that, but that he loved us. And what did he do? He sent his
son, and that word perpetuation means to take away the wrath
of God from us. Oh, that's love, ain't it? Love
must be manifested. It must be acted out. And since
God is love, He has to show His love. It must be manifested.
It must be acted out. And God acts out His love toward
us by giving us grace and giving it freely. Now let me tell you
something about us. We're not free to love. We're
not free to love whom He will. We're not free to love whom He
will. We can't do that. We don't have that ability. We
just don't have that ability. But God is, He's free to love
who He will. And I tell you, we can't love
just anybody the way we, we just can't do it. But God can. So if God loves anyone, it's
an act of the grace of God given freely. Oh, and I'll tell you
something else about grace. Grace is God loving people, His
people, because he manifested his love toward us, loved his
people as individuals. Every one of us, he saved every
one of us individually. Even that 3,000 that was saved
that day, he saved every one of them individually. Every one
of those became sinners by themselves. All of them didn't become sinners
collectively. When that Peter was preaching, he said, he's
preaching to me. My heart was pricked. My soul was pricked. I became a sinner. And I tell
you what, grace is loving God, His people as individuals, and
listen to this, without any promises or obligations to fulfill from
us, for us not ask us to do a thing, not ask us to do a thing. He
gives us grace righteously. What does that mean? In view
of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, sin is put away so God
can righteously show us his grace. And I tell you what, the cross
was an act of sovereign grace, and man certainly, certainly
didn't deserve that. Second thing about grace, where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Grace is uncaused,
uncaused in the recipient. The one who receives grace, it's
uncaused. You know where it's cause starts
at? Holy, solely in the giver, God Almighty. Look over in Ephesians
1. Look in Ephesians 1. The cause lies solely in the
giver, in God Almighty. lies solely in the giver, in
Christ, in God. Look what he said here. Verse three, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings and heavenly things and heavenly purposes
in Christ. Now listen to this, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
You know when God showed you grace and gave you grace and
loved you for the foundation, He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. And listen to this, that we should
be holy. Holy, not something we're gonna
be when we get to heaven, it's something we are right now that
we should be holy. And listen to this, and without
blame. Now how can you be without blame
if it wasn't for the grace of God? And having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to
the, listen to this, to the good pleasure of his will. And here's
why He did it, to the praise of the glory of His grace, where
He made us accepted in the Beloved. You know, if you look for a cause of God's
grace in yourselves, you won't find it. You won't find it. If
you look for a cause of God's grace in yourself, you won't
find it. That's what makes grace so amazing,
so amazing. It's free. It comes from God
to man as they are. Not like they want to be, not
like they think they are, not like they hope they are, not
like they believe they are. It comes from God to men as they
are and overflows, super abounds over their sins. For by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. What
is it? It's the gift of God. Tell you
another thing about grace. Grace is sovereign. What do I
mean by that? Grace reigns, really reigns. You know, God has no debts to
pay. God has no debts to pay. Look in Romans chapter four with
me, just for a minute here. Grace is sovereign, God has no
debts to pay. Look what it said here in verse
Romans 4.4. Now to him that works is the
reward not reckoned or counted as grace, but of debt. If you're working, if you're
working to get God to give you grace, you're not going to get
it. You're not going to get it. God
has no debts to pay. No conditions on man's part to
wait on. He's not waiting on us to do
anything. Grace doesn't wait till somebody becomes worthy
before God gives it. He's not waiting for someone
to do some act so He can show them some grace. You know the
only wages that God pays is the wages of sin and He's going to
make sure everybody gets exactly the wages that's coming to them.
That's the only wages that He's going to pay. And I tell you
that grace cannot act grace can act, excuse me, grace can act
toward whom it will, when it will, and where it pleases Him. Whether you're in a road, out
on the road, whether you're in a church house, Whether you're
in a prison or whether you're in a palace, whether you're up
a tree or you're like that thief that was beside the Lord Jesus
Christ when he was on that cross and Christ said, looked at him
and said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. That's grace. He showed it where he would,
to whom he would, and where he would. And let me ask you something. Do you think God owes anybody
grace? Does anybody do anything to deserve
grace? There was, in the scriptures,
there was this ruler, this centurion. He said, he asked some Jews,
he said, go tell the Lord, please. He said, I've got a servant that's
dying. And you go, please, tell him for me, will you? So those
Jews, they went to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they said to him,
said, listen, this man, this centurion, to whom we're telling
you about, his servant lies nigh unto death. Said, he's worthy. That's what they told the Lord.
Said, he's worthy. Said, he does lots of things
for our nation. He even built us a synagogue.
He built us a place to worship in. Well, the Lord Jesus said,
well, I'll come. He started toward that man's
house. And he sent somebody out there and said, tell the Lord
that I'm not worthy. They said, he is worthy. You
know what he said? I'm not worthy that you should even come under
my roof. All you got to do is send your word. Send your word. Cause I'm a man, I tell somebody
to go here and he goes. I'm a military man. I tell somebody
to go somewhere and do something, they go and they do it and I
say come here and they come. He said if I'm like that, just
imagine what you can do. All you got to do is speak your
word. And I said, all right, to say this, that no matter what
anybody says about somebody else, God says they're not worthy.
And everybody here will say, I'm not worthy. Huh? Oh my. It can place the very
worst, the very worst, in the highest places. Huh? It can bypass a multitude and
save one. Our Lord, the Scriptures tells
us that he must needs go through Samaria. Why? He had one sheep over there. One woman that was a real, I
mean she is a real sinner. If we had a woman like that in
our congregation that'd been married five times and was just
living with a man, what would you think of her? And she never repented, and God
never done something for her. Well, that's what this woman
was. The Lord Jesus was tired with his journey, sat down on
the well, and here comes this woman with a pot. She go get
her some water, and the Lord Jesus said, give me a drink.
Why, you're a Jew, and I'm Samaritan. We don't have nothing to do with
one another. Said, go call your husband. I
ain't got a husband. Our Lord said, you've had five
of them. You think God don't know what we are? What we're
doing? You've had five of them. And
you're just shacked up with one right now. That's what he said. He said, you're just living with
one right now. She said, oh, oh, oh. You think she deserves grace? But she got it. But she got it. Huh? Oh my. That eunuch on the
road to Ethiopia, Philip, go join yourself to that man. Who's this man writing about?
I don't know who he's writing about. He said, he start right
there and start talking about Christ. God opened his heart. Lydia. Sell her a purple. She lived in one place and went
to visit someplace else. And when she was down there on
that riverside, there's a man preaching down
there by the river. Well, that's a good, you know,
God opened the door for him. He said, there's a bunch of people
there and he started preaching. And there sat an old woman, wealthy
woman, And you know what God did? Opened her heart. Opened her heart. Grace, grace,
grace. And then he could save 3,000
at one time. 3,000 at one time. And grace cannot act. Grace cannot
come where there is ability. If you got any ability, God ain't
gonna show you grace. It ain't coming. If you got any
ability whatsoever, if you can do anything for yourself whatsoever,
if you can commend yourself to God in any way, if you got any
ability, any ability, and I tell you something else grace doesn't
do, it doesn't cooperate. It don't need your help. It don't
want your help. It don't ask for your help. It
don't ask for you to do anything. Grace doesn't just help people
and give them a shove in the right direction. It's absolute. It does everything, all or nothing,
from start to finish. It don't ask nothing from nobody.
Nothing. Nothing. And since there's no
cause of grace in us, There's no, since there's no
cause in us why God should show grace to us, but then don't even
try to start, try to give yourself, look for a cause for His grace,
because there ain't no cause. You can't never find a cause.
You can't find a cause. And you know, grace is what makes
us to be sinners. And God gave me grace because,
there ain't never a because. Never a because. God don't give
grace because. There's never a because. Never. If there ever is, it ceases to
be grace. You know, Paul told the Galatians,
said, you know, you've fallen from grace. What did he mean?
How do you fall from grace? You know, Armenians believe you
can fall from grace. People believe you can lose grace.
You can send grace away. But he says, you know that you've
fallen from grace. You know what all it takes to
just fall from grace? Just add one thing of yourself
in salvation and you've fallen from grace. Just add one thing. Say, God saved me because I did
this or I did that. And then you go along and say,
well, I'm saved by grace. But I believe I can, I believe
that, I thank God saved me by grace, and yet I'm gonna go ahead
and do this. No, no, you can't do that. Falling
from grace, you add anything to grace, take anything away
from grace, look for a cause in yourself, a cause in somebody
else, and you fell from grace. Don't have to do anything to
fall from grace. Just try to find a reason for God saving
you other than Christ and His grace. That's all it takes. And
let me tell you something else about grace. Grace produces humility. It really does. When it first
comes to us, we're not too humble now, but when grace first comes
to us, it produces real, genuine humility. The grace of God that
comes teaches us, teaches us. Grace teaches us some things.
And when God makes us to understand that we're the objects of his
free and sovereign grace, it humbles us like we've never been
humbled before. And I'll tell you something else,
it keeps working in us and working in us and working in us to keep
us down, down, down, down, down. But when you get up, grace gonna
bring you down. Bruce Crabtree told a young preacher,
he said, stay down, stay down. Don't never think more of yourself
than you are. Don't never look to yourself
for your preacher. Don't think more of yourself than you are. You know what? He never paid
a bit of attention to Bruce Crabtree. Not a bit. He's still so full
of himself. And he's still full of himself.
Still full of himself. But oh my. And I often wonder,
now I'm gonna confess something to you. I often wonder, and I told a
fellow the other day, he said, he said, I don't know why in
the world I preach. I don't even know why I make
an effort. Don't know why I do. Because
I just ain't got nothing going for me except grace. That's the only thing I got going
for me is grace. I'm a sorry preacher and God
knows that. God knows that. I'm not trying
to put on a false humility here. God knows that. But God keep us down. Keep us
down. And why does he bring us down
to such humility? Because he makes us to know how
absolutely, entirely, completely, how unworthy we really, really
are. David said, I'm not worthy, not
worthy of the least, the least of your tender mercies. Not worthy
the least of it. God spoke to Abraham and he said,
Lord, why are you speaking to me? I'm just dust and I'm just
ashes. God spoke to Isaiah and he said,
woe, woe, woe, woe, woe is me. I'm around all these people.
I've been in the king's court. I've been sitting around with
the kings of Hezekiah and Uzziah. And then he said, oh, the Lord
spoke to me. And you know what he said? I
am absolutely undone. I am undone, entirely undone. Oh my, were we worth our Lord
Jesus Christ coming into this world? Were we worth that? Were
we worth our Lord Jesus coming here and being despised and rejected
of men? Were we worthy of His horrible,
horrible treatment at the hands of sinful, sinful men? And I'll
tell you something, if I'd have been there, I'd have done exactly
what they did. I'd have been no different. Were
we worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ hanging on a cross, bleeding,
broken, bruised, crown of thorns on his head?
Blood poured out of his body? And there of no one understanding
that he was bearing our sins there on that cross? That God
was punishing him? Judging him? Were we worthy of
that? Were we worthy of his blood being
shed on the way to death? Of him crying, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? We're brought to know our complete
inability to become worthy. One thing about believers, they
get worse as time goes on. They get worse in their own eyes
as time goes on. This time goes on. We're brought
to know our complete inability to become worthy. Yet, beloved,
we find ourselves blessed on another principle. Grace, grace,
grace, grace. Ain't that right? Grace, grace. And let me tell you the last
thing about grace. The flesh, the flesh has no place
in the purpose of God's grace. It has no purpose. Look over
here in Romans 8, look down at verse 7. The flesh, and the flesh means our own nature.
What this body can produce The flesh has no place in the purpose
of God's sovereign grace. Look what he said. So then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God. Huh? Oh my. Why not? Look back up
here in Romans 7, 15. Oh my. For that which I do, I allow
not, or I know not. For what I would, that I do not. What I would do, I don't. But
what I hate, I do. I do. Now, it is no more I that
do it, but what, But now that it's no, verse 17,
for no more is no more I that do it, but what causing this?
What causes me to do the things that I wouldn't and do the things
that I love, not do the things that I love and do the things
that I hate? It's sin in me, sin in me, sin in me. For I know
that in me, that is in my flesh. dwelleth no good thing. Now listen to this. The will
is present with me. Every one of us this morning
has got the will is present with us. The will to worship God,
the will to love God, the will to obey God, the will to honor
God, the will never to sin again. The will is present with us right
now. The will. The will to be done
with this flesh. The will to say, Oh God don't
ever let me sin. Oh God keep me from myself. The
will is present with us. But listen to this. But how in
the world are we performing it right now? How are we performing
it right now? Huh? Oh my, he told the Galatians,
he said, oh foolish Galatians, you began in the spirit and now
you're going to go back to the flesh and try to make yourself
better by your flesh? Who bewitched you to cause you
to do that? Huh? God told Isaiah, he said,
go cry. Why do you want me to cry? All
flesh is grass. It's just grass. When you look out on your yard,
I mean, you say, boy, I got a nice yard, but it's still grass. And he said, but oh, listen,
all flesh is grass. And that grass withers and that
flower fades away. But he said, I want you to do
something else. Not only when you understand
all flesh is grass, but he said, say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth,
all flesh is grass. And he said, then turned around
and says, behold your God. That's what God looks at us and
they said, grass. Then he turned around and said,
but look at you, God. You're grass, but I'm God. You're my
grass, but I'm God. You're a flower and you're fading
away, but I'm your God. I'm your God. I'm your God. And that's why
the natural man, I don't care who he is, the natural man, no
matter how religious he is, he hates grace. Because it does
not allow for room boasting. Grace will not allow you to boast.
Because the flesh cannot contribute anything. It just can't do it.
And that's why we rejoice in God's grace. There's no good
thing in me, but yet God. No good thing in my flesh yet,
God. God loves me, blesses me, as
we are, as we are right now, and as we'll be tonight, and
as we'll be tomorrow, and as we'll be every day of our life
till he takes us home. Grace, grace, grace. Loves me
and blesses me, how? I rejoiced in what was given
to me. How did God give me grace? God who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to
his grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
ever began. Oh my! Sin abounded he said. Where it did, grace did much
more about. Grace reigns through God's righteousness,
reigns through the death and righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God doesn't manifest capriciously
or arbitrarily. His grace has given us in Christ
from before the foundation of the world. How are you saved? Grace. How do you stand? Grace. How will you enter glory? Grace. How will you do it? Grace, grace, grace. Well, Paul said, well, since
grace may abound, I'll tell you what, let's tell you what all
of us do. Let's just leave here today and go and eat, drink and
be merry and have us a big, big old party. Act like God's grace
gonna abound because we live such miserable lives. God forbid. How could we do that? How can
we do that?